Acculturation and Individualism as Predictors of Work‐Family Conflict in a Diverse Workforce

Abstract

Ethnic and cultural diversity is an increasing reality in the US workplace. The current study highlights the importance of acknowledging the culturally heterogeneous nature of ethnic groups, and the need to focus on social identity characteristics such as cultural values when assessing group differences. We demonstrate that cultural values (i.e., individualism) contribute to employees' experiences of work‐family conflict beyond the effects of ethnicity. Specifically, we introduce a model informed by social identity theory that explains why acculturation is related to work‐family conflict. The model was tested with a sample of 309 employed Caucasian and Hispanic Americans. An empirical test of our model provides evidence that individualism mediates the relationship between language‐ and social‐based acculturation and work‐family conflict, even when controlling for ethnicity. Additionally, alternative models further reveal that the effects of acculturation and individualism contribute to work interfering with family. As an implication of the current study, we suggest that researchers and organizational managers should consider the cultural values of their diverse workforce when implementing policies that affect conflict between work and family. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[Artigo Retratado] Conflito Trabalho-Família: A Produção Científica Internacional E a Agenda De Pesquisa Nacional

“…Excessivas horas de trabalho acrescidas à falta de flexibilidade são grandes responsáveis pelo aumento do conflito trabalho-família (OLSON et al, 2013). Na pesquisa realizada por Takahashi et al (2014) Ainda com relação ao conflito entre trabalho e família, pesquisas têm abordado o conceito de duas formas distintas.…”

Mechanisms linking acculturation, work–family conflict, and subjective well‐being among Chinese immigrants in New Zealand

“…According to role theory, various work and family role expectations individuals attempt to meet are one main category of the antecedents of WFC (Judge & Colquitt, 2004). During the process of acculturation, to fit into the new culture, immigrants have to come to terms with the work-role and family-role expectations, which may be very different from their home culture (Lazarova, Westman, & Shaffer, 2010;Olson et al, 2013). However, the expectations are always implicit, unlike regulations, which are clearly written down.…”

“…For organizations, it is crucial to understand how WFC affects immigrant employees in diverse working environments (Olson et al, 2013…”

“…responses (Olson et al, 2013). Our longitudinal data and higher-order statistical approaches (e.g., CFA and SEM) would help reduce this common method bias (Haar, Russo, Suñe, & Ollier-Malaterre, 2014).…”

Conflito Trabalho-Família, Políticas De Apoio À Família E Gênero: Um Panorama Do Atual Cenário De Estudos/Work-Family Conflict, Family and Gender Support Policy: A Panorama of the Current Scenario of Studies

“…Ressalta-se também que as políticas que beneficiam os trabalhadores diferem quanto ao contexto. As diferenças em termos de cultura e valores individuais dos funcionários devem ser levadas em consideração na oferta de benefícios, pois a diversidade da força de trabalho implica em diversidade na avaliação da utilidade de políticas organizacionais, resultando em níveis de satisfação variados (PAN; YEH, 2012;OLSON et al, 2013). No Quadro 1 estão sintetizadas as informações sobre a discussão abordada a seguir.…”