Interference between work and nonwork roles: The development of a new South African instrument

Abstract

<strong>Orientation:</strong> The interference between work and personal life is a central issue in the 21st century as employees attempt to balance or integrate their involvement in multiple social roles.<p><strong>Research purpose:</strong> The purpose of this study was to, (1) develop new items for a more comprehensive work−nonwork interference instrument, (2) evaluate the newly developed items to retain those items that accurately capture the different dimensions and (3) eliminate undesirable items from the different subscales in the instrument.</p><p><strong>Motivation for the study:</strong> Although the interaction between work and personal life has received extensive attention in the work−family fields of research, various theoretical, empirical and measurement issues need to be addressed.</p><p><strong>Research design, approach and method:</strong> A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect the data.</p><p><strong>Main findings:</strong> Initially, 89 items were developed. During the pilot study among mineworkers (<em>n</em> = 245), 41 poor items were eliminated on the basis of descriptive statistics, inter-item correlations, item-total correlations and the qualitative investigation of items highly redundant in terms of wording. Thereafter, the instrument (48 items) was administered to 366 support and academic personnel at a tertiary institution. Using Rasch analyses and item correlations, 18 additional items were eliminated, resulting in a 30-item instrument (15 items were retained to measure work-nonwork interference and 15 items to measure nonwork-work interference).</p><p><strong>Practical/managerial implications:</strong> A major theoretical limitation to the measurement of work−family interference relates to the dimensionality and inconsistent measurement of the directionality of interference.</p><p><strong>Contribution/value-add:</strong> With the development of this new instrument, several of the theoretical and measurement limitations voiced by previous researchers have been addressed, providing this instrument with distinct advantages over previous work−family instruments.</p><p><strong>How to cite this article:</strong><br /> Koekemoer, E., Mostert, K., & Rothman, S. Jr, (2010). Interference between work and nonwork roles: The development of a new South African instrument. <em>SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 36</em>(1), Art. #907, 14 pages. DOI:10.4102/sajip.v36i1.907</p&gt

The influence of simultaneous interference and enrichment in work–family interaction on work-related outcomes

“…First, it contributes by incorporating SA work-family measurements, thus eliminating previous concerns raised by researchers in this regard. The instruments for WNWI (Koekemoer et al, 2010) and WFE (De Klerk et al, 2013) proved to be valid and reliable, with evidence of both discriminant and convergent validity. Although second-order measurement models were used in the SEM (due to the large number of variables), given the evidence of discriminant and convergent validity for the work-family instruments, SA researchers are encouraged to use these multi-dimensional instruments in future studies.…”

“…Two work-and-family instruments have recently been developed within the SA context in an endeavour to overcome the problematic issues regarding international measurements. First, the WNWI instrument of Koekemoer et al (2010) to measure the interference between the work and various nonwork domains; second, the WFE instrument of De Klerk, Nel, Hill, and Koekemoer (2013) which was based on the WFE model of Greenhaus and Powell (2006).…”

“…The WNWI instrument of Koekemoer et al (2010) was used to measure the interference between the work and nonwork domains. Although the original instrument measures WNWI bi-directionally, only the work → nonwork direction was utilised, which comprises four dimensions with six items each.…”

“…What is currently known about work–family interaction is largely based upon international empirical studies, although numerous South African (SA) studies on work–home interaction have been conducted since 2006 (De Klerk & Mostert, 2010; Jacobs, Mostert, & Pienaar, 2008). Questions have been raised regarding the applicability of international work–family research findings as well as the use of international work–family measurements in South Africa (Koekemoer, Mostert, & Rothman, 2010). However, Samaddar and Kadiyala (2006) stated that revisiting earlier studies to evaluate their general applicability to new contexts is important, since it can be a valuable part of theory development.…”

The antecedents and outcomes of work-family enrichment amongst female workers

“…Previous studies on the phenomenon of work life interface mostly focus on female workers (Rantanen, Kinnunen, Mauno & Tillemann, 2011), and also on the negative effects of multiple roles of women with little regard to the enhancing effects (Barnett & Baruch, 1985;Tiedje et al, 1990). Even today, research pertaining to the work-family interface mainly consists of dedicated studies on the negative impact multiple roles can generate in the family life and work life of employees and the effects thereof on their health (Gareis, Barnett, Ertel & Berkman, 2009;Koekemoer, Mostert & Rothmann, 2010). However, in all of these studies, women and men were not studied separately; family roles were more generalised to parent and spouse (therefore, irrespective of gender).…”