Personal Factors and Work-Life Conflict: A Study of a Malaysian Statutory Body

Abstract

Work-life conflict has been discussed prominently in the literature for the last two decades because the workforce is increasingly composed of individuals who struggle with multiple roles. A number of empirical investigations have been carried out to examine its nature, variance, and outcome. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between personal factors and work-life conflict among employees of a Malaysian statutory body using a sample of 120 personally-distributed questionnaires. The variables for personal factors consist of career commitment, household responsibilities, and financial needs. The findings indicated that two out of three variables of personal factors (i.e. household responsibilities and financial needs) are positively and significantly related to work-life conflict. The finding also reveals that career commitment is not significantly related to work-life conflict. Therefore, this study adds to the body of knowledge of work-life conflict that validated the positive relationship between employees' personal factors of household responsibilities and financial needs with work-life conflict. On the other hand, this study also proved that an employee's career commitment does not relate to worklife conflict, thus showing that a committed employee would not be feeling any conflict in fulfilling the demands of both of his or her work and non-work lives. Nevertheless, an employee who has higher household responsibilities and financial needs would face a higher conflict in fulfilling the demands of both of his or her work and non-work live. Hence, human resource practitioners could use this information as a reference in their managing their employees.

Socio-economic and Household Characteristics Associated with Work-Family Conflict among Female Primary School Teachers in Enugu State, Nigeria

“…During the morning rush hours, personal or family toilets and bathrooms offer much more timely and stress-free preparation for work, compared to use of communal facilities which usually require waiting for turns. This could lead to interference In line with the finding of Omar et al (2016), caring for dependent elderly person was significantly associated with higher work to family conflict. In Nigeria, it is generally accepted that caring for the aged parents is the cultural obligation of family members especially women (Tanyi et al, 2018).…”

Work – Life Conflicts among Women in Malaysia: A Preliminary Study

“…This study concludes that household responsibilities correlate and affect work-life conflict among working women. Omara, Ahmad, & Ismail, (2016) also contended that household responsibilities affect work-life conflicts among working women. It shows that household responsibilities do influence work-life conflicts.…”

“…This study also concludes that financial need correlates and affects work-life conflicts. Also, Omara, Ahmad, & Ismail (2016) found that employees' financial needs would relate with their work-life conflict. The result exhibited that financial needs and work-life conflict were significantly associated with a positive relationship.…”

Reviewing the Literature on Working Dual Jobs among Workers with Specific Discussion on Malaysian Women

“…This happened due to the eagerness on having the recognition by the society and desired to be in the higher class society. Additionally, an increasing number of works of literature that discuss work-life balance have promoted the importance of it to women and their households (Omara et al, 2016;Isa et al, 2018). Jha (2019) stated that women often received high expectation from surroundings and ought to give excellent performance at work and at home; not forgetting the demands from society.…”

“…Viewing on studies done in Malaysia by Isa et al (2018) towards teachers in a selected school, the research findings indicated that overloading in multiple roles, the stress in handling work and confliction in handling roles were among the factors contributed to work-family conflict. Another study done from the Malaysian context was by Omara et al (2016) that was carried out towards respondents from Malaysian Statutory Body. The findings indicated that obligations to manage households and financial constraints were significantly related to work-family conflict.…”