A Qualitative Exploration of Role Salience among Malaysian Professional and Managerial Dual-Career Couples

Author(s):  
Rafiduraida Abdul Rahman Et.al

This paper explores work and family roles salience in the context of dual-career couples in Malaysia. Semi-structured qualitative interviews has been conducted on 18 couples in professional and managerial position. The data were transcribed and analyzed using template analysis. The findings revealed that several factors namely culture, religious values, gender, work characteristics and personal preferences influence the couples’ role salience. Women tend to face more struggles to maintain the salience of both roles despite the fact that couples regard both roles to be central to their lives. Factors such as culture and religious values influence the couples’ role salience making them holding to traditional gender attitude and reduce the impact of family to work. Some couples are more affected with spouse work condition or personal preferencesleading them to practice less traditional roles in their family arrangements.Conflicting views within couples also exist, which influence their challenges and satisfaction. This study adds to the work and family research using couple-level analysis in a non-Western context. The qualitative data gained has also enabled the study to extend the understanding on how the dynamic of the interaction between culture, religion, gender, work characteristics and personal preferences come into play to shape couples’ role salience and consequently their work-family experiences and perceptions.

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 883-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhash C. Kundu ◽  
Rina S. Phogat ◽  
Saroj Kumar Datta ◽  
Neha Gahlawat

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of various workplace characteristics on work-family conflict among dual-career couples in India. Design/methodology/approach Primary data based on 393 employees belonging to dual-career couples were analyzed. Using multiple regression analysis, the study has attempted to find out the effects of workplace characteristics on work-family conflict in dual-career couples. Findings The findings indicate that not all workplace characteristics effect work-family conflict in dual-career couples. Out of 13 characteristics, 8 workplace characteristics, namely, development and flexibility, co-worker support, supervisory support, job competence, self-employee control, practicing overtime, flexibility and discrimination, are found to have significant effects on work-family conflict in dual-career couples. Research limitations/implications As this study is limited to the dual-career couples employed mainly in organizations operating in India, these results may not be generalized to other areas such as traditional career couples, self-employed member of couples and in other national contexts. Practical implications It would be beneficial for organizations to understand and implicate that adoption of certain workplace characteristics provide appropriate choices, freedom and environment for dual-career employees, which further encourage them to build effective amalgamation of work and family roles suiting their individual circumstances. Originality/value This study is an important and almost first study on dual-career couples in India on such issues. As a very scant number of researches have examined the impact of workplace characteristics on work-family conflict on such extensive basis, it definitely contributes to HR literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 242-249
Author(s):  
Jee-Seon Yi ◽  
Hye-Sun Jung ◽  
Hyeoneui Kim ◽  
Eun-Ok Im

This study aimed to analyze trends of South Korean working women’s childbearing intentions to provide directions for strategies to increase South Korea’s birth rate. This study used the data generated by the Korean Longitudinal Panel Survey of Women and Families in South Korea from 2007 to 2016, and included 2,341 working women. This study showed that female workers’ intention to bear children is decreasing. In 2007, age and the number of children were considered in predicting the characteristics of those with childbearing intentions. In 2016, the provision of maternity leave at work, job satisfaction regarding relationships and communication, and work-family conflicts were added. When identifying the factors by category, the impact level of occupational factors increased, although the impact level of individual factors decreased. There should be a balance between work and family roles, and employers should provide ample maternity leave and promote an organizational culture that supports job satisfaction.


2000 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 919-927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald J. Burke

This study examined the effects of sex, parental status, and spouse's work involvement on measures of work-family experiences. Data were collected from women and men employed in similar jobs at the same organizational level in a large professional services firm using anonymously completed questionnaires. A response rate of 70% was achieved. Spouses of men worked fewer hours per week than the men did; spouses of women worked more hours per week than the women did. The effects of three independent variables (sex, presence of children, hours worked by spouse) were considered simultaneously. Each had independent and significant relationships with a majority of the work-family and work outcome measures. Implications for organizations are drawn to address the increasing priority of balancing work and family commitments in dual-career couples.


2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Knežević ◽  
Ljiljana Gregov ◽  
Ana Šimunić

AbstractThe aim of this research was to determine the salience of work and family roles and to study the connection between role salience and the interference of different types of roles among working men and women. Self-assessment measurement scales were applied. The research involved 206 participants; 103 employed married couples from different regions of Croatia. The results show that roles closely connected to family are considered the most salient. However, men are mostly dedicated behaviourally to the role of a worker. Women dedicate more time and energy to the roles of a spouse, a parent, and a family member whereas men are more oriented towards the leisurite role. The highest level of conflict was perceived when it comes to work disturbing leisure. Gender differences appeared only for work-to-marriage conflict, with men reporting higher conflict than women. The research found proof of only some low correlations between the salience of different types of roles and work-family conflict.


Author(s):  
Nahneen Sultana ◽  
Ayesha Tabassum ◽  
Abu Md. Abdullah

With the increased opportunity of women’s education and employment, the numbers of dual-career couples are increasing in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. As a result, these couples are confronting various types of problems every day, as they need to maintain both the work and family role demands simultaneously. After an extensive literature review, the study was initiated to explore the challenges of dual-career couples in terms of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire was used as a means of data collection and the survey was conducted on 155 dual-career couples (N = 310) in Dhaka. Principle component analysis revealed nine challenges that are encountered by dual-career couples. These challenges include childcare, family-work conflicts, work-family conflicts, marital relations, dependency on others for housekeeping and childcare, personal well-being, family activity maintenance, housekeeping, and social relationship maintenance. 


2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony V Naidoo ◽  
Reyhana Jano

This study examines and contrasts the level of role participation, commitment and value expectation that dual career women invest in contending work and family roles. While the 162 married women managers were found to participate significantly more in the work role, they indicated greater commitment to and value expectation from the home and family role. A significant positive correlation between the commitment to the work role and commitment to the home and family role suggests that dual-career women may experience work and home as complimentary rather than conflicting roles. For dual-career women, work salience and career salience were found to be moderately correlated. Opsomming In hierdie studie word die vlakke van rol-deelname, rol-toegewydheid en rol-waardeverwagting wat dubbelloopbaan vroue onderskeidelik in die werk-en familierol investeer, gekonstrasteer. Terwyl dit geblyk het dat 162 getroude vroulike bestuurders beduidend meer deelneem in die werkrol, het hulle hoër toegewydheid en waardeverwagtings teenoor die huis-en-familie rol getoon. ‘n Beduidende positiewe korrelasie is gevind tussen toegewydheid tot die werksrol en toegewydheid tot die huis-en-familierol. Hierdie bevinding suggereer dat dubbelloopbaan vroue hulle werk en familie-rolle as komplimenterend eerder as konflikterend ervaar. Dit het verder geblyk dat werkrolbelangrikheid en loopbaanbelangrikheid matig gekorreleer is.


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