Relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction : the moderating effect of gender and the salience of family and work roles

Abstract

Work-family conflict has become an issue of particular concern to today's businesses. Its prevalence among employees and the negative consequences of this conflict for one's job satisfaction has led it to become one of the problems that managers and directors have to deal with most. Although there have been researches into the relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction, few studies have analysed the role of gender in this relationship. The objectives of this study are to analyse the moderating role of gender and of the salience of family and work roles in the work-to-family conflict and general job satisfaction, while the job's characteristics are controlled. 162 workers from a Spanish public organisation took part in the study. The results from the regression analysis confirms the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between work-to-family conflict and job satisfaction, such that women show a lower level of job satisfaction than men. However, the salience of the family and work roles were not found to have a moderating effect on the aforementioned relationship, neither in the case of men nor in women. The results are discussed in the context of the theory of role identity salience and the gender role theory, as well as the possible cultural effects.