Relationship between perceived job stress, work-family conflict, and organizational commitment in the Indian context: A preliminary investigation

Pages: 417-421
Meghna Basu Thakur (Department of Psychology, R. D. National College, Bandra West, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

An important theoretical construct that needs significant attention in organizational psychology is work-family balance. This is primarily due to substantial modifications families and work spaces have undergone such as increase in dual-career couples and rise in the percentage of working mothers with young children (Bond, Galinsky, & Swanberg, 1998; Gilbert, Hallett, & Eldridge, 1994; as cited in Allen, Herst, Bruck, & Sutton, 2000). Greenhaus, Collins and Shaw (2003) have conceptualized work-family balance as the degree to which equal engagement and equal satisfaction is experienced in both the work and domestic spheres with respect to one’s roles. Other researchers (e.g., Frone, 2003; Quick et al., 2004) conceptualize this variable as indicative of lack of conflict across the two domains. In other words, work-family balance can be seen as the converse of work-family conflict, which reflects incompatibility in role pressures across work and domestic spheres (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) reviewed a substantial literature (e.g., Bartolome & Evans, 1980; Burke et al., 1980; Jones & Butler, 1980; Kopelman et al., 1983) and highlighted the role of work-related stressors such as role ambiguity, participation in boundary-spanning activities, communication stress, lack of mental concentration, speed of organizational environment change, task autonomy, coping with a new job, job-related misfit (competence misfit, enjoyment misfit, moral misfit) to be associated with escalation of work-family conflict/ negative spillover.