Magister Commercii - MCom / Research indicates that approximately fifteen years ago there were over three (3) million dualcareer couples representing 20% of dual-worker couples. It is expected that the amount of dual-career couples will continue to increase, as most college students, both men and women, anticipate participating in a career as well as in a family (Spiker- Miller & Kees, 1995).Individuals and organizations are confronted with a hyper turbulent environment and individuals are also faced with a myriad of challenges and adversity in their work and personal lives. Due to the economy and the changing needs of individuals, today very few families reflect the configuration of a typical family (a husband who worked outside the home, a wife who fulfilled the duties of homemaker and child-carer), as both partners are normally employed. The dual-career couple phenomenon has added to the pressure of managing multiple demands and has a considerable impact on the nature of people's careers(Greenberg & Baron, 2003). Dual-career couples‘ career advancement is largely affected by the career barriers they perceive to encounter. The perceptions of career barriers encountered differ from one couple to another based on factors such as: age, race and parental demand(children). Differences may also exist between partners in a dual-career relationship based on their gender.Most studies that have been conducted have looked at work-life balance of dual-career couples or have focused on the problems dual-career couples face solely from the woman‘s perspective. The aim of this study is to look at dual-career couples not only from female‘s perspective and to tap into their perceptions regarding career barriers encountered in the workplace. The findings could help organisations realize the importance of assisting dualcareer couples and how they could improve their career development. Dual-career couples therefore warrant attention as a special group seeing as the career salience, strategies and transitions of one partner inevitably affects those of the other, which could also have repercussions for their employers (Smith, 1997).A self-developed Demographic Questionnaire and the Career Barriers Inventory (Revised) was used to gather the data. The research was conducted within a large retail organisation. The sample comprised of men and women, permanent and contract employees within the following departments: Human Resources, Marketing, Logistics, Finance, Group Merchandise Procurement (GMP), Buying, Sourcing, Audit, Planning and Group Services.The sampling procedure that was utilised was non-probability sampling. Statistical analyses involved descriptive statistics (Frequencies, Means and Standard deviations) and inferential statistics (T-Test and Analysis of variance). The study revealed that the most highly rated career barriers which respondents perceived to experience or which affected their career advancement were multiple-role conflict, decisionmaking difficulties, sex discrimination and racial discrimination. Whilst, the career barriers which were rated the lowest by respondents included disapproval by significant others, disability/health concerns and discouraged from choosing non-traditional careers.Furthermore, the findings indicated that the perceptions of dual-career couples based on gender regarding career barriers in the workplace is partially accepted because there are statistically significant differences regarding the perceptions amongst females and males in terms of lack of confidence as a career barrier. The hypothesis proposing that there are significant differences in the perceptions of dual-career couples who have and those who do not have children, is partially accepted, as there was a statistically significant difference regarding disapproval by significant others. The findings for the perceptions of dual-career couples based on race regarding career barriers in the workplace is partially supported because significant differences were found for the following career barriers: difficulties with network/socialisation, lack of confidence and race discrimination based on employees‘ race.Lastly, significant differences in the perceptions of dual-career couples based on age regarding career barriers in the workplace was rejected, as no significant differences regarding career barriers based on employees‘ age were found.Amongst others, a limitation of this study is evident. The study may lack generisability as the sampling procedure used was non-probability sampling and only included those employees who were easily accessible. Additionally, a quantitative study was used by making use of questionnaires, but no observation or interviews were used. The present study also only focuses on the differences in perceptions of dual-career couples, based on biographical factors such as; gender, age, number of children (parental demands), race and age. Ideally all research should have a broad speck of people or participants, to ensure higher generalizability.In an effort to deal with the limitations of the current study, the following are recommended, future research should use a large proportionate stratified random sample as this would allow the findings to be reliably generalised to the population. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative methodology would help to develop detailed understanding of dual-career couple‘s and their differences in perceptions of career barriers.It is important for organisations to have continuous negotiations with employees in order to integrate the demands of the organisation and the career needs of its employees. Furthermore,they should respond to the shifting demographics by adopting voluntary policies such as alternative work schedules and child and elder care assistance to help workers meet family needs, which in turn will be beneficial to the organisation by attracting and retaining the best talent.

Magister Commercii - MCom / In recent years, there has been a proliferation in research on work-family conflict which has become more prevalent in recent years due to the economic climate in which increasingly large numbers of women are entering or returning to the labour market. Finding equilibrium in work and family arenas has also become more important to South African employees. Traditional gender roles have evolved and the role of females as homemakers is no longer the norm. However, an alternative set of social standards have not yet been established as a substitute to new patterns of work and family life. As a result, it is important to focus on concerns relating to female experiences in the workplace to try and overcome the effects of work-family conflict on females.Job stress and role stress have increased dramatically in work and family life, as more women attempt to balance responsibilities at home whilst simultaneously trying to overcome challenges faced with at the office. Typically role ambiguity, role overload and role interference arises and ultimately produces two forms of conflict: time-based conflict and strain-based conflict. Self-efficacy and implementing coping strategies are means to overcome this.The objective of this study was to explore and add to existing research done on work-family conflict amongst females in the workplace. More specifically the study is to determine whether relationships exist between the variables: job stress, role stress, role overload, inter-role conflict, spousal support, coping behaviours; job, family and life satisfaction, emotional exhaustion; the nature of the relationships and the causal impacts between these variables.Two hundred questionnaires were administered and 150 were returned to women employed in a service oriented organisation in the Western Cape.The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was utilized to analyze and present data in this research with frequency tables and graphical illustrations to provide information on key demographic variables in this study. The results reveal that there are statistically significant relationships amongst work overload and work-family conflict (WFC). There was also a significant relationship between parental overload and WFC. Moreover, the strongest relationship emerged between WFC and family-to-work conflict (FWC). Females experiencing WFC showed a tendency to rely on problem-focused coping strategies. In addition, there was an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and WFC. There was a significant difference in WFC based on age, tenure, number of children, income and tenure. There was no significant difference in WFC on the basis of marital status. There were statistically significant differences in FWC based on some of the biographical characteristics of the respondents. There was a significant difference in FWC based on age, tenure, income and occupation.Approximately 35% of the variance in WFC can be explained by age, education, income, work overload, parental overload and spousal support. These variables account for 33.53% of the variance in WFC, and suggest that other unexplored variables could explain the variance in WFC levels experienced by respondents. Approximately 38% of the variance in role stressors can be attributed to age, education, income, work overload, parental overload and spousal support in relation to FWC. The results which emanated from the current study assist in furthering an understanding of WFC and FWC. Individual and organisational implications are discussed and recommendations are made to further enhance this study with additional research into this area being warranted.

工作家庭衝突領域之研究已有豐富的理論與成果，探討短時間內工作家庭衝突隨著工作者所處環境與心理歷程的動態發展亦成為新興趨勢。本研究採用資源保存理論的觀點，認為工作者每日隨職家環境與認知歷程而變動的狀態性心理資源，能中介工作家庭衝突與工作者在職場與家庭中人際行為表現的關係，並提出反芻作為情境變項，驗證個體不同類型的認知思考對每日工作家庭衝突與關係損耗間的調節作用 本研究採用日記型研究法，首先進行前測調查，並隨後進行一周連續五個工作日的日記型問卷調查，研究資料共有96名受試者，433筆有效樣本，結果採取階層線性模型分析之。研究發現，每日的工作家庭衝突與家庭工作衝突皆顯著預測當日與主管、同事、與家人的關係損耗，並預測當日更低的自我效能。在反芻部分，負向反芻能降低工作者每日家庭對工作衝突與家人關係損耗的負向關係；問題解決反芻能降低工作者每日工作對家庭衝突與家人關係損耗的負向關係。其結果顯示，每日工作家庭衝突與個人自我調節資源有正向關聯，而透過不同的反芻型態，則能夠減緩衝突對於家人關係的負向影響。

Significant shifts in social ideology and legislation have brought about considerable changes in work and family dynamics in the Western world, and the male as breadwinner-wife as homemaker model is no longer the norm. However, despite increasingly gender egalitarian ideals, the division of labor among dual-earner couples tends to adopt a "neo traditional" once children are born, where women devote more time to family labor and men spend more time in paid employment Although asymmetrical divisions of labor have clear workplace and societal consequences in terms of women's earnings, organizational advancement, and inequality, the effects on individual well-being are not well understood. The purpose of the present study was to apply the theoretical lens of person-environment fit to examine how misfit between dual-earner couples' pre-child division of labor preferences and post-child actual divisions of labor relate to affective (career, marital, and family satisfaction) and health-related (depression and physical health symptoms) well-being. Additionally, several conditions were posited to temper the strengths of these relationships (domain centrality, gender, voice in division of labor decision making, and satisfaction with the current division of labor). Participants were 126 dual-earner couples with small children, and hypotheses were testing using polynomial regression analyses. The results suggested that congruence between an individual's own pre-child desires for the division of paid labor and the actual post-child division of paid labor relates to his/her own career and marital satisfaction, depression, and physical health symptoms. Congruence in the family domain is also important, as desire-division of family labor fit related to affective sentiments toward family and one's spouse. With the exception of career satisfaction, these relationships were curvilinear, such that deviations in either direction from perfect fit related to poorer well-being. On the other hand, there was little evidence for spousal effects, as dual-earner well-being did not relate the congruence between division of labor abilities and spousal demands. Finally, evidence of moderation was only found in a few cases, and none were consistent with prediction, highlighting the need for future research on the contextual conditions of P-E fit in the dual-earner context.

Introduktion: Obalans i vardagen kan leda till stressrelaterade besvär. Föräldrastress finns hos både mödrar och fäder vilket i sin tur kan leda till sämre mental hälsa. Balans i livet är generellt relaterat till hälsa och välbefinnande. Det finns olika balansbegrepp inom arbetsterapin. Dessa är till exempel aktivitetsbalans, life balance, lifestyle balance och work-life balance.  Syfte: Beskriva balans i vardagens aktiviteter relaterat till hälsa och välbefinnande hos föräldrar som förvärvsarbetar. Metod: Designen för examensarbetet var Scoping Review. Databaserna som användes var CINAHL, ERIC och PubMed. Materialet granskades och skrevs in i en artikelöversikt och totalt inkluderades 21 artiklar i resultatet.  Resultat: Det är viktigt för föräldrar att ha möjlighet att kombinera familjeliv och arbete för att uppleva balans i vardagens aktiviteter. Aktivitetsbalans, meningsfullhet i aktiviteter, aktivitetsvärde och tillfredsställelse med aktiviteter har ett samband med tillfredsställelse i livet hos föräldrar. Slutsats: Flera föräldrar skattade sin aktivitetsbalans lågt vilket tyder på att barn kan påverka föräldrars aktivitetsbalans negativt. Mödrar skattade sin aktivitetsbalans lägre än fäder. De faktorer som var viktigast att ha balans mellan var hemliv, familjeliv, arbete och fritid.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Women’s roles in the workplace have increased but expectations within their family roles have not diminished. Work-family conflict (WFC) occurs when work and family roles are mutually incompatible in some respect. Mothers’ representations of their own particular personal contexts seem largely absent from the cultural iconography and so motivations for the study included bringing to light the phenomenological experiences of contemporary fulltime working mothers by developing a rich description of their lived experience. These ideas have not been widely explored in South Africa. The study aimed to explore how full-time working mothers experience work-family conflict, including how they conceptualise their dual roles, how salient each role is to them, the factors in the work and family domains which are particularly pertinent for them and any coping strategies they might employ. The study used as a theoretical framework the model of work-family conflict developed by Greenhaus and Beutell in 1985, together with an extension from the work of Amstad, Meier, Fasel, Elfering and Semmer in 2011. The study used a phenomenological methodology. Eight middle-class, professional, full-time working mothers from the Southern Suburbs and City Bowl of Cape Town were interviewed individually, using a semi-structured interview schedule. A qualitative paradigm was used to analyse the interviews. Emotional and cognitive repercussions of WFC were many, including feelings of unsustainability. Some participants acknowledged a need to compromise in order to cope, but the current normative messages are not conducive to this. Participants aspire, not to stop working, because the role of worker is regarded as important for self-definition, but to reduce their overall load. The generalisability of this study was reduced because of its localised ambit, its small size and some similarities in socio-economic profile among the participants. Future studies could further explore the choices or strategies which are successful in reducing WFC.

<p>  </p> <p>This dissertation examines working women’s experiences with careers and childcare in South Korea. Korea is characterized by its ultra-low fertility rate, aging population, and high proportions of working women and those opting out of work after childbirth. Despite the government’s generous childcare policies and widespread help from child(ren)’s grandmothers, Korean mothers report substantial difficulties in pursuing their careers due to childcare responsibilities. Thus, this dissertation asks the following questions: 1) How do beliefs and norms about childcare influence Korean women’s career pursuits and childcare arrangements? 2) What factors influence Korean working mothers’ career aspirations and pursuits in the context of COVID-19? 3) How does grandmothers’ care help influence Korean working mothers’ careers and childcare arrangements? </p> <p><br></p> <p>To investigate these questions, I analyze three waves of longitudinal in-depth interview data (n=102) from women in Korea. The first wave was collected in-person in 2019 ­before the COVID-19 pandemic with 37 women. The second (n=32) was conducted in 2020, and the final (n=33) wave in 2021. Due to travel restrictions related to COVID-19, the second and final waves were conducted virtually using video calls. The semi-structured interviews asked questions about women’s experiences with their careers and childcare, and examined how their experiences have changed or remained the same since the COVID-19 pandemic. This is one of the first qualitative studies to examine working mothers’ experiences with childcare pre-pandemic (2019) and during the pandemic (2020 and 2021).</p> <p><br></p> <p>Based on the findings, I develop the concept of “childcare ideologies”– defined as beliefs and norms about childcare. Korean women shared a diverse range of beliefs and norms about childcare encompassing family members like mothers, fathers, and grandparents, as well as non-family members like care facilities and the government. Because childcare is not a concern or responsibility of mothers alone, this dissertation encourages the sociological scholarship to conceptualize childcare more broadly, by including the discussions of political interests, social and cultural norms, and intergenerational familial care, among other relevant factors. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In addition, I document women’s experiences related to pursuing their careers and arranging grandmothers’ childcare help.  The findings show the influence of <em>gendered</em> childcare beliefs and norms on Korean mothers’ career aspirations and pursuits. Childcare beliefs that do not assume that mothers are primarily responsible for childcare motivated mothers to aspire to career success and pursue such aspirations. On the other hand, childcare beliefs that associate mothers with having primary childcare responsibility discouraged mothers from their career aspirations and pursuits. Furthermore, while I demonstrate Korean mothers’ heavy reliance on their children’s grandmothers for childcare help, I show that mothers preferred to receive childcare help from maternal grandmothers than from paternal grandmothers. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In analyzing these empirical findings, this dissertation contextualizes Korean mothers’ experiences related to childcare and career pursuits within the novel context of the COVID-19 pandemic. That is, I employ a gendered life course framework to investigate how women’s family lives and careers have been affected when the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic caused an economic and societal disruption, in addition to a health crisis. I conclude the dissertation with empirical implications and policy recommendation to better anticipate future health challenges and to assist working women and their families when these challenges emerge.</p>

The present study had four main objectives. First, the relationship between the provision of spousal support and its theoretical antecedents and consequences was assessed as informed by the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989). Second, the crossover of physicians' work interference with family conflict on their spouses' family demands (perceived family demands and family hours) was investigated. Next, the mediating role of social support as an explanation for the crossover process was examined using two distinct pathways. Lastly, the fourth objective of the present study was to investigate the relationships described above across multiple time points and using dual-source data (from physicians and their spouses). The final sample included matched responses from 126 couples across two time points. Results were generally supportive of the relationship between the provision of spousal support and the receipt of spousal support, perceived family demands, family hours, and work interference with family conflict (WIF) and were consistent with expected relationships according to COR theory. Results also provided support for the synchronous crossover of WIF on perceived family demands; however, results were generally unsupportive of the mediating role of the provision of spousal support in the crossover process. The present study makes several important contributions to the social support, work-family conflict, and crossover literatures by adding to the knowledge of the antecedents and consequences of the provision of spousal support, the growing body of research examining the crossover of WIF, and the understanding of the mediating role of the provision of spousal support in the crossover process. Major findings and areas of opportunity for future research are discussed.

In 2008, there were more than 5,200 workplace fatalities in the United States (BLS, 2010b). During the same time period, U.S. employees missed almost 1.1 million days from work (BLS, 2010c). Accidents are unexpected outcomes that result not only from individuals' behaviors, but from contextual factors (Krause, 1997; Reason, 1990). Therefore, unsafe behaviors have to be interpreted according to a combination of what is occurring in the environment and what the individual is doing in that environment. The present study sought to create a more comprehensive model of safety by means of macroergonomics. Macroergonomics utilizes sociotechnical systems theory to posit that a work system is composed of a personnel subsystem (i.e., ways individuals perform tasks), a technological subsystem (i.e., tasks to be performed), and external factors (Hendrick, 2002a). Perceived control over work hours, an aspect of the technological subsystem, was examined as an antecedent of work-family conflict. Supervisor instrumental support, an aspect of the personnel subsystem, was examined as a moderator of the relationships between perceived control over work hours and work-family conflict. Supervisors have an imperative role in employees' perception of control over their work hours (Kelly & Moen, 2007). Supervisor instrumental support was also hypothesized to moderate the relationships between work-family conflict and safety performance. Supervisors who support their employees in their work-family matters exceed mandatory requirements set forth to protect workers' safety and health (Mearns, Hope, Ford, & Tetrick, 2010). A majority of the 360 participants in the present study were grocery store employees who worked in the front end of the store as cashiers. Job tenure in this particular grocery store chain was an average of 7 years (SD = 5.96) and the average number of hours worked per week was 31 (SD = 8.55). The employees were an average age of 38 years old (SD = 15.25). Two hundred and sixty-two (73%) of the participants were female, 330 (92%) were White, 196 (55%) employees were married or living as married, 146 (41%) employees identified themselves as parents with children living at home, and 58 (16%) employees provided elder care. The data were analyzed using a moderated mediation model. An employee's perceived control over his/her work hours was negatively associated with work-to-family and family-to-work conflict. Work-to-family conflict was not significantly associated with either safety compliance or participation. In contrast, family-to-work conflict was significantly associated with both safety compliance and participation. These findings replicate Cullen and Hammer's (2007) findings that family-to-work conflict, but not work-to-family conflict, is negatively associated with safety compliance and participation. The replication of these significant findings gives support to macroergonomics' assertion that external forces (i.e., family) can affect the safety of employees. All of the meditating and moderating relationships proposed in this dissertation were not significant. I conducted post hoc analyses to determine other possible significant paths in the model examined. The FSSB dimension of supervisor instrumental support was found to positively affect both safety compliance and participation. Supervisor instrumental support was also found to directly affect work-to-family conflict. Overall FSSB and its subdimensions demonstrated similar patterns in the hypothesized relationships and in additional relationships examined. Numerous implications can be recognized from this dissertation. First, interdisciplinary approaches to safety research are emerging and important in the pursuit of safer work environments. Macroergonomics and I/O psychology have commonalities that lend themselves to a good partnership where researchers can learn from each other and collaborate to advance the study of safety. Second, organizations need to focus on the stressors their employees experience as part of their safety programs, and numerous studies, including this dissertation, have found that family-to-work conflict impacts safety compliance and participation. Future safety research may incorporate macroergonomics, which emphasizes that focusing on one adverse aspect of the system may not be enough to create valuable change if there are other adverse factors still creating demands elsewhere in the system. This will allow for a more comprehensive model that ensures certain aspects of the system are not neglected, which can reduce effectiveness of constructs used to create positive changes.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Previous research has established that supportive work and family environments are critical in helping employees manage stressors that lead to work-family conflict. However, little is known about alternate ways that work-family conflict can be reduced in situations where support is insufficient. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this study examines whether individual differences in personality, specifically core self-evaluations (CSE), can relieve work-family conflict when external sources of support (i.e., family-supportive organizational perceptions (FSOP), supervisor support, family support) are low. Results from 453 men and women in various industries and organizations suggest that FSOP and supervisor support reduce work-to-family conflict (WFC), and that family support reduces family-to-work conflict (FWC). In addition, work-family conflict mediated the negative relationships between social support and employee burnout. Contrary to predictions, however, instead of compensating for low FSOP, WFC was reduced especially for individuals, particularly men, who had both strong FSOP and high CSE. This implies that men who hold more positive views toward their self-worth and competence stand to gain more from family-supportive work environments than individuals who lack the same internal resources. CSE did not have this boosting influence for women. CSE also moderated the indirect relationship between FSOP and burnout through WFC, meaning that individuals with high CSE who also perceived their organization as family-supportive experienced significantly less burnout than those with low CSE.