Over the past few decades it has become evident that the work/family interface is a much broader concept that does not only stress the negative side of the relationship, but also include a positive side. This refers to the process by which participation in one role (e.g. work role) is made better or easier by virtue of participation in the other role (e.g. family role). South Africa is a multicultural society, which consists of four groups (i.e. Black, White, Coloured and Indian), speaking eleven official languages. All of these groups are faced with unique and different circumstances. Apart from cultural, ethnic and linguistic differences, other divergent elements may exist (i.e. values and norms). Therefore South African employees may experience the positive side of the work/family interface differently from employees within other countries. To add to the problem, it is not clear how South African employees‟ experiences of enrichment between work and family domains compare to the experiences of employees in other countries. Furthermore, to date no measuring instrument to assess the enrichment between work and family domains in both directions (work-to-family and family-to-work) exists, that is unique to the South African context. This could pose potential problems for organisations and for future studies on the positive side of work/family in South Africa.
The objectives of this research were 1) to determine how the positive side of the work/family interface, particularly work-family enrichment, is conceptualised according to the literature; 2) to develop a new work-family enrichment instrument that is suitable for the South African context and that addresses conceptual and measurement issues relating to previous positive measurements of the work/family interface; 3) to investigate the psychometric properties of the newly developed work-family enrichment instrument; and 4) to assess antecedents and outcomes of work-family enrichment among employees within the South African context. The study consisted of four phases. During the first phase, following an extensive review of literature covering the positive side of the work/family interface, a theoretical framework was proposed for the study. Thereafter, a new instrument that measures work-family enrichment was developed based on the proposed theoretical framework. The instrument was tested via Rasch modelling with a pre-limenary study (N = 527), in order to overcome some of the measurement limitations from the previous positive work-family instruments. This test was followed by investigating the psychometric properties (i.e. construct validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity and external validity; N = 627) of the newly developed MACE Work-Family Enrichment Instrument. During the final phase, antecedents, work-family enrichment and outcomes were assessed in the South African context. In both phases 3 and 4, the following instruments (accompanied by the new instrument) were utilised, namely the Work Resources Scale, Home Resources Scale, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, Family Engagement Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale, Career Satisfaction Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale, Family Satisfaction Scale and the Work-family Enrichment Scale.
During the first phase, the literature revealed that the positive side of the work-family interface is presented by various concepts (i.e. work-family enhancement, work-family facilitation, work-family positive spillover and work-family enrichment). The review also revealed that, to date, the work-family enrichment concept has been the only concept in literature on the positive work/family interface that is grounded in a properly developed conceptualised theoretical model. The fundamental thinking behind the work-family enrichment model is that work and family each provides individuals with resources (i.e. skills and perspectives, psychological and physical, social-capital, flexibility, material) in the one domain, that may help the individual improve the quality of his/her performance in the other domain. These resources thus enable improved performance in the other role either directly (i.e. instrumental path) or indirectly (i.e. affective path).
During the second phase a new work-family enrichment instrument was developed, namely the MACE Work-Family Enrichment Instrument. This instrument was based on the proposed work-family enrichment theoretical model for both directions (i.e. work-to-family and family-to-work). Initially 133 items were developed that the researcher obtained from the existing literature, and 161 items were self-developed. During the evaluation study, various problematic items were eliminated by using the Rasch measurement model. The third phase included the validation study in which the psychometric properties of the new MACE instrument was investigated. The results provided evidence for construct validity, discriminant validity and convergent validity, and showed significant relations with external variables. Adequate internal consistency was also found for the proposed scales. The final number of items retained after this phase in the development and pilot study of the MACE Work-Family Enrichment Instrument were 34.
During the final phase, various relationships were pointed out between antecedents (i.e. various work resources and home resources), work-family enrichment dimensions, as well as dimensions and outcomes of this type of enrichment. These included work-engagement dimensions, family engagement dimensions, as well as satisfaction-dimensions for work, career, life and the family environment. The results of these relationships were found to be in accordance with other literature on the positive side of the work/family interface.
The present study provided evidence for the psychometric properties of the new MACE instrument, which researchers and managers can use to investigate the specific enrichment between work and family domains of employees in a South African context. The results give researchers and managers insight into the specific antecedents (e.g. work resources) and outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction) that play a role in work-family enrichment. This insight can be used as basis on which interventions can be developed to deal with these issues currently. Recommendations were also made for future research. / PhD (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/11537 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | De Klerk, Marissa |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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