Work Family Conflict in the IT Work Force
Peter L.T. HOONAKKER*, Pascale CARAYON*^ and Jen S. SCHOEPKE^
* Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement
^ Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI, USA
Abstract
There is substantial evidence for a shortage of skilled IT workers in the United States. The
reasons for the shortage are that there are not enough personnel entering the IT work force
and a high turnover. The literature shows that there are two important pathways to turnover
in the IT work force: 1) turnover is mediated through job satisfaction; 2) turnover is
mediated through burnout. However, there is a third factor that plays a role in high
turnover: work family balance. In this paper we focus on work family balance as a
predictor of turnover.
Keywords
Turnover, Model, Work Family Balance, Information technology work force
1. Introduction
From 2000 to 2010, overall, the occupation of computer specialists is projected to grow
68.6 percent, and the occupation of computer and information systems managers is
projected to grow 48% (Hecker, 2001). Although demand dropped considerably in recent
years (5% alone in 2001, ITAA 2002), there is still a lack of qualified workers, referred to
as the “gap” in IT workers (ITAA, 2002). A large subset of this problem is the under
representation of women and minorities in the IT workforce. Under representation is
caused by insufficient women and minorities entering the IT workforce as well as too
many of them leaving the IT workforce.
The literature shows that there are two important pathways to turnover in the IT work
force. The studies conducted by Igbaria (1992a, 1992b) show that job characteristics, in
particular role model factors, influence quality of working life, e.g., job satisfaction and
organizational involvement, which in turn predicts turnover. Moore (2000) shows that the
classical “stress/burnout” pathway also plays a role in turnover of IT workers. Job
characteristics, such as high job demands, low job control and low social support, affect
health outcomes, more specifically burnout. This pathway shows gender differences. The
results of Moore’s study show that women seem to be more susceptible to this pathway.
However, another factor associated with quality of working life and turnover is work
family conflict (WFC). Family matters that spill over into working life (FW) and working
life factors that spill over into family life (WF) can add to the psychological demands
placed upon workers and therefore affect their well-being, stress and depression (Googins,
1991), physical ailments (Frone et al, 1997), life satisfaction (Higgins et al, 1992) and
turnover (Greenhaus et al, 1997; Netemeyer et al, 1996) This is particularly true for women
(Grant-Vallone & Donaldson, 2001). We present results of a study on retention and
turnover in the IT work force and the role of work family conflict in the turnover process
for men and women.
2.
Method
The data analyzed in this paper is captured from the database of the project on “Paths to
Retention and Turnover in the IT Workforce: Understanding the Relationships between
Gender, Minority Status, Job and Organizational Factors”. Participating companies were
obtained via solicitation in the project. The tool used is a 139-item web-based
questionnaire (Carayon et al, 2005). The sample consists of five companies, varying in
size. The sample size is 508, with 274 (46%) women and 324 (54%) men.
The questionnaire consists of 6 sets of variables: (1) demographic variables: age,
education and organizational tenure; (2) job characteristics; (3) organizational characteristics; (4) quality of working life; (5) work family balance and (6) turnover intention. All
scales used have been proven to be reliable and valid (for a full description of the scales
used, see Carayon et al, 2005). Eight items were used to create two scale measures: family
life spill over into work (4 items) and work spills over into family life (4 items). Turnover
intention was measured using a single item: “How likely is it that you will actively look for
a new job next year?” on a seven point scale ranging from 1: not at all likely-2-3:
somewhat likely-4-5: quite likely –6- to 7:extremely likely (mean = 2.87, sd = 1.83).
3.
Results
3.1 Work family spillover and family work spillover
Table 1
Family life spills over into work by gender (men (M), women (W))
Strongly
disagree (SD)
M
W
Family matters reduce
the time I can devote to
my job*
Family obligations
reduce the time I need
to relax or be by myself
Family worries or
problems distract me
from my work
Family activities stop
me from getting the
sleep I need to do my
job well
Disagree
(D)
M
W
Neither agree
nor disagree
M
W
Agree
(A)
M
W
Strongly
Agree (SA)
M
W
11%
17%
29% 33%
24%
19%
30% 22%
6%
9%
10%
13%
25% 26%
23%
17%
33% 30%
9%
14%
12%
17%
36% 36%
24%
21%
26% 23%
2%
3%
16%
21%
44% 40%
25%
21%
12% 15%
3%
3%
* Differences between men and women are statistically significant at p < 0.05
Table 1 shows that there is considerable family life spill over into work. Men (36%= agree
or completely agree) tend to agree more often (χ2, p<0.05) with the statement “family life
reduces the time I can devote to my job” than women (31%).
Table 2 shows that there is also considerable work spillover into family life. More
men (13%) than women (4%) agree that their jobs involve a lot of travel away from home.
Table 2
Work spills over into family life by gender (men (M) and women (W))
SD
M
My job reduces the amount
of time I can spend with the
family
Problems at work make me
irritable at home
My job involves a lot of
travel away from home*
My job takes so much
energy I don’t feel up to
doing things that need
attention at home
8%
D
W
M
NN
W
M
A
W
M
SA
W
M
W
12% 25% 22% 36% 20% 36% 34% 13% 12%
11% 10% 29% 30% 25% 20% 28% 32%
7%
8%
49% 64% 25% 24% 13%
8%
9%
2%
4%
2%
16% 15% 32% 29% 21% 20% 23%
2%
8%
7%
* Differences between men and women are statistically significant at p < 0.05
3.2 Consequences of WFC for career opportunities
Table 3 shows the results of the questions we asked about possible consequences of WFC.
Table 3
Consequences of work family conflict
Have you ever turned down any of these things because of family obligations?
……..an assignment
……..a promotion**
……..relocation**
Men
19%
5%
21%
Women
14%
12%
12%
** Differences between men and women are statistically significant at p < 0.01
The results show that women (12%) more often have passed up or turned down a
promotion than men. Men have more often passed up or turned down a relocation.
3.3 The relation between work family conflict, quality of working life (QWL) and turnover
In an earlier paper, we focused on the relation between job and organizational
characteristics, QWL and turnover intention. The results show that the effects of job and
organizational characteristics on turnover intention are mediated by QWL (Hoonakker et
al, 2004). More precisely, there are two important pathways from job and organizational
characteristics to turnover. The first pathway is mediated through job satisfaction. Job
satisfaction is the best predictor of turnover. The second pathway goes from job and
organizational characteristics through burnout to turnover intention. This pathway is also
partially mediated by job satisfaction. Organizational commitment does not play a role in
these relationships. In the earlier model, we did not take work/family balance into account,
because we were primarily interested in the relation between job and organizational
characteristics, QWL and burnout. In this paper, we first tested whether the pathways from
work spills over into family life and family life spills over into work are the same as the
pathways for job and organizational characteristics. Figure 1 shows the results.
wf1
ex1
.55
ex3
.75 .74
ex4
ex5
ex6
8
.8 .77
.11
JS
.68
.83
.61
js2
js3
s)
(n
-.06
js1
js4
js5
TI
1.0
ti
630
160
0.91
0.88
0.92
0.06
0.07
WF
.7
4
.32
.58
.7 .6
8 9
.8 2
.5
EEX
0
.6
fw4
ex2
.82
-.1
8
fw1
fw3
(ns)
FW
.64
5
.6
wf4
fw2
-.16
9
.72
.74
.77
wf3
7
.7
wf2
-.04
χ2
Df
GFI
AGFI
CFI
RMR
RMSEA
)
.13 (ns
Figure 1 The relation between WFC, quality of working life and turnover intention
The results show that the pathway from WFC to turnover intention is also mediated
through quality of working life. There is no direct (significant) relation between WFC and
turnover intention. The main pathway goes from WF to emotional exhaustion (β=.83),
through job satisfaction (β=.68) to turnover intention (β=.58). Note that FW does not play
an important role in this model. Note also that the model contains 4 confirmatory factor
analyses. The results of these factor analyses show that most items fit well, with the
exception of WF. The third item does not fit the model well. Non-significant χ2, and
Goodness of Fit Indices in the 0.90’s, accompanied by parsimonious fit indices in the
0.50’s are not unexpected (Mulaik et al, 1989).
3.4
The relation between work family conflict, job and organizational characteristics
and quality of working life and turnover
In our earlier study, we developed a core model to explain gender differences in the most
important pathways between job and organizational characteristics, QWL and turnover
intention (TI) (Hoonakker, 2004). We identified five job and organizational characteristics
(IT job demands (JD); challenge (CH); supervisory support (SS); career opportunities (CO)
and rewards (RE)) and two quality of working life variables (burnout (EEX) and job
satisfaction (JS)) that play a central role. The most important pathway between job and
organizational characteristics and turnover intention is the pathway from demands to both
emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction to turnover intention. In this study, we added
WFC to this core model. Figure 2 shows the results. The results show that WF plays a
central role in the model. WF is correlated with most of the other job and organizational
characteristics (IT job demands (r=.46); supervisory support (r=-.29); corporate integration
(r=-.23); and rewards (r=-.24)). WF is not significantly correlated with age or tenure. Note
-.05 (ns)
-. 1
3
.32
χ2
Df
GFI
AGFI
CFI
RMR
RMSEA
44.6
20
0.99
0.96
0.99
0.03
0.04
.11
0
.2
.65
.57
.49
.38
.42
-.24
.31
-.11
-.23
-.29
-.11
-.33
-.2
6
.46
.13
-.06 (ns)
.31
that there is no direct relation between WF and job satisfaction (β=0.02) nor between WF
and turnover intention (β =0.00). The relation between WF and turnover intention is
completely mediated by first burnout and then by (lack of) job satisfaction.
Figure 2 The model for job and organizational characteristics, WFC, QWL and turnover
4
Conclusion
Previous research has shown that there are two important pathways between job and
organizational characteristics, QWL and turnover intention in the IT work force. The
studies by Igbaria et al (1992a, 1992b) show that job characteristics, in particular role
model factors, influence quality of working life, e.g., job satisfaction and organizational
involvement, which in turn predicts turnover. The study by Moore (2000) shows that the
classical “stress/burnout” pathway also plays a role in turnover of IT workers. Job
characteristics, such as high job demands, low job control and low social support, affect
health outcomes, more specifically burnout. Our study confirmed both pathways.
Furthermore, in our study we added work family conflict (WFC) to the previous models.
Our results show that WFC does play an important role in the model. The strongest
relations in our model are the relations between WF, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction
and turnover intention.
The results of the study show the importance of the WFC concept, through the
model we tested, but also in simple statistics. For example, 39% of the men and 36% of the
women agree (or completely agree) with the statement: “My job reduces the amount of
time I can spend with the family”. Thirty-five percent of the men and 40% of the women in
the sample agreed with the statement: “Problems at work make me irritable at home”.
Although WFC is not directly related to job satisfaction or turnover intention, the relation
is mediated through emotional exhaustion. The demands put on employees by WFC leads
to emotional exhaustion, which in turn leads to less job satisfaction. Low job satisfaction is
strongly related to turnover intention.
These results are also confirmed by the relatively high percentages of men and
women who have passed up an assignment, a promotion or a relocation because of work
family matters. The model shows that WFC is negatively related to career opportunities.
The model also shows that WFC is negatively related to supervisory support. Lack of
supervisory support can increase work family conflict, but on the other hand supervisors
that do support their employees when it comes to the conflicting demands between work
and family can buffer the negative effects.
4
Acknowledgement
Funding for this research is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Information Technology
Workforce Program (Project #EIA-0120092, PI: P. Carayon).
5
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