Work-from home and work-life conflict: A Empirical Study on Indian working women
Dr. Anuradha Nayak
Assistant Professor
Institute of Public Enterprise
Hyderabad, Telangana
Email-anunayak234@gmail.com
Abstract
Purpose: The present study examines the impact of work-from-home with work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC) due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. This research also examines the moderating effect of marital status and types of family members staying at home between the proposed relationships.
Design/methodology/approach- A total of 315 responses were collected from theIndian women respondents through a questionnaire distributed online. The hierarchical regression analysis has been used.
Findings - The resultsrevealed that work-from-home hasnegative relationshipwith both types of conflictsi.e.WFC and FWC. It has been found that types of family members and marital status have affected their level of conflict between work and family roles due to mandatorily work-from home during pandemic.Women who were working from home were more likely to face family interference with the work-life (FWC) as compared to work interference with the family (WFC).
Keywords- Work from home, Work-family conflict, Family-work conflict, Covid-19.
Due to shifting gender norms, the rise of single-parent and dual-earner families, and the expanded role of women in the market, an increasing number of employees today must juggle work with other responsibilities (Kossek and Thompson, 2016). In response to this new reality, organizations increasingly providework-home practices to their employees.Work-from-homeis defined as the “arrangement that permits employees and their task to be shared across settings away from a central place of business or physical organizational location(Gajendran and Harrison,2007).Earlier this was used by organizations as telecommuting/teleworking but nowadays the term “working remotely” and “working from home” are popular because it seems more recent. It has been concluded that all the terms which are used for working away from the workplace are relatively the same. For this reason, in this study, the term “work-from-home” is used. Work-from-home is an option that has been provided to the employees for the purpose to improve the work-life balance (Crosbie and Moorie, 2004). Maintaining work-life balance is the main focus of work-from-home that has been proven in various research studies that helps to reduce the conflict between work and family life (Dockery and Bawa, 2014). As women has started working in offices especially in India, but their domestic duties remain unchanged. Due to their shared responsibilities, they find it challenging to manage their lives. The idea of working from home is thus introduced in India also.
Now the concept of work-from home has become a subject of debate during the Covid-19 pandemic.A significant portion of the global population has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic of the global pandemic corona virus disease. The first mention of COVID-19 was made in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. From China, including India, this coronavirus began to spread to practically all of the world's nations. It is the largest global health disaster in recorded history. Due to a countrywide lockdown, everything was shut down, and people were prohibited from leaving their houses (WHO,2020). The Lockdown has had a negative impact on a number of industries, including manufacturing, hotels, services, healthcare, and education. Since then it has become mandatory for organization to provide work from home due to the concern for public safety (Economic Times, India, 2020).
However, more women are performing household chores while working from home, which has reduced their productivity(Power 2020, Pozzan and Cattaneo 2020). According to Moreira DaSilva (2019) they are responsible for 75% of all domestic duties, In addition, a research from the International Labor Organization (ILO) also indicated that women spend more time than men doing household chores. Therefore, finding a work-life balance is difficult for working women because of the unequal distribution of domestic responsibilities between men and women.Literatures show WFH has two aspectsi.e. positive or negative. Women especially desire theoption of work-from home so that they can effectively handle their home responsibilities. Therefore, numerous studies have demonstrated that working from home is a beneficial alternative for reducing women employees' work-life conflict (Akbari and Hopkins, 2019).At the same time, many researchers have discovered that remote work negatively correlates and significantly interrupts Work-life conflict among employees (Muralidhar et al. 2020; Felstead & Henseke, 2017). This is either due to the conflict that is caused when expectations are placed on employees for work-related activities to be completed outside of the regular schedule (Sarbu, 2018).
Many women have left their job just because of conflict between work and family life. For women in India, pursuing or resuming a career has always been challenging (Time of India). . The pandemic condition of 2020–2021 has opened the door for more women to enter the workforce by giving them options to work from home in a variety of sectors and have provided an opportunity to spend time with family. We hope it would be easy for them to reduce WLC. While another research conducted by McKinsey & Company (2020) found that the brunt of Covid 2019 crisis was being suffered by women, both at the workplace and home resulting in their increased stress and exhaustion. Another study conducted by Chicago school (2021) also highlighted that women carried a heavy burden on them during the pandemic. The reason was thatdue to the pandemic's effects, school closures also compelled parents to provide childcare at home, which inevitably increased the burden on parents of child care (Baldwin and Mauro 2020).It was the first time that work-from-home policies have become mandatory for every industry, and mothers balance working from home and raising young children at the same time (Yamamura and Tsustsui, 2021).They must always be with their family members because of the pandemic. Therefore, it would be quite fascinating to learn the extent of work-family conflict, particularly for Indianfemale employees, in the context of the pandemic as both obligations have been combined because women seek work from home option always.
Numerous research that included non-pandemic views have been highlighted in industrialised countries, according to Zhang et al. (2020). In India, there are less COVID-19 studies on work-life balance and working women who work from home (Lewis 2020; Roshgadol 2020). We can see most of the studies on work from home but dependent variable is differentAs Chakraborty, D & Altekar (2021) checked the impact of work from home on health financial well-being? Different research also have also seen the impact of WFH on Indian employees’ stress and creativity in manufacturing and technology-enabled service sectors . (Jaimee Felice Caringal-Go, 2021). Wang et al. (2021) identified four challenges (work–home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness) as people worked from home during the pandemic for men and women. As literature shows work from home has different views, hence it became necessary to check whether work from home is positively or negatively related with work-life balance due to pandemic in Indian sample.
Mothers typically experience a negative influence on work from home on work-life balance, either because of the challenges that employees face in detaching from job-related issues, as it has been discovered that life conflict is more acute for those who have children (Zhang et al., 2020; Kurowska, 2020). It is clear that a third factor—marriage status and family members—could influence these associations during a pandemic. According to the literature, no research have used these variables as moderators for the suggested association. This study will fill the gap by adding to the body of knowledge. As a result, this study examined the moderating effects of marital and family member’s status among women employees who worked from home throughout the pandemic. We can see the direct impact of marital status on work-life balance (Serbana, 2018)
Further, this study aims to make three contributions in this area. First, it will add to our understanding of the relationship between work from home and both direction of work-life conflict. Second, it will extend the existing literature by empirically assessing the role of family members staying at home and marital status in these relationships. Finally, it will provide a foundation for further research in the arena of work from home and work-life conflict among Indian women employees. This paper presents a literature review and develops the research hypotheses to achieve all of the aforementioned objectives. The theories are then put to the test in an empirical research that was created utilizing a survey of 315 Indian women employees.
Research question
Research objective
COVID-19 has led to higher work-family conflict among working mothers in Singapore, with factors such as parental demands, work role overload, occupational commitment, and family support being key predictors (Neo, et al.2022). As countries battled with the strain on their healthcare systems, there was little focus on how the pandemic has impacted family relationships, especially for women, who have been doing more unpaid care work than men prior to the pandemic (See Power 2020).. Emerging research (e.g., Power 2020) also suggested that the burden of unpaid care work is now greater during the current pandemic
Figure 1: Proposed model
|
Marital status
|
|
Work-family conflict |
H3 H5
|
Work- from home |
H1
|
Family-work conflict |
H2
|
Family member
|
H6
H4
2.1 The implications of work from home
In International companies like Dell, Xerox, and Amazon, the concept of work from home (WFH) is a modern trend. This is the flexible working option provided to their employee oftentaken by the ICT sectors (Srivastava et al., 2015) where employees are permitted to work from home in case of need.Work-from home has been perceived as the main advantages for those employees, whowere not able to spend their timewith the familybecause of worktasks(Madsen, 2003).Kossek, (2011)found strengthen relationship between work from home and family members. WFH has helped employees to save their time from traveling and providing convenience and flexibility(Varma et al., 2022), reduceconflict between work and family life (Fonner and Roloff, 2010) and to meet with family demand (Troup & Rose, 2012) and scheduletheir specific time to finish their both work and family tasks, improved health (Churuch, 2015), increased time for the family, improved performance(Golden and Veiga, 2008) increased employment opportunities for women with children, students and disabled persons.
Michelle, K. (2020), discussed WFH advantages such as flexible schedule, no office distractions, spending time with family members, working in simple clothes, and saving money. Addition to this, work from home also has different negative outcomessuch as people can miss important calls or messages, can feel boredom, starting to work slowly, and facingdifficulty sticking to a routine. Nakrosiene, et al. (2019) examined the relationship between telework factors and various individual and organizational outcomes of telework.Some studies found a positive relationship between working from home and employees’ productivity (Dubrin, J. A.1991; Bélanger 1999).People were found more productive while working from home because of less distraction from the workplace. A study has investigated the impact of working from home on employees’ work efforts (Kira R and Michael B, 2016). Also,whereas some studies have shown that women benefit more from work-home practices than men (Kossek et al., 2016), some studies show the opposite result (Meeussen et al., 2018). Now it’s a subject to understand the impact of work-from home practice on work life conflict due to covid-19 pandemic.
2.2 Impact of Work from home on interference of work over family life(WFC)
Work-from home has helped employees to scheduletheir exact time for the completion of both work and family tasks (Churuch, 2015).According to the survey,a better WLBwas reported by 80% of respondents (Hendricks, 2014).The result of the survey concluded that homeworking provides an opportunityto choose their time in managing both responsibilities of caring for family members as well as office work. Gajendran and Harrison (2007) also found the positive effect of work from home on the work-family balance. The evidence of empirical studiessuggested thatthere is linkage between the policy of working from home and higher autonomy and more control of time(Powell& Craig, 2015) and has become aneffectivemethod to lessenthe impact of work-lifeconflict (Allen et al. 2013). Some studies have found that employees face less work-family conflict whenthey started use of work-from-home practices (Byron, 2005).However, others study found no link between these constructs (Henz and Mills, 2014).Telework improves WLB by increasing autonomy, reducing stress, and increasing availability to attend to personal and family matters (Gálvez et al., 2020; Thulin et al., 2019). According to research by Bharathi and Mala (2016), working from home has a substantial effect on women's WLB in terms of professional enhancement. However, working from home can also cause a blurring of the lines between work and family life, which can lead to an imbalance and more friction between them (Sarbu, 2018).
Time is therefore viewed as a limited resource that employees must divide between work and family in order to attain a harmonious outcome (Liu et al., 2019). According to the boundary theory, it is difficult to switch between roles (work and personal/family life) as the lines between work and family are blurring more and more (Kossek & Lautsch, 2012). Telecommuting increases the permeability of boundaries in life domains, making it easier for one domain to intrude on the other, potentially leading to work–family conflict (Standen et al., 1999).Increased boundary flexibility from telecommuting can help employees regulate and synchronize demands between work and family and, potentially, reduce work–family conflict (Raghuram & Wiesenfeld, 2004). Delanoeije and Verbruggen (2020) examined the relationships between working from home and work-family conflict, they found that employees reported less work-family conflict during working from home.Several studies have shown a negative association between work from home and work-family conflict (Allen et al., 2013 meta analysis), indicating that the practice can be used as a means to alleviate conflict between the two life domain.
Therefore, we hypothesized in a pandemic context-
H1:Work-from home optionwill be negativelyassociated with work-family conflict during pandemic.
2.3Impact of Work from home oninterference of family over work life(FWC)
On the other hand, family-work conflict arises when an employee's personal life causes interference with their professional life (Duxbury,et al, 1994). Working longer hours and being interrupted frequently from home have a detrimental impact on employees' work-life balance, which creates conflict between work and family. According to Shockley and Allen's 2007 study, women employees experience high levels of family-work conflict when they have more responsibilities for their families. Work-from home yields varying results; many studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between WFH and family-work conflict, whereas the majority of studies revealed a negative relationship (Russell et al. 2009; Lippe and Lippényi 2018), and the conclusion of these studies is that WFH leads to a reduction in home-to-work conflict (Anderson et al., 2020)
Therefore, we hypothesized in pandemic context that-
H2: Work-from home option will be negatively associated with family-work conflict during pandemic.
2.4 Marital status and family members as a moderator
According to the study, there is a direct correlation between marital status and the degree of both family-work and work-family conflict. There are two types of work-life conflict: WFC and FWC. Work-family conflict is when work interferes with family life, and family-work conflict is when family interferes with work life (Gutek et al, 1991). According to a number of academic studies, working women face greater family demands than working men. In order to balance motherhood, marriage, and profession, it has become increasingly difficult. As a result, women are more likely than their male coworkers to experience work-life conflict (Anderson, 2020).Some studies have found that telework is negatively correlated with WLB either as a result of the challenges that employees have putting their work-related problems behind them (Felstead & Henseke, 2017) or as a result of the conflict that results from expecting tasks related to work to be completed outside of the regular schedule (Sarbu, 2018).Mothers typically face a negative influence on WLB as a result of telework (Zhang et al., 2020) since this form of conflict is more acute for employees who have children (Kurowska, 2020).
Numerous studies have indicated a connection between working spouses' parental duties and work-family conflict, according to Duxbury and Higgins (2008). Parents have more demands placed on them and less control over their time than nonparents, making it harder for them to balance work and personal obligations. Darcy, C. and McCarthy, A. (2007) describe similar outcomes, they discovered that parent employees have significantly greater levels of work-family and family-work conflict as compared to non-parent employees.Waumsley et al.(2010) discovered that employees who don't have children or who aren't yet married may have a less work-life conflict. A study by Panisoaraa, G., and Serbana, M. (2013) looked at how marriage status directly affected work-life balance. In their study, they looked at four types of employees (unmarried, married without children, married with children under 18, married with children over 18). Findings indicated that their levels of work-life balance are not significantly different. This study's findings were distinct from those of earlier studies. There is more friction between the home and the workplace when there are more children or young children living at home, according to studies by and Mennino et al.(2005).
A study suggests that the family-life stage has complex relationships with telework. There are three outcomes in total. Particularly, parents are less likely to telework than those without children, regardless of gender or marital status. Males are more likely than females to telework among workers without children, and single people are more likely to do so than married people. However, paired parents are more likely to telework than single parents, and females are more likely to telework than males for people with children. According to the findings above, children are the most significant aspect of a family's life stage for a person's telework behaviour (Zhang, S et al 2020). It is found that the presence of children at home is associated with higher levels of work-family interference (Mennino et al. 2005).Having a spouse, partner, and children live with women increases their duties and demands on their roles (Anderson and Kelliher, 2020). Recent research (Alon et al. 2020; Carlson et al. 2020) and media coverage (Ascher 2020) have covered the problems and difficulties working women experience in maintaining a work-life balance. We can see from this that having a spouse and having family members living at home are important factors in work-life balance. Married respondents were less likely than single respondents to be interested in working remotely compared to those without children (Glass & Noonan,2016).
Even when working from home, women had to spend more time on domestic care duties than males (Kim 2018; Chung and Van der Lippe 2018), which had an impact on their work-life balance. Women's responsibilities never end; they work throughout the day and even while they are on vacation. These hours spent on these things in total are longer than a typical workday (Fenner and Renn, 2010). While working from home, they were unable to focus on their office task (Powell, 2020). Their family life could be impacted by these (Ford, et al. 2007). Boyar et al. (2003) highlighted that the cause for family interference with work includes hours spent caring for family members, having children and other dependents at home, and providing for the needs of the family.
Cooke and Rousseau's (1984) research showed that employees who had more family responsibilities, such as being a spouse or parent, experienced more family-work conflict. Compared to parents with grown children, individuals with younger children experience a higher level of FWC (Beutell & Greenhaus, 1985). The age of the oldest kid is a key factor that affects family-work experience, therefore a study by Golden et al. (2012) predicted that working from home makes it harder to balance work and family responsibilities by increasing family-to-work conflict. According to other studies, the main cause of family-work conflict for working parents is dependent and the number of children living at home (Grzywacz and Marks, 2000; Cohen and Liani, 2009). Additionally, Mjoli et al. (2013) discovered that parents with kids younger than six had the highest levels of family work conflict, followed by those with kids old enough to start school. It has been discovered that married women experience higher family-work conflict, suggesting that marital status may also have an impact on the relationship between work from home and family-work conflict.
According to Nomaguchi, K. M. (2020), single mothers have greater conflict at home and at work than single fathers, married mothers, and married fathers.Increased domestic and caring obligations were reported to be the largest drawback in a poll done in the Netherlands during the pandemic (Rubin O , 2020), According to Canadian research, those without young children had a drop in work-life conflict whereas those with young children did not experience the same decline (Schieman S, 2020). An Italian study of women discovered that COVID 19 lockdowns boosted women's home and childcare obligations, but not men's (Chung et al, 2020). It was discovered that mother and, to a lesser extent, fathers reported more work-family (49%) and family-work (50%) conflict as compared to mothers of young children. Mothers with children 0 to 5 years old are more likely to report difficulty juggling work and home obligations because of household duties. Women report feeling pain and discomfort more frequently than males do, and they also evaluate their suffering as being more severe. This effect persisted even after accounting for the presence of children (Melisha, G. et al.2021
As we can see from the research, there is a direct correlation between dependents and work-life balance and conflict, thus we can conclude that marital status and family members can be considered as moderators between the association between working from home and both types of work-life conflict. This study aims to ascertain how these moderating variables affect the association between work from home, WFC, and FWC because there is a dearth of information of this kind in the literature.
Therefore, we proposed that-
H3: Marital status such as (H3a) Unmarried status (H3b) Married status will moderate the relationship between work-from home and work-family conflict during pandemic.
H4:Types of family members such as (H4a) Single, (H4b) Only spouse, (H4c) spouse and children, (H4d) Only children, (H4e) Spouse, children and parentsmoderates the relationship between work-from homeandwork-family conflict of women employee during pandemic.
H5: Marital status such as (H5a) Unmarried status (H5b) Married status will moderate the relationship between work-from home and family- work conflict during pandemic.
H6: Types of family members such as (H6a) Single, (H6b) Only spouse, (H6c) Spouse and children, (H6d) Only children(H6e), Spouse, children and parentsmoderates the relationship between work-from home and family- work conflict of women employee during pandemic.
3.1 Sample and procedure
This study employs a quantitative research method to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indian women’s work-life conflict. Data was collected from north side. Participants were recruited from the existing contacts of the researchers. Conveniencesampling method has been used to collect the response. Participants were asked to share their experience about work-life balance due tomandatory work from home during COVID-19 lockdown. A questionnaire link was shared with the Indian womenrespondentsand asked to give response online. 315questionnaires were returned from the respondents. Therefore, sample size 315 has been taken for data analysis purpose.
The research instrument comprised of two parts measuring study variables. In the first part, questions were related to age, marital status, monthly income, experience of work, number of children, family members. The second part of the questionnaire contained questions relating to variables taken under the study.
Work-family conflict: This scale includes 5 items.This scale adopted from the scale of Netemeyer et al. (1996). Response were taken on 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Sample items included “The amount of time,my job consumes, makes it difficult to fulfill family responsibilities”. Higher score reflect higher levels of Work-family conflict.
Family-work conflict: This scale also includesfive items developed by Netemeyer et al. (1996) has been adopted in this study. Response were taken on 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Sample item included “Things I want to do at work don’t get done because of the demand of my family”. Higher score reflect higher levels of family-work conflict.
Work from home: This scale consists of 5 items. The survey included the following question: “Are you comfortable with working from home option.” Responses were taken on 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).
Statistical tools
On the basis of objectives, data have been collected online through a structured questionnaire online and the responses were analyzed using Correlation and hierarchicalregression analysis with SPSS software.
4.1 Demographics profile
Demographic profile shows that most of the of women employee (79.3%)were married,20.6% were unmarried. 23.8% of the respondents were in the age group of 21-30, 44.4% belonged to the age group 31-40, 23.8% of respondent’s age was between 41-50, and 44.4 % of respondents’ age was between 51-60.At least 19.6% of the respondents were staying single, 17.4% women were staying with only spouse, 21.5% women were staying with both spouse and children, 18.0% of women were staying with only children and 23.1% of the respondents were staying with spouse, children and parents. 36.5% of the respondents having child belong to age group of 0-5, 27.9% of women having child between the age group 6-10, 21.2% of respondent’s child age was between 11-15, only 14.2 % of respondents ‘child age was above 15.
33.6% of the respondents had no child, 27.6% had only 1 child, 21.2% had 2 children while 17.4% of the respondents had children more than two. Respondents (32%) had 0-5 years of work experience, 26.9% had 6-10 years, and 22.2% had 11-15 years, while only 18.7% of participants had experience of Above 15 years.Around 18.8 % of respondents’ monthly income was below Rs. 25000, 31.1% of respondents income was between Rs. 25001-50000, 28.2% income was between Rs. 50001-75000 and only 23.8% of respondent had income above Rs. 75000.
Table I: Demographic Profile of Respondents
|
Demographic variables
|
Respondents
|
Percent
|
|
Marital Status |
|
|
|
Married |
250 |
79.3 |
|
Unmarried |
65 |
20.6 |
|
Age |
|
|
|
21-30 |
75 |
23.8 |
|
31-40 |
140 |
44.4 |
|
41-50 |
55 |
17.4 |
|
51-60 |
45 |
14.2 |
|
Experience |
|
|
|
0-5 |
101 |
32.0 |
|
6-10 |
85 |
26.9 |
|
11-15 |
70 |
22.2 |
|
Above 15 |
59 |
18.7 |
|
Number of child |
|
|
|
0 |
106 |
33.6 |
|
1 |
87 |
27.6 |
|
2 |
67 |
21.2 |
|
Above 2 |
55 |
17.4 |
|
Living at home |
|
|
|
Single |
62 |
19.6 |
|
Only spouse |
55 |
17.4 |
|
Spouse and children |
68 |
21.5 |
|
Only children |
57 |
18.0 |
|
Spouse, children and parents |
73 |
23.1 |
|
Age of children |
|
|
|
0-5 |
115 |
36.5 |
|
6-10 |
88 |
27.9 |
|
11-15 |
67 |
21.2 |
|
Above 15 |
45 |
14.2 |
|
Monthly Income |
|
|
|
Below 25000 |
53 |
16.8 |
|
25001-50000 |
98 |
31.1 |
|
50001-75000 |
89 |
28.2 |
|
Above 75000 |
75 |
23.8 |
4.2 Reliability and Validity Analysis
The internal consistency of an instrument is assessed using Cronbach's alpha. With a universally accepted lower limit of.70, it is the most popular measurement tool (Hair et al., 1998). Since the bulk of them have an alpha coefficient above 0.70, the measurement scales' reliability is good. The validity of the instrument has been examined based on its content and face. The validity of the questionnaire also uses convergent and discriminant validity.
Table: II Reliability analyses: Cronbach’s alpha value
|
Constructs |
No. of Items |
Cronbach ‘Alpha |
|
Work from home |
5 |
.725 |
|
Work-family conflict
|
5 |
.813 |
|
Family-work conflict |
5 |
.879 |
4.3 Correlation analysis among variables
Table 4 shows the correlation coefficient between the variables. All the correlations between the variables were significant. Result indicates negatively significant between work-from home and work-family conflict (r= -0.13*).Work-from home is also negatively significant related with family-work conflict(r=. -0.25*).On the basis of above result, it can be assumed that proposed theoretical framework fit the data for this sample for work from home towards the WFC and FWC.
Table: III Correlation Analyses & Descriptive statistics
|
Variables |
WFH
|
WFC
|
FWC |
Mean (N-170) |
S.D |
|
WFH
|
1 |
|
|
2.08 |
1.098 |
|
WFC
|
-0.13* |
1 |
|
3.99 |
.920 |
|
FWC
|
-0.25* |
-0.16* |
1 |
4.23 |
.804 |
Note- **p<.01, *p<.05 FWC: Family-work conflict, WFC: Work-family conflict, WFH: Work from home
4.4 Hypotheses testing with regression analysis
4.4.1 Impact of work from home and (a) marital status (b) types of family members on work–family conflict
WFC was used as the criterion variable in the regression analysis. Step 1 involved adding the predictor variables "WFH" to the analysis. In Step 2, moderator variables were added, such as marital status (married or single), the types of family members who were staying at home (single, only spouse, spouse with children, spouse with children and parents). Lastly, the interaction term was added to the equation in step 3 by taking the cross-product of the moderator and the predictors. WFC and WFH were found to be negatively correlated by the model (β = -0.15 p<.05). The results completely validate hypothesis H1.
Hypotheses H3a, H3b, H4a, H4b,H4c, H4d, H4e,assumes that marital status and types of family members moderates the relationship between all the proposed relationships. This variable was initially incorporated as a predictor in the second step of the regression analysis for all the proposed relationships to test the moderating effect ofmarital status and types of family members. From step 2 in Model 2, moderator unmarried status of women was negatively related with work-family conflict (β= -.03, p>.05), while married status of women were positively related with work-family conflict (β= +.12 p<.05). Other moderators such as women staying single were found negatively related with work-family conflict ((β= -.02, p>.05) andspouse (β= .04 p<.05), Spouse and children (β= .07, p<.05), Only children (β= .20 p<.05),Spouse, children and parents(β= .17 p<.05),werefound positively significant with work-family conflict. Further analysis using three interaction terms between independent variables and moderators as shown in model 3 in step 3 revealed that the interaction term between WFH andunmarried women (β= -.02 p<.05) was found to be negatively associated with work-family conflict. This does not support the hypothesis (H3a). Unmarried status of women does not moderate the relationbetween work from home and work family conflict. Interaction between work from home and married status (β= .14p<.05) was also positively significant with work-family conflict. Thus, the hypothesis (H3b) is supported. The interaction term between work from home andstaying single (β= -.01 p<.05) was also found negatively associated with work-family conflict. Hence, (H4a) does not support. Interaction term between WFH and staying with only spouse was positively related (β= .06p<.05) Hence, (H4b) was supported. Interaction term between WFH and spouse, children was positively related (β= .17 p<.05) Hence, (H4c) was supported. Interaction term between WFH, spouse andchildren was positively related (β= .26 p<.05) Hence, (H4d) was supported. Interaction term between WFH and spouse, children, parents was positively related (β= .19 p<.05) Hence, (H4e) was supported.
4.4.2 Impact of work from home and (a) marital status (b) types of family members on work–family conflict
The output of the regression analysis is synthesized in Table 4. Result has been used to test the hypothesis which shows the relationship between work from home and family-work conflict. Ithas been found that work from home has negative impact between the work-from home and family work-conflict ((β=-.31, p<.05). The findings fully support hypotheses H2.
Hypotheses H5a, H5b, H6a, H6b, H6c, H6d, H6e, assumes that marital status and types of family members moderates the relationship between all the proposed relationships. From step 2 in Model 2, moderator unmarried status of women was negatively related with family-work conflict (β= -.04 p>.05),but insignificant while married status of women were positively related with family-work conflict (β= +.13 p<.01). Other moderators such as women staying single were found negatively related with family-work conflict (β= -.03 p>.05) and spouse (β= .10 p>.05), Spouse and children (β= .11, p<.05), Only children (β= .26 p<.05), Spouse, children and parents (β= .18 p>.05)were found positively significant with family-work conflict.Further analysis using three interaction terms between independent variables and moderators as shown in model 3 in step 3 revealed that the interaction term between WFH and unmarried women (β= --.05 p>.05) was found to be negatively and insignificantly associated with family-work conflict. This does not support the hypothesis (H5a). Unmarried status of women does not moderate the relation between work from home and family-work conflict. Interaction between work from home and married status (β= .16 p<.05) was also positively significant with family-work conflict. Thus, the hypothesis (H5b) is supported. The interaction term between work from home and staying single (β= -.01 p>.05) was also found negatively associated with family-work conflict Hence, (H6a) does not supported. Interaction term between WFH and staying with only spouse was positively related (β= .10p<.05) Hence, Hypothesis (H6b) was supported. Interaction term between WFH and spouse, children was positively related (β= .18p<.05) Hence, (H6c) was supported. Interaction term between WFH, only children was positively related (β= .32p<.05) Hence, (H6d) was supported. Interaction term between WFH and spouse, children, parents was positively related (β= .26p<.05) Hence, (H6e) was supported.
With all predictor produced R2= .416, P< .05 for WFC and R2= .532, P< .05 for FWC. As it can be inference that 41.6% of the variances in dependent variable (work-family conflict) and 53.2% family-work conflict are explained by independent variable (work from home). An examination of regression output coefficient value shows that independent variable such as B coefficient is having the highest value in case of family-work conflict, the positive and significant impact of work from home after the interaction term is the highest on the dependent variable i.e. ‘family-work conflict as compared to work-family conflict.
Table IV: Hierarchical Regression Analysis for WFC
|
|
Work-family conflict (β coefficient) |
||
|
Variables |
Model 1 |
Model 2 |
Model 3 |
|
Step 1 Independent variable
Work from home
|
-0.15**
|
.
-0.31**
|
-0.22**
|
|
Step 2
Moderating variable
Unmarried women Married women Staying Single Only spouse Spouse and children Only children Spouse, children and parents
|
|
-0.03 +0.12** -0.02 +0. 04* +0.07* +0.20* +0.17*
|
|
|
Step 3 Interaction term WFH x unmarried women WFH x married women WFH x Single WFH x Only spouse WFH x Spouse and children WFH x Only children WFH x Spouse, children and parents
|
|
|
-0.02 +0.14 * -0.01 +0.06* +0. 17* +0.26* +0.19**
|
|
R2 |
.464 |
.523 |
.553 |
|
Adjusted R2
|
.319 |
.376 |
.416 |
Table V: Hierarchical Regression Analysis (FWC)
|
|
Family-work conflict (β coefficient) |
||
|
Variables |
Model 1 |
Model 2 |
Model 3 |
|
Step 1 Independent variables
Work from home
|
-0.31*
|
.
-0.42*
|
-0.24*
|
|
Step 2 Moderating variable
Unmarried women Married women Staying Single Only spouse Spouse and children Only children Spouse, children and parents
|
|
-0.04 +0.13** -0.03 +0. 09* +0.11* +0.26* +0.18*
|
|
|
Step 3 Interaction term WFH x unmarried women WFH x married women WFH x Single WFH x Only spouse WFH x Spouse and children WFH x Only children WFH x Spouse, children and parents
|
|
|
-0.05 +0.16 * -0.01 +0.10* +0. 18* +0.32* +0.25*
|
|
R2 |
.543 |
.605 |
.675 |
|
Adjusted R2
|
.494 |
.502 |
.532 |
Table VI Hypothesis testing
|
Hypothesis |
Path |
B value |
Result |
|
H1 |
Work from home Work-family conflict
|
-0.15**
|
Accepted |
|
H2 |
Work from home Family- work conflict
|
-0.29** |
Accepted |
|
H3a |
Work from home Work-family conflict (Unmarried) |
-0.04
|
Rejected |
|
H3b |
Work from home Work-family conflict (Married) |
+0.14 *
|
Accepted |
|
H4a |
Work from home Work-family conflict (Single) |
-0.01
|
Rejected |
|
H4b |
Work from home Work-family conflict (with spouse)
|
+0.06
|
Accepted |
|
H4c |
Work from home Work-family conflict (with children and spouse) |
+0. 19*
|
Accepted |
|
H4d |
Work from home Work-family conflict (With children)
|
+0.26*
|
Accepted |
|
H4e |
Work from home Work-family conflict (with children spouse, and parents) |
+0.17*
|
Accepted |
|
H5a |
Work from home Family- work conflict (Unmarried) |
-0.02
|
Rejected |
|
H5b |
Work from home Family- work conflict (Married) |
+0.14 *
|
Accepted |
|
H6a |
Work from home Family- work conflict (Single) |
-0.01
|
Rejected |
|
H6b |
Work from home Family- work conflict (with spouse)
|
0.6* |
Accepted |
|
H6c |
Work from home Family- work conflict (with children and spouse)
|
0.17* |
Accepted |
|
H6c |
Work from home Family- work conflict (with children)
|
0.26* |
Accepted |
|
H6c |
Work from home Family- work conflict (with children spouse, and parents) |
0.19** |
Accepted |
Women have to put more time and effort than before into fulfilling family responsibilities like caring for spouse, parents, children etc. as they are continuously staying at home while doing office work from their home itself due to the pandemic. This research work tries to find out the deviation if any because of the marital status of women and the type of family members staying at home. As stated above, the emphasis here is on finding the moderating effect of marital status, and family members staying at home in the relationship of work-from-home and work-family conflict (WFC) as well as family-work conflict (FWC). The model has been tested in the context of the pandemic on Indian women employees. The results of the study indicate that work-from-home negatively affects work-family conflict as well as family-work conflict. It shows that the work-from-home option provided to women employee during the pandemic has helped employees to reduce the level of both directions of conflict i.e., WFC and FWC. Other research found contradictory result which found the positive associations between working from home and both types of work – family conflict but only for women, not for men(Yucel & Chung,2021)
Additionally, this study emphasizes the moderating effect of marital status. It demonstrates clearly that women's single status has no effect on their level of WFC or FWC. The study's findings suggest a negative but minor relationship between working from home and unmarried women employees' work-life conflict (WFC and FWC). It indicates neither their family life nor their job life is affected by the other. We can infer from the findings that, on the one hand, women's marital status moderates the negative association between work-from-home and both work-life conflict directions, while on the other, women's single status does not. Due to mandatory work from home, it suggests that married women experience both forms of conflicts. The findings also show that their family obligations interfere more than their professional obligations do. This may be due, in part, to married women's various household responsibilities as well as their own.The result of this study is similar to other studies conducted in past which shows that married women face more work- family conflict as well as family-work conflict as compared to unmarried ones (Frone, 2003).
Research suggests that the kinds of family members who reside at home also have an impact on the relationship between WFH and WFC and WFH and FWC. There is no moderating influence for the women who chose to remain unmarried because there is no tension in their lives. Women who lived alone with their spouse experienced difficulty between the two positions, although work-from-home has a very slight influence on both family-work and work-family conflicts. This might be because the spouses of the women were also employed remotely. This will make it easier for the women to control their WLB together with their partner.In comparison to other categories, they consequently have lower WFC and FWC.
The level of WFC and FWC of women who were living with their spouses and children has been more affected by working from home. Despite the fact that both the husband and wife were working from home due to lockdown, women always devote more time and energy to raising children than their male counterparts (McGowan, Redeker, Coopern, and Greenan, 2012). While a woman's first duty is to her family, a man primarily concentrates on his career. Working women experience a bad work-life balance as a result of having an increased workload as a result of being required to work from home. Additionally, existing studies makes it abundantly evident that childcare is a significant barrier and challenge for women (Chung 2020).
Another group of women taken into account in this study were those who live with their partners, kids, or parents, and their presence has moderated the negative relationship between working from-home and bothdegrees of conflict.This result reveals that women who have a big family are more accountable for caring for their parents in law, spouse, and children.In such a scenario, women end up performing the majority of the domestic responsibilities compared to office task (Economic time, 2020). This disturbs their work life due to poor concentration at their office work. The reason behind this is the perception of the family members as well as society as a whole about women and their responsibilities. The old aged norms and beliefs still exists in the society which considers only paid office work as work but the unpaid household chores are considered as part and parcel of life of women (Sitaram, 2020). In contrast to workplace chores, women frequently spend more time and effort fulfilling their home responsibilities because they don't receive support from their family members. During COVID-19, taking care of children and dependents has become a major burden for women (Collins et al. 2020).
The association between working from home and both levels of conflict is also moderated by the presence of only children. This shows that women's ability to concentrate on their work at the office is hampered by their responsibility for taking care of young children. Working mothers with children have had the most difficulty juggling the demands of both parenthood and employment. The hardest hit group by this role conflict were working women with young children.
When we compare the beta values of the WFC and FWC for every type of female, As a result of being required to work from home, the results indicate that family interference with work life (FWC) is greater than work interference with family life (WFC). Greater conflict always arises as a result of family interference in work life as opposed to work interference in family life, with the exception of women who are single or unmarried. An earlier study found the contrary, showing that working from home increases the likelihood of family-work conflict (Allen et al. 2013). Literature shows that experience of work-family conflict is more dominant and widespread than family-work conflict (Gutek et al., 1991), Netemeyer et al., 1996).Few studies have suggested the similar results like working from home lead to greater family-work conflict (Schieman & Young, 2010). Solís, M.(2017) showed that people with work from home options with a higher level of responsibilities have a higher family-work conflict. Some research indicates that the telework has a positive effect on the work-life conflict ( Gajendran and Harrison, 2007; Shockley and Allen (2007).
Conclusion
WFH, a long-desired employment alternative for many, especially in countries like India where dual family workforces are becoming more prevalent, was made available to the world under COVID-19. In Indian society, work-life balance is very debating aspect as their responsibilities of their home are first priority for working women. Managing work-life balance for women is very challenging for women where concerns about Indian women's WLB have been raised by their duty for elderly parents and/or young children as well as the rigorous job environment. Due to Covid, mandatory work from home has become fruitful to manage work life balancefor unmarried women but it was difficult for married women especially those who have children and dependents. The study finds that work level of work-family conflict and family-work conflict depends on type of family member stay at home.
Due to the pandemic, women were forced to handle both household and work-related duties from their homesSince being forced to work from home as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown in India has been an impediment for married women employees, especially those who are living with family, The study's last finding is that when work from home is required, family members have an impact on the degree of work-life balance. Prior to the pandemic, it was believed that working from home helped to preserve a healthy work-life balance and reduce conflict between the two. However, the pandemic had the opposite impact, making it more difficult for women to work from home.
The majority of employees, especially the female workers covered by the work from home policy, found it difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Given this, they were required to participate in some home duties whether they lived in a nuclear family or a mixed family. This study provides insights into knowledge regarding impact of mandatory work from home on work-life balance. The findings of this study have implications for female employees who want to take their jobs seriously, suggesting that there should be distinct lines separating work from home. Roles at work and in the family shouldn't conflict. This study shows that the option of continually working from home is not advantageous for married women since there is a disruption from the family members at home and there is a lack of a suitable working environment. We assume that work-from home option provided by the employer is always better as one has flexibility to take care of house work and office work, it maintains balance between work and family life. This research work again highlights that in Indian society woman are considered as care givers but this is not applicable to men. The reason behind it is the societal norms followed since decades. Although, woman now a days are working in office but it is expected from them by the family members that they should never fail to finish the household chores on the time which is convenient for family members. During work from home, woman was at home as a result expectations of family members were high from the woman. These expectations from family members might demotivate woman to work from home and cause stress and worry, and even cause her to resign from her position.
Result of the current study has thrown light on work-life of women employee. It highlights that it is not always possible to complete the task at home with the same concentration and energy as they can do at the workplace. Work from home is better for few employees if it is practiced always. But for few other employees it can have negative consequences. Therefore the issue of working women should be understood by all family members, who should provide continuous support. Today's businesses are moving toward hybrid work arrangements, therefore female employees' families must recognize the importance of setting aside time for work-related obligations. Organizations should often invite a female's extended family to counselling sessions at the workplace. Organizations might use both monetary and non-monetary rewards to entice the family members to counselling sessions. This practice will help woman, organizations and society as a whole in utilizing skills of females. This further will assist in attaining diversity, equity and inclusion.
This study doesn’t deny that work from home option is not beneficial for women employee. It adheres that work from home is better option for work –life balance in case of urgencies. Hence an organization should have the policy of working from home.The result of the study opens a new void in the literature available about work-family relation. Here, the findings indicate that the experiences of work-life balance among women vary by types of family members. It is therefore imperative that human resource practitioners appropriately measure these differences, accommodate them in policies through relevant supportive practices and also run these practices for women.
Here, only few dimensions of demographic profile of women such as marital status and types of family members and their dependents (if any) have been taken in consideration. Researchers can find out new dimensions of women employees and their demographic profile to enhance the implications of the study. The sample taken in consideration is small and not widely dispersed in this study; Future researches might conduct the study on a large scale of sample. Another aspect which should be given importance is the gender of employees. Now a days few males have also started working for household chores. There is a need to take them into consideration along with female employees.
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