Work-family conflict, career development and well-being of female public sector managers
Date
2014-10-10
Authors
McPhail, Sarah Elizabeth
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Abstract
Female representation in senior levels of government is far from the 50% target set in 2007 with 36% representation in 2010 and a slight increase to 38% in 2012. This is in sharp contrast with lower levels of government where women outnumber men, despite the fact that there are now more women than men graduating from our universities. Previous research has identified the conflict between the role of women in their homes and families, and their work requirements, as a contributing factor to the under representation of women at senior levels. The purpose of this research is to determine to what extent female managers in the public sector experience work-family conflict and whether these female managers perceive that work-family conflict is having a negative effect on their career development. The research further examines whether psychological well-being may have a moderating effect on this relationship such that career development is negatively related to work-family conflict in the case of senior managers with lower levels of well-being, but unrelated in the case of senior managers with higher levels of well-being; and related to this, whether employee wellness programmes are having the intended effect on enhancing well-being. The study data based on a survey of 242 female senior managers with a 61% response rate revealed that generally female managers experience low levels of work-family conflict, with the highest reported conflict being the strain of work-interfering with family (as opposed to time or behaviour based conflict). The strain of work-interfering with family only had a weak negative relation with career progress and career satisfaction, two of the four dimensions of career development. There was a significant finding of stronger negative relationships between measures of career development and work-family conflict in the case of respondents with lower levels of psychological well-being than for those with higher levels of psychological well-being. There is thus support (albeit weak) for the moderator of psychological well-being, with this effect stronger for the relation between some dimensions of the two constructs than for others. Overall female managers reported high levels of well-being, which was not attributable to the use of the employee wellness programme.
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Women in the civil service , Work and family , Sex role in the work environment -- South Africa