TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement
of the Problems
1.3 Purpose
of the Study
1.4 Significance of the Study
1.5 Scope of the study
1.6 Operational
definition of terms
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Theoretical
Background
2.2 Concept of married women career
2.2.1 Career Choice of Women
2.2.2 Impact of family of origin on career choice
2.2.3 Impact of work-family expectations on career
choice
2.2.4 Impact of marriage on career advancement
2.2.5 Impact of family on expatriation
2.2.6 Factors Influencing
Women’s Career Aspirations
2.2.7 Theory of Career aspiration
2.2.8 Social-cognitive career theory
2.2.9 Career Development Theory
2.2.10 Career Development Theory
2.3 Conceptual
Frameworks of Work/family Conflict Defined
2.3.1 Trend of the 21st Century: Increased Work
Hours
2.3.2 Work-Family Conflict Perspectives
2.3.3 Direct
Effects of WFC on Job Satisfaction
2.3.4
Conceptual models of the relationship
between work and non-work
2.3.5 Theories: An Explanation for Imbalance
2.4 Concept of Perceived Stress
2.4.1 General
Adaptation Syndrome
2.4.2 Causes of Occupational Stress
2.4.3 Coping of Stress
2.4.4 Tentative Model of Coping Styles
2.4.5 Stressors
2.4.6 Typology of
Stressors
2.4.7 Marital Stressors
2.4.8 Management of Work-Related Stress
2.4.9 Theories of Stress in General
2.5 Empirical
Perspectives
CHAPTER
FOUR
RESULT
AND SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
4.1 Research Question 1:
4.2 Research Question 2:
4.3 Research Question 3:
4.4
Summary
of Findings
CHAPTER
FIVE
DISCUSSION,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.0 Introduction
5.1
Discussion
of the findings
5.2 Recommendations
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Limitations of the study
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
There has been a growing
scholarly interest in the gendered nature career which has furthered our
understanding of the career trends among married women (Tlaiss and Kauser 2011;
Broadbridge 2007; Simpson et al, 2010). This study has called for the adoption
of human resource management best practices which inspire gender inclusiveness
and greater diversity within the work milieu. Consequently, over the last three
decades, there has been a measured rise in the numbers of highly skilled female
professionals and managers across different industries, which has led to a
gradual re-configuration of the top management positions from male towards
female (Ismail and Ibrahim 2007). However, available statistics reveals a high
level of disparity in levels of gender diversity at top management positions in
Nigeria. For instance, in the Nigerian Federal Civil Service, which is the
largest employer of labour in Nigeria, 76% of civil servants are men, and 24%
are women with women holding less than 14% of the total management level
positions in the Nigerian public sector (Goldstar, 2005/2006)
In Ekiti state, Nigeria’s
largest commercial hub, private sector involvement of women as directors and
top management were 13.87% and 13.84% respectively in 2005, while 8.14% and
13.11% were recorded for women directors and top managers respectively in 2006,
representing a slight decline of their involvement in the succeeding year
(Goldstar, 2006/07). We explore the barriers to career progress of females in
acquiring top management positions and the nature of married career women
barriers experienced within the Nigerian context due to the combination of work
family conflict, perceived stress and satisfaction of life in attaining a
meaningful coexistence within the work place and the interplay of the family
roles. There are several issues surrounding married career women as managers in
Nigerian organizations and the perceptions of these managers regarding gender
stereotyping in terms of their personal aspirations regarding careers, mentoring,
education, marriage, and having children. It would be interesting to understand
how these factors impact on their career progression.
Work is a central part of
almost everyone’s life. Most adults devote weekdays to work (Landy & Conte,
2004) as career development makes up almost 70% of all human developmental
tasks. Workers in the public sector are experiencing substantial transformation
in organizations via organizational as well as career changes which affects the
long-term relationship and psychological contract between organizations and
coworkers. According to Hall and Mirvis (1996) and Callanan (2003), the
psychological contract which embodies perceptions and beliefs regarding the
reciprocal obligations that exist between employers and employees has shifted
from relational to transactional. In this realm, our traditional understanding
of careers as a linear career path or as a series of upward progression,
followed by increasing income status, security within a functional area and
often within a single organization (Capelli, 1992; Eddleston, 2004) has shifted
to lateral and horizontal movement. According to Ackah and Heaton (2004), these
new paradigms of careers can provide wider alternatives, positions and
experience in order to fulfill the personal needs as well as intrinsic
satisfaction of employees among married career women. Accordingly, these
structural and social transitions have influenced many aspects of managers’ and
workers’ career behaviors, one of which is life satisfaction (Baruch, 2004).
Perceived satisfaction on
the job is reflected by the needs of sense of fulfillment and expectation for
the job to be interesting, challenging and personally satisfying (Smither,
1994). Job satisfaction is also an achievement indicator in career developmental
tasks (Sidek, 2002) and is associated with the psychological (Limbert, 2004)
and individual well-being (Nassab, 2008). Low job satisfaction can be an
important indicator of counterproductive employee behavior and can result in
behavior such as absenteeism (Spector, 1985; Martin & Miller, 1986) and
turnover intentions (Spector, 1985; Dupré & Day, 2007). Job satisfaction
can also partially mediate the relationship of psychosocial work factors to
deviant work behaviours. Therefore, maintaining and enhancing job satisfaction
is important in order to establish quality worker, workplace and work itself (Bokti & Talib, 2009).
However, life
satisfaction is an overall assessment of feelings and attitudes about one’s
life at a particular point of time. According to Diener (1984) life
satisfaction refers to the overall cognitive judgemental aspects of subjective
wellbeing and is likely to influence to everything around us. It is frequently
included as an outcome or consequence variable in work-family research (Allen,
Herstm, Bruck, & Sutton, 2000). The study of Cramer (1995) suggested that
the type of job we hold could have a major impact on life satisfaction and job
satisfaction brings life satisfaction. Bruke, Ronald & Mamo (1999) found
that personal and situational factors were generally unrelated to self-reported
life satisfaction. However work experiences and work outcomes were consistently
and strongly related to self-reported life satisfaction. Studies also showed
managerial and professional women reported more positive work experience and
more favourable work outcomes also reported greater life satisfaction.
It appears that the
withdrawal syndrome observable among Nigerian Civil savant is
psycho-personological in nature where employee life satisfaction contends with
occupational stress and work-family conflict. This factors stood so strong that
workers begins to exhibit counterproductive employee behavior such as
absenteeism, intention to quit, social loafing, employee incongruence which has
retrogressive impact on organizational productivity. Family work conflict
influences employee satisfaction with life. With employees appears to grapple
with balancing their commitment between work and family without having
role-conflict or valuing one above the other. The increased understanding the
work-family interface stems from the demonstrated outcomes of work-family
conflict on role and life satisfaction.
Life satisfaction was
conceptualized as deriving from satisfaction through having a good job and
family life (Sekaran 1983). Some prior evidence supports the relationship
between work-family conflict, job and family satisfaction, and life
satisfaction. Several studies have found negative relationships between
inter-role conflict and job satisfaction Uones
and Butler 1980; Pleck et al. 1980; Staines and O'Connor 1980; Kopelman et
al. 1983; Sekaran 1985; Greenhaus and Parasuraman 1986; Parasuraman et
al. 1989; Mohamed Hashim 1993). Work-family conflict was also found
negatively related to family satisfaction (Pleck et al. 1980; Staines
and O'Connor 1980; Greenhaus and Kopelman 1981; Jones and Butler 1980;
Parasuraman et al. 1989; Aryee 1992). Several earlier researchers have
found a positive relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction
(Bamundo and Kopelman 1980; Rice et al. 1980; Sekaran 1985; Burke and
McKeen 1988; Rice et al. 1992), and between family satisfaction and life
satisfaction (Campbell et al. 1976; Lee 1978; Kopelman et al.
1983; Riceetal.1992). The model of work-family conflict proposed by
Kopelman et al. (1983) was chosen as the theoretical base for this
research. This model presents a nomological network among work conflict, family
conflict, work-family conflict (which Kopelman called interrole conflict), and
job, family and life satisfaction (Ahmad, 1996).
The
conceptualization of the termed work-family conflict is a bit confusing.
Work-to-family conflict occurs when experiences at work interfere with family
life like extensive, irregular or inflexible work hours, work overload and
other forms of job stress, interpersonal conflict at work, extensive travel,
career transitions, unsupportive supervisors or organization. For example, an
unexpected meeting late in the day may prevent a parent from picking up his or
her child from school. Family to work-conflict occurs when experiences in the
family interfere with work life like presence of young children, primary
responsibility for children, elder care responsibilities, interpersonal
conflict within the family unit, unsupportive family members. For example, a
parent may take time off from work in order to take care of a sick child
(Hasnain, Ansari, Ali & Sharma, 2012). Although these two forms of conflict
i.e., work interference with family and family interference with work are
strongly correlated with each other, yet more attention has been directed at
work interference with family more than family interference with work.
Both work and family
claim time and energy, work is an important source of income, financial
security and status in the society. Family functions as a nucleus, where two
partners find intimacy, support and raise their offspring, the two were not
independent (Kanter, 1977; Hasnain et al., 2012). A home where one of the
spouse is a workaholic there will be spillover from work time to home time and
thereby will not have time to be with spouse and children which can gradually
break the home to two separate set. When there is strain on relationship due to
a partner’s workaholism, both partners can become stressed and less supportive
of one another resulting in negative behavior (Hasnain et al., 2012). In a
study enthusiastic workaholics were found to have significantly more life
satisfaction and purpose in life than non enthusiastic workaholics (Bonebright,
Cynthia, Clay, Daniel, Ankenmann & Robert, 2000). Zhao and Qu (2009) found
that work interfering with family had negative effects on job satisfaction but
not life satisfaction, whereas, family interfering with work had negative
effects on life satisfaction rather than job satisfaction. The higher the level
of work-family conflict, the lower the level of life satisfaction (Kossek &
Ozeki, 1998).
A job that appears to be
stressful to employees and have a resultant effect on their wellbeing. Milliken
and Dunn-Jensen (2005) posit that schedules and work contracts have left
workers with intensification of work and less time for private and social life
(Sparks, Faragher and Cooper, 2001). Leka, Griffiths and Cox (2004) refer to
occupational stress as “the response people may have when presented with work
demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and
which challenge their ability to cope”. It originates from organizational
aspects such as long work hours, lack of organizational support and
organizational change (Davey, Obst, & Sheehan, 2001), lack of support from
supervisors and colleagues, and conflict with demands and pressures (Leka, et
al., 2004). Occupational stress is recognized as major problems for both
employees and organizations. For employees, stress frequently contributes to
the risk of accidents, burn-out and illnesses like coronary heart disease,
hyper-tension and severe depression (Sutherland & Cooper, 1988). For
organizations, stress-related problems result in low job satisfaction, poor
quality of performance, increased absence from work and high turnover
(Motowidlo, Packard & Manning, 1986). Besides, Akinboye, Akinboye and
Adeyemo (2002) describe job stress as that detrimental emotional and physical
response that arise when job demands are inconsistent with the resources and
needs of the worker. Part of what serves as the main stimulators of
occupational stress for educational administrators occurred in the work
environment (Swent & Gmelch, 1977). In recent times, many of the most
stressful events can said to be related to the workplace: firings, changes in
financial status, altered responsibilities, variations in work hours or
conditions, etc (Mutiu, 2012).
Reaction based definitions like Akinboye
et, al. (2002) see stress as a person’s
psychological or physiological response to environmental factors, in
which stress is seen as both the stimulus (stressor) and the response (strain).
Based on this perspective, stress often happens when the demands of a
particular experience is about to exceed the resources available, thus,
resulting to change in the person's psychological and physiological condition
in order to deal with with the experience (Cooper, Dewe, and O' Driscoll,
2001). So, a stressful situation occurs when a person exert an impact on and
responds to his/her environment (Siu, 2002). Schjoedt (2009) found that job
stress fully mediates the relationship between work-family and job
satisfaction. Ahmad, Baba, & Hassan (1999) identified work-family conflict
as one of the major stressors in the work place leading to various negative
outcomes, including impaired wellbeing. Demerouti, Bakker, Schaufeli (2001)
found in a spill over research that crossover path from females’ exhaustion to
males’ exhaustion, from males’ life satisfaction to their partners’ life
satisfaction showed not only job related strain, but also positive context free
well-being may crossover among partners. A Pan-EU study (European Commission,
2006) found that when people are satisfied with their jobs, they are satisfied
with their non-work-related life and become happier. Paschali and Tsitsas
(2010) found that students who have low anxiety scores have more life
satisfaction. Several studies found that the poor health status among elderly
African-Americans is related to increased psychological distress and lower
levels of life satisfaction (Broman, 1997; Tran, Wright, & Chatters, 1991).
However, recent
observation reveals that present scenario the women folk fastly entering the
different works and jobs outside of the house- walls has broken the old myth of
men as working spouse on one hand, and on the other women doing different works
and jobs have brought them double roles to play making them burdened along with
household works. In a nut shell, the above discussions show that interference
from work to family and vice-versa has consequential relations with
occupational stress and life satisfaction which is the focus of this study.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Stress
is a problem that cannot be overlooked. Stress has negative effect on individuals
and on employee productivity in any organization (Adeoye, 2009). Consequently,
stress affects the individual), his or her family, the community and the nation
at large. Available research evidence clearly shows that dual career women
encounter stress in their attempt to fulfils home and out-of-home demands,
(Adeoye and Durosaro, 2003). Although, the stress experience is not peculiarly
limited to career married women, the latter seems to be more affected because
of their dual roles as wives and mothers on one hand, and employees on another.
The home-work interface stress therefore seems to particularly affect women. If
women are considered important in nation building even at this stage of
Nigeria’s development, then issues such as stress among career married women
should be investigated.
Observation reveals that civil service is
paraded with absenteeism, intention to quit, social loafing,
employee incongruence as report shows that 20% of the unemployed candidate
sitting for aptitude test and interview are civil servants. This is enough
evidence to note that increment in salary, incentives, promotion, recognition
and other factors built in to the models of retaining and keeping potential
workers may not be strong enough. If the organisation will not take a step
further see if worker are truly balancing work and family role and if they are
adequately fitting in the increased organizational demands and characteristics.
This fact activated the interest of this studying in investigating the
influence of work-family conflict, occupational stress and life satisfaction
among married career women in Nigerian society.
1.3
Purpose
of the Study
The
purpose of this research work is to contribute to knowledge and provide
empirical evidence on the influence of Work Family Conflict, Occupational
Stress and Life Satisfaction among married Career Women in Ado Ekiti Local
Government Area of Ekiti state. However, the study thus:
· investigate
the relationship that exists among the independent variables (work family
conflict, occupational stress and life satisfaction) among married career women
in Ado Ekiti local government area of Ekiti state?
· determine
the combined contributions of the independent variables (work family conflict,
occupational stress and life satisfaction) among married career women in Ado
Ekiti local government area of Ekiti state?
· to
investigate the relative contributions the independent variables (work family
conflict, occupational stress and life satisfaction) among married career women
in Ado Ekiti local government area of Ekiti state?
· to
observed if there is any significant difference among married career women
servants in selected universities on the basis of educational qualifications?
· to
observed if there is any significant difference among married career women
servant and the their years of experience in service?
1.4
Significance
of the Study
A clear understanding of life satisfaction determinants among
civil servants might help in the recommendation of an appropriate
psycho-educational intervention that can assist in the development and
improvement on the well being married career women among the civil servants
through policy implementation especially in Nigerian cities. This study will
further shed more light to this critical public interest by expanding views on
the influence of occupational stress and work-family conflict on their life
satisfaction via publishing of the outcome in this research.
This study is highly essential due to the fact that data collected
in this study will provide adequate scientific and technical information on the
psychosocial predictor of wellbeing among civil savants which has capacity for
learning and it may suggest how to improve and appropriate research-based
psycho-therapeutic intervention resources to generally improve the coping and
reduce the risk of a life dissatisfaction in working as a civil servants.
In addition, clinical psychologists, and personnel will benefit
from the results of this study which can inform them on how to design better
and effective training programs for civil servants. Hence, findings of this
study will contribute to knowledge in this area and expand literature. The
entire Nigerian local government communities have not been immune from the
emerging forces of stress in the country. Despite the nation’s declaration of
the importance of University education in national technological developments
and the role it plays in satisfying manpower needs, there seems to be growing
evidence that there are really no private, states or local government area that
will genuinely claim to enjoy the basic facilities and resources.
Local government council area has
traditionally been regarded as a low stress occupation among the married career
women. Although not highly paid, academics have been envied because they
enjoyed tenure, light work load, flexibility and the freedom to pursue their
own research interests (career). Local government council has enjoy so many of
these advantages that seems to have been eroded in Nigerian civil service
setting. More importantly, the present government had a lot of favour towards
the empowerment of married career women which one of the core benefits of
holding up to a profession despites its crisis and stress faced in the course
of executing such
an assignment to the nation.
1.5
Scope
of the Study
This
research work covers; the influence of work family conflict, occupational
stress and life satisfaction among married career women in Ado Ekiti Local
Government Area of Ekiti state.
1.6 Operational
Definition of Terms
The following terms are define operationally as it was
used in the study
Married
Career Women: It
referred to a recognized adult female worker who is married and highly
committed to an organization where she performs her daily duties.
Life
Satisfaction: Is defined as an overall assessment of
feelings and attitudes about one’s life at a particular point of time or it
refers to the overall cognitive judgemental aspects of subjective wellbeing and
is likely to influence to everything around us.
Occupational
Stress: Is referred to as a chronic disease caused by
conditions in the workplace that negatively affects an individual’s performance
and/or overall wellbeing of his/her body and mind. French (1974) defined
occupational stress as the characteristics of the job that pose a threat to the
individual, and occupational strain as the deviation from a normal response
that an individual would experience in any situation.
Work-family
Conflict: Is referred to as a form of inter-role conflict in
which the role demands stemming from one domain (work or family) are
incompatible with role demands stemming from another domain (family or work).
Years
of experience: Is referred to as numbers of years spent
in a specific career, occupation or job description. The norm for this is the
mean of scores and its standard deviation. It was included in the section A
part of the measuring question used in this study.
Level
of education Completed: Is referred to as the highest
qualification the participants have obtained in their area of specialization.
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