Influence strategies used during work and family decisions : their connection to decision and marital satisfaction

Graduation date: 1991Changes in work and family roles as more women are\ud entering the work force prompt a re-examination of how\ud couples make work and family decisions. Research confirms\ud that influence is an important component of the decision-making\ud process. Because of the recent changes in women's\ud paid work roles, women may now use more influence strategies\ud than when they were not in the paid work force in such large\ud numbers. From a family decision-making perspective,\ud investigations of the different influence strategies used in\ud making work and family decisions have not occurred in past\ud research. The purpose of this study was to investigate how\ud couples make work and family decisions, examining the impact\ud of gender role traditionality and influence strategies used\ud in decision making. In addition, the association between\ud influence strategies with marital satisfaction was\ud investigated.\ud The sample of this study consisted of 61 couples who\ud had made a work and family decision in the past 6 months. A\ud mail questionnaire was developed assessing the husbands' and\ud wives' use of different influence strategies from Spiro\ud (1983), their gender role traditionality, their satisfaction\ud of the outcome of the decision, and marital satisfaction.\ud The first research question addressed gender role\ud traditionality and influence strategies. Pearson's\ud correlations indicate that traditional wives were more\ud likely to use reward\referent influence than nontraditional\ud wives and that traditional husbands were more likely to use\ud legitimate influence than nontraditional husbands. Also,\ud the connection between gender role traditionality, influence\ud strategies, and decision making satisfaction was\ud investigated. Using hierarchial regression, decision\ud outcome satisfaction accounted for 24 percent of the\ud variance in wives' marital satisfaction. Furthermore,\ud prediction of wives' marital satisfaction was improved 16\ud percent with the inclusion of influence strategies and\ud gender role ideology to the model. Results for wives found\ud their marital satisfaction to be greater if they used less\ud emotional and legitimate influence but more reward\referent\ud and impression management influences.\ud A similar model was attempted on husband's marital\ud satisfaction with decision making satisfaction, influence\ud strategies, and gender role traditionality. This model\ud accounted for 8 percent of the variance.\ud These findings suggest that a relationship exists\ud between gender role traditionality and the use of different\ud influence strategies for both husbands and wives. For\ud wives, decision making satisfaction, the use of different\ud influence strategies, and gender role ideology all had an\ud effect on their marital satisfaction