Predictors of reconciling family and work roles during a coronavirus pandemic

Doživljaj neusklađenosti zahtjeva uloga iz radne i obiteljske domene naziva se sukob radne i obiteljske uloge, dok se obogaćivanje jedne uloge drugom naziva facilitacijom uloga. Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati doprinose li sociodemografske karakteristike, dimenzije ličnosti i doživljaj pandemije izazvane koronavirusom objašnjenju sukoba i facilitacije obiteljske i radne uloge. Istraživanje je provedeno online, a u njemu je sudjelovalo 266 zaposlenih majki koje imaju najmanje jedno maloljetno dijete. Rezultati pokazuju da majke koje su visoko na neuroticizmu, koje percipiraju negativniji utjecaj pandemije na posao i obitelj, kod kojih su se u vrijeme pandemije povećale poslovne obaveze i koje pokazuju veću opću zabrinutost zbog pandemije češće doživljavaju sukob posao-obitelj. Izraženiji sukob obitelj-posao doživljavaju zaposlene majke koje rade od kuće te one koje imaju visok neuroticizam, percipiraju negativniji utjecaj pandemije na obitelj i procjenjuju da zbog pandemije imaju više obiteljskih obaveza. O većoj facilitaciji posao-obitelj izvještavaju majke koje su visoko na dimenziji otvorenosti ka iskustvu i kod kojih je došlo do smanjenja poslovnih obaveza u odnosu na razdoblje prije pandemije. Konačno, veću facilitaciju obitelj-posao doživljavaju majke koje postižu više rezultate na dimenziji ugodnosti, koje percipiraju manje negativan utjecaj pandemije na obitelj i koje pokazuju veću zabrinutost zbog pandemije. Poznavanje prediktora facilitacije i sukoba poslovne i obiteljske uloge može doprinijeti učinkovitosti organizacijskih programa namijenjenih boljem uravnoteživanju tih uloga. Rezultati ovog istraživanja pokazuju da su sukob i facilitacija ortogonalni konstrukti što znači da programi usmjereni na smanjenje sukoba nisu učinkoviti u povećanju facilitacije, za što bi se trebale osmisliti dodatne mjere.The experience of the discrepancy of work and family role requirements is called a work-family conflict, and enriching one role to another is called facilitation. The purpose of this research was to examine whether sociodemographic characteristics, personality traits, and coronavirus-induced pandemic experience contribute to the explanation of conflict and the facilitation of family and work roles. The survey was conducted online. The participants were 266 working mothers who have at least one minor child. The results showed that mothers who are highly neurotic, who perceive the pandemic to have a more negative impact on work and family, whose business responsibilities increased during the pandemic, and who show greater general concern about the pandemic are more likely to experience work-family conflict. More pronounced family-work conflict is experienced by working mothers who work from home and those who have high neuroticism, perceive a more negative impact of the pandemic on the family and estimate that because of the pandemic they have more family responsibilities. Greater workfamily facilitation is reported by mothers who are high on the dimension of openness to experience and whose business obligations have decreased compared to the period before the pandemic. Finally, greater family-work facilitation is experienced by mothers who achieve higher scores on the agreeableness, who perceive a less negative impact of the pandemic on the family, and who show greater concern about the pandemic. Knowledge of the predictors of facilitation and conflict of work and family roles can contribute to the effectiveness of organizational programs designed to better balance those roles. The results of this study showed that conflict and facilitation are orthogonal constructs, which means that programs aimed at reducing conflict are not effective in increasing facilitation, for which additional measures should be devised