Marriage-versus-work concerns among the youth: an exploratory study in Malaysia

The study serves as a supplement to the current knowledge where sophisticated literature has shed light on the work-family conflict among married people, the youth, however, are absent from the existing research on the issue, especially under Malaysia context. The work-family conflict is not only facing the married group, but also the youth are aware of and experiencing the marriage-career conflict. Having known that Malaysia has undergone significant changes in marriage patterns over the past five decades, where the number of delayed marriage and non-marriage saw dramatic increases (Tey, 2007), the findings revealed that marriage in the eyes of the youth is no longer a must in their lives, rather they are generally pursuing better established careers. Marriage and career come along giving the youth a dilemma of making right sacrifices, and hence the demand for flexible work arrangements is strong among the youth in Malaysia. Questionnaire is the selected research instrument in this study to understand the contemporary marriage perspective and job concerns towards marriage among the Malaysian youth. There are total of 236 respondents participated in the study. The data collected by the survey were analysed using statistical application, SPSS. The paper reviews research literature on changes in marriage patterns around the world, advanced leave polices, flexible and/or alternative work arrangements and childcare supports, and highlights the implications of flexible working arrangements to employee engagement and productivity. Many industrialized countries have policies in place to support work-family reconciliation such as care-related leaves, policies that increase the quality of marital/personal life and the availability of workers for family obligations. However, such policies, which are in need to avoid the potential negative consequences of generally delayed marriage and/or sacrificing career pursuits, are still far from prevalent in Malaysia