Work-Family Conflict and Facilitation among Employees in Hong Kong

Work-family imbalance can induce negative consequences, such as poor physical and psychological well-being for individuals. Hong Kong employees commonly agree that work-family balance is important for them, but it is difficult to balance work and family lives (Mahtani, 2006). Very few studies have comprehensively explored how to eliminate the conflict, and to enhance the integration between work and family domains. This may hinder researchers and practitioners from exploring effective strategies for promoting work-family balance. The present study explored work-family conflict and enrichment among Hong Kong employees. This study examined the relationships between demands and resources in work and family lives, work-family conflict and enrichment, personal and work outcomes, and optimism and Confucian work values as moderator variables. The longitudinal mediating effects of work-family conflict and enrichment were examined, and potential cross-sectional and longitudinal moderating effects on the relationships between predictor variables and work-family conflict and enrichment were also explored. A two-wave panel design was adopted with data collection separated by a ten-month interval. Questionnaires were designed for the participants and their supervisors. 509 participants at Time 1 and 208 participants at Time 2 from three universities in Hong Kong completed self-report questionnaires, and 208 supervisors of the participants completed another questionnaire at Time 2. Predictor variables at work were significantly associated with work-family conflict and enrichment perceived in the work domain, and predictor variables in the family domain were significantly related to work-family conflict and enrichment perceived in the family domain. Work-family conflict and enrichment were significantly associated with personal and work outcomes. Mediation analyses showed that there were very few longitudinal mediating effects of work-family conflict and enrichment between predictor and criterion variables. These findings suggest that work-family conflict and enrichment might not consistently contribute mediating effects in the relationships between these predictor and criterion variables over time. Potential effects of optimism and Confucian work values have been rarely explored in previous Chinese work-family studies, and therefore this study examined the moderating effects of these two variables in relation to work-family conflict and enrichment. However, moderating analyses indicated that there were very few cross-sectional and longitudinal moderating effects of optimism and Confucian work values confirmed in this study. Overall, the findings of this research illustrate that work-family conflict and enrichment could be separately affected by demands and resources in work and family lives. Work-family conflict and enrichment could also contribute significant effects on individuals’ well-being and work productivity. The results also imply that the significance of mediation and moderation effects for work-family conflict and enrichment might be determined by personal factors (e.g. coping strategies of individuals) or organisational factors (e.g. organisational culture). The present study separately examined two directions of work-family conflict and enrichment, which extends the understanding of these topics in the Chinese context. The findings support related Western literature that perceived work-family conflict and enrichment in one domain were determined by the source in the same domain, and each direction of conflict or enrichment was associated with outcomes in the domain receiving the conflict or enrichment. These findings may extend the discussion of the relationships between potential factors and consequences of work-family conflict and enrichment for Hong Kong employees. The present study also provided additional information to understand the relationships between cultural values and work-family conflict and enrichment. The results may aid practitioners to formulate appropriate interventions, such as family-friendly employment policies and practices in enhancing work-family balance in Hong Kong