Dimensionality Of Work (family) Conflict Balance And Employee Commitment In Nigeria

Dimensionality of Work (Family) Conflict Balance and Employee Commitment in Nigeria

John N. N. Ugoani, PhD

Co-ordinator, Senior Lecturer, College of Management and Social Sciences,

Rhema University, 153-155 Aba Owerri Road, Aba

Abia State, Nigeria

Email: [anonimizat]

Home Page: http://ssrn.com/author=1941185

Phone: 08036066338

Abstract:

The study was designed to explore the magnitude and dimensional direction of the relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment. Work (family) conflict balance relate to the processes to mediate over the tensions, challenges and struggles employees may perceive or feel related to their role expectations, duties or requirements, and behaviours in, for and between each role in both domains. A practical reason for the need of balance between the role behaviour in both domains is that employers who do not foster a more balanced work-family life for employees contribute to stress and tension in employees’ personal lives, which affect their ability to concentrate, their loyalty and commitment. The balancing act between work (family) conflict is not an elusive and unattainable goal, rather it requires social, psychological and emotional knowledge of the needs of the employees to promote their commitment. Finding this balance appears to be difficult and requires successful management of conflicting demands and employees’ degree of satisfaction with the decisions to lead to balance. The sample comprised of 483 participants generated from the general population in Nigeria. A questionnaire adapted from the original measure of work-family conflict by Carlson and his colleagues was used to generate data. Data were analyzed by descriptive and Chi-Square statistical techniques. The results showed strong dimension of positive relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment.

Keywords: Work (family) conflict balance, Employee commitment, elusive and unattainable goal, Psychological wellbeing, Social and economic needs.

1. INTRODUCTION

Conceptually, conflict between work and family is bidirectional. Most researchers make the distinction between what is termed work (family) conflict, and family (work) conflict. According Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) work (family) conflict occurs when experiences at work interfere with family life like problems with a difficult boss, coworkers and or subordinates, sudden trips on official engagements as well as working for long hours into the night. Other sources of conflict would include career transitions and inadequate pay to meet family needs. Family (work) conflict occurs when experiences in the family domain interfere with work life, such as problems of coping with the demands of a large family, including responsibility for young children, dependents, interpersonal problems within the family unit, inability to meet social and cultural traditions, as well as the ever present cat and rat husband and wife relationships. For example, a parent may take time off work to attend to a sick child or to settle a serious family quarrel to avoid it escalating into such extreme cases like murder (Sunday 2016). Although these two forms of conflict – work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW) are strongly correlated to each other, more attention has often been directed at WIF more than FIW. This may be because work demands are easier to quantify, that is to say that the boundaries and responsibilities of the family role is more elastic than the boundaries and responsibilities of the work role. Also, there is research evidence that work roles are more likely to interfere with family roles than the family roles are likely to interfere with work roles (Kinnumen and Mauno, 1998, Ugoani & Ewuzie, 2012, Ugoani, 2015b). Behaviour is often influenced by individuals’ values, and to some extent the degree of harmony or conflict between them and others. Kreitner and Kinicki (2004) posit that lack of family value similarity causes work (family) conflict, and that on the other hand, value congruence involves the amount of value agreement between employee and employer. They insist that lack of value agreement is a major cause of work (family) conflict because an employee’s choice to stay back at home for a family activity may be viewed as disloyalty to the employer. With increasing evidence that conflict between a person’s personal life and work life affects the performance of work and overall quality of life, it would appear that an understanding of the influence of personality traits on behaviour is imperative in attempts to achieve work (family) conflict balance. Hammer and Thompson (2003) posit that work (family) conflict is primarily caused by work-related stressors and characteristics and that it predicts family-related affective and behavioural outcomes, while family (work) conflict is caused by family-related stressors and characteristics and predicts work-related outcomes. Consequently, this has become an important area of research, as more employees continue to struggle with how to cope with multiple roles, employers are also struggling with how to sustain employee commitment (Perrewe and Hochwarter, 2001, Frone, 2000, Heymann, 2003, 2005a, 2005b, Glynn, et al, 2002, Huffman, et al, 2003, Janmanu, 2002, Kossek and Ozeki, 1999, Lenaghan, et al, 2007, Madsen, 2005, Perry-Smith, and Blum, 2000) Barnett (2002) posits that the nature of the interface between the workplace and the family is the keystone of the work (family) construct, and that the interface can vary from positive to negative. He insists that, usually the term work (family) conflict connotes the conflict that arises when an employee tries to fulfill the responsibilities of roles in both domains. Also, work (family) conflict (WFC) has been disaggregated into two components: work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) (Gutek, et al, 1991). With dual-earner couples now the majority in many parts of the globe, men and women are constantly trying to balance the demands of their own and managing their family responsibilities. Barneth (2002) hypothesizes that globalization, the 24/7 economy, downsizings, job insecurity, and the lengthening work week, especially among highly educated workers, all increase the likelihood of work (family) conflict. According to Madsen (2005) the term work (family) conflict includes the tensions, challenges, and struggles individuals may perceive or feel related to their expectations, duties or requirements, and behaviours in, for, and between each role. Madsen (2005) posits that understanding the phenomena of work (family) conflict would involve the design and development of support systems and programmes related to health and other potentially related constructs such as organizational commitment. Since the employee should be in harmony with nature and society so as to be committed in the job, balancing work (family) conflict involves some dimensions of social exploration and engagement, such as first and foremost, retaining healthy and happy employees, health and happiness are mutually related and they have a positive correlation with performance and employee commitment. Other important work (family) conflict balance strategies relate to providing reasonable amount of time off during working hours for urgent family reasons when employers are informed of the intention to take leave, to provide assistance when a dependent is ill, gives birth or is injured, to make arrangements for the provision of care for a dependent who is ill, among others (Torrington, et al, 2005). There is increasing level of acceptance that choice, control and flexibility are important in work and family balance, that personal fulfillment is necessary outside work, and further that satisfaction outside work may enhance employee commitment to work (Kadz, et al, 2002). Work (family) conflict balance practices have been shown in many instances to reduce absenteeism, raise employee morale and increase levels of satisfaction. To thrive, work (family) conflict balance needs a supportive organizational culture that has sympathetic values and practices as its core. (McCartney, 2003). Many studies in the area of work (family) conflict suggest that it is significantly related to lower levels of organizational commitment and related health problems. Madsen (2005) suggests that employees who are better able to balance the demands of both work and family are able to feel more loyal and committed to work (Rana, 2002a, Rana 2002b, Felstead, et al, 2003, Hogarth, et al, 2001, Fu & Shaffer, 2001, Agulanna & Agulanna, 2008, Akpan, 2005, Obi, 2015, Jayeoba, 2006).

1.1 Statement of the problem

Employers in Nigeria need to understand the constant challenge employees face daily in trying to balance work and family conflict. Such understanding will place them in a better stead to recognize the variables associated with the effective management of work (family) conflict as a prelude to recruiting, retaining and obtaining the commitment of employees. For most employees in Nigeria today, it is a daily struggle to attempt to balance the commitments of work and family life. This has become a serious problem among Nigerian employees who are mostly angry because of poor conditions of work and epileptic payment of salaries and benefits that has pauperized many families and thrown them into involuntary poverty. Those with anger problems bring grief not only to themselves but also to everyone around them. For someone with anger issues, like non-payment of salaries, poor relationship with a boss, or relatives at home, even seemingly trivial matters can spark conflicts that bring about negative consequences (Olayinka, 2016). The causes of anger are complex, and in a complex world, anger might lie at the heart of work (family) conflict. For example, an employee who has not been paid salaries for months like in Nigeria, will be unable to meet basic family needs, will be unable to concentrate at work and ultimately will feel a profound sense of anger and poverty. Poverty is associated with hunger, and a hungry person is often an angry person. Poor and hungry people believe that poverty primarily means not getting enough to eat, not being able to purchase clothes, an inability to continue traditions that are important to them, and a feeling of defenselessness, hopelessness, fear, ignorance, and humiliation. Traditionally, it is predicted that work (family) conflict is bidirectional. In other words, work (family) conflict can cause as well as be caused by family (work) conflict and vice-versa. Previous research asserts that work (family) conflict is a predictor of employees’ wellbeing as well as a mediator between work and family roles and individual wellbeing. A balance between work (family) conflicts is a necessity for employee commitment because work (family) conflict has been shown to lead to psychological depression, physical ailment, lower life satisfaction, lower energy levels, absenteeism and lower family life satisfaction as well as personal commitment. Because of the limitedness of time and acute scarcity of economic resources, employees often engage in multiple roles. And opposing pressures arise from engaging in multiple roles and these pressures can be incompatible by requiring different roles to compete for a person’s limited time (Boles, et al, 2001, Ugoani, 2013c, 2013d, 2015a) Gutek, et al (1991) posit that work (family) conflict stems from the interference of events in the work role with an individual’s ability to perform effectively in the family role. Also family (work) conflict stems from interference of events or responsibilities in the family role with an employee’s ability to perform his or her work effectively. Even though there is huge report linking work (family) conflict with factors like absenteeism, organizational change, among others, there is little report on the magnitude and dimension of relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment. This is the point of departure to explore the dimensionality of work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment in Nigeria (Baruch, & Barnett, 1987, Batt, & Valcour, 2003, Burley, 1989, Burke, 1989, Goff, et at, 1990, Hammer & Thompson, 2003, Heymann, 2005a, 2005b, 2003, Kossek & Ozeki, 1999, Galinsky, et al, 1996, Earle, et al, 2005, Ugoani, and Ewuzie, 2013).

1.2 Objective of the study

The study was designed to explore the magnitude and dimension of relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment in Nigeria.

1.3 Significance of the study

The study will help to provide insights into the value of work (family) conflict balance in organizations through greater employee commitment.

1.4 Delimitation of the study

The study was delimited to South-East Nigeria, which is composed of 5 states out of the 36 states in Nigeria and it was assumed that the opinion of the people in the South-East would be a good representation of the opinion of the people in Nigeria (Ezejelue, et al, 2008).

1.5 Limitations of the study

The study was constrained by lack of research grant and current literature in the area under study. However, these limitations did not negatively affect the academic focus of the study.

1.6 Hypotheses

To achieve the objective of the study, two hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance:

Ho: There is no relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment in Nigeria.

Hi: There is a relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment in Nigeria.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Enhancing employee performance continues to receive great attention from managers and researchers. For example, Thompson, et al (1999) posit that organizations that do not foster a more balanced work-family life for employees contribute to stress and tensions in employees’ personal lives, which affect their ability to concentrate and be committed to the job. Netameyer, et al (1996) posits that work (family) conflict is negatively related to job performance. Other researchers like Burley (1989) believes that greater work (family) conflict is linked to reduced concentration and attention on the job, relates to absenteeism, tardiness, low job commitment, among others. Kinnumen and Mauno (1998) find a relationship between increased work (family) conflict and increased physical symptoms or somatic complaints. Madsen (2005) posits that mental health and physical health were positively related to organizational commitment (r = .23; r = .21). In addition, work (family) conflict also relates to loyalty (r =.11), however, family (work) conflict was not. The study suggests that when employees are feeling high demands for their time and energy, at work, the role conflict theory proposes that the employee would then need to make sacrifices in other roles because other roles increase stress and strain, thus increasing their work (family) conflict. In this regard social support and good leadership relationships can provide necessary relief for the employee in agreement with the argument that when employees have opportunities to develop healthy relationships with employers’ their work (family) conflict levels may decrease. Lower levels of work (family) conflict have been found to be related to perceptions of good management and leadership relationships and strong social relationships. Madsen (2005) provides evidence that a relationship between work (family) conflict and family (work) conflict is positively related to employee readiness for organizational change. Thus, it may be that employees have more emotional and physical energy as well as time to participate in more roles if they are not struggling with conflicts between the work and non-work family domains (Anderson, 2002). Employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction is an important element of work (family) conflict balance. A recent Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) report believes that employees’ job satisfaction dropped to its lowest level in the last two years. It suggests that employers need to think of more holistic way, rather than traditional, hierarchical progression, and instead give employees opportunities for a breadth of diverse experiences and opportunities that maximize their interests and employability (Ebosele, 2016, Francis, 2015, Veenhoven, 1995).

2.1 Work (Family) Conflict Interrelationships.

The relationships between work and family and family and work have generated huge interdisciplinary interest in recent studies. Employees generally feel happy at work and home when issues concerning them are given prompt attention and this in turn tends to reduce tensions and provides them with the motivation to have a sense of belonging and feel committed at work. Work and family in their interface to provide for the wellbeing of the individual and organizational survival frequently lead to work (family) conflict. A simple way of balancing work (family) conflict continues to prove stubborn because the participation of the individual in one domain results to neglect in participation in the competing domain and this neglect results to conflict. In a communally held environment like Nigeria, an employee who may be a father or mother is basically expected to participate in multiple roles like going to work in time, finding time to attend to young children at school, taking care of dependents at home and elsewhere among other work-related and social-related engagements. Because of the limitedness of time available to an individual and the fact that human energy is equally naturally limited, human beings, irrespective of gender, race, age, and social status continue to face work (family) conflict almost always on a daily basis. Other factors responsible for the perpetuation of work (family) conflict in Nigeria are related to environmental, psychological and emotional issues. In a place where the working conditions are not conducive, for example, there is no defined work structure for the employees, salaries are not regular, career path is in jeopardy, employees may get confused, become unable to perform as expected by the employer, become psychologically worried due to inability to meet family needs due to lack of money, and consequently emotionally devastated. A scenario like this is closely linked to work (family) conflict and ultimately associated with decreased performance, weak physique and mental health, day dreaming, and less commitment. For the employee to exist he or she is involved in participation in multiple roles. Work (family) conflict is a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressure from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in most respects, in which case, participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Conflict between work and family is critical for employers and employees, because it is associated with negative consequences on both sides of the divide. For reasons such as this, the issue of balancing the equation between work (family) conflicts has become a matter of interesting debate in the literature and it is believed that successful management of WFC depends to a great extent on personality trait.

2.2 Personality Traits

Carlson and Perrewe (1999) suggest that personality issues are critical to work-(family) conflict balance. They posit that personality variables such as those of the “Big Five” provide further insight into the underpinnings of work (family) conflict. This implies that issues in work (family) involve an individual’s trait which can cross gender, race, ethnicity and age. Consequently, male and female employees are confronted with conflicts between work and family, but men who believe they have a heavy work load are more likely to leave their jobs than their female counterparts. These researchers posit that men have significantly higher levels of work (family) conflict than women. And men, more than women believe that long working hours are detrimental to their personal time, and too time consuming, and greater numbers would consider leaving their jobs, in comparison to women. A partial explanation is that the two sexes have traditionally played different roles. Women are traditionally committed to roles that support the family, and although they may be expending a lot of time at work, they can still find the energy for family responsibilities. Men on the other hand, are more accustomed to the role of breadwinner and may find it difficult to adjust to increased demands of taking care of young children at home. The workforce is changing in increasing magnitude with men assuming more family responsibilities while women are taking a more active role in the workplace. In this day and age, the boundaries between work and family are less defined. With cell phones and the internet, and emails, employees are expected to respond to work and family demands even when they are physically some places else. Insightful employers believe that employees facing serious work (family) conflict are likely to leave their jobs if the work demands interfere too much with their family responsibilities. Personality traits provide a clear, straight forward explanation of people’s behavioural consistencies and if understood would lead to reduction in work (family) conflict. Based on the Allportian (1966) personality trait theory, Feldman (2007) posits that there are three basic categories of traits: cardinal, central and secondary. He suggests that a cardinal trait is a single characteristic that directs most of a person’s activities; and that central traits such as honesty and sociability are the major characteristics of an individual. Also, secondary traits are characteristics that affect a person’s behaviour in fewer situations and one less influential than central and cardinal traits. With the implication of personality traits on behaviour, understanding their forces is critical in attempts to mediate over the conflict between personal life and work (family) life and ultimately achieve work (family) conflict balance. Employers now seek to take personality traits and demographic factors into consideration as a way of gaining employee commitment, and keeping employees productive and happy by providing social support (Carlson and Perrewe, 1999, Saeed, et al, 2013).

2.3 Social Support

According to Huffman, et al (2003) organizations are working to provide a healthy balance between work and employees personal lives. They state that one national study found that 70 percent of workers were not satisfied with their work (family) balance, and half of those people were considering looking for new jobs because of problems of coping with both personal life and work. According to Major (2007) long hours at work increase work (family) conflict and this conflict in turn leads to other stress-related health problems. These problems bring about psychological and emotional pressures that must be addressed to sustain employee commitment. Social and emotional supports are important in work (family) conflict balance thesis because it is in agreement with the enhancement hypothesis which proposes that an individual’s supply of energy is abundant and expandable. In which case, such support will make room for multiple roles to be accommodated. Multiple roles may be life enhancing in that they provide additional sources of social support, like increased skills, and heightened self-esteem and personal well-being. For example, Baruch and Barnett (1987) state that women who had multiple life roles like: mother, wife, and employee, were less depressed and had higher self-esteem than women and men who had fewer-life roles. They posit that it is the quality of roles that is important. That is, the greater the quality of a person’s multiple roles like having an interesting, challenging job and a happy family life, the greater their self-esteem, which may have a positive effect on employee commitment (Chapman, et al, 1994, Biernat, 1997, Vlastos, 1999, Veenhoven, 1995, Tompson & Werner, 1997, Thomas & Ganster, 1995) Kahn et al (1964) in Hammer and Thompson (2003) posit that roles are the result of expectations of others about appropriate behaviour in a particular position. Role conflict is then described as the psychological tension that is aroused by conflicting role pressures.

3. METHOD

3.1 Participants

The sample comprised of 483 participants, 210 female and 273 males ranging in age from 18 to 70, (M = 44 years; SD = 26 years). The participants were generated from the general population in South-East, Nigeria.

3.2 Materials

A 5-point Likert-type scale adapted from an 18-Item multidimensional measure of work (family) conflict constructed and validated by Carlson et al (2000) was used to generate data. Reliability was previously established with Cronbach’s of .87.

3.3 Procedure

The questionnaire copies were personally administered on the respondents by the investigator and other two research assistants. Respondents were simultaneously subjected to oral interviews so as to supplement, complement, and validate data through each other. All the materials administered were returned and the responses found useful for analysis.

3.4 Data Analysis

Data were analyzed through descriptive and Chi-Square statistical methods, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for the X2 analysis. The X2 statistics is amenable to a wide spectrum of data especially those used on the nominal, ordinal, internal, or ratio scales which are tallied as individual responses (Nworuh, 2004). The results were presented in tables.

4. PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

Table 1: A values model of work/family conflict

Source: Kreitner and Kinicki (2004)

Table 1 was used to demonstrate the claims in WFC literature that WFC can take two distinct dimensions; that is: WIF and FIW (Perrewe and Hochwarter, 2001).

Table 2: Modified Personality Trait Model

Source: Ugoani 2016: Adapted from All Port (1966)

Personality traits can explain behavior which may influence WFC balance. Table 2 was based on the Allportian theory which suggests that trait approaches have several virtues. They provide a clear, straightforward explanation of people’s behavioural consistencies. Furthermore, traits allow people to readily compare one person with another (Funder, 1991). Such comparison will facilitate successful management of WFC and lead to desirable balance.

Npar Tests

[DataSet0]

Table 3: Test Frequencies

Table 4: Test Statistics

0 cells (.0%) have expected frequencies less than 5. The minimum expected cell frequency is 96.6.

4.2 Discussion

From the test statistics it was observed that the Chi-Square value of approximately 142 was significantly greater than the table value of approximately 9, at 0.05 level of significance and with 4 degrees of freedom. With this empirical result, it technically means that there is strong positive relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment. The result further demonstrates that work (family) conflict balance is not an elusive goal but requires successful management of conflicting demands and one’s level of satisfaction with the decisions that lead to balance. The result supports the views of Thompson and Werner (1997) that it is possible that employees whose work and family demands are balanced are more loyal and committed to their organizations. They posit that such organizations may be helping employees through work design, flexibility, and other work (family) initiatives or programmes which may be assisting employees to better balance their role responsibilities. This is correct because employees often do feel more committed to a company that appears to be committed to and concerned about them. According to Cook and Wall (1980) this commitment stems from employees’ loyalty to the company, their perceived involvement in the organization, and the level of organizational identification they feel. Carlson and Perrewe (1999) substantiate the premise that supportive environments help reduce an employee’s stress and strain and that perceptions of good management and leadership relationships and strong social relationships increase the reduction of work (family) conflict and enhance employee commitment. Thomas and Ganster provide support for the argument that when employees have opportunities to develop healthy and open relationships with management, their work (family) conflict levels decrease. Basically, when employees feel good, they are more loyal, involved, and committed to their organizations (Aryee, et al, 1999, Snow, et al, 2003). The present study builds on past work (family) conflict literature which is based on the boundaries between the two domains as being permeable such that work can influence family and family can influence work and to this extent, employees will obviously find themselves far away from the balance they originally sought; with one of the roles invariably ending up on the losing end. And to appreciate the basis of work (family) conflict, the variables influencing the two domains must be well understood. Previous researchers posit that time is not the major enemy of work (family) conflict balance; rather, it is the level of psychological interference of work into the family domain and of family concerns into the work place (Higgins, et al, 1992). This position suggests that other means outside time factor must be explored to find a reasonable balance between work and family roles. Such other means might include enhanced social welfare benefits and, social, psychological and emotional enhancement behaviours. Because wellness involves a whole person perspective, it follows that a lack of health or psychological wellbeing in one area of a person’s life affects other aspects that may be negatively be correlated to commitment. Balancing work (family) conflict is closely linked to employee welfare and motivation that may generate employee commitment. Employees should be given consideration as human beings, and not economic tools, especially when it is born in mind that much of their personal problems arise in the context of work and can be best death within that perspective. In Nigeria, many of employees’ worries and resulting stress arise from work and their concerns about security, money, health and relationships with others. They also bring their personal or family problems to work, such as settling quarrels between husband and wife, as is more frequent among the lower cadre employees. Sometimes employees require time off to deal with sick children, or advice on how to solve their problems and therefore minimize interference with work. A practical social reason for employee welfare is that it helps to speed up the return of an employee to work despite some family problems. This is important for employee commitment because employees spend at least half of their waking time at work, or in getting to work, or leaving work. They have personal needs, hopes and anxieties, they bring themselves to work not just their hands, and they cannot readily leave their troubles at home. According to Armstrong (2004) increases in morale or loyalty may not result in commensurate increases in productivity, but undue anxiety can result in reduced effectiveness. He opines that welfare support on the other hand may not directly increase productivity, but it may increase commitment and help in the retention of key employees in the organization. Many organizational leaders fail to obtain employee commitment due to lack of motivational leadership skills embedded in the science of emotional intelligence. Previous studies state that emotional intelligence, a dispositional variable, has been found to interact with work (family) conflict to predict reasonable personal psychological well-being necessary for employee commitment (Ugoani, 2015c) Goleman (1995, 1998) posits that social awareness skill which involves the understanding of others’ feelings, needs and concerns, which stems from the awareness of one’s own feelings, are essential for obtaining superior performance. Social awareness competencies of emotional intelligence determine how you relate to others specifically, an individual’s ability to sense other people’s feelings and read the mood of a group, to inspire and build relationships, to work in teams, to listen and communicate, as sensitivity to others is critical. Empathy is the ability to sense others feelings and perspectives, and involves anticipating, recognizing and meeting employees needs and even exceeding their reasonable expectations. The social awareness skill of emotional intelligence teaches that understanding employees needs and concerns, and providing the necessary available social, psychological and emotional support is imperative for employee commitment. This may be a paradigm shift toward balancing work (family) conflict and invariably achieving employee commitment in Nigeria.

4.3 Contributions

The present study offers fresh perspectives to business, management, human resource management and organizational behaviour literature on the topical issue of work (family) conflict balance. In the first place, it provides support for most of the previous studies and presents new insights for review in the areas of work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment. Secondly, it provides ready support for greater relationships in the areas of welfare for employees as key to enhancing employee commitment which may offer additional support for work (family) conflict balance. In the third place, this study instead of believing that work (family) conflict balance is an elusive and unattainable goal, suggests that it is rather a manageable phenomenon that can be achieved through other means such as motivational leadership style; reflected in the science of emotional intelligence. Finally, the study brings into focus a new paradigm shift in human resource management, such that would pay close attention to the social, psychological and emotional perspectives of employees as means and ways of capturing their commitment.

4.4 Scope for further study

Further research could examine the relationship between work (family) conflict and employee psychological well-being. This may help to suggest new ways to improve performance.

5. CONCLUSION

A substantial quantum of work (family) conflict issues are related to human resource management, which involves managing the employment relationship, and dealing with problems that often arise because of the interface between work and family. This has to do with managing time, and various employment policies and procedures and approaches needed to ensure that both employees and employers feel that their needs are being satisfied. Often, some of these policies are not well managed, to the extent that rather than leading to employee satisfaction and commitment, lead to conflict between work and family as a result of negative perception of the employees by employers and vice-versa. Significant literature provides evidence that time factor among others, is not the major enemy of work (family) conflict balance, and also suggests that a balance between the two domains is not elusive and unattainable. There is reasonable theoretical evidence to show that enhanced social supports are among factors that help in providing work (family) conflict balance. The study provides a new paradigm shift in understanding and balancing work (family) conflict and employee commitment. Through statistical analysis, the study found a strong dimension of positive relationship between work (family) conflict balance and employee commitment. The result also supports the findings of Higgins, et al (1992) Galinsky, et al, 1996, Fu, and Shaffer, among others, that balancing work (family) conflict is positively correlated with employee commitment. This is the interest of this study.

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Biography