Work-family conflict, family-work conflict, work tension, burnout and turnover intention relationships at a construction company in Southern Gauteng
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Date
2022-11
Authors
Ncube, Bekezela
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Vaal University of Technology
Abstract
Work-life balance is a contemporary topic of interest worldwide, particularly in the construction sector, which is characterised by excessive workloads, long and irregular work hours, including tight projects deadlines. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), work tension (WT), burnout and turnover intention among construction employees at a construction company in southern Gauteng. This study supports the view that work and family roles interfere with one another, in the sense that excessive participation in one role hinders effective participation in another. This will result in employees experiencing work tension which will trigger burnout, and consequently stimulates turnover intention. It is, therefore, crucial for employees to balance their work/family roles for them to remain productive in both domains. The study was underpinned by the spill-over theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory.
This study utilised a descriptive research design and a quantitative research approach. A convenience sampling method was considered suitable in this study and a sample size was 285 (n=285) while the target population was 2000 (N=2000). Out of four hundred structured questionnaires distributed, two hundred and eighty-five (285) were completed and retrieved, yielding the response rate of 71.25%. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 28.0 and the Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) 28.0 were used to analyse data. The descriptive statistics of the constructs were executed using means, frequencies, and standard deviations.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to calculate factor loadings to determine the correlation coefficients between variables and to check the fitness of the data to the model. A combination of absolute fit indices (GFI, Chi-square test, RMSEA, CMIN/DF & RMR), and relative fit indices (NFI, TLI & CFI) were used and the CFA results confirmed that all the values of measurement and structural models were within the acceptable threshold, confirming the acceptable fit of data to the model.
The results of correlation analysis revealed that there was a significant strong positive relationship between WFC and FWC, WFC and WT, FWC and WT, WT and burnout, WFC and turnover intention, FWC and turnover intention, and WT and turnover intention. A moderate positive correlation was confirmed between WFC and burnout, FWC and burnout, burnout and turnover intention.
Path analysis was used to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between the constructs in the conceptual model. The results revealed that there was a significant predictive relationship between WFC and WT, FWC and WT, WFC and burnout, FWC and burnout, WFC and turnover intention, FWC and turnover intention, burnout and turnover intention.
The normal distribution of data was assessed using measures of skewness and kurtosis and the outcome indicated that data was normally distributed. In the main study, Cronbach alpha and composite reliability were used to confirm reliability of the measuring instrument and the values were all above the recommended threshold. On the other hand, validity tests were ascertained through face validity, content validity, construct validity, convergent validity, predictive validity and discriminant validity.
The overall mean score of all the variables indicated that construction employees agreed that they experienced WFC, FWC, WT, and had feelings of burnout accompanied with intentions to leave the construction company. In view of the findings, recommendations were proposed for managers of construction companies to devise strategies that could assist employees to balance their work and family roles to enhance their productive worth, and reduce burnout, work tension and turnover intentions. Other recommendations included the implementation of periodic breaks between projects, equal distribution of workload, assigning employees to projects close to their home location, offering counselling sessions to employees and job control or autonomy.
Description
M. Tech. (Department of Human Resource Management, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology.
Keywords
Work-family conflict, Family-work conflict, Work tension, Burnout, Turnover intention, Construction workers