Occupation stress and work-family conflict: A study in ABC Clothing (Pvt) Limited, Sri Lanka

Abstract

In this modern work framework, numerous employees confront work-family conflict challenges. Work-family conflict is a circumstance where an individual faces incompatible demands from work roles and family roles. These days, employees spend more time on work and engage more in job responsibilities than family which leads to work-family conflict. One of the main reasons which emerge from work-family conflict is due to occupational stress. Increasing occupational stress contributes to lower productivity, industrial accidents, higher absenteeism, employee turnover, physical and mental health problems, and family problem. ABC Clothing (Pvt) Ltd is one of the leading apparel manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka that export clothing to the United States and Europe countries. Discussion with the Human resource manager found a high turnover rate and decrease in overall production when compared to the previous few years. As per the opinion of the counselor; long hours, work pressure, and workload as the main reasons which lead to stress among the staff. She also addressed the issue of domestic violence among employees as an effect of occupational stress. In addition, most of the workforce does not reside close to the workplace. As a result, they live in boarding houses or travel long hours which also became a reason for work-family conflict. Therefore, this study attempts to examine married employees’ perspectives on occupational stress and work-family conflict. The purpose of the study is to determine the stressors and their impact on work-family conflict among married employees of ABC Clothing (Pvt) Limited, Dickwella, Sri Lanka. Questionnaires were distributed among 75 married employees to gather primary data. The researcher considered work-family conflict as a dependent variable which was measured using 8 items. Job demand, job appreciation, and role ambiguity were considered as dimensions of occupational stress. Each dimension was measured using 3 indicators; working hours, workload, and work pressure; financial benefits, non-financial reward, and recognition; job description, task instruction, and work expectation. Based on the analysis, 67% of respondents were women, and 33% were men. According to descriptive statistics, all job demand indicators show high mean values of 4.53, 4.23, and 4.21. It also found that employees are dissatisfied with job appreciation factors. Based on the multiple regression model, it revealed that, except for the job description, all the components of job stress are significant at the 0.05 level. It validates that a 1point increase in long working hours, workload, work pressure, poor financial benefits, poor non-financial reward, lack of recognition, lack of clarity in the job description, unclear task instruction, and work expectation leads to an increase in work-family conflict by 5.063, 3.078, 4.082, 1.432, .609, .362, .148, .073, and 3.685. Therefore, the organization needs to pay closer attention to working hours, workload, work pressure, and work expectations issues. It suggests that job duties and tasks should be clearly defined and should be made clear to the employees. Supervisors should provide clear instructions and guidelines on work expectations from employees.