Anticipation of work–life conflict in higher education
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-06-2019-0237 |
| Pages | 777-797 |
| Published date | 02 March 2020 |
| Date | 02 March 2020 |
| Author | Susana Pasamar,Karen Johnston,Jagriti Tanwar |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
Anticipation of work–life conflict
in higher education
Susana Pasamar
Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Sevilla, Spain
Karen Johnston
University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth Business School, Portsmouth, UK, and
Jagriti Tanwar
Centre for Time-Use Research, IOE-University College, Bloomsbury, London
Abstract
Purpose –This paper aims to further the understanding about the relationship between work–life conflict and
possible barriers to career progression due to the perception of anticipated work–life conflict, considering the
unbounded nature of academic work through features such as its intensity, flexibility and perception of
organizational support.
Design/methodology/approach –The model was tested using survey data from academics in a public
university in the south of Spain. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings –The results reveal that current work–life conflict, job intensity and perception of support have a
direct effect on the anticipation of work–life conflict in the event of progression in academic careers. The
flexibility that academicsenjoy is not sufficient to prevent the expected conflict. Academics’age is relevant, but
gender or having childcare responsibilities have no significant effect of the anticipation of conflict.
Research limitations/implications –This study addresses the gap in the literature on anticipated work–
life conflict, expanding the focus to nonfamily commitments in unbounded jobs such as academic posts. The
authors are not aware of any other study that focuses on the anticipation of work–life conflict in the case of
career advancement among current employees with professional experience or accurate knowledge of what job
they will be doing instead of students. Work–life balance should not be restricted to women with caring
responsibilities, as conflict is no longer only related to gender roles.
Originality/value –This paper not only explores existing work–life conflict but also empirically analyzes
anticipated work–life conflict in unbounded careers such as academia. It represents a significant contribution
in an underresearched field and may lead to future research in other settings.
Keywords Work–life conflict, Anticipated work–life conflict, Organizational support, Flexibility, Intensity,
Gender
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Current demographic, technological and environmental changes, together with shifting
personal expectations and aspirations, have raised concerns about work–life balance (WLB)
among academic and governmental institutions and business leaders (Pasamar and Valle,
2015;Boral and Bhargava, 2010). The demand for WLB solutions is expanding at an
increasing rate and is one of the issues that executives and Human Resource (HR)
professionals will be expected to manage in the coming years (Pasamar, 2015;Bird, 2006).
Although nonacademics may generally assume that higher education offers the perfect
context to combine work and nonwork commitments, the reality for academics juggling their
university and family responsibilities is that the flexible academic schedule may be no more
than an illusion (Comer and Sites-Doe, 2006). Academics may encounter a range of barriers to
success in their careers, such as finding the right work–life balance or the gender structure of
academia (Santos, 2015). The very nature of academic work is unbounded and often involves
long working hours and work–life conflict (WLC) (Hogan et al., 2014). Initial research in this
area focused on a form of interrole conflict in which the pressures of family and work roles
were mutually incompatible (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985), but later studies point to the
Work–life
conflict in
higher
education
777
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 5 June 2019
Revised 5 November 2019
27 January 2020
Accepted 27 January 2020
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 42 No. 3, 2020
pp. 777-797
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-06-2019-0237
importance of incorporating situations other than family commitments (Kalliath and Brough,
2008). Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to WLC in higher education; the few studies
in this area have mainly analyzed the phenomenon from a qualitative perspective and call for
more research (Santos, 2015;V
azquez-Cupeiro and Elnston, 2006).
The past few decades have seen a changing working environment with an increase in
female participation in the labor market and the feminization of organizations. Despite these
shifts, however, little research has explored these changing working environments and
patterns from the perspective of their impact on employees’WLB and career aspirations
(Murphy and Dorothy, 2011). Women remain underrepresented in the professions in
leadership and managerial positions. The standard academic career model is understood to
be based on in-built patriarchal support systems that benefit men over women (Bagilhole and
White, 2013); workplace assumptions about diversity and life course explain the scarcity of
women at senior levels in academia (Neale and White, 2014), a situation that is also evident in
Spanish universities. Although the procedures for academic promotion included in the recent
legal reforms in Spain are ostensibly gender-neutral, women are still more likely to be
excluded from full recognition of their academic merit, they tend to struggle and make more
sacrifices in their professional and personal lives and they are less likely to access senior
levels than their male peers (V
azquez-Cupeiro and Elston, 2006).
WLC is often cited as a partial explanation for the paucity of female career progression,
possibly not only because of women’s current WLC but also because of the problems they
expect to encounter in the event of promotion. In that sense, anticipated WLC (AWLC) may
act as a barrier explaining women’s reluctance to put themselves forward for career
progression (Campbell et al., 2015). To date, however, little is known about AWLC; the scant
research on anticipated conflict has only considered college students who have no
professional experience or accurate knowledge of what job they will be doing and has limited
its focus to the domains of work and family (Campbell et al., 2015;Westring and Ryan, 2011;
Cinamon, 2006). In one such study, AWLC was defined as students’“perceptions of the
potential conflict or interference between their work and family roles after they embark on
their careers”(Weer et al., 2006, p. 538).
In boundaryless careers, employees consider their personal situations in making work-
related decisions such as whether to accept a job, how many hours to work or even whether to
quit. The growing presence of women, dual-earner households and single parents in the
workforce, as well as changing values regarding WLB, explain the increasing importance of
considering personal situations as an antecedent of work-domain decisions (Greenhaus and
Powell, 2006).
The equilibrium between work and nonwork roles is a pertinent issue in relation to female
employment, given women’s reproductive role and the relatively disproportionate caring,
domestic and family roles undertaken by women in most societies (Afiouni and Karam, 2014;
Lirio et al., 2007;Chodorow, 1999). This situation has disadvantaged those who are not
perceived as the “ideal”employee, that is, fully work-focused and committed (Gamble et al.,
2006). Although supportive organizational cultures may help to reduce levels of WLC (Eby
et al., 2005;Burke et al., 2008), previous research also shows how in practice, levels of
perceived organizational support (POS) may not translate into lower WLC for academics, as it
may be insufficient to offset the negative effects of the potential long hours or intensity of the
work (Hogan et al., 2014) and overall demanding nature of academic work.
Therefore, our primary objective is to further understand the relationship between WLC
and the possible barriers to career progression due to the perception of AWLC, while
considering the intensity and flexibility inherent to academic work and POS. This study
seeks to contribute to the WLC literature by empirically examining a contemporary working
environment––higher education––and the various perceptions of AWLC among female and
male academics in a Spanish university.
ER
42,3
778
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