Antecedents and Consequences of Work-Family Conflict in the Hospitality Industry

Introduction

Nowadays, the majority of adult family members are involved in working life to generate income. Therefore, work-life conflict has become one of the most significant problems for the humankind (Bellavia & Frone, 2005). Individuals spend most of their lives either with their families or at work. In this respect, it is of great importance for individuals to establish a balance between work and family life (Fu & Shaffer 2001). WFC occurs when there is no balance between the two domains. WFC causes serious harm to individuals and organizations due to the problems it brings along (Delfgaauw, 2007; Magnini, 2009). In particular, the WFC is acknowledged as one of the most important barriers to effective human management in the hospitality industry (Tromp & Blomme, 2012).

Hospitality employees are confronted with intense and heavy demands of work. While customers enjoy their holidays and leisure time, employees work under stressful and challenging working conditions in order to deliver good quality services (Wong & Lin, 2007). The necessity of simultaneously fulfilling the responsibilities of work and family domains results in WFC among such employees (Zhao and Ghiselli, 2016). In short, work – family conflict (WFC) refers to “inter-role interferences between work and family domains” (Zhao, & Namasivayam, 2012, p.458). WFC is characterized by two dimensions: work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW) (Frone Russell, & Cooper, 1992). WIF occurs as the demands of work interfere with the fulfillment of family responsibilities, whereas FIW emerges when the demands of family interfere with the fulfillment of job-related responsibilities (Frone, 2003). Hospitality enterprises need to ensure effective management of human capital in order to gain competitive advantage, as firms need employees with good physical and mental well-being in order to sustain the organizational success (Arslaner & Boylu, 2017). In this context, understanding the nature of WFC is of great importance for practitioners and researchers.

Hospitality industry is recognized as an industry where employees have to sacrifice their family responsibilities in order to ensure service quality (Karatepe, 2008; Karatepe, 2010). Hospitality employees suffer from WFC when they are subject to irregular work schedules, long working hours, low wages and heavy workloads (Zhao, Qu, & Ghiselli, 2011). On the other hand, many employees have difficulty in meeting the demands of work due to the demands of family (Zhao, 2016). WFC is a severe problem that reduces service quality and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it is important and valuable for researchers and practitioners to understand the antecedents and consequences of WFC.

This chapter aims to explain the nature of WFC in the hospitality industry. In this context, the study consists of three main parts. Firstly, WFC and its types are defined, secondly WFC theories are explained, and finally the antecedents and consequences of WFC are provided through an integrative literature review. In this context, 47 studies were included in the literature review. As a result, the current study contributes to the literature on several aspects. Further research addressing the antecedents and consequences of the WFC in the hospitality industry from a holistic perspective is needed. Examining the nature of WFC in the scope of the hospitality industry which is characterized by fast-paced working environment can contribute to the management and the hospitality literatures. The current study paves the way for researchers to recognize theoretical gaps by way of revealing the antecedents and consequences of WFC based on previous empirical evidence. For instance, a researcher studying the field of management in the context of the hospitality industry will have a review of the topics that have already been studied. This study proposes a holistic model involving the antecedents and consequences of WFC based on the previous researches in the literature. By way of testing the proposed model, future researches can put forward which antecedents and consequences are more related to WFC.