General Overview of Hotel Sector in Context of Precursors and Results of Work-Family Conflicts

Definition of Work-Family Conflict Concept

The relationship between life at work and life outside the work is formed by the concept of role. Although the role is described as the duty of a person or of a thing, it is also expressed as the sum of the specified behaviors what one can or cannot do within the limits of his/her status (Aksu, 2014: p. 71). The role conflict emerges as the result of the incompatibility of the individual’s roles; expected behavioral role dues to his/her social position and his/her other roles (Frone & Rice, 1987: p. 46). The conflicts between roles arise from the pressure that restrains individual from participating in other roles (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985: p. 77). When we look at the work-family conflict, it can be said that this conflict is a special kind of inter-role conflict. The conflict between work and family roles represents a specific area of ​​role conflict.

The history of the studies on work and family life conflicts go back to the research of role theory by Kahn et al. (1964) (Duxbury and Higgins, 1991: p. 60-74). The studies carried out since the mid-1980s on this subject tried to determine the direction of the relationship between work and family life conflicts (Greenhaus & Beutell 1985; Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1986). In the literature, the work-family conflict is also discussed as work-family tension, family/work role incompatibility and inter-role conflict (Duxbury & Higgins, 1991: p. 61).

The work-family conflict is considered to be one of the most important problems in today's business world. The work-family conflict is tension created by the situation of non- fulfillment of the requirements of a role while completing the requirements of the other role (Kossek et al., 2011: 291). Family-work conflict is expressed as family responsibilities prevent the completion of the requirements of the work; and work-family conflict is defined as the ​​role conflict that arises between work requirements and family expectations (Çelik & Turunç, 2009: p. 219-220; Öcal, 2008: p. 6; Aksu, 2014: p. 81). According to another definition, work-family conflict is a situation of conflict when responsibilities of one role are fulfilled but the responsibilities of the other role are not completed (Inal, 2016). Work-family conflict is described as person’s work responsibilities, duties and demands prevents him/her to fulfil his/her family and home responsibilities and reduce the quality of his/her family life and also as the situation when individual work life and family life are mixed up (Ergin & Giray, 2006; Mustafayeva & Bayraktaroğlu, 2014). The increase in the number of working mothers and fathers and the increased participation of the females in the labor force cause changes and rearrangements of the old family model. Therefore, a need arise for building balance between work and family roles, both for men and women (Duxbury & Higgins, 1991: p. 60).