The Moderating Effect of Supervisor Support on Flexible Working Arrangement and Work-Family Conflict Relationship: A Conceptual Paper

Authors

  • Eni Suriana Alias Department of Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia
  • Ahmad Zainal Abidin Abd Razak Department of Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia
  • Norsamsinar Samsudin Department of Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia
  • Bahijah Abas Department of Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia
  • Nadratun Nafisah Abdul Wahab Department of Business Management and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Management and Economics, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia
  • Akhmad Darmawan Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37134/ibej.vol13.sp.5.2020

Keywords:

Flexible working arrangement, supervisor support, work interference with family (WIF), family interference with work (FIW)

Abstract

Workforce competitiveness trends have shown significant changes over the years. Multiple role conflicts have seen an increase in both dual-earner families and single-parents. Regardless of whether it is single parents or working couples, both must manage family and work obligations daily. As such, many companies are adopting flexible working arrangement in their organizations. This study aimed to discover the moderating effect of supervisor support on the flexible working arrangement and work-family conflict relationship. The population for the study consisted of Malaysian organizations that adopted a flexible working arrangement. The flexible working arrangement here includes adoptions of flexible working time, compressed work-week practices and working from home. The companies involved were derived from TalentCorp Malaysia Flexible Working Arrangement report, 2015, in collaboration with Malaysian Federation Employer. The surveys form would be disseminated to the organization selected from the list through their respective Human Resource Department.  The findings would explain the moderating effect of supervisor support on the flexible working arrangement and work-family conflict relationship.  Findings from this study are deemed to be beneficial for the employers in general and human resource ministry in overcoming the turnover of productive employees due to the inability to balance work and family needs. The findings would also minimize the brain drain suffering by Malaysian organizations. An effective strategy could be developed so that the work-family conflict issues could be overcome.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abd Razak, Ahmad Zainal Abidin, Yeop Yunus N. K., Samsudin, N., Ab Wahid, H. and Wahid, Z. (2019). Social support moderating effect between work-family conflict and health and stress of working students in UPSI. International Business Education Journal, 12(1), 25-38.

Aboim, Sofia. (2010). Gender cultures and the division of labour in contemporary Europe: A cross-national perspective. The Sociological Review, 58, 171–96.

Adams, G. A., & Jex, S.M. (1999). Relationships between time management, control, work–family conflict, and strain. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 4, 72–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.4.1.72

Ahmad, A., Shaw, N. E., Brown, N. J., Gardiner, J., & Omar, K. (2015). The impact of negative work home interface on intention to leave and the role of flexible working arrangements in Malaysia. The Journal of Developing Areas, 50(5), 507–515. https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2016.0066

Anderson, S. E., Coffey, B. S., & Byerly, R. T. (2002). Formal organizational initiatives and informal workplace practices: Links to work-family conflict and job-related outcomes. Journal of Management, 28(6), 787–810. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-2063(02)00190-3

Baird, R. C. & M. (2015). Bringing the “right to request” flexible working arrangements to life: From policies to practices. Employee Relations, 37(5), 568–581. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/MRR-09-2015-0216

Barnett, R. C., & Hall, D. T. (2001). How to use reduced hours to win the war for talent. Organizational Dynamics, 29(3), 192–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0090-2616(01)00024-9

Beigi, M., Shirmohammadi, M., & Stewart, J. (2018). Flexible work arrangements and work–family conflict: A metasynthesis of qualitative studies among academics. Human Resource Development Review, 17(3), 314–336. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484318787628

Bryan, M. L., & Sevilla, A. (2017). Flexible working in the UK and its impact on couples’ time coordination. Review of Economics of the Household, 15(4), 1415–1437. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-017-9389-6

Byrne, J. M., & Canato, A. (2017). It’s been a hard day’s night: Work family interface and employee engagement. Organizational Dynamics, 46(2), 104–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2017.04.006

Cascio, Wayne & Montealegre, Ramiro. (2016). How technology is changing work and organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 349-375. 10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062352.

Cerrato, Francisco & Cifre, Eva. (2018). Gender inequality in household chores and work-family conflict. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1-11. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01330.

Chung, H., & van der Lippe, T. (2018). Flexible working, work–life balance, and gender equality: Introduction. Social Indicators Research, (0123456789). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-2025-x

Choo, J. L., Desa, N., & Abu Hassan Asaari, M. (2016). Flexible working arrangement toward organizational commitment and work-family conflict. Studies in Asian Social Science, 21-36. https://doi.org/10.5430/sass.v3n1p21http://sass.sciedupress.com

Clarke, S., & Holdswoth, L. (2017). Flexibility in the workplace: Implications of flexible work arrangements for individuals, teams and organizations. ACAS.

de Menezes, L. M., & Kelliher, C. (2011). Flexible working and performance: A systematic review of the evidence for a business case. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13(4), 452–474. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00301.x

Eddleston, K. A., & Mulki, J. (2017). Toward understanding remote workers’ management of work–family boundaries: The complexity of workplace embeddedness. Group and Organization Management, 42(3), 346–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601115619548

Erdamar, G., & Demirel, H. (2014). Investigation of work-family, family-work conflict of the teachers. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 4919–4924. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.1050

Ferri, L. M., Pedrini, M., & Riva, E. (2018). The impact of different supports on work-family conflict. Employee Relations, 40(5), 903–920. https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-09-2017-0211

Fiksenbaum, L. M. (2014). Supportive work–family environments: Implications for work–family conflict and wellbeing. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(5), 653–672. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.796314

Frone, M. R., Russell, M., & Cooper, M. L. (1997). Relation of work–family conflict to health outcomes: A four‐year longitudinal study of employed parents. Journal of Occupational and Organizational psychology, 70(4), 325-335.

Galea, C., Houkes, I., & De Rijk, A. (2014). An insider’s point of view: How a system of flexible working hours helps employees to strike a proper balance between work and personal life. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1090–1111. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.816862

Goh, Z., Ilies, R., & Wilson, K. S. (2015). Supportive supervisors improve employees’ daily lives: The role supervisors play in the impact of daily workload on life satisfaction via work-family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 89, 65–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2015.04.009

Gornick, J.C., and Meyers,M.K., (2008). Creating gender egalitarian societies: An agenda for reform. Politics & Society, 36, 313–49.

Greenhaus, J. H., & Beutell, N. J. (1985). Sources of conflict between work and family roles. Academy of Management Review, 10(1), 76 – 88. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1985.4277352

Greenhaus, J. H., & Kossek, E. E. (2014). The contemporary career: A work–home perspective. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 361–388. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091324

Gutek, B. A., Searle, S., & Klepa, L. (1991). Rational versus gender role expectations for family-work conflict. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(4), 560–568.

Grunow, D., Begall, K., & Buchler, S. (2018). Gender ideologies in Europe: A multidimensional framework. Journal of Marriage and Family, 80, 42–60.

Halinski, M., & Duxbury, L. (2019). Workplace flexibility and its relationship with work-interferes-with-family. Personnel Review, 49(1), 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2019-0048

Hammer, L. B., Demsky, C., Kossek, E. E., & Bray, J. (2015). Work–family intervention research. In T. D. Allen & L. T. Eby (Eds.), Handbook of work and family. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Hammig, O. (2017). Health and wellbeing at work: The key role of supervisor support. SSM - Population Health, 3, 393–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2017.04.002

Higgins, C., Duxbury, L., & Julien, M. (2014). The relationship between work arrangements and work-family conflict. Work, 48(1), 69–81. https://doi.org/10.3233/WOR-141859

Hyland, M. M. (2000). Flexibility in work arrangements: How availability, preferences and use affect business outcomes. Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 60(10-A), 3716. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=psyc3&NEWS=N&AN=2000-95007-014

Kattenbach, R., Demerouti, E., & Nachreiner, F. (2010). Flexible working times: Effects on employees’ exhaustion, work-nonwork conflict and job performance. Career Development International, 15(3), 279–295. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620431011053749

Kecklund, G., Beckers, D. G. J., Leineweber, C., & Tucker, P. (2017). How does work fit with my life? The relation between flexible work arrangements, work-life balance and recovery from work. In An Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology (pp. 430–447). Oxford, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119168058.ch23

Kelly, E. L., Moen, P., Oakes, J. M., Fan, W., Okechukwu, C., Davis, K. D., et al. (2014). Changing work and work–family confict: Evidence from the work, family, and health network. American Sociological Review, 79(3), 485–516. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122414531435.

Kim, S. L., Lee, S., Park, E., & Yun, S. (2015). Knowledge sharing, work–family conflict and supervisor support: Investigating a three-way effect. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(19), 2434–2452.

Klindzic, Maja & Marić, Matija. (2019). Flexible work arrangements and organizational performance – The difference between employee and employer-driven practices. Društvena Istraživanja / Journal for General Social Issues, 28, 89-108. 10.5559/di.28.1.05.

Kossek, Ellen & Distelberg, Brian. (2009). Work and family employment policy for a transformed labor force: Current trends and themes. In Booth, A. & Crouter, A. C., Bianchi, S. M., & Seltzer, J. A. (Eds.). Work-life policies, Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.

Kossek, E. E., & Thompson, R. J. (2015). Workplace flexibility:Integrating employer and employee perspectives to close the research-practice implementation gap. In Allen, T. D. & Eby, L. T. (Eds.). The Oxford handbook of work and family. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kossek, E. E. (2016a). Implementing organizational work–life interventions: Toward a triple bottom line. Community, Work & Family, 19(2), 242–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2016.1135540

Kossek, E. E., Hammer, L. B., Kelly, E. L., & Moen, P. (2014). Designing work, family and health organizational change initiatives. Organizational Dynamics, 43(1), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2013.10.007

Kossek, E., & Ozeki, C. (1998). Work–family conflict policies and the job–life satisfaction relationship. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 139-149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.2.139

Koivisto, S. & Rice, R. (2016). Leader prototypicality moderates the relation between access to flexible work options and employee feelings of respect and leader endorsement. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 27. 1-22. 10.1080/09585192.2015.1126337.

KPMG. (2019). https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2019/11/future-of-hr-2020.pdf download on 4th April, 2020

Kundu, S. C., Phogat, R. S., Datta, S. K., & Gahlawat, N. (2016). Impact of workplace characteristics on work-family conflict of dual-career couples. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 24(5), 883–907. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-01-2015-0840

Lake, A. (2016). Smart flexibility: Moving smart and flexible working from theory to practice. CRC Press.

Liao, E. Y., Lau, V. P., Hui, R. T. Y., & Kong, K. H. (2019). A resource-based perspective on work–family conflict: Meta-analytical findings. Career Development International, 24(1), 37–73. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-12-2017-0236

Matos, K., & Galinsky, E. (2012). National study of employers. New York, NY: Families and Work Institute.

Masuda, A. D., Poelmans, S. A. Y., Allen, T. D., Spector, P. E., Lapierre, L. M., Cooper, C. L., … Moreno-Velazquez, I. (2012). Flexible work arrangements availability and their relationship with work-to-family conflict, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions: A comparison of three country clusters. Applied Psychology, 61(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2011.00453.x

Mee Choo, J. L., Desa, N. M., & Abu Hassan Asaari, M. H. (2016). Flexible working arrangement toward organizational commitment and work-family conflict. Studies in Asian Social Science, 3(1), 21–36. https://doi.org/10.5430/sass.v3n1p21

Meguella, Achour & Abdul Khalil, Shahidra & Ahmad, Bahi & Mohd Nor, Mohd Roslan & Bi, Mohd. (2017). Management and supervisory support as a moderator of work–family demands and women’s wellbeing: A case study of Muslim female academicians in Malaysia. Humanomics, 33, 00-00. 10.1108/H-02-2017-0024.

Michael Page Malaysia. (2015). 2015 Employee Intentions Report Malaysia. Michael Page, 24. Retrieved from http://www.michaelpage.com.sg/sites/michaelpage.com.sg/files/2015_SGMP_EMPLOYEE_INTENTIONS_FINAL_0.pdf

Netemeyer, R. G., Boles, J. S., & McMurrian, R. (1996). Development and validation of work-family conflict and family-work conflict scales. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(4), 400–410. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.81.4.400

Noor, N. M., Mahdzir, A. M., Nor, A. M., & Abdullah, R. (2019). Marital wellbeing indicators amongst Malay Muslim couple in Malaysia: A preliminary study. Malaysian Journal of Medicine and Health Sciences, 15, 114-119.

Oshio, T., Inoue, A., & Tsutsumi, A. (2017). Examining the mediating effect of work-to-family conflict on the associations between job stressors and employee psychological distress: A prospective cohort study. BMJ Open, 7(8). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-015608

Panatik, S. A. B., Badri, S. K. Z., Rajab, A., Abdul, H. R., & Shaha, I. M. (2011). The impact of work family conflict on psychological wellbeing among school teachers in Malaysia. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 29, 1500–1507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.11.390

Pleck, J. (1977). The work-family role system. Social Problems, 24(4), 417-427. doi:10.2307/800135

Powell, G. N., Greenhaus, J. H., Allen, T. D., & Johnson, R. E. (2019). Introduction to special topic forum: Advancing and expanding work-life theory from multiple perspectives. Academy of Management Review, 44(1), 54–71. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0310

Powell, G. N., Greenhaus, J. H., Allen, T. D., & Johnson, R. E. (2018). Advancing and expanding work-life theory from multiple perspectives. Academy of Management Review, 44(1), 54-71. doi:10.5465/amr.2018.0310

Rathi, N., & Lee, K. (2017). Understanding the role of supervisor support in retaining employees and enhancing their satisfaction with life. Personnel Review, 46(8), 1605–1619. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2015-0287

Regus. (2017). A picture of flexible working 2017. The Workplace Revolution, (January), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/0264-2751(88)90079-0

Revilla, M. A., Saris, W. E., & Krosnick, J. A. (2014). Choosing the number of categories in agree–disagree scales. Sociological Methods & Research, 43(1), 73–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124113509605

Russo, M., Ollier-Malaterre, A., Kossek, E. E., & Ohana, M. (2018). Boundary management permeability and relationship satisfaction in dual-earner couples: The asymmetrical gender effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(SEP). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01723

Schwab, K., & Samans, R. (2016). Global Challenge Insight Report : The Future of Jobs. World Economic Forum (Vol. 5). https://doi.org/10.1177/1946756712473437

Sekaran, U. (2010). Research methods for business a skill-building approach. 4th Ed., John Wiley & Sons, UK.

Shagvaliyeva, S., & Yazdanifard, R. (2014). Impact of flexible working hours on work-life balance. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 4(1), 20–23. https://doi.org/10.4236/ajibm.2014.41004

Solís, M. (2016). Telework: Conditions that have a positive and negative impact on the work-family conflict. Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administracion, 29(4), 435–449. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARLA-10-2015-0289

Subramaniam, A. Geetha, B. John, O. & C., & Maniam, B. (2015). Flexible working arrangements, work life balance and women in Malaysia. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 5(1), 34–38. https://doi.org/10.7763/IJSSH.2015.V5.417

TalentCorp, M. (2016). Embracing the winning formula for flexible work arrangements. TalentCorp Malaysia.

Tammelin, M., Malinen, K., Rönkä, A., & Verhoef, M. (2016). Work schedules and work–family conflict among dual earners in Finland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Journal of Family Issues, 38(1), 3–24. doi:10.1177/0192513x15585810

Warokka, A., & Febrilia, I. (2015). Work-family conflict and job performance: Lesson from a Southeast Asian emerging market. Journal of Southeast Asian Research, 2015, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.5171/2015.420802

Williams, J. & Berdahl, J. & Vandello, J. (2015). Beyond work-life “Integration”. Annual review of psychology, 67, 10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033710.

Downloads

Published

2020-12-14

How to Cite

Alias, E. S., Abd Razak, A. Z. A., Samsudin, N., Abas, B., Abdul Wahab, N. N., & Darmawan, A. (2020). The Moderating Effect of Supervisor Support on Flexible Working Arrangement and Work-Family Conflict Relationship: A Conceptual Paper. International Business Education Journal, 13, 51–63. https://doi.org/10.37134/ibej.vol13.sp.5.2020

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>