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WORK~NONWORKINTERFERENCE
IN THE SOUTH
AFRICAN CONTEXT
Eileen Koekemoer, MCom (Industrial Psychology)
t, Tbis thesis is submitted in fulfllment of the requirements for the degree Philosopbiae Doctor . 7'r·'m.,~dustrial Psychology at the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus
Promoter: Prof. K. Mostert .potchefstroom
REMARKS
The reader is reminded of the following:
• The references as well as the editorial style as prescribed by the Publication Manual (5th edition) of the American Psychological Association (APA) were followed in this thesis. This practice is in line with the policy of the Programme in Industrial Psychology of the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, to use APA style in all scientific documents as from January 1999.
• The thesis is submitted in the form of three research articles.
• The format style of the research articles (Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4) is in
accordance with the guidelines for authors of the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology.
• Research article 1 (Chapter 2) was accepted for publication in the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
What started as a PhD degree, ended in a five-year joumey of perseverance and trust with God, without whom I would not have completed this thesis successfully. I also wish to extend my appreciation to various individuals who helped and supported me during the writing of this thesis.
Thank you to
• My Father God, for giving me the strength, insight and dedication to keep going when times were tough, and to complete this thesis.
• My loving husband, Werner, for all his unconditional love and support. Thank you for all your prayers and helping me wherever and whenever I needed help, love and support. I also dedicate this thesis to my baby girl Anika.
• My parents Johan, Isabel, Jan and Rosa and my sister San-Mari for all their love and support.
• My promoter Prof Karina Mostert, for her guidance, support and encouragement. Thank you for walking the mile with me, and for all the support. I have learned a great deal from you as researcher, promoter and friend. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to grow as researcher and colleague and for the resilience that you taught me.
• The re'liewers of the South African J oumal of Industrial Psychology. Your inputs greatly enhanced the quality of the first research article.
• All the Master's students working on the project, interviewing participants and collecting questionnaires from participants. A special word of thanks to Betsie, Jani and Lerato for all their help with the data collection .
. -.- -The"staff -of the- North-West University's library for all their help and support with my library searches. Thank you for going the extra mile in fmding articles for me; a special word of thanks to Hester Lombard and Erika Rood.
• All the participants from the various organisations, for their willingness to participate in the studies.
• Prof Karina Mostert and Mr. Ian Rothmann (Jm), for helping me with the statistical analyses of the articles.
• Willie Cloete, for the professional manner in which he conducted the language editing.
• My dear friend and colleague Alewyn, all his love, support and help throughout these years. Thank you for your friendship, and for being such a wonderful friend and colleague.
• All my colleagues at the School of Human Resource Sciences and the W orkWell Research Unit, for their words encouragements, inputs and feedback during my pilot study.
• Lizelle Wentzel, for all her input, help and support.
• A special word of thanks to my friends and colleagues, Cara and Lene, for their special friendship and continuous prayers, support and encouragement.
The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is also acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the National Research Foundation.
SUMMARY
Topic: Work-nonwork interference the South African context
Key terms: work-nonwork role experiences, scale development, item evaluation, psychometric properties, external variables, South African context.
One key focus in the 21st century is adjusting work and personal life in order for individuals to find a rhythm to help them combine work with other responsibilities and aspirations in their personal lives. Over the past few decades it has become evident that work and personal life are interrelated domains and that employed individuals experience interaction between these domains. Although the amount and extent of work-family research studies in South Africa have progressed considerably over the past decade, it is not clear how the experiences of the interference between work and nonwork roles compare to the experiences of employees in other countries. There is also no South African that measures the interference between work and different nonwork roles in both directions (work-to-nonwork and nonto-work). This could pose potential problems for organisations and future work-family studies in South Africa.
The objectives of this research were 1) to gain insight into the interaction between work and personal life in the South African context and how South African employees experience this interaction; 2) to develop a new work-nonwork interference instrument that is for the South African context and that addresses measurement and theoretical issues to previous work-family instruments; and 3) to test the psychometric properties of the newly developed work-nonwork interference instrument.
The empirical study consisted of three phases. During the first phase, exploratory interviews (i.e. 92 interviews) were conducted in order to gather information regarding the interaction that individuals experience between their work and their personal lives. Thereafter, a new instrument that measures work-nonwork interference was developed and tested with a pilot study (n = 245) in order to overcome some of the measurement limitations relating to previous work-family instruments. During the final phase, the psychometric properties of the
newly developed work-nonwork interference instrument were tested (Le. construct validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity and external validity; n = 366).
Results from the exploratory phase indicated that South African employees experience various forms of interaction between their work and other dimensions in their personal life (e.g. domestic, leisure, exercise, studies, community, extended family and religion/spirituality). In addition, South African employees experience various stressors in their work environment that contribute to this interaction (i.e. general stressors such as pressure, overload, workload, stressful working arrangements, and strenuous relationships at work, and more occupation-specific stressors such as stressful nature of the job and not being valued in an unsupportive work environment). Additional supportive aspects present in their work environment included supportive work arrangements, supportive relationships at work and occupation satisfaction. Results also indicated consequences specifically related to all the forms of interaction (e.g. time-based consequences, build-up and spillover of emotions, and energy depletion) and consequences that are more related to a specific form of interaction (e.g. mental preoccupation, strain on relationships, managing responsibilities, limiting of work opportunities, energy generation, learned skills). From the exploratory study, very similar findings were obtained and some unique contributions were made to existing work-family literature. The antecedents mentioned are in line with international literature (physical workload, time pressures, physical stressors, shift work and recipient contact) and the consequences are very similar to categorised consequences reported in international research (i.e. physical, psychological, behavioural, attitudinal, organisational consequences or work, nonwork and health-related consequences).
During the second phase a new work-nonwork interference (W-NWI) instrument was developed which differentiates among interference between work and various specific roles in an individuals' personal life (i.e. parent interference, parent-work interference, work-spouse interference, work-spouse-work interference, work-religion/spirituality interference, religion/spirituality-work interference, work-domestic interference, domestic-work interference). During the evaluation study various problematic items were eliminated using the Rasch measurement model. The fmal phase included the validation study where the psychometric properties of the new instrument were investigated. The results provided evidence for constrUct, discriminant and convergent validity, reliability and significant relations with external variables.
Tills study provides evidence for the psychometric properties of the new instrument, which researchers and managers can use to investigate the specmc interference between work and different nonwork roles in employees' private lives.
Recommendations for future research were made.
OPSOJVIMING
Onderwerp: Werk-Diewerk-imnenging in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks
Sleutelwoorde: Werk-Diewerkrol-imnenging, ervaringe, skaalontwikkeling, item-evaluering, psigometriese eienskappe, eksteme veranderlikes, Suid-Afrikaanse konteks
'n Sleutelfokus van die 21ste eeu is die aanpassing van werk- en persoonlike lewe sodat individue'n 'ritme' kan vind wat hulle in staat stel om werk met ander verantwoordelikhede en aspirasies in hul persoonlike lewens te kombineer. Dit het oor die afgelope paar dekades duidelik geword dat werk- en persoonlike lewe onderling verbonde domeine is en dat werknemers interaksie tussen hierdie domeine ervaar. Hoewel die omvang van werk-gesin-navorsing in Suid-Afrika deur die loop van die afgelope dekade beduidend toegeneem het, is dit steeds Die duidelik hoe ervarings van die inmenging tussen werk- en Diewerkrolle met die ervarings van werknemers in ander lande vergelyk Die. Daar bestaan ook geen Suid-Mrikaanse instrument wat die imnenging tussen werk en verskillende Diewerkrolle in beide rigtings meet Die. Dit kan probleme inhou vir organisasies en toekomstige werk-gesin-studies in Suid-Afrika.
Die doelstellings van hierdie navorsing was 1) om insig te verkry in die interaksie tussen werk- en persoonlike lewe in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks en hoe Suid-Afrikaanse werknemers hierdie interaksie ervaar; 2) om 'n nuwe werk-Diewerk-imnenging-instrument te ontwikkel wat geskik is vir die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks en wat metings- en teoretiese kwessies met betrekking tot vorige werk-gesin-instrumente ondervang; en 3) om die psigometriese eienskappe van die nuut ontwikkelde werk-Diewerk-inmenging-instrument te toets.
Die empiriese studie het uit drie fases bestaan. Gedurende die eerste fase is verkennende onderhoude (92 onderhoude) gevoer met die doel om inligting in te win oor die interaksie wat individue tussen hul werk en hul persoonlike lewens ervaar. Daama is 'n nuwe instrument wat werk-Diewerk-imnenging meet, ontwikkel en getoets met'n loodsstudie (n
