Browsing by Author "Richard, Anca"

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    Gender invariance of the mediating effect of perceived emotional-social support in the relationship between work-life conflict and occupational stress
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Richard, Anca; De Bruin, Gideon; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : The 21st century shift brought about many changes, including the perceptions regarding traditional gender roles. As a result, the boundaries between work and family roles have blurred and men and women are now responsible for participating in both caretaker and breadwinner roles. This phenomenon, along with the abrupt COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the existence of role conflict. This conflict has led to an increase in the incidence of occupational stress amongst men and women, and research has clearly identified that occupational stress undermines both individual and organisational well-being. A gap in the South African literature was identified, highlighting effective variables that mediate the relationship between work-life conflict and occupational stress, for both men and women. Consequently, the present study is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of perceived emotional-social support as a possible mediating variable. Available research is characterised by inconsistent and even conflicting results in terms of gender, occupational stress, work-life conflict and perceived emotional-social support. This study therefore investigates the questions of whether the effect of work-life conflict on occupational stress is the same for men and women; if the effect of work-life conflict on perceived emotional-social support is the same for men and women; if the effect of perceived emotional-social support on occupational stress is the same for men and women; and finally if perceived emotional-social support mediates the effect of work-life conflict on occupational stress, and if this effect is the same for men and women. A large sample size (2097 working individuals) was examined in the Structural Equation Modelling framework, while using a reliable measuring instrument - the Sources of Work Stress Inventory - to gain even more statistical power. In order to assure replicability of results, the archival dataset was fitted to two data sets, namely the ‘calibration’ and the ‘validation’ samples. The analysis focused on examining the psychometric properties of the three the scales representing the latent variables, fitting the mediation model to the manifest data using structural equation modelling, evaluating whether a mediation process is present and testing whether the parameters of the model are invariant across both men and women. This study found that work-life conflict affects occupational stress in that increased work-life conflict leads to increased occupational stress, whilst work-life conflict affects employees’ experiences of perceived emotional-social support in the workplace, such that increased work-life conflict leads to reduced levels of perceived emotional-social support. In turn, perceived emotional-social support also affects occupational stress in that reduced support leads to increased occupational stress and, finally, perceived emotional-social support has a partial, mediating effect on the relationship between work-life conflict on occupational stress for men and women. This leads to the conclusion that receiving emotional-social support from colleagues and managers, in the form of constructive interpersonal relationships, has the potential to soften the effect of work-life conflict on occupational stress. Therefore, this research also presents an effective intervention from which both groups will benefit. Finally, this study’s theoretical and practical contribution fills a significant research gap in South African literature, while holding significant benefits for both employee and organisational well-being and growth.