South Asian Journal of Management

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Work-Family Balance (WFB) Experience of Indian Journalists:Differences by Gender and Life-cycle Stages


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1 Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, India
     

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Journalism has been contented as one of the most unfriendly profession to family life. Given the collectivist nature of the Indian society, attaining work-family balance has become an incessant challenge for journalists. The present paper aims to investigate differences due to gender, life-cycle stages and their interaction terms (gender x life-cycle stages) in the experience of four dimensions of work-family balance, (namely, work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, work-to-family facilitation and family-to-work facilitation). The application of theories like ‘Role Strain’ and ‘Role accumulation’ to the interplay of work and family roles, triggered bi-directional dimensions of conflict and facilitation, which altogether characterize ‘Work- Family Balance’ (WFB). Data were collected from 212 fulltime journalists working for the Indian newspaper organizations and analysis was done using two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results reveal that ‘one-size fits all’ approach of designing workfamily balancing interventions may not prove beneficial because results reveal that women journalists experience more family-to-work conflict in all life stages, less facilitation (both directions) in launching (early-parenthood) life-stage and greater work-to-family facilitation in shifting-gears life-stage (empty-nest) than men journalists. Further, Life-stage differences suggest that journalists during the launching life-stage experience greater family-to-work conflict as compared to the journalists in anticipatory and establishment life-stages. This understanding may be helpful for the media organizations to design necessary practices and policies that can reduce work-family conflict and at the same time, enhance work-family facilitation from the lives of men and women journalists at different stages of life.

Keywords

Gender, India, Journalists, Life-Cycle, MANOVA, Work-Family Balance.
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  • Work-Family Balance (WFB) Experience of Indian Journalists:Differences by Gender and Life-cycle Stages

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Authors

Abha Bhalla
Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, India
Lakhwinder Singh Kang
Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar, India

Abstract


Journalism has been contented as one of the most unfriendly profession to family life. Given the collectivist nature of the Indian society, attaining work-family balance has become an incessant challenge for journalists. The present paper aims to investigate differences due to gender, life-cycle stages and their interaction terms (gender x life-cycle stages) in the experience of four dimensions of work-family balance, (namely, work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, work-to-family facilitation and family-to-work facilitation). The application of theories like ‘Role Strain’ and ‘Role accumulation’ to the interplay of work and family roles, triggered bi-directional dimensions of conflict and facilitation, which altogether characterize ‘Work- Family Balance’ (WFB). Data were collected from 212 fulltime journalists working for the Indian newspaper organizations and analysis was done using two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results reveal that ‘one-size fits all’ approach of designing workfamily balancing interventions may not prove beneficial because results reveal that women journalists experience more family-to-work conflict in all life stages, less facilitation (both directions) in launching (early-parenthood) life-stage and greater work-to-family facilitation in shifting-gears life-stage (empty-nest) than men journalists. Further, Life-stage differences suggest that journalists during the launching life-stage experience greater family-to-work conflict as compared to the journalists in anticipatory and establishment life-stages. This understanding may be helpful for the media organizations to design necessary practices and policies that can reduce work-family conflict and at the same time, enhance work-family facilitation from the lives of men and women journalists at different stages of life.

Keywords


Gender, India, Journalists, Life-Cycle, MANOVA, Work-Family Balance.

References