Work-family conflict and turnover intention: Exploring the moderation effects of perceived work-family support.

The influence of perceived employer family support on the work-family conflict/job-outcomes relationship, is poorly understood. This study of 100 New Zealand local government employees tested work-family conflict as a predictor of turnover intention, and explored the moderator effects of perceived work-family support, which measures the extent employees see their employer providing policies and programmes supportive of families. Direct associations were found between two types of conflict (work-family and family-work) and turnover intention. However, perceived work-family support held no significant interaction effects. Hence, employee perceptions of how supportive their employer is towards work-family aspects had no effect on whether employees are encouraged to leave their organisation when conflict levels from the home and office increase. Implications are that conflict from the office and home does increase turnover intentions, and that perceived work-family support has little effect on these relationships. ********** Despite the proliferation of international literature exploring the job-related outcomes of work-family conflict (e.g. job satisfaction, Kossek & Ozeki, 1998), few outcomes are known in New Zealand, despite New Zealand having similar demographic changes as the United States (Pringle & Tudhope, 1997). Further, the influence of family-friendly employer policies and programmes on conflict outcomes is poorly understood. Consequently, this paper explores work-family and family-work conflict as a predictor of turnover intention, and tests the moderating effect of perceived work-family support from employers on these relationships. In the past decade, the focus on work-family conflict studies has shifted from work to family conflict to include family to work conflict. Frone, Russell, and Cooper (1997) stated there is a methodological flaw in studies that measure work-family conflict from a single-direction focus. Additionally, Kinnunen and Mauno (1998) suggested early work-family conflict research relied on assessing only the intrusion from the workplace to the home. Recent studies have addressed this limitation, and supported work-family conflict to be a bi-directional construct representing two distinct types of conflict (Adams, King, & King, 1996; Netemeyer, Boles & McMurrian, 1996; O'Driscoll, Ilgen, & Hildreth, 1992). In light of these findings, this paper seeks to examine the effects of conflict bi-directionally, with work-family conflict (WFC) representing workplace issues intruding into the home (e.g. taking work home) and family-work conflict (FWC) representing home issues entering the workplace (e.g. dealing with childcare issues at work). The proposition that work-family conflict can encourage employees to consider leaving their organisation is well supported. In fact, turnover intention is one of the most studied job related outcomes in the work-family conflict literature (Anderson, Coffey, & Byerly, 2002; Cohen, 1997; Good, Page, & Young, 1996; Maertz, 1999; Shaffer, Harrison, Gilley, & Luk, 2001). Despite this interest, few studies have sought to explore turnover intention associated with conflict in New Zealand. Cohen (1997) asserted work-family conflict could cause employees to quit their job, and his claim has been supported (Good, Sisler, & Gentry, 1988). Therefore, employees experiencing greater conflict in the workplace that intrudes into the home (WFC) become encouraged to seek employment elsewhere, perhaps in search of a 'less stressful' workplace. Mowday, Porter, and Steers (1982) argued that non-work factors (e.g. family) might also influence turnover intentions. Their statement suggests that employees experiencing conflict from the home in the workplace (FWC) may also seek employment elsewhere. In this context, employees may be looking to reduce their working hours, or rearrange their work schedule, so family issues do not impact on their work. …