Work-family interference among Ghanaian women in higher status occupations

Bedu-Addo, Paul Kobina Annan (2010) Work-family interference among Ghanaian women in higher status occupations. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Work-family interference (WFI) is becoming one of the principal hazards to occupational health, family satisfaction, well-being and job satisfaction in the 21st century, especially among women professionals. With obvious increases in female participation within the upper echelons of the labour force both in the developed and developing world (Wirth, 2000); the need to effectively combine work and family roles has become quite a critical issue in occupational and organisational psychology, as well as family studies.

Thus identifying and assessing the nature and amount of work-family interference experienced by women professionals and the damage it causes to women’s well-being, organisational productivity, family cohesion and job satisfaction are therefore important questions for applied psychology. So too is the identification of whatever might attenuate or exacerbate the scale of WFI or its negative impact. Such fundamental knowledge has a vital role in informing action and intervention to improve the occupational, as well as family health of women professionals especially in emerging economies like Ghana.

This thesis is built around three separate studies conducted among Ghanaian professional and their spouses, using face-to-face interviews, open-ended questionnaires and structured questionnaires.

A number of research questions and hypotheses have been addressed in this research. Findings showed that women generally experience work-related stress and work family interference. However receipt of quality supervisor support moderates their experience of work-related stress whiles quality spouse and child support attenuates their experience of work-family interference. Additionally, work-family interference only affected women’s feeling of worn out and tense, but not family satisfaction or job satisfaction. Finally the findings of this research have highlighted the need of using mixed methods in organisational research in developing countries especially where published studies are lacking locally.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Cox, T.R.
Hunt, N.
Keywords: Work-related stress, work-family interference, spous support, well-being, job satisfaction, family satisfaction, worn out, tense, coping, social support
Subjects: H Social sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Social Sciences, Law and Education > Institute of Work, Health and Organisations
Item ID: 11529
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 19 Jul 2011 08:57
Last Modified: 14 Oct 2017 12:56
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/11529

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