role conflict among working women

Dr.Jiji.T.S.,MSW,M.Phil,Ph.D 1

Role Conflict Among Working Women

Dr.Jiji.T.S. MSW, M.Phil, Ph.D

Social Worker, SCTIMST, Trivandrum.


Woman in a family plays a pivotal role in almost all spheres of life.

The multi role performed by a woman in our Indian culture ranges from

Supportive wife, Daughter, sister, in Laws etc

Caring compassionate mother

Bread winner of a family

House-keeper

Child bearer and rearer


Women workforce constitutes an integral part of total workforce in India


Roles are the result of expectations of others about

appropriate behavior in a particular position.

Role conflict is described as the psychological tension that is

aroused by conflicting role pressures.

Role theory suggests that conflict occurs when individuals

engage in multiple roles that are incompatible.

It states that role ambiguity refers to the lack of specificity and

predictability for a person’s job or role.

Role theory postulates that multiple roles can lead to inter-

role conflict and, in turn to symptoms of strain functions and

responsibility (Kahn et al.)


Kapur indicated that women who choose to combine marriage with career face almost a situation of normlessness and they hardly know how to apportion time and resources between these two major responsibilities. This makes them experience great conflict, tension and strain.

Gutek et al states that the inter-role conflict is likely to increase as the demands of either the work role or family role increases.


Work –Family Conflict

A form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respects.

Each role within the family and work environment imposes demands requiring time, energy and commitment.

Married working women are faced with problems in performing different roles, such as the wife, mother, homemaker and employee roles.

The major role problem a woman faces is the conflict arising from multiple roles.


Work-family conflict can be

Time-based

Strain-based

Behavior based.


Time-based conflict occurs when role

pressures stemming from the two different

domains compete for the individual's time (e.g.,

requiring a woman to work late with little notice

might make it difficult for her to meet family

obligations, like picking up a child at daycare).


Strain-based conflict occurs when the strain experienced in one

role domain interferes with effective performance of role

behaviors in the other domain.

For example, a mother who is anxious about her child's illness

might not be able to fully concentrate on her job as copy editor,

causing her to make mistakes in her work.


Behavior-based conflict is described as conflict stemming from

incompatible behaviors demanded by competing roles.

For example, a manager in a financial services firm might be

expected to be aggressive, unemotional, and hard-driving, but

these same behaviors in the family domain would most likely lead

to conflict with family members


Work-family conflict is bi-directional.

work can interfere with family (referred to as work-to-family conflict)

And family can interfere with work (referred to as family-to-work conflict).

Women with significant dependent care responsibilities (e.g., employees who have responsibilities caring for young children, employees with large families, employees who care for dependent elders) tend to report higher levels of work-family conflict


Absenteeism

Negative mental and physical health

Low self concept/ self respect

Poor duty performance

Lose of chance of promotion

Poor inter personal relationship

Self blame

Tendency to avoid opportunity to modify or correct faults

Become the topic of criticism by the colleagues

Marital disharmony

Consequences of Work- Family conflict


Positive side of multi roles

Multiple roles may be life enhancing in that they provide

additional sources of

Social support

Increased skills

Heightened self-esteem

Well being.

It is the quality of roles that is important.

That is, the greater the quality of a person's multiple roles

(e.g., having an interesting, challenging job and a happy

home life), the greater their self-esteem.


Coping Behavior to resolve role conflict

Hall (1972) has identified three types of coping

behavior for dealing with inter-role conflict.


Type I coping (structural role redefinition) involves an active attempt to

deal directly with role senders and lessen the conflict by mutual agreement

on a new set of expectations.


Type II coping (personal role redefinition) involves changing

one's personal concept of role demands perceived from others. It

entails changing the expectations themselves. An example is setting

priorities among and within roles, being sure that certain demands

are always met (for example, the needs of sick children), while

others have lower priority (such as dusting furniture).


Type III coping (reactive role behavior) entails attempting to

improve the quality of role performance with no attempt to

change the structural or personal definition of one's roles.


Sharing of duties by mutual agreement

Open communication with the family members and colleagues

Grooming the children and younger siblings to shoulder responsibilities by themselves

Positive attitude and approach towards multi roles by choosing appropriate alternatives

Find time to Relaxxxxx

Ways to resolve role conflict


THANK YOU !!!