Job-home Conflict Among Concierges in Indian Hospitality Industry: Gender as a Moderator.
| Author | Kumari K., Thriveni |
Introduction
India is also viewed as being one in the list of economically developed nations. Currently, India is being influenced by many sophisticated technologies and by multi-cultural groups (Pereira & Malik, 2015). With this, there is an increased need for human resources to be involved in every level of organization (Datta &Agarwal, 2017) especially in the Indian hospitality industry (Khanna, 2012). Therefore, in the hospitality industry, one of the considerable concepts is job vs. home conflict (JHC).
In the hospitality industry, personnel or human resource is considered as a treasure (Khanna, 2012). It is identified that prosperity of hospitality industry depends upon their concierges (Chand, 2016). The work schedules in hotels are based on the shift system and also overtime based on demand (Magnini, 2009). One reason to investigate why many concierges struggle to maintain their work life balance (Kumari, 2021) in hospitality industry is due to JHC.
Although there is the need for feminine behavior in hospitality industry, male coded system is very much required to get occupational achievements. There are still female workers who carry forward their home responsibilities as their prime role. Also, male workers are involved with both job and home roles due to their working spouses. Under these dimensions, we need to know about the moderating role of gender in JHC. Hence, the study is to know about the factors that influence concierge's job vs. home conflict, particularly based on the gender as moderator.
Review of Literature
There are two important domains that characterize every employee's life. They are "job" and "home" (Adrews &Withey, 1976). For many concierges, j ob and home domain factors are the primary elements that influence JHC. When there is a conflict in any one domain, there will be an adverse effect on the other domain. The outcome of this domain conflict is JHC (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). In fact, these factors affect the level of JHC that occurs due to job and home domains. The important factors that influence JHC are job ambiguity, work schedule (Michel, Kotrba, Mitchelson, Clark & Baltes, 2011), organization support, friendly policies, and personal responsibilities.
Job Ambiguity (JA): In designing jobs, concierges should strive to minimize ambiguity as it is often an antecedent of JHC (Skitmore & Ahmad, 2003). Job ambiguity arises when there are uncertain job tasks and unclear guidance about their work (Andrews & Kacmar, 2001). There would be an increased level of stress and JHC among the concierges who undergo JA (Khan, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek & Rosenthal, 1964). JA influences concierge job stress, leading to conflict and a decrease in creativity (Tang & Chang, 2010). Hence, as job ambiguity increases, JHC increases. Hence, it can be perceived that there will be an increase in JHC among concierges who experience JA.
H1: Job ambiguity positively influences the JHC of concierges.
Work Schedule: Work schedules in the hospitality sector are counter cyclical to the work schedules of most other industries. It is because most of the customers visit the hotels during holidays and especially during the week off, that makes the hotels and restaurants look so busy till late at night (Magnini, 2009). Therefore, the higher is the demand for time of employment, the more significant will be the JHC since the employees spend more time at work and not much time on other roles. (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). With this, there is a rise in JHC among concierge domains due to the ample work demanded in bounded time.
H2: Work schedule has a positive impact on the JHC of concierges.
Organization Support: Another factor influencing JHC is organization support. According to a recent JHC research, organization support is one of the most effective interventions for reducing JHC (Hammer, Kossek, Yragui, Bodner & Hanson, 2009). Whenever the workers in the company juggle to balance the demands of work, organization support becomes an important reinforcement to manage their tasks (Bagger & Li, 2014). Concierges who experience a high level of JHC, would look for organization support (Hammer, Kossek, Anger, Bodner & Zimmerman, 2011).
H3: Organization support has a negative influence on JHC of the concierges
Friendly Policies: Another best component to reduce JHC is friendly policies. (Beehr & MC Grath, 2003). Employees will have low JHC if the organization is providing supportive policies. Friendly policies such as arrangements for adaptable working circumstances, baby care centers, and flexi time to meet domestic emergencies can reduce JHC (Doble & Supriya, 2010). Delayed working hours, which include late evenings or nights, rotating shifts, lack of control over work hours, and unpredictable scheduling requirements, are major causes of JHC. But these job features seem to be relevant to the hospitality industry. Swanberg, Werner & McKechnie (2008), argue that supportive organization friendly policies influence JHC. This means friendly policies have a negative influence on JHC (Henly, Shaefer & Waxman, 2006).
H4: Friendly policies have a negative influence on JHC of the concierges
Personal Responsibilities: Personal responsibilities are a specific variable that affects JHC. Personal responsibilities have an effect on JHC that depends on demographic characteristics of the concierges. Employees who are married and have children often have increased family demands (Jesse, Lindsey, Jacqueline, Malissa & Boris, 2011). In general, it is identified that concierges whose spouses are employed, face more JHC when compared to those whose spouses are not employed (Gamor, Amissah, Amissah & Nartey, 2017). This level is still high in the case of parents who are working (Gamor et al., 2017; Herman & Gyllstrom, 1977). This is due to the increased workload (Ford, Heinen & Langkamer, 2007). Therefore, it is viewed that if a concierge spends ample time on family/personal responsibilities, their JHC is also high (Keith & Schafer, 1984) in the hospitality industry.
H5: Personal relationships positively influence JHC of the concierges
Gender as a Moderator
Despite that there are many factors that influence JHC, few studies show that there is gender differentiation among those factors. Due to the changes occurring in work circumstances and erratic results, the need to extend the study with gender differences has been high. Gender role theory proposes that for male workers, the primary domain is their job, and for female workers, it is their household (Rajadhyaksha, Korabik, & Aycan, 2015). However, these differences may not be found uniformly. Recently, researchers have shown a few pieces of evidence that there is an insignificant bias between men and women.
This made us make a few changes in the factors...
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