Journals Proceedings

Abstract

The connection of work family conflict and employee wellbeing has been widely researched in Western countries. The present study investigated the relationship between work family conflict (work to family conflict and family to work conflict) and employee wellbeing in Malaysia. Testing the hypotheses of Karasek’s model (Job-Demand-Control Model) [27] and Johnson & Hall’s model (Job-Demand-Control-Support Model) [25], this study also examines the moderating effect of job control and social support on the relationships. Survey data includes 1125 manufacturing employees from twelve workplaces. Hierarchical regression analyses reveal that work family conflict, job control and social support explained 5.9-29.2% of the variance in each of wellbeing indicators (job satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect). The moderating effects of job control are not supported by the data. However, there were significant two-way interactions (FWC and social support on job satisfaction (β = -.090, SE = .016, p < .01); WFC and social support on positive affect (β = -.106, SE = .021, p < .01)). Interestingly, the pattern of the two-way interaction reflects a reverse buffering effect of social support - employees with high WFC and low social support reported increasing levels of job satisfaction and positive affect, whereas, employees with high work family conflict and high social support reported decreasing levels of job satisfaction and positive affect. The implications of the findings regarding the main and moderating effects of job control and social support are also discussed.