The Role Of Family And Work Stressors On Employee Attitudes And Wellbeing

This thesis comprises two separate studies,each designed to form an independent contribution.The aim of this study was to explore the role of family and work stressors on employee attitudes and well-being.The study was motivated by the importance of the work and family domains in an individual employee’s life,and how stress that emanates from either domain could impact employee attitudes and well-being.The study was further motivated resource spillover between work and family domains.According to Radó,Nagy,& Király,(2016)the spillover theory argues that an individual’s life domains are integrated;meaning that well-being can be transmitted between life domains.Radó,Nagy,& Király,(2016)further posit that Spillover means much more than a simple cause-and-effect influence from one sphere to another,but rather the phenomenon that activities in one role can benefit an individual’s activity in another role.Radó,Nagy,& Király,(2016)posit that due to the spillover process,strong connections between work and family life are observable,and similarities are generated.Negative similarities between these two life domains,are called negative work-to-family spillover.On the note of affective spillover,Greenhaus & Powell,(2006)posit that people bring home work-related moods or attitudes.Both moods and attitudes belong to affective spillover;but mood is easily diffused,whereas attitude is more stable and long lasting.This paper aims to focus on the effect of family and work stressors on employee attitudes and well-being,further exploring the spillover effect into the other domains.Using ten Brummelhuis & Bakker(2012)Work-Home Resources model(W-HR model),this study tested the role of family and work stressors on employee attitudes and well-being using the conservation of Resources theory(COR)as the theoretical framework on which the study hangs.COR theory describes how people react to the stressors they encounter in their environment and how those encounters influence their well-being(Hobfoll,Halbesleben,Neveu,& Westman,2018).This study employed the quantitative method with a deductive approach.Survey questionnaires were used to collected data.Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 21.0Pearson Product-Moment Correlation analysis and standard Multiple regression analysis were used to analyze quantitative data.Study 1 was conducted at the Ministry of Social Development in the months of July and August 2020,and the second study was conducted in at the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Lesotho,in the months of September and October2020.Study 1 used a sample of 150 employees from different departments within the Ministry of Social Development.The aim of this study was to explore how family incivility affected employee engagement.The findings of the study suggested that family incivility has a negative effect on thriving at work(β =-.209,p<.021).Results also suggested that thriving at work has a positive effect on employee engagement(β =.558,p<.001).Results further showed that thriving at work mediates the relationship between family incivility and employee engagement(β =.474,p<.001),such that the effect of family incivility is less significant to employees who are thriving in their jobs as opposed to those who are not thriving in their jobs.The moderating effect of supervisor support on the relationship between family incivility and employee engagement was tested using Andrew Hayes Process.The findings suggested that supervisor support moderates the mediated path between thriving at work and employee engagement,such that employees that get support from the supervisors experience greater work engagement than those who do not receive support from their supervisors.Study 2 used a sample of 122 employees from the different departments of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.The aim of the study was to explore the effect of abusive supervision on employee well-being.Results showed that abusive supervision had a negative effect employee well-being(β =-.162,p<.010).The study further explored mediating role of ego depletion on the relationship between abusive supervision and employee well-being.Results showed ego depletion mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and employee well-being(β =-.194,p<.007).The moderating role of grit on the relationship between abusive supervision and ego depletion was also tested.Results suggested that grit moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and ego depletion(β =.264,p<.046),such that employees with high levels of grit are hardly affected by abusive supervisors as opposed to those with lower levels of grit.This study highlighted the organizational and individual-level attributes necessary to counter stress that originates from the work and family domains.The study highlighted that managers need to offer support to their supervisors to help them deal with stress that emanates from the family domain.The study also highlighted that employees need to develop an attribute of grit to be able to withstand abusive supervision.The study further contributed to literature extending the Work-Home Resources Model by addition of thriving at work and grit as key resources.This made for a significant contribution to family incivility and abusive supervision literature.