Investigating the Impact of Conflicting Roles of Work and School on Service Providers: An Abstract

Abstract

Job stress, lower job satisfaction, and role stress (role conflict and role ambiguity) result in deviant behaviors which could be directed toward the organization, colleagues, or customers (Darrat et al. 2010). Various forms of inter-role conflict have been found to significantly affect job outcomes. Conflict resulting from family and work roles has been studied extensively in the literature. Grounded in role theory and conservation of resources theory, this study investigates work-school conflict (WSC) and school-work conflict (SWC) and their effects on restaurant service providers. A 2011 US Census Bureau survey showed that of the 19.7 million students aged 16 and over enrolled in undergraduate college, 72% held some full-time or part-time job, and 82% of the 4.1 million graduate students were holding some job position too (Davis 2012). WSC was first conceptualized by Markel and Frone (1998) who found that workload, number of hours worked, and job dissatisfaction were positively related to WSC and negatively related to school outcomes. They called for WSC and SWC to be investigated more in the research. Inbar Kremer (2016) investigated the relationship between school-work-family conflict, subjective stress, and burnout and found that SWC was the only one of the six forms of inter-role conflict that contributed significantly to subjective stress and burnout. This may suggest that SWC may be a more significant form of inter-role conflict than all the other forms of inter-role conflict. SWC has been found to have a negative relationship with health outcomes (Giancola et al. 2009). However, taking up multiple roles can also have positive effects. Studies have found some positive relationships between work-school enrichment and some organizational and school-desired outcomes. What factors determine when the school and work roles enrich each other? When do they conflict? How can this conflict be resolved? The current study makes the following contributions: (1) The conceptualization of interrole conflict as asymmetrical expands our understanding of role conflict, (2) investigates the impact of Work-School and School-Work conflict on both school and work-related outcomes (specifically objective turnover which is very important for service providers), and (3) uses multigroup analysis to investigate the differential effects of conflict on men and women.