Evaluating the Relationship between Work-Family Conflict and Organisational Commitment among Rural Women Health Workers in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the relationship between work-family conflict and organisational commitment among rural women health workers in Ebonyi State. In doing this, a field survey of 345 working women in 87 government-owned health centres and health posts was conducted. Quantitative data was collected via questionnaire, and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The results revealed statistically significant negative correlation between time-based family-to-work conflict and organisational commitment, and between strain-based family-to-work conflict and organisational commitment. The results also showed insignificant negative correlation between behaviour-based family-to-work conflict and organisational commitment. The implication of these results is that working women's organisational commitment does not depend on work-related issues only but also on their family experiences; requiring organisations to introduce more environment-relevant family-friendly policies, and for their spouses to concede greater support (involvement) in women's domestic obligations. These measures would alleviate working women's family-to-work conflict and improve their commitment and performances at work. 1. Introduction Prior to the advent of Western education and values, the Igbo society was rural, agrarian, and traditional, as reflected in the novel: Things Fall Apart (Achebe 1994). Individual and collective behaviours were heavily defined and regulated by the customs and traditional norms of the community, which in turn, marked its identity as a people. Deviations from the culturally accepted standards of behaviour were sanctioned in specific ways, in order to enhance compliance. In the same vein, gender roles were defined by customs and traditions. Responsibilities at work, family, and community activities were along gender lines, which probably reflected Igbo cultural attribution of strength and weakness to masculinity and femininity, respectively. In the family, men were obligated to provide money for their families' upkeep ; construct, repair, and maintain family infrastructures including houses, fences, barns etc.; and to maintain the peace and security of their families, etc. Men were traditionally not obligated to engage in core domestic activities such as childcare, cooking and serving food, etc. It may even be considered 'unmanly' for men to engage in such domestic activities, except in exceptional circumstances such as ill-health and other emergencies. Women, on their part, bore children and managed the home. These responsibilities involved child and elderly care, cooking and serving food, washing clothes, and sundry domestic chores; often assisted by their children, house-helps, and/or relatives. Traditionally, few women engaged in paid-employment, probably because it was not their role to earn income for their families and/or because involvement in paid-employment encroached on the time, energy, and other resources women needed to carry out their family responsibilities, which were society's expectations of women. Women who routinely engaged in paid