Well-being: Its relationship with work-to-family conflict and burnout among males and females

Abstract

The present study aims to apply gender-specific analyses to examine how work-to-family conflict (WFC) and burnout are related to well-being among the workers in Taiwan. A cross-sectional research design was adopted. A questionnaire was distributed to obtain information pertaining to demographic characteristics, WFC, burnout, and well-being. In total, 4259 full-time workers in the manufacturing industry were recruited. Gender-specific statistical analyses were used. The results showed that no significant gender difference occurred on WFC; however, females had higher scores on burnout compared to males. In the correlation analyses, WFC as well as burnout were negatively associated with well-being in both genders. In the regression analyses when demographic factors were controlled, burnout explained larger variances of well-being in both genders compared with WFC. WFC made a smaller contribution to the models predicting well-being in males in contrast to females. Moreover, the significant association between WFC and well-being for males disappeared when burnout was taken into account. The conclusion reached was that to improve workers’ well-being, organizations should develop relevant policies to decrease the extent of burnout for different genders. The policies that the organization adopted should consider females’ needs beyond work-related burden. Moreover, merely decreasing the extent of WFC is insufficient to enhance males’ well-being.