Exploring the mediating role of job and life satisfaction between work-family conflict, family-work conflict and turnover intention

PurposeThis study investigates the influence of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict on turnover intention (career break), mediated through job and life satisfaction among Indian women in the service sector, using role conflict theory as the base.Design/methodology/approachA total of 421 usable responses from women who had taken a career break were collected using a 36-item scale from six major metro cities in India through social and digital media platforms. A purposive-cum-snowballing sampling method was adopted. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS.FindingsFindings suggest that job satisfaction (JS) is a significant predictor of turnover intention, both when work spills into the family domain, and family responsibilities spill into the work domain, thereby confirming the mediating influence of JS. Interestingly, life satisfaction (LS) only seems to mediate between inter-domain conflict and turnover intention partially.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a descriptive study, and is thereby limited in terms of its generalizability, specifically as it included respondents only from six major metro cities in India.Practical implicationsThe extended work-family conflict model could help managers structure organizational interventions that support women to deal with the challenges of managing the demands of both work and family domains, thereby reducing the negative influence on JS. Such initiatives could help reduce career breaks among women.Originality/valueWe explored the cause of career breaks among Indian urban women employed in the service sector, using the extended model of inter-role conflict and their attitudes towards both life and job.