Research on the relationship of work family conflict, work engagement and job crafting: A gender perspective

With the development of social economy and the transformation of family structure, the conflict between work and family is becoming more and more obvious, especially for professional women. Dual role pressures from the work family domains may reduce individual's engagement in work settings, consequently, exploring the coping strategy becomes imperative. The current study investigated the role of job crafting and gender on the work-family conflict based on a field survey of employees from China. The results showed that there was no significant difference between men and women in work-family conflict (both work interfering with family and family interfering with work). Neither men nor women would lower their work engagement when work interfered with family issues. However, when families interfered with work, women were becoming less likely to engage in work than men. Furthermore, job crafting was verified as an antecedent which reduced the influence of work on family in the male group. For female employees, job crafting helped to reduce the influence of family on their work. The current study would help to understand the impact of gender on work-family interface, and provide valuable implications for the organizational strategies and social support systems to deal with work-family conflict.