Title: Influence of family-work conflict on career break decision among Indian women: when family ties, tie you down!

Authors: Jeanne Poulose; Vinod Sharma

Addresses: School of Business and Management, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Delhi NCR, India ' Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India

Abstract: The study is an attempt to understand the influence of the constructs in the family domain on the career break decision of women employed in the service sector in India - a country facing a conundrum of rising female literacy and falling workforce participation. This study proposes a model that explores the direct and indirect relationship between the antecedents of family-work conflict and intention to quit. Data from a sample of 346 women, who had experienced career-break in service sector, was collected through purposive sampling. The researchers probed the relationship between family-work-conflict and intention to quit and mediating influence of job and life satisfaction. Hypotheses were tested though structural equation modelling. Results confirmed that role-overload and gender-stereotyped beliefs were found to be the most significant constructs. Job satisfaction came across as having mediating effect. Stakeholders need to facilitate a path that permits her to continue to nurture her family without having to give up her dreams.

Keywords: career break; role conflict; role overload; family work conflict; intention to quit; job satisfaction; life satisfaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2024.136600

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2024 Vol.15 No.1, pp.1 - 22

Accepted: 05 Apr 2023
Published online: 08 Feb 2024 *