ABSTRACT
Women
in many cultural settings are responsible for taking care of the children, the
husband and the home. Women were
predominately housewives and men were breadwinners before the entrance of women
into the labor market. Times have
changed and women today are Chief Executives Officers and are represented in
all walks of life. This has not excluded
them from their roles as mothers, wives and caregivers. The working mother is presently faced with
conflict arising from her work and family life.
These challenges are more predominant in a cultural setting like
Nigeria, where there is a divide between the roles of a man and the woman. The organizational support, which is the form
of encouragement from the employer, job commitment which is seen as the
obligation of the employer and the employee and work-family conflict which is
considered struggle between work and family responsibilities were consider as
the main variables of this study.
The
study employed the survey design. The
population of the study is working mothers in universities in Lagos State.
Lagos State University and Caleb University were purposively selected. A sample
size of 266 working mothers was calculated with the use of Taro Yamane’s
formula. Validated questionnaire and interview guide were used in collecting
data. Reliability test of the questionnaire yielded a Cronbach’s Alpha value of
0.616 for organizational support, 0.664 for job commitment and 0.795 for
work-family conflict. Of the copies of the questionnaire administered, 214 were
retrieved. Key informant interviews were
conducted with senior official of both universities who are supervisors of
working mothers. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential.
The descriptive analysis used percentage count for the bio-data while
inferential analysis tested the correlation between the variables.
The
findings revealed that there is significant relationship between organizational
support and work-family conflict among working mothers(r = 0.358, p<0.05).
Again, there is significant relationship between job commitment and work-family
conflict among working mothers (r =
0.450, p<0.005) showed a significant and positive relationship. The analysis
revealed that 63.5% majority of the respondents in Lagos State University
(LASU) and 64.8% in Caleb University do not understand that organizational
policies are directed at them as working mothers to encourage them. In addition
work-family conflict affected working mothers in Caleb University more than
their counterparts in LASU as 54.8% of them spent 7 to 8 hours at work daily
while in Caleb University, 63.7% spent 9 to 10 hours at work daily.
The
study concluded that work family conflict affects working mothers in the
private universities more than their counterparts in the public
universities. The study recommends that
all organizations should make their policies documented and assessable. The
government should come up with a policy on six (6) months maternity leave for
all nursing mothers in both private and public sector.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background
to the Study
Women in many cultures are
seen as basically responsible for taking care of their children and husband.
They give birth to children, rear them and provide the necessary comfort for
the man. It is believed in most
cultural settings especially in Nigeria that the man as head and bread winner
should go out to fend for his family while to woman is to treat him as a king
when he comes back. Some cultures
especially in developing countries still believe that it does not worth
training the girl-child in western education. This is because of the archaic
notion that a ‘woman’s education ends in the kitchen’. The girl-child of today
becomes the mother tomorrow, so the training and preparation given to the
girl-child today determines who the mother of tomorrow will be. The holy book, the Bible in Genesis 3: 16
says that the desire of a woman shall be of her husband and he shall rule over
her. Therefore, many people see a woman as somebody that should not be
ambitious and does not have a life of her own. Women were seen as second class
citizens and as such were not given their rightful position in the
society. In some organizations, they
were not employed into some key positions because they were seen as being weak.
Women were predominately
house wives until the World War II, when they were needed to fill the gap in
the industries (Acemoglu, Autor and Davis 2004). Even after the war, when men
came back to the industries, women continued to be engaged in organizations.
Again the western education of the girl-child has brought women to the
limelight. It became obvious that women
could favourably compete with their male counterparts. However, the facelift in
the representation of women in the different walks of life comes at a high
price and sacrifice paid by mothers. The
responsibility of taking care of the home, husband and children is seen as the
sole responsibility of the woman in many cultural settings today. This gives
the woman more responsibilities than necessary. The economic and social changes
in the contemporary environment have brought additional responsibilities and a
new dimension to the roles played by women.
This change in the
predominant role of women in the society also has great impact on their
husbands. In Africa, before the
education and entrance of women into different careers, some house chores were
the exclusive preserve of women. Unfortunately, times are changing, in most
homes; some men now take up those responsibilities in order to keep the home
moving. Although, this is not still accepted in some cultures but it cannot be
compared with the situation before the twenty first century.
Employee - friendly organizations have done so much to
encourage the working mothers in their organizations to succeed in their
various jobs and at the same time enjoy a good family relationship. This is in
recognition of the important roles the mothers play both in the society and
their various families. The nature of the organization determines the kind of
support and the satisfaction that will be enjoyed by the employees. According to research findings by Mauno,
Kinnunen and Feldt (2012), in the paper mill, mothers benefited more from high
work-family support than fathers, while in Information Communication Technology
(ICT) Company, fathers benefited more than mothers. Thus high work-family support was associated
with higher job satisfaction among mothers in the paper mill and among fathers
in the ICT Company. Some of these
organizations see these supports as ways of encouraging their employees while
others see them as ways of ensuring a better life for the next generation. This is because, when a woman fails in her
responsibility of raising good children, the society suffers it since the
children will become nuisance to their environment.
This study intends to
consider the conflict working mothers experience in Lagos State because of the
uniqueness of the society. Lagos State
is the former capital of Nigeria and also presently the commercial capital of
Nigeria. It is known to be densely
populated with heavy traffic. Lagos had a population of about 25 million as at
2015. Lagos has experienced tremendous growth from a population of about 1.4
million in 1970 to 25 million in 2015. The State generates about 25% of the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria.
It is the most economically viable state in Nigeria (World Population
Review, 2015). The large and diverse population in Lagos State is as a
result of heavy migration from other parts of Nigeria. Lagos is the home for
women from different cultural backgrounds in Nigeria. Again there are working mothers in the
private and public sectors in Lagos State.
Some “Lagosians” leave their homes as early as 5 am and do not get back
to the home even as late as 10 pm. It is
interesting to state that some of these people are working mothers.
Organizational support is
“Employees’ perceptions about their organization’s support to them. It
influences worker’s commitment to the organization (Salim, Sadruddin and Zakus
2012). This suggests that it is what an
organization gives to the employees that it receives. In a research by Salim et
al (2012), it reveals that the performance of staff was significantly related
with the organizational support and commitment.
Some of these supports include organizational fairness, supervisor’s
support, support from colleagues and extrinsically satisfying job conditions. In some cases, the organization might not be
intentional about some of these supports, because it has become an
organizational culture but it goes ahead to help the employees to be
committed. Female supportiveness like
time off to attend doctor’s appointments, job security for pregnant women, not
missing out on promotion because of pregnancy/maternity leave, reassignment
from jobs that will not harm the foetus, working not more than forty hours
without pay reduction have been found important to working mothers (Metcalfe,
Vekved and Tough, 2014).
The organisation and the
employee both have responsibilities towards each other. This is based on Social
Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964); (Emerson, 1976) and Norm of Reciprocity
(Gouldner, 1960). Reciprocity is a social
norm that says that “people should help those who have helped them” and that
“people should not injure those who have helped them” (Gouldner, 1960, p. 171).
Considering the theory above, it is important for both the employee and the
employer to reciprocate each other’s commitment to ensure the realization of
the organizational goals. Any workforce
that is not satisfied cannot work effectively.
Gutrerrez, Candela and Carver (2012) see job
commitment as the organizational relationship which is the exchange of
resources between employee and the employer.
Each of the parties is expected to get something symbolic and tangible
from the relationship. Employees accept
a job offer in an organization because they have a personal and tangible need
they feel the organization will fulfil in them.
In the other way round, employers of labour do not just hire people but
they look for employees that will readily fit into whatever job they are being
employed for. When this condition is not
met in an employee’s life, she may think of a change of job in order to achieve
her goals. The organization may also
think of retrenching the employee or improving the performance of the employee
through training.
Work-family conflict (WFC)
is a form of inter- role conflict in which the demands of work and family roles
are mutually incompatible (Greenhaus and Beutell 1985). It refers to the inter-role conflict between
work and family (Vercruyssen andVan de Putte, 2013). The work-family interface can be both
positive (enriching) and negative (Grzywacz and Mark, 2000; Voydanoff,
2002). This suggests that conflict does
not necessarily mean negative as something good and meaningful can be made out
of it. The inter-role conflict between work and family is bi-directional. This is seen in work-interfacing-with-family
(WIF). WIF occurs when work role hinders
the fulfilment of role(s) in the family domain.
The other direction of it is family-interfering-with-work (FIW). FIW occurs when the family role(s) hinders
the role fulfilment in the work domain (Judge, Ilies, and Scott, 2006).
Work Family Conflict (WFC)
is derived from a scarcity hypothesis, which says that individuals have a fixed
amount of time and energy. In line with
this hypothesis, those who try to maintain the competing demands of work and
family are most likely to experience conflict (Comgoz 2014). A working mother
is a woman that is full-time employed and is still strongly identifying with
her parenting role (Page, 2013). This refers to a woman that is gainfully
employed either to identify with her career or financially support her family
or even both and is still keeping up with her family responsibilities as a
mother. According to the European Union “the female employment rate rose to 58%
over the past decade. Bethge and
Borngraber (2015), affirms that “this development contributes to emancipation,
better family income, social acknowledgement, self-esteem and
self-realization”.
According to Miller (2005), typical
ideologies of motherhood differ across societies and contexts. Despite the fact
that every woman that has a child is referred to as a mother, motherhood
differs from culture to culture and from society to society. In line with this,
it depends on who the woman takes herself to be. In some cultures as alluded by
(Duncan 2005) motherhood defines a woman and so a woman is believed to be
incomplete or seen as not haven achieved enough
except she has a child or children as the case may be. This is
responsible for the conflict women experience, trying to strike a balance
between family life and work responsibilities.
1.2. Statement
of the Problem
Times are changing and
several women have emerged as chief executive officers of multinational
corporations and Heads of government of countries. In Africa, the current president of Liberia
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a woman. Women
have gained high visibility in all walks of life.
Despite the importance of child upbringing to the society, the Nigerian
government does not have adequate welfare packages to support mothers who have
chosen to be off work and take care of their children. This is unlike Canada
where a woman who voluntarily stays off work to rear her children gets up to
$50 monthly (for non-diary diet) from the government as welfare support towards
her family (Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services 2016). Some of
these women in Nigeria are either bread winners or single parent. This leaves the heavy burden of taking care
of their children solely on them. The socio cultural landscape has continuously been
witnessing positive shift from the traditional role of women (Khan, 2014).
In Nigeria, the last few
years have witnessed increase in the number of kidnapping and abuse of
children. A great number of these crimes
go on while the woman is busy at work. Most of the child abusers are people known
to the children. Even children kept in
the day care centre, most times, are left until very late in the night before
the parents will come for them. Many
children have stayed for days without seeing their mother not because they
travelled but as a result of their coming home when the children have slept and
also leaving the home early the next morning while the children are still
sleeping. There was a recent case in Uganda were a home keeper by name Jolly
Tumhiirwe abused a child kept under her care.
She claimed she maltreated the toddler as revenge to the mother for
beating her (BBC News December 15, 2014). It was uncovered with the help of the Circuit
Camera Television (CCTV) father
installed. Perhaps many innocent
children may have died in this manner while the parents could not trace what
happened to them. All these take place
while the woman is at work looking for how to take care of the family or
pursuing her career.
Employers expect their
working mothers to be committed to their responsibilities as pledged at the
entry point. It is difficult for an
employee that is not committed to faithfully fulfil her obligations to the
employer. This brings to focus the
importance of job commitment to both the employer and the employee. The fact
that one is a working mother does not in any way suggest that the employee
should not be committed and effectively deliver her responsibilities. It is expected that the working mother should
as much as possible ensure that her family life does not in any way affect her
commitment and support to the achievement of her organizational goals.
The combination of the
different roles most times leads to conflict between the two domains of life.
It is important for the researcher to find how the working mother will be able
manage her various responsibilities and at the same time optimally achieve her
goals in her employment. There has been increase in the number of women in the
workforce recently (Khan 2014). This can
be traced to the harsh economic situation experienced in different countries,
where the man alone will not be able to support the finances of the
family. In most cultural settings, the
house chores are still regarded predominantly as the role of the woman. Again, most of these women join the workforce
before or during their child-bearing years (Hill, Nash and Citera 2011). This does not go without conflict between the
family and work. Nature has given women the responsibility of pregnancy and
rearing children. It does not matter the
cultural background, ideally the responsibility of carrying pregnancy to term
and nurturing life is that of a woman. The support of the employing
organization towards encouraging the woman during these important and critical
years of her life is necessary.
1.3. Objective
of the Study
The main objective of the
study is to investigate the relationship between organizational support, job
commitment and work- family conflict among working mothers in Lagos State
Nigeria. The specific of objectives are to:
- investigate the relationship between
organizational support and job commitment among working mothers in Lagos
State;
- examine the effects of work-family conflict on
job commitment among working mothers in Lagos State;
- determine the organizational policies that are
aimed at encouraging working mothers in Lagos State and
- examine comparatively the differences between work-family conflict on working mothers in private and public sectors in Lagos State.
1.4. Research
Questions
This research answered the
following:
- What is the relationship between organizational
support and job commitment among working mothers in Lagos State?
- What are the effects of work-family conflict on
job commitment among working mothers in Lagos State?
- What organizational policies are aimed at
encouraging working mothers in Universities in Lagos State to overcome
work-family conflict?
- What are the comparative differences between work-family conflict
on working mothers in public and private Universities in Lagos State?
1.5.
Hypotheses
The hypotheses were tested
at 0.05. This research considered the following research hypotheses:
H01: There is
significant relationship between organizational support and work-family conflict among working mothers and
H02: There is
significant relationship between job commitment and work-family conflict
among working mothers.
1.6. Justification
for the Study
The recent
increase in the number of women in the workforce resulted in family and
societal problems. Mothers leave their
home in Lagos as early as 5 am to come back as late as 10 pm. Many infants in Lagos spent four to five days
in a week without setting their eyes on their mothers. This is because they children will be
sleeping in when morning when their mothers are leaving. At night, they would have gone back to bed
when the mother will come back. These
children are left in hands of caregivers.
The mother comes back to ask the caregiver of how the day went and
leaves instructions for the next day. Many of these women use the phone to
monitor the activities of the care-giver in the day which will never be as
effective as the woman taking care of her child or children.
Women who
are not gainfully employed to contribute to the family needs are seen in the
present society as liabilities to the husband.
They are not respected by their friends and sometimes, their family
members. Women now see themselves as assets that should prove their worthy and
not mere housewives that will be ordered around. Women are competing with men
in all spheres of life and most times neglecting their families.
Again, the
moral decadency in the society is a total reflection of what is happening in
our individual families. It is from the
family that children join the larger society.
Some of these children have not been tamed from their various homes and
as a result constitute problem to the society.
Most mothers today do not have a clear picture of the character of their
children. It is unfortunate that most
women are so busy that they become aware of the ills happening in their homes
when it has become public knowledge.
They would have been able to nip the problem on the board assuming they
knew early enough.
The
employers of labour expect much from the working mothers. The fact that one is
a working mother can never be an excuse for mediocrity. Sometimes they even
have more responsibilities than their male counterparts because of the
positions they occupy. Every employee
that receives salary from the organization is expected to add value to the
employer. This is a better time to understand the conflict between work and
family among working mothers in Lagos State.
This will be studied in relation with the organizational support and
their job commitments.
1.7. Significance
of the Study
There have been many studies
on the work-family conflict in women. Again many other researchers like (Jijena
-Michel and Jijena -Michel 2015, Jung and Hepper 2015, Khan 2014, Sultana 2012)
have tried to understand and find solutions to the challenges of working
mothers, but there are very few studies on working mothers in Nigeria. This
research would uniquely consider working mothers in Lagos State Nigeria in
relation with their work-family conflict, organizational support and job
commitments.
This study is intended to
help women to balance their work and family life in a way that none would be
negatively affected and at the same time live a happy life. A working mother that is not living a
balanced life cannot give her best to her employer. This study would help women
to consider their family life and family supportive organizations before
accepting a job opportunities. It would
help working mothers to understand their responsibilities to their employers
and ensure compliance. It would also
enable employers of labor to better understand the conflict mothers in their
organization are going through and address it as appropriate. It is believed to serve as data for future
researcher and can be of used by policy makers.
1.8. Scope
of the Study
This research work studied
working mothers in both public and private universities in Lagos State
only. The study specifically considered
working mothers in two universities in Lagos State. One public and one private
university were studied. Lagos State
University (LASU) Ojo was studied as a public university. Lagos State
University is a public university owned by the Lagos State government. The
study also considered Caleb University Imota as a private university in Lagos
State. Caleb University is a private university owned by Prince Oladega
Adebogun.
The choice of Lagos State is
because of her strategic nature as the former capital of Nigeria, the economic
hub of the nation and the economic capital of West Africa. Lagos host working mothers from different
walks of life and diverse cultural backgrounds. Lagos State contributes 25% of
Nigeria’s GDP. A study on Lagos is
believed to represent about one fourth of the economic activities in Nigeria.
This study intends to study
women who have worked for at least two year and have at least a child whether
biological or adopted. This is to solicit for first-hand information as working
mothers are expected to share their lives experiences.
1.9. Operational
Definition of Terms
Organizational commitment: mechanisms put in place by the employer to support
employees to have a balanced family-work life and to be a family friendly
organization.
Job commitment: The
obligations of both the employer and the employee towards the success of the
job.
Work-family conflict : This is the clash as a result of work
responsibilities that spill over to family related responsibilities
Family: the smallest and closest unit of the society with closely knitted
members who are legally and most times have blood relationship.
Work:
Any gainful employment for which one receives salary to take care of family
needs.
Conflict: Clash in two or more responsibilities seeking for maximum attention.
Support: Complementary or help to
alleviate the concerns of employees
Organization: A legal or formal entity that has explicit purpose
and has employees
Commitment: A binding obligation to fulfil some accepted
responsibilities
Working mothers: Women who have children and are at the same time
working full time.
1.10. Organization of the Study
This research work has been
presented in five chapters. Chapter one
contains the introduction, statement of the problem, objectives of the study,
research questions, hypotheses, justification of the study, significance of the
study, scope of the study, operational definition of terms and organization of
the study. Chapter two reviewed the
relevant literatures, theoretical framework and exposed the gap in literature.
Chapter three discussed the introduction, research design, population, sample
size and sampling technique, method of data collection, sources of data
collection, research instrument, validity of the research instrument,
reliability of research instrument, method of data analysis and ethical
consideration. Chapter four contains data presentation, analysis,
interpretation and discussion of findings while chapter five contains summary
of findings, conclusion, recommendations, recommendation for further studies
and contribution to knowledge.
================================================================
Item Type: Postgraduate Material | Attribute: 136 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Price: N3,000 | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment