Abstract:
Work-to-family conflict has emerged as a rising issue for dual-earner families all over
the world. Now this pattern is rapidly and inevitably spreading into Sri Lanka as well. In
the wake of this, a better understanding of how to reduce work-to-family conflict has
become an important conundrum for individuals, families, and organizations. Still the
challenge remaining for researchers is to identify the unique antecedents and
moderators that influence work-to-family conflict. Based on scarcity, identity, and
value theories, we examined the direct and interactive effects of occupational role
salience and value of achievement on work-to-family conflict. More specifically the
direct effect of occupational role salience on work-to-family conflict was examined.
Then the moderator effect of value of achievement in the relationship between
occupational role salience and work-to-family conflicts were examined. This study was
conducted based on positivistic research paradigm. Survey data was collected from 167
dual-earner couples in Sri Lanka. All the variables in this paper have been measured
from the private sector employee perspective. A hierarchical multiple regression
analysis was conducted to test the hypothesised model. The results showed that over
salience in occupational role directly increases work-to-family conflict. Further, it
reveals that individual’s higher value of achievement directly impacts in elevating
work-to-family conflict. This research will contribute for advancement of the existing
knowledge as life role salience and values are still under researched areas in workfamily literature.
