Work-Life Conflict in Canada in the New Millennium

Chapter One

Introduction

The Blind Men and the Elephant by John Godfrey Saxe

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The first approached the Elephant
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! But the Elephant
Is very like a WALL!"

The second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! What have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me "'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a SPEAR!"

The third approached the animal
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a SNAKE!"

The fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain" quoth he,
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a TREE!"

The fifth who chanced to touch the ear
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a FAN!"

The sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope
Than seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see " quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a ROPE!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each were partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong?

What is work-life conflict? What can be done to reduce conflict between work and life? Why should we care? Much like the blind men and the elephant, conclusions about the prevalence, impact and reduction of work-life conflict depend very much on how it is defined. To get a comprehensive view of work-life conflict and to understand its effects, one has to examine the phenomenon from a number of different angles. Otherwise, just like the blind men in the poem above, we will jump to the wrong conclusions with respect to the prevalence of work-life conflict at this time within the Canadian workforce, its impacts on employees, their families and their employers, who is at risk and how it can be reduced.

Work-life conflict broadly defined in this study

We all play many roles: employee, manager, spouse, parent, child, sibling, friend, and community member. Each of these roles imposes demands on us that require time, energy and commitment to fulfill. Work-family or work-life conflict¹ occurs when the cumulative demands of these many work and non-work roles are incompatible in some respect, so that participation in one role is made more difficult by participation in the other role².

Various theoretical frameworks are used in the research literature to look at the relationship between work and life. The most well-known of these models includes role conflict and role spillover. Briefly, the role conflict model is based on the assumption that the more roles one occupies, the higher the potential for stress and strain due to the incompatibility of the demands imposed by the different roles and the fact that the different responsibilities compete for time and energy (i.e. role overload, role interference). Spillover theory, on the other hand, postulates that the experiences an individual has when performing one set of roles impacts their performance of other roles (i.e. work to family spillover). While spillover can, in theory, be either positive or negative, the majority of research in this area is based on the assumption that spillover is undesirable. This body of research frequently talks about 'role strain' which refers to the negative interference an employee experiences when the demands associated with one domain affect their performance in the other domain (e.g. caregiver strain).

This research conceptualizes work-life conflict broadly to include role overload, role interference and caregiver strain. A working definition for each of these constructs is given in Box 1. Role interference is conceptualized in this study to consist of two factors: family interferes with work and work interferes with family. In the first case, interference occurs when family-role responsibilities hinder performance at work (e.g. a child's illness prevents attendance at work; conflict at home makes concentration at work difficult). In the second case, interference arises when work demands make it harder for an employee to fulfill their family responsibilities (e.g. long hours in paid work prevent attendance at a child's sporting event; preoccupation with the work role prevents an active enjoyment of family life; work stresses spill over into the home environment and increases conflict with the family).

In other words, work-life conflict is defined in this research as having two major components: the practical aspects associated with time crunches and scheduling conflicts (e.g. role interference), and the perceptual aspect of feeling overwhelmed, overloaded or stressed by the pressures of multiple roles (e.g. role overload, caregiver strain).

Objectives of Report Six

The 2001 National Work-Life Conflict Study and the reports produced from this research to date (see Box 2 for a list of the reports and where they can be found) have given business and labour leaders, policy-makers and academics an objective 'big picture' view of this issue. This report, the last in the series of six reports, provides a summary of the key findings and recommendations coming from this research program.

The goal of this report is to produce one document that summarizes key findings, conclusions and recommendations from these five reports. The reader who wishes to read about how the study was done and the methodologies used will find them in the reports listed in Box 2. This report was created to help key stakeholders understand and deal effectively with work-life conflict and make the business case for change. It does this in four ways. First, it quantifies the prevalence of the various forms of work-life conflict. Second, it quantifies the costs of each of these forms of imbalance to key stakeholders (i.e. employees, families, organizations, and governments).

Third, it identifies the key risk factors associated with the different forms of work-life conflict. Finally, it summarizes what key stakeholders can do to increase work-life balance. In other words, this report offers readers a primer on the four key forms of work-life conflict, by summarizing what we know about this conflict, why it needs to be reduced, who is most likely to experience it, and what can be done.

The report is divided into seven chapters including the introduction. Chapter two outlines what this study has told us about the men and women who work for Canada's largest employer. Chapters three (role overload), four (work interferes with family), five (family interferes with work) and six (caregiver strain) are each devoted to one of the four forms of work-life conflict considered in this research initiative. Each of these four chapters begins with a definition of the construct under consideration and then summarizes what we know about the prevalence of this type of work-life conflict. Data answering the following questions are then presented: What situations and conditions put employees at risk with respect to this form of work-life conflict? What are the costs associated with this type of work-life conflict? What can the various parties do to reduce this form of work-life conflict? Chapter seven provides a summary of key conclusions and recommendations arising from this substantive body of research.