Work-Life Balance: A study on the effect of conflict and facilitation amongst life roles on psychological well-being and quality of life of individuals in Hong Kong

Abstract

Objectives. This study investigates the conflict and facilitation among three different categories of life roles, namely work, family/friendship, leisure/recreation, and how these affect psychological well-being.

Method. A sample of 143 working people in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire that analyses the conflict and facilitation among work, family/friendship, and leisure/recreation roles and its influence on their psychological well-being.

Results. Results of multiple regression analyses revealed that conflict and facilitation from non-work roles examined in this study, i.e. family/friendship and leisure/recreation, are reliable predictors of psychological well-being. Non-work role-based facilitation that is the enriching effects of engagement in family/friendship and leisure/recreation roles has been found to be significant in promoting psychological well-being of individuals. Significant negative relationship has been shown between non-work role-based conflict and psychological well-being, i.e. interference from family/friendship and leisure/recreation roles to the performance of other roles, has lower psychological well-being. The overall effect of the four predictors, non-work and work role-based conflict and facilitation in predicting the overall life satisfaction of individuals was showed to be significant but no significant effect was found on individual predictor. Non-work and work role-based conflict and facilitation were not reliable predictors for satisfaction with family, friendship and work domains in the sample of this study. Non-work role-based conflict and work role-based facilitation were found to be significant predicators of satisfaction with leisure domain. Non-work role-based conflict was showed to be negatively affecting leisure satisfaction. Work role-based facilitation was found to predict leisure satisfaction in a positive manner.

Discussion. Work-life balance has often been discussed in terms of work-family conflict; in particularly work-to-family conflict as higher levels of work-to-family conflict was reported than family-to-work conflict. According to the results of this study, it is the influence of non-work roles which affect the psychological well-being and satisfaction of individuals in leisure role. Current efforts by individuals and organizations in enhancing the workplace to make it more facilitative to the performance of non-work roles may not indeed beneficial to individuals in terms of promoting their psychological well-being. Review in the present focus of work-life discussion on how non-work lives can be enhanced by reducing conflict and increasing facilitation to better fit with work life was called for so as to promote the psychological well-being of individuals. Further studies should be carried out to examine whether the findings are only pertinent to Hong Kong people.