Organizational support, job commitment and work- family conflict among working mothers in universities in lagos state

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong></p><p><strong>1.1. &nbsp; &nbsp; Background to the Study</strong></p><p>Women in many cultures are<br>seen as basically responsible for taking care of their children and husband.<br>They give birth to children, rear them and provide the necessary comfort for<br>the man. &nbsp; It is believed in most<br>cultural settings especially in Nigeria that the man as head and bread winner<br>should go out to fend for his family while to woman is to treat him as a king<br>when he comes back. Some cultures<br>especially in developing countries still believe that it does not worth<br>training the girl-child in western education. This is because of the archaic<br>notion that a ‘woman’s education ends in the kitchen’. The girl-child of today<br>becomes the mother tomorrow, so the training and preparation given to the<br>girl-child today determines who the mother of tomorrow will be. The holy book, the Bible in Genesis 3: 16<br>says that the desire of a woman shall be of her husband and he shall rule over<br>her. Therefore, many people see a woman as somebody that should not be<br>ambitious and does not have a life of her own. Women were seen as second class<br>citizens and as such were not given their rightful position in the society. In some organizations, they were not employed<br>into some key positions because they were seen as being weak.</p><p>Women were predominately<br>house wives until the World War II, when they were needed to fill the gap in<br>the industries (Acemoglu, Autor and Davis 2004). Even after the war, when men<br>came back to the industries, women continued to be engaged in organizations.<br>Again the western education of the girl-child has brought women to the<br>limelight. It became obvious that women<br>could favourably compete with their male counterparts. However, the facelift in<br>the representation of women in the different walks of life comes at a high<br>price and sacrifice paid by mothers. The<br>responsibility of taking care of the home, husband and children is seen as the<br>sole responsibility of the woman in many cultural settings today. This gives<br>the woman more responsibilities than necessary. The economic and social changes<br>in the contemporary environment have brought additional responsibilities and a<br>new dimension to the roles played by women.</p><p>This change in the<br>predominant role of women in the society also has great impact on their<br>husbands. In Africa, before the<br>education and entrance of women into different careers, some house chores were<br>the exclusive preserve of women. Unfortunately, times are changing, in most<br>homes; some men now take up those responsibilities in order to keep the home<br>moving. Although, this is not still accepted in some cultures but it cannot be<br>compared with the situation before the twenty first century.</p><p>Employee – friendly organizations have done so much to<br>encourage the working mothers in their organizations to succeed in their<br>various jobs and at the same time enjoy a good family relationship. This is in<br>recognition of the important roles the mothers play both in the society and their<br>various families. The nature of the organization determines the kind of support<br>and the satisfaction that will be enjoyed by the employees. According to research findings by Mauno,<br>Kinnunen and Feldt (2012), in the paper mill, mothers benefited more from high<br>work-family support than fathers, while in Information Communication Technology<br>(ICT) Company, fathers benefited more than mothers. Thus high work-family support was associated<br>with higher job satisfaction among mothers in the paper mill and among fathers<br>in the ICT Company. Some of these<br>organizations see these supports as ways of encouraging their employees while<br>others see them as ways of ensuring a better life for the next generation. This is because, when a woman fails in her<br>responsibility of raising good children, the society suffers it since the<br>children will become nuisance to their environment.</p><p>This study intends to<br>consider the conflict working mothers experience in Lagos State because of the<br>uniqueness of the society. Lagos State<br>is the former capital of Nigeria and also presently the commercial capital of<br>Nigeria. It is known to be densely<br>populated with heavy traffic. Lagos had a population of about 25 million as at<br>2015. Lagos has experienced tremendous growth from a population of about 1.4<br>million in 1970 to 25 million in 2015. The State generates about 25% of the<br>Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Nigeria. <br>It is the most economically viable state in Nigeria (World Population<br>Review, 2015). The large and diverse population in Lagos State is as a<br>result of heavy migration from other parts of Nigeria. Lagos is the home for<br>women from different cultural backgrounds in Nigeria. Again there are working mothers in the<br>private and public sectors in Lagos State. <br>Some “Lagosians” leave their homes as early as 5 am and do not get back<br>to the home even as late as 10 pm. It is<br>interesting to state that some of these people are working mothers. </p><p>Organizational support is<br>“Employees’ perceptions about their organization’s support to them. It influences<br>worker’s commitment to the organization (Salim, Sadruddin and Zakus 2012). This suggests that it is what an organization<br>gives to the employees that it receives. In a research by Salim et al (2012),<br>it reveals that the performance of staff was significantly related with the<br>organizational support and commitment. <br>Some of these supports include organizational fairness, supervisor’s<br>support, support from colleagues and extrinsically satisfying job conditions. In some cases, the organization might not be<br>intentional about some of these supports, because it has become an<br>organizational culture but it goes ahead to help the employees to be<br>committed. Female supportiveness like<br>time off to attend doctor’s appointments, job security for pregnant women, not<br>missing out on promotion because of pregnancy/maternity leave, reassignment<br>from jobs that will not harm the foetus, working not more than forty hours<br>without pay reduction have been found important to working mothers (Metcalfe,<br>Vekved and Tough, 2014).</p><p>The organisation and the<br>employee both have responsibilities towards each other. This is based on Social<br>Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964); (Emerson, 1976) and Norm of Reciprocity<br>(Gouldner, 1960). Reciprocity is a social<br>norm that says that “people should help those who have helped them” and that<br>“people should not injure those who have helped them” (Gouldner, 1960, p. 171).<br>Considering the theory above, it is important for both the employee and the<br>employer to reciprocate each other’s commitment to ensure the realization of<br>the organizational goals. Any workforce<br>that is not satisfied cannot work effectively.</p><p>&nbsp;Gutrerrez, Candela and Carver (2012) see job<br>commitment as the organizational relationship which is the exchange of<br>resources between employee and the employer. <br>Each of the parties is expected to get something symbolic and tangible<br>from the relationship. Employees accept<br>a job offer in an organization because they have a personal and tangible need<br>they feel the organization will fulfil in them. <br>In the other way round, employers of labour do not just hire people but<br>they look for employees that will readily fit into whatever job they are being<br>employed for. When this condition is not<br>met in an employee’s life, she may think of a change of job in order to achieve<br>her goals. The organization may also<br>think of retrenching the employee or improving the performance of the employee<br>through training.</p><p>Work-family conflict (WFC)<br>is a form of inter- role conflict in which the demands of work and family roles<br>are mutually incompatible (Greenhaus and Beutell 1985). It refers to the inter-role conflict between<br>work and family (Vercruyssen andVan de Putte, 2013). The work-family interface can be both<br>positive (enriching) and negative (Grzywacz and Mark, 2000; Voydanoff,<br>2002). This suggests that conflict does<br>not necessarily mean negative as something good and meaningful can be made out<br>of it. The inter-role conflict between work and family is bi-directional. This is seen in work-interfacing-with-family<br>(WIF). &nbsp;WIF occurs when work role hinders<br>the fulfilment of role(s) in the family domain. <br>The other direction of it is family-interfering-with-work (FIW). FIW occurs when the family role(s) hinders<br>the role fulfilment in the work domain (Judge, Ilies, and Scott, 2006).</p><p>Work Family Conflict (WFC)<br>is derived from a scarcity hypothesis, which says that individuals have a fixed<br>amount of time and energy. In line with<br>this hypothesis, those who try to maintain the competing demands of work and<br>family are most likely to experience conflict (Comgoz 2014). A working mother<br>is a woman that is full-time employed and is still strongly identifying with<br>her parenting role (Page, 2013). This refers to a woman that is gainfully<br>employed either to identify with her career or financially support her family<br>or even both and is still keeping up with her family responsibilities as a<br>mother. According to the European Union “the female employment rate rose to 58%<br>over the past decade. Bethge and<br>Borngraber (2015), affirms that “this development contributes to emancipation,<br>better family income, social acknowledgement, self-esteem and<br>self-realization”.</p><p>According to Miller (2005), typical<br>ideologies of motherhood differ across societies and contexts. Despite the fact<br>that every woman that has a child is referred to as a mother, motherhood<br>differs from culture to culture and from society to society. In line with this,<br>it depends on who the woman takes herself to be. In some cultures as alluded by<br>(Duncan 2005) motherhood defines a woman and so a woman is believed to be<br>incomplete or seen as not haven achieved enough <br>except she has a child or children as the case may be. This is<br>responsible for the conflict women experience, trying to strike a balance<br>between family life and work responsibilities.</p><p><strong>1.2. &nbsp; &nbsp; Statement of the Problem</strong></p><p>Times are changing and<br>several women have emerged as chief executive officers of multinational<br>corporations and Heads of government of countries. In Africa, the current president of Liberia<br>Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a woman. Women<br>have gained high visibility in all walks of life. </p><p>Despite the importance of child upbringing to the society, the Nigerian<br>government does not have adequate welfare packages to support mothers who have<br>chosen to be off work and take care of their children. This is unlike Canada<br>where a woman who voluntarily stays off work to rear her children gets up to<br>$50 monthly (for non-diary diet) from the government as welfare support towards<br>her family (Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services 2016). Some of<br>these women in Nigeria are either bread winners or single parent. This leaves the heavy burden of taking care<br>of their children solely on them. The socio cultural landscape has continuously been<br>witnessing positive shift from the traditional role of women (Khan, 2014).</p><p>In Nigeria, the last few<br>years have witnessed increase in the number of kidnapping and abuse of<br>children. A great number of these crimes<br>go on while the woman is busy at work. Most of the child abusers are people<br>known to the children. Even children<br>kept in the day care centre, most times, are left until very late in the night<br>before the parents will come for them. <br>Many children have stayed for days without seeing their mother not<br>because they travelled but as a result of their coming home when the children<br>have slept and also leaving the home early the next morning while the children<br>are still sleeping. There was a recent case in Uganda were a home keeper by<br>name Jolly Tumhiirwe abused a child kept under her care. She claimed she maltreated the toddler as<br>revenge to the mother for beating her <em>(BBC<br>News December 15, 2014)</em>. It was<br>uncovered with the help of the Circuit Camera Television (CCTV) father installed. Perhaps many innocent children may have died<br>in this manner while the parents could not trace what happened to them. All these take place while the woman is at<br>work looking for how to take care of the family or pursuing her career.</p><p>Employers expect their<br>working mothers to be committed to their responsibilities as pledged at the<br>entry point. It is difficult for an<br>employee that is not committed to faithfully fulfil her obligations to the<br>employer. This brings to focus the<br>importance of job commitment to both the employer and the employee. The fact<br>that one is a working mother does not in any way suggest that the employee<br>should not be committed and effectively deliver her responsibilities. It is expected that the working mother should<br>as much as possible ensure that her family life does not in any way affect her<br>commitment and support to the achievement of her organizational goals.</p><p>The combination of the<br>different roles most times leads to conflict between the two domains of life.<br>It is important for the researcher to find how the working mother will be able<br>manage her various responsibilities and at the same time optimally achieve her<br>goals in her employment. There has been increase in the number of women in the<br>workforce recently (Khan 2014). This can<br>be traced to the harsh economic situation experienced in different countries,<br>where the man alone will not be able to support the finances of the<br>family. In most cultural settings, the<br>house chores are still regarded predominantly as the role of the woman. Again, most of these women join the workforce<br>before or during their child-bearing years (Hill, Nash and Citera 2011). This does not go without conflict between the<br>family and work. Nature has given women the responsibility of pregnancy and<br>rearing children. It does not matter the<br>cultural background, ideally the responsibility of carrying pregnancy to term<br>and nurturing life is that of a woman. The support of the employing<br>organization towards encouraging the woman during these important and critical<br>years of her life is necessary.</p><p><strong>1.3. &nbsp; &nbsp; Objective of the Study</strong></p><p>The main objective of the<br>study is to investigate the relationship between organizational support, job<br>commitment and work- family conflict among working mothers in Lagos State<br>Nigeria. The specific of objectives are to:</p><ol><li>investigate the relationship between<br>organizational support and job commitment among working mothers in Lagos<br>State;</li><li>examine the effects of work-family conflict on<br>job commitment among working mothers in Lagos State;</li><li>determine the organizational policies that are<br>aimed at encouraging working mothers in Lagos State and</li><li>examine comparatively the differences between<br>work-family conflict on working mothers in private and public sectors in<br>Lagos State.</li></ol> <br><p></p>