Abstract : Work-home Interface and Job Satisfaction

This post is an abstract of my Master 1 thesis which was entitled Work-home Interface and Job Satisfaction.

Introduction

Since the beginning of the 2000’s and the arrival of new ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) like smartphones or the Internet, private and work lives were not separate anymore. Indeed, an employee can now receive and read an e-mail even after his working hours as well as he can get a message from his family when he’s at work. In addition, new ways of working like teleworking or non-standard working times are also partipating in this work-home interface’s deterioration.

In 2013, a new law changed teacher’s recruitment. As a result, new teachers now have to graduate a master degree while they are already working. As a consequence, some new teachers have felt dissatisfied with their job because of their heavy workload and its consequence on their private life. Additionally, resignments increased. So the government promised better incomes or possibilities of advancement, which are two aspects of job satisfaction.

According to this actuality, I decided to study the relations between work-home interface and job satisfaction, and I did it in a larger research about quality of working life that I conducted with a Master classmate.

Work-home Interface and Job Satisfaction

On the first hand, work-home interface is defined as the limit between work life and private life and it allows both positive and negative exchanges between these lives. Various studies have explained us that this interface is influenced by gender (women having a more negative interface by men), family life, and work conditions. This work-home balance has an impact on work commitment, job satisfaction and the employee’s health

On the other hand, job satisfaction can be defined as a dynamic emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job experiences, and it is influenced by the balance between employee’s expectations and work reality. Researchs have explained that job satisfaction is linked to variables like autonomy, locus of control, sources of motivation, freedom of speach, age, income, work-home interface and the meaning the employee gives to his work. They have also showed that job satisfaction influences work commitment, desire to resign, work performances or the employee’s health.

Hypothesis

We made four hypothesis :

• Firstly, gender has an impact on work-home balance and that women have more negative effects than men.
• Secondly, employees with a family life have a worst work-home balance than others.
• Thirdly, work-home interface is correlated with job satisfaction.
• Finally, work-home interface is predictive of job satisfaction.

Method

In order to assess the work-home interface, we used the SWING (Survey Work-home Interaction Nijmegen) in its french version. Indeed, this survey assess both negative and positive exchanges between private and professional lives. We also used the MSQ (Minnesota Satisfaction Questionaire) in its french version to assess job satisfaction. Indeed, we chose the MSQ because it’s a short survey which evaluate every dimension of job satisfaction like autonomy, job’s variety of tasks, moral values, income, advancement, relations with colleagues etc.

As explained before, our study was incorporated in a larger one about quality of working life. Then, the full questionnaire was made with Google Docs and we published it on various social networks and the university’s forum. Our target population was every francophone employees and we succeeded in having 92 participants.

In order to analyze our results, we used the Mann-Whitney U test to verify our hypothesis about the impact of gender and family life. Then, we used Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient in order to test our hypothesis about the link between work-home interface and job satisfaction. In the end, we used a multiple regression analysis in order to verify that work-home interface was predictive of job satisfaction.

Results

To begin with, we have confirmed our hypothesis about the impact of gender. Nevertheless, women had more positive exchanges between work and private lives than men, instead of negative ones.

Then, we couldn’t validate our hypothesis about the impact of family life. Indeed, there was no difference between employees who have children and the others. In addition, instead of having a worst work-home balance, employees who were in a relationship had better exchanges between their work life and their private one.

Finally, we have found a correlation between work-home interface and job satisfaction and we have showed that the effects of work life on private life were predictive of job satisfaction. Nonetheless, private life’s effects are not predictive.

Discussion

At first, our study has showed that negative effects of work life on private life increased since a similar study conducted in 2005.

We were also able to validate our hypothesis concerning the relations between work-home interface and job satisfaction. Indeed, these concepts are correlated and work life effects are predictive of job satisfaction. Unfortunately, our hypothesis about the impact of gender and family life were wrong and our results have explained that women of our sample perceived better than men the positive effects of both life on the other one, as well as employees with a relationship did compared to single ones.

To conclude, our reseach has explained that it is important to study work-home interface when we want to understand job satisfaction. Nevertheless, our study had some limits and could be improved if replicated. Indeed, it could be important to use the long version of the MSQ in order to study the relations between work-home interface and every dimension of job satisfaction instead of studying job satisfaction as a global concept. It could also be better to have a more diversified sample of population, because ours was predominantly comprised of young people without children and who had a recent work.

Key words : job satisfaction, satisfaction at work, work-home balance, work-home interface, quality of work life, SWING, MSQ