Browsing by Subject "work-family conflict"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Social support and work-family conflict amongst low-income workers in South Africa: the relationship between social support and work-family conflict amongst low-income workers in South Africa
    (2025) Walters, Alexandra; Bagraim, Jeffrey
    Although most workers are challenged by competing work and family demands, lowincome workers are under-represented in work-family research. Work-family conflict (WFC) dynamics differ for low-income workers, who generally differ in access and resources available to higher-wage workers inside and outside of the workplace. Little is known about the support resources low-income workers draw on to manage WFC. Without formal organisational support, low-income workers tend to rely on interpersonal relationships in the workplace, family and community; the latter have attracted little research attention. The prevailing understanding, rooted in resource-based stress theory, is that support has a direct ameliorative effect on WFC. This study investigates the direct and interactive predictive effect of collegial, organisational, family, and community support on the WFC of low-income workers. It also examines how organisational support for family mediates the effect of supervisor support on WFC. Data was collected using a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional research design using self-report questionnaires. Participants were front-line, low-income workers in cleaning, catering, and security functions employed across multiple sites at a large outsourcing company (N= 339). The study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the WFC experiences of low-income workers, a group that has been underrepresented in research. By focusing on this demographic within a specific organisational context in South Africa, the study aims to uncover the unique challenges front-line, low-income employees face in balancing work and family responsibilities. The differential experiences of support among low-income workers highlights the need to understand the effect and interaction of different sources of support. Research results indicate that collegial support has a significant negative relationship with work-to-family and family-to-work conflict, while organisational support for family had a significant negative relationship with family-to-work conflict and not work-to-family conflict. However, community and family support were not seen to have a significant relationship with WFC. The results on the mediating effect of organisational support for the family were not significant. The implications for these findings are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The experiences of academics working remotely during the Covid-19 Pandemic in South Africa
    (2022) Zwelibanzi, Thembakazi; Jaga, Ameeta
    Academics needed to urgently move to remote working from their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and develop new ways of teaching and research, to ensure the continuity of the academic project. The purpose of the study was to explore this experience during this uncertain time. Using an interpretive research design, fifteen in-depth semi structured interviews were conducted with academics at a South African university. Following the COVID-19 rules and regulations, all interviews were conducted virtually using Microsoft Teams. Thematic analyses of the data yielded four key themes: (1) Managing work-family boundaries, (2) Exhaustion and institutional support, (3) Remote work as a transition exercise, and (4) The balance between greater flexibility and loss of human interaction. Implications for universities in retaining academics and future research ideas are presented.