University of Sargodha

Noon Business School

Work Family Conflict and Emotional Exhaustion

Impact on Organizational Commitment

Submitted by:
Niroze Ali Ahmad (BBAF18E02)
Muhammad Bilal (BBAF18E04)
Sohail Amin (BBAF18E021)
Shahzaib Arshad (BBAF18E024)
Kishmala Nayyab (BBAF18E32)
Ahtesham Asif (BBAF18E 36)
Group7
Program BBA (Hons) SS
Semester 7TH (Self Support)
Work Family Conflict and Emotional Exhaustion

Impact on Organizational Commitment

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of family conflict at work, emotional
exhaustion and internal motivation in the organization’s active commitment to employees. In this
study the descriptive research design was used and the population of the study became 203
respondents. The type of data used is primary data which is collected in the form of
questionnaires. The analysis used was aided by SPSS and the AMOS data analysis process. A
simple sampling method was used to analyze the study. The results show that there is an
important relationship between family conflict and emotional exhaustion in organizational
commitment.

Introduction

Organizational commitment (OC), defined as a person-related energy. Identifying and

participating in an organization (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979: 226). The Meyer and Allen
(1991) three-part commitment model was created to argue that commitment has three distinct
components associated with different mental states. Successful Commitment (good emotional
commitment of the employee), Continuing commitment (part of "necessity" or loss compared to
loss) and general commitment (rewards, compensation and other strategies). Lee and Ashforth
(1996) found that family conflict at work and emotional exhaustion were negatively related to
employees' commitment to the organization.

Employees are the most valuable asset of an organization. They are responsible for the success or
failure of the firm, besides, the commitment of employees is the most important factor in the
success of an organization. Consistent and hardworking employees are the key to rich and
respected organizations. For this purpose, employees can face many problems. They must
maintain balance in their work and in family life. Employees must work hard for their
organization to move forward. According to Ariel Russel Hochschild, 1998, overwork and
timely hours lead to emotional exhaustion which negatively affects the organization's
commitment to employees.

Numerous studies have shown the importance of organizational commitment and its impact on
staff motivation and organizational performance. According to Meyer and Allen (1991),
organizational commitment is based on two perspectives on ethics. Mowday, Porter, and Steers
(1982); Reicher (1985); Salancik (1977); Scholl (1981); and Staw (1977), in reviewing the
theory of organizational commitment, demonstrated the difference between an emotional
commitment and a moral commitment. According to Hardiningsih et al. (2020), organizational
commitment is an important factor in creating accountability. Organizational commitment
predicts job variables as profitability, the ethical conduct of the organization, and the
performance of the task. Some of the factors such as role oppression, empowerment, job
insecurity and unemployment, and the distribution of leadership have been shown to be linked to
a sense of organizational commitment (Dirani and Kuchinke, 2011). Celis 2018, refers to the
organization’s commitment as the mental and individual commitment of the individual.

Incompatible needs between work and family lead to a constant declining physical as well as
emotional, resulting in extended working hours, continued stress, mistreatment of employees,
lack of involvement in decision-making in the organization. This situation is under investigation,
due to work Family conflict and emotional education lead to results organizational commitment
(Sengun & Yilmaz, 2018). The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of conflict in the
workplace family and the emotional exhaustion on the organization’s active commitment to
employees.

Problem Statement

Incompatible needs between work and family lead to a constant declining physical as well as
emotional decline, resulting in extended working hours, continued stress, mistreatment of
employees, lack of involvement in decision-making in the organization. This situation is under
investigation, due to work Family conflict and emotional education lead to the result of
organizational commitment (Sengun & Yilmaz, 2018).

Research Questions:

1. What is impact of emotional exhaustion on organizational commitment?

2. What is impact of work family conflict on organizational commitment?
3. What is the impact of Work-family conflict on emotional exhaustion?
4. What is the impact of Work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion on
organizational commitment?

Broader objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of family conflict on the job and emotional
exhaustion on the organization’s commitment to employees. Specifically, we have discussed the
conflict in the workplace of married couples with or without children, siblings, friends and other
relationships.
Specific objective

To find out

● Impact of emotional exhaustion on organizational commitment.

● Impact of work family conflict on organizational commitment.
● Kind of work-life balance should an employee create.
Impact of intrinsic motivation on organizational commitment

Literature Review

According to the Job-Demands-Resources model, job requirements place significant pressure on

employees, which is detrimental to their health, physically and mentally, unless they are
provided with quality work resources such as job feedback, organizational support, decision-
making, community support., and performance management (Bakker et al., 2003; Demerouti et
al., 2001; Kinnunen et al., 2008). They work hard and dedicate themselves to their team,
Karatepe et al unless they are disturbed in the air and leave.

Armstrong-Stassen et al. (1998) identified organizational support as one of the resources that can
help to reduce the long-term impact of job needs. According to Bakker et al. (2004), when
marketers feel supported, emotionally drained and highly committed to the company. They are
more focused on customers and less likely to give up goals. As a result, organizational
development is needed to retain company employees. When a person is given tasks outside of his
or her job, he or she believes that his or her abilities are not evaluated, degrading and
unsatisfactory (Locander et al., 2004). Suppose a salesman is assigned a management task rather
than a sales pitch. If so, you will find it stressful, and you will feel like you are wasting your time
on activities unrelated to his job, which may lead to an increase in his or her desire to resign
(Babakus et al., 1999; Maslach and Jackson, 1981). As well as making the employee less
committed to the company.

Employee behavior is shaped by organizational plans and strategies (e.g. Gibson et al., 1973). In
the case of core values, methods such as incentive programs, customer support programs, or
training programs installed in the institution encourage or discourage employees from working in
accordance with the principles announced by the company. Employees in industries with basic
values such as “speed” or “convenience,” for example, may be frustrated by a lazy and
inefficient IT system. An employee's commitment to his organization is a necessary tool to get
him started because the more committed an employee is to his organization, the more loyal he is
to the company's principles and the more motivated he is to do something more with his
intelligence. To achieve the goals of the organization. He expresses a desire to be its long-term
member (Mowday et al., 1979).

Employees will contribute significantly to business goals if they are complemented and
motivated by their work (Kuwaas, 2006a). Low response rates reduce the perceived benefits of
PA, Latham. Performance appraisal and general superordinate feedback capture the hearts of
employees, making them feel more talked about by the manager and their strategies, objectives,
and vision, leading to a growing organizational commitment (2003). Compared to a person who
is less committed to a company, a person with a higher level of organizational commitment will
have a stronger desire to participate in the development of the firm. His level of organizational
commitment determines the value of his work in the organization, giving him opportunities for
advancement in his career. Meyer et al. (1993).

The implementation of human resource development contributes to the organization's

performance in terms of morals and growth (Becker and Huselid, 1998; Huselid, 1995).
Although the positive relationship between HRM and organizational commitment is predicted
even in the Arabian Gulf, strong HRM processes are positively associated with organizational
performance from a global perspective. In corporate communication, a high level of trust,
honesty, and impartiality leads to satisfaction, and a high level of trust leads to emotional
commitment to the company (Questar, 2005; Mohr and Spekman, 1994; Schul et al., 1985)).

Work-family Conflict

The concept of family and work conflict has been defined by Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, &
Rosenthall (1964) using the role theory framework. They suggested that the main determinant of
a person's behavior is to anticipate what others have in him or her. Role play predicts that the
expectations surrounding each of the different roles one performs can create a role conflict when
it involves the pressure to dominate a focused person’s time to meet all of his or her job and
family roles as each role requires. time, energy and commitment. Using this framework, Kahn et
al. (1964) defined family conflict in the workplace as a form of conflict between roles where role
presses from work and family areas are not mutually exclusive. Such inconsistencies are
reflected in the fact that participation in the work environment is made more difficult due to
participation in the family role and vice versa.

Workplace conflict is an important gender factor that determines mental health (Bilodeau et al.,
2020; Korabik et al., 2008). This feature highlights conflicts between roles where pressures from
work and family are incompatible (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). The family conflict of work is
a double construction: work may disrupt the family (WIF) and family may disrupt the work
(FIW).

Emotional exhaustion

Emotional exhaustion, the main cause of fatigue, is characterized by fatigue, irritability,

frustration and increased feeling, and eliminates employee resources (Maslach & Jackson, 1981).
Emotional fatigue has been previously studied in service organizations that work directly with
users, such as those in the health service. Healthcare professionals work in unhealthy
environments, which can lead to feelings of emotional exhaustion. (Gilbert, Laschinger, &
Leiter, 2010; Maslach & Leiter, 2016). high job demands may make public health professionals
feel physically and emotionally exhausted leading to a state of emotional exhaustion. Resource
retention theory (Hobfoll & Freedy, 1993) suggests that emotionally exhausted employees do not
have enough energy to do their job properly, which may result in lower levels of job satisfaction
or greater profit motive (Laschinger, Wong, & Grau, 2012); Suner-Soler ˜ et al., 2014).
Emotional employees are less likely to develop feelings of job satisfaction, which undoubtedly
have a negative impact on their inner satisfaction (Tarcan, Hikmet, Schooley, Top, & Tarcan,
2017).

Organizational Commitment

Organizational commitment is defined as “an attitude that reflects the work relationship with the
organization, and that influences the decision to continue or discontinue membership” (Meyer &
Allen, 1991). Mowday et al. (1979) define organizational commitment as “the related power of
personal identification and association”. Employees are considered to be the most important role
players in any organization. They can be game changers for success or failure for their firms
(Azim, 2016). The relationship between an employee and his or her affiliate is seen as a means
of long-term public consultation (Blau, 1964).

Conceptual Framework

Work Family Conflict Emotional Exhaustion

Organizational commitment
Hypothesis development theory:

Hypothesis(H1)

All the information gathered about the factors affecting the variable under study which is
organizational commitment reveals that there exist inverse relation between work family conflict
and organizational commitment, if an employee is not able to fulfill his family requirement when
he is doing his job, he will be fatigued emotionally feeling stressful and exhausted, studies
reveals that when an employee is provided with enough resource to handle both his personal and
professional duties, it results in tense and stressful situations for him on both sides (Greenhaus
and Beutell, 1985).

(H 1) There is a significant and negative relationship between work family conflict and affective
organizational commitment.

Hypothesis(H2)

When people experience emotional exhaustion, it can cause them to feel emotionally drained,
frustrated, and tired. These feelings usually form in the long run, although people may not notice
the first warning signs. This can have a profound effect on a person's daily life, relationships, and
behavior. In this article, we discuss the symptoms, causes, and risk factors for emotional fatigue,
and we look at many ways in which people can treat or prevent it from happening.

H2: There is a positive relationship between emotional exhaustion and effective organizational
commitment.

Methodology

This study was conducted to assess the impact of Employee family conflict and emotional
exhaustion on the organization’s commitment involved. The questionnaire is used for the
collection of key data from various trade unions. The questionnaire includes 3 assessment tools,
family conflict at work, emotional exhaustion and organizational commitment. Age, gender,
education, organization time, marital status, and number of children were assessed as precursors
for family and work conflicts, emotional exhaustion and commitment that affected the
organization.

Identification of measures:

Haslam, D., Filus, A., Morawska, A., Sanders, M. R., & Fletcher, R. (2015)

● My work prevents me spending sufficient quality time with my family

● There is no time left at the end of the day to do the things I’d like at home.
 ● My family misses out because of my work commitments.
● My work has a negative impact on my family life.
● Working often makes me irritable or short tempered at home.
● My work performance suffers because of my personal and family commitments.
● Family related concerns or responsibilities often distract me at work.
● If I did not have a family I’d be a better employee.
● It is difficult to concentrate at work because I am so exhausted by family responsibilities.
● My family has a negative impact on my day to day work duties.

Emotional Exhaustion

(Pines & Aronson, 1981)

● At work, I feel mentally exhausted.

● Everything I do at work requires a great deal of effort.
● After a day at work, I find it hard to recover my energy.
● At work, I feel physically exhausted.
● When I get up in the morning, I lack the energy to start a new day at work.
● I want to be active at work, but somehow, I am unable to manage.
● When I exert myself at work, I quickly get tired.
● At the end of my working day, I feel mentally exhausted and drained.

Organizational Commitment

(Mowday, Steers, And Porter, 1979)

 I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected in order
to help this organization be successful.
 I talk up this organization to my friends as a great organization to work for.
 I feel very little loyalty to this organization.
 I would accept almost any type of job assignment in order to keep working for
this organization.
 I find that my values and the organization’s values are very similar.
 I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization.
Hypothesis

H 1There is a significant and negative relationship between work family conflict and affective
organizational commitment.

H2: There is a positive relationship between emotional exhaustion and effective organizational
commitment.

H3: Emotional exhaustion and work family conflict significantly explain the variance in affective
organizational commitment.

Findings:

In this study 3 variables were used; Work family conflict, emotional exhaustion and
organizational commitment. Work family conflict and emotional exhaustion was identified as
independent variable, organizational commitment as dependent variable. The set-up of SPSS-23
and Amos was used to analyze the data.

A questionnaire was developed for employees in an organization to study work life balance.
From a population of 208 participants, the sample size reduced to 193 due to certain outliers. The
items for each construct were measured in scale, instead of nominal or ordinal. The study also
included demographic variables such as; gender, age, occupation. And a 5-point likers scale was
used ranging from 1 to 5; strongly disagree to strongly agree. Out of 193 respondents, none of
the data or question was unfilled by any of the respondents which indicates that data did not have
any missing value and accuracy of data was 100% correct.

The box plot for each item of the variable was normally distributed data as mean, median and
mode were equal. The normality analysis was done for the data above stating the value of
skewness ad kurtosis between +-1 and +-3 respectively. And the difference of mean and 5%
trimmed mean did not exceed 0.05.

All hypothesis was one-tailed checked for multicolinearity in exogenous/independent variable

whose threshold was below 0.7 tested for bivariate correlation under the two-tailed test for
significance. The data was further tested for validity and reliability through the measure of
Cronbach alpha whose value is greater than 0.7 which indicates that items in questions and their
data is more than 70% reliable.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis; CFA is used to test consistency of measures for variable and
researcher's understanding of the nature of that construct or variable. All the latent variables are
selected and estimates are calculated seeing 'standardized regression weights' only. For CFA all
the factors are having standardized estimate value greater than 0.5 so, the data is ready for further
regression or structural equation model.

The work family conflict hypothesis is supported with standardized estimate of .077 and P value
of .108 is no impact on organizational commitment. The emotional exhaustion hypothesis is
supported with standardized estimate of .098 and P value of .014 is negative and significant
impact on organizational commitment.

Estimate
WFC10 <--- Work .754
WFC9 <--- Work .877
WFC8 <--- Work .649
WFC7 <--- Work .740
WFC6 <--- Work .750
WFC5 <--- Work .535
WFC4 <--- Work .630
WFC2 <--- Work .497
OC1 <--- Commitment .574
OC2 <--- Commitment .715
OC4 <--- Commitment .723
OC5 <--- Commitment .729
OC6 <--- Commitment .796
EE8 <--- Emotional .776
EE6 <--- Emotional .797
EE5 <--- Emotional .488
EE4 <--- Emotional .743
EE1 <--- Emotional .806
Structured Estimate Model:

Regression Weights: (Group number 1 - Default model)

Estimate S.E. C.R. P Label

Commitmen .07
<--- Work -.124 -1.609 .108
t 7
Commitmen .09
<--- Emotional .243 2.469 .014
t 8
WFC10 <--- Work 1.000
.08
WFC9 <--- Work 1.078 12.119 ***
9
.10
WFC8 <--- Work .936 8.885 ***
5
.08
WFC7 <--- Work .812 10.093 ***
0
.08
WFC6 <--- Work .836 10.299 ***
1
.08
WFC5 <--- Work .656 7.494 ***
8
.09
WFC4 <--- Work .820 8.758 ***
4
.08
WFC3 <--- Work .593 6.918 ***
6
.07
WFC2 <--- Work .528 7.334 ***
2
.08
WFC1 <--- Work .481 5.865 ***
2
EE8 <--- Emotional 1.000
.10
EE7 <--- Emotional .701 6.721 ***
4
.10
EE6 <--- Emotional 1.157 10.786 ***
7
.10
EE5 <--- Emotional .755 7.231 ***
4
.09
EE4 <--- Emotional .977 10.205 ***
6
.10
EE3 <--- Emotional .633 6.147 ***
3
.08
EE2 <--- Emotional .534 6.430 ***
3
.10
EE1 <--- Emotional 1.155 11.147 ***
4
OC1 <--- Commitment 1.000
 Estimate S.E. C.R. P Label
.17
OC2 <--- Commitment 1.261 7.272 ***
3
.19
OC3 <--- Commitment -.738 -3.745 ***
7
.19
OC4 <--- Commitment 1.417 7.209 ***
7
.19
OC5 <--- Commitment 1.436 7.318 ***
6
.17
OC6 <--- Commitment 1.358 7.738 ***
5

Conclusion

All the information gathered about the factors affecting the variable under study which is
organizational commitment reveals that there exist inverse relation between work family conflict
and organizational commitment, if an employee is not able to fulfill his family requirement when
he is doing his job, he will be fatigued emotionally feeling stressful and exhausted, studies
reveals that when an employee is provided with enough resource to handle both his personal and
professional duties, it results in tense and stressful situations for him on both sides (Greenhaus
and Beutell, 1985). When a person has to handle two responsibilities in two different situations
at a time, he will have to skip one of them, in such a situation when an employee suffers from
role conflict, he does not care about his social status and his contributions to the firm resulting in
decreasing levels if commitment to the organization and breakdown of emotional resources
(Weitz et al., 2007). The person has to choose between one of the orders, under all these negative
factors the motivation level of the employee will be discouraged and he will lose self-confidence
as well. Results reveal that work family conflict has negative impact on organizational
commitment, same is the case with emotional exhaustion that is negatively associated with the
commitment.

Limitations & Recommendations

This study has been conducted in a limited place under limited resources, sample size was quite
small, which may have some effects in the findings and information of this paper, moreover this
study has been conducted in single organization, university of Sargodha, including more
organizations and making cross organizational study must have put more better effects on the
results, besides this, this study reveals that organization should formulate much better policies
that should support their employee, the personal responsibilities of an employee must be
accounted when formulating policies and rules, hard work and honesty of employees must be
appreciated in order to boost up employees that will ultimately result in increased organizational
commitment. Internal communication between employees and top management must be
flourished to make them feel known and recognized in there firm.

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