Cultural Impacts On The Antecedents And Consequences Of Work-family Conflict In China And The United Kingdom

Work-family conflict has received increased attention in recent decades due to the drastic changes in the workplace and family structures. However, prior studies are conducted mostly in US and western countries, and very few have explored cultural differences.Based on the literature on work-family conflict and relevant cultural theories, this thesis incorporates and extends the existing models to explore more in-depth cultural impacts on the work-family conflicts in contemporary China and UK. This thesis also compares the results of two contrast groups, namely Chinese young group and US group to test the potential changes of culture and the differences between UK and US which both belong to the individualistic culture.Quantitative method is mainly adopted in this thesis. Excel and SPSS 13.0 are the main tools employed to conduct Independent T-test, Bivariate, One-way ANOVA, MANOVA, with an aim to test the differences between UK and China as well as the two contrast groups. The analysis suggests significant differences in work-family conflict between China and UK, despite similarities on a few items. Results show that the Chinese tend to spend more time on work-related social activities, resulting in more Work-to-family Conflict (WFC). The Chinese also score lower on both job and family satisfaction. The thesis also finds that family support could reduce the level of FWCThis thesis has both academic and practical implications. Theoretically, it adds to the extant cross-cultural studies of work-family conflict by identifying several cultural constructs; practically, it underlines the importance of"family friendly"policies, which may spur the organizations and government in both countries, in particular China, to come up with more policies to help solve the work-family conflict issues of the employees.