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Work-family and
Attitudinal and behavioral family-work
consequences of work-family conflict
conflict and family-work conflict
7
Does gender matter?
Received 11 April 2006
Ugur Yavas Revised 22 January 2007
Department of Management and Marketing, Accepted 20 March 2007
College of Business and Technology, East Tennessee State University,
Johnson City, Tennessee, USA
Emin Babakus
Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management,
Fogelman College of Business and Economics,
The University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, and
Osman M. Karatepe
School of Tourism and Hospitality Management,
Eastern Mediterranean University, Gazimagusa, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual model to examine the effects
of work-family conflict, family-work conflict, and emotional exhaustion on job performance and
turnover intentions. The paper also aims to investigate the role of gender as a moderator of the posited
relationships.
Design/methodology/approach – A sample of frontline hotel employees in Turkey serves as the
study setting. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires. A total of 723 usable responses
were obtained.
Findings – The results show that employees facing conflicts originating from their work (family) and
family (work) roles become emotionally exhausted. These two forms of interrole conflicts are also
significant predictors of frontline employees’ turnover intentions. Gender moderates several of the
relationships proposed in this paper.
Practical implications – Turkish hotels will benefit from establishing a family-supportive work
environment to lessen the detrimental impact of conflicts in the work-family interface on frontline
employees’ emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. A dual (i.e. gender-specific) approach appears to
hold promise in managing frontline employees.
Originality/value – When these results are compared to the results of studies conducted in western
countries, a number of similarities become evident. These similarities broadly suggest that research
findings derived from western countries are generalizable into a culturally different setting, and
support the premise that as traditional gender roles continue to expand and change, a convergence of
findings in work-family research takes place cross-culturally.
Keywords Family, Role conflicts, Employee attitudes, Gender, Hotels, Turkey
Paper type Research paper International Journal of Service
Industry Management
Vol. 19 No. 1, 2008
Introduction pp. 7-31
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
In an era of intense competitive pressures, dwindling resources and discerning 0956-4233
customers, service organizations including hotels, the setting of this study, realize that DOI 10.1108/09564230810855699
IJSIM attaining customer satisfaction through delivery of quality services is a key to their
19,1 survival and success. Accordingly, hotel executives engage in multi-pronged actions
ranging from innovative marketing and operational strategies to pointed competitive
analyses to better serve their customers and improve their profitability (Kashyap and
Bojanic, 2000; Yasin and Yavas, 2001; Yavas and Babakus, 2005). Astute hotel
executives also recognize that no strategy aimed at motivating, satisfying and
8 retaining external customers can be considered complete unless it includes programs
for reaching and winning over internal customers. To such executives, retention of
motivated, satisfied and committed frontline employees who can consistently deliver
high-service quality is as important to business success as customer satisfaction and
retention (Bowen and Ford, 2004; Kotler et al., 2006).
This is not surprising as frontline employees in service organizations, whether
they actually render the service or simply interact with customers face-to-face or
voice-to-voice, are the main actors in the delivery of service quality (Bettencourt and
Brown, 2003; Bettencourt and Gwinner, 1996). However, frontline employees are
often underpaid, typically work long hours, irregular schedules and carry heavy
workloads (Babin and Boles, 1998; Singh, 2000). These coupled with dramatic
changes in today’s social (e.g. entry of more women to the workforce and rise in the
number of dual-career couples; increased responsibilities to care for older, infirm
parents/relatives) and economic conditions (e.g. downsizing resulting in “lean and
mean” organizations necessitating the surviving employees to work even longer
hours) give rise to heightened conflicts between work and family roles (Halpern,
2005; Posig and Kickul, 2004).
The difficulties frontline employees experience in balancing the demands of their
multiple roles result in poor morale and can impact their performance and
commitment. Such employees can become emotionally exhausted and think of leaving
their organization (Boles et al., 1997; Karatepe, 2006). These adverse consequences can
indeed become quite costly. Emotional exhaustion undermines frontline employees’
performance and hinders effective customer service (Babakus et al., 1999; Cropanzano
et al., 2003; Wright and Cropanzano, 1998). Employees with intentions to leave may
reduce their productivity prior to quitting (Halpern, 2005). Furthermore, the costs of
actual turnovers (e.g. recruitment and training of additional staff, overtime payments
to existing staff to alleviate shortages, disrupted service, increased turnover among
remaining staff who feel pressured and overworked) can reach exorbitant proportions
(Frank et al., 2004; Hendrie, 2004).

Purpose
Against this backdrop, the purpose of the present study is twofold. First, it
develops and tests a model of frontline employees’ interrole conflicts (i.e. work-family
conflict and family-work conflict) and their impacts on emotional exhaustion, job
performance and turnover intentions, and between emotional exhaustion and job
performance and turnover intentions. Second, it examines the potential moderating
role of gender on these relationships. We test our model by using data collected from
frontline hotel employees in Turkey.
A study addressing these issues is relevant and significant. First, despite the
recognition that interrole conflicts can have detrimental effects on job outcomes,
the bulk of prior studies examine the separate influences of work-family conflict
(Babin and Boles, 1998; Boles et al., 1997; Carlson and Perrewé 1999; Parasuraman and Work-family and
Simmers, 2001) and to a lesser extent the impact of family-work conflict (Behson, 2002; family-work
Butler and Skattebo, 2004; Parker and Griffin, 2002) on job outcomes. Few studies
(Netemeyer et al., 2004; Posig and Kickul, 2004) consider the effects of both work-family conflict
conflict and family-work conflict simultaneously on emotional exhaustion and job
outcomes.
Second, despite the evidence that interrole conflicts may vary by gender (Boles et al., 9
2003; Peeters et al., 2005), empirical research on the moderating role of gender on the
relationships between conflicts in the work-family interface and emotional exhaustion
and job outcomes is very sparse (Eby et al., 2005; Poelmans et al., 2005). Third, the
preponderance of empirical research on the issues surrounding work-family conflict
and family-work conflict has been conducted in such developed countries as the USA
(Boles et al., 2003; Frone et al., 1997; Netemeyer et al., 2005), Finland (Kinnunen and
Mauno, 1998; Mauno and Kinnunen, 1999), and Australia (Elloy and Smith, 2003).
In fact, as Barnett and Hyde (2001) forcefully state, much of what we know on the topic
is based on studies of white, middle-class, urban Americans. Since, issues of work and
family are closely associated with a society’s culture and gender roles (Aryee et al.,
1999; Aycan and Eskin, 2005), extension of the research stream to other societies is
imperative for richer insights (Netemeyer et al., 2004) and to allow for informed
judgments regarding the generalizability of western findings.
Besides filling in these informational voids and serving as a frame of reference
for future research, the findings of the study may prove useful to managers.
An understanding of presence (or absence) of male-female differences in the
relationships between interrole conflicts, emotional exhaustion, job performance and
turnover intentions is crucial for managers in determining if an undifferentiated or
dual (i.e. gender-specific) approach is warranted in managing frontline employees
(Moncrief et al., 2000).
In the next section, we present our conceptual model and the relevant literature
leading to our specific research hypotheses. This is followed by discussions of the
method and results of the empirical study we conducted in Turkey, which bridges east
and west geographically and culturally. We conclude the paper with the implications of
the results and avenues for future research.

Conceptual framework and hypotheses

Figure 1 shows the conceptual model guiding our study. Based on extant literature, we
contend that interrole conflicts emanating from the demands of the two universal
domains of adult life, work and family, lead to emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, we
posit that employees experiencing work-family and family-work conflicts become poor
performers and think of leaving their organization. Our model also proposes that
emotional exhaustion results in poor job performance and a higher propensity to leave
the organization. Hence, the key underlying premise of our model is that work-family
conflict and family-work conflict impact the two critical job outcomes of performance
and turnover intentions both directly as well as indirectly through the mediating role of
emotional exhaustion.
In addition, we contend that there may be gender-based differences in the
relationships depicted in our model. Thus, we examine the moderating role of gender
on the relationships between work-family conflict and family-work conflict, and
IJSIM Work-family H2a (–) Job performance
19,1 conflict (WFC) (JP)

H3a (+)
H1a (+)
H4 (–)
Emotional
10 exhaustion
(EE) H5 (+)
H1b (+)
H2b (–)

Family-work Turnover intentions

conflict (FWC) H3b (+) (TI)

Control variables: Moderator:

Age, education, marital status, Gender (H6a – H6h)
Figure 1.
the number of children, and
Research model
tenure

emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. We also examine the role of gender as a
moderator of the relationships between emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. As
shown in Figure 1, we include age, education, tenure, marital status, and the number of
children as control variables in our conceptual model since they may influence the key
constructs and confound the relationships posited in the model.

Consequences of work-family conflict and family-work conflict

Work-family conflict and family-work conflict are distinct, but conceptually related
forms of interrole conflict (Frone et al., 1992; Netemeyer et al., 1996). Work-family
conflict refers to “a form of interrole conflict in which the general demands of, time
devoted to, and strain created by the job interfere with performing family-related
responsibilities” and family-work conflict refers to “a form of interrole conflict in which
the general demands of, time devoted to, and strain created by the family interfere with
performing work-related responsibilities” (Netemeyer et al., 1996, p. 401).
Both forms of conflict basically result from an individual’s attempts to meet an
overabundance of demands emanating from the home/family and work domains in
which the individual operates (Boles et al., 2001). The demands coming from
one domain make performance of roles in the other domain more difficult. In our model,
we contend that three consequences of work-family and family-work conflicts are
emotional exhaustion, poor job performance and higher turnover intentions.
Emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is the first stage of the burnout
syndrome (Cordes and Dougherty, 1993; Maslach and Jackson, 1981) and it occurs
when an individual faces seemingly overwhelming demands on his/her time and
energy. Depletion of emotional resources and a lack of energy characterize emotional
exhaustion (Gaines and Jermier, 1983). Precepts of three well-endorsed theoretical
frameworks (interrole conflict theory, identity theory, and conservation of resources –
COR theory) suggest that work-family and family-work conflicts can lead to emotional
exhaustion.
 First, according to the interrole conflict theory, since work-family and family-work Work-family and
conflicts arise from opposing pressures due to participation in different roles family-work
(Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985), individuals are likely to experience emotional
exhaustion when they try to meet the demands of work and family roles. Second, the conflict
identity theory suggests that individuals hold multiple role identities and invest
themselves in maintaining the identities that are salient to them (Thoits, 1991). Under
these circumstances, work-family conflict or family-work conflict prevents individuals 11
from fulfilling the demands of their work or family role, and lead to heightened
emotional exhaustion. Third, the COR theory suggests that individuals seek to acquire,
maintain and preserve certain resources (e.g. time, energy) (Hobfoll, 1989). Since,
individuals are likely to lose such resources while juggling both work (family) and
family (work) roles, the COR theory leads to the conclusion that conflicts arising from
work (family) interfaces should result in emotional exhaustion.
Emotional exhaustion appears to be prevalent among employees in people-oriented
jobs (Babakus et al., 1999; Karatepe, 2006) such as our study setting, and prior empirical
research indicates that employees who experience elevated levels of work-family
conflict are more likely to be emotionally exhausted (Bacharach et al., 1991; Boles et al.,
1997; Mauno and Kinnunen, 1999). Likewise, in a recent study, Posig and Kickul (2004)
report that family-work conflict as well leads to emotional exhaustion. Based on the
preceding discussion and findings, we propose the following hypotheses:
H1a. Work-family conflict is positively related to frontline employees’ emotional
exhaustion.
H1b. Family-work conflict is positively related to frontline employees’ emotional
exhaustion.
Job performance. In this study, job performance is defined as “the level of productivity
of an individual employee, relative to his or her peers, on several job-related behaviors
and outcomes” (Babin and Boles, 1998, p. 82). Work and family are the two important
domains of adult life. Problems associated with one domain (e.g. work) spillover to the
other domain (e.g. family) (Williams and Alliger, 1994), and detract from the limited
resources (e.g. time, energy) people have in fulfilling their multiple roles (Hobfoll, 1989).
Empirical research reveals that work-family conflict has a detrimental impact on
performance (Aryee, 1992; Frone et al., 1997; Netemeyer et al., 2004). Anecdotal evidence
by the Family and Work Institute as well indicates that employees who cannot
balance their work demands with home and family responsibilities experience negative
spillovers resulting in decreased job performance (Netemeyer et al., 2003). There is also
evidence indicating that family-work conflict decreases employees’ work-related
performance (Frone et al., 1997; Netemeyer et al., 2004). Accordingly, we propose the
following hypotheses:
H2a. Work-family conflict is negatively related to frontline employees’ job
performance.
H2b. Family-work conflict is negatively related to frontline employees’ job
performance.
Turnover intentions. The COR theory contends that once employees recognize that
they may not be able to cope with difficulties arising from work-family conflict, they
IJSIM attempt to preserve their scarce resources by thinking about leaving their current
19,1 organization (Grandey and Cropanzano, 1999). Indeed, Allen et al.’s (2000)
meta-analytic inquiry suggests that turnover intentions is the job outcome most
closely associated with work-family conflict. This is a conclusion supported by more
recent research (Anderson et al., 2002; Boyar et al., 2003). Although limited in number,
there is also empirical support that family-work conflict and turnover intentions are
12 related (Boyar et al., 2003). It appears that individuals who are more sensitive to family
life may be willing to meet their family demands at the expense of losing their role in
the workplace (Armour, 2002). In light of the aforementioned findings and discussion,
we propose the following hypotheses:
H3a. Work-family conflict is positively related to frontline employees’ turnover
intentions.
H3b. Family-work conflict is positively related to frontline employees’ turnover
intentions.

Consequences of emotional exhaustion

Emotional exhaustion is not only a serious outcome in itself resulting in depletion of
one’s valuable resources as discussed in the COR theory, but it is also a significant
determinant of such job outcomes as job performance and turnover intentions.
Individuals who no longer possess the adequate resources to cope with emotional
exhaustion display decreased job performance and a higher propensity to leave the
organization. For instance, Babakus et al. (1999) reported that salespeople experiencing
higher emotional exhaustion demonstrated lower job performance. This finding is also
supported by the results of Cropanzano et al.’s (2003) and Wright and Hobfoll’s (2004)
recent studies.
Extant research also shows that emotional exhaustion is a critical determinant of
turnover intentions (Boles et al., 1997; Cropanzano et al., 2003). A more recent Turkish
study reached the same conclusion and indicated that emotional exhaustion exerts a
strong positive impact on frontline employees’ intentions to leave their banks
(Karatepe, 2006). Thus, we posit that:
H4. Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to frontline employees’ job
performance.
H5. Emotional exhaustion is positively related to frontline employees’ turnover
intentions.

Gender-based differences
Work-family conflict and family-work conflict – emotional exhaustion relationships.
Owing to their role as primary caretaker of their households and the nearly universal
demands of motherhood (Wood and Eagly, 2002), women value more and assign a
higher priority to their family roles than their work roles. On the other hand, men
attach higher priorities to their job-related responsibilities (Martins et al., 2002). In an
era of excessive job demands, irregular and incompatible schedules, and long work
hours (Spinks, 2004), because of the higher priority they place on family roles, women
employees experience greater family-work conflict (Wayne et al., 2004). Also
experiencing greater difficulty in coping with conflicts emanating from work and
non-work domains, women are more likely to suffer from emotional exhaustion. There Work-family and
is some empirical evidence to support this premise. For instance, Posig and Kickul family-work
(2004) found that the relationship between family-work conflict and emotional
exhaustion was stronger among female employees compared with male employees. conflict
Demerouti et al. (2005) demonstrated that the relationship between partners’ ratings of
work-family conflict and exhaustion was higher among women than men. Thus, we
hypothesize that: 13
H6a. The positive relationship between work-family conflict and emotional
exhaustion is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline
employees.
H6b. The positive relationship between family-work conflict and emotional
exhaustion is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline
employees.
Work-family conflict and family-work conflict – job outcome relationships. A general
observation surfacing from studies examining the role of gender in managerial and
marketing contexts (Babin and Boles, 1998; Eagly et al., 1995; Iacobucci and Ostrom,
1993; Martins et al., 2002) is that men are more task- or goal-oriented (agentic) and
women are more relationship-oriented (communal). This distinction between the two
sexes impacts the types of things each gender values in various aspects of their lives
including their jobs. Accordingly, one would expect interrole conflicts to affect the job
performances of relationship-valuing female employees more negatively in
interaction-oriented frontline jobs where employees are expected to deal with
customer requests and complaints through long work hours. Demands placed on their
time and energy from opposing domains are more likely to prevent women employees
from meeting management’s performance expectations (Scott, 1997).
In today’s global work environment, there is an increasing involvement of women in
the workforce (McElwain et al., 2005). However, working wives and husbands do
not equally share home and/or family responsibilities. Working wives are not only
expected to shoulder a greater portion of family responsibilities but they are also
expected to be supportive of their husbands’ job activities (Bedeian et al., 1988; Noor,
2003). Facing higher levels of family demands, women are susceptible to higher levels
of family-work conflict (Aryee et al., 1999; Boles et al., 2003). Not surprisingly, a
number of working wives prefer to quit their jobs in corporate life to start their own
small businesses where control over their working hours allows them to spend more
time in fulfilling family responsibilities (Eagle et al., 1997). The above discussion leads
to the following hypotheses:
H6c. The negative relationship between work-family conflict and job performance
is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline employees.
H6d. The negative relationship between family-work conflict and job performance
is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline employees.
H6e. The positive relationship between work-family conflict and turnover
intentions is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline
employees.
IJSIM H6f. The positive relationship between family-work conflict and turnover
19,1 intentions is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline
employees.
Emotional exhaustion – job outcome relationships. The COR theory suggests that
depletion of emotional and other resources is a characteristic of emotional exhaustion
(Hobfoll, 1989; Wright and Hobfoll, 2004), and research shows that women
14 experience higher levels of emotional exhaustion than men (Gaines and Jermier,
1983). Once individuals do not have the necessary resources to perform their roles in
multiple domains, they are forced to make tough choices. Women have a more difficult
time in trading off work for family and easing off their family responsibilities at the
expense of work (Posig and Kickul, 2004). Thus, less time devoted to work activities
adversely impacts women’s performance in the workplace (Noor, 2003). Also to regain
the resources (primarily time) lost to work responsibilities, women are more likely to
exhibit turnover intentions by thinking of altogether quitting their jobs or by seeking
new jobs that would better fit their expectations (Eagle et al., 1997). The above
discussion prompts our final set of hypotheses:
H6g. The negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance
is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline employees.
H6h. The positive relationship between emotional exhaustion and turnover
intentions is stronger among female frontline employees than male frontline
employees.

Control variables
While their findings are mixed, several studies suggest that various demographic
characteristics can impact the key constructs in our study and may confound the
relationships depicted in Figure 1 (Allen, 2001; Bekker et al., 2005; Noor, 2003; Stoeva
et al., 2002; van Vegchel et al., 2004; Wayne et al., 2004). Hence, to allow for better
delineation of the relationships proposed in our model and to provide a more rigorous
test of the theoretical linkages, in our study we included several control variables.
These were age, education, tenure, marital status, and the number of children.

Methodology
Sample
Data for the study were collected from the frontline employees (e.g. food servers, front
desk agents, concierges, and bartenders) of three-, four-, and five-star hotels in Ankara,
Turkey’s capital. Information we received from the Governorship of the City and the
Directorate of Tourism indicated that, at the time of the study, 5 five-star hotels,
10 four-star hotels, and 27 three-star hotels were operating in Ankara. Managements of
all these hotels were contacted prior to data collection and permission was granted by
all the five-star hotels, 9 four-star hotels and 23 three-star hotels. According to the
managements of the hotels, these hotels collectively employed 1,316 frontline
employees. Questionnaires were then distributed to all of these employees by
the research team. Employees were given assurance of confidentiality (that only the
aggregate results would be shared with the managements of hotels) and were
requested to fill out the questionnaires in a self-administered manner. By the cut-off
date for data collection, a total of 723 usable questionnaires were retrieved by the Work-family and
research team, yielding a response rate of 54.9 percent. family-work
About 46 percent of the respondents were between the ages of 18-27, 40 percent
between the ages of 28-37 and the rest were older than 37. The sample was fairly conflict
balanced in gender (53 percent male and 47 percent female) and marital status
(52 percent married and 48 percent single/divorced). About 31 percent of the
respondents had graduated from two-year colleges and about 32 percent from 15
four-year colleges. Almost 2 percent of the respondents had graduate degrees.
Approximately, 30 percent of the respondents had secondary and high school
education. The rest had primary school education. Three-fourths of the respondents
had tenures of five years or less and the rest had been with their hotel for six or more
years. While 59 percent of the respondents had no children, 19 percent had one child, 17
percent two, 4 percent three and the rest more than three children.

Measurement
Multiple-item scales obtained from the relevant literature were used to operationalize
the study constructs. Specifically, five items each from Netemeyer et al. (1996) and
Boles et al. (2001) were employed to measure work-family conflict and family-work
conflict. Emotional exhaustion was operationalized via eight items from Maslach and
Jackson (1981). Five items were adapted from Babin and Boles (1998) to measure job
performance. And three items were adapted from Boshoff and Allen (2000) to measure
turnover intentions. Responses to each of these items were elicited on five-point scales
ranging from 5 ¼ strongly agree to 1 ¼ strongly disagree. Higher scores indicated
higher work-family conflict, family-work conflict, emotional exhaustion, job
performance, and turnover intentions.
Age, education, tenure and the number of children were measured via five-point
scales. Higher scores indicated older age, better education, longer tenure, and more
children. Marital status was coded as a dichotomous variable (0 ¼ single/divorced
and 1 ¼ married).
The survey instrument was initially prepared in English and then translated into
Turkish via the back-translation method (McGorry, 2000). To ensure that the item
contents were cross-linguistically comparable and generated the same meaning, two
faculty members of a Turkish university fluent in both languages further checked the
questionnaire. Prior to administering in the field, the questionnaire was pre-tested with
a pilot sample of 30 frontline employees and no changes in the wording of the questions
were deemed necessary.

Results
Measurement results
The measures were initially subjected to exploratory factor analysis (principal
components with oblique rotation) and reliability assessment using the entire sample as
well as the female and male sample data separately. In each case, five-factor solutions
with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 emerged and accounted for 60, 63 and 59 percent of the
variance in the combined, female and male sample data. The overwhelming majority of
the items loaded heavily on their respective underlying factors in all three factor
analyses. Coefficient a ranged from 0.74 to 0.88 for the combined sample, 0.68-0.89 for
IJSIM the female sample, and 0.71-0.87 for the male sample. The list of items, sources of the
19,1 scales, and scale reliabilities are presented in the Appendix.
For a more rigorous psychometric assessment and to address measurement
invariance across genders, we used LISREL 8.51 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993) to
conduct two-group simultaneous confirmatory factor analyses following Fornell and
Larcker (1981) and Hair et al. (2006). An initial five-factor base model, which allowed all
16 model parameters to be estimated freely in both groups, failed to provide a proper
solution due to negative error variance estimates for two indicators. As a remedy, we
partially aggregated scale items by randomly splitting items in each scale into two sets
and used the average of each set as a composite indicator of its underlying construct
(Bagozzi and Heatherton, 1994). Since, turnover intentions scale had only three items,
they were kept intact. The five-factor base model using the composite indicators
converged with a proper solution and showed a good fit to the data across groups
(x269 ¼ 211.44, RMSEA ¼ 0.076, NFI ¼ 0.95, NNFI ¼ 0.95, CFI ¼ 0.97).
Next, by constraining factor loadings to be equal across groups, we tested for full
metric invariance and obtained a x275 value of 231.72, which indicates that full metric
invariance is untenable due to significant deterioration in model fit at the 0.05 level.
However, following Hair et al. (2006) we were able to establish partial metric
invariance. This required freeing only one item in the turnover scale (It would not take
much to make me leave this hotel) and constraining all other indicator loadings to be
equal across groups. The resulting x274 value of 224.08 (compared to the base model
x269 ¼ 211.44) showed that model deterioration was not significant, suggesting that the
measures exhibited partial metric invariance. Finally, when we imposed an additional
constraint, the equivalence of covariances of the underlying constructs, the resulting
x289 value was 259.87. The difference between this test statistic and the result from the
partial metric invariance test (x274 ¼ 224.08) showed a significant deterioration in the
model fit, and suggested a moderator role for gender.
After establishing partial metric invariance, we examined the average variance
extracted (AVE) and shared variance (F2) values for each underlying construct across
groups to assess convergent and discriminant validities of the measures (Fornell and
Larcker, 1981). The AVEs ranged from 0.59 (turnover intentions) to 0.79 (emotional
exhaustion), and the shared variances (F2) ranged from a low of 0.001 (between job
performance and turnover intentions) to a high of 0.58 (between work-family and
family-work conflict). These results collectively provide evidence of convergent and
discriminant validity. Table I provides correlations, means and standard deviations of
the composite indicators of the model constructs and control variables for female and
male respondents.

Tests of the model and research hypotheses

Overall research mode. We first examined model fit and tested the overall research
hypotheses (H1 through H5) using the combined sample covariance matrix as input to
LISREL 8.51 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993). The results in Table II indicate that the
model fits the data well (x264 ¼ 172.77, RMSEA ¼ 0.049, NFI ¼ 0.97, NNFI ¼ 0.96,
CFI ¼ 0.98) and accounts for 23 percent of the variance in emotional exhaustion, 22
percent in job performance, and 49 percent in turnover intentions.
A closer examination of the results for the combined sample in Table II reveals that
work-family conflict and family-work conflict both have significant ( p , 0.05) positive
 Female
(n ¼ 342)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Mean SD

1. wfc1 1.000 0.786 0.620 0.448 0.389 0.258 0.201 0.203 0.394 0.360 0.287 0.041 0.058 0.011 2 0.002 0.014 3.76 0.87
2. wfc2 0.735 1.000 0.499 0.375 0.379 0.273 0.279 0.246 0.451 0.319 0.254 0.021 2 0.005 0.060 0.043 2 0.030 3.88 0.86
3. fwc1 0.638 0.513 1.000 0.545 0.294 0.276 2 0.027 0.027 0.241 0.253 0.248 2 0.028 0.033 0.047 0.006 2 0.002 2.98 0.66
4. fwc2 0.488 0.394 0.693 1.000 0.292 0.260 2 0.174 2 0.229 0.242 0.333 0.269 0.001 0.035 2 0.012 2 0.019 2 0.137 2.85 0.79
5. ee1 0.385 0.295 0.412 0.297 1.000 0.753 2 0.007 2 0.030 0.534 0.551 0.482 2 0.035 2 0.038 2 0.093 2 0.104 2 0.052 2.79 0.78
6. ee2 0.314 0.287 0.358 0.253 0.806 1.000 2 0.103 2 0.108 0.404 0.477 0.416 2 0.050 2 0.051 2 0.037 2 0.042 2 0.064 2.33 0.66
7. jp1 2 0.077 2 0.069 2 0.215 2 0.185 2 0.169 2 0.231 1.000 0.740 0.138 2 0.094 2 0.046 0.076 2 0.007 0.144 0.075 0.125 3.90 0.49
8. jp2 0.067 0.023 2 0.159 2 0.211 2 0.077 2 0.114 0.650 1.000 0.094 2 0.068 0.008 0.101 0.028 0.122 0.051 0.139 3.93 0.58
9. ti1 0.391 0.311 0.412 0.362 0.468 0.454 2 0.170 2 0.132 1.000 0.753 0.544 2 0.013 2 0.154 0.013 2 0.016 2 0.054 2.58 1.01
10. ti2 0.426 0.350 0.444 0.417 0.528 0.488 2 0.134 2 0.081 0.720 1.000 0.631 2 0.037 2 0.099 0.016 2 0.019 2 0.131 2.45 0.88
11. ti3 0.275 0.148 0.339 0.333 0.359 0.330 2 0.101 0.009 0.494 0.573 1.000 0.003 2 0.045 0.024 0.009 2 0.054 2.66 0.93
12. AGE 0.147 0.097 0.058 0.079 2 0.038 2 0.017 0.057 0.062 2 0.008 2 0.001 0.093 1.000 2 0.200 0.236 0.460 0.423 1.51 0.62
13. EDUC 2 0.188 2 0.143 2 0.123 2 0.152 2 0.053 2 0.045 0.061 0.067 2 0.108 2 0.141 2 0.090 2 0.251 1.000 2 0.079 2 0.192 2 0.029 3.17 0.90
14. MARITAL 0.057 0.074 0.049 0.025 2 0.097 2 0.059 2 0.007 0.030 0.004 2 0.040 0.057 0.334 2 0.116 1.000 0.612 0.224 0.49 0.50
15. CHILDREN 0.094 0.072 0.024 0.046 2 0.104 2 0.077 0.010 0.016 0.040 0.008 0.088 0.663 2 0.233 0.641 1.000 0.287 1.51 0.78
16. TENURE 0.031 2 0.026 2 0.019 0.029 2 0.106 2 0.099 0.051 0.051 2 0.062 2 0.115 0.053 0.474 0.056 0.281 0.382 1.000 2.01 0.60
Male (n ¼ 381)
Mean 3.48 3.61 2.87 2.68 2.76 2.29 3.87 3.92 2.35 2.38 2.57 1.86 2.69 0.54 1.87 2.20
SD 0.90 0.87 0.75 0.83 0.80 0.69 0.46 0.58 0.88 0.96 1.04 0.81 0.97 0.50 1.08 0.68

Notes: Correlations below the diagonal represent the male and above the diagonal represent the female sample data; latent variable indicators, age, education, tenure and the number
of children are based on 5-point scales; marital status was recorded as single/divorced (0) or married (1); correlations . 0.09 are significant at the 0.05 level

latent variable indicators

Correlations, means and
conflict
family-work

and control variables

standard deviations of
Work-family and

17

Table I.
 18
19,1
IJSIM

Table II.
Tests of the research
model and hypotheses
Combined sample results Two-group analysis (male/female)
Parameters Estimatea t-value R2 Estimate (F/M)a t-value R 2 (F/M)a

Structural
WFC ! EE 0.21 3.25 0.27/0.22 2.51/2.55
FWC ! EE 0.28 4.03 0.24/0.31 1.82/3.85
AGE ! EE 0.01 0.28 2 0.02/0.03 20.25/0.49
EDUC ! EE 20.05 2 1.22 2 0.09/0.03 21.66/0.68
MARITAL ! EE 20.06 2 1.34 2 0.06/20.07 20.91/20.92
CHILDREN ! EE 20.08 2 1.43 2 0.08/20.06 20.98/20.94
TENURE ! EE 20.04 2 1.02 0.23 2 0.01/20.07 20.17/21.33 0.22/0.27
WFC ! JP * 0.62 6.79 0.87/0.45 5.88/4.34
FWC ! JP * 20.60 2 6.24 2 0.83/20.41 24.56/24.16
EE ! JP 20.09 2 1.80 2 0.11/20.04 21.53/20.64
AGE ! JP 0.07 1.31 0.02/0.12 0.24/1.61
EDUC ! JP * 0.05 1.26 0.01/0.16 0.07/2.83
MARITAL ! JP * 0.12 2.32 0.18/0.04 2.50/0.52
CHILDREN ! JP 20.11 2 1.87 2 0.11/20.07 21.14/20.89
TENURE ! JP 0.05 1.11 0.22 0.08/0.05 1.18/0.83 0.35/0.15
WFC ! TI * 0.13 2.32 0.22/0.10 2.20/1.38
FWC ! TI * 0.18 2.89 0.02/0.24 0.13/3.51
EE ! TI * 0.50 11.43 0.62/0.41 9.19/7.78
AGE ! TI 20.05 2 1.22 2 0.01/20.07 20.22/21.43
EDUC ! TI 20.08 2 2.31 2 0.12/20.05 22.34/21.16
MARITAL ! TI 0.01 0.12 0.08/20.07 1.38/21.24
CHILDREN ! TI * 0.08 1.67 0.01/0.14 0.05/2.41
TENURE ! TI 20.07 2 1.83 0.49 2 0.11/20.04 21.94/20.97 0.51/0.50
AGE ! WFC 0.09 1.72 0.07/0.14 0.92/2.04
EDUC ! WFC 20.02 2 0.53 0.06/20.12 1.00/22.28
MARITAL ! WFC 0.05 0.92 0.03/0.04 0.45/0.52
CHILDREN ! WFC 20.04 2 0.73 2 0.03/20.04 20.29/20.47
TENURE ! WFC 20.05 2 1.09 0.01 2 0.02/20.01 20.33/20.08 0.01/0.04
AGE ! FWC 0.09 0.81 0.01/0.10 0.15/1.32
EDUC ! FWC 20.04 2 0.95 0.04/20.10 0.70/21.71
(continued)
 Combined sample results Two-group analysis (male/female)
Parameters Estimatea t-value R2 Estimate (F/M)a t-value R 2 (F/M)a

MARITAL ! FWC 0.07 1.34 0.05/0.08 0.79/0.98

CHILDREN ! FWC 20.06 2 0.91 2 0.02/20.09 20.19/20.99
TENURE ! FWC 20.06 2 1.27 0.01 2 0.07/20.01 21.11/20.04 0.01/0.02
Measurement
WFC ! wfc1 0.95 –b 0.95 –b
WFC ! wfc2 0.80 24.31 0.81 25.29
FWC ! fwc1 0.86 –b 0.88 –b
FWC ! fwc2 0.73 18.93 0.73 19.34
EE ! ee1 0.95 –b 0.95 –b
EE ! ee2 0.82 22.44 0.83 23.14
JP ! jp1 0.78 –b 0.82 –b
JP ! jp2 0.89 10.89 0.87 12.52
TI ! ti1 0.81 –b 0.82 –b
TI ! ti2 0.91 25.03 0.82/1.00c 18.68/19.26c
TI ! ti3 0.65 18.23 0.65 18.46
2
Model fit x64 ¼ 172.77, RMSEA ¼ 0.049 x2134 ¼ 281.43, RMSEA ¼ 0.056
NFI ¼ 0.97, NNFI ¼ 0.96, CFI ¼ 0.98 NFI ¼ 0.95, NNFI ¼ 0.95, CFI ¼ 0.97
Notes: *Indicates parameters are significantly different across genders at the .05 level; acompletely standardized estimates for the combined data;
common metric completely standardized estimates for the two-group analysis (female and male groups); results for females are presented first under
two-group analysis; bloading was fixed to 1.0; cloading for the item was not invariant across genders, all other loadings were invariant
conflict
family-work
Work-family and

19

Table II.
IJSIM impacts on emotional exhaustion, supporting H1a and H1b. The impact of
19,1 work-family conflict on job performance is significant. But, the influence is positive
(opposite to the expected sign). Therefore, H2a is not supported by the data. On the
other hand, family-work conflict has a significant negative impact on job performance.
This is consistent with H2b. Both work-family conflict and family-work conflict, as
predicted, have significant positive impacts on turnover intentions. Thus, H3a and
20 H3b are supported. While emotional exhaustion has a negative impact on performance
as predicted by H4, this effect is not significant at the 0.05 level. Hence, H4 is not
supported. The effect of emotional exhaustion on turnover intentions is positive and
significant, which provides support for H5. In terms of the control variables, the
combined sample results show that married frontline employees report better job
performance and education has a negative effect on turnover intentions. The control
variables collectively explain only 1 percent of the variance in work-family and
1 percent in family-work conflict.
Gender as a moderator. Next, we tested the moderating effects of gender on the
theoretical linkages in Figure 1 by performing a two-group simultaneous analysis
using the sample covariance matrices as input to LISREL 8.51 (Joreskog and Sorbom,
1993). Initially, with the exception of measurement invariance constraints, no equality
constraint was imposed on the corresponding structural model parameters across
female and male samples. This “base” model generated a x 2 value of 281.43
(df ¼ 134), and served as benchmark for testing the moderator hypotheses.
Parameters estimates, t-values and model fit statistics for the two-group base model
are presented in Table II under the “two-group analysis” columns.
Using the x 2 value of 281.43 (df ¼ 134) generated by the base model as benchmark,
we examined each moderator hypothesis by removing the equality constraint for a
particular path across genders and conducting a x 2 difference test with 1 df. A
moderator hypothesis would be supported if the resulting x 2 suggested a significant
model fit deterioration over the base result. For instance, to test H6a, the path from
work-family conflict to emotional exhaustion was constrained to be equal across
genders. The resulting x 2 value of 282.55 (df ¼ 135) indicates that model fit does not
deteriorate significantly. Thus, gender does not moderate the relationship between
work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion, and H6a is not supported. Likewise, to
test H6d, we constrained the effect of family-work conflict on job performance to be
equal across genders. The x 2 value of 287.02 (df ¼ 135) we obtained indicates a
significant difference in the magnitude of this path across genders. Thus, H6d is
supported. Gender moderates the relationship between family-work conflict and job
performance and, as hypothesized, the relationship is stronger among female
employees.
Following the preceding approach, we tested each of the remaining moderator
hypotheses. We found that, as in the case of work-family conflict, gender did not
moderate the relationships between family-work conflict and emotional exhaustion.
Thus, H6b cannot be supported. The same is true for H6g, which posited that the
relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance would be stronger
among female employees. Our results show that gender does not moderate the
emotional exhaustion – job performance relationship. Thus, H6g is not tenable. While
gender moderates the relationships between work-family conflict and job performance
(H6c), the effect of work-family conflict on job performance is positive and contrary to
the expected sign. A similar situation exists with respect to the relationship posited Work-family and
between family-work conflict and turnover intentions (H6f ). Gender moderates family-work
the relationship between family-work conflict and turnover intentions. However, the
relationship is significantly stronger for males than females. On the bases of these conflict
results H6c and H6f are not supported by the data.
Of the remaining hypotheses, our results support that the relationships between
work-family conflict and turnover intentions (H6e) and between emotional exhaustion 21
and turnover intentions (H6h) are, as predicted, stronger among female employees.
Thus, in addition to H6d, H6e and H6h receive support from the data. A closer
inspection of the results presented in Table II shows that gender also moderates the
effects of some control variables on the two job outcomes included in our model.
Education has a significant positive effect on male employees’ job performance, but its
effect is not significant for female employees. Married female frontline employees
report significantly better job performance, while marital status does not have a
significant impact on male frontline employees’ job performance. Finally, the number
of children has a significant positive impact on male frontline employees’ turnover
intentions, but its effect on females is not significant. A summary of the study’s overall
and moderator hypotheses test results are presented in Table III.
Finally, while our focus in this study was on gender’s moderating role on the
relationships shown in Figure 1, we also examined its potential direct effects on the
study constructs (work-family conflict, family-work conflict, emotional exhaustion,
job performance, and turnover intentions). As the results of multivariate analysis of
variance (MANOVA) summarized in Table IV indicate, female frontline employees
experience significantly higher levels of work-family and family-work conflicts than
their male counterparts at 0.05 or better level of significance. However, there are no

Consequences of work-family conflict and family-work conflict

H1a Work-family conflict ! emotional exhaustion (þ) Supported
H1b Family-work conflict ! emotional exhaustion (þ ) Supported
H2a Work-family conflict ! job performance (2 ) Not supported
H2b Family-work conflict ! job performance (2) Supported
H3a Work-family conflict ! Turnover intentions (þ) Supported
H3b Family-work conflict ! turnover intentions (þ ) Supported
Consequences of emotional exhaustion
H4 Emotional exhaustion ! job performance (2 ) Not supported
H5 Emotional exhaustion ! turnover intentions (þ ) Supported
Gender-based hypotheses
H6a Work-family conflict ! emotional exhaustion (þ) Not supported (no gender effect)
H6b Family-work conflict ! emotional exhaustion (þ ) Not supported (no gender effect)
H6c Work-family conflict ! job performance (2 ) Not supported (stronger among males)
H6d Family-work conflict ! job performance (2 ) Supported (stronger among females)
H6e Work-family conflict ! turnover intentions (þ ) Supported (stronger among females)
H6f Family-work conflict ! turnover intentions (þ ) Not supported (stronger among males)
H6g Emotional exhaustion ! job performance (2 ) Not supported (no gender effect)
H6h Emotional exhaustion ! turnover intentions (þ ) Supported (stronger among females)
Table III.
Note: The sign in parentheses for each hypothesis indicates the direction of the linkage between the Summary of hypothesis
variables test results
IJSIM
Gender n Mean p-value
19,1
WFC Male 381 3.53
Female 342 3.81 0.000
FWC Male 381 2.80
Female 342 2.93 0.008
22 EE Male 381 2.53
Female 342 2.56 0.551
JP Male 381 3.89
Female 342 3.91 0.478
TI Male 381 2.44
Female 342 2.55 0.052
Table IV.
Results of MANOVA Note: The overall multivariate test result is significant: Wilks’ L ¼ 0.97 ( p ¼ 0.001)

significant differences between male and female frontline employees with respect to
emotional exhaustion, job performance and turnover intentions.

Discussion
By using a sample of frontline hotel employees in Turkey as its setting, this study
developed and tested a model to investigate the effects of work-family conflict and
family-work conflict, and emotional exhaustion on two organizationally valued job
outcomes, job performance and turnover intentions. Also examined in the study was
the role of gender as a moderator of the relationships in the model. Several
observations emerge from our findings.
First, the results clearly suggest that our overall model is viable. Indeed, of the eight
overall hypotheses we tested, six received support from the data. Consonant with the
results reported in other studies (Bacharach et al., 1991; Boles et al., 1997; Mauno and
Kinnunen, 1999), our study shows that employees facing conflicts originating from
their work (family) and family (work) roles become emotionally exhausted. Likewise,
similar to the results reported by Boyar et al. (2003), our results demonstrate that both
work-family conflict and family-work conflict are significant predictors of frontline
employees’ turnover intentions. Our results also mirror image Karatepe’s (2006)
findings and show that emotional exhaustion is at the root of frontline employees’
turnover intentions.
One unexpected result in our study pertains to the relationship between
work-family conflict and job performance. Contrary to our predictions, work-family
conflict seems to trigger frontline employees’ job performance. One plausible
explanation for this unexpected finding may be based on van Dyne et al.’s (2002)
argument that people who experience interpersonal conflict and tension at work tend to
focus on their work activities more to shield themselves from further tension and to be
able to reach higher levels of performance. An alternative explanation to this
unexpected finding can be offered in light of the insignificant role of emotional
exhaustion in mediating the relationship between work-family conflict and job
performance. Two types of countervailing effects may be operating on work-family
conflict – job performance relationship at the same time. These are a eustress-type
(positive/functional) effect and a distress-type (negative/dysfunctional) effect
(Singh et al., 1994). These opposite effects may act simultaneously to reduce the total Work-family and
effect of work-family conflict on job performance. Conceivably, here the eustress-type family-work
(positive/functional) may be the more dominant component in affecting job
performance. It is possible that the distress-type (negative/dysfunctional) effect of conflict
work-family conflict on job performance does not kick in until emotional exhaustion
experienced by frontline employees exceeds a certain threshold. Whatever the
explanation may be, certainly the relationship between work-family conflict and job 23
performance is more complicated than expected and deserves further attention.
Second, when the results are viewed from the perspective of the simultaneous
effects of the two forms of interrole conflict, it appears that both work-family conflict
and family-work conflict have detrimental impacts on emotional exhaustion and
turnover intentions. However, the effects of work-family conflict and family-work
conflict on job performance are different. As noted before, while work-family conflict
depicts a positive relationship with job performance, family-work conflict has a
detrimental impact on job performance. These results corroborate that work-family
and family-work conflicts are distinct but conceptually related concepts (Netemeyer
et al., 1996). In many cases, not being mutually exclusive, they have spillover effects
and exert the same type of impact on an outcome. Yet, in other cases, as demonstrated
in a study of interrelationships of work-family conflict and family-work conflict with
work satisfaction (Boles et al., 2001), work-family conflict and family-work conflict do
not necessarily yield the same impact on the outcome measure (i.e. work satisfaction).
An explanation for such a differential impact comes from Netemeyer et al. (2005)
who argue that when employees are cognizant of the potential for a particular form of
conflict to affect the outcome (e.g. job performance), they may engage in processes and
behaviors that partially compensate for the effect. Given this explanation, it may be
surmised that employees surveyed here are more cognizant of the potential impact of
work-family conflict on their job performance. But not being equally cognizant of the
potential for family-work conflict to affect their job performance, they may not engage
in cognitive processes or behaviors that could reduce the effect.
Third, unlike the bulk of the studies which examined interrole conflicts and related
issues in developed countries, our study was conducted in Turkey. When our results
are compared to the results of studies conducted in the North American – European
axis, a number of similarities are apparent. For example, our results pertaining to the
positive relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion are
congruent with Boles et al.’s (1997) research in the USA, and Mauno and Kinnunen’s
(1999) study in Finland. Likewise, our findings concerning the effect of family-work
conflict on emotional exhaustion parallels the results reported in Posig and Kickul’s
(2004) US-based study. Similarly, our results pertaining to the impact of family-work
conflict on job performance is consonant with Frone et al.’s (1997) study in the USA.
Also our findings regarding the effects of work-family conflict and family-work
conflict on turnover intentions are consistent with those of Boyar et al. (2003) who
conducted their study in the USA. These results, on one hand, suggest that research
findings derived from western countries are generalizable into a different cultural
setting and, on the other hand, lend credence to Aycan and Eskin’s (2005) observation
(based on Barnett and Hyde’s (2001) expansionist theory) that as traditional gender
roles continue to expand and change globally, a convergence of findings in
work-family research takes place cross-culturally.
IJSIM Fourth, on the basis of our results, the answer to the fundamental question we
asked, “Does gender matter?” appears to be yes. Indeed, of the eight gender-related
19,1 linkages we proposed in our study, five proved to be significant. Thus, at the aggregate
level, gender does moderate a majority of the relationships in our model. However, in
two cases, the differences between male and female employees are contrary to our
predictions. Hence, three of our hypotheses receive support from our data while the
24 other two are not tenable.
We offer a speculative explanation as to why the positive relationships between
work-family conflict and job performance and between family-work conflict and
turnover intentions are weaker among female employees. These may be rooted in the
fast pace of change in the work and family roles of men and especially women in
Turkey. As Yavas et al. (1999) write, while the Turkish society is male-dominated and
males are the primary breadwinners, changes enacted in the Turkish Civil Law in the
1990s have accelerated the transition in the status of Turkish women from that of
traditional housewife to equal partner. The changes on the legislative front have picked
up momentum in the last couple of years as Turkey enters formal negotiations with the
European Union to be a full-fledged member and makes its laws compatible with those
of member European countries.
Perhaps, even more important is the fact that these days Turkish women are
economically active. Many are no longer “stay-at-home” moms waiting for their
husbands to return to the nest. As Aycan and Eskin (2005) discuss, Turkish women
especially in urban metropolitan areas (such as Ankara, the location of our study)
join the workforce in increasing numbers. With the increasing involvement of
women in the workforce, cultural values and norms with respect to gender roles are
undergoing a rapid change in Turkey. Recently, women are more involved in work
outside the home and men, slowly but surely, assume more of the household
responsibilities and tasks that were traditionally considered as women’s. In such a
milieu, Turkish men and women alike are trying to adapt to the modern gender role
norms (Aycan and Eskin, 2005) and a “blurring” of traditional gender role
distinctions is taking place.
It appears that this trend toward the “blurring” of traditional gender roles and the
Turkish women’s desire to succeed in the full-time workforce, despite experiencing
significantly higher conflict between work and family roles, may have caused the
unexpected findings. It is also likely that, as discussed in the gender role theory,
despite being more prone to the dysfunctional effects of work-family conflict
than men (Grandey et al., 2005), women expect such an interference between
work and family domains more so than men. It should also be remembered that
frontline service jobs, as interaction-oriented positions, fit better the relationship-
valuing and nurturing nature of the female gender (Putrevu, 2001). Furthermore, as a
testament to the context-specific changes taking place in role expectations for men
and women, women nowadays value certain masculine-stereotyped job attributes as
highly or more highly than men (Konrad et al., 2000). In addition, in today’s
uncertain work environment, women may be more likely than men to seek job
security (Konrad et al., 2000). Consequently, compared with men, women may be in a
better position to cope with and control the dysfunctional effects of conflicts
emanating from work and family domains on their job performance and turnover
intentions.
Implications Work-family and
Based on our overall results, it appears that Turkish hotels will benefit from family-work
establishing a family-supportive work environment for their employees to lessen (and
hopefully eliminate) the negative impact of conflicts emanating from the work-family conflict
interface on their emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. In this context, on-site
childcare services for employees with younger children, after-school programs for
those with older children, for instance, can pay dividends. 25
However, it should be pointed out that given the gender-specific findings of this
study, “one-size fits all” approach may be problematic. For example, our results
demonstrate that the impact of work-family conflict on turnover intentions is stronger
among female employees, while the effect of family-work conflict on turnover
intentions is higher for male employees. Thus, management can organize
gender-specific small-group meetings and sessions to identify, for instance, the main
sources of work-family conflict among female and family-work conflict among male
employees. In a same-gender environment, employees can freely voice their concerns
and openly discuss the drivers of their interrole conflicts.
Once the root causes of conflicts are identified, then management can take the
necessary actions. For instance, gender-specific programs may be offered to educate
employees on changing cultural norms, gender roles, job sharing responsibilities at
home, etc. Given that gender consciousness at home is the final frontier in the quest for
gender equality in work-family relationships, programs/presentations to promote and
reinforce this idea in Turkey that is in a period of transformation is particularly
important (Aycan and Eskin, 2005). Likewise, employees can be educated on the crucial
role of spousal and family support in alleviating interrole conflicts and coping with
emotional exhaustion. Management can complement such actions by also training the
employees in supervisory roles and educating them in actions that would be helpful in
dealing effectively with the interrole conflicts that female and male employees
experience.

Limitations and future research directions

Although this study expands our knowledge base, viable prospects for further
research remain. First, the cross-sectional design of our study does not permit us to
make causal inferences. Future studies employing longitudinal designs would be
helpful in establishing causal relationships. Concurrently, some unexpected findings
in our study underscore the need for qualitative studies to gain deeper and richer
insights into how women and men experience and cope with conflicts in the
work-family interface. Second, in this study, data from single-informants (self-report
data from employees) were used to measure all the variables. Such data are prone to
common-method variance (Doty and Glick, 1998). To minimize common
method-variance, future studies should use multiple-informants, and for instance,
should measure frontline employees’ job performance on the basis of their
supervisors’ assessment. Third, to cross-validate our results and broaden the
database for further generalizations, replication studies among other samples of
frontline employees in Turkey are needed. Fourth, inclusion of other easily obtainable
variables such as the work status of each spouse in a married couple
(dual-earner/dual-career vs single-earner/single-career) and availability of various
types of support (e.g. extended family support, spousal support) as control factors
IJSIM might lead to finer insights as such characteristics may affect various relationships
19,1 posited in our model (Aycan and Eskin, 2005; Elloy and Smith, 2003).
In conclusion, interrole conflicts experienced by frontline employees have
significant consequences. At a time of a changing work environment where gender
roles all over the world continuously evolve, the management of frontline employees to
attain positive job outcomes will be a challenge. Hence, the issues we addressed in our
26 study should remain as a research priority.

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Appendix. Scale items, sources and scale reliabilitiesa Work-family and
Work-family conflict (Netemeyer et al., 1996; Boles et al., 2001) (a ¼ 0.88, 0.89, 0.87)
1. The demands of my work interfere with home, family, and social life. family-work
2. Because of my job, I cannot involve myself as much as I would like in maintaining close conflict
relations with my family, spouse/partner, or friends.
3. Things I want to do at home do not get done because of the demands my job puts on me.
4. I often have to miss important family and social activities because of my job.
5. There is a conflict between my job and the commitments and responsibilities I have to my 31
family, spouse/partner, or friends.

Family-work conflict (Netemeyer et al., 1996; Boles et al., 2001) (a ¼ 0.75, 0.68, 0.80)
1. The demands of my family, spouse/partner, or friends interfere with work-related activities.
2. I sometimes have to miss work so that family and social responsibilities are met.
3. Things I want to do at work do not get done because of the demands of my family,
spouse/partner, or friends.
4. My home and social life interfere with my responsibilities at work such as getting to work on
time, accomplishing daily tasks, and working overtime.
5. My co-workers and peers at work dislike how often I am preoccupied with my family and
social life.

Emotional exhaustion (Maslach and Jackson, 1981) (a ¼ 0.85, 0.85, 0.85)

1. I feel emotionally drained from my work.
2. I feel used up at the end of the workday.
3. I feel fatigued when I get up in the morning and have to face another day on the job.
4. Working with people all day is really a strain for me.
5. I feel burned out from my work.
6. I feel frustrated by my job.
7. I feel I am working too hard on my job.
8. I feel like I am at the end of my rope.

Job performance (Babin and Boles, 1998) (a ¼ 0.74, 0.78, 0.71)

1. I am a top performer.
2. I am in the top 10 percent of frontline employees here.
3. I get along better with customers than do others.
4. I know more about services delivered to customers than others.
5. I know what my customers expect better than others.

Turnover Intentions (Boshoff and Allen, 2000) (a ¼ 0.83, 0.84, 0.82)

1. I will probably be looking for another job soon.
2. It would not take much to make me leave this hotel.
3. I often think about leaving this hotel.

Notes: aReliability coefficients are for the combined, female and male samples

Corresponding author
Osman M. Karatepe can be contacted at: osman.karatepe@emu.edu.tr

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