Impact of work-family conflict on the nurses′emotional labor / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To provide practical suggestions for nurse management by exploring the influence of work family conflict on the nurses′emotional labor and its boundary condition. Methods A six months′time lagged longitudinal research design was employed. A total of 233 nurses from two state-owned hospitals were recruited for this study to complete a questionnaire including Work-Family Conflict Scale, Perceived Organizational Support Scale and Emotional Labor Scale. Results Data analysis showed that the score of work family conflict was (2.86 ±1.31) points, the score of perceived organizational support was (5.28 ± 1.12) points, the score of surface emotional labor and deep level emotional labor was (5.31 ± 1.08) points and (3.64 ± 1.45) points, respectively. The work family conflict was negatively correlated with deep level emotional labor (r=-0.27, P<0.01), but was positively correlated with surface emotional labor (r=0.23, P < 0.01). The perceived organizational support was positively correlated with deep level emotional labor (r=0.22, P < 0.01), but was insignificantly correlated with surface emotional labor (r=0.12, P>0.05). The regression analysis revealed that work family conflict was positively related to surface emotional labor (β=0.22, P<0.01), and is negatively related to deep level emotional labor (β=-0.22, P<0.01). Perceived organizational support moderates the effect of work family conflict on emotional labor (β=-0.22, P<0.01;β=0.18, P<0.05, respectively). Conclusions This study indicates that work family conflict has the potential in enhancing surface emotional labor and decreasing deep level emotional labor. Perceived organizational support helps to weaken the negative effect of work family conflict on deep level emotional labor and the positive effect of work family conflict on surface emotional labor.