Work-family conflict faced by international business travellers: Do gender and parental status make a difference?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct and moderating effect of gender and parental status on the relationship between international business travel days and work-to-family conflict (WFC) among international business travellers (IBTs) on the basis of the conservation of resources theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted among 1,366 Finnish people in jobs demanding international business travel and a moderated hierarchical regression was utilised in data analysis.

Findings

An increase in the number of international business travel days and being a parent is positively related to WFC. Women with dependent children experience a lower level of WFC than do men with dependent children. However, a significant interaction effect between international business travel days, parental status and gender was found that indicates that the volume of travel days increases the level of WFC for those women who have children more than it does for women who do not have children. For men, increased numbers of travel days raises levels of WFC, as does having children, but there is no interaction between travel days and parental status among men. An increased number of travel days was least critical for WFC among women without dependent children and most critical for WFC among women with dependent children However, women with dependent children were able to travel to a considerable extent before their levels of WFC overtook those of men with dependent children.

Practical implications

The findings indicate that organisations should pay particular attention to developing policies and practices that take account of the family status of the traveller. In addition, to assist IBTs to cope with their WFC, attention should be paid to the intensity of work-related travel. However, gender seemed not to play a particularly important role in WFC, indicating that organisations need not be wary of recruiting both men and women into roles involving international business travel.

Originality/value

This is the first study focusing on IBTs WFC that simultaneously takes account of how the intensity of business travel and both gender and parenthood are related to it.

Citation

Mäkelä, L., Bergbom, B., Saarenpää, K. and Suutari, V. (2015), "Work-family conflict faced by international business travellers: Do gender and parental status make a difference?", Journal of Global Mobility, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 155-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-07-2014-0030