Self-Construals and Work/Family Conflict: A Monocultural Analysis in Taiwan

The aim of this research was to explore the impact of independent and interdependent self-construals on relations between work and family demands (workload and family conflict) and work/family conflict (WFC and FWC). Three hundred and ten Taiwanese employees were surveyed at two times (6 weeks apart) using structured questionnaires. For Taiwanese employees, workload was positively related to WFC (r = .39), whereas family conflict was positively related to FWC (r = .24). Furthermore, independent self-construal exacerbated the positive relation between workload and WFC (the interaction effect accounted for an additional 1.7% of variance in WFC), but buffered the positive relation between family conflict and FWC (the interaction effect accounted for an additional 2.6% of variance in FWC). However, interdependent self-construal did not have a moderating effect on either the workload-WFC or family conflict-FWC relation. It is recommended that culture as construed at the individual level needs to be studied in order to understand its intricate effects on individuals' perceptions of work and family demands and conflict.