Environmental and personal factors influencing work-family enrichment of academics at selected Malaysian research universities and the moderating role of gender

Despite increasing scholarly attention and important advances in the literature of work-family interface, some critical gaps still exist. Lack of studies on workfamily enrichment, paucity of sampling in Eastern countries, and inconsistent pattern of findings on gender influence in work-family studies are some examples of the empirical gaps. As an attempt to reduce the research gaps, this study examined the predictors of work-family enrichment and the moderating role of gender in the context of Malaysia. This study was a crosssectional and quantitative survey. Data from 295 academics at three Malaysian Research Universities was gathered using self-administered questionnaires. All the variables in this study were measured using adopted and adapted instruments with acceptable reliabilities. All assumptions and requirements for data analyses were met for performing Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, Multiple Linear Regression, and Moderated Multiple Regression. This study found that the levels of work-family enrichment, social support, job autonomy, extraversion, and overall health were high, the levels of supportive work-family culture and core self-evaluation were moderate, and the level of work centrality was low among the academics. The findings also revealed that all the variables were positively and significantly related to work-family enrichment except for work centrality. Moreover, social support and extraversion were the main variables that contributed to the variations of workfamily enrichment, and overall, the proposed regression model explained 36.4% of variance in work-family enrichment among the academics. The findings also indicated that there were no moderating effect of gender on the relationships between the predictors and work-family enrichment. Based on the findings, this study concluded that the level of work-family enrichment among academics at Malaysian Research Universities was high, and resources to enrich both work and family domains were provided by environmental and personal resources. The academics also valued their family life more important than their work life. It was concluded that social support and job autonomy were critical environmental resources, and extraversion and core self-evaluation were significant personal resources for academics’ workfamily enrichment. Finally, this study concluded that there was no significant difference between male and female respondents in respect of access or usage of embedded resources at workplace or in family in order to enrich work and family domains among the academics at Malaysian Research Universities. Through this study, WFE and its antecedents were investigated in an Eastern country, using a combination of men and women respondents among a particular household structure. This study, by itself, was a proof to applicability of Greenhaus’s and Powell’s theory (2006) and the facilitation model (Wayne et al., 2007) for a non-western context.

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