Work-overload and family conflicts: Does it affect the work-life balance of female hospitality employees in India?

This study seeks to examine the effect of work overload and family conflicts on the work-life balance of female employees in the hotel industry. The study examined the relationships mentioned above through multiple regression analysis based on the data collected from 412 full-time frontline female hotel employees in India. The results of the multiple regression analysis suggest that work overload and family conflict significantly influenced work-life balance. Specifically, female hotel employees who are overloaded with work and suffer from family conflicts were found to have low work-life balance. Based on the analysis, there was a significant positive relationship between work-overload and work-life conflicts. Similarly, family conflict was also found to have a significant positive effect on work-life conflicts. Work-conflict had a sig- nificant negative effect on the work-life balance. An increase in work-life conflicts was found to decrease the work-life balance. Work overload and family conflicts were found to affect the work-life balance negatively. However, work-life conflicts were found to have no indirect or mediating effect on the relation- ship between work overload, family conflict, and work-life balance. As the geological boundaries of the workforce are incredibly narrow or nil, a cross-cultural study across the same or different hotel chain would help understand the cultural implications on the impact of work overload and family conflicts as a predictor of work-life balance. In addition, With the absence of a balanced work and life, it would be challenging to hire and retain high performing female employees and support them to achieve greater heights in the career. This study contributes to the existing work-life balance studies in the hotel industry by adding a feministic perspective and testing the correlation between work-life balance, family conflicts, and work-over- load through data collected from female frontline hospitality employees in India.