Pulled in Too Many Directions: The Causes and Consequences of Work-Work Conflict

• In Event: 256 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 12. Overwork and Work Schedule Control

Abstract

Previous research has documented the influence of overwork and inflexible hours on work-life conflict for working professionals (Jacobs and Gerson 2004) and how perceptions of workload compound work-family conflict (Ilies et al. 2007). In this paper, we build on this literature and introduce the concept of work-work conflict, which we define as a form of inter-role conflict in which job roles are mutually incompatible so that participation in one role is made more difficult by participation in another (Greenhaus & Beutell 1985, p.77). Drawing on coded in-depth interviews with 29 faculty as well as survey data of 60 faculty in an academic medical center, we find that work-work conflict is fueled by the institutional structural characteristics of academic medicine. Institutional priorities, advancement criteria, and financial rewards are misaligned, causing faculty to experience competing demands across multiple organizational missions (research, teaching, clinical care, and administration/service). We find that those faculty roles with more ambiguity and expected contributions across organizational missions (clinician-educators) experience more work-work conflict. We expect that other industries besides academic medicine may face similar conditions leading to work-work conflict. We conclude that work-life interventions such as part-time work arrangements, flexible scheduling, and childcare, are necessary but not sufficient to increase employee satisfaction, and that mechanisms to alleviate work-work conflict must be incorporated in practical solutions to address overwork.

Authors

• Alison Wynn, Stanford University

• Magali Fassiotto, Stanford University

• Caroline J. Simard, Stanford University

• Jennifer Raymond, Stanford University