Work-family conflict and turnover intentions of indigenous employees: the importance of the whanau/family for Maori

The links between work-family conflict and turnover intentions have received little attention within the OB/IO Psych literature. However, the few findings show that the family-work dimensions are less influential than work-family dimensions. The present study tested work-family and family-work conflict (time and strain dimensions) on the turnover intentions within a sample of 197 New Zealand Maori employees. Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, typically have strong family focus, which we hypothesized might distort the influence of conflict for these workers, increasing the influence from family-work conflict. We found that both work-family and family-work conflict, time and strain, were significantly related to turnover intentions, but work-family conflict dimensions were fully mediated by family-work conflict dimensions. In addition, the moderating effects of whanau (extended family) support were tested and significant interaction effects were found, although in opposite directions: respondents with high whanau support reported higher turnover when family-work time increased, but reported less turnover intentions when family-work strain increased. The implications for research are discussed.