Two-wave Cross-cultural Examination of Turnover Intention and the Work-family Interface Across Canada and India

This study reports results from a prospective two-wave cross-cultural analysis of turnover intention (TI), bi-directional work-family conflict (WFC) and bi-directional work-family guilt (WFG). Data was gathered from Canada and India across two time periods (T1 and T2) that were three months apart. Sample comprised of married, full-time working men and women with at least one child under the age of 21 years still living at home. Many previous studies have tended to treat work-family (W-F) interface variables as mediators in models of WFC. In contrast in this study, all bi-directional W-F interface variables viz. work-interfering with family conflict (WIFC), family interfering with work conflict (FIWC), work-interfering with family guilt (WIFG) and family interfering with work guilt (FIWG) in T1 were treated as antecedents of turnover intention in T1. Further turnover intention in T1 was treated as a mediator of all bi-directional W-F interface variables in T2. Multi-group analysis in AMOS along with critical ratio analysis was conducted to test for significant differences in path coefficients of models for India and Canada. All W-F interface variables in T1 increased corresponding W-F interface variables in T2. The only exception was WIFC (T1) which reduced WIFC (T2) for India though not for Canada. WIFC (T1) increased TI (T1) for Canada while it reduced TI (T1) for India. WIFG (T1) increased TI (T1) to a significantly greater degree for India as compared to Canada. TI (T1) significantly increased WIFG (T2) and WIFC (T2) for India while both these relationships were negative for Canada. Finally, WIFG (T2) increased FIWG (T2) for both countries but this difference was significantly greater for India. Results of the study are explained in terms of cross cultural differences in meanings ascribed to work between the two countries. Implications for culture-specific W-F interventions to reduce employee turnover are discussed.