Spousal Support and Subjective Career Success: The Role of Work-Family Balance and Career Commitment as Mediator

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Jurnal Pengurusan 50(2017) 133 – 142
https://doi.org/10.17576/pengurusan-2017-50-12
Spousal Support and Subjective Career Success: The Role of Work-Family Balance
and Career Commitment as Mediator
(Sokongan Pasangan dan Kejayaan Kerjaya Subjektif: Peranan Keseimbangan Kerja-Keluarga dan
Komitmen Kerjaya sebagai Pengantara)
Shofia Amin
(Faculty of Economics and Bussiness, Universitas Jambi)
Rasidah Arshad
Rohayu Abdul Ghani
(Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)
ABSTRACT
The present study aims to investigate the antecedent of career success from work-family perspective. Specically, it
examines both direct relationship between spousal support and subjective career success, and indirect relationship via
work-family balance and career commitment. Data were collected using survey method from four hundred and seventeen
nurses working in hospitals in Jambi, Indonesia. To test the hypotheses, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) statistical
technique was employed. The results of the study indicate that spousal support is positively related to career success.
Work-family balance was found to mediate the relationship between spousal support and subjective career success, while
career commitment was found to mediate the relationship between work-family balance and subjective career success.
The study bridges the work-family research and career success research area, and brings together the literature on role
theory, spillover theory, conservation of resources theory in one model.
Keywords: Spousal support; work-family balance; career commitment; subjective career success; role theory; conservation
of resource theory
ABSTRAK
Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk menyiasat anteseden kejayaan kerjaya dari perspektif kerja-keluarga. Secara
khususnya, kajian ini meneliti hubungan langsung antara sokongan pasangan dan kejayaan kerjaya subjektif, dan
juga hubungan tidak langsung menerusi pembolehubah keseimbangan kerja-keluarga, dan komitmen kerjaya. Dengan
menggunakan kaedah soalselidik, data untuk kajian ini dikumpulkan daripada empat ratus tujuh belas jururawat yang
bekerja di hospital di Jambi, Indonesia. Teknik statistik Permodelan Persamaan Berstruktur (SEM) digunakan untuk
menguji hipotesis. Hasil kajian menunjukkan terdapat hubungan positif antara sokongan pasangan dan kejayaan subjektif
kerjaya. Keseimbangan kerja-keluarga pula didapati bertindak sebagai pengantara dalam hubungan antara sokongan
pasangan dan kejayaan kerjaya subjektif, manakala komitmen kerjaya pula didapati menjadi pengantara dalam hubungan
antara keseimbangan kerja-keluarga dan kejayaan kerjaya subjektif. Kajian ini menghubungkan bidang kajian kerja-
keluarga dan kejayaan kerjaya, disamping menggabungkan literatur berkaitan teori peranan, teori limpahan serta teori
pemuliharaan sumber dalam satu model.
Kata kunci: Sokongan pasangan; keseimbangan kerja-keluarga; komitmen kerjaya; kejayaan kerjaya subjektif; teori
peranan; teori pemuliharaan sumber
INTRODUCTION
Career success was the result of personal experience and
could be seen as personal experience and the accumulation
of real or perceived accomplishments. It reflects the symbol
of prestige, and is often viewed as a source of power,
happiness, satisfaction and acquisition of materialistic
advancement at the individual’s perspective (Yu 2012).
Career success is important because it reflects an overall
evaluation of the individual’s career. Research interest in
career success has been high for many years; it has caught
the attention of both researchers (e.g., Heslin 2005; Rasdia,
Ismaila & Garavan 2011) and practioners (eg., Robbinss
2003; Ziglar 1997). The literature on implications of career
success on individual behaviors and workplace outcomes
has been quite well established (Ballout 2009) compared
to its antecedents. The knowledge about the antecedents
is important as it can be used to help organizations and
individual employees in designing more effective career
system, and strategy that would increase organizational
members’ career success (Ellis & Heneman 1990). Thus, to
contribute to the literature, the present study will examine
the antecedents of career success.
In general, three categories of antecedents of
career success have been indentified in the literature-
individual, structural and behavioral antecedents (Aryee,
Chay & Tan 1994). However, while previous career
literature has been useful in identifying antecedents of
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134 Jurnal Pengurusan 50
career success, little research has focus on family related
factors such as work family conflict (Martins, Eddlerston
& Veiga 2002; Ballout 2009), spousal support, satisfaction
with childcare arrangements, family identity (Aryee &
Luk 1996), and work-life balance as predictors of career
success. Social trends today indicate that the increasing
female workforce participation and dual-career couples
have further underscored the linkages of work and family
domains as important issues in influencing career success.
To achieve balance of work and family roles, support from
both work and family domains are needed (Ferguson,
Carlson, Zivnuska & Whitten 2012). The scarcity of
resources such as time, energy and knowledge, makes the
role of spousal support pertinent to the balance of work
and family roles. Employees will have positive work
experience and a psychological bond to their career if
they perceived their jobs support the ability to balance
their work and family roles. This positive experience will
create a commitment towards their career. As indicated
by some previous studies, career commitment relates to
career success (Rashid & Zao 2010; Poon 2004). These
relationships imply that, together, spousal support, work
family balance and career commitment might play role in
predicting career success of an individual. However, to
date, such relationship has not been adequately addressed
in the literature.
Thus, to add to the career literature, and given the
fact that work and family cannot be separated from
human life, the present study aims to investigate the
antecedent of career success from family perspective.
Specifically, it examines both the direct relationship
between family support and subjective career success,
and the indirect relationship via work-family balance and
career commitment.
SPOUSAL SUPPORT AND CAREER SUCCESS
Caree success is defined as a positive psychological
or work related outcomes or achievements that an
individual accumulates as a result of work experiences
(Converse, Pathak et al. 2012; Judge et al. 1995). It has
two dimensions- objective career success which refers to
tangible, observable, and quantifiable criteria such as salary
or income, the number of promotions, and occupational
status (Judge et al. 1995; Heslin 2005), and subjective
career success which relates to individual judgments about
career attainments such as assessments on the value of the
human capital (Stumpf 2010), appraisals of self-worth
and capabilities (Chang et al. 2012), and experience of
satisfaction in the career (Greenhaus, Parasuraman &
Wormley 1990). The present study focuses on subjective
career success as emerging career today is characterized
by a high degree of mobility and unpredictability which
has resulted in more emphasis given to subjective criteria
in measuring career success (Srikanth & Israel 2012).
The effect of economic trends such as organizational
delayering, downsizing, and outsourcing, for example, has
diminishing effect on opportunity for promotion. Hence,
financial success and status success as the indication of
objective career success have shifted from objective to
subjective, making it more relevant for us to give more
focus on subjective career success.
In general, literature has reported three well-known
determinants of career success, namely individual,
organizational and behavioral factors (Ballout 2009).
Past studies in career success has given more focus on
individual and organizational factor as predictors of career
success, compared to behavioral factors (Ng, Eby &
Sorensen 2005). More recently, however, evidences show
that another important predictor of career success also
relates to family factors (e.g., Aryee & Luk 1996; Ballout
2009; Lyness & Judiesch 2008). This is not surprising
given the fact that work and family cannot be separated
from human life.
According to role theory, employees have the scarcity
of resources such as time, energy and knowledge to meet
the demand of multiple roles. Therefore, the multiplicity
of roles tends to produce role conflict and role overload as
the consequences of imbalance of roles (Kahn et al. 1964).
Spousal support in terms of the help, advice, understanding
and the like is needed to reduce the imbalance of work
and family roles (Aycan & Eskin 2005). This view is in
line with spillover theory which suggests that people
carry their emotions, attitudes, skills, and behaviors which
they establish at work into their family and vice versa
(Crouter 1984). Likewise, this positive experience at
family domain, in terms of balancing family and work role,
will be carried over to work domain and may influence
their perception toward career success. Without spousal
support, and under the scarcity of resources condition, it
is hard to balance the multiple roles. As a consequence,
success in career is hard to materialize.
A spouse can contribute to the successes of his or her
partner through direct and indirect assistance (Grossbard-
Schetman & Izraeli 1994). Direct assistance can happen
through sharing skill or knowledge to help with his or
her work, whereas indirect assistance can materialize
through moral support to face obstacles at work. Those
physical and moral support, emphaty, caring and love
from a spouse can make individual feel more motivated
and more satisfied with his or her achievement, happy,
able to effectively perform work and family activities, and
eventually may improve individual level work outcome
such as career satisfaction (Lu, Siu, Spector & Shi 2009).
Empirically, a study investigating twelve main predictors
of career success conducted by Yu (2012) shows that
family support is the most important predictor of career
success after work experience, education and personality.
Thus, based on the above theoretical and empirical
supports, we propose that:
H1 Spousal support is positively related to subjective
career success
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135Spousal Support and Subjective Career Success: The Role of Work-Family Balance and Career Commitment as Mediator
SPOUSAL SUPPORT, WORK-FAMILY BALANCE, CAREER
COMMITMENT AND CAREER SUCCESS
Work-family balance is defined as satisfaction and good
functioning at work and at home with a minimum of
role conflict (Clark 2001). An imbalance between these
two domains can be a source of conflict that can cause
psychological and physical outcomes (Frone, Russel
& Cooper 1992). Greenhaus, Collins and Shaw (2003)
describe work-family balance as the extent to which an
individual is equally engaged in, and equally satisfied
with his or her work role and family role. They propose
three components of work-family balance: time balance,
involvement balance, and satisfaction balance. Each of
the work and family activity requires equation of time,
involvement, and satisfaction to achieve work-family
balance. In general, many individuals have difficulties
in meeting the demands of work and family domains
simultaneously because of the scarcity of their resources.
In this situation, spousal support plays an important role
in helping individuals fulfill the demanding work and
family roles.
The ability to fulfill the demands of work and family
roles can be achieved by negotiating and sharing with
their role-related partners (Grzywacz & Carlson 2007).
Empirically, high level of spousal support was found to
be related to lower level of work-family conflict (Seiger
& Wiese 2009). Although work-family balance and work
family conflict have different meaning, minimizing work
family conflict, in essence implies the existence of work-
family balance (Slan-Jerusalem & Chen 2009; Pichler
2009). Therefore the following hypothesis is proposed:
H2 Spousal support is positively related to work-family
balance
Having multiple roles should consequently increase
the demands on an individual’s resource. However, multiple
roles also provide the opportunity to obtain resources that
could compensate for the additional demands that can
lead to desirable outcomes for the individual (Prottas
& Hyland 2011). Multiple role involvement leads to
an accumulation of resources such as social support,
psychological strengthening and tangible resources that
increase an individual’s performance in another role
(Sieber 1974). Achieving a balance between work and
family role means the multiple roles are well-managed.
As argued by the enrichment perspective, the positive
effect in one role may increase the quality of life in the
other role (Greenhaus & Powell 2006). Likewise, positive
effects in achieving a balance of work and family roles
will carry over to influence perceptions of achievement
in the work domain. Some empirical studies support the
link between work-family balance and career success. For
instance, a study by Lu et al. (2009) concludes that work-
family balance is strongly and positively linked to career
satisfaction. It has also been found that work-life balance
has a positive relationship with career advancement
(Lyness & Judiesch 2008).
As the meaning of success depends on who assesses
it, it is also implied that career success depends on how
individuals perceived their success. It may vary from one
individual to another and from time to time. Work-family
balance is perceived as the ability to manage work role and
family role harmoniously. This positive experience will
influence the perception of their achievement, including
career success. Therefore, the next hypothesis is:
H3 Work-family balance is positively related to subjective
career success
Work-family balance exists when the duties and
responsibilities on the job and in the home create mutually
compatible situations (Sweet 2014). Work-family balance
is also an employee’s work expectation (Dries, Pepermans
& Carlier 2008). However, since work and family
domains are interrelated, the ability to integrate work and
family harmoniously also depends on the work and the
characteristics of the profession itself. Professions that
are supportive to individuals to balance their work and
family roles can lead to individuals having positive work
experience and a psychological bond to their careers. As
has been noted in the literature, as people’s perceived
expectations for their present job is fulfilled, they will have
higher career commitment (Chang 1999; Arnold 1990).
Although there is limited empirical evidence to
explain the relationship between work-family balance
and career commitment, several studies have indicated the
relationship between work-family balance and the other
types of commitment which are also related to positive
attitude. For instance, in Aryee, Srinivas and Tan’s (2005)
study, work-family balance was found to have a positive
and significant relationship with job satisfaction and
affective organizational commitment. A study by Lourel
et al. (2009) also reported that employee commitment is
especially high in organizations that have work-family
balance policies. Therefore, we hypothesize that:
H4 Work-family balance is positively related to career
success
Career success is a cumulative outcome; it implies
taking time to achieve career success (Converse et al.
2012). Success is a product of behaviors aggregated
over a relatively long period of time. Thus, to attain
career success, consistent attitude toward one’s vocation
known as career commitment is needed (Blau 1985).
Carson and Bedeian (1994) define career commitment
as one’s motivation to work in a chosen vocation. They
divide career commitment into three components- career
identity which refers to establishing a close emotional
association with one’s career; career resilience which
refers to resisting career disruption in the face of adversity;
and career planning which refers to determining one’s
developmental needs and setting career goals.
Meyer, Becker and Vandenberghe (2004) claim that
commitment is a source of motivation to persist in a course
of action although there are barriers and difficulties,
while Colarelli and Bishop (1990) believe that career
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136 Jurnal Pengurusan 50
commitment are the foremost contributing factor for
career progression. Commitment supports career success
in several ways- individuals committed to their careers
may invest in their careers significantly in terms of putting
forth more effort and acquiring new knowledge and skills
(Aryee et al. 1994), develop attitudes consistent with
their commitment (Poon 2004), committed to the efforts
required to attain career goals, and always loyal although
facing obstacles and setbacks (Kim & Rowley 2005).
Empirically, research found that the higher the level of
career commitment, the more positive the attitude towards
the job, which in turn influences career success (Rashid &
Zao 2010). Another finding shows a positive relationship
between career commitment, current salary and subjective
career success (Day & Allen 2004), and a positive link
between career commitment and career success in terms of
salary and career satisfaction (Ballout 2009; Poon 2004).
Therefore we hypothesize that:
H5 Career commitment is positively related to subjective
career success
As argued earlier, giving spousal support via
negotiating and sharing between an individual and his
or her role-related partner may help create work-family
balance (Carlson, Grzywacz & Zivnuska 2009). A spouse
can provide emotional support such as listening and
empathizing with each other concerning work-family
struggles. This can reduce work-family conflict and
achieve work-family balance (Muse & Pichler 2011).
Spousal support also means actively sharing family
responsibility, i.e., reducing the workload of the household
by sharing tasks and offering suggestions on how to better
manage the multiple roles to achieve balance in work and
family roles (Carlson et al. 2009; Muse & Pichler 2011).
Talking and sharing experiences with one’s spouse may
significantly reduce the psychological stress caused by
imbalanced roles and help recharge one’s resources to
enable an employee to better focus on the work domain
and share household tasks. Through the accumulation of
resources, spousal support may help employees to achieve
the required balance (Ferguson et al. 2012).
According to spillover theory, employees will carry
this positive experience at the family domain into the
work domain (Crouter 1984). As a result, this positive
spillover will influence their positive perception about
their career achievement and satisfaction toward their
careers. This is in line with Grzywacz and Carlson’s (2007)
work-family balance definition. Their definition indicates
an interaction between work and family life through
negotiation and sharing of roles with the role-related
partners may influence work-family balance. Implicitly,
it also supports the spillover effect of work and family
roles which influence work outcomes.
Empirically, research investigating the role of
work-family balance as a mediator in the relationship
between spousal support and career success is still
limited. Nonetheless, work-family conflict literature
has shown that spousal support acts as an antecedent of
work-family conflict (Muse & Pichler 2011). The studies
by Martins et al. (2002), and Slan-Jerusalim and Chen
(2009), for example, show that work family conflict is
a crucial antecedent of career satisfaction-the higher
the work family conflict, the lower career satisfaction
will be. Although those constructs are theoretically and
empirically distinct (Carlson et al. 2009), extensive
research on work-family balance has largely used work
family conflict as a proxy for understanding work-family
balance (Ferguson et al. 2012).
The relationship between work-family conflict
and career success reported by previous researchers is
essentially similar to the relationship between work-family
balance and career success, even though the first one is
from a negative perspective and the latter is from a positive
perspective. The integration of work and family roles can
significantly enhance the efforts and contributions towards
greater career success (Ballout 2009). In line with the
above arguments, we propose that:
H6 Work-family balance mediates the relationship
between spousal support and subjective career
success.
Career commitment is characterized by a strong sense
of identification, persuasion, development and active
involvement in an individual’s career goals (Colarelli
& Bishop 1990). According to psychological approach,
there are three sources of antecedent career commitments-
behavior, expectation and exchange (Arnold 1990).
Individuals bring a set of expectations to their jobs and
if they perceived their job expectations are fulfilled, they
will commit to their careers (Chang 1999). In addition to
that, they will also commit to their careers as an exchange
process between their positive experience and feelings
of being bounded to an entity (Arnold 1990). The level
of an individual’s commitment is influenced by the level
of congruence of individuals’ perceived roles and their
expected roles (Kim & Rowley 2005).
Investigation on employee expectations from the
work domain indicates that work-family balance is one
of them (Dries et al. 2008). It means when employee are
able to balance their work and family responsibilities, their
work expectation is fulfilled. Consistent with Arnold’s
(1990) three sources of career commitment, meeting job
expectations is one of them. Thus, it implies that work-
family balance relates to career commitment. Another
study shows that an inter-role conflict has a negative
correlation with career commitment (Colarelli & Bishop
1990). This is because the inter-role conflict causes the role
demands of the other domain to be incompatible, such as
conflicts between family and work roles, thereby, affecting
the diffusion of energy from career goals which in turn
impacts on decreasing career commitment (Colarelli
& Bishop 1990). This finding is seen as supportive to
the idea that work-family balance is related to career
commitment and career commitment may influence
career success. In the other words, career commitment is
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137Spousal Support and Subjective Career Success: The Role of Work-Family Balance and Career Commitment as Mediator
the mediator variable between work-family balance and
career success.
To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical
evidence yet to clarify the link between work-family
balance and career success by using career commitment as
the mediator variable. Previous studies have indicated the
link between work-family balance and career commitment,
and career commitment and career success separately.
For instance, the results of Lourel et al.’s (2009) study
propose that employee commitment is especially high
in organization with work-family balance policies.
Individuals who are highly committed to their careers
spend more time in developing skills, and display less
intention to withdraw from their careers and jobs (Aryee &
Tan 1992). Individuals who are committed to their careers
should have more positive feeling, and should experience
more subjective career success than those who are less
committed (Ballout 2009; Poon 2004). Based on these
arguments, our next hypothesis is:
H7 Career commitment mediates the relationship between
work-family balance and subjective career success
METHOD
SAMPLE AND PROCEDURES
A quantitative research design was employed in this study
as the objective is to test the predictive model developed
on the basis of the existing theory. The main data which
consist of spousal support, work-family balance, career
commitment and career success were collected at one
time simultaneously.
The respondents for this study were nurses from
public and private hospitals. They were selected based
on three reasons. First, the impact on how to balance
between work and family role in attaining career success
may be a big challenge for the type of work which directly
relates to human life, such as the nursing profession. They
must be highly dedicated for humanity and disciplined
with their tight working hours including changing shifts
and weekend work. Second, career commitment reflects
someone’s attitude towards one’s profession or vocation.
In general, professional workers such as nurses are more
committed to their career rather than the non-professional
(Blau 1985). Third, although the studies on career success
among nurses had been conducted before (Mrayyan &
Al-faouri 2008; Yildirim & Aycan 2008), to the best of
our knowledge, studies on the linkage between spousal
support, work-family balance, career commitment
and career success with nurses as respondents are still
limited.
The study was conducted in Jambi because it is a
rapidly growing city located in a strategic area in the
middle of Sumatera Island, Indonesia. It is located near to
Singapore and Johor, Malaysia. With population 3,458,926
people at 2016 (BPS Province Jambi 2017), Jambi can be
categorized as a medium-size populated city. Statistics
show that Jambi has a high economic growth over the
past nine years (BPS Province Jambi 2017). One of the
indicators is for that research is the increasing number of
health facilities including hospitals. Jambi Province Health
Department Office (2017), for example, reported that in
2016 there were 34 hospitals in the Province compared
to only 18 hospitals in 2007. The nurse ratio per 100,000
people’s Jambi Province is 158 nurses per 10,000 people.
However, Jambi Province still has 108.58 nurse per 10,000
people. This condition indicates that Jambi province
should achieve the target nurse ratio and the number of
the nurse in Jambi tends to increase steadily in line with
the increasing the number of the hospitals in Jambi.
MEASUREMENT
Spousal support is measured using van Daalen et al’s
(2006) measurement with four items of questionnaires.
It reflects the four types of support as conceptualized
by House (1981). They are emotional, instrumental,
informational and appraisal support provided by one’s
spouse to assist enhancing performance at work and in
house. The sample item is “your spouse is willing to listen
to your problems.” A 5-point Likert scales ranging from
“never” (1) to “very often” (5), were used in the study.
Work-family balance is measured using six items to
represent the overall degree of balance the respondents
experience between their work and family lives. These
items are adapted from Carlson et al’s. (2009) and were
rated on a 5-point scale ranging from “strongly disagree
(1) to “strongly agree (5). The sample item includes “I am
able to negotiate and accomplish what is expected from
me at work and in my family.”
Career commitment is measured by adapting Blau’s
(1985) seven-items scale. The respondents were asked to
indicate their attitude towards their profession as nurses.
These items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from
“strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (5). The sample
items are “I will quit the job as a nurse if there is another
job opportunity with equal pay offered” and “I definitely
want a career for myself in the nursing profession.”
Subjective career success reflects three types of career
success criteria, namely financial success, hierarchical
success and career satisfaction as conceptualized by
Gattiker and Larwood (1986) and Aryee et al. (1994). The
questionnaires consist of three items for financial success
and three items for hierarchical success. For financial
success, the sample item is “I meet the expected income
at this stage in my career.” For hierarchical success, the
sample item is “I am pleased with the promotions that I
have got so far.” Career satisfaction was measured using
five-item scale developed by Greenhaus, Parasuraman
and Wormley (1990). The sample item is “How satisfied
or dissatisfied are you with the progress you have made
towards meeting your goals for income.” A 5-point Likert
scales ranging from “very dissatisfied” (1) to “very
satisfied” (5) were used in the study.
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138 Jurnal Pengurusan 50
SAMPLE AND PROCEDURE
This study uses individual employees as the unit of
analysis. To ensure the study managed to achieve its
targeted number of respondents, 456 survey questionnaires
were distributed to the nurses from two public and thirteen
private hospitals located in Jambi Municipality. With the
help of research assistants from National Population and
Family Planning Agency, we distributed and collected the
questionnaires manually by hand.
As shown in previous studies, hierarchical success
can only be measured accurately for someone who has
experienced career promotion (Aryee et al. 1994; Gattiker
& Larwood 1986). Thus, the respondents for this study
were selected among nurses who have been promoted at
least once in their career. To show the ability to integrate
between work and family roles, previous studies also
suggested to study someone who has been married and
has at least one child below middle school living with
them (Aryee et al. 2005; Lu et al. 2009). For this reason,
we used purposive sampling to select respondents based
on the above mentioned criteria.
RESULTS/ FINDINGS
Demographically, majority of the respondents are female
(88%), and hold a nursing diploma (81.3%). The average
age is 38 years (s.d. = 7.64) and the average tenure in
the current organization is 14 years (s.d. = 7.24). A total
of 42.5% of respondents’ spouses work in government
sector, 38.9% in private sector, while the rest are in other
sectors.
Structural Equation Modeling with AMOS 19.0 program
(Arbuckle & Worthke 1999) was used to test the model.
An examination of the data indicates support for normal
distribution of the data. Table 1 shows the descriptive
statistics (mean and standard deviation), reliabilities and
zero order correlations between the variables examined in
the study. The correlations among spousal support, work-
family balance, career commitment and subjective career
success are positive and statistically significant (p < .01)
with correlation coefficients ranging from .047 to .724.
The significant and positive inter-correlations provide an
initial indication of the relationships between independent
and dependent variables, and are in accordance with the
proposed directions.
TABLE 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations for the study variables
Variable Mean Standard Deviaton 1 2 3 4
1. Spousal Support 3.526 .566 1
2. Work-family balance 3.386 .696 .476** 1
3. Career Commitment 3.728 .579 .047 .350** 1
4. Subjective Career Success 3.745 .592 .611** .724** .328** 1
Note. N = 417. **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
MEASUREMENT MODEL ASSESSMENT
A series of confirmatory Factor Analysis were conducted
as the first step to assess the measurement model. The
initial result shows the poorly fit model, however, after
correlating certain measurement errors (based on the
evaluation of standardized residual covariance and
modification indices), the re-estimated measurement
model indicates a good fit model with the chi-square
value χ2 (448) = 960.42, at p = .00, CFI = .91, TLI = .90,
RMSEA = .05, SRMR = .05. Although the value of χ2 is
significant, other fit criteria met the recommended value.
All factors significantly loaded to their intended factors.
The reliability (CR) for each variable ranges from .80 to
.92 (spousal support = .85; work-family balance = .86;
career commitment = .80; subjective career success =
.92). In addition to that, the AV E values for all the variables
meet the recommended value to achieve discriminant
validity.
STRUCTURAL MODEL ASSESSMENT
The findings from SEM suggest that the hypothesized model
was a satisfactory fit to the sample data with χ2 (449) =
965.05 at p < .001, CFI = .91, TLI = .90, RMSEA = .05, SRMR
= .05. As shown in Figure 1, spousal support was positively
related to subjective career success (standardized coefcient
= .34), and work-family balance (standardized coefcient
= .47). Work-family balance was positively related to
subjective career success (standardized coefcient =
.52), and career commitment (standardized coefcient =
.34). Finally, career commitment was positively related to
subjective career success (standardized coefcient = .12).
It means that the higher the spousal support perceived by
individuals, the higher the level of work-family balance,
the higher the level of career commitment and the higher
the level of subjective career.
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139Spousal Support and Subjective Career Success: The Role of Work-Family Balance and Career Commitment as Mediator
For the proposed mediating relationships, using
10,000 bootstrap samples to calculate indirect effects, we
estimate both mediations at 95 percent level of confidence
interval using Preacher and Hayes’s method. As shown
in Table 2, there is no zero value between the confidence
interval’s lower and upper value at 95 confidence of
interval. This indicates that work-family balance is a
significant mediator in the relationship between spousal
support and subjective career success. Similarly, the result
suggests that career commitment is a significant mediator
in the relationship between work-family balance and
subjective career success.
FIGURE 1. Path coefficients of career success model
SPOUSAL
SUPPORT
WORK-
FAMILY
BALANCE
CAREER
COMMITMENT
CAREER
SUCCESS
.34
.34
.52
.12.47
TABLE 2. The output of Preacher and Hayes’s method for mediating role
Hypothesis CI for 95
Lower Value Upper Value
Work-family balance mediates the relationship between spousal support and subjective .1399 .2894
career success
Career commitment mediates the relationship between work-family balance and .0058 .0599
subjective career success
DISCUSSION
In general, the findings of the present study were consistent
with what have been suggested by role theory (Kahn et
al. 1964), conservation of resource theory (Hobfoll 2001)
and spillover theory (Crouter 1984) in explaining the
proposed relationships. First, the results from the study
found significant positive relationship between spousal
support and subjective career success. Specifically, it
suggests that both direct and indirect spousal supports in
the form of helping partners reducing work and family
loads, motivating them in facing obstacles at work, and
enhancing feelings of self-efficacy, empathy, care, love,
and trust would affect attitudinal and behavioral reactions
in work and family domains (Aryee & Luk 1996) and
consequently would contribute to the successes of their
spouse’s career (Izraeli 1994). Spousal support may
make people happier and more productive and enhance
the physical and mental health (House 1983). Therefore,
this may influence how they feel about their career
achievement.
Second, spousal support was found to predict work-
family balance. Having to deal with both work and family
roles at the same time is the reality experienced by many
working people. Reduction in time and energy for family
activities can lead to imbalance in the work and family
roles. However, support from one’s spouse, i.e., assistance
to do domestic works at home, would help reduce the loads
of household tasks. The finding of this study concurs with
the role theory which suggests that demand of multiple
roles simultaneously will affect people’s successes in
meeting their multiple role responsibilities (Kahn et al.
1964). Conflicting demands on time, lack of energy and
incompatible behaviors among roles are the cause of
difficulties to perform each role successfully (Greenhaus
& Beutell 1986). Through spousal support, individuals
can arrange their time and energy to fulfil work and
family responsibilities. Therefore, the presence of spousal
support has the important role to balance the multiple roles
harmoniously. As one of the underlying assumptions of
role theory is the scarcity of resources (Kahn et al. 1964),
the positive relationship between spousal support and
work-family balance is also in line with the conservation of
resources (COR) theory in this study. Work-family balance
is essentially the intersection of demands and resources
(Voydanoff 2005). COR theory states that multiple roles
influence the available resources. Support obtained from
the spouse can be used as additional resources to enhance
the ability to manage multiple roles harmoniously.
Finally, the findings indicate the mediating role of
career commitment in the relationship between work-
family balance and subjective career success. According
to Arnold (1990), people will commit to their career if
their career meet their expectations – i.e., to have balance
in both work and family domain. Thus, the present study
provide support that the ability to balance work and family
role will increase career commitment, and this in turn,
influence how individuals perceive their career success.
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140 Jurnal Pengurusan 50
The present study contributes to theory by bridging
the work-family research and career success research area.
It integrates the existing research by examining spousal
support, work-family balance, and career commitment
as antecedents and as mediators of career success in one
model. More importantly, it brings the literature on role
theory, spillover theory, and conservation of resources
theory together in understanding career success.
The lesson learnt for manager is the importance
of spousal support, work-family balance and career
commitment in predicting career success. Individual
career success will stimulate the organizational success
(Ng et al. 2005). Thus, to increase organizational success,
managers should increase individual career success by
focusing on the significant predictors identified in the
present study- spousal support, work-family balance and
career commitment- in their human resource activities
and policies.
LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
The findings and the implications of this study must
be considered in light of its limitations. First, the data
collected cross-sectionally. The weakness of using cross
sectional data is its inability to detect the possibility of
causal relationship among the predictor and outcome
variables. For example, although arguments suggesting
spousal support to precede work-family balance are more
consistent with previous studies (Marcinkus et al. 2006;
Yu 2012) counter arguments suggesting career success to
precede spousal support cannot be disregarded completely.
Thus, future research using the longitudinal design should
be considered as an alternative way to overcome the
weakness of cross sectional data.
Secondly, all variables in this study are perceptual
measures. As the nurses have a tight working schedule,
there is a p ossibility that they had completed the
questionnaire in a bad mood situation or in rush situation
if the questionnaires were collected in the workplace. In
the future, the researcher may combine the perceptual
from sources other than the same respondent. For
instance, career commitment can be measured from the
co-worker of the nurses. This is important in order to
provide a more objective picture of respondent’s level
of career commitment than the self-report data based on
self-perception.
Lastly, this study uses work-family balance and career
commitment as two mediator variables in one model.
Future research can be extended by using work-family
balance as mediator and career commitment as moderator
variable in predicting subjective career success. Another
model can also be extended by using work-family balance
and career commitment as mediator and adding another
moderator such as marital age or family responsibility. As
noted in many literatures, family characteristic and family
responsibility affect employee’s ability to balance work
and family roles (Lu et al. 2009).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was supported by the Fundamental Research
Grant Scheme (FRGS) [Grant Number FRGS/2/2013/SS05/
UKM/03/1]
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Shofia Amin (corresponding author)
Faculty of Economics and Bussiness
Universitas Jambi
Jl Raya Jambi-Ma. Bulian KM 15 Jambi-36361 INDONESIA.
E-Mail: shofiaamin@unja.ac.id
Rasidah Arshad
Faculty of Economics and Management
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, MALAYSIA.
E-Mail: rasida@ukm.edu.my
Rohayu Abdul Ghani
Faculty of Economics and Management
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor, MALAYSIA.
E-Mail: rohayu@ukm.edu.my
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