Investigation of the relationships between psychological capital, leader-member exchange and work -family conflict in the service sector

This research explores the relationships between psychological capital, leader-member exchange, and work-family conflict and whether or not these variables differ based on demographic characteristics. The research participants are from five occupational groups (police officer, military personnel, banker, nurse, doctor). To this end, firstly psychological capital, leader-member exchange, and work-family conflict literature was covered. In this way, the relationships between the variables were examined, and the formulated four main hypotheses and their sub-hypotheses were tested. In addition, whether or not the variables differed significantly based on demographic characteristics was investigated. 472 participants were reached through convenience sampling and snowball sampling. Data were collected through a survey. The survey contains three scales, demographic questions, and one open-ended question. The survey data were collected between November 2014 and March 2015. "The Psychological Capital Questionnaire" developed by Luthans et al. (2007) and adapted to Turkish by Erkuş and Fındıklı (2013), which consists of 24 items; "The Work-Family Conflict Scale" developed by Carlson et al. (2000) and adapted to Turkish by Erdoğan (2009), which consists of 9 items; and "The Multidimensional Leader-Member Exchange Scale 12 (LMX-MDX-12)" developed by Liden and Maslyn (1998) and adapted to Turkish by Baş et al. (2010), which consists of 12 items, were used in this study. The Psychological Capital Questionnaire is composed of four dimensions: hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism. The Work-Family Conflict Scale is composed of three dimensions: time-based work-family conflict; behavior-based work-family conflict; and strain-based work-family conflict. The Multidimensional Leader-Member Exchange Scale, on the other hand, is composed of four dimensions: affect, contribution, loyalty, and professional respect. The validity and reliability analyses made for them confirmed the original dimensions of these measures. In this study, among the dimensions of psychological capital, self-efficacy yielded the highest score, but the other dimensions of psychological capital also yielded scores over the average. Among the dimensions of leader-member exchange, contribution yielded the highest score, but the other dimensions of leader-member exchange also yielded scores over the average. Among the dimensions of work-family conflict, time-based work-family conflict and strain-based work-family conflict yielded the highest score, but behavior-based work-family conflict also yielded a score over the average. The variables were found to differ based on various demographic characteristics. In this study, significant relationships were detected between psychological capital, leader-member exchange, and work-family conflict as well as their dimensions. Additionally, total psychological capital was determined to have a positive influence on total leader-member exchange. The dimensions of resilience, optimism, and hope were determined to have a positive influence on affect, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect. Such dimensions of leader-member exchange as loyalty and professional respect were proved to reduce strain-based work-family conflict.