WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT

329 Pages·2015·3.74 MB·English

by  Information Hertfordshire

WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT:
A CASE STUDY OF WOMEN IN PAKISTANI BANKS

Rafia Faiz

Submitted to the University of Hertfordshire
in partial fulfilment of the requirement of
the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

May 2015
To my wonderful Ammi and Papa
Mrs Nighat Faiz and Prof Faiz Ahmad Faiz
for their unconditional love and unwavering support
Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
Abstract
Despite a plethora of empirical evidence on the work-family interface in ‗the West‘, very
little research has been carried out on the experiences of women in the context of Pakistan.
Gender inequalities persist in the Pakistani labour market and women‘s employment is
skewed towards agriculture and ‗respectable‘ professions, such as academia and medicine.
However, following the privatisation of the banking industry, women have been gaining
visibility in this profession despite societal pressures to either conform to the homemaker role
or remain in ‗women‘s work‘. What makes the Pakistani context unique is the interplay
between gender, culture, religion, class and family structure. This affects reconciliation of
work and family roles among working women. This thesis contributes to an understanding of
the experiences of working women in a gendered, patriarchal, Muslim society. It offers an
indigenous conceptualisation of the contours, causes, consequences and coping strategies
(Four C‘s) of work-family conflict (WFC) among women working in Pakistani banks through
a multi-layered, feminist, intersectional approach that gives voice to women.
The study foregrounds women‘s experiences at the individual-level; however, it also
considers the broader structures such as the extended family system, the male-dominated
banking industry and the contradiction of Islamic teachings with the societal norms regarding
women‘s paid employment. Consequently, the conceptual model of Four C‘s of WFC offers a
systematic and coherent categorisation of the causes, consequences and coping strategies of
WFC in a context-sensitive, multi-level, intersectional, feminist approach framework. Such
indigenous manifestations of WFC in the Pakistani context can inform research in similar
contexts. Based on a mixed method approach the fieldwork collected empirical evidence
through 280 scoping questionnaires and 47 in-depth, semi-structured, face-to-face interviews
in four different banks in Punjab province of Pakistan.
The study reveals the most extreme, yet masked, forms of oppression and the subtleties of
agency in the context of religious, patriarchal and cultural understandings of ‗work‘ that also
impact the salience of other social categories, e.g. class and family structure. In the main, the
findings suggest a gendered culture of silence in Pakistan in which women working in
Pakistani banks lack opportunities to vocalise their subjugated positions in the work and
family spheres. More specifically, the thesis points to the fact that these women are subject
to, sometimes conflicting, organisational and societal pressures to conform to the respective
images of ‗ideal worker‘ and ‗good woman‘ simultaneously. This, of course, has implications
for the intensity. In doing so the study extends the existing WFC theoretical framework to
include and consider not just the Four C‘s of WFC but the intensity, duration and types
experienced by women in particular contexts. However, the research also revealed that
women in Pakistani banks are not passive victims, but active agents, making context
dependent constrained choices to prevent or cope with WFC. For policymakers, the findings
suggest the need for the formulation of context-specific initiatives to address work-family
issues in patriarchal Muslim societies.
Keywords:
Work-family conflict, culture, gender, Islamic feminism, Pakistani, intersectionality,
Bourdieu, Pakistani women, women in management, critical realism, multi-level

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Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
Declaration of Authorship

I, Rafia Faiz, declare that this dissertation entitled ‗Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of
Women in Pakistani Banks‘ and the work presented in it are my own.
I confirm that:
This work was done wholly while in candidature for a Ph.D. at the University of
Hertfordshire;
Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other
qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated;
Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed;
Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the
exception of such quotations, this dissertation is entirely my own work;
I have acknowledged all main sources of help;
Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made
clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself;
Part of this work has been published as:
Faiz, R., Forson, C., Calveley, M. & Grey, S. (2014) ‗Ideal Worker‘ Versus ‗Good
Woman‘: Voices from Pakistan. Paper presented to the 7th Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion International Conference. Organising Inclusion: Beyond Privileges and
Discrimination. 7-10 June 2014. Technische Universität München.

Signed: _____________ Date: 12 May 2015
Rafia Faiz

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Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
Acknowledgements

All praise be to Allah Almighty for blessing my parents with the courage to send me abroad. I
know how much they have missed me. Thank you Rehan bhai for arranging our skype chats.
Words fail to couch my most respectful feelings for my remarkable supervisors Dr Cynthia
Forson, Dr Moira Calveley and Dr Susan Grey. They are my role models of researchers and
of academicians, and most importantly, of feminist women. Without their mentoring and
feedback, I would have never made it.
I also owe thanks to my sisters Dr Sadia Faiz and Dr Nadia Faiz, and my bhai Farhan Ahmad
Faiz and my very respectable mentor Dr Muhammad Aamir Hashmi for their trust and
encouragement; and Dr Hayat Awan, Dr Abdullah Iqbal, Sir Mudassar Hashmi, Uncle
Ghafoor Ahmad, Dr Humaira Asad, Dr Michael Pye and Dr Natalia Rocha-Lawton; and my
friends Nasima Amin, Saad Ahmad, Tahir Nawaz, Janet French, Xiangbin Cheng, Maciej
Bancarzewski, Acadia Evie Jean Prentice and Dr Eda Ulus for their moral support. Kudos to
my friends, colleagues and students whose feedback helped me develop my research further.
Also, my profound gratitude to the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and University
of Punjab, Lahore, for providing me with financial assistance for my Ph.D., as well as the
administration at the University of Hertfordshire, particularly Dr Hulya Dagdeviren, Dr
Yasmin Imani and Angela Digby for their guidance and assistance. I would also like to thank
the management for allowing me to recruit participants from the banks, and the participants
themselves who, with their stories of struggles, asserted the need for this research project.
I pray to Allah to bless my parents, supervisors and friends to support me for my post-
doctorate and future research projects as well. Amen.

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Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
List of Abbreviations

APS: Annual Performance Sheet
BM: Branch Manager
CSB: Central State Bank
FIW: Family Interference with Work
HRM: Human Resource Management
IB: Islamic Bank
MNC: Multinational Corporation
P.B.U.H: Peace Be Upon Him
PB: Private Bank
SSP: Special Services Provider
SVP: Senior Vice President
VP: Vice President
WB: Women-Dominated Bank
WFB: Work-Family Balance
WFC: Work-Family Conflict
WIF: Work Interference with Family
WLB: Work-Life Balance
WLC: Work-Life Conflict

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Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................... 3
DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................................................ 4
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................. 5
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................................. 6
TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... 7
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ 12
GLOSSARY OF URDU WORDS AND PHRASES ........................................................................ 13
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 17
1.1 Prologue .................................................................................................................................................. 17
1.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 19
1.3 Background to the study .......................................................................................................................... 22
1.4 Research aims and objectives .................................................................................................................. 26
1.5 Original contribution ................................................................................................................................ 27
1.6 Structure of the dissertation .................................................................................................................... 27
CHAPTER 2: SETTING THE SCENE: PAKISTANI CONTEXT .................................... 29
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 29
2.2 Historical context of women‟s work in Pakistan .................................................................................... 29
2.2.1 Socio-cultural changes ............................................................................................................................ 30
2.2.2 Banking industry ..................................................................................................................................... 31
2.3 Contemporary context of women‟s work in Pakistan ............................................................................ 31
2.3.1 Pakistani industrial setting ...................................................................................................................... 37
2.3.1.1 Banking industry.............................................................................................................................. 40
2.3.2 Family structures, support systems and women’s work ......................................................................... 42
2.3.3 Working Women ..................................................................................................................................... 46
2.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 47

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Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT IN
PAKISTAN ......................................................................................................................................... 49
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 49
3.2 Work-family interface .............................................................................................................................. 49
3.2.1 Role theory .............................................................................................................................................. 50
3.2.2 Integration perspective: work-life balance ............................................................................................. 50
3.2.3 Positive perspective: work-life enrichment ............................................................................................ 51
3.2.4 Negative perspective: work-life conflict ................................................................................................. 52
3.2.5 Frone et al.’s (1992) model of work-family conflict ................................................................................ 53
3.2.5.1 Limitations of Frone et al.’s (1992) model for WFC in the Pakistani context .................................. 54
3.3 Four C’s of work-family conflict ................................................................................................................ 55
3.3.1 Contours of work-family conflict ............................................................................................................ 55
3.3.2 Causes of work-family conflict ................................................................................................................ 57
3.3.3 Consequences of work-family conflict .................................................................................................... 58
3.3.4 Coping strategies of work-family conflict ............................................................................................... 61
3.4 Conceptualising work-family conflict in Pakistan ..................................................................................... 64
3.4.1 Gender roles and feminist perspective ................................................................................................... 64
3.4.2 Multi-level perspective ........................................................................................................................... 66
3.4.3 Intersectional perspective ...................................................................................................................... 67
3.4.4 Using Bourdieu’s concepts ...................................................................................................................... 70
3.4.5 Reconciling feminism, intersectionality and Bourdieu ........................................................................... 74
3.4.6 A conceptual model of work-family conflict in the Pakistani context .................................................... 77
3.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 79
CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................... 80
4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 80
4.2 Feminist methodological paradigm .......................................................................................................... 80
4.2.1 Insider-outsider status ............................................................................................................................ 82
4.3 Research philosophy ................................................................................................................................ 83
4.3.1 Critical realist philosophy ........................................................................................................................ 83
4.3.2 Stratified ontology .................................................................................................................................. 84
4.3.3 Epistemology........................................................................................................................................... 86
4.4 Research strategy..................................................................................................................................... 87
4.4.1 Research settings .................................................................................................................................... 88
4.4.2 Research design ...................................................................................................................................... 90
4.4.2.1 Research map .................................................................................................................................. 90
4.4.3 Mixed methods ....................................................................................................................................... 93
4.5 Initial study: Scoping questionnaire (Appendix B) .................................................................................... 94
4.6 Main study: In-depth interviews (Appendix C) ......................................................................................... 95

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Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
4.6.1 Designing the interview schedule (Appendix C) ..................................................................................... 97
4.6.2 Pilot Interviews ....................................................................................................................................... 97
4.6.3 Language ................................................................................................................................................. 98
4.6.4 Access and sampling ............................................................................................................................... 98
4.7 Observation and research diary (Appendix D) ........................................................................................ 102
4.8 Documentary review .............................................................................................................................. 103
4.9 Thematic data analysis ........................................................................................................................... 104
4.9 Research ethics ...................................................................................................................................... 107
4.10 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 108
GLOSSARY OF URDU WORDS AND PHRASES ..................................................................... 109
CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS FOR CONTOURS OF WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT ................... 113
5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 113
5.1.1 Profiles of the participants (Appendix E) .............................................................................................. 113
5.2 Conceptualising work-family conflict in Pakistani banks ........................................................................ 115
5.2.1 ‘Ideal worker’ - ‘good woman’ conflict ................................................................................................. 115
5.2.2 Contextual emotional labour ................................................................................................................ 117
5.3 Contours of work-family conflict ......................................................................................................... 123
5.3.1 Directions of work-family conflict ......................................................................................................... 124
5.3.2 Types of work-family conflict ................................................................................................................ 125
5.3.3 Intensity of work-family conflict ........................................................................................................... 131
5.3.4 Frequency of work-family conflict ........................................................................................................ 132
5.3.5 Duration of work-family conflict ........................................................................................................... 135
5.3.6 A conceptual model of the contours of work-family conflict ............................................................... 136
5.4 Typology of women working in Pakistani banks ..................................................................................... 137
5.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 141
CHAPTER 6: FINDINGS FOR CAUSES OF WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT .......................... 144
6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 144
6.2 Work-specific causes of work-family conflict ......................................................................................... 146
6.2.1 Organisational structures and processes .............................................................................................. 146
6.2.2 Limited flexible working arrangements ................................................................................................ 150
6.2.3 Inadequate childcare support systems ................................................................................................. 155
6.3 Family-specific causes of work-family conflict ........................................................................................ 157
6.3.1 Family habitus, structures and processes ............................................................................................. 158

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Work-Family Conflict: A Case Study of Women in Pakistani Banks
6.3.2 Caring and domestic responsibilities .................................................................................................... 164
6.4 Domain-unspecific causes of work-family conflict .................................................................................. 168
6.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 170
CHAPTER 7: FINDINGS FOR CONSEQUENCES OF WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT .......... 172
7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 172
7.2 Work-specific consequences of work-family conflict .............................................................................. 174
7.2.1 Slow career growth ............................................................................................................................... 174
7.2.2 Expectations of job discontinuity .......................................................................................................... 181
7.2.3 Compromised job performance ............................................................................................................ 184
7.3 Family-specific consequences of work-family conflict ............................................................................ 188
7.3.1 Perceived family negligence ................................................................................................................. 188
7.3.2 Mother-child Conflict ............................................................................................................................ 192
7.3.3 Delayed marriage .................................................................................................................................. 195
7.3.4 Marital conflict ...................................................................................................................................... 196
7.4 Domain-unspecific consequences of work-family conflict ...................................................................... 200
7.4.1 Health-related issues ............................................................................................................................ 200
7.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 205
CHAPTER 8: FINDINGS FOR COPING STRATEGIES OF WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT 207
8.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 207
8.2 Work-specific strategies of coping with work-family conflict ................................................................. 209
8.2.1 Foregoing opportunities ....................................................................................................................... 209
8.2.2 Access to organisational benefits ......................................................................................................... 211
8.3 Family-specific strategies of coping with work-family conflict ............................................................... 218
8.3.1 Intergenerational division of domestic labour ...................................................................................... 219
8.3.2 Discreet help from men in the family ................................................................................................... 224
8.3.3 Appropriating labour of the less fortunate ........................................................................................... 228
8.4 Domain-unspecific strategies of coping with work-family conflict ......................................................... 230
8.4.1 Sacrificing the self ................................................................................................................................. 230
8.4.2 Managing time ...................................................................................................................................... 236
8.4.3 Seeking Support .................................................................................................................................... 238
8.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 239
CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................... 241
9.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 241

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