Single parents and organizational commitment, absenteeism, and internal motivation: an initial investigation

This study examined the relationship between group membership (by maritalstatus and sex) and the salience of the family role identities of caregiver and provider. It was expected that both the provider and caregiver roles would be salient for single parents. Results indicated that mothers identified with the caregiver role to a greater extent than fathers. However, no support was found for the idea that custodial single fathers identify with the caregiver role to the same extent as mothers. Results marginally supported the idea that custodial single mothers identify with the provider role as highly as fathers do, whereas married mothers do not identify with this role as highly as fathers. Role conflict was also examined to determine if custodial single parents had higher levels of this variable than other working individuals. It was expected that the high salience of both roles for custodial single parents would lead to higher levels of role conflict for this group than other groups. However, there were no significant differences in role conflict for the groups. Finally, the association between role conflict and the outcomes of organizational commitment, internal motivation, and absenteeism were assessed. It was expected that high levels of role conflict would be associated with low levels of organizational commitment, low levels of internal motivation, and high levels of absenteeism. However, results did not support the idea that role conflict is associated with organizational commitment or internal motivation and only marginally supported the idea that role conflict is associated with absenteeism. Limitations of the study and future research directions are discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Broughton, Melissa D.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Biderman, Michael D.
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Organizational commitment
• Single parents
• Motivation (Psychology)

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Identifier

LB2369.2 .B768 1999

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-2071