The Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 3, Number 2, August, 2008 69 Conflict Between The Domains Of Work And Family: How Does It Affect Job Satisfaction For Small Business Executives? Dr. Leon Schjoedt Dr. Roslin V. Hauck Illinois State University, U.S.A ABSTRACT The question “Does work-family conflict influence small business executives’ job satisfaction and is this relationship moderated by job stress?” was examined using a sample of 67 top executives from small businesses. Support was not found for increased job stress or decreased job satisfaction as a result of family interfering with work. However, work-family conflict was found to have a negative direct relationship with job satisfaction and a positive direct association with job stress. Job stress was found to have a negative direct relationship with job satisfaction and be a mediator of the effect work-family conflict has on job satisfaction. INTRODUCTION Does work-family conflict influence small business executives’ job satisfaction and is this relationship moderated by job stress? This two–part question is the focus of the present study. Executives occupy an important role in businesses because they make decisions that have significant impact on owners, employees, and other stakeholders. The consequences of executives’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors are felt more directly in small businesses than in larger organizations where the executives are more remote from stakeholders than in small businesses. Considering that small business executives have a more direct impact on stakeholders, like employees and customers, due to their immediate proximity, the importance of understanding antecedents of small business executives’ attitudes becomes even more important. Unfortunately, limited research has addressed antecedents of small business executives’ job satisfaction. The present study will seek to advance the literature by examining how conflict between work and family and job stress influence small business executives’ job satisfaction. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT Work-and-family conflict has been defined in a variety of modes, although the most widely recognized is in the form of inter-role conflict. Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) provided the most widely recognized definition of or work- and-family conflict (e.g. Bruck, Allen, & Spector, 2002), which states “a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect” (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985, 77). Three hypotheses regarding work-and-family conflict have been studied: segregation (e.g., Hart, 1999), compensation (e.g., Greenglass & Burke, 1988), and spillover (Greenhaus & Buetell, 1985). The later - the spillover hypothesis - is the most recognized of the three and provides the theoretical framework for the present study. The spillover hypothesis argues that the role activities and feelings “spillover” between the work roles and family roles (Leiter & Durup, 1996). The conflict between work and family demands may cause conflict between work roles and family roles, which is referred to as work-and-family conflict. Work-and-family conflict was traditionally viewed as a one-dimensional construct (e.g. Greenhaus, Bedeian, & Mossholder, 1987); although more recent studies have pointed out that work- and-family conflict could be a two-dimensional construct (Gutek, Searle, & Klepa, 1991). Scholars (e.g. Gutek et al., 1991) suggest that two separate types of conflict exist, work interfering with family conflict (work-family conflict) defined as conflict occurring due to the activities and responsibilities of work interfering with the activities and responsibilities of the family and home life. The other dimension of the construct is family interfering with work conflict (family-work conflict) as the reverse, the activities and responsibilities of the family interfering with the activities and responsibilities of work, concluding in a type of conflict (Gutek et al., 1991). It has also been found that the two dimensions, work-family conflict and family-work conflict are asymmetrically permeable, suggesting that the domains of the work and the family are flexible, which causes the conflict (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992b). These authors also pointed out that the relationship is reciprocal between the two constructs and that the boundaries of the family are more permeable than the boundaries of the work (Frone et al., 1992b). Consistent with results showing that employees generally place a larger amount of significance on family than work (Gutek et al., 1988), two studies found