Reducing the effects of work-family conflict on job satisfaction: the kind of commitment matters

The way in which organisational commitment influences the relationship between workfamily conflict and job satisfaction is a question that has produced contradictory results. We address this issue by developing and testing a model that integrates role conflict theory and major research on organisational commitment, to elucidate the consequences that time-, strain- and behaviour-based conflict have on job satisfaction. The research is based on data collected among Italian nurses, and the results show that time- and strain-based conflict are negatively related to job satisfaction. In addition, affective commitment moderates the relationship between strain-based conflict and job satisfaction, whereas normative commitment moderates the relationship between time-based conflict and job satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these results for theory and practice.