When family rooms become guest lounges: Work-family balance of B&B innkeepers
Abstract
Work-family balance is an increasingly salient issue associated with Bed-and-Breakfast (B&B) innkeepers (Hsieh, 2010). The lack of spatial boundaries between home and workplace makes it difficult for B&B innkeepers to separate activities in the work domain from those in the family domain. However, issues related to borders between work and family domains faced by innkeepers have received limited critical attention (Hsieh, 2010). By integrating the work-family border theory (Clark, 2000) and the entrepreneurial motivation literature, the present research seeks to develop a theoretical framework to understand the relationships among work-family border characteristics (i.e., border tangibility and border strength), entrepreneurial motivation, work-family integration, and balance within the B&B business. A web-based survey was conducted among 369 innkeepers recruited through the Professional Association of Innkeepers International (PAII). The results of hierarchical regression analysis indicate that border tangibility is positively related to work-family balance and the relationship between the two is fully mediated by work-family integration. However, border strength is negatively related to work-family balance and this relationship is direct and not mediated by work-family integration. In addition, entrepreneurial motivation moderated the relationship between work-family integration and work-family balance. Innkeepers with a lifestyle motivation enjoy greater work-family balance than those with a business-oriented motivation when work and family are highly integrated. The present research contributes to the hospitality literature by assessing border tangibility related to physical, temporal, and relational borders between innkeepers' work and family domains and by examining how border characteristics and entrepreneurial motivation influence work-family balance in the B&B context. The present research also bears important implications for B&B innkeepers to create and maintain borders with desirable levels of tangibility, and to adjust the extent to which they integrate work and family based on individual needs to attain work-family balance.
Degree
M.S.
Advisors
Miao, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Occupational psychology|Individual & family studies
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