As Korean society has lately turned into aging society where the birth rate is low, the government has pushed ahead with strategies geared toward boosting women's economic activities to step up the sustainable growth of the nation. However, our countr...
As Korean society has lately turned into aging society where the birth rate is low, the government has pushed ahead with strategies geared toward boosting women's economic activities to step up the sustainable growth of the nation. However, our country falls behind major OECD member countries in terms of the utilization of female human resources, and the existing policies mostly center around the work-family balance of married women. As a matter of fact, there are diverse forms of families at present, and the sphere of life is being extended. It's required to seek solutions from various angles to facilitate women's economic activities under the circumstances.
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between work-life balance and ego-resiliency in an effort to expedite women's subjective career success and boost the economic activities of the female population. Two research questions were posed:
1. What influence does women's work-life balance exert on their own subjective career success?
2. Does women's ego-resiliency have any mediation effect on the relationship between their work-life balance and subjective career success?
The subjects in this study were 340 career women. After a survey was conducted by convenience sampling and snow balling sampling, the answer sheets from 328 respondents were gathered, and the data from 313 respondents were analyzed except 15 answer sheets that included improper responses. The instrument used to assess their work-life balance was Kim Jeong-woon & Park Jeong-yeol(2008)'s inventory, and the instrument used to evaluate their ego-resiliency was Kim Eun-hee & Park Hee-seo(2010)'s inventory that modified Block & Kremen(1996)'s items and Klohen(1996)'s items. The instruments used to rate their subjective career success were Greenhaus(1990)'s inventory and Johnson(2001)'s inventory. The findings of the study were as follows;
First, whether the women's work-life balance affected their subjective career success was analyzed, and work-growth balance that was one of the subfactors of work-life balance was found to have a positive impact on both career satisfaction and employment possibility.
Second, whether ego-resiliency had any mediation effect on the relationship between work-family balance, which was one of the subfactors of work-life balance, and subjective career success was analyzed, and work-family balance was found to have a positive impact on career satisfaction and employment possibility through the medium of optimism rather than to affect the two variables in a direct way. And stress-coping skills had a mediation effect on the relationship between work-family balance and employment possibility.
Third, whether ego-resiliency had any mediation effects on the relationship between work-growth balance, which was one of the subfactors of work-life balance, and subjective career success was analyzed, and work-growth balance was found to exercise a direct influence on career satisfaction and employment possibility. Optimism had a mediation effect on the relationship between work-growth balance and career satisfaction and between work-growth balance and employment possibility. Besides, stress-coping skills had a mediation effect on the relationship between work-growth balance and employment possibility.
The findings of the study had the following implications:
First, the government should execute a policy to back up women's career success in consideration of their characteristics in order to dynamize their economic activities. Since one of women's characteristics is that they put emphasis on balance between subjective success and life, national assistance should be provided for them to strike a balance between work and life and win subjective career success.
Second, career satisfaction and employment possibility were under the positive influence of work-growth balance as well as work-family balance among the subfactors of work-life balance. Therefore women themselves should try to strike a balance between their work and family and keep on studying in pursuit of self-development.
Third, as women who has a superb ego-resiliency are better able to cope with their stress, follow-up research efforts should be made to boost the ego-resiliency of women whose career is interrupted or who are in harsh circumstances.