CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

There has been an increasing scholarly interest in gendered nature careers, which has improved our understanding of married career Christian women's career trajectories (Wolfinger, 2013). This study advocates for the use of Christian counselling as a best practice that promotes gender equality and diversity in the workplace. As a result, there has been a steady increase in the number of highly competent female professionals and managers across many industries over the previous three decades, resulting in a gradual re-configuration of top management positions from male to female (Wolfinger, 2013). However, statistics show that there is a significant discrepancy in gender diversity in senior managerial roles in Nigeria. For example, in the Nigerian Federal Civil Service, which is the country's largest employer of labor, men account for 76% of civil servants and women for 24%, with women accounting for fewer than 14% of total management positions in the Nigerian public sector(Grzywacz, 2013).

Women's participation in the private sector as directors and top managers in Nigeria's largest commercial hub was 13.87 percent and 13.84 percent in 2014, respectively, compared to 8.14 percent and 13.11 percent for women directors and top managers in 2012, indicating a slight decline in their involvement in the following year (Grzywacz, 2013). We explore the problems to career progress of Christian working married women acquiring top management positions and the nature of Christian married career women barriers experienced within the Nigerian context due to the combination of work family conflict, occupational stress and satisfaction of life in attaining a meaningful coexistence within the work place and the interplay of the family roles in the Christian home. There are a number of challenges involving Christian married career women as managers in Nigerian firms, as well as their perceptions of gender stereotypes in terms of their own objectives for employment, mentoring, education, marriage, and having children. It would be fascinating to learn how these aspects affect their job growth and how they interfere with their personal lives.

Almost everyone's life revolves around work. This because professional development accounts for about 70% of all human developmental tasks (Wolfinger, 2013), most adults spend their weekdays at work. Workers in organizations are through significant changes as a result of organizational and career transitions, which has an impact on the long-term relationship and psychological contract between organizations and co-workers. According Wolfinger (2013) From relational to transactional, the psychological contract that includes thoughts and ideas about the reciprocal obligations that exist between employers and employees has altered. Our old notion of professions as a linear career path or a sequence of upward growth, followed by increased financial status, security within a functional area, and typically inside a single organization (Wolfinger, 2013) has evolved to lateral and horizontal movement in this realm. According to Ruderman et al. (2014), These new career paradigms can provide more options, positions, and experience for Christian married career women in order to meet their personal requirements as well as their intrinsic joy. As a result, many aspects of managers' and workers' career behavior have been altered as a result of these structural and social shifts, one of which is life satisfaction (Ruderman et al. 2014).

Counselling, being a combination of purpose and nature, allows for value judgment in the counselling process. Freedom is one of the most fundamental concepts in counselling. Counselling researchers have a difficult time agreeing on counselling values. Making individuals free is a very significant value and a widespread occurrence, even if it is difficult for experts to agree. The value of freedom is required for counselling from the perspective of purposefulness in therapy. Counsellors’ role is critical in helping people overcome deficiencies, bonds, and hurts. The phenomenon of freedom is ubiquitous from a natural standpoint. It always exists, regardless of cultures, epochs, or communities. Freedom is a natural and intentional occurrence. The notion of freedom is validated from a clinical standpoint. Clients are always free from something when they are improved or recovered. From a clinical standpoint, being free is both a purposeful and a natural event. As a result, counselling is an activity that aims to set individuals free. Therefore, counselling is an activity to make people free.

Christian counselling is a phenomena that occurs when Christianity and counselling are combined. Christian counselling’s goal is to discover a common phenomenon that applies to both counselling and Christianity. There are numerous ways and perspectives that can be used to complete this task. However, it is beyond the scope of this thesis to provide an overview and introduction to the many techniques and perspectives.

Life satisfaction was defined as happiness derived from having a decent work and a happy family life. Previous research has found a link between work-family conflict, job and family satisfaction, and work stress. Inter-role conflict has been linked to increased work stress in several studies. Work-family conflict was also found to be linked to occupational stress in a negative way. Several previous studies have identified a link between work-family conflict and occupational stress in Christian career married women (Wolfinger, 2013), as well as a link between family contentment and life happiness (Wolfinger, 2013).

The term "work-family conflict" has a rather muddled definition. Considerable, irregular, or inflexible work hours, work overload and other types of job stress, interpersonal problems at work, extensive travel, career transitions, or unsupportive bosses or organization are all examples of work-to-family conflict. An unanticipated late-day meeting, for example, may prohibit a parent from picking up his or her child from school. When family experiences interfere with professional life, such as the presence of young children, primary duty for children, elder care responsibilities, interpersonal conflict within the family unit, and unsupportive family members, family to work conflict arises. For example, a parent may need to take time from work to care for a sick child (Grzywacz, 2013). Despite the fact that these two types of conflict, work interference with family and family interference with work, are strongly linked, work interference with family has received more attention than family interference with work.

Employment and family both demand time and energy, and work is a significant source of money, financial security, and social status. Family serves as a core where two partners can find intimacy, support, and raise their children; the two were not self-sufficient (Grzywacz, 2013). There will be spill over from work time to home time in a home when a woman is a workaholic, and she will not have time to spend with her husband and children, which can eventually break the home into two separate sets in a Christian home.

When a partner's workaholism puts a burden on a relationship, both partners may become stressed and less supportive of one another, resulting in undesirable behavior. In a study, it was discovered that enthusiastic workaholics have much more life satisfaction and purpose than non-enthusiastic workaholics (Grzywacz, 2013). Work interfering with family had a negative effect on job satisfaction but not on life satisfaction, according to Zhao and Qu (2009), whereas family interfering with work had a negative influence on life satisfaction rather than job satisfaction. The more work-family friction there is, the less satisfied people are with their lives. A job that looks to be stressful to employees, with negative consequences for their health. According to Milliken and Dunn-Jensen (2014), workers' schedules and work contracts have resulted in increased job intensity and less time for private and social life (Grzywacz, 2013). Occupational stress is defined as "the reaction people may have when confronted with work expectations and pressures that are not suited to their knowledge and talents and that put their ability to cope to the test." Long work hours, a lack of organizational support and change (Grzywacz, 2013), a lack of support from superiors and co-workers, and conflict with demands and pressures are all factors that contribute to burnout. Occupational stress is widely acknowledged as a serious issue for married women, particularly in Christian families. Working married women are more likely to be involved in accidents, burnout, and illnesses such as coronary heart disease, hypertension, and severe depression as a result of stress. Stress-related issues in the workplace result in low job satisfaction, poor performance, increased absenteeism, and high turnover. Furthermore, Grzywacz (2013) defines job stress as the negative emotional and physical response that occurs when job demands are incompatible with the worker's resources and requirements. The workplace environment was one of the key stimulators of occupational stress for school administrators. Many of the most stressful events in recent years have been linked to the workplace: layoffs, changes in financial position, new duties, and changes in work hours or conditions.

Stress is defined as a person's psychological or physiological response to external variables, according to reaction-based definitions like Neff & Karney (2014), in which stress is both the stimulus (stressor) and the response (response) (strain). According to this viewpoint, stress occurs when the demands of a particular experience approach the limit of available resources, resulting in a change in the person's psychological and physiological state in order to cope with the experience (Neff & Karney 2014). As a result, a stressful situation arises when a person has an affect on and reacts to his or her surroundings (Neff & Karney 2014). Job stress fully mediates the relationship between work-family and job happiness(Neff & Karney 2014). Work-family conflict is one of the key stressors in the workplace, according to Ahmad, Baba, and Hassan (2016), and it leads to a variety of poor outcomes, including reduced wellbeing. Neff & Karney (2014) In a spillover study, it was discovered that the path from female weariness to male exhaustion, and from male life satisfaction to their partners' life satisfaction, demonstrated that not only job-related stress, but also positive context-free well-being might pass over between partners. According to a pan-European survey (European Commission, 2012), persons who are content with their occupations are also satisfied with their non-work-related lives and are happier. According to Neff and Karney (2014), pupils with low anxiety levels have higher levels of life satisfaction. Several studies have linked poor health to increased psychological discomfort and worse levels of life satisfaction among senior African-Americans. (Neff & Karney,2014.

However, recent observations reveal that the current scenario of working Christian women folk rapidly entering various works and jobs outside of the house-walls has broken the old myth of men as working spouse on the one hand, and on the other hand, women doing various works and jobs have burdened them with household works. In a nutshell, the preceding discussions demonstrate that interference from work to family and vice versa have significant implications for occupational stress in Christian households.

Christian counseling demonstrates that the topic of counseling activity is more important in Christian counseling. Christian counseling has been characterized by Neff and Karney (2014). They listed the following conditions for understanding Christian counseling: In Christian counselling, there is a uniqueness, underlying premises, objectives, issues, and rules of discernment. Warmth, sincerity, and compassionate understanding are often highlighted as attributes of Christian counsellors. As a result, every married Christian woman should seek Christian counselling to assist in resolving work-family issues and job-related stress in their homes. This Christian counselling would go a long way toward helping Christian career married women in their Christian households deal with these issues.

1.2       STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Stress is a serious issue that must be addressed. In any organization, stress has a negative impact on individuals and staff productivity. As a result, stress has an impact on the individual, his or her family, the community, and the country as a whole. The available research clearly reveals that dual career Christian women face stress as they try to balance home and work commitments. Although Christian career married women are not immune to stress, they appear to be more affected due to their dual duties as wives and mothers on the one 0hand, and employees on the other. As a result, stress at the home-work interface appears to be more prevalent among married women. If women are valued in home construction even at this time in Nigeria's development, issues such as stress among Christian career married women should be investigated, as should the role of Christian counsellors in addressing the problem. This fact activated the interest of this studying in investigating Work-Family Conflict and Occupational Stress among Married Career Christian Women, The Role Of Christian Counsellor.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of the study is to examine work-family conflict and occupational stress among married career Christian women, the role of Christian counsellor. Other specific objectives include:

1) To assess the level of work- family conflict among career married Christian women

2) To examine the influence of Christian counselling on work-family conflicts among career married Christian women

3) To examine the relationship between work- family conflict and occupational stress among career married Christian women

4) To investigate the causes of work-family conflict among career married Christian women

5) To recommend ways of limiting work-family conflict and occupational stress through Christian counselling.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1) What is the level of work- family conflict among career married Christian women?

2) What is the influence of Christian counselling on work-family conflicts among career married Christian women?

3) What is the relationship between work- family conflict and occupational stress among career married Christian women?

4) What are the causes of work-family conflict among career married Christian women?

5) What are the ways of limiting work-family conflict and occupational stress through Christian counselling?

1.5 HYPOTHESES

Hypothesis 1

H0: There is no significant influence of Christian counselling on work-family conflicts among career married Christian women

H1: There is a significant influence of Christian counselling on work-family conflicts among career married Christian women

Hypothesis 2:

H0: There is no significant relationship between work- family conflict and occupational stress among career married Christian women

H1: There is a significant relationship between work- family conflict and occupational stress among career married Christian women

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

 This study will further shed more light to this critical public interest by expanding views on the influence of occupational stress and work-family conflict via publishing of the outcome in this research.

In addition, Christian counsellors will benefit from the results of this study which can inform them on how to design better and effective counselling programs for their clients. Hence, findings of this study will contribute to knowledge in this area and expand literature. 

1.7   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The Study Is Restricted to Work-Family Conflict And Occupational Stress Among Married Career Christian Women, The Role Of Christian Counsellor

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

  The following terms are define operationally as it was used in the study

Married Career Women:  It referred to a recognized adult female worker who is married and highly committed to an organization where she performs her daily duties.

Occupational Stress: Is referred to as a chronic disease caused by conditions in the workplace that negatively affects an individual’s performance or overall wellbeing of his or her body and mind. Occupational stress as the characteristics of the job that pose a threat to the individual, and occupational strain as the deviation from a normal response that an individual would experience in any situation.

Work-family Conflict: Is referred to as a form of inter-role conflict in which the role demands stemming from one domain (work or family) are incompatible with role demands stemming from another domain (family or work).

CHRISTIAN: Christianity is an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest religion, with about 2.4 billion followers.

COUNSELLOR: A counsellor is a person whose job is to give advice to people who need it, especially advice on their personal problems. Children who have suffered like this should see a counsellor experienced in bereavement.