Work-life interference among working Australian Muslim men: Where religion and culture unite

Abstract

This goal of this study was to expand our understanding of the interference between work and personal life (work-life interference) by collecting paper-and-pencil and web-based survey questionnaires from 301 Australian Muslim men, a significant ethno-religious cultural minority. Australian Muslims have distinct cultural and religious values, which provide ground to suspect that they may have different experiences from the mainstream Australian population. This raises questions about the applicability of work-life policies and programs to this sub-population underscore the importance of understanding their experiences from a human resource management perspective. Results indicated that participants experience low levels of interference and the pattern is similar to that found among workers from societies known to uphold collectivistic cultural values. In accordance with workers in such societies, job demands were a stronger predictor of interference than work hours, which raise doubts about the effectiveness of work-life policies such as flexible work options around working hours.