An Empirical S tudy on Job Stress and Work Family Conflict: Role of Psychological Capital

Ind. Jr. of Mod. Res. and Rev. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 3 Issue 12 [Dec] 2025 10 © 2025 Dr. Ajay Kumar Chalotra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Indian Journal of Modern Research and Reviews This Journal is a member of the ‘Committee on Publication Ethics’ Online ISSN:2584-184X Research Paper An Empirical S tudy on Job Stress and Work Family Conflict: Role of Psychological Capital Dr. Ajay Kumar Chalotra* Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Cluster University of Jammu, Jammu, India Corresponding Author: *Dr. Ajay Kumar Chalotra DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17994491 2 ABSTRACT Manuscript Info. The purpose of the research is to test the relation of job stress (JS) with work-family conflict (WFC). Further, it examines the role played by psychological capital (PC) between them. The census technique has been employed as a method in this study to collect the data, and the data have been collected from call centres working in Gurugram, Delhi NCR. The EFA has been employed in this research, which has been validated with CFA. The outcome of this paper portrayed that JS was positively related to WFC, which signified that the workers who work long hours working feel a large amount of stress that leads to a higher risk of WFC. The study is confined to five call centres of Gurugram only. Future researchers should also include call centres of other NCR regions. ✓ ISSN No: 2584184X ✓ Received: 12-10-2025 ✓ Accepted: 29-11-2025 ✓ Published: 20-12-2025 ✓ MRR:3(12):2025;10-14 ✓ ©2025, All Rights Reserved. ✓ Peer Review Process: Yes ✓ Plagiarism Checked: Yes How To Cite this Article Chalotra AK. An empirical study on job stress and work-family conflict: Role of psychological capital. Indian J Mod Res Rev. 2025;3(12):10-14. KEYWORDS: JS, Job Stress, WFC, Work Family Conflict and PC, Psychological capital. 1. INTRODUCTION Every organisation wants to have a good name in the market so that it can grow its market share, improve its return on investment and maintain its sustainability in the long term (Lundgren et al., 2013). Tough competition of today's era at various levels like rapid growth of industries, cities, modern life style, higher competition and greater social engagement have forced the organisations to attain competitive sustainable advantage (Babatunde, 2011) and for this purpose organisations are changing their staffing policies regularly to continue a quality labor force in the organisation so that it can face the difficulties of a competitive environment. These are the major consequences of too many expectations of an organisation from its employees or workers. (Babatunde, 2011). Workers are also putting their maximum efforts so that they can meet the expectations of the organisations. All of these things are the main consequences of increasing stress in employees and workers. Job stress is a global phenomenon that is affecting all countries, organisations, and careers, impacting employees, employers, as well as families and society at large (Spector et al., 2002). “Job stress is mainly defined as a psychological response which comes when job demands exceed an individual’s coping resources and adaptive capacity” (Ganster & Rosen, 2013; Giorgi et al., 2020). Stress has negative effects on employees’ well-being, productivity, and non-work life, particularly in generating work-family conflict. Job dissatisfaction and lower motivation among employees are the consequences of a stressful life, so there is a requirement to deeply understand the stress so that the basis that hampers the Ind. Jr. of Mod. Res. and Rev. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 3 Issue 12 [Dec] 2025 11 © 2025 Dr. Ajay Kumar Chalotra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ employee’s growth and productivity can be evaluated, and the precautions can also be taken. Thus, the current research evaluates the cause of job Stress on work-family conflict with the role of psychological capital between them. “Psychological Capital is a high-profile construct which consists of hope, selfefficacy, resilience, and optimism, and represents an individual’s positive psychological state that facilitates them to goal achievement and effective coping” (Luthans et al., 2007; Luthans & Youssef-Morgan, 2017). There are studies that said that employees with higher level psychological capital are better equipped to regulate their emotions, reframe various stressful situations, and prevent themselves from negative extension from work to family life (Newman et al., 2021; Karatepe & Karadas, 2023). 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Job Stress Job stress is a vital issue studied by experts of organisational behaviour with great attention because if it is not managed properly, it can negatively affect the people who are working in the business. Further, it is a negative relationship with employees' health, their job performance/ productivity (Akintayo, 2012), and it is an interactive process among an individual and the work environment, which includes the combination of job-related disappointing emotions (Kristensen et al., 2005). Stress is caused if there is a mismatch between an individual’s expectations and the real conditions of the work atmosphere (Guinot et al., 2014). The WHO has defined “work stress as the reaction that a person may experience when they are faced with the job demands and pressures that do not relate to their knowledge or abilities, and it challenges their capability to cope. 2.2 Work-family Conflict WFC means role incompatibility, in which pressure is placed on a worker from personal and professional roles in a manner that if they participate in work life, they have to ignore their family, and if they participate in family roles, their work-related roles suffer (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). “Work-family conflict (WFC) is a widely recognised concept that describes an interrole conflict where demands from family and work domains are at odds” (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). It is a multidimensional concept that can be understood based on the direction of conflict, i.e. whether the work interferes with family or the family interferes with work. Now the researchers have further identified different types of such conflict. The most frequently discussed form of conflict is time-based conflict, which occurs when the time devoted to a role, whether work or family, reduces the time available to meet responsibilities in the other role. For instance, an individual may be required to attend an important work meeting for this task they have to miss their child’s school performance. In the same way, they are required to leave work early to pick up a child from kindergarten, which may prevent participation in a crucial workplace discussion. Another commonly identified form of role-related conflict is strain-based conflict, which emerges when stress or pressure experienced in one role spills over and makes it difficult to perform effectively in the other role. For example, work-related stress may cause a parent to remain mentally preoccupied at home, which will lead to limiting their ability to engage attentively with family matters. Conversely, concerns related to a child or family situation may distract a parent at work in the form of reducing their focus and effectiveness on job-related tasks. 2.3 Psychological Capital Psychological capital is an individual’s optimistic psychological state of development, featured by high levels of hope, selfefficacy, optimism and resilience. It shows who individuals are, plus who they can become in positive growth and development (Luthans et al., 2007). It consists of positive psychological resources that an individual possesses and which can be developed and utilised for personal growth and effectiveness in different domains of a person’s life (Luthans et al., 2017). Selfefficacy is a component of PC that refers to a person’s faith in their skill to accomplish tasks and goals (Luthans et al., 2007). It involves confidence that an individual has in their skills, knowledge, and capacity to overcome challenges and obstacles (Luthans et al., 2017). Hope is another component of psychological capital that consists of setting and pursuing goals with determination while maintaining the flexibility to adjust strategies faced with problems (Luthans et al., 2007). Optimism is a component of psychological capital that relates to individuals’ expectations that are positive for future outcomes, even in adversity or setbacks (Luthans et al., 2007). Finally, resilience is an individual’s skill to rebound from hardship and learn from failures so that they can use it positively to face challenging circumstances (Luthans et al., 2007). Collectively, they form the core elements of PC that are contributing to individuals’ overall well-being (Rahimnia et al., 2013) and performance (Witasari & Gustomo, 2020) in various domains of their lives (Yan et al., 2022). PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL PROPOSED MODEL 3. HYPOTHESIS Job Stress and Work-family conflict Employees experience problems & stress from their work & at their home, which negatively influence their quality of family life and lead to workfamily conflict (Heinen et al., 2007). Netenmeyer et al. (2004) found that work stress interferes with employees' capability of connecting with family activities, and afterwards it creates workfamily conflict. Earlier studies reflect that job stress has a strong and consistent connection with work–family conflict. Byron (2011) indicates in their research that stress at work plays a major role in creating conflicts between professional and personal life. Supporting this view, Radzali et al. (2013) and JOB STRESS WORK FAMILY CONFLICT Ind. Jr. of Mod. Res. and Rev. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 3 Issue 12 [Dec] 2025 12 © 2025 Dr. Ajay Kumar Chalotra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Saria et al. (2010) found that job stress contributes to various negative outcomes such as frequent absenteeism, substance use, alcohol dependency, reduced motivation, and lower productivity. Employees who experience stress at work often feel emotions like frustration, irritation, and emotional exhaustion, which increases the chances of conflict between their work and family roles. According to Spector and Fox (2005), work–family conflict mainly arises as a form of reaction to work-related stress and other conditions that trigger negative emotional responses among employees. Hypothesis 1: JS has a positive effect on WFC. Job Stress, Psychological Capital and Work-family Conflict Psychological Capital (PC) helps to reduce physical and behavioural symptoms of stress such as restlessness, difficulty in relaxing, and irritability. Individuals with low levels of PC are more likely to view challenging situations, such as threatening and respond with negative emotions. In contrast, people with high PC tend to handle the same situations more positively because they possess greater self-efficacy, optimism, and hope (Roberts et al., 2011). Furthermore, highly effective individuals are less likely to anticipate failure or lose confidence while dealing with uncertainty, difficulties, negative feedback, or setbacks (Shabir et al., 2014). Employees who have experienced work-family conflict with low PC increased the JS and vice versa (2016). Hypothesis 2: PC acts as a moderator of the relationship between WFC and JS. 4. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY The following are the steps involved to categorize study more meaningfully. 4.1 Generation of scale items Various dimensions of the research domain taken in the construct originated from the existing literature, such as Job Stress Scale (Conley & You, 2013), work-family conflict (Carlson et al., 2000) and Psychological Capital (Luthans et al., 2007). 4.2 Data Collection The data for the present research were collected from five domestic call centres located in Gurugram, within the National Capital Region of New Delhi. To obtain the required information, a total of 240 questionnaires were distributed among employees working in these organisations. Out of these, 204 completed questionnaires were received and considered valid for analysis, yielding a response rate of approximately 85 per cent. A census technique was used to collect data from employees who had less than seven months of work experience in the selected call centres. 4.3 Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis Results Table: 1 Construct KM VE (%) χ²/df GFI AGFI RMSEA RMSR NFI CFI JS 0.72 56.95 4.059 0.97 0.94 0.063 0.064 0.98 0.92 WFC 0.68 67.01 1.019 1.00 0.99 0.007 0.007 0.99 0.99 PC 0.56 50.11 4.855 0.98 0.95 0.065 0.072 0.89 0.91 4.4 Discriminant-Validity and Correlation Analysis of Latent Constructs Table: 2 Constructs Job Stress Work Family Conflict Psychological Capital Job Stress 0.698 Work Family Conflict 0.053 (0.231) 0.700 Psychological Capital 0.036 (-0.191) 0.002 (0.047) 0.703 Note: The values shown on the diagonal represent the Average Variance Extracted (AVE), while the values in parentheses indicate the squared correlations between the constructs. Values marked with an asterisk denote correlation coefficients. 4.5 Moderation Testing The present study examined the moderating role of Psychological Capital (PC) in the association between Job Stress. (JS) and Work-Family Conflict (WFC). For this purpose, the data will be divided into two groups, i.e. low and high Psychological Capital, which will be based on the median value of PC, which was 4.40. Respondents scoring above the median were classified into the high Psychological Capital group, whereas those scoring below the median were categorised as the low Psychological Capital group. A multi-group analysis procedure, as suggested by Walsh et al. (2008), was employed to test the moderation of Psychological Capital. The outcome of the study indicated a significant moderating effect of Psychological Capital, as presented below. 5. SUGGESTIONS ➢ Management should determine the optimal staffing levels by analysing call volume patterns and accounting for employee shrinkage. This approach ensures that agents of the call centre are provided with sufficient time to handle customer calls effectively and without unnecessary pressure. ➢ Call monitoring processes should be supported by structured call coaching programs that focus on identifying specific call quality issues requiring improvement. Based on these observations, targeted one-to-one coaching sessions should Psychological Capital JS → WFC χ² Df Unconstrained 513.743 122 Constrained 529.280 124 Difference 15.537 2 Ind. Jr. of Mod. Res. and Rev. PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL Volume 3 Issue 12 [Dec] 2025 13 © 2025 Dr. Ajay Kumar Chalotra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND).https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ be conducted to help agents to improve customer service skills and their overall call handling performance. ➢ The use of dialogue scripting should be limited, as excessive reliance on scripts can reduce call quality and lead to frustration among employees. ➢ Organisations should implement rotational job roles. Rotating employees across different roles or responsibilities can increase task variety, reduce monotony, and enhance skill development. This helps lower job stress and keeps employees engaged. ➢ Organisations should offer flexible scheduling options. Flexible start/end times or remote work options (if possible) can help workers manage family responsibilities and reduce work–family conflict. ➢ Organisations should implement Mindfulness and Wellness Programs. Practices like meditation, yoga, or stress management workshops can improve focus, reduce anxiety, and strengthen resilience, which is a key component of Psychological Capital ➢ The findings of the study indicate that a lack of task variety is a key contributor to job stress. Individuals naturally seek growth and opportunities to learn new and innovative skills; therefore, repetitive work can reduce motivation and increase stress over time. Organisations should identify and implement ways to ensure continuous learning and development, even for employees who have been in the same role for several years. For example, allowing employees to spend a few hours each week working on special or cross-functional projects can assist keep them engaged, challenged, and interested in their jobs. 6. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH ➢ The present study is limited to examining a single relationship, specifically between job stress and work– family conflict. Future studies may expand this structure by exploring additional outcomes of job stress, such as deviant workplace behaviour, emotional exhaustion, and depression. ➢ The research has covered five domestic call centres operating in the Gurugram (NCR, New Delhi) region. Future studies should consider including call centres from other locations within the region, as well as different types of call centres, to enhance the generalizability of the findings. 7. CONCLUSION Call centre is one of the fast-growing areas of work globally, and about two-thirds of customer dealings take place in call centre, and employees experience a high level of job stress, which in turn gives rise to work-family conflict less job satisfaction that eventually leads to turnover among employees. The majority of the call centres are not concerned about the psychological welfare of their workers; they only consider output (calls made/ received). 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