An Exploration of the Relationships between Organizational Dissent, Employee Burnout, and Work-family Balance: A Cross-cultural Comparison between China and Finland

ABSTRACT

Exhausted employees who fail to achieve work-life balance are likely to withdraw their engagement and voice in organizations. The current study explored relationships between work-family balance, employee burnout, and organizational dissent utilizing a cross-cultural sample. Through an analysis of 203 individuals from China and 112 individuals from Finland, the following was found: emotional fatigue, a dimension of employee burnout, is negatively related to articulated dissent and positively related to latent dissent. Furthermore, employees who receive managerial support for prioritizing family issues tend to express more articulated dissent. Additional analyses indicated that national culture has an impact on the relationships between employee burnout, work-family balance, and organizational dissent. Implications and limitations of the study are further discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-cultural communication
• employee voice
• Hofstede cultural dimensions
• job burnout
• organizational communication
• work-family conflict

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cheng Zeng

Cheng Zeng (PhD., University of Jyväskylä, 2018) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at North Dakota State University.

Hui Chen

Hui Chen (MA., University of Jyväskylä, 2017) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication, Journalism, and Marketing at Massey University.