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Integrated Women Framework, Meaning of Work, Personal Resilience, Hybrid Work, Well-Being, and Job Satisfaction: A Preliminary Study of Professional Women’s Work Experience in China

Author(s)

Hongmei Han, Phylis Lan Lin, Mengdi Liu, Hui Zhang, Keith Miller, Liang Liu, May Darli Phone Swe, Kamaljit Grewall Maitra, Vijayakumar Parameswaran Unnithan

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DOI:10.17265/2161-6248/2023.03.003

Affiliation(s)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study is to propose a conceptual framework consisting of paths that contribute to job satisfaction of professional women in China. The preliminary study, which adopts the Integrated Women Framework, is intended to guide organizations and women professionals at work in China. The objectives of the study are: (1) to explore the nature and extent of relationships such as meaning of work, hybrid work environment, workplace policies, personal resilience, and job satisfaction; (2) to explore the application of the Integrated Women Framework, as a mediator, in understanding and explaining the construct of job satisfaction and associated variables. More precisely, the present study aims (1) to explore the paths that lead to job satisfaction among working women, and (2) to understand job satisfaction to provide insight into how an organization can support and empower working women to achieve it. The framework “integrated women” (modified from an ideal type of construction coined by Lin and Moore in 1983) represents women with resilience to adversities and challenges, who have the ability to make informed choices between personal and professional aspects, to exercise their meaning/purpose at work, and manage flexibility in their work environment (e.g., hybrid work). The study is both exploratory and explanatory. It uses the survey method for data collection. Women’s greater participation in the workforce has been an important step towards increasing workplace inclusion and gender equality. The study can be duplicated in other Asian regions and in the West since working women throughout the world share similar experiences. This study adopts a comprehensive approach to understanding and explaining the variables by combining both individual and contextual factors and their interactions. Based on this framework, the researchers made sure that all the variables are studied holistically so that the outcomes of this study will make substantial contributions to understanding of both theory (e.g., resilience and job satisfaction) and workplace practices (e.g., flexibility in the work environment). This paper focuses on the quantitative data derived from the China study of 152 subjects. Integrated Women Framework was used as a mediating variable in this study. In addition to descriptive data and correlation outcomes, the major findings from path analysis indicate that the mediating effects of integrated women were similar for the two outcomes of endogenous dependent variables: job satisfaction and well-being. For both, integrated women significantly mediated the relations between hybrid work and the outcomes, as well as the relations between personal resilience and the outcomes. In a nutshell, the preliminary analysis of the China data found that job satisfaction outcome is primarily affected by working women’s resilience in their work experience, a favorable work environment (work policies and hybrid work) and by their well-being (especially economic/financial well-being). In other words, job satisfaction is related to both personal and organizational factors.

KEYWORDS

working women, work experience, integrated women, personal resilience, workplace policy, hybrid work, meaning of work, well-being, workplace environment, job satisfaction

Cite this paper

Hongmei Han, Phylis Lan Lin, Mengdi Liu, Hui Zhang, Keith Miller, Liang Liu, May Darli Phone Swe, Kamaljit Grewall Maitra, Vijayakumar Parameswaran Unnithan. (2023). Integrated Women Framework, Meaning of Work, Personal Resilience, Hybrid Work, Well-Being, and Job Satisfaction: A Preliminary Study of Professional Women’s Work Experience in China. US-China Education Review B, May-June 2023, Vol. 13, No. 3, 155-182.

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