The Impact of Work–Family Conflict on Work Engagement among Services Sector Employees in Klang Valley, Malaysia

This study investigates the impact of work-family conflict on work engagement among employees in Malaysia's service sector, with a specific focus on the food and beverage, accommodation, and wholesale and retail trade subsectors in Klang Valley.Grounded in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, work-family conflict is conceptualized as a job demand that diminishes employees' engagement levels.Data were collected from 150 employees using both pen-and-paper and online questionnaires.The relationships among variables were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).The results indicate that both work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW) significantly and negatively affect work engagement, with WIF emerging as the stronger predictor.These findings underscore the adverse effects of work-family conflict on employee engagement, particularly in collectivist cultures such as Malaysia, where familial obligations carry substantial weight.The study offers practical implications by emphasizing the need for organizational interventions, such as flexible work arrangements and familyfriendly policies, to mitigate work-family conflict and enhance engagement.By addressing the differential impacts of WIF and FIW, this research extends the JD-R framework and contributes valuable insights to the literature on work-family dynamics and employee wellbeing in service-oriented industries.