The impacts of family-work conflict and social comparison standards on Chinese women faculties’ career expectation and success, moderating by self-efficacy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among self-efficacy, family-work conflict, social comparison standards, career expectation (CE), and career success through surveying the faculties of two major universities in Shandong Province, China. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through online survey instruments returned by 147 university women faculties from the two major universities in the region. Findings – The results showed that: there was a significantly negative relationship between social comparison standards targeting to men and CE; self-efficacy was both impact statistically on family-work conflict and social comparison standards. This study found that the perceptions of CEs of Chinese women faculties were impacted by social comparison standards that could be directly perceived from men through observing and communicating with them. On the other hand, family-work conflict, which indirectly impacted on their CE, was not statistically significant, even though it significantly bothered them. Moreover, by investing the moderate effect of self-efficacy, it was a very important factor which helped them to develop their CEs. Originality/value – Since the higher self-efficacy group had higher CEs, increasing self-efficacy should be a prerequisite to help them develop their careers. Still, Chinese women faculties of two major universities in Shandong Province had low CE, high family-work conflict, and felt an inequality in career against men.