Abstract
This article analyses the agency freedom of manager fathers in Hungary to claim work–family balance through corporate flexible working arrangements. Hobson’s interpretation of Sen’s capability approach (Hobson, Fahlén, & Takács, 2011) is applied to appraise the effect of individual resources and organizational and national context on managers’ work–family balance, as well as their influence on organizational culture. An interview-based case study was undertaken at the Hungarian subsidiary of a Scandinavian multinational company, wherein 43 personal interviews were conducted with fathers in managerial positions. The interviews were analysed according to structuring qualitative content analysis. Managers benefitted from corporate flexibility (home office and flexible schedule), but experienced power asymmetries in terms of access to and use of the former according to hierarchy and department. Even though the men in these positions are assumed to be change agents, the majority of them perceived limited agency freedom to convert flexible working into work–family balance, or to influence organizational culture. The privileged position of managers was detected at the level of their individual agency. Most managers could economically afford to maintain a male breadwinner model. Therefore, limitations related to securing parental and flexibility rights were due to traditional gender norms, and the strong sense of entitlement to work. Consequently, the extent and means of use of flexibility did not challenge deeply rooted assumptions about ideal employee norms.
Highlights
Flexible working—namely, employees having control over when or where they work—is usually considered a family-friendly arrangement that can be used as a capability-spanning resource to reconcile work and family demands (Chung & van der Horst, 2018; Chung & van der Lippe, 2018)
This section starts with an introduction of the interviewees’ perception of their work–family balance situation, focusing on the source of tension between the two life spheres. This is followed by a summary of how capable managers feel in relation to claiming and achieving balance, and whether there is a sense of entitlement concerning the ability to prioritise family over work
What is more important is whether they felt able to function in their preferred way. Based on their level of satisfaction, three, large, distinct groups of respondents emerged: (1) manager fathers, who considered their current work–family balance to be satisfying—mainly those who were maintaining the traditional breadwinner role and living in line with their selfconcept (Alemann et al, 2017); (2) those who faced temporary problems on a cyclical basis; and (3) those who were critical about their work–family balance in the long term—mostly managers living as part of a dual-earner couple
Summary
Flexible working—namely, employees having control over when or where they work—is usually considered a family-friendly arrangement that can be used as a capability-spanning resource to reconcile work and family demands (Chung & van der Horst, 2018; Chung & van der Lippe, 2018). Managers are believed to be change agents who can alleviate employee fear by leading by example and making it salient to others that it is acceptable to prioritise personal demands over work (Hobson, Fahlén, & Takács, 2011; Lewis & Stumbitz, 2017). Despite their high level of work autonomy, men in managerial positions are often subject to work–family conflict (Allard et al, 2007; Kossek et al, 2016). If privileged groups of professionals cannot benefit from such arrangements, this might shape the work–family outcomes of lower level employees and the organizational culture as a whole
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