Antecedents and consequences of perceived family responsibilities discrimination in the workplace.

Abstract

Family responsibilities discrimination (FRD) is a fast-developing trend in employment law, with the number of successful lawsuits brought by family caregivers doubling since 2000. Although the legal field has tracked FRD for over 8 years, very little is known about how this form of discrimination impacts the workplace. As a result, the following research examined the antecedents (e.g., family-supportive organization perceptions, family-supportive supervisors, and family-supportive benefits) and consequences (e.g., employee and organizational outcomes) of perceived FRD among a sample of 496 employees. Research findings revealed that family-supportive organization perceptions and family-supportive supervisors had the strongest impact on perceived FRD over and above the number of family-supportive benefits offered by the organization. Perceived FRD was also associated with lower job satisfaction, lower organizational attachment, higher turnover intentions, higher work–family conflict, and lower benefit use. ...