Family-friendly Practices Research Articles

Why does family motivation occur and matter? Evidence from hotel and cruise ship employees

Supporting one’s family can be a powerful motivator for employees to work hard. However, very few research has been done and has explored the reasons why family motivation matters and how it occurs. Drawing on prosocial motivation theory and action identification theory, we propose that family motivation positively influences employee resilience, particularly when intrinsic motivation and challenge stressors are low. Additionally, perceived organizational support for families enhances family motivation, which in turn bolsters employee resilience. We have collected data from hotel and cruise ship employees to test these hypotheses. Our findings suggest that family motivation significantly strengthens employee resilience, especially in the absence of intrinsic motivation and challenge stressors. Furthermore, perceived organizational family support plays a crucial role in fostering family motivation, which mediates its positive impact on employee resilience. Based on these insights, we recommend that hotel and cruise ship companies cultivate resilient employees by reinforcing family motivation and implementing family-friendly practices.

Assessment of Employee Well-Being on Organisational Effectiveness & Productivity: A Literature Review

This paper examines the various and complex aspects of employee well-being, including global and individual perspectives. The study examines the pivotal role of leadership, organizational culture, job satisfaction, job quality, age and gender dynamics, and family-friendly practices in shaping employee well-being. Through a synthesis of existing research, key findings emerge, highlighting the significance of engaged leadership in promoting employee performance and well-being. Additionally, the impact of organizational justice and supportive work environments on employee perceptions of fairness and well-being is discussed. Furthermore, the relationship between job satisfaction, job quality, and employee well-being is explored, emphasizing the importance of addressing diverse employee needs. The study also delves into age and gender differences in well-being, as well as the influence of family-friendly practices on reducing work-life conflict. Overall, this literature review provides valuable insights for organizations seeking to prioritize employee well-being as a strategic imperative in today's dynamic business landscape, ultimately contributing to enhanced organizational performance and success.

Does work-family conflict mediate the effect of psychological resilience on tour guides’ happiness?

PurposeThis paper aims to explore work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) as the mediators linking psychological resilience to happiness.Design/methodology/approachData gathered from tour guides in Türkiye were used to test the aforesaid associations. In this paper, partial least squares structural equation modeling was performed to gauge the direct links and mediating impacts of WIF and FIW simultaneously in the link between psychological resilience and happiness.FindingsPsychological resilience exerts a dual influence on WIF and FIW. Simply put, psychologically resilient tour guides balance their work demands with those of the family or vice versa and exhibit low levels of WIF and FIW. As hypothesized, WIF and FIW are the two mediating mechanisms relating psychological resilience to happiness.Practical implicationsIt is important to create a family-supportive atmosphere where tour guides can avail themselves of family-friendly practices (i.e. family leave, flexible work schedules, breaks to be spent with family members after long tours and convenient working hours). Psychologically resilient tour guides, with the abovementioned practices, would experience alleviated conflicts between work and family roles and would therefore have heightened happiness.Originality/valueAlthough the extant literature has presented plenty of empirical studies about the predictors and outcomes of WIF and FIW, evidence about the links of personal resources as third variables to WIF and FIW simultaneously is still scanty. In addition, there is no evidence linking personal resources such as psychological resilience to nonwork outcomes such as happiness through the mediating roles of WIF and FIW. This paper fills in these voids by gauging the links given above using data collected from tour guides, a population that has been subjected to limited inquiry in the WIF and FIW literature.

Recruiting women faculty through inclusive, family-friendly practices

Recruitment of STEM faculty is biased against parents and caregivers. Specifically, women experience discrimination associated with childrearing and marriage. Underestimating the value of these candidates leads to a tremendous loss of talent. Here, we present a toolkit to facilitate the recruitment of talented women caregivers by providing guidelines for hiring.

Does it pay off to offer family-friendly practices? Exploring the missing links to performance

Family-friendly practices (FFP) are viewed as an important tool to achieve equal opportunities and a supportive culture, with potential benefits for the organizational image and its employer branding. To date, however, there is an imperfect understanding of whether FFP affect firm performance and what are the mechanism of the possible association. This study tests a comprehensive model to investigate whether FFP affect firm performance and analyzes the role played by work–life balance (WLB) as a mediator between the provision of FFP and employee attitudes and firm performance.Using a sample of 724 public and private Portuguese companies and Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression, the results show that the availability of FFP indeed has a positive influence on WLB, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction, but it does not impact family satisfaction. Moreover, WLB mediates the relationship between FFP and firm performance. It is noteworthy that men and women do not perceive the impact of these practices the same way, with FFP having a greater impact on female job satisfaction than on their male counterparts. In addition, participants with lower levels of education and lower levels of annual income perceive a stronger impact of FFP on organizational commitment and WLB than the remaining participants. Men and participants with lower levels of education also perceive a stronger impact of WLB on family satisfaction.

Work-Family Conflict and Employee Wellbeing: Examining the Buffering Effects of Workplace Provided Family-Friendly Resources

This study examines the moderating effect of two family-friendly resources available in the workplace such as family friendly practices (FFP) and family supportive supervisor (FSS) on the relationship between work-family conflict and employee wellbeing. The data was collected from 297 frontline sales employees working for four major insurance companies in Pakistan. Each employee received a hard copy of the questionnaire with a cover letter outlining the goals and voluntary nature of the study. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to analyze the collected data and test the proposed hypotheses. Findings suggest that FFP and FSS were linked to lower levels of depression and anxiety, and higher levels of job satisfaction and organization commitment. FFP buffer the impact of WIF and FIW on depression. FSS buffer the impact of WIF and FIW on depression, anxiety, job satisfaction, and organization commitment. It is important to focus on both formal (i.e. FFP) and informal (i.e. FSS) family-friendly resources when designing an intervention program for enhancing employee wellbeing.

Gendered Impact of Caregiving Responsibilities on Tenure Track Faculty Parents' Professional Lives.

Navigating a career while raising a family can be challenging, especially for women in academia. In this study, we examine the ways in which professional life interruptions due to child caregiving (e.g., opportunities not offered, professional travel curtailed) affect pre- and post-tenure faculty members' career satisfaction and retention. We also examine whether sharing caregiving responsibilities with a partner affected faculty members' (particularly women's) career outcomes. In a sample of 753 tenure track faculty parents employed at a large research-intensive university, results showed that as the number of professional life interruptions due to caregiving increased, faculty members experienced less career satisfaction and greater desire to leave their job. Pre-tenure women's, but not pre-tenure men's, career satisfaction and intention to stay were negatively affected when they experienced at least one professional life interference. Pre-tenure men's desire to stay in their job and career satisfaction remained high, regardless of the number of professional life interferences they experienced. Sharing parenting responsibilities with a partner did not buffer the demands of caregiving on pre-tenure women's career outcomes. Our work highlights the need to consider the varied ways in which caregiving affects faculty members' careers, beyond markers such as publications, and how institutions can support early career stage women with family-friendly practices.

Helping others not always helps ourselves: the relationship between victim incivility and emergency workers' burnout through work-to-family conflict

PurposeThis study aims to analyse whether and when victim incivility may be related to work-to-family conflict and then burnout among emergency workers.Design/methodology/approachA total of 304 Italian emergency workers from five firehouses and six emergency rooms completed questionnaires, examining: victim incivility, work-to-family conflict, social support seeking and burnout symptoms. Descriptive analyses, confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation models were conducted.FindingsVictim incivility was positively associated with burnout symptoms, both directly and indirectly, as mediated by work-to-family conflict. Additionally, social support seeking exacerbated (rather than mitigated) the impact of work-to-family conflict on burnout symptoms.Practical implicationsOrganisations can greatly benefit from implementing family-friendly practices and providing their workers with training programmes on how to deal with difficult victims.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature on workplace incivility and work–life interface by supporting for the first time the notion that victim incivility can spill over into emergency workers' family domain and by clarifying how and when victim incivility is related to burnout symptoms.

Assessing the Impact of Friendly Family Practice in Reducing Employee Turnover in Malaysian Private Higher Educational Institutions

The main purpose of the research is to identify the effectiveness of implementing family-friendly practices in reducing turnover amongst academicians in private higher education institutions, with the mediator effect on job satisfaction. Systematization of the literary sources and approaches for solving the employee turnover problem indicates that friendly family practice includes three dimensions: flexible working arrangements, parental leave and childcare benefits. During the investigation, these three variables will be evaluated for their relationship with turnover and whether there is any significant or effective association among the variables. The research proves that for many private higher educational institutions, the expansion required a considerable effort to have knowledgeable academicians and skillful employees. Thus, they could deliver their professions and skills to achieve education goals. However, retaining the employee is always the main issue faced by many institutions and many scholars have formulated strategies to minimise turnover. Most of them claim that if the strategies are properly implemented, organization turnover will be reduced, thus developing a highly committed and motivated employee. Hence, this study has developed five (5) research questions and ten (10) hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, a sample of 316 employees from different educational institutions was selected through a cluster sampling method to respond to the questionnaire. The methodological tools of the conducted research were methods of multivariate statistical analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The outcome of the research provided researchers with an understanding that flexible work arrangements, provision of parental leave and childcare benefits have a significant negative relationship with employee turnover intention. Besides that, the outcome also confirmed that there is a mediation effect of job satisfaction towards family-friendly practices and turnover intention

Assessing the Impact of Friendly Family Practice in Reducing Employee Turnover in Malaysian Private Higher Educational Institutions

The main purpose of the research is to identify the effectiveness of implementing family-friendly practices in reducing turnover amongst academicians in private higher education institutions, with the mediator effect on job satisfaction. Systematization of the literary sources and approaches for solving the employee turnover problem indicates that friendly family practice includes three dimensions: flexible working arrangements, parental leave and childcare benefits. During the investigation, these three variables will be evaluated for their relationship with turnover and whether there is any significant or effective association among the variables. The research proves that for many private higher educational institutions, the expansion required a considerable effort to have knowledgeable academicians and skillful employees. Thus, they could deliver their professions and skills to achieve education goals. However, retaining the employee is always the main issue faced by many institutions and many scholars have formulated strategies to minimise turnover. Most of them claim that if the strategies are properly implemented, organization turnover will be reduced, thus developing a highly committed and motivated employee. Hence, this study has developed five (5) research questions and ten (10) hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, a sample of 316 employees from different educational institutions was selected through a cluster sampling method to respond to the questionnaire. The methodological tools of the conducted research were methods of multivariate statistical analysis, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The outcome of the research provided researchers with an understanding that flexible work arrangements, provision of parental leave and childcare benefits have a significant negative relationship with employee turnover intention. Besides that, the outcome also confirmed that there is a mediation effect of job satisfaction towards family-friendly practices and turnover intention.

Development and Validity Testing of the Workplace Parent Index: Assessment of Family-Friendly Practice.

We aimed to develop the Workplace Parent Index (WPI) as an assessment tool of family-friendly practice in the workplace and validate its psychometric properties. The development of the WPI included three phases: item generation, scale construction, and field testing. Participants were 1000 parents, aged 18 or more years old, who completed the WPI online and measures of competency of parentship, life satisfaction, and positive growth after experiencing a traumatic event. The WPI comprised 80 items and five domains: Governance and Infrastructure, Planning and Communications, Action-Pregnancy and Childbirth, Action-Childrearing, and Monitoring and Feedback. All subscales of the WPI demonstrated high internal consistency reliability and correlated with other scales as expected in support of concurrent and predictive validity. The WPI demonstrated excellent psychometric properties that can be used to assess comprehensive family-friendly practices in the workplace when addressing the need and prioritizing the allocation of resources for workplace parentship program initiatives.

The power of balance: interplay effects of exploitative leadership style, work–family balance and family-friendly workplace practices on innovation implementation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the inverted U-shaped relationship that exists between exploitative leadership styles and innovation implementation. In addition, drawing on the social cognitive theory, the paper explores the effect of the three-way interaction between exploitative leadership style (ELS), work–family balance (WFB) and family-friendly workplace practices (FFWPs) on innovation implementation.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative study of 440 employees from 38 medium and large companies based in Italy and Croatia was conducted, using an online survey. The proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.FindingsThe results show that there is an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between ELS and innovation implementation. Furthermore, the findings support the existence of the three-way interaction suggesting that the combination of high-level WFB and high-level FFWPs strengthens the relationship between ELS² and innovation implementation.Originality/valueThis is the first contribution that examines a curvilinear relationship between ELS and innovation implementation. Additionally, it contributes to the work–family literature by providing the first empirical examination of the joint impact of WFB and FFWPs in enhancing innovation implementation. Our results suggest that individuals who perceive a high level of WFB and who work in an organization with family-friendly practices are more accepting of an exploitative leader, and that the positive feelings from the family domain encourage the implementation of innovation. These results may change the attitudes of managers, encouraging them to consider WFB and FFWPs as important for the implementation of innovation.

Is the push by female employees for family-friendly practices context-dependent? Comparative evidence from Sweden, Poland and Germany

This paper examines the role of a country’s care regime as a potential moderator of the link between the share of female employees and the provision of family-friendly practices in companies. Based on theoretical sampling, we compare the provision of flextime and day care services in companies in three country contexts (Sweden, Poland, and Germany) with varying degrees of de-familialization and support of maternal employment to exemplify our model. Our empirical analysis is based on 732 observations from 152 public companies listed on the Swedish OMX, the Polish WIG20 and the German DAX/MDAX, during the period 2005–2015. Random effects logistic regressions reveal that there is no automatism concerning a demand-driven push towards employer-provided family-friendly practices. Rather, the care regime seems to play an important role for whether the provision of family-friendly practices in companies is affected by the share of female employees and which family-friendly practices are affected.

EFFECT OF FAMILY-FRIENDLY PRACTICES ON EMPLOYEES’ INTENTION TO QUIT: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR

Turnover intention has become one of the most serious issues in organizations around the world. Hence, most organizations encourage family-friendly practices (FFPs) to retain employees and to reduce high turnover risk. A plethora of research has confirmed FFPs as a fruitful predictor of turnover intention. However, what is not yet known is whether FFPs directly influence turnover intention or indirectly through organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). To fill the gap, the present study examined the effect of FFPs on employees’ intention to quit. On top of that, the mediating role of OCB in the purported link was also examined. Data were collected from 338 health sector employees using a structured questionnaire. The results of the structural equation modeling using AMOS indicated a significant negative relationship between FFPs and employees’ intention to quit. Moreover, OCB negatively influences employees’ intention to quit and partially mediates the path between family-friendly practices and intention to quit. Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, this study advances existing knowledge and further understanding of organizational work practices. This study recommends that organizations should encourage FFPs to mitigate turnover rate among employees.

Career Advancement for Women in the British Hospitality Industry: The Enabling Factors

Women are historically under-represented in senior management positions in almost all industries. Despite the UK hospitality industry being a major employer of women, there is a clear lack of women in management positions. This research aims to gain insight into the factors enabling women to access senior positions in the UK hospitality industry. Using the gendered organizations perspective, the study analyses female managers’ perceptions about their career advancement within this sector. It identifies key enablers and strategies to facilitate women’s career advancement. The findings reveal that despite improvements in career opportunities for women within the UK hospitality organizations, there is still a long way to go in terms of employment policies and practices that enable women’s career progression, which includes family-friendly practices; proactive and transparent gender equality measures; support networks and mentors; and personal development plan.

Should children become key stakeholders in designing family-friendly workplaces?

PurposeThe purpose is to determine whether there is a gap between what children and youth expect from their parents' workplaces and the family-friendly business practices that employers apply, as well as whether COVID-19 has accelerated the introduction of these practices or contributed to any paradigm change.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive methodological research was done through electronic surveys with two target groups. The first group of respondents consisted of 1,279 children and youth who expressed their opinion on the impact of the parental workplace on them and what needs to be done to make companies more family oriented. The second survey involved 64 employers, who shared their views on achieving a balance between work and family and provided insight into the pre-pandemic and pandemic family-friendly workplace practices.FindingsAn apparent gap was identified between the family-friendly workplace practices offered by employers and the needs that children have regarding their parents' workplace. Although employers confirm that COVID-19 provides an opportunity to encourage FFW practices, during the outbreak of the virus, they demonstrated responsibility towards employees but neglected their family members.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings cannot be generalised to the entire business sector as the survey is not nationally representative. Also, the surveyed children do not come from the surveyed employers' work collectives, so it was not possible to intersect the findings.Practical implicationsThe research is vital for human resource managers as creators and implementers of family-friendly workplaces, as it indicates the need to involve the important but overlooked stakeholders in this process – the children of employees.Originality/valueThe research gap in the family-friendly workplace paradigm is addressed by comparing the attitudes of children with the employers' practices, before and during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Localising Global Norms: The Case of Family-Friendly Parliaments

Abstract In this article, we extend empirical understandings of feminist institutionalism by outlining a new methodological approach to the study of parliament as a gendered workplace. We argue that while a localised approach to studying institutional change allows a more nuanced appreciation of the role of local cultural context, internationalised norms can be an interesting starting point to work back from. A case study of the New Zealand parliament’s ‘family-friendly’ workplace practices illustrates this methodological approach. By tracing the establishment of family-friendly practices in this parliament, our study shines a light on the intractable nature of local institutional context in global norm diffusion and hints at the next phase of work required to further the agenda of transformational gender-sensitive parliaments.

What really works?! Evaluating the effectiveness of practices to increase the managerial diversity of women and minorities

Many studies have investigated barriers for women and minorities on their way to the top, but very few studies have examined which organizational practices indeed increase the diversity of the top management in organizations. This research analyzes whether various diversity practices increase the proportion of women and minorities at the top. The results show that the more diversity management and family-friendly practices that are implemented, the higher is the proportion of women in management positions. However, the results do not show any effect for diversity training or that people with a migration background benefit from diversity practices.

Employee Political Skill, Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi, and Work-Family Conflict: The Cross-Level Moderating Role of Family-Friendly Practices.

Many studies have examined the negative effects of work-family conflict on society, organizations, and individuals. Nonetheless, alleviating employee work-family conflict is a topic worthy of further investigation. Few studies examine the antecedent variables of work-family conflict from personal skill and Guanxi perspectives. Studies that test the moderating role of family-friendly practices at the organization level are also rare. Accordingly, we collected data from 404 employees of 51 organizations. The research data are time-lagged and multileveled. The results of hierarchical linear model (HLM) show: (1) Employee political skill negatively affects employee perceived work-family conflict; (2) Employee political skill positively affects supervisor-subordinate Guanxi; (3) Supervisor-subordinate Guanxi partially mediates the relationship between employee political skill and employee work-family conflict (that is, employees can use their political skill to build high-quality supervisor-subordinate Guanxi, further reducing their perceived work-family conflict); (4) Organization family-friendly practices negatively moderate the relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict (that is, in organizations with high level family-friendly practices, the negative relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict becomes weak); Furthermore, by coding with Mplus software (Muthen & Muthen, Los Angeles, CA, USA), we also find: (5) Organization family-friendly practices moderate the indirect effect of employee political skill on employee work-family conflict. The results have both theoretical and empirical implications. Further research directions are addressed at the end.

Family-friendly practices in the organization: a citation analysis

PurposeThe objective of the study is to identify the themes of “family friendly practices” and to perform a literature review. The research aims to identify the emerging trends in the area of “family friendly practices” by carrying out an exhaustive literature review.Design/methodology/approachThe study synthesizes the literature between the years 2010 and 2019. First of all, 150 research articles were identified by keyword search, bibliography and citation search, out of which 57 research articles were selected on the basis of the most sound theoretical background and maximum literature contribution. The citation analysis method was performed on these studies in order to study the journals, authors by using Google Scholar, ResearchGate, the international database Science Citation Index and SCImago Journal Ranking.FindingsThe author citation count shows that the research topic is still getting recognition and the research in this area is increasing. The finding of the research is that the current research in family-friendly practices has focused mainly on seven topics: availability and usability of family-friendly policy, job satisfaction, organizational performance, supervisor or manager support, work–life conflict, employee turnover employee retention and women’s employment.Originality/valueThe study may provide valuable inputs to the HRD practitioners, managers, research scholars, to understand the recent trends in the field of family-friendly policy. As per the best knowledge of the author, this is the first study on family-friendly practices using citation analysis.