Work-family Balance Policies Research Articles

Work-Family Balance and Remote Working among Women in Nigeria during Covid-19 Pandemic

Organisations face the challenge of establishing ways to mitigate the negative effects of work during coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic. As a result work-family balance was disrupted and negatively affected the employees’ well-being especially working women. Against this backdrop, this study examined work-family balance of women working from home during covid-19 pandemic. Cross sectional research design was employed and data were collected via a survey of 126 from medical, education, banking, and finance and service sectors in Nigeria. The 126 women were selected using simple random sampling technique and data collected was analysed using simple percentage. The study revealed that women were satisfied by working remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study recommends among others that organisations and government should develop and implement work-family balance policies that would promote the increasing use of remote working arrangement with special reference to working women.

Work–family interference in urban China: gender discrimination and the effects of work–family balance policies

Family responsibility discrimination is a form of discrimination against men and women because of their caregiving responsibilities. Unlike prior studies that have predominantly focused on Western contexts, this study shifts attention to observers’ differentiated discrimination against men and women in China involved in work–family interference. The findings across four main experiments (N = 2577) suggest that shouldering family responsibility in the context of both family interference in work and work interference in family would stimulate more discrimination against men in urban China. We also explore whether a firm’s work–family balance policies can mitigate such discrimination. The results demonstrate that such policies mitigate supervisors’ discrimination against men involved in family interference in work but not observers’ discrimination against men involved in work interference in family. Post-hoc experiments and further tests (N = 931) demonstrate the robustness of our findings and show additional insights. Our findings suggest that gender discrimination in non-Western contexts can be very different.

Gendered labour market patterns across Europe: Does family policy mitigate feminization of outsiders?

Studies have shown positive impact of family policies on women’s labour market participation over the last decades. How, then, does it influence the types of jobs women obtain when they (re-)enter the labour market? Using multi-level modelling, this study examines how different work–family balance policies (that is, leave policies, childcare services) shape gendered labour market patterns and whether or not it mitigates women’s overrepresentation among the labour market Outsiders across Europe. I use European Working Conditions Survey 2015 data and cover 30 European countries. Specifically focusing on women’s relative likelihood of being labour market Outsiders compared to men, I find that certain policies help women avoid being Outsiders, while the others may reinforce the existing gender inequality in the labour market. This resonates with the welfare state paradox and family policy trade-off literature that the policies that do not disrupt the gender norms may in turn maintain or enhance them.

Gender Gaps in Wages and Managerial Positions: Do Family-Oriented Policies Contribute to Achieving Gender Equality among European University Graduates?

This article analyzes the gender gap in wages and access to managerial positions among university graduates in 12 European countries and explores the capability of work-family balance policies to close these gaps. Using the REFLEX database, we apply the coarsened exact matching algorithm to construct a balanced sample of women and men with the same academic characteristics (field of study, internships, and academic achievement, among others). The analysis reveals that the academic program characteristics play a relevant role in labor market outcomes as the gender gaps diminish when controlling for academic features. We find that gender differences in hourly wages and access to top wages are smaller in countries with longer paid paternity leaves and larger enrollment rates of children aged 0-3 years in preschools. In contrast, work-family reconciliation policies have little effect on the constraints women face in accessing high-level positions that require strong commitment and availability.

Impact of work-family balance results on employee work engagement within the organization: The case of Slovenia.

Organizations strive to increase the work engagement of their employees, as engaged employees are more productive employees, but often neglect the significant effects of work-family balance on work engagement. Numerous studies confirm the importance of work-family balance and work engagement, but there is lack of research that explores the relationship between the concepts. Our research fills a research gap in investigating the impact of work-family balance on work engagement, both directly and through individual perceptions of organizational support for work-family balance. The main aim of our research is to empirically test the relationships between the policies and practices of organizations regarding work-family balance, work-life balance and work engagement. Using validated questionnaires, we collected data on organizational support for work-family balance (family-friendly policies and practices, support by leader, support by co-workers, working hours and complexity of work), work-family balance and work engagement. The quantitative data for our analysis was collected through a survey of 343 online participants who were employees in various positions in companies in Slovenia. Our results show that the organization's work-family balance policies and practices, such as support by leader, co-workers, and family-friendly policies and practices, have a positive impact on the individual's work-family balance, that work-family balance leads to an increase in work engagement, and that the individual's perception of the organization's work-family balance support leads to an increase in work engagement. Knowledge of important work-family balance implications with an understanding of organizational support for work-family balance and the relationships between the constructs of work-family balance and work engagement can be beneficial to business leaders. This understanding can help them to strengthen employee work engagement through family-friendly policies and practices, and thereby contributing to the area of employee behavior and improving employee productivity.

The Role of Work-Family Balance Policy for Enhancing Social Sustainability: A Choice Experiment Analysis of Koreans in their Twenties and Thirties.

Korea is facing problems, such as inequality within society and an aging population, that places a burden on public health expenditure. The active adoption of policies that promote work-family balance (WFB), such as parental leave and workplace childcare centers, is known to help solve these problems. However, there has, as yet, been little quantitative evidence accumulated to support this notion. This study used the choice experiment methodology on 373 Koreans in their twenties and thirties, to estimate the level of utility derived from work-family balance policies. The results show that willingness to pay for parental leave was found to be valued at 7.81 million Korean won, while it was 4.83 million won for workplace childcare centers. In particular, WFB policies were found to benefit workers of lower socioeconomic status or belonging to disadvantaged groups, such as women, those with low education levels, and those with low incomes. Furthermore, the utility derived from WFB policies was found to be greater among those who desire children compared to those who do not. The results suggest that the proactive introduction of WFB policies will help solve problems such as inequality within society and population aging.

Grandmothers and Non-grandmothers in the Polish Labor Market: The Role of Family Issues

Drawing on the debates regarding work–family reconciliation in later life, we examine the extent to which the labor market position of grandmothers and nongrandmothers can be explained by their varied family situations. The data for this study comes from the Generations and Gender Survey for Poland and includes 5,999 women aged 45+ years. We use multinominal logistic regression models to explore the link between different family situations and labor market withdrawal into unemployment, sick/disability leave, and retirement. Our results indicate that neither caring for older parents nor living with children has significant effects on women’s labor activity. However, living with a disabled person reduces the chances for women’s employment significantly. In addition, women who have grandchildren have lower chances for being employed as compared with those without grandchildren. We discuss these findings in relation to work–family balance policies and research.

Gender Equality in Europe and the Effect of Work-Family Balance Policies on Gender-Role Attitudes

This study starts from the assumption that the context of opportunities for work-family balance affects individual attitudes toward gender roles, a main indicator of support for gender equality. Compared with extant research, the present study adopts a more articulated definition of “opportunity structure” that includes national income level and social norms on gender attitudes, measures of gender-mainstreaming policies implemented at the company level (flextime), and different work-family balance policies in support of the dual-earner/dual-caregiver family model (e.g., parental-leave schemes and childcare provisions). The effects of these factors are estimated by performing a cross-sectional multilevel analysis for the year 2014. Gender-role attitudes and micro-level controls are taken from the Eurobarometer for all 28 European Union (EU) members, while macro-indicators stem from Eurostat, European Quality of Work Survey, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Our results show that both institutional and workplace arrangements supporting the dual-earner/dual-caregiver family model are associated with more egalitarian gender-role attitudes This is particularly true concerning availability of formal childcare for 0- to 3-year-olds among institutional factors, as well as work-schedule flexibility among workplace factors, probably as they enable a combination of care and paid work for both men and women.

Making use of work–family balance entitlements: how to support fathers with combining employment and caregiving

ABSTRACTMuch workplace support to parents offered by employers is gender neutral in design, but fathers’ usage rates are generally very low and far below that of mothers. This paper reflects on men’s dual roles as fathers and employees in relation to formal and informal work policies and practices, with the aim of answering the question: How could fathers feel supported by their work environment to take a more active caregiving role in the lives of their children? We take a capabilities approach to explore models of change, which supports the assumption that many fathers are somehow not fully enabled by their organisations to use policies. Focus groups were conducted within a large public sector organisation in the UK to capture the individual and interactional experiences of fathers. Findings suggest that workplace culture, line manager relationships, the ‘modelling’ behaviour of peers and gendered leave practices all impact on how fathers feel about using work-family balance policies, and whether they are likely to use them. The limits of workplace support for fathers can be challenged via the consideration of some key institutional conversion factors which if addressed may better enable fathers to exercise greater agency with regard to work-family balance entitlements.

Effect of Work-Family Balance Policy on Job Selection and Social Sustainability: The Case of South Korea

South Korea needs to actively implement work-family balance policies to increase both the low employment rate of women and the low total fertility rate. This study analyzes the quantitative benefits that the implementation of work-family balance policies provides to employees and employers. We conducted a choice experiment that asked 633 participants about their stated preferences for a hypothetical company with different work-family balance practices. The analysis was performed by using a hierarchical Bayesian model that considered preference heterogeneity according to the respondents’ characteristics. The results indicate that the availability of parental leave provides benefits equivalent to an increase of 5.80 million won in annual salary and that offering childcare in the workplace has an effect equivalent to an increase of 5.37 million won in annual salary. Further, low-income groups, women, the younger generation, and parents of preschool children are most sensitive to the policy. Finally, small and medium-sized enterprises are less desirable to work for than large companies, but the implementation of work-family balance policies could change this preference.

A comparative study on the effect of work-family balance policies and gender role attitudes on mothers’ economic participation

이 연구는 성역할태도와 일가족양립정책이 정책 대상이 되는 유(有)자녀 여성들의 경제활동참여에 어떤 영향을 미치는지를 실증적으로 규명하기 위한 연구이다. 이를 통해 일가족양립정책이 실질적인 정책대상의 고용 지원 효과를 높이기 위한 정책 개선 방안을 도출하였다. ISSP 2012년 자료를 활용해 19개 국가의 25-44세 유자녀 여성들의 취업 여부와 근로시간에 대한 영향을 다층분석한 결과, 우선 전반적으로 성역할태도가 유자녀 여성들의 취업과 근로시간에 미치는 영향이 매우 강하게 나타났다. 정책으로는 0-2세 보육서비스 등록률, 유급육아휴직기간이 유자녀 여성들의 취업과 근로시간에 직접적인 영향을 보였다. 자녀 수가 유자녀 여성의 취업과 근로시간을 제한하는 부적 영향을 완화하는 간접적 영향으로는 0-2세 보육서비스 등록률, 3-5세 보육서비스 등록률, 유급부성휴가기간, 유연근로시간사용률의 고용 지원 효과가 확인되었다. 남녀임금격차와 장시간 근로가 유자녀 여성 경제활동에 부정적 영향이 있다는 것도 분석되었다. 이러한 분석결과를 바탕으로 영유아 보육서비스 내실화, 유급육아휴직, 부성휴가기간확대, 휴가휴직 정책 설계 정교화, 장시간 근로 및 불평등한 성별임금 격차 등 노동시장 구조 개선이 필요하다는 정책적 함의를 도출하였다.

Understanding the causes and consequences of work-family conflict

Purpose– An important theme for a twenty-first century employee is a desire for work and family balance which is devoid of conflict. Drawing on detailed empirical research, the purpose of this paper is to examine the multi-faceted causes and consequences of work-family conflict (WFC) in a non-Western context (Nigeria).Design/methodology/approach– The paper uses qualitative data gleaned from the semi-structured interviews of 88 employees (44 university lecturers and 44 medical doctors) in cities in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.Findings– The findings showed that work pressure, heavy familial duties, poor infrastructural facilities, and a lack of suitable and practicable work-family balance policies are the main causes of WFC in Nigeria. Juvenile delinquencies, broken marriages/families, and an unhappy workforce are among the grave consequences of WFC among Nigerian employees.Originality/value– This paper suggests that the availability of basic infrastructural facilities, more governmental support, practicable work-family policies, inter alia, will reduce the level of WFC for Nigerian employees and will also results in positive spill-over from the work domain to the family domain and vice-versa.

맞벌이 부부의 일-가족 부정적 전이에 영향을 미치는 가족 및 직업관련 변수

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of variables related to family and employment on work-family negative spillover. The subjects of this study were 570 dual-earner with children. The research tool was questionnaires. For data analysis, factor analysis, Cronbach <TEX>${\alpha}$</TEX>, and multiple regression were performed. The main results of this study were as following. First, among variables related to family, spouse support, parental satisfaction, marital satisfaction, perceived fairness in the division of household labor, daily housework hour and family strengths had an influence on <TEX>$work{\rightarrow}family$</TEX> negative spillover in wives, and weekends housework hour, perceived fairness in the division of household labor, perception of the gender role, and satisfaction of the division in household labor had an influence on <TEX>$work{\rightarrow}family$</TEX> negative spillover in husband. Second, among variables related to family, parental satisfaction, number of children influence on <TEX>$family{\rightarrow}work$</TEX> negative spillover in wives, and spouse support, parental satisfaction, satisfaction of the division in household labor, marital satisfaction, and perception of the gender role had an influence on <TEX>$family{\rightarrow}work$</TEX> negative spillover in husband. Third, among variables related to employment, support from workplace, weekly working hour, monthly income, and job satisfaction had an influence on <TEX>$work{\rightarrow}family$</TEX> negative spillover in wives, and support from workplace, monthly income, household income, and weekly working hour had an influence on <TEX>$work{\rightarrow}family$</TEX> negative spillover in husband. Forth, among variables related to employment, support from workplace in wives, and job satisfaction in husband had an influence on <TEX>$family{\rightarrow}work$</TEX> negative spillover. To conclude, there was some difference in the variables influencing <TEX>$work{\rightarrow}family$</TEX>, <TEX>$family{\rightarrow}work$</TEX> negative spillover between wife and husband. So, We have to take this difference into consideration in establishing work-family life balance policies.

Attitudes Toward and Outcomes of Organizational Work-Family Balance Policies

Organizations that implement family-friendly policies, such as maternity or parental leave, help to reduce work-family conflict that might appear, especially surrounding the birth of a child. Parental leave policies, specifically maternity leave, are common in organizations across many parts of the world, and these policies benefit families, in terms of reducing stressors surrounding the birth of children, and organizations, in terms of attracting and retaining employees, as well as helping employees to reduce work-family conflict. In the present symposium, we present four papers that provide a more nuanced understanding of how leave policies positively and negatively affect employees. Issues such as perceptions of equity, discrimination, career wage growth, and spousal spillover effects are explored. We also provide practical recommendations for organizations considering the implementation of family-friendly workplace policies. Strategies to reduce hiring discrimination against parents Presenter: Amanda J Anderson; George Mason U. Presenter: Eden King; George Mason U. Understanding attitudes toward parental leave policies Presenter: Wendy J. Casper; The U. of Texas at Arlington Presenter: Dynah A Basuil; The U. of Auckland Does parental leave positively impact wages over time? The impact of workers’ socioeconomic Status Presenter: Grace Lemmon; DePaul U. Presenter: Jenny M. Hoobler; U. of Illinois at Chicago A dynamic inter-spousal spillover model for understanding post-maternity workforce reentry Presenter: Anthony R. Wheeler; U. of Rhode Island Presenter: Laura M. Little; U. of Georgia

Addressing the Issue of Domestic Violence at the Workplace: A Review of the Implementation of the Victim Empowerment and Abuser Rehabilitation Policy in Mauritius

It has been widely acknowledged that the majority of persons affected by Gender-Based Violence (GBV) are women and girls. The violence females are subject to can occur at each stage of their life with immediate and long-term effects. According to a World Bank publication, The Costs ofViolence, (2009) most estimates on the cost to society of GBV have focused on domestic violence. A study of the Extent, Nature and Costs of Domestice Violence to the Mauritian Economy (2010) reveals that there is a forty-six fold difference between the administrative data provided the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare. To scale up the fight against domestic violence the Government of Mauritius has launched the Victim Empowerment and Abuser Rehabilitation Policy (VEARP) in 2013 whereby the workplace becomes a platform for primary prevention.This study aims to document the consultations held with stakeholders at the workplace (public and private sector) and to make proposals to ensure that the VEARP is institutionalised at the workplace. It has been found that the Human Resource (HR) function is not well developed in the mauritian society and among the three main models of prevention of domestic violence at the workplace, the partnerships model is the most appropriate.The organisation of training of trainers on GBV issues and the referrral system set up by the Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare will encourage employers to join the fight against domestic violence. To assist the HR department in implementing this workplace initiative, there is an urgent need to set up Employer Assistance Programs (EAP) at the workplace. However, there is an urgent need to institutionalise work-family life balance policies, to adopt legislation to cater for violence at the workplace and to amend the Protection of Domestic Violence Act of 2011. Language: en

Work-Family Balance Policies, The Decoupling between Policy and Reality

Work-Family Balance Policies, The Decoupling between Policy and Reality

How do Work-family Balance Policies Affect Women's Work-family Reconciliation?: Direct and Indirect Effects on Women’s Labor Income

How do Work-family Balance Policies Affect Women's Work-family Reconciliation?: Direct and Indirect Effects on Women’s Labor Income

Work–Family Balance and Public Policy: A cross-country perspective

The issue of work–family balance has acquired rising prominence on the public policy agenda parallel to the feminization of the labour force in many countries around the world. Ipek Ilkkaracan draws upon case studies on seven OECD member countries in order to explore the variety of work–family balance environments and public policy debates that have emerged in these countries. She underlines the importance of an integrated approach to the development of both time-related work–family reconciliation policies such as care leave, its gender distribution and work hours, as well as provision and subsidization of care services. She also identifies strategies for moving the public policy agenda forward both in the North and the South pointing to the multitude of social and economic objectives that work–family balance policies serve.

Work-Family Balance Policies on the Transition - with focused on Esping-Anderson Types -

Work-Family Balance Policies on the Transition - with focused on Esping-Anderson Types -

Politiques de conciliation travail-famille : comparaison France-Québec

As an increasing number of women, in particular mothers, participate in the labour market, reconciling work and family activities has become a major political issue in most Western countries. Although this issue primarily concerns the implementation of family policies, it nevertheless gives rise to other issues. It also constitutes a challenge for firms and, more widely, for social partners, which are increasingly urged to support working parents. This article examines work-family balance policies in France and Québec from three perspectives : the support provided to parents for child care, the leave granted to parents for family-related responsibilities, and the forms of work-time organization and its linkage with the constraints of family life.