Work-family Support Research Articles

Advancing gender equality through context-sensitive work-family support for breastfeeding: lessons from a participatory intervention in South Africa

ABSTRACT The return to work is a key reason for breastfeeding cessation worldwide. Where workplace breastfeeding support is available, it is shaped by universal policies that overlook local realities and needs. Our collaborative research, involving an academic team and government partners, sought context-specific solutions for supporting breastfeeding in a provincial government in South Africa. Using a participatory approach, we conducted qualitative interviews with 12 government-employed mothers and senior managers. We identified three key challenges to workplace breastfeeding support: (1) Lack of awareness and communicating of reliable information on maternity and breastfeeding rights, (2) Workplace cultures pressurising mothers into silence, secrecy, and supra-performance that perpetuate breastfeeding as ‘taboo’ at work, and (3) Inadequate context-sensitive and practicable interventions for supporting maternity and breastfeeding at work. Based on these findings, we co-created tailored, practical interventions with the interviewees and refined them iteratively to enhance support for workplace breastfeeding. This research informed updates to a provincial government department policy document on workplace breastfeeding support, moving beyond national legislation to create a breastfeeding-friendly workplace. Our study highlights the value of participatory approaches for the development of context-sensitive solutions for workplace breastfeeding support with implications for organizations, social policy, and future research.

Unravelling the Path to Employee Satisfaction: Interplay of Work-Family Dynamics

The study aims to inspect the effect of work stress and work-family conflicts on job satisfaction in the context of institutional work-family support. We collected the data through a self-administered questionnaire of 400 employees working in the banking sector. The study applied AMOS software of SEM to test the hypotheses. The empirical results of the study showed that both work stress and work-family conflicts had significant detrimental effects on job satisfaction. In addition, work-family and institutional supports partially mediated the association between work stress and work-family conflicts on job satisfaction. Hence, to fortify the job satisfaction, the study concluded that institutions must strengthen their support structure in the work and familial context as strategic tools to lessen the detrimental effect of work stress and work-family conflicts. Thus, the present psychological conditions of the empluyees in the context of work stress and work-family conflicts must be taking into account before assigning new tasks.

Stress at the Crossroads: Work–Family Conflict and Work Withdrawal Behavior

This study examines supportive work–family culture as a predictor of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict and its impact on perceived stress and work withdrawal behavior, with the moderating role of work–-home segmentation preference. Data were collected from 564 employees in the South Korean hotel industry. Results demonstrated that supportive work–family culture was negatively related to work–family conflict, while both work-to-family and family-to-work conflict was positively related to perceived stress, which in turn was related to work withdrawal behavior. These findings highlight the importance of a supportive work–family culture for sustainable workforce management, promoting employee well-being, and reducing turnover. Additionally, the moderating effect of work–home segmentation preference was significant, indicating that as work–home segmentation preference increases, the negative impact of supportive work–family culture on both types of work–family conflict decreases. The study discusses the theoretical contributions and practical implications related to sustainable strategies in human resources management within the hotel industry.

Identity work of public hospital nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa.

Nurses play a remarkable role in our healthcare system and contribute to the wellbeing of communities at large. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, nurses faced various challenges to provide adequate patient healthcare. This study aimed to explore the identity work of public hospital nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study followed a phenomenological qualitative approach with an interpretive view, employing two sampling methods: purposive and snowball sampling. The sample comprised 11 nurses from a public hospital in the Gauteng province. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the nurses faced identity demands, which resulted in them experiencing identity tensions. There was also a need for recognition and support; their work served a greater purpose and was meaningful to them. The nurses used different identity work strategies, such as family support, spiritual upliftment and meaningful work to deal with the identity tensions and demands they experienced. Strategies such as counselling and wellbeing programmes should be implemented to assist nurses in dealing with the physical and psychological effects of working in the health sector during pandemics and epidemics. Hospitals and governments should create healthier working environments by conducting workshops, training and upskilling initiatives, encouraging nurses' inclusion in policymaking and implementation.Contribution:The study provided insight into the challenges nurses encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic, how these challenges affected their nursing identity and roles, and the strategies they used to maintain their sense of self in their work.

Influences of work stressors and family support: the mediating role of job performance

Influences of work stressors and family support: the mediating role of job performance

Gender, emotional support and innovative behavior: psychological capital as a mediator

PurposeThis paper explores the direct and indirect effects of family emotional, social and organizational support on Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) through psychological capital (Psy.Cap).Design/methodology/approachSelected by conducting stratified random sampling techniques, 397 employees completed a questionnaire. We used structural equation modeling and multi-group testing by Smart-PLS3 to analyze the data.FindingsFindings reveal that all sources of social-emotional support, including family, supervisor and co-worker support, positively affect Psy.Cap. Moreover, Psy.Cap mediates the effect of family, co-workers and supervisors' emotional support on IWB. The multi-group analysis indicates that all relationships in the model are significant for both groups of males and females; however, there are no significant differences in the link between organizational support and psychological capital, as well as family and co-worker support and innovative work behavior between males and females. The study's results demonstrate the significantly higher impact of family emotional support – Psy.Cap and supervisor support on IWB amongst females compared to their male counterparts.Originality/valueThe implications of this research highlight the importance of considering affective factors on employees’ IWB, as well as the differences between genders in this regard.

Explaining the negative effects of workplace incivility on family lives: a moderated mediation model of surface acting and resource-providing variables.

The effects of workplace incivility have been understudied in educational settings. To expand incivility research to educational professions, the present research investigates whether, how, and when workplace incivility deriving from different sources (coworkers, supervisors, and outsiders) is related to work-to-family interference (WFI) of preschool teachers. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the present study proposes that workplace incivility and subsequent maladaptive emotion labor strategies (i.e., surface acting) jointly create a resource-depletion mechanism contributing to elevated WFI and two resource-providing variables (supervisor work-family support and psychological detachment after hours) function as potential mitigating factors to break the resource-depletion mechanism. This study used a female-dominated sample (i.e., preschool teachers) found that workplace incivility from insiders (supervisors and coworkers respectively) and external stakeholders (child's family members) all positively linked to WFI, and surface acting mediated these relationships. Moreover, moderated mediation analyses indicated that psychological detachment buffered the mediated effect of surface acting on WFI, whereas supervisor work-family support did not. Findings deepen the understanding of why and when workplace incivility influences employees' family lives, as well as point to future intervention strategies.

Productive Competence, Internship, and Family Support on Student Work Readiness Mediated by Self-Efficacy

The current problem is that many vocational school graduate students still need more skills. Students' skills and readiness are influenced by many factors including productive competence, internship, and family support. This research aims to analyze the influence of perceptions of productive competence, industrial work, and family support on vocational school students' work readiness, partially or simultaneously mediated by self-efficacy. This research is causal associative research with a quantitative approach. The total population in this study was 1132 students. The sample for this research was 296 respondents. The method used to collect data is a questionnaire. The instrument used to collect data was a questionnaire. The data analysis method used is descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The data analysis technique used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The research results show that students' perceptions of productive competence, industrial work practices, family support, and self-efficacy have a positive and significant effect on students' work readiness. Based on the results of the Sobel test, Self-Efficacy can mediate the influence of productive competence, industrial work practices, and family support on vocational school students' work readiness. It was concluded that perceptions of productive competence, industrial work, and family support influenced vocational school students' work readiness. The implication of this research is that family and school support is very necessary for students so that students have good work readiness.

The Effects of Work-Family Conflict and Work-Family Support on Job Performance of Chinese Grassroots Civil Servants

Objective: As an important and special professional group in Chinese society, the career development of grassroots civil servants has received much attention. With the development of information technology and the strengthening of workplace competition, new conflicts between work and family continue to intensify, and their conflict issues have received widespread attention. Theoretical framework: This study focuses on grassroots civil servants and explores the impact of work family relationships on job performance. Theoretical assumptions are proposed based on management science theory and previous research on the relationship between variables. Method: Obtain survey data and interview response texts through questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. The proposed hypothesis was validated based on quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. Results and Conclusion: The empirical results indicate that the quality and balance of work family relationships have a significant impact on job performance, and work engagement and job burnout play a mediating role in the influencing process. Implication of the Study: The research results enrich the systematic exploration of the specific context of work family relationships and the impact of groups on work behavior, which is conducive to improving humanized and organized management mechanisms, providing guidance for the practice of work family coordination and division of labor within the grassroots civil servant team. Originality/Value: The study aims to improve the living and development environment of grassroots civil servants, and stimulating deep work motivation.

The more you connect, the less you connect: An examination of the role of phubbing at home and job crafting in the crossover and spillover effects of work–family spousal support on employee creativity

AbstractIn an era where home and work domains have become inseparable, it is surprising that extant research has placed less emphasis on examining the boundary conditions and mechanisms to understand the home‐to‐work crossover and spillover process. Building on the work–home resources theory and the crossover‐spillover perspectives, we test a resource‐based crossover‐spillover model of how one partner's work–family spousal support provision relates to the other partner's creativity at work. We propose that “phubbing” at home affects the crossover process of resource exchange between partners. Regarding the spillover from home to work, we propose that job crafting mediates the association between work–family spousal support and employee creativity. Daily diary data were collected from 65 dual‐earner couples, over 15 working days in the United States. Results from the multilevel actor–partner interdependence model show that work–family support enhances employee creativity by prompting the employee's relational job crafting and cognitive job crafting at work. Moreover, our results reveal that the high level of phubbing at home weakens the work–family support crossover between partners. We contribute to the literature by adding evidence regarding the mechanisms that enable social support at home to turn into employee creativity at work.

A study on work-family life imbalance among women administrators in UAE higher education institutions

The study explored the factors causing work-family imbalance among women administrators in higher education institutions in the UAE and how it affects their personal and organizational well-being. The research found that the existing literature doesn't give enough attention to the mismatch between women administrators' work and family goals. Furthermore, it provides little insight into the integration of work-family support systems. The study applied the Spillover theory to explain that women administrators face significant work-family imbalances that adversely impact their personal well-being and organizational effectiveness. The research also used Facilitation theory to examine how work-family support systems could reduce the adverse effects of work-family imbalances. The study surveyed 271 female administrators working in higher education institutions in the UAE. The findings, presented through structural equation modeling, showed that the demanding nature of research, teaching, and administrative work in higher education and women administrators' professional aspirations in socially demanding societies create work-life imbalance and work stress. The study proposed work-family support systems that could moderate the effect of work-family imbalances on work stress.

Status and related factors of professional growth among young nursing talents: a cross-sectional study in China

BackgroundThe shortage of nurses has been a global human resources problem. A good professional growth environment is essential to developing potential nursing students and attracting nurses to join, and it has great significance in reducing nurse turnover. However, nurses’ comprehensive perceptions of professional growth have not yet been examined.MethodsA cluster sampling method was used to conduct a professional growth questionnaire survey on young nursing talents from a large Chinese public tertiary A hospital in March 2022.ResultsThe score of professional growth among 243 young nursing talents was 57.92 ± 9.607, with a scoring rate of 77.23%. The scores for dimensions of professional growth, from lowest to highest, were rehabilitation growth, promotion speed, professional goal progress, and professional ability development. Attitudes towards participating in training, service as the quality manager or clinical teacher, self-efficacy, professional title, work-family support, education, and organizational commitment of young nursing talents were significantly associated with professional growth.ConclusionThe professional growth of young nursing talents was at a moderate level and needed to be strengthened. Nursing leaders and managers are expected to develop management practices to enhance young nursing talents’ professional growth in combination with the related factors.

Career enhancement strategies, supportive work relationships and subjective career success: the moderating role of family–work conflict

PurposeOur study examines the impact of career enhancing strategies (CES), supportive work relationships and family–work conflict (FWC) on subjective career success.Design/methodology/approachThe data were sourced from 107 professionals, who were the members of an alumni LinkedIn group of the Masters Human Resource degree program from a university in the Midwestern United States. Multiple regression analysis was employed to test the study hypotheses.FindingsResults indicate that both forms of CES – networking and mentoring – were positively associated with subjective career success, and there exists a positive association between perceived organizational support and subjective career success. Further, FWC moderates the relationship between subjective career success and mentoring and also moderates the relationship between subjective career success and perceived supervisor support.Practical implicationsOrganizations should provide opportunities to employees for networking and institute formal mentoring programs to enhance employees' perceptions of subjective career success. It is also crucial for organizations to promote work–life balance initiatives that can help reduce the levels of FWC experienced by employees.Originality/valueOur study makes important contributions to the extant literature by highlighting the importance of CES and supportive work relationships in ensuring subjective career success. It also identifies an important moderator, FWC, which can significantly impact subjective career success.

Exploring practices that impact women’s career advancement within the workplace: a qualitative approach

PurposeThis study aims to explore organizational factors that impact women’s career advancement. Knowledge of organizational practices that promote or obstruct women’s career progress is vital for women, firms and governments.Design/methodology/approachA total of 237 women participated in the study from the service sector in Johannesburg (South Africa). Participants were selected using a convenient sampling approach. Researchers used a questionnaire, consisting of demographic and open-ended questions, to gather data. Comments were analyzed using a thematic content analysis approach.FindingsFindings reveal that prioritizing women, offering skills development opportunities, providing growth opportunities, assisting women in managing their careers, offering mentorship and having work-family support initiatives are practices that promote women’s career advancement. Conversely, practices that foster stagnation of women’s careers, distrust in women’s leadership abilities, preference for external candidates, people–related malpractices, male domination/preference, lack of role models and work-family balance support, hamper women’s career advancement.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study will contribute to women’s empowerment. Organizations should provide a conducive atmosphere by instituting practices that promote their female employees' career advancement. Firms also should intentionally take practical steps to address practices that impede women’s career progression. The results of this study will also help the government to design appropriate policies that will promote the career progression of women employees.Originality/valueThis study presents findings from an analysis of qualitative data collected from 237 women to provide insight into the experiences of women working within the service industry in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Mediation of work-family support and affective commitment between family supportive supervisor Behaviour and workplace deviance

Employees' Workplace Deviant Behavior (WDB) is an organizational threat to its sustainability. This study examines the impact of the supervisors’ role in improving organizational behavior because of the gap in the body of knowledge indicating the inconsistency, paucity, and uncertainties of relationships between variables when relating to their underpinning theories. The conceptualized model consists of the impact of family supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB) on workers' workplace deviant behavior (WDB) while considering Affective Commitment and Work-Family Supportive Behavior Attribution between the key variables. In terms of methodology, this quantitative study analyzed 321 valid surveys through descriptive and inferential statistics to ascertain if FSSB negatively impacts employees' WDB. As findings and novelty of this study, FSSB is found to negatively affect employees' WDB, while affective commitment mediates between FSSB and employees' WDB. Work-family supportive behavior attribution and personal life attribution of employees moderated the negative relationship between affective commitment and WDB, while work productivity attribution of employees had no significant effect as a moderator. With three (out of four) hypotheses supported by empirical evidence, this research has broadened previous studies of workers' WDB and offers organizations theoretical and practical recommendations for managing employees' WDB. More studies could be conducted in the future to address limitations in this research, examine other related theories in a new context, location, and/or culture, or select other suitable research methods.

Tackling the Problem of Workplace Telepressure: Are Disconnection Policies Helpful?

Employees often feel obligated to respond to work messages like emails and texts immediately – a psychological experience known as workplace telepressure. Telepressure is an important problem to address given its link to work burnout. Disconnection policies that encourage employees to unplug after work hours have been a popular solution adopted by many organizations. Yet the benefits of such policies – or explicit norms – for addressing telepressure are unknown. Surveys among two worker samples suggest that the presence of disconnection policies is not associated with telepressure among employees. Only implicit norms about e-work communications specifically (after-hours availability expectations) and work prioritization generally (low family-supportive work environments) predicted telepressure. Most employees also did not think a policy would be beneficial and anticipated problems (with flexibility). Therefore, interventions aimed at creating a supportive disconnection culture for both e-work communications and work generally may be more helpful than policies.

The doubly disadvantaged: The motherhood penalty for internal migrants in China

AbstractObjectiveThis study examines hourly earnings differentials among internal migrants in urban China according to motherhood status and child coresidence. It also contemplates the potential mediation of family support and flexible work arrangements.BackgroundExisting research has primarily studied the general population of working mothers, most of whom co‐reside with their children and enjoy access to childcare support from local institutions. Our knowledge remains limited regarding international and internal migrant mothers, a large and vulnerable group that often suffers institutional segregation. Moreover, some migrant mothers leave children behind, while others do not; this fact helps us transcend the dichotomous mother/non‐mother distinction to better understand the nuances between theoretical explanations of motherhood status (being a mother) and childcare obligation effects that are otherwise intertwined in the general population.MethodThis study analyzed a representative sample of 41,996 internal married migrant women in China in 2015. Propensity score weighting methods were used to account for potential selection based on a rich set of confounders. Structural equation models were applied for mediation analysis.ResultsInternal migrant mothers in China are disadvantaged in hourly earnings, particularly those who live with their children. Living with the spouse or parents (‐in‐law) does not mediate the motherhood penalty, but working part‐time and self‐employment do.ConclusionThis study reveals an additional disadvantage for migrant mothers apart from the well‐known difficulties that confront Chinese internal migrants because of institutional segregation. These doubly disadvantaged mothers deserve public attention and policy interventions to attain a family‐friendly employment environment.

The evolution of family policies and couples' housework division after childbirth in Germany, 1994–2019

AbstractObjectiveWe examine how the re‐traditionalization effect of childbirth on couples' division of housework has evolved over time as a result of major family policy change.BackgroundSupportive family policies are associated with a more egalitarian division of labor. However, it remains unclear how a country's transition from a modernized male breadwinner regime that supports maternal care to family policies that promote maternal employment and paternal caregiving change couples' gender‐typical division of housework in the long run.MethodWe use representative survey data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (1994–2019, N = 14,648) and estimate the re‐traditionalization effect of childbirth on mothers' absolute and relative time‐use on housework over four policy periods with linear fixed‐effects regression models.ResultsAcross all periods, mothers took on larger absolute and relative levels of housework after childbirth, with a more pronounced and persistent gender‐typical division in West than in East Germany. However, mothers spent somewhat less absolute and relative time on housework in recent periods with stronger levels of de‐familiarizing and dual‐earner/dual‐carer policies than in earlier periods with policies supporting maternal caregiving.ConclusionWe find somewhat smaller and less persistent re‐traditionalization effects of childbirth in more supportive work–family policy periods. In sum, the small changes illustrate that even in contexts of enormous policy change, progress toward a less gender‐typical division of housework has been slow and rather small.

Intent Attributions for Work-Family Support Policies, Policy Use, and Employee Attitudes

Intent Attributions for Work-Family Support Policies, Policy Use, and Employee Attitudes

Stress overload, influencing factors, and psychological experiences of nurse managers during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: a sequential explanatory mixed method study.

Healthcare systems had an exceptionally difficult time during the early COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse managers in particular made enormous contributions to ensuring the safety of patients and front-line nurses while being under excessive psychological stress. However, little is known about their experiences during this time. The aim of this study was thus to assess the level of stress overload and psychological feelings of nurse managers during the early COVID-19 pandemic. A mixed methods sequential explanatory design study with non-random convenience sampling was performed, following the STROBE and COREQ checklists. The study was conducted at the Affiliated Dongyang Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, with data collected from six provinces in southern China (Zhejiang, Hubei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Hunan and Jiangxi) during March 2020 and June 2020. A total of 966 nurse managers completed the Stress Overload Scale and Work-Family Support Scale. In addition, a nested sample of nurse managers participated in semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The data were then analyzed using qualitative content analysis, Pearson correlation, and multiple linear regression. The quantitative results showed that nurse managers experienced a moderate level of stress load. There was a significant negative correlation between work-family support and stress load (r = -0.551, p < 0.01). Concerns about protecting front-line nurses and work-family support were the main factors affecting the stress load, which accounted for 34.0% of the total variation. Qualitative analysis identified four main thematic analyses that explained stress load: (1) great responsibility and great stress, (2) unprecedented stress-induced stress response, (3) invisible stress: the unknown was even more frightening, and (4) stress relief from love and support. Taken together these findings indicate that concern about protecting front-line nurses and negative work-family support of nurse managers were the main factors causing stress overload. Implementing measures focused on individual psychological adjustment combined with community and family support and belongingness is one potential strategy to reduce psychological stress among nurse managers.