This article studies the relevance of different types of support for satisfaction with work life balance. More specifically, it investigates the relevance of state, instrumental and emotional workplace and family support, based on a survey of 7867 service-sector workers in eight European countries. The article starts by mapping available state, workplace and family support in order to determine which source dominates in which country and whether these sources match Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime typology. The impact of the different support sources is then examined. Findings indicate that support for employee work-life balance satisfaction has a direct and moderating effect. Finally, results show that emotional support and instrumental support in the workplace have a complementary relationship. Whereas emotional family support has a positive impact on work-life balance satisfaction, instrumental family support does not.

To cite this Article Peters, Pascale , den Dulk, Laura and van der Lippe, Tanja(2009) 'The effects of time-spatial flexibility and new working conditions on employees' work-life balance: the Dutch case', Community, Work & Family, 12: 3, 279-297 To link to this Article:

This study examined the associations of work Áhome culture with (a) demographic and organizational characteristics, (b)

No abstract

Using a unique data set of more than 2800 organizations in 19 countries, this article investigated the variations in adoption of workplace work -family arrangements and whether this variation can be explained either by differences in welfare-state contexts or by organization-related factors. Although the welfare-state context contributed significantly to the explanation of workplace work-family arrangements, the adoption of workplace arrangements was more strongly related to organizational conditions and characteristics. However, the results also show that when the development of workfamily arrangements is mainly left to the market, as in the liberal context, employers do not fully make up for the absence of public provisions. The findings support the institutional argument that public provisions help to create a normative climate that gives rise to new social expectations and 'a sense of entitlement' regarding work-family support. The study supports the rational choice perspective where both employers' institutional environments and organizational factors are viewed as resources and constraints influencing employers' decision to adopt work -family arrangements.