Not All Work-Life Policies Are Created Equal: Career Consequences of Using Enabling Versus Enclosing Work-Life Policies

Bourdeau, Sarah; Ollier‐Malaterre, Ariane; Houlfort, Nathalie

doi:10.5465/amr.2016.0429

Cited by 100 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 106 publications

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“…Considering this, we urge employers to engage in more open communication about how employees approach meeting their family demands. Employees should feel free to say things like: 'I can stay late on Tuesday and Thursday, but not Monday and Wednesday' or 'I can't stay late, but I can come in early', without fear of negative repercussions due to factors such as the flexibility stigma (e.g., Bourdeau, Ollier-Malaterre, & Houlfort, 2019). Well-known policies, such as flexitime and telework, should be reviewed to ensure that they are not designed as a onesize-fits-all, but rather that the policies themselves are flexible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro work‐family decision‐making of dual‐income couples with young children: What does a couple like us do in a situation like this?

Cluley

Hecht

2019

J Occupat & Organ Psyc

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The goal of this study was to address the following research question: How do couples with young children make micro work‐family decisions? Using a qualitative approach, we interviewed 29 couples, both together and apart, about work‐family decision‐making, including common routines (work hours, childcare/school drop‐offs, and pickups) and daily decisions (dealing with sick kids and unexpected work). We analysed over 200 decisions using thematic and critical incident analysis, and came to understand the stories in our data from the lens of decision logics. We observed that different types of couples made different choices because they had different rules for appropriate behaviour guiding their decisions. This way of making decisions is consistent with the logic of appropriateness model of decision‐making, in which decisions are made by following rules that are derived from identity construals. We observed that couples’ rules emanated from their joint family identity construals, rather than their individual construals. This is a novel finding that drives theory on decision‐making forward by showing how this decision logic can apply when couples are the decision‐making unit. Practically, our results can be applied to broaden employers’ awareness of how work and family responsibilities can be met by different employees and to increase couples’ knowledge of alternative approaches. Practitioner points Employees who are part of dual‐income couples make work‐family decisions based on their family identities, but there are numerous ways to construe family identities and employers should not assume that all men see their family roles as providers, nor do all women see their family roles as caregivers. Employers should welcome employees’ suggestions about how they can best complete their work and should recognize that employees can be creative when it comes to managing work and family demands. Employers should promote a more open environment in which employees and managers can discuss their work and family situations, and how they approach meeting family demands. Interventions could be designed to help dual‐income couples increase their own understanding of their family identities and their awareness of different ways to be a dual‐income couple.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro work‐family decision‐making of dual‐income couples with young children: What does a couple like us do in a situation like this?

Cluley

Hecht

2019

J Occupat & Organ Psyc

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“…The role of HRM in developing sustainable work and HRM systems and the role of HRM in supporting ethics and responsibility in business organisations are topics that have been recently raised (Guerci et al 2015;Jamali et al 2015;Turner et al 2019). However, work-family practices as a question of SR-HRM and the perceived fairness related to organisational work-family practices still lack research attention (Bourdeau et al 2019). CSR initiatives that are often controversial and ambiguous by nature highlight such social issues as concerns about the family life of employees in the organisation (Mele 1989;Turner et al 2019).…”

Section: The Links Between Csr Sr-hrm and Work-family Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With regard to time demands, it can be debated whether work-family practices such as flexitime and teleworking reflect employees' perception that in order to be an ideal worker, one ought to work long hours and put work before family (Andreassi and Thompson 2008). The 'ideal worker' norm is often juxtaposed with the use of work-family practices; failure to meet the norm may have negative consequences, such as the need for presenteeism and overachieving, stigmatisation, unequal distribution of work load or career obstacles (Bourdeau et al 2019). The role of HRM is to avoid the mixed messages that are often sent in the organisation about work-family concerns, and ensure that supervisors and top management support work-family integration or the use of work-family practices (Kirby and Krone 2002;Kossek et al 2010;Russo et al 2015;Zhang and Tu 2016;Clark et al 2017).…”

Section: The Links Between Csr Sr-hrm and Work-family Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Organisational efforts to facilitate work-family integration are full of tensions that are not resolved merely by announcing and offering formal programmes and practices. In organisational life employees may often face an agency gap when seeking to make use of the programmes and practices, due to the lack of a supportive supervisor or organisational culture, or even stigmatisation (Kirby and Krone 2002;Mescher et al 2010;Putnam et al 2014;Lewis et al 2017;Bourdeau et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those without small children, for example, might feel burdened by the transferred workload (Clark et al 2017). This may in turn also lead to a sense of stigmatisation for those who use the practices (Bourdeau et al 2019). Previous research suggests too that access to work-family practices may be limited to high performers (Wharton et al 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Work–Family Practices and Complexity of Their Usage: A Discourse Analysis Towards Socially Responsible Human Resource Management

2020

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The question of work-family practices commonly arises in both theory and daily practice as a matter of responsibility in today's organisations. More information is needed about them for socially responsible human resource management (SR-HRM). In this article our interest is in how work-family practices, serve as an important element of SR-HRM, constructed as (un)helpful for employees' work-family integration, are realised in organisational life. We investigate the discursive ways in which members of two different organisations working at different organisational levels construct the issue in the Finnish context. Three discourses were interpreted: (1) a discourse of compliance with external pressure, (2) a discourse of negotiation and (3) a discourse of individual flexibility. Discursive constructions of work-family practices make visible the complex interconnectedness of individuals and organisations with the environment in which they operate. Many organisational efforts to create positive work-family practices can, in fact, lead to failure to make these practices either available or usable, and they may result in the unjust treatment of organisation members. Creating sustainable work-family practices is a complex challenge for which SR-HRM must work out a solution.

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On the nature, predictors, and outcomes of work passion profiles: A generalisability study across distinct types of employees

Gillet,

Morin,

Brault

et al. 2024

Stress and Health

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Thus far, little research has adopted a person‐centred approach to investigate the nature of work passion profiles. As a result, our understanding of the most commonly occurring combinations of harmonious passion (HP) and obsessive passion (OP) in the workplace remains limited. To achieve a more refined understanding of the nature of these work passion profiles, our first aim was thus to identify the configurations of HP and OP for work observed among five samples, including 11 subsamples, of employees (N = 7258). Then, we also considered the extent to which these profiles and their associations with theoretically‐relevant predictors (work‐home segmentation and organisational support) and outcomes (work engagement, work‐family conflict, turnover intentions, presenteeism, and counterproductive work behaviours) generalised across all subsamples. We identified a total of five profiles with a structure that differed slightly across samples: High OP Dominant, High HP Dominant, Average HP Dominant, Low HP Dominant (i.e., low levels of passion dominated by higher levels of HP relative to OP), and Moderately Low Passion. The High OP Dominant profile was systematically the most prevalent (37.5%–54.1% of the sample), whereas the High HP Dominant was the least prevalent (2.1%–7.7%). Across all samples, work‐home segmentation was related to a higher likelihood of membership into the profiles characterised by higher, relative to lower or moderate, levels of passion (HP and OP), whereas organisational support also helped employees to stay away from the High OP Dominant profile. Lastly, the least desirable outcomes were observed in the High OP Dominant profile, whereas the most desirable outcomes were observed in the High HP Dominant profile. Interestingly, work engagement levels where comparable in these two profiles. Beyond their theoretical implications for research on work passion, these results highlight how work passion has highly similar implications across contexts.

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Not All Work-Life Policies Are Created Equal: Career Consequences of Using Enabling Versus Enclosing Work-Life Policies

Cited by 100 publications

References 106 publications

Micro work‐family decision‐making of dual‐income couples with young children: What does a couple like us do in a situation like this?

Micro work‐family decision‐making of dual‐income couples with young children: What does a couple like us do in a situation like this?

Work–Family Practices and Complexity of Their Usage: A Discourse Analysis Towards Socially Responsible Human Resource Management

On the nature, predictors, and outcomes of work passion profiles: A generalisability study across distinct types of employees

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