The Role of Employers in Addressing the Needs of Employed Parents

Abstract

This paper examines life on and off the job for a nationally representative sample of 2958 wage and salaried workers, comparing the situations of parent and nonparent employees within the sample. Although parent and nonparent employees were found to be quite similar in most respects, some notable differences were revealed—in the value they place on different benefits and workplace policies; in the extent of the sacrifices they have made in their family/personal lives for the sake of their jobs or careers, and vice versa; and in the time they have available off the job for themselves and with their spouses after completing household chores and fulfilling child care responsibilities. In addition, parent employees exhibited significantly poorer quality of life outcomes than nonparents—higher levels of conflict between work and family I personal life, more stress, and less effective coping. Analyses designed to identify the workplace conditions under which employed parents fared better found that parents had better outcomes (less conflict, less stress, and better coping) when they had jobs with greater autonomy, more schedule control, fewer demands, and greater security. Parents also fared better when they had more supportive workplaces—more supportive supervisors, more supportive workplace cultures, and opportunities for job advancement that were not inhibited by gender or race. In contrast, access to policies, programs, and fringe benefits specifically intended to be family friendly—flexible time and leave policies and dependent care assistance—was not associated with lower levels of work‐family conflict, and only slightly predictive of lower stress and better coping.

Work - Family Conflict and Stress: Evidence from Malaysia

“…Work -family conflict has been defined as a mutual incompatibility between the demands of the work role and demand of the family role [10], [11]. Juggling work and family responsibilities is a common experience for many employees [12], [13]. Although engaging in both work and family roles can have positive effects for individuals [14], but if workers are unable to balance the responsibilities associated with both roles, the potential for conflicts between roles increases [15]- [18].…”

Dans la nouvelle économie, la conciliation entre la vie privée et la vie professionnelle passe par… l’augmentation des heures de travail !

“…ien que les politiques et les programmes officiels de conciliation de la vie professionnelle et de la vie personnelle (CVP) soient désormais de plus en plus répandus, ils restent néanmoins l'apanage de quelques grandes bureaucraties, souvent syndiquées, ou de groupes internationaux (BAILYN, DRAGO et KOCHAN, 2002 ;GALINSKY, BOND et FRIEDMAN, 1996 ;LOBEL, 1999 ;OSTERMAN, 1995). Dans la majorité des entreprises, il n'existe encore aucun programme officiel en matière de CVP.…”

“…Les travaux sur la conciliation de la vie professionnelle et de la vie personnelle (CARLSON et PERREWÉ, 1999 ;GALINSKY, 2001 ;GALINSKY, BOND et FRIEDMAN, 1996 ;GERSON et JACOBS, 2001 ;GLASS et ESTES, 1997 ;HOLT et THAULOW, 1996 ;LEE et DUXBURY, 1998 ;ST-ONGE, HAINES et SEVIN, 2000) insistent sur le rôle d'agent facilitant du supérieur immédiat dans ces négociations, élément essentiel d'un environnement de travail « famiphile » (THOMAS et GANSTER, 1995). Acteur incontournable dans le traitement des demandes touchant cette conciliation, le supérieur immédiat peut la soutenir de deux façons : apporter un soutien affectif, une oreille attentive et compréhensive aux problèmes des employés, d'une part, et offrir un soutien instrumental tout en posant des actions qui aident concrètement l'employé, comme autoriser des jours de congé, du travail à temps partiel ou à domicile de façon ponctuelle, d'autre part (FRIEDMAN, CHRISTENSEN et DEGROOT, 1998 ;KICKUL et POSIG, 2001 ;ST-ONGE, HAINES et SEVIN, 2000 ;THOMAS et GANSTER, 1995).…”

Work-life balance policy and practice: Understanding line manager attitudes and behaviors

“…To-date, much of the research in the work-life balance arena has investigated individual level work-life balance factors such as employee demands for flexible working practices (Brannen & Lewis, 2000;Coughlan, 2000;Den Dulk, 2001), employee satisfaction with work-life or work-family policies and programs (Anderson, Coffey, & Byerly, 2002;Galinsky, Bond, & Friedman, 1996), and impact of work-life balance programs on a number of employee level outcomes such as stress, commitment and productivity (Bedeian, Burke, & Moffet, 1988;Darcy & McCarthy, 2007;Frone et al, 1992;Lambert, 2000;McCarthy & Cleveland, 2005). Other research has explored how work-life balance affects performance at the organizational level (Bloom, Kretschmer, & Van Reenen, 2006).…”