Work‐family enrichment as a mediator between organizational interventions for work‐life balance and job outcomes

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the role of work‐family enrichment in the relationships between organizational interventions for work‐life balance (job characteristics, work‐life benefits and policies, supervisor support and work‐family culture) and job outcomes (job satisfaction, affective commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour). It is hypothesized that organizational interventions for work‐life balance will be positively related to job outcomes and work‐to‐family enrichment will mediate these relationships.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 216 managerial employees through a structured questionnaire from four organizations in India representing manufacturing and information technology (IT) sectors. Analysis was done using multiple regressions.FindingsJob characteristics were positively related to all the measures of job outcomes. Supervisor support and work‐family culture were positively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment. No significant association was found between work‐life benefits and policies (WLBPs) and any of the job outcome measures. Job characteristics and supervisor support were positively related to work‐to‐family enrichment. Work‐to‐family enrichment mediated the relationships between job characteristics and all job outcomes and between supervisor support and affective commitment.Research limitations/implicationsThe correlational design prevents conclusions about causality.Practical implicationsThe findings have implications for designing jobs, developing supportive work‐family culture and managing employee work‐family interface for maximizing individual and organizational outcomes.Originality/valueThe study reflected on the work‐family domain relationships in a novel socio‐cultural context and demonstrated the mediating role of work‐family enrichment in the relationships between organizational interventions for work‐life balance and job outcomes.

Demographic Predictors of Work-Family Conflict for Men and Women: The Case of Nigeria

“…Therefore, compared to males, females are more likely to display a negative attitude towards work when their work conflicts with family since they regard work as a threat to their main social role. However, according to gender role theory, when work conflicts with family, such a conflict is unlikely to cause males to change their attitude towards work (Grandey, Cordeiro, & Crouter, 2005;Baral & Bhargava, 2010). Males tend to feel less guilty conscious than females since the conflict they experience does not harm their social identity much, as a result of which their perception of WFC is different from that of females (Burke & El-Kot, 2010;Hassan, Dollard, & Winefield, 2010).…”

Core Self-Evaluations and Work/Family Interface as Life Satisfaction Predictors in Group of Employed Parents Compared to Group of Workers without Children

“…Commitment stemming from the parental role is associated with career satisfaction and performance, relates to a sense of enhancement, which reduces stress and strengthens positive outcomes. In addition, satisfaction with marriage has a significant relationship with job satisfaction [27] [28]. Experienced work/family enrichment may also have practical implications in terms of reducing the work absences incidence [29].…”

Does Psychological Contract on Work-family Benefits Improve Employee Commitment?

“…For example, a study on work-family conflict among Malaysian employees has shown that informal workplace family support (such as greater discretion in managing work, and granting approval to leave work earlier than usual to deal with urgent family matters) has the potential of reducing work-family conflict (Aminah & Zoharah, 2013). Work-family facilitation can be enhanced by providing autonomy to employees (Baral & Bhargava, 2008;Innstrand et al, 2010;Siu et al, 2010) since autonomy is laden with resources including time-management skills, initiative, and self-confidence (Voydanoff, 2004) which could be applied to family activities. Another initiative is to increase employee job involvement since this is linked to work-family facilitation (Aryee et al, 2005).…”