Not for everyone: intra-organisational divides and the stratification of access to work–life policies

Prior research documented a number of factors pertaining to employees or to organisational cultures that can prevent employees from accessing employer-driven work–life policies (WLP). Our study focuses on factors originating in the jobs themselves. We conducted 98 in-depth employee interviews in two multinational companies based in Europe and led feedback sessions with human resources executives. Three mechanisms explained the observed stratification of access to WLP across jobs: (1) the intra-organisational digital divide prevented ‘less digital’ employees from collecting information about WLP on the intranet and thus impaired awareness of the policies; (2) the divide in worksite size prevented employees on smaller worksites from accessing childcare centres, sports or health facilities and (3) the divide in job types restricted access to WLP for specific occupations. The stratification of access to WLP was not strategically driven by human resources; rather the divides were largely unintentional. Our study uncovers inequalities of access originating in the jobs themselves and provides a theoretical integration of the various sets of factors that may promote or hinder employee awareness of WLP. Our findings suggest that organisations should strive to identify these inequalities and to provide ways to cope for these, for instance by offering other forms of support.     

A Cross-National Study on the Antecedents of Work–Life Balance from the Fit and Balance Perspective

Drawing on the perceived work–family fit and balance perspective, this study investigates demands and resources as antecedents of work–life balance (WLB) across four countries (New Zealand, France, Italy and Spain), so as to provide empirical cross-national evidence. Using structural equation modelling analysis on a sample of 870 full time employees, we found that work demands, hours worked and family demands were negatively related to WLB, while job autonomy and supervisor support were positively related to WLB. We also found evidence that resources (job autonomy and supervisor support) moderated the relationships between demands and work–life balance, with high resources consistently buffering any detrimental influence of demands on WLB. Furthermore, our study identified additional predictors of WLB that were unique to some national contexts. For example, in France and Italy, overtime hours worked were negatively associated with WLB, while parental status was positively associated with WLB. Overall, the implications for theory and practice are discussed.

     

Cross-national work–life research: common misconceptions and pervasive challenges

ABSTRACT

While cross-national work-life research is a flourishing field of research, but a recent one, it is relatively recent as national context had been the missing ‘elephant in the room’ of work–life research for decades. Based on the keynote talk I gave at the 2015 Community, Work and Family conference in Malmö, Sweden, this research note highlights three pervasive challenges which I believe need to be discussed in our community of scholars, practitioners and policy-makers so that our research makes the strongest possible impact for individuals and organisations: (1) educating practitioners and policy-makers on the structuring impact that public and employer policies have on individual so-called private work–life decisions; (2) analyzing the inequalities of access to these policies within each country, which are often masked by simplified country-level comparisons and (3) finding innovative ways to combine ambitious etic research designs with in-depth emic understanding of local cultures.