Balancing Work and Family: The Role of High-Commitment Environments

Recently, researchers have begun to recognize that the nature of jobs, the workplace environment, and more generally, the culture of the workplace can have a significant impact on the ability of workers to balance their work and family lives. This article examines the effect of high‐performance work...

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Published inIndustrial relations (Berkeley) Vol. 42; no. 2; pp. 168 - 188
Main Authors Berg, Peter, Kalleberg, Arne L., Appelbaum, Eileen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2003
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
Culture
Employment
Enterprises
Family
Family Work Relationship
Human resource management
Industrial relations
Job Change
Job Performance
Organizational Commitment
Organizational Culture
Personnel Policy
Studies
Surveys
Work Environment
Work life programs
Work Orientations
Workers
Working conditions
United States > US
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Summary:Recently, researchers have begun to recognize that the nature of jobs, the workplace environment, and more generally, the culture of the workplace can have a significant impact on the ability of workers to balance their work and family lives. This article examines the effect of high‐performance work practices, job characteristics, and the work environment on workers’ views about whether the company helps them balance work and family. Using data from a survey of workers across three manufacturing industries, we show that a high‐commitment environment—characterized by high‐performance work practices, intrinsically rewarding jobs, and understanding supervisors—positively influences employees’ perceptions that the company is helping them achieve this balance. This article reinforces the view that helping workers balance work and family responsibilities is not just a matter of benefits and formal family‐friendly policies. Rather, it also depends on the characteristics of jobs within the business enterprise.
Bibliography:istex:9CB3DFC297CD2D0C34383ACB0D2A4A8A52E66780
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ArticleID:IREL286
The authors’ affiliations are, respectively, Michigan State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Rutgers University. E‐mail
We thank Jeannette Lim for extensive assistance with the analysis in this article. We are grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for funding the original data collection on which this article is based. We also would like to thank the U.S. Department of Labor (Contract Number B9483003) for funding the analysis in this article.
bergp@msu.edu.
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ISSN:0019-8676
1468-232X
DOI:10.1111/1468-232X.00286