The Influence of Work-Life Balance Benefits on Family-Supportive Organisational Perception and Work Attitudes

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between the availability of, and the use of, work-family balance policies offered by organisations and family-supportive organisational perception (FSOP), work-to-family conflict, continuance and affective commitment, family satisfaction, job satisfaction, turnover intention and psychological strain. The research explored whether individuals’ perceptions of how supportive their organisations were to their non-work responsibilities was related to work attitudes including job satisfaction, organisational commitment (affective and continuance) and turnover intention. One hundred and twelve respondents from New Zealand organisations recorded how they perceived their organisation as being family-supportive and whether this affected their wellbeing, as well as how satisfied they were with their jobs. FSOP was shown to not moderate the relationship between work-to-family conflict and psychological strain; turnover intention; job satisfaction and affective commitment. However, FSOP was found to be significantly and negatively related to both psychological strain and turnover intention. The availability of benefits was significantly and positively related to affective commitment and negatively related to psychological strain and turnover intention. The usage of available benefits was not related to any of the study variables. The research adds to the knowledge of factors that may improve the work environment by increasing employees’ levels of FSOP. The results suggest that organisations could improve staff retention by ensuring the existence of valuable benefits and making them available to all employees, supporting them in their pursuit of a reasonable balance between their daily work and non-work activities.