Do Work-Family Policies Really “Work”? Evidence from Indian Call Centres

Within western liberal market economies, organizations have increasingly begun to develop “work—life initiatives” to help workers integrate their work and family lives (Kossek and Lambert 2005). Employers can provide work—family policies for multiple reasons: to improve business efficiency (Rapoport et al. 2002); to attract, recruit and retain employees (Carless and Wintle 2007) and to promote gender equality in the workplace (Dreher 2003). There has been an increasing awareness, however, that work—life policies alone are insufficient without a concomitant change in organizational culture (Allen 2001; Lewis 1997; Thomas and Ganster 1995; Thompson et al. 1999). While this is a progressive step, examination of “culture” at only the organizational level can often subvert attention from national contexts, which may support or hinder organizational practices (Haas and Hwang 2007; Kossek et al. 2010). Further, globalization and increasing mobility of capital and labour have made the international context even more important.