Work–life balance and firms: A matter of women?

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Abstract

The work–life balance (WLB) literature reports a positive relationship between the presence of female workers in firms and the implementation of WLB measures. Examining these findings from an alternative methodological perspective, this study adopts a fuzzy-set approach to analyze empirical data from 87 Spanish SMEs. The study's main finding is that the presence of women does not determine the level of implementation of WLB policies. Conversely, the absence of women does seem to determine the absence of such policies. Likewise, the absence of organizational commitment to WLB leads to the absence of WLB policies.

Section snippets

Introduction and relevance of the topic

Scholars' interest in the use of work–life balance (WLB) as a human resources management tool is growing. Early studies on the topic focus on the conflict between family duties and professional demands (Frone et al., 1992, Goff et al., 1990, Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985, Netemeyer et al., 1996). According to these studies, this conflict arises because some aspects of work and family roles are incompatible. Recent studies (from 2000 onwards) focus more on business. Research establishes the best

Theoretical framework and research propositions

Two major groups of environmental factors draw scholars' attention to the topic of WLB. The first group relates to a series of sociocultural changes (i.e., new household profiles or more women with higher education) that lead to an increase in individual's responsibilities within and outside the home. Second, legislation on equal opportunities proliferates. In Spain, the Law for a Work–Life Balance among Workers (November 5, 1999: BOE 266 of 6/11/99) and the Organic Law 3/2007 of March 22 for

Method

A study using self-report questionnaires to human resources managers or general managers of Spanish SMEs with at least one female worker provided data to test the propositions in Section 2. The survey yielded 87 valid questionnaires. In addition to exploring other issues, the questionnaire collected data on variables, as Table 1 shows.

All scales came from the literature, particularly from Chinchilla and Poelmans (2002); Chinchilla et al. (2003, Chinchilla et al., 2005, Chinchilla et al., 2006).

Key findings

The first step to analyze whether the data support the propositions is to check whether the causal conditions are necessary conditions for the outcome to occur. For the outcome variable r_p12, the consistency and coverage values for each of the eight causal conditions are less than the minimum values that Ragin (2006) sets. This finding implies that no variable is a necessary condition for the implementation of WLB policies. Despite this finding, calculating the truth table allows for the

Conclusions and recommendations

The abundant WLB literature reflects the recent notable growth in scholars' and firms' interest in WLB. Women are central to this issue because, even now, women still play the role of the main caregiver in terms of domestic responsibilities (Cross, 2010). Women retain a disproportionate responsibility for domestic work and childcare, even in situations where both partners are working (Gunter and Stambach, 2005, Rees, 1992). The roles of mother and worker seem incompatible and conflicting, which

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  • Cited by (0)

    The authors thank James W. Taylor, California State University (USA), and Enrique Bigne, University of Valencia (Spain) for their careful reading and suggestions. The authors alone are responsible for any limitations and errors in the study and the paper.

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