Social Exchange Theory- treated behaviourally, employees

obliged to respond in kind through positive attitudes or

behaviour as a source of treatment
(Lambert 2000)availability of work practices designed to assist
employees with managing responsibilities at home may
increase employee perception of org support if they think the
practices is useful
(Allen 2001) perception of the family supportive mediated the
link between work-life practice availability and both effective
commitment and job satisfaction
Psychological contract-individual subjective belief in the
reciprocal obligations between the employee and
org(Rousseau,1995)
It depends on the perception of the employee whether it is a
right or favours
(levis and Smithsons 2001) perceived entitlement is not
widespread particularly in nations with low level of statutory
regulations concerning balance of work with family or personal
commitments.
(Ex: In Ireland and also Uk,they didnt feel entitlement for child
care and perceived entitlement to flexible hours or parental
leave was contingent upon the participants view of whether the
practices are practical for organization or not)
*not enough example to prove entitlement so social exchange
theory take account and will not disregard the non-users as well
Use of practices
Lack of use
(Kodz,Harper,& Dench ,2002:Lewis,Kagan & Heaton 2000)
employees are unaware of their work life entitlement
following the implementation of work life balance practice
Ex:50% of employees are unaware of the friendly practice
offered by their practice

 Fully informed of the practices available to them but they

display reluctance
Although they are offered family leave,they tend to choose
vacation and other discretionary days off upon the birth of
child(Berry & Rao,1997:Pleck,1993)
-if no awareness of the employee taking day off,they
perceived the employee is uncommitted
Gender Role
-If man take holiday for the sake of family is consider like
not helping the co- workers and also work overtime
compare to women
(man work bfr family society thinking)
Use of work life leave provision is low among staff
associated with lack of commitment to organization
Ex:Brandth and Kaynde(2002)man who progress up to
managerial ladder tends to reduce taking leave .
They will take leave only if they think that negative
consequences will not affect their promotion and career
prospects(Kodz et al.,2002)
(Bailyn 1997) working long hours show commitment
,loyalty and also competence and this is being consider by
the employer in order to give promotion to the employees
(Houston & Waumsley 2003) flexible working hours
damage promotion prospects and relationships with coworkers and managers
(Allen and Russel 1999) employees who uses work-life
balance perceived by co-workers as having lower level of
commitments affecting advancement and salary rises

 Other obstacles
(Bond and Wise 2003)-less training associated with worklife related human resource policies
(Casper,Fox,Sitzman and Landy 2004) supervisors
generally had poor awareness of the work-life related
human resource policies that why they cant communicate
to the staff
Unrelated employee request also effect the request that
will be granted
(powell and mainiero,1990) female managers are more
likely to grant alternative work agreements compare to
male managers
(Parker & Allen 2002) supervisor with parental
responsibility more likely to grant request on flexibility
compare to supervisor with a greater control
Organization level explanations
Improved Recruitment and Retention
Serve as competitive advantage in which their facilities
are limited(Perry-Smith &Blum 2000)
Offering voluntary reduced hours associated with
increased recruitment and
retention(Williamds,Ford,Dohring,Lee & MacDermid 2000)
Provision of onsite childcare centres associated with lower
turnover intentions among employees(Milkimwich &
Gomez 1995)
Working mother cant continue working without flexible
working hours and also flexible spending accounts to pay
child care predicted reduced turnover among working
mothers(Glass & Riley 1998)
Rosen(1997) regardless any backgorind on family,balance
and career,individuals are attracted to firms offering
flexible career paths

 Casper and Buffardi(2004) perceptions of support are a

phycological mechanism through work life practices
influence behavioural intentions
Signalling theory(decisions need to be made with
incompletable information,individual use observable
characteristics to make inference(Spence ,1973)
Recrcuitment process(presence of work-life balance
practices as signals for work related support
Individual differences affect the impact of work-life
practices
Auerbach 1990-parents using the onsite children care
centre exhibit higher reduced in turnover rate that is 9%
compare to other workers
Rau and Hyland 2002-individuals who have higher work
conflict deemed to have flexible working hours while
individuals who dont have work conflict wants to have
telework
(It is important to predict the current and future needs of
the workforce in order to anticipate them)
Improved attendance and productivity
Individual-level research
(Krauz & Freibach 1983)flexible working hours offered in a
study in Israel results in lower level of absenteeism
Baltes et aLs 1999-significant negative relationship
between flexible work hours and abseenteism
Pierce and Newstroom 2005- effect was stronger when
employees were not required to obtain approval from their
supervisors for requested flexibility
Effect of childcare provision on abseenteism
Auerbach 1990 study of American hospitals chilcare
abseenteism dropped from 4 % to 1 % among working
parents compare to other employee abseenteism steady
at 4%.

 Organization child care centres will be improve in

employee attendance if they provide the most
satisfactiory alternative to employee childcare(important
level) .not necessary experience lower levels of conflict
Secret 2006-study of 55 firms that permitted
administrative working employee helped to maintain
employee productivity
Kosek and Nichol 1992-childcare centre no effect on
supervisor ratings of employee performance
Telework
Pitt-Catsouphes and Marchetta-productivity increases
between 10% and 30%
Hartman,Stoner,Arora 1991-teleworking related to lower
productivity rather than increased performance because of
initially or mutually initiated rather than supervisor
initiated telework agreement
Flexible working hours
Raabe 1996-associated with higher levels of self-repported
focus,concentration and motivation
Kossekand Ozeki 1999-more limited amount of flexibility
was optimal in predicting improved performance,with
employees specifying in advance what hours they would
work rather than varying their schedule on ad hoc basis

Organization level research

Perry-Smith and Blum(2000) a greater range of work-life
balance perceived to have higher market performance,profitsales growth and org performance.
Pleffer 1981-symbol of the company taking care and concern
of its employee obligation and interest
Shepard et al 1996-flexible working hours increases
productivity because person can work at peak time during

their peak hours in productivity.They will also increase their

work effort because afraid of losing the flexibility option.
McDonald et al. 2005 flexible hours will make the org keep
up with the workload that is change variably,employees work
extra hours during the peak hours in exchange for the ability
to tailor their hours to suit their own needs at other times.
Meyer,Mukerjee and Sestro 2001-study of 100 best
companies for working morher,work balance increase in
profit particularly sick leave and telework.telework
encourages higher work hours as they are more available
now.
Baughman er al. 2003-companies with more work life
policies tend to give lower salaries as a trade-off.
Arthur 2003-employment of larger proportions of women
tends to give higher returns but subjected to professionality
level. Work life also associated in increase in shareholder and
signalling the org meeting social expectation
Bloom and Van Reenan(2006)- worklife associated with
higher productivity disappeared after controlling overall
quality management.

Future Research