Family-friendly work perceptions: a cross country analysis

What is it about?

An international archival data set resulting from a survey of workers in 27 countries is studied examining certain individual factors affecting family-friendly work perceptions (FFWP) beginning within the USA, and then, studying FFWP across a select group of six countries, specifically comparing the USA to Bulgaria, Denmark, Japan, Russia and South Africa. The six-country comparative analysis shows differences: in the demographic factors in the effects of gender, age and marital status, and the work context factors of number of work hours and type of employer on FFWP; FFWP for those who are self-employed (entrepreneurs), government workers, those working for public companies and those working for private companies and self-employed (entrepreneurial) workers show greater appreciation for family-friendly work practices than those who are government workers and those working for public and private companies.

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Why is it important?

Consistent with the transformation of work and family, a long-term partnership was announced on February 1, 2011 between the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and the Family Work Institute (FWI) (2017). SHRM is a global human resource management association representing more than 250,000 members in over 140 countries. FWI is a “nonprofit nonpartisan research organization that studies the changing workforce, family and community”. As a preeminent think-tank, FWI is known for being ahead of the curve, identifying emerging issues, and then conducting rigorous research that often challenges common wisdom, provides insight and knowledge. “As an action-tank, [they] conduct numerous studies that put [their] research into action and then evaluate the results”. The key initiative of their partnership is addressing “The way businesses and government view and support effective and flexible work places” and has been singled out as “what may be the most important issue facing the 21st century workplace”. The results of this study impact multinational enterprises as well as small to medium sized entrepreneurial enterprises (Malach-Pines et al., 2010). International human resource managers should be aware of the demographic and work context issues that impact workers’ perceptions of family-friendly practices. The results of this research provide interesting results at the individual demographic and work context level. Future research will involve a “longitudinal” study to determine if FFWP have evolved. The ISSP has completed a follow-up survey and database: 2012 ISSP Family, Work and Gender Roles, IV. Finally, flexible work policies have been identified as the most important human resource issue that the work force faces in the foreseeable future. Addressing this issue affects the career options for those in the labor force concerned with work-life balance. Because of the lack of family-friendly practices, the choice between career and family heretofore may have been mutually exclusive for those who did not believe they could be successful at both pursuing a career and a family. With the consideration of this issue at the forefront of governmental and organizational policy makers, perhaps other working adults will not have to make such a choice. In other words, family-friendly practices will allow them to follow the “carer-earner strategy” and have their cake and eat it, too.