Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Works? What Doesn't?

6.1.3.2 Coping with Work-to-Family Interference

To help reduce work-to-family interference, organizations can increase perceived flexibility, decrease the number of non-supportive managers and increase the amount of management support. In other words, the same sorts of things they need to do to help employees cope with role overload. Details on each of these are given below.

Perceived flexibility is the key to reducing work-to-family interference

This research has identified a very strong association between higher levels of perceived flexibility and lower levels of work-to-family interference. The strength of this relationship can be illustrated by noting that the relationship between six of the ten forms of flexibility considered in this analysis and this form of work-life conflict was very strong in both the gender by job type and gender by dependent care analyses. These were:

• arrange one's work schedule to meet personal or family commitments
• get home from work in time to have meals with their family
• interrupt one's work day to deal with personal or family matters and then return to work
• take paid time off work to attend a course or conference
• take a paid day off to care for a sick child
• take a paid day off to care for an elderly dependent

All of these forms of flexibility give employees greater control over the work-family interface by helping them deal with family or personal issues (both scheduled and unexpected) during work hours. In other words, they help employees meet personal commitments during what are traditionally considered to be "work hours." Given the high costs of this form of work-life conflict, it would appear that allowing employees greater freedom to deal with personal issues during work hours makes good business sense.

The importance of increasing perceived flexibility within the organization as a strategy to reduce work-to-family interference is further illustrated by the fact that three of the remaining four items in the perceived flexibility measure were all moderately associated with work-to-family interference. These data indicate that organizations that wish to reduce work-to-family interference should consider making it easier for employees to vary their hours of work, take holidays when they want, and be home when children get home from school.

It is also interesting to note that while the interaction term was (with one exception) significant in the gender by job type analysis, it was rarely significant when dependent care status was taken into account. This suggests that the effectiveness of many of these forms of flexibility depends on the gender of the individual as well as their position within the organization. Nevertheless, all employees, regardless of gender, job type or dependent care status, experience a reduction in work-to-family interference at higher levels of perceived flexibility.

Who you work for and how they behave is key to coping with work-to-family interference

The findings on work-to-family interference support our contention that work-life conflict depends more on who you report to within the organization than the organization you work for. The following supports this conclusion. First, there is a strong positive association between working for a non-supportive manager (Δ = +1.0) and work-to-family interference. Second, there is a strong negative association between reporting to a supportive manager and work-to-family interference (Δ = -0.6). Third, all of the behaviours typifying non-supportive and supportive management are either strongly or moderately associated with this form of work-life conflict. This indicates that a focus on management behaviour in general, and on reducing non-supportive management in particular, should bring about substantial reductions in work-to-family interference. Details are given below.

Employees who report to a non-supportive manager report higher work-to-family interference

The importance of developing strategies to reduce non-supportive management behaviours within the organization can be illustrated by noting the very strong association between increased work-to-family interference and working for a manager who has unrealistic expectations with respect to the work to be done, and works long hours and expects employees to do the same.

The other four behaviours typifying non-supportive management are also moderately associated with work-to-family interference. Specifically, interference increases concomitant with reporting to a manager who makes the employee feel guilty about time off work for personal or family reasons, focuses on hours of work not output, puts the employee down in front of others, and only talks to the employee when a mistake is made. Decreasing the extent to which these behaviours occur should be a high priority in organizations that wish to address this form of work-life conflict.

While all employees, regardless of gender, job type or dependent care status, experience an increase in work-to-family interference (Δ = +1.0 when using the total measure) at higher levels of non-supportive management, the relationship between many of the behaviours in this measure and work-to-family interference depends on the gender and job type of the employee.

Having a supportive manager helps employees cope with work-to-family interference

A focus on increasing the number of supportive managers within the organization should also help employees cope with work-to-family interference. Specifically, organizations need to increase the extent to which their managers display the following behaviours:

• listen to employees' concerns
• effectively plan the work to be done
• make themselves available to answer their employees' questions
• ask for input before making decisions that affect employees' work
• make expectations clear
• give recognition for a job well done
• support their employees' decisions
• provide constructive feedback
• share information with employees

While working for a supportive manager results in reduced levels of work interference for all employees (reductions range from -0.3 to -0.6), the impact of management support on work-to-family interference varies depending on the gender and the job type of the employee but not on their dependent care status.

Shift work is associated with higher work-to-family interference

Flexible work arrangements, on their own, have little impact on work-to-family interference. The following lends credence to this conclusion. First, the association between working flextime, a compressed work week and a regular 9-to-5 work day, and work-to-family interference was not significant. Second, the associations that do exist are only weak and do not yield large changes in role interference. That being said, employers that wish to reduce work-to-family interference should be aware of the following:

• Part-time work helps employees with dependent care responsibilities cope with work-to-family interference. It seems to be particularly effective for men rather than women (decline of - 0.5 in interference for men compared to -0.2 for women). These findings are consistent with those observed with respect to role overload.
• Shift work has a substantive positive association with work-to-family interference. This work arrangement appears to be more problematic for women in other positions within the organization (increase of +0.5 in interference for the women in this group versus +0.3 for their male counterparts and +0.2 for men and women in managerial and professional positions).
• Both guerilla tele-work and tele-work arrangements are moderately associated with increased work-to-family interference (increase of +0.3 in interference for guerilla tele-work and +0.2 for tele-work) when gender and job type are taken into account.

Family-friendly benefits do little to help employees cope with work-to-family interference

Supportive benefits, on their own, have little impact on work-to-family interference. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the association between the use of the following benefits and work interferences was not significant: on-site day care, use of child care referral, use of elder care referral, use of flexible work arrangements, use of EAP, emergency days off, unpaid LOA, use of paid personal days off work, use of time off in lieu of overtime and use of short-term personal leave. In addition to the above, the following benefits were not linked to work-to-family interference when dependent care status was taken into account: tele-work, supportive relocation policies and part-time work/job sharing. Several of the benefits were, however, weakly associated with work interference when job type was taken into account. Men and women who use supportive relocation policies (Δ = -.3) and part-time/reduced work hours (Δ = -.5) report a decline in work-to-family interference when job type is taken into account.

Targeted solutions are, in some cases, required

The ability of the different organizational interventions to reduce work-to-family interference depends on gender, job type and dependent care status of the employee. Organizations that wish to help women in other positions deal with work-to-family interference should make it easier for them to arrange their work schedule to meet personal and family commitments, interrupt their work day to deal with personal/family reasons and then return to work , and vary their hours of work. They should also try to minimize the number of employees in this group who perform shift work.

Organizations that wish to help employees in other positions, regardless of their gender, cope with work-to-family interference should consider the following:

• Give these employees the ability to take a paid day off to care for an elderly dependent.
• Increase the number of supportive managers in their organization. Specifically, they should increase the extent to which managers are available to answer their employees' questions, ask for input before making decisions that affect their employees' work, make expectations clear, give positive recognition when employees do their job well, support their employees' decisions, provide their employees with constructive feedback and share information with them.
• Reduce the number of non-supportive managers within the organization. Specifically, they should decrease the extent to which managers who have a high number of people in other positions reporting to them directly put their employees down in front of others, have unrealistic expectations with respect to workloads, put in long hours and expect their employees to do the same, and make employees feel guilty about time off for personal/family reasons.

Organizations that wish to help their female employees cope with work-to-family interference should consider the following:

• Increase the extent to which managers in the organization listen to their employees' concerns and are effective at planning work to be done.
• Decrease the extent to which managers in the organization make employees feel guilty about time off for personal/family reasons and put employees down in front of others.

Organizations that wish to help men in managerial and professional positions deal with work-to-family interference should increase their ability to interrupt their work day to deal with personal/family reasons and then return to work, and increase the extent to which their immediate manager provides constructive feedback and shares information with them. It is interesting to note, however, that men in this group receive less benefit than those in other groups from having a manager who listens to their concerns and is effective at planning the work to be done. The ability to vary their work hours also provides less of a benefit to the men in this group.

While high levels of perceived flexibility and management support help female managers and professionals cope with work-to-family interference, the decline in interference at high levels of perceived flexibility and management support is significantly less for these employees than for those in other groups. Specifically, the women in these jobs experience less of a benefit from the ability to interrupt their work day and return, take time off to attend a course or conference, take time off to care for a sick child, take a paid day off to care for elderly dependents, take holidays when they want, to re-arrange their work schedule, and report to a supportive manager who provides them with constructive feedback and shares information with them. These findings are similar to those observed for role overload and have the same underlying etiology.

Organizations that wish to help employees with dependent care responsibilities cope with work-to-family interference should give these employees (especially the men in this group) the ability to take a paid day off to care for a sick child and take time off to care for elderly dependents. They should also focus on reducing the extent to which managers within the organization make their employees feel guilty about time off for personal/family reasons.

These findings reinforce our contention that there is no one-size-fits-all solution that organizations can implement to reduce work-life conflict.

6.1.3.3 Coping with Family-to-Work Interference

While organizations can do a lot to help their employees cope with role overload and work-to-family interference, their options are much more limited when it comes to helping reduce family-to-work interference. None of the organizational strategies examined in this study was strongly associated with this form of work-life conflict and interventions such as perceived flexibility and management support, which were effective at alleviating role overload and work-to-family interference, had little (i.e. perceived flexibility) to no (i.e. supportive manager) impact on family-to-work interference. However, we can provide some advice to organizations that wish to help employees cope with family-to-work interference. These suggestions are summarized below.

The ability to arrange one's work schedule to meet personal/family commitments can help employees cope with family-to-work interference

Perceived flexibility does little to help employees cope with family-to-work interference. This conclusion can be supported by the fact that there was no association between seven of the forms of perceived flexibility examined (i.e. tele-work, interrupt work day, take paid day off when child is sick, take paid day off when elderly dependent needs care, be home to have meals with family, be home when children get home from school, take time off for a course) and family-to-work interference, in either the gender by job type or the gender by dependent care analysis. Furthermore, the fact that the rest of the items in this measure (vary work hours, take holidays when you want, arrange work schedule) were also not associated with this form of interference when job type was taken into account point to the fact that the impact of perceived flexibility on family-to-work interference is minimal and limited to employees with dependent care.

What forms of perceived flexibility help those with dependent care deal with family-to-work interference? How effective are each of these forms of flexibility at reducing this form of conflict? The data provide the following answers to these questions. Organizations that wish to help employees with dependent care cope with family-to-work interference should make it easier for them to arrange their work schedule to meet personal and family commitments, vary their work hours and take holidays when they want. It is, however, important for organizations to recognize that in all cases, those with dependent care responsibilities have to feel that it is always easy for them to arrange their work schedule, vary their work hours and take their holidays when they want, as those with only moderate flexibility in these areas realize no increased ability to cope with family-to-work interference.

Non-supportive management increases family-to-work interference

While working for a supportive manager does not help employees cope with family-to-work interference, reporting to a non-supportive manager certainly exacerbates this form of conflict. The following behaviours, in particular, are associated with increased family-to-work interference: makes me feel guilty about time off work for personal or family reasons and focuses on hours of work not output.

Working a regular work day reduces family-to-work interference

Employees who work a fixed work day (i.e. start and stop times the same every day) report substantially lower levels of family-to-work interference while employees who work flextime report the highest levels of this form of conflict. It would appear that knowing one's exact hours of work helps an employee plan family activities so that they do not interfere with their work duties.

A number of benefits appear to help employees cope with family-to-work interference

While only one of the ten benefits examined in this analysis, use of child care referral, was significantly associated with family-to-work interference in both the gender by job type and gender by dependent care analyses, seven other benefits were linked to this form of work-life conflict in the analysis where dependent care status was considered. This result, which is similar to that observed with respect to perceived flexibility, reinforces our contention that strategies to deal with family-to-work interference will primarily affect only those employees with dependent care responsibilities.

The use of the following benefits is significantly associated with family-to-work interference:

• child care referral
• on-site day care
• part-time/reduced work week
• personal day off with pay
• EAP
• taking a family/emergency day off work
• short-term personal leave

The relationship between two of these strategies, use of child care referral and part-time work, and family-to-work interference is negative for employees with dependent care responsibilities, indicating that these two benefits do, in fact, help employees with child and/or elder care cope with family demands that interfere with work.

In all other cases, however, the relationship between family-to-work interference and benefit use was positive, which indicates that employees with higher levels of this form of interference were more likely to use these benefits. Since it is unlikely that the benefit itself would cause an increase in work-life conflict, these findings suggest that employees use these organizational benefits when they are experiencing greater interference. Unfortunately, cross-sectional data (i.e. collected at one point in time) do not allow us to determine the extent to which each of these benefits helps employees cope with family-to-work interference. We can, however, say that virtually everyone in this sample who used these benefits indicated that the benefits had helped them cope to a moderate/great extent.

Women and men with dependent care use different strategies to cope with family-to-work interference

There are several gender differences in the relations discussed above that give further guidance to organizations that wish to help their employees with dependent care cope with family-to-work interference. Organizations can help women by giving them more flexibility to arrange their work schedule to meet personal and family commitments (Δ = -.5) and by reducing the extent to which managers assess performance by looking at hours rather than output. They can help men, on the other hand, by giving them child care referral benefits (Δ = -.5 for men versus Δ = -.3 for women).

6.1.3.4 Coping with Caregiver Strain

It appears that there is very little that the employer can do to help employees deal with caregiver strain. This conclusion is supported by the following facts:

• The following forms of perceived flexibility were not associated with caregiver strain when dependent care status was taken into account: tele-work, take holidays when want, take time to attend a conference, take paid day off when child is sick, take paid day off to care for elderly dependent, be home when children get home from school.
• None of the items in the perceived flexibility measure was associated with caregiver strain when job type was taken into account.
• None of the supportive management behaviours was associated with caregiver strain.
• None of the non-supportive management behaviours was associated with caregiver strain when job type was taken into account.
• The use of only one of ten benefits was substantially associated with caregiver strain in both the gender by job type and gender by dependent care analysis: elder care referral. Two additional benefits, use of paid personal days off work and use of short-term personal leave, were moderately associated with caregiver strain when dependent care status was taken into account.
• With one exception (elder care referral), the relationships observed between caregiver strain and organization interventions were moderate in degree.

Interestingly, this form of work-life conflict does not depend on either the gender or the job type of the individual. In fact, the only thing that employees need to consider when dealing with the issue of caregiver strain is whether or not an employee has responsibility for an elderly dependent.

Elder care referral is key to coping with caregiver strain

There appears to be only one high-impact strategy available to organizations that wish to reduce the levels of caregiver strain in their workforce: provide elder care referral services. The relationship between the use of this benefit and caregiver strain is very strong. The fact that the association is positive in direction indicates that employees with higher strain are more likely to seek such assistance than those who have less caregiver strain. Again, while we cannot tell from this study the extent to which such a benefit helps employees cope with the demands associated with elder care, we can say that employees have a positive impression of such benefits (i.e. perceive that they help them cope).

Short-term personal leave helps employees cope with caregiver strain

The use of two other benefits, short-term personal leave and family/personal days off work, are moderately associated with caregiver strain. The negative relationship between caregiver strain and short-term personal leave (Δ = -.4) indicates that this benefit does help employees cope with the strains associated with the care of an elderly dependent. The positive relationship between personal days off work and caregiver strain, on the other hand, indicates that employees need to take time off work when caregiver strain gets high. This benefit makes it easier for employees to use this strategy.

Flextime arrangements are associated with lower levels of caregiver strain

Employees who use flextime arrangements report substantially lower levels of caregiver strain. Employees who work a fixed schedule, on the other hand, report the highest levels of this form of work-life conflict. Unfortunately, when considered in the light of the findings obtained earlier with role interference, it appears that organizational actions that minimize caregiver strain will maximize family-to-work interference.

Increasing perceived flexibility does provide some ability to cope with caregiver strain

By increasing perceived flexibility, organizations can give employees with dependent care responsibilities some protection against caregiver strain (decline of -.3). Specifically, the ability to be home in time for dinner with the family, vary work hours, interrupt one's work day and return, and arrange one's work day to meet family or personal needs all seem to help employees cope with caregiver strain.

Employees who report to a non-supportive manager find it more difficult to cope with caregiver strain

One way organizations can help their employees with dependent care responsibilities cope with caregiver strain is to reduce the number of non-supportive managers in their organizations. The following management behaviours are associated with higher levels of this form of work-life conflict: making employees feel guilty about time off for personal/family reasons, focusing on hours of work, not output, and having unrealistic expectations around workloads. Again, however, it should be emphasized that the association between this form of work-life conflict and non-supportive management is only moderate in magnitude.