Balancing Work and Family: The Role of High‐Commitment Environments

TLDR

The nature of jobs, workplace culture, and environment significantly affect workers’ ability to balance work and family, and this depends on job characteristics within the enterprise. The article examines how high‑performance work practices, job characteristics, and the work environment influence workers’ perceptions that the company helps them balance work and family. Survey data from three manufacturing industries show that high‑commitment environments—high‑performance practices, rewarding jobs, and supportive supervisors—positively influence employees’ perceptions of company support for work‑family balance, underscoring that such balance depends on job characteristics rather than only benefits or formal policies.

Abstract

Recently, researchers have begun to recognize that the nature of jobs, the workplace environment, and more generally, the culture of the workplace can have a significant impact on the ability of workers to balance their work and family lives. This article examines the effect of high‐performance work practices, job characteristics, and the work environment on workers’ views about whether the company helps them balance work and family. Using data from a survey of workers across three manufacturing industries, we show that a high‐commitment environment—characterized by high‐performance work practices, intrinsically rewarding jobs, and understanding supervisors—positively influences employees’ perceptions that the company is helping them achieve this balance. This article reinforces the view that helping workers balance work and family responsibilities is not just a matter of benefits and formal family‐friendly policies. Rather, it also depends on the characteristics of jobs within the business enterprise.