Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Objective: While dual-earner couples have increased in the United States since 1960s, most employees have difficulty to manage work-life balance including family responsibilities. This study examines the relationships between job flexibility, organizational culture, and work-life balance with employees who have children under age 18 and the necessity to manage their work-life. It is hypothesized that if workers can access job flexibility with workforce social support they may balance more effectively their work-life. We use a secondary dataset from the National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) conducted by Bond, Thompson, Galinsky, and Prottas in 2002. Theory: This study is based on social role-identity theory and expansionist theory (Thoits, 1983, 1986; Barnett & Hyde, 2001). According to social role theory, the differences of women and men's behavior are by social roles (Diekman & Eagly, 2000). Because of such roles, working parents cope with difficulty as a mother or a father as well as a worker. However, multiple roles by work-life balance, especially roles as high quality, are beneficial for dual-earner couples based on an expansionist theory (Barnett & Hyde, 2001). Method: The NSCW data is a study of the work, personal and family lives in the U.S and is a representative sample of the nation's workforce with surveys made every five years. The total sample consisted of 3,500 employees, including both waged & salaried workers that are defined as those who work on payroll for someone else as well as self-employed workers between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four living in non-institutional arrangements in the contiguous forty-eight states. We restricted our sample to waged & salaried employees who are parents that live with children under 18 for at least half the year (n=971). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the validity of latent constructs. SEM was employed in order to examine the direct and indirect relationships between flexibility, supervisory support, organizational culture, and mental health outcomes. The structural equation model includes three latent exogenous constructs (flexibility, supervisory support, organizational culture) measured by observed variables and one endogenous latent construct (mental health outcomes). The mediating variable is employees' perceptions of work-life balance and perceived job retention; whereas, the moderating variable is gender. Results: When we tested in SEM, work-life balance and perceived job retention functioned as a mediator of the relationship between flexibility, supervisory support, organizational culture, and health outcomes. The outcomes of the analyses indicate that work schedule flexibility had a direct relationship to work-life balance outcome. Supervisory support and supportive culture in organizations were associated with work-life balance and employees' perception on job retention directly. Moreover, a higher score of employees' perceptions of work-life balance and perceived job retention had a direct relationship to mental health outcomes. Implications: The findings provide evidence for considerations that supportive policy may affect employees' work-life balance in general. In addition, the findings provide practical implications for professional social workers in workplace.