The Impact of Work-Life Balance Organizational Culture on Female Managers' Life Satisfaction in the Social Services Sector

Background/Purpose: In the Economist's Glass-ceiling index, which measures the level of sexism in the workplace, South Korea has been at the bottom of the list of OECD countries for ten years (Economist, 2022). Work-life conflict is reported to be one of the main causes of the glass ceiling index, among Korean women. Also, female managers reported facing the problem of an organizational culture that prioritizes work over personal and family life(Korea Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2022). This work-life conflict has been discussed as a major issue in conjunction with social issues such as the declining birthrate and childcare burden. Against this social background, this study focuses on work-life balance organizational culture. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of the work-life balance organizational culture of social service organizations on the life satisfaction of female managers.

Methods: Data and samples: The data from the 1^st Korean Women Manager Panel (second edition) was used for analysis. This is the most recent data collected by the Korea Institute for Women's Policy Research, which surveyed 3,500 male and female managers in 2020. The study analyzed 1,078 female managers who are working in the social service sector(social welfare, care, and nursing).

Measures: Work-life balance organizational culture consists of sub-factors such as an atmosphere of freedom in terms of commuting, availability of annual leave, maternity and paternity leave, and overall ease of use of work-life balance policies, and there are a total of 5 items. A score was measured from 1 to 5 points from "not at all" to "strongly agree" depending on the degree of agreement with each item. The higher the score, the greater the level of work-life balance organizational culture. Life satisfaction was measured by three questions asking for overall satisfaction with personal, family, and professional life. A score was measured from 1 to 5 points from "not at all" to "strongly agree" depending on the degree of agreement with each item. The higher the score, the greater the level of life satisfaction.

Results: Multiple regression analysis shows that he work-life balance organizational culture is significantly affecting on female managers' life satisfaction in the social services sector. Among the control variables, age and the presence of children were found to be significant for life satisfaction, while the number of labor benefit programs, total hours worked, number of employees in the business, household debt, annual salary, the presence of a spouse, and highest level of education were not significant.

Conclusions and Implications: This study suggests that a work-life balance organizational culture has a positive impact on the life satisfaction of female workers. This study is expected to help understand the importance of work-life balance organizational culture in the social service sector especially for the female manager. In order for organizations to create a work-life balance culture, they will need to create a workplace environment that meets their needs, such as flexible work systems, parental leave, and compensation for overtime hours, rather than expanding the number of workplace welfare programs.