Balancing a successful career with a family life can be challenging and impact on a person's satisfaction in their work and family roles, affecting not only the person but their partner and children as well. This study examined the influence of social support from family and work associates on the role satisfaction of female and male managers, and their children's adjustment. Participants were 96 male and 100 female managers and their families. The first aim of this study was to examine the relative importance of work and family support for satisfaction in the roles of paid worker, spouse and parent. Findings showed that social support had a domain-specific effect, with work support associated with job satisfaction, and family support associated with marital and parenting satisfaction. The second aim of the study was to evaluate gender differences in perceived social support, and the association of support with role satisfaction. Although there were considerable differences in the managers' work and family arrangements, female managers and male managers reported receiving similar levels of work and family support, and the strength of the relationship between social support and role satisfaction was similar for both genders. The final aim of the study was to examine the role of social support in the larger family system, as research has mainly focussed on the influence of social support on the support recipient. This study extended research on the relationship between social support and role satisfaction, by showing that family support was not only associated to managers' role satisfaction, but also to managers' interactions with their children, and their children's adjustment. Work support on the other hand, was related to job satisfaction, but not to parent-child interactions and child adjustment. The findings from this study could inform clinicians' treatment of families with children experiencing problems by addressing the relationship of family support with child adjustment. Findings could also inform governments' work and family agendas, which generally focus on providing assistance to employers with the development of workplace policies to improve work-family balance. Governments should also promote the role of family support, and provide information for families on how to arrange household and childcare tasks and provide support to each other to facilitate work-family balance. Furthermore, the current study showed that work support is positively related to employee's job satisfaction, which is important for employees as well as employers. Employers can promote supportive relationships among employees through establishing networking opportunities for their employees, such as breakfast meetings, workshops and seminars, and business planning days. This study showed that some people can have it all - a satisfying and successful career, a happy marriage, and fulfilling parenthood - and social support appears to play a significant role in achieving this.

Magistro baigiamąjame darbe išanalizuotos ir įvertintos palankių šeimai politikos priemonių taikymo galimybės ir nauda Vilniaus m. savivaldybės įmonėse, iškeltos šeimos ir karjeros vaidmenų derinimo problemos bei pateikti siūlymai, kaip šias problemas spręsti. Pirmojoje dalyje teoriniu aspektu tiriama šeimos ir karjeros vaidmenų derinimo dilemos šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje, pateikiama šeimos samprata globalių pokyčių perspektyvoje bei karjeros samprata, taip pat apžvelgiama lygios galimybės siekti karjeros. Antroje dalyje nagrinėjami palankios šeimai politikos aspektai, pateikiama palankios šeimai politikos samprata, supažindinama su Lietuvos ir užsienio palankia šeimai įstatymine baze bei teoriniais palankios šeimai darbovietės aspektais. Trečioje dalyje pristatomi šeimos ir karjeros vaidmenų derinimo modeliai ir jų privalumai bei trūkumai. Ketvirtoje baigiamo darbo dalyje nagrinėjamas Vilniaus m. savivaldybės įmonių darbdavių ir darbuotojų požiūris į palankias šeimai politikos priemones bei jų taikymo galimybes. Darbas užbaigiamas išvadomis ir rekomendacijomis. / Master's thesis analyzed and evaluated family-friendly policy measures and benefits of Vilnius city municipal enterprises, raised a family and career roles in reconciliation of problems and proposed the solutions of solving these issues. Reconciliation of family and career roles dilemmas in modern society are examined by theoretical aspects, the concept of change of a family in global perspective and the concept of career as well as an overview of equal opportunities to seek career is presented in the first part of the thesis The second part of the thesis deals with family friendly policy aspects; family friendly policies and introduction to Lithuanian and foreign family-friendly legal framework and family friendly theoretical workplace aspects are presented. The third section presents models of reconciliation of family and career roles, its advantages and disadvantages. The fourth part of the thesis deals with Vilnius city Municipal Enterprises employers and employees' attitudes to family-friendly policy measures and their application possibilities. The thesis is completed with conclusions and recommendations.