Various workforce and societal changes have made the issue of work-family conflict relevant for employees and organizations alike. The increasing pressures for attracting and retaining talented employees have forced many public and private organizations to develop formal family friendly policies aimed at providing employees with resources to balance their work and family responsibilities. However, the effects of implementing such formal policies are not clearly established. These formal supports are often underutilized and, even when employees use them, they may not always have the intended consequences. It has been suggested that informal workplace characteristics, such as supervisor support and a supportive work-family culture, may be as important as, or even more important than, the simple provision of formal benefits. Prior research on family-friendly policies and cultures and their effects on employees? attitudes and behaviors is limited in that it has focused almost exclusively on the experiences of individuals employed in private sector organizations, with the effects on public sector employees being largely unknown. Thus, the aim of this dissertation was to address this gap by examining and comparing work-family relationships between employees working in the public and the private sectors of the economy. This study uses data from the Families and Work Institute?s 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce, and employs institutional theory, ecological systems theory, role theory, and social exchange theory to investigate how formal support, informal support, and work characteristics may affect employees? work-family conflict, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. The main objectives of this study were centered on practical concerns, as our investigation seeks to impact public sector?s ability to recruit, motivate, and retain qualified employees. On the whole, the findings of this study suggest both similarities and differences between public and private sector organizations with respect to the constructs measured. Contrary to our expectations and the institutional theory, there were no significant differences in the provision of formal supports between the two sectors. However, consistent with the institutional theory, the results confirmed that public sector employees enjoy higher levels of informal support and HR practices than their private sector counterparts. This study also supports the idea of social exchange between employees and their employers related to work-family issues. By revealing the key role played by the informal support in all three outcomes of interest for this study (i.e., work-family conflict, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions), our findings suggest the importance for organizations to assist their employees in maintaining good work and family relationships. Therefore, both public and private organizations seeking to help their employees manage work and family responsibilities will benefit from knowing employees? perceptions of formal support, informal support, and work characteristics, along with their specific impact on employees? work-family conflict, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-12212006-093039 |
| Date | 08 January 2007 |
| Creators | Dolcos, Sanda Monica |
| Contributors | Dennis M. Daley, Elizabethann O?Sullivan, Samuel B. Pond, Steven Greene |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-12212006-093039/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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