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How Family-Friendly Work Environments Affect Work/Family Conflict: A Meta-Analytic Examination

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Global Labour in Distress, Volume II

Part of the book series: Palgrave Readers in Economics ((PRE))

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Abstract

We report a meta-analytic examination of the value of five facets of family-friendly work environments (FFWEs) in reducing work/family conflict (WFC). Cumulation of 38 studies (total N = 13,605) suggests that facets of FFWE may provide less assistance to workers in managing WFC than one may hope, as none explained more than 7 percent of the variance in WFC. A family-friendly work culture seems most influential in reducing WFC. Importantly, spousal support and FFWEs explain different portions of variance in WFC, suggesting that FFWEs are uniquely valuable to workers in achieving work/family balance. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

*When authors reported separate correlations for different subgroups (e.g., males and females), samples, administrations (as in a longitudinal study), or measures of the same construct, those correlations were examined separately. The studies included in this meta-analysis are listed in the references prefixed with an asterisk.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC, USA

    Jessica R. Mesmer-Magnus

  2. Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Chockalingam Viswesvaran

Authors
  1. Jessica R. Mesmer-Magnus
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  2. Chockalingam Viswesvaran
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Correspondence to Jessica R. Mesmer-Magnus .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. CAPP, Institute of Social and Political Sciences, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Pedro Goulart

  2. AQR-IREA, Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Raul Ramos

  3. Lisbon School of Economics and Management Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Gianluca Ferrittu

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Mesmer-Magnus, J.R., Viswesvaran, C. (2022). How Family-Friendly Work Environments Affect Work/Family Conflict: A Meta-Analytic Examination. In: Goulart, P., Ramos, R., Ferrittu, G. (eds) Global Labour in Distress, Volume II. Palgrave Readers in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89265-4_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89265-4_17

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-89264-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-89265-4

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