Across the continuum of satisfaction with work-family balance: Work hours, flexibility-fit, and work-family culture.
This study investigated the association between hours worked per week and satisfaction with work-family balance, using data from a 2007-2008 survey of employees nested within organizations. We tested hypotheses informed by the resource drain and resources-and-demands perspectives using quantile regression. We found that the negative association between hours worked per week and satisfaction with work-family balance was significantly stronger at the 25th percentile, as compared to at the 75th percentile, of satisfaction with work-family balance. Further, there was some evidence that perceived flexibility-fit (i.e., the fit between worker needs and flexible work options available) and supportive work-family culture attenuated the relationship between hours worked and satisfaction with work-family balance. The results suggest that analyses focusing on the average relationship between long work hours (such as those using ordinary least squares regression) and satisfaction with work-family balance may underestimate the importance of long work hours for workers with lower satisfaction levels.
Sloan Center on Aging & Work, Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill, MA, United States. Electronic address: mcnamatd@bc.edu.
Tay K
TK
McNamara
Marcie
M
Pitt-Catsouphes
Christina
C
Matz-Costa
Melissa
M
Brown
Monique
M
Valcour