Family-Friendly Workplace Culture, Flexibility, and Workplace Support for Dependent Care : the Perspectives of Human Resource Professionals

Integration of family responsibilities and employment demands is challenging for all families, but particularly for those families with extraordinary care requirements of children with mental health disabilities. Utilization of workplace supports, such as flexible work arrangements, has been identified in the work-family literature as an important indicator of organizational responsiveness to employee\u27s family needs (Allen, 2001; Eaton, 2003; Hammer, Neal, Newsom, Brockwood, & Colton, 2005; Secret, 2000). A better understanding of which organizational conditions may improve utilization of available family-friendly supports by employees caring for children with mental health disorders can improve work-life integration for these families. This study examines how factors such as workplace culture, and Human Resource (HR) policies and practices affect accessibility of supports in the workplace for workers with dependent care responsibilities. The exploratory study uses a series of six regression models to identify organizational conditions indicative of a family-friendly workplace culture. Human resource professionals, organizations\u27 primary gatekeepers of workplace policies and practices, were surveyed. The Work-Life Flexibility & Dependent Care Survey was completed by 550 members of WorldatWork, an international HR professional association with approximately 25,000 members. The typical respondent was female (76.9%), highly educated (38% of respondents reported that they had a master\u27s degree), and worked in the U.S. (87%) in an organization with between 100 and 999 employees in manufacturing (16%), or finance and insurance (16%). Key results of the study suggest that organizations with a formal policy on flexible work arrangements create an important pathway for availability and utilization of workplace supports. Workplace culture was identified as an important predictor of the likelihood that HR professionals would grant an employee\u27s request for flexible work arrangements for dependent care needs, including those for mental health care reasons. The need for content on work and family to be incorporated within social work curriculum is discussed as well as implications for social work practitioners. Suggestions for HR organizational policy and practice and directions for future research are presented

Criminal Law and Procedure

This Article surveys recent developments in criminal procedure and law in Virginia. Because of space limitations, the authors have limited their discussion to the most significant published appellate decisions and legislation

It\u27s Personal: Does Disclosure of Family Circumstances Influence Organizational Response to Employee\u27s Requests for Flexibility?

PDF version of a presentation given at the Community, Work and Family III International Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands, April 2009

Criminal Law and Procedure

This Article surveys recent developments in criminal procedure and law in Virginia. Because of space limitations, the authors have limited their discussion to the most significant published appellate decisions and legislation

Criminal Law and Procedure

This Article surveys recent developments in criminal procedure and law in Virginia. Because of space limitations, the authors have limited their discussion to the most significant published appellate decisions and legislation

The 6-month safety and efficacy of abatacept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who underwent a washout after anti-tumour necrosis factor therapy or were directly switched to abatacept: the ARRIVE trial

To assess the safety, tolerability and efficacy of abatacept in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had failed anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy and were switched to abatacept directly or after completing washout

Families Challenged by Children\u27s Mental Health: Employment and Community Integration

Slides of a presentation given to the conference \u27Work, Stress, and Health 2006: Making a Difference in the Workplace\u27 held in Miami, FL, in 2006