Impact of individual coping strategies and organisational work–life balance programmes on Australian employee well-being

Abstract

This paper examines several individual coping strategies and employees' perception of organisational provision of work–life balance (WLB) programmes with a sample of 700 Australian employees. The combined effects of individual coping strategies and organisational provision of WLB programmes on employee affective well-being are examined, using structural equation modelling. Results indicate that individuals with positive attitudes and life coping strategies were more capable of achieving overall well-being. Both monetary- and non-monetary-based organisational WLB provision had no direct association with employee well-being, but had indirect effects via individual coping strategies to help employees achieve better well-being. Employee well-being was found to have a stronger association with individual effort than organisational deliberation in providing WLB programmes. Theoretical and practical implications of these study outcomes are discussed.

Keywords:

• Australia
• coping strategy
• employee well-being
• individual
• organisation
• work–life balance (WLB)

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Professor Maike Andresen, editor of this journal and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which help greatly improved our manuscript. The help from the Population Research Laboratory staff at the Centre for Social Science Research of Central Queensland University, Australia, in collecting data is also acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).