EXPLORING THE PARADOX

Abstract

This paper explores work-to-family conflict among 77 managerial fathers in Sweden by focusing on flexible working arrangements. Sweden provides a unique setting for the study of fathers’ work-to-family conflict as it has a 30-year-old social policy tradition of promoting gender equality in the workplace and in the home. Our results show that managerial fathers experience high levels of work-to-family conflict, despite high access to flexible working arrangements. Using a border theory perspective, hierarchical regression analysis shows the importance of gender egalitarianism in the family (taking responsibility for children and being in a dual earner family), as well as flexible working arrangements (satisfaction with job flexibility and access to flexleave) in explaining work-to-family conflict for managerial fathers. Organizational time demands (time pressure at work and average work hours) and use of flextime were less important. Our results imply that gender egalitarian managerial fathers with access to flexleave have a win–win situation. They experience less work-to-family conflict and set a good example for their employees.

Keywords:

• Flextime
• work–family conflict
• fathers
• managers
• border theory
• Sweden

Notes

1. The other items of the scale ‘access to flexleave’ were:

How hard or easy is it for men in your workgroup to adjust their working hours after the child’s times at daycare or school?

How hard or easy is it for men in your workgroup to take time off because of a sick child?

2. The other items of the ‘work-to-family conflict’ scale were:

When I come home from work I can’t always manage to be a good parent.

My work makes it difficult for me to get involved in my children’s free-time activities.

Because of my work I am not as active as my partner in taking care of the children.

I often feel stressed by the difficulties involved in combining work and parenthood.

3. The other items of the ‘shared parenting ideology’ scale were:

For men, work always comes before family.

Mothers and fathers should share the responsibility for childcare.

Fathers can be as emotionally close to the children as mothers are.

4. Comparisons were made with 300 fathers who were non-managers in the same companies for this paper (see Haas, Allard & Hwang, 2002, for more information on this sample).

5. The variables ‘used flextime’ and ‘right to flextime’, were highly intercorrelated, since ‘used flextime’ was partly based on ‘right to flextime’. We examined each separately. Finding no differences in the results, we present findings for the hierarchical regression analysis that included the variable ‘used flextime’.