Effects of work-family human resource practices: a longitudinal perspective

Abstract

In the face of demographic developments and changes in employees' priorities, work-family issues have become increasingly important for organizations. It has been suggested that organizations benefit from human resource practices that are designed to help employees balance the demands of both work and family. However, research investigating the purported positive effects of these work-family practices is still scarce and inconclusive. In particular, longitudinal data that may help to identify long-term effects are still lacking. To help fill in this gap, we conducted two longitudinal studies that linked the degree to which organizations adopted work-family practices to absenteeism, perceived general performance, and perceived financial performance five years later. In both studies, we found that the comprehensive measure of work-family practices was negatively related to absenteeism but unrelated to perceived general performance and perceived financial performance.

Keywords:

• longitudinal study
• work-family practices