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Work-Life Balance: The Impact of Family Friendly Policies

on Employees Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention

BY

CHAN HAK FUN, PEGGY

05003458

Human Resources Management Option

An Honors Degree Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of

Business Administration (Honors)

Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong

April 2007

Work-Life balance: The impact of Family Friendly Policies on Employees Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention

i

CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ..................................................................................................................ii ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER I- INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1

1.1 Statement of problem ................................................................................. 2 1.2 Purpose of the study................................................................................... 3 1.3 Research Questions .................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS ....................................................5 2.1 Family Friendly Policies ............................................................................ 5 a) Compressed Workweeks (Five day work week) ......................................... 6 b) Flextime ....................................................................................................... 7 c) Family Leave ................................................................................................ 9 d) Employee Assistance Programs ................................................................ 10 2.2 Turnover intention ................................................................................... 12 2.3 Job satisfaction......................................................................................... 12 2.4 Job satisfaction and Turnover intention.................................................. 12 2.5 Meditating effect of job satisfaction ........................................................ 13 2.6 Conceptual Model of Hypotheses ............................................................ 14 3.1 Sample ...................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Measurement Instruments....................................................................... 16 3.3 Data Analysis............................................................................................ 17

CHAPTER IV- RESULT ................................................................................................................19 4.1 Sample and Descriptive Statistics............................................................ 19 4.2 Cronbach Alpha Reliability Test ............................................................. 20 4.3 Independent Group t-test......................................................................... 21 4.4 Mean, Standard Deviations and Zero-order Correlation ....................... 21 4.5 Regression Analysis.................................................................................. 23

CHAPTER V- DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION .........................................................25 5.1 Discussion ................................................................................................. 25 5.2 Practical Implications .............................................................................. 29 5.3 Study Limitations..................................................................................... 30 5.4 Recommendations for future research .................................................... 32 5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 33

REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................34

APPENDIX A..40 APPENDIX B..47


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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First, I would like to express my truthful gratitude to my Honors Project Supervisor

Dr. Vivienne Luk for her generous and priceless guidance. I am grateful for her

patience and support throughout this project.

In addition, a thousand thank to my mentor Mr. MF Cheng for his generosity and

tremendous assistance in helping distributing questionnaires in the research process.

Also, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all my dear classmates, friends

and family members for their whole-hearted support during the research process.

Finally, I would like to thank to all of the respondents for spending their valuable time

to complete the questionnaire.


iii

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the relationship between a full set of family friendly

policies which includes five day work week, flextime, family leave and employee

assistance programs and turnover intention. It also demonstrated that the mediating

effect role of job satisfaction of this relation.

Data were collected from 112 full time employees. They were asked to indicate the

availability of a list of 12 family friendly policies in their organizations, job

satisfaction and their intention to leave the current job. Significant negative relations

were found in regressing turnover intention on the whole of family friendly policies,

five day work week policy, flextime policy, family leave policy and employee

assistance programs. Moreover, job satisfaction was found only to have significant

positive effects on five day work week policy an employee assistance program.


1

CHAPTER I- INTRODUCTION

Work- life balance seems to be an important part of corporate social

responsibility nowadays. Good employers need to recognize their obligations so that

they can ensure employees are not working so hard to damage their lives outside of

work or lead to health problems. A work-life balance survey conducted in 2004 by

Community Business reported that Over 75% of 1,000 respondents are suffering from

stress and said they dont have a healthy balance between their personal and work

lives (Community Business, 2004).Increasing levels of stress can rapidly lead to low

employee morale, poor productivity and decreasing job satisfactory. More and more

employees are expressing significant to severe stress over workload and work-time

pressures( Brooks 1999, Families and Work Institute 1998). Prior research showed

that the benefits of implementing family friendly policies in organization can

significantly address employee retention, job satisfaction, employee morale and

productivity. (Lockwood, 2003).

In response to the current situation, the Hong Kong Administrative Region

Government also remarked the importance of having family friendly environment in

the year 2005 to 2006 Policy Address. The government encouraged private

organizations and social services to deliberately introduce the family friendly policies

in the workplace of Hong Kong to help employee to balance their work and life. The


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arrangement of five day work week in Hong Kong Government has been smoothly

implemented to some departments from 1 July 2006 in phase one. Most of the staff

welcome the new arrangement since they can spend more time with their family;

pursue further studies, sports and recreational activities during the longer weekend.

In fact, there are many western countries like Australia and USA, an increasing

number of family friendly policies have been adopted in organization to achieve

work-life balance (Saltzstein & Ting, 2001; Strachan & Burgess, 1998). Organizations

which adopted the policies most benefit from reducing absenteeism and improving

productivity (Clifton & Shepard, 2004). Some researches also showed that employees

with assess to the policies express less intention to leave the organization and a higher

commitment. (Grover & Crooker, 1995).

1.1 Statement of problem

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend for organizations to implement

more family friendly policies such as five day work week, flextime, family leave, and

employee assistant programs to improve employee morale and productivity by

reducing absenteeism and turnover. However prior literatures primarily investigated

the impact of separate components of the family friendly policies, but not consider the

multiple policies. In order to effectively cultivate a family friendly workplace in Hong


3

Kong, it is essential to promote comprehensive policies to all the organizations. For

example, five-day work week is believed as initiative that would most assist

employees in achieving work-life balance. Hong Kongs biggest employers, the SAR

Government has already implemented this policy for the civil services. However, the

research findings from Community Business (2006) reported that there is only 28.1%

of the employers provides five-day work week in the workplace nowadays. Therefore,

a comprehensive study on the impact of entire family friendly policies is needed in

gaining a better understanding of the policies in order to make the implementation in

the future.

1.2 Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study is to look at the impact of family friendly policy on

employees job satisfaction and turnover intention. Results of this study will be useful

for organization to better decide the policy to use, consequently helping organization

increase the productivity and effectiveness and retain the talents. Besides, this study

can also aim to cultivate a family friendly workplace in Hong Kong as a result to help

employee achieve work life balance.


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1.3 Research Questions

1) There is positive relationship between family friendly policies and employees job

satisfaction.

2) There is negative relationship between family friendly policies and employees

turnover intention.

3) There is positive relationship between employees job satisfaction and turnover

intention.

4) Job satisfaction as a mediator between family friendly policies and turnover

intention.


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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESIS

2.1 Family Friendly Policies

Family Friendly Policies is defined as any benefits and working conditions that

an organization has in place to assist an employee balance their work and life

(Bardoel, Moss, Smyrnios & Tharenou, 1999). Literatures revealed family friendly

policies that are in place to help employee achieve a balanced work life. It can be

effective tools in promoting job satisfaction, productivity and company loyalty among

employees. Also, it seemed to generate continued support within the business

community. (Saltzstein & Ting, 2001). Some researches showed the impact of family

friendly policies on employees turnover intention. Employees who had access to

family-friendly policies showed significantly greater organizational commitment and

expressed significantly lower intention to quit their jobs (Grover & Crooker, 1995).

Moreover, social justices predict that employees will have more positive attitudes

toward organizations that are perceived as treating employees fairly (Greenberg,

1990). For instance, employees will be more committed to the organizations when

they were treated with an equitable management system. As a result, the following

hypothesis is tested.

Hypothesis 1: Family friendly policies will be positively related to employees job


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satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2: Family friendly policies will be negatively related to employees

turnover intention.

In order to get a better understanding of which component of family friendly

policies has shown the greatest impact on job satisfaction and turnover intention. The

four main components below are tested individually. They are a) five day work week,

b) flextime, c) family leave policies and d) employee assistance programs.

a) Compressed Workweeks (Five day work week)

A compressed work week is an arrangement where an employee works the

standard number of hours in a one or two week period, but compresses those hours

into fewer work days thereby working longer hours at work (Enterprise One Insights,

2006). This article suggested that compressed workweeks are suitable for employees

who do not need to deal with incoming work on a daily basis or there are several

employees doing the same job. It revealed that organization can reduce stress;

employee absenteeism and turnover thereby increase employee morale and loyalty.

Since there is only a few literature review about five day work week which as a new

practice start implementing in Hong Kongs workplace. According to the report of

Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, 80% of 524 Human


7

Resources professionals in Hong Kong support the implementation of five day work

week policy in the workplace. The reason was that they believed it would help

employees achieve a better work-life balance. Also, a shorter working week is

believed to enhance employees performance and productivity (HKIHRM, 2006).

Besides, Hong Kong Government began phasing this policy from July 1 2006. About

300 respondents were interviewed, over 70% of respondents expected that civil

servants morale would increase (Hung, 2006). The survey by the Clerical and

Professional Workers' Association found that 65.5% of workers believed a five-day

work week would help them better manage their private matters, while half of

respondents said it would allow them more time with family and improve their quality

of life (Moy, 2006). Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed.

Hypothesis 1a: Five day work week will be positively related to employees job

satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2a: Five day work week will be negatively related to employees turnover

intention.

b) Flextime

Flexible working arrangements take a number of forms. These include the

flexibility in working time arrangement, the number of hours worked and with regard


8

to place of work (Papalexandris & Kramar,1997). Nowadays organizations adopt

various kinds of flextime policies such as flexible scheduling program, job sharing,

part- time work, teleworking etc in workplace. Prior researches on flextime examined

that absenteeism and turnover could be reduced and employees job satisfaction was

improved when implementing such flexible programs (Narayanan and Nath, 1982;

Pierce and Newstrom, 1983). For employees, flexible working arrangement can

facilitate the reconciliation of work and family needs and allow individuals to balance

both responsibilities and thereby achieve quality of life. The benefits of flexible work

policies were demonstrated in a bank of Australia with improved customer services

and reduced turnover and absenteeism. (Papalexandris & Kramar,1997). Besides,

Grover and Crooker(1995) also reported a negative relationship between this policy

and turnover intention. Therefore, it is believed that employees are more likely to stay

in the organization when they were adopted flexibility work schedule.

Hypothesis 1b) Flexible working schedule will be positively related to employees job

satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2b) Flexible working schedule will be negatively related to employees

turnover intention.


9

c) Family Leave

Family leave policies allow employees to be away from the workplace for

varying period of time in order to deal with family responsibilities (Bond & Wise,

2003).

However, some specific policies for time away from work for maternity,

paternity, or adoption are at the discretion of the employer in different organizations.

In Hong Kong only maternity leave is compelled by law, other forms of families leave

are different between employers and employers. Female employees are entitled to

have a minimum of 10 weeks maternity leave in case of pregnancy. Similar to

flextime policies mentioned above, family leave policies help employees achieving a

balance of work life by increasing job satisfaction and reducing the intention to leave

the organization. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed.

Hypothesis 1c) Family leave policy will be positively related to employees job

satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2c) Family leave policy will be negatively related employees turnover

intention


10

d) Employee Assistance Programs

Employee assistance programs are designed to recognize the interaction between

peoples domestic and working lives and to offer confidential counseling to staff to

address personal or other problems, including work-related stress that may be

affecting their performance (Clemmet, 1998). The nature of today EAPs is different

from organizations to organizations. The typically examples of EAPs included

providing assistance in the areas of personal issues, relationship issues, eldercare,

childcare, parenting issues, harassment, substance abuse, job stress, balancing work

and family, financial or legal and family violence. Some EAPs providers are also able

to offer other services including retirement or lay-off assistance, and wellness and

health promotion and fitness while others may offer advice on long term illnesses,

disability issues, counseling for crisis situation. Therefore, EAPs does not just limit on

counseling services and may include life skills programs and fitness programs. It can

assist employees in managing stress and resolving personal problems as well. Carolyn

& Cooper (1994) reported that EAPs are an important to improve employee mental

and physical well-being so that they have better performance at work and enhanced

job satisfaction and reduced turnover intention. Therefore, the following hypothesis is

proposed.

Hypothesis 1d) Employee assistance program will be positively related to employees


11

job satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2d) Employee assistance program will be negatively related to employees

turnover intention


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2.2 Turnover intention

Turnover intention as the thought of quitting, the intention to search for another

job elsewhere, and the intention to quit as assessed in the turnover model of Mobley et

al. (1978). It is assumed that employees with high degree of turnover intention from

an organization will subjectively assess that they will be leaving the organization in

the near future (Mowday et al., 1982). Grover& Crooker (1995) had investigated the

relationship between different family friendly policies and turnover intention.

2.3 Job satisfaction

According to Weiss, Dawis, England and Lofquist(1967), job satisfaction is the

overall summary evaluation a person make regarding his/her work environment.

Spector (1997) defined job satisfaction as an individuals cognitive, affective and

evaluation reactions towards his or her job. Cranny et al. (1992) also defined job

satisfaction is a combination of cognitive and affective reactions to the differential

perceptions of what an employee wants to receive compared to what he or she

actually receives.

2.4 Job satisfaction and Turnover intention

Some literatures demonstrated that employees job satisfaction and employees

commitment are predictors of turnover ( Mowday, Porter, and Steers, 1982; Cotton


13

and Tuttle, 1986; Carsten and Spector, 1987). Besides, Ostroff (1992) also showed the

close association among job satisfaction, organizational commitment and reduced

turnover, and demonstrated the clear influence that job satisfaction had on the

turnover intention of engineering staff. Spector (1997) has also investigated the

relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Therefore, the following

hypothesis is tested.

Hypothesis 3: Employees job satisfaction will be negatively related to employees

turnover intention.

2.5 Meditating effect of job satisfaction

Base on the above literatures reviews closely supported the relationship among

family friendly policies, job satisfaction and turnover intention. It should be

interesting to examine that the mediating effect of job satisfaction between family

friendly policies and turnover intention. Therefore, the following hypothesis is

proposed.

Hypothesis 4: The mediating effect of job satisfaction between family friendly policies

and turnover intention.


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2.6 Conceptual Model of Hypotheses

IV MV

+ve

+ve

+ve

Turnover Intention

Job Satisfaction

Family Friendly Policies

1) Five day work week

2) Flextime

3) Family Leave

4) Employee Assistance

Programs

DV


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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

3.1 Sample

Data will be collected using a questionnaire and measures of the impact of

family friendly policies on employee job satisfaction and turnover intention.

Questionnaires will be distributed to full time employees in different organizations

such as Hong Kong Housing Authority, educational institution and other business

organizations through mentor, friends and relatives. Cover letter will be attached to

inform participants the purpose of this research study is to assess employees work

related attitude on family friendly policies implementation among Hong Kong

companies. Participants are fully voluntarily and respondents are assured of the strict

confidential of their information and responses. The questionnaires were sent and

collected personally. A total of 112 out of 150 questionnaires distributed were returned,

yielding a response rate of 74.6%.


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3.2 Measurement Instruments

For demographic factors, respondents were asked to indicate their gender, age,

education level, marital status, presence of dependent children, industry and company

size.

a) Family friendly policies

A list of 12 individual family friendly policies was derived from prior researches

based on its commonness in researches and the suitableness of workplace in Hong

Kong case. According to the reference of Grover and Crooker(1995), the 12 family

friendly policies items were selected and divided into four main categories which

were compressed work week (Five day work week), Flextime policies (four items),

Family Leave policies (five items) and Employee assistance program( three items.)

respondents were asked to answered whether those policies are provided in their

organization with the option of (1= Provided, 0= Not provided). The alpha reliability

is .73 for the whole family friendly policies (12 items) and .41 for flextime, .40 for

family leaves and .70 for employee assistance programs.


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b) Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction was measured by Wright and Cropanzano(1998) 4 item scale.

Responses to these items were on a five-point scale ranging from (1 = strongly

disagree to 5= strongly agree). The sample items are All in all, I am satisfied with

my working hour. and All in all, I am satisfied with my pay The alpha reliability of

this scale was .74.

c) Turnover intention

The scales were based on Mobley et al (1978). Their scale was used to assess

withdrawal intention from the organization. The items were: 1) I think a lot about

leaving the organization 2) I am actively searching for an alternative to the

organization. 3) As soon as it is possible, I will leave the organization. Responses to

these items were on a five-point scale ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 5= strongly

agree. The alpha reliability of this scale was .90.

3.3 Data Analysis

There are several steps for analyzing the data through SPSS. First, using factor

analysis to have data reduction and explain the pattern of correlations within a set of

observed variables. Second, independent t-test was be conducted to compare mean

difference of job satisfaction and turnover intention for whether the policies provided


18

such as with or without five day work week. Third, zero-order correlation was also

performed to indicate the general relationship among all the variables included control

variable. Fourth, regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship

between family friendly policies and job satisfaction; the relationship between family

friendly policies and turnover intention, and finally the mediating effects of job

satisfaction on the relationship between family friendly policies and turnover intention.

The SPSS for Window Statistical Package was used to run above regression models.


19

CHAPTER IV- RESULT

4.1 Sample and Descriptive Statistics

Table 1 (Refer to Appendix A) shows the demographics of the respondents of the

observed sample. Male with 42.9% and female with 56.3% in the sample. A large

proportion of the respondents were single (75.9%) and the married respondents

accounted for merely one-fifth of the respondents (21.4%). The majority respondents

aged between 20 to 30 years old (59.8%). Over 80%of respondents did not have

dependent children and only 0.9% of respondents had 3 or more children. Moreover,

about half of the respondents were the bachelor degree holder (40.2%). One fourth of

them had education level at matriculation or below and diploma and associate degree.

Besides, in term of business sector, the majority of respondents worked in Banking/

Finance/ Insurance(30%) while 15.2% worked in Garment and Government.

Approximately 40% of the respondents have worked with their present job less than 2

year while one fifth of them have worked with their job for between 2 to 4 years.

Finally, near half of the respondents (47.7%) worked in the organizations which were

more than 500 people and one fourth of them worked in the organization which are

less than 100 people.

Table 2 (Refer Appendix A) shows the availability of family friendly policies


20

among 112 respondents organization. Of all the 12 family friendly policies, the most

common item are the five day work week policy and compassionate leave ( 57.1%),

followed by life skill program (49.1%) and professional counseling (42.9%). The

most common category is employee assistance program which had 44.37% in average.

Moreover, Table 2a (Refer to Appendix A) shows the follow up question about

five day work week policy. It indicated that 91% of respondents supported the

implementation of five day work week policy in workplace. The majority respondents

(75%) think this policy will help employees to achieve a better work-life balance

since they can enjoy more their personal life. Besides, half of respondents believed a

shorter working week can easily arrange schedules to deal with family issues and

household work.

4.2 Cronbach Alpha Reliability Test

In this research, two scales were adopted from other studies. In order to test the

reliability of the scale, Cronbachs Alpha coefficient was examined. According to

Pallant (2001), a scale with Cronbachs Alpha coefficient of 0.70 or above is

acceptable. Two of the scales used in this research were over 0.70, therefore they are

fully accepted. Table 4 (Refer to Appendix A) shows the alpha of job satisfaction was

0.72 and the alpha of turnover intention was 0.80. However, the reliability of the scale


21

for measuring job satisfaction and turnover intention had slightly lower than the

original one.

4.3 Independent Group t-test

Table 3 (Refer to Appendix A) shows an independent samples t test for the Five

day work week policies. To compare the mean differences to job satisfaction and

turnover intention of the five day work week policy. Sub-sample with five day work

week had a higher mean (M= 3.66, SD= .654) on job satisfaction than without such

policy. Moreover, sub-sample with five day work week had lower mean (M= 2.48, SD

= .91) on turnover intention then without such policy. Five day work week policy

showed a positive significant effect to job satisfaction (t = 3.98, p< .001) while

showed a negative significant effect to turnover intention (t = -.4.59, p


22

family leave policy were not significant in this relation. Overall Family Friendly

Policies (r = .29, p < .01) was also significantly positive related to job satisfaction.

Furthermore, all of the component of family friendly policies which were five

day week work policies (r = -.40, p< .01), flextime (r = -.24, p< .05), family leave (r =

-.23, p< .05) and employee assistances program (r = -.34, p< .01) and finally the

whole family friendly policies (r = -.46, p< .01) were significantly negative related to

turnover intention.

Besides, job satisfaction (r = -.51, p< .01) was also shown to be significantly

negative related to turnover intention. Base on the result of zero-order Correlations,

the above proposed hypotheses of this study are preliminary supported while only

hypotheses 1b and 1c were not supported.


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4.5 Regression Analysis

Mediating effect of Job Satisfaction on Family Friendly Policies and Turnover

Intention.

Four separate regression analysis were conducted in order to test the mediation

effect of job satisfaction on turnover intention (Refer to Appendix A, Table 6) or

below Figure 1.

Equation 1 examines the influence of the independent variables on the mediator.

Job satisfaction was regressed on the control variables as well as the independent

variables (Family Friendly Policies). As shown in Table 7, family friendly policies

(beta = .409, p< .01) was positively related to Job satisfaction. Therefore, the result

supported hypothesis 1.

Equation 2 examines the influence of the independent variable on the dependent

variable. Family Friendly Policies (beta = -.467, p


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Job Satisfaction

Turnover Intention

Family Friendly

Policies

Equation 4 examines the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship

between family friendly policies and turnover intention. Turnover intention was

regressed on the control variables, family friendly policies and the job satisfaction.

The previously significant relationship between family friendly policies and turnover

intention shown in equation 2 became less significant when job satisfaction was added

into the regression equation (beta = -.273, p


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CHAPTER V- DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Discussion

The results of this study demonstrate similar finding with other previous

researches. The entire family friendly policies were found to be positively related to

job satisfaction and to be negatively related to turnover intention. The concept of

psychological contracts by Rousseau (1995) may offer an explanation of this

finding. Since psychological contracts refer to beliefs that individual hold regarding

promises made, accepted and relied upon between themselves and another.

Perceptions of family friendly workplace may result in increase attachment to the

organization and overall satisfaction of employees. First, the individual may perceive

the organizations offering such family friendly policies as representing the

organizations concern for both work and family. Employee may see this as

psychological contract since they can be able to balance multiple responsibilities

about work and family. Second, having those policies available in the organization

can improve employee perception about their employer and thereby increase

employees overall positive feeling toward employer which probably impact job

satisfaction.

Another explanation of this finding is social comparison process proposed by


26

Adam (1965). Since employees may compare their situations to peers in other jobs or

organizations that not offer those family friendly programs. This kind of comparison

should increase the value of the employees psychological contract to their

organization.

Apart from that, Crooker and Grover (1993) also demonstrated that providing

family benefits to employees positively influences their attachment to work through

the symbolic action. Since employer provided policies which were responsive to

employees need. Employees may contribute with greater loyalty to the organization

and better morale in response to the offering of such family friendly policies. Based

upon the idea that family friendly policies represent an aspect of the contract between

employee and employer in the previous literature, it is expected the perception of

family friendly policies to be related to job satisfaction. Therefore, the above

significant relations are explained.

Contrary to the predication, in examining the relationship between the four

categories of family friendly policies and job satisfaction, only two of them which are

five day work week and employee assistance programs were found to have

significantly positive effect with employees job satisfaction. The possible explanation

of these findings is the commonness of these two policies in Hong Kongs workplace.

In the sample (N=112), about half of the respondents enjoy the five day work week


27

policy and employee assistance programs in their organizations. Base on the result of

table 3, the mean difference indicates the higher level of job satisfaction and lower

level of turnover intention of the people who had five day work week policy. Most of

them think five day work week is beneficial for them to have better work-life balance

as they can have longer periods of time off work. It can be more flexibility with

personal time and accommodate family needs as well.

In addition, employee assistance programs nowadays play an important role in

helping employees resolve personal problems and achieve healthy body. It may

positively impact their work performance, conduct, health and well-being. The

increasing health awareness of Hong Kong people strengthens the significant

relationship of employee assistance programs to job satisfaction and turnover

intention. In order to achieve both psychological and physical well-being for

employees, organizations nowadays not only provide medical benefit or insurance

package, but also offer different activities such as professional counseling in stress or

emotional problem and fitness centre. Thus, employees who gain the benefits from

these policies are more likely to have less personal problem and thereby lead to better

performance and consequently to lower level of turnover intention ( Carolyn &

Cooper, 1994).

As for the other two policies, flextime and family leave policy were found


28

unrelated to job satisfaction. The failure to support this relationship may be due to

some contradictions between what policies organization claim to exist and what

policies employees actually perceive to exist. It could be a problem of communication.

For example, those family friendly policies do exist in the organization, but not

clearly communicate to employees. It could also be the problem of organizational

culture; that means the policies do exist but are not supported by management.

(Chinchilla, N. & Cardona, P., 2003) Aryee et.al. (1998). Prior researches also

revealed that if there is no supportive organization culture, implementing family

friendly policies may not achieve the desired effects (Bown, 1988; Galinsky & Stein,

1990). As the result, the lack of organizational supportive culture may hinder the

positive outcomes of adopting those family friendly policies.

Even flextime policy is provided in some of Hong Kongs organizations. The

purpose of this policy is still not achieved in helping people balance their work and

life due to the long working hours. Base on the research by Community Business

(2006), over 80% of respondents who work overtime because they have too much

work to do. Even flextime is available in the organization; employees generally fail to

enjoy the benefits of this policy. Therefore, flextime policy has no effects on

impacting employees job satisfaction.

Family leave policy seems quite common in Hong Kong, most of the companies


29

provide at least one or two leave policy to employees dealing with family issues.

Compassionate leave is the most common one, but employees somehow not regard it

as benefits. They do not have much idea how this policy contribute to their life.

Besides, another reason was due to the sample size, since the majority of respondents

was single and do not have family responsibility, therefore they have relatively less

use of family leave. As a result, there is no relation between this policy and job

satisfaction.

Finally, company size was found significantly relationship with family friendly

policies, particularly for the five day work week policy. Goodstein (1994) and

Osterman (1995) also revealed that the role of organization size as a factor of

implementing family friendly policies. Generally speaking, big companies can offer

more family friendly policies than the same one because of plenty of resources.

5.2 Practical Implications

The results of this study have practical implications for organization which

interested in implementing family friendly policies in the near future. Given the

literature demonstrated the desirable outcomes associated with job satisfaction and

turnover intention towards to employees. Family friendly policies such as five day

work week and employee assistance programs have a significant impact of


30

employees job satisfaction and turnover intention. The benefits of adopting more

family friendly policies to the business are clear, a health and productive workforce is

crucial for them to compete for the best talents and become a differentiator as an

employer of choice.

Meanwhile, the finding of this study supports the Hong Kong Special

Administrative Region Government keep going to cultivate a family friendly

workplace to Hong Kong employees. It also persuades organizations to take a

proactive role for developing more supportive cultures on the policies implementation.

It is hoped that these results encourage further investigation and applications of family

friendly policies in organizations.

5.3 Study Limitations

As with most survey researches, this study is subjected to several limitations.

First, 12 items family friendly policies were selected from work of Bardoel et. al

(1999) which are mainly used for western countries. It might not exactly reflect the

practical policies implemented in Hong Kong workplace. Second, since family

friendly policies are quite new in Hong Kong, employees might not actually know or

recognize the benefits of these policies in their workplace. Also, definition for each

policy defined was lack in questionnaire might cause different perceptions towards


31

the option provided to respondents. Therefore, it might affect the actual percentage of

the policies availability in organization. Third, convenience sampling and relatively

small sample sized was used in this study. Moreover, due to the cross-sectional nature

of the data collection in this study, drawing causal inferences among constructs

examined may not be appropriate. The collected data were also too limited to

determine the impact of the family friendly policies to the job satisfaction and

turnover intention towards employees. .


32

5.4 Recommendations for future research

This study only gives a general idea of how family friendly policies affect the job

satisfaction and turnover intention in the workplace of Hong Kong. Even different

categories of the whole policies was used for regression analysis, the explanation and

insight are quite limited for support the finding. Therefore, the regression approach is

suggested for further research to determine which category contributes the greatest

extent on the impact on job satisfaction and turnover intention.

As several studies have revealed that the implementation of family friendly

policies does not ensure their actual utilization. Without the supportive company

culture, especially for managers and colleaguess support, the desired outcome of

implementing the policies will be weakened. The creation of family friendly work

culture is one of the most important concerns for future research. It is suggested using

organization support or culture as a mediator on family friendly policies and turnover

intention or other positive outcome such as organizational commitment, employee

retention and reduced related stress.

Apart from that, future research should also examine the barriers to the

utilization of family friendly policies. It can be determined how and why family

friendly policies are utilized and the impact of job-related attitudes and career


33

outcomes.

5.5 Conclusion

This study examined the significant impact of family friendly policies on

employees job satisfaction and turnover intention. Since the family friendly policies

are not very common in Hong Kong workplace. Many employees with little

understanding on the policies and so not recognize it purposes behind. Therefore, the

impact of adopting the policies is not very remarkable.

The finding of this study shows family friendly policies to have a significant

positive relation with job satisfaction and negative relation with turnover intention.

The significant impact of whole family friendly policies to job satisfaction is mainly

from five day work week policy and employee assistance programs. There is no

support for flextime and family leave polices even they are two components of entire

family friendly policies. The finding of this study indicates that the relationship

between family friendly policies and turnover intention were partially mediated by job

satisfaction.

The benefits to the organization for adopting more family friendly policies are

clear, to gain a healthy and productive workforce. The findings of this study support

and encourage more family friendly workplaces in Hong Kong. It serves as reference


34

for organization to propose more effective policies in the future.

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40

APPENDIX A


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Table 1: Descriptive Statistics of Demographics Characteristics (N=112)

Demographic Variable Frequency Percentage Gender

Male 48 42.9% Female 63 56.3%

Age 50 2 1.8%

Education Level Matriculation or below 29 25.9% Diploma/ Associate degree 28 25% Bachelors degree 45 40.2% Master degree or above 10 8.9%

Marital status Single 85 75.9% Married 24 21.4% Divorced 2 1.8%

Presence of dependent children 0 90 81.1% 1 11 9.9% 2 9 8.1% 3 or more 1 0.9%

Job nature Banking / Finance / Insurance 33 29.5% Accounting 13 11.6% Garment 17 15.2% Education 10 8.9% Government 17 15.2% IT / Engineering 13 11.6% Others 9 8%

Tenure < 2 44 39.3% 2-4 23 20.5% 5-7 17 15.2% 8-10 10 8.9% >10 18 16.1%

Company size < 100 29 26.1% 100-200 11 9.9% 201-500 18 16.2% >500 53 47.7%


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Table 2: Items of family friendly policies (N=112)

Items of family friendly policies Percentage Provided Not Provided Five day work week 57.1% 42.9%

Flextime

Flexible scheduling program 32.1% 67.9% Job sharing 19.1% 80.9%

Work at home 8% 92% Part time work 32.1% 67.9%

Average: 22.82% 77.18% Family leave

Shorter work days for family issues 18.8% 81.3% Compassionate leave 57.1% 42.9%

Extended paid maternity leave 33% 67% Paid leave to care for sick family members 19.6% 80.4% Average: 32.13% 67.87%

Employee Assistance Programs(EAPs)

Professional counseling. E.g. family/career 42.9% 57.1% Life skill programs e.g.: stress management 49.1% 50.9% Subsidized exercise or fitness centre 41.1% 58% Average: 44.37% 55.63%

Table 2a (N=112)

Five day work week follow up question Percentage YES NO Q2. Do you support the implementation of five day work week policy in the workplace?

91% 9%

Q2a. If YES, how will you spend your leisure time during weekend? (may choose more than one)

Percentage

Take care of children 8.03% Deal with family issues/ household work 55.4% Continuing education 35.7% Enjoy the personal life 75% Others 4.5%


43

Five day No Five day Mean SD Mean SD t 1) Gender .53 .50 .62 .88 2) Age 2.8 .88 2.06 .43 3) Education level 2.4 1.0 2.1 .85 4) Marital status 1.43 .63 1.06 .24 5) Dependent children 1.4 .75 1.08 .40 6) Job nature 4.9 2.1 4.14 2.06 7) Company size 3.4 .89 2.1 1.33 5.87*** 8) Job satisfaction 3.66 .654 3.16 .667 3.98*** 9) Turnover Intention 2.48 .916 3.27 .855 -4.59***

Reliability Coefficients Turnover Intention Alpha .801 0.90 (Original alpha) N of cases 112 N of items 3

Reliability Coefficients Job Satisfaction Alpha 0.720 0.74 (Original alpha) N of cases 112 N of items 4

Table 4 Alpha Reliability

Notes: *p

Variables Mean S.D. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 141) Gender a .58 .51 2) Age b 2.52 8.28 -.113 3) Education Level c 2.32 .96 -.086 -.0874) Marital status d 1.28 .54 -.091 .684** -.1045) Presence of dependent

children e 1.29

.70

-.013 .598** -.083 .579**

6) Industry 3.36 2.06 -.008 0.17 .046 -.90 -.1937) Tenure g 2.42 1.48 -.121 .733** .006 .518** .438** .0548) Company size h 2.86 1.27 -.071 .286** .312** .191* .107 -.122 .302**9) Five-day work week .57 .49 -.094 .479** .197* .345** .276** -.219* .381** .504** 10) Flextime .23 .23 -.008 .142 -.003 .058 .075 .056 .140 .176 .246**11) Family Leave .38 .29 -.079 .024 .157 -.003 .284** -.291** .009 .155 .084 -.10512) EAP .45 .41 -.101 .251** .062 .080 .242* -.336** .273** .528** .385** .141 .357**13) FFP .37 .20 -.114 .273** .149 .120 .348** -.345** .263** .503** .508** .412** .706** .794** 14) Job Satisfaction 3.45 .75 .040 .247** -.019 .115 .067 .025 .200* .099 .355** .100 .124 .253** .291** 15) Turnover Intention 2.82 .97 .004 -.388** .194* -.245** -.271** .124 -.357** -.212* -.401** -.243* -.238* -.338** -.459** -.511**

44


f. Banking/ Finance/ Insurance= 1; Accounting= 2; Garment = 3; Education = 4; Government= 5; IT/ Engineering =6; Others=7

c. Matriculation or below = 1; Diploma/ Associate degree = 2; Bachelors degree = 3; Master degree or above = 4

Table 5: Means, Standard Deviations and Zero-order Correlations (N=112)

g. < 2 years = 1; 2-4 years = 2; 5-7 years = 3; 8-10 years = 4; >10 years = 5

Notes: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

b. 50 = 5

h. 500=4

e. 0 = 1; 1 = 2; 2 = 3; 3 or more = 4

d. Single= 1; Married = 2; Divorced= 3

a. Male = 0; Female = 1


45

Table 6: Results of Regression Analysis of Family Friendly Policies and Turnover Intention with the mediating effect of Job Satisfaction

Notes: *p


APPENDIX B

46


47

15P

th PFebruary, 2007

Dear Respondent,

URe: Survey of the impact of family friendly policies

I am a final year student majoring in Human Resources Management at Hong Kong Baptist University. This study is a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Business Administration (Hons) Degree offered by Hong Kong Baptist University. The objective of the study is to examine the impact of family friendly policies on employee job satisfaction and turnover intention. Please spend a few minutes to complete the attached questionnaire. Data will be used for academic purpose only. All information collected will be kept strictly UCONFIDENTIAL Uand UANONYMOUSU. Please put the completed questionnaire into the collection box. Thank you for your kind participation. If you have any enquiry, please feel free to contact me at 96654415 or via email: [email protected]. Yours sincerely, _______________ Chan Hak Fun, Peggy Final Year Student BBA Human Resources Management Option Hong Kong Baptist University

U

()

UU

9665 4415 [email protected]

U


48

Family Friendly Policies Questionnaire

PART A Family friendly policies Listed below are the items of family friendly policies. Please indicate your answer by ticking the appropriate box. Five-day work week 1) Has your company implemented the five-day work week policy in workplace?

?

Yes No

1a) If NO, is there any plan that the policy will be implemented in your company within the coming two years? , ?

Yes No Do not know

2) In your opinion, do you support the implementation of five-day work week policy

in the workplace? , ?

Yes, reason:: ___________________________ _ No, reason: : _____________________________________

2a) If YES, how will you spend your leisure time during weekend? , ?

(may tick more than one choice)

Take care of children Deal with family issues/ household work /

Continuing Education Enjoy the personal life (e.g. entertaining or gathering with friends) (: )

Others: _______________


49

Does your company provide the following benefits? ?

Provided Not Provide

3) Family leave a) Shorter work days for family issues

b) Compassionate leave

: () c) Extended paid maternity leave

, d) Paid leave to care for sick family members

4) Employee Assistance Programs(EAPs) a) Professional counseling .e.g. family/ career

(: / )

b) Life skill programs. e.g: stress management (: ) c) Subsidized exercise or fitness centre

5) Flextime a) Flexible scheduling program b) Job sharing (several employees doing the same job) c)Work at home d) Part time work


50

PART B Listed below are statements describing employees job satisfaction towards their career. For each statement, please circle one response to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement. , 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree , 3 = Neutral , 4 = Agree , 5 = Strongly agree Strongly disagree Strongly agree 1) All in all, I am satisfied with my working hour. 1 2 3 4 5 , 2) All in all, I am satisfied with my co-workers. 1 2 3 4 5 , 3) All in all, I am satisfied with my supervisors. 1 2 3 4 5 , 4) All in all, I am satisfied with my pay. 1 2 3 4 5 , PART C Listed below are statements describing employees turnover intention towards their career. For each statement, please circle one response to indicate your level of agreement or disagreement. , 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree , 3 = Neutral , 4 = Agree , 5 = Strongly agree Strongly disagree Strongly agree

1) I think a lot about leaving the organization. 1 2 3 4 5 2) I am actively searching for an alternative to the organization. 1 2 3 4 5 3) As soon as it is possible, I will leave the organization , 1 2 3 4 5


51

PART D Personal Information The information will be used for research purpose only. Please be assured that your personal information will be treated as strictly CONFIDENTIAL. 1) Gender Male Female 2) Age < 20 20-30 31-40 41-50 >50 3) Education level

Matriculation or below Diploma/ Associate degree /

Bachelor degree Master degree or above

4) Marital status Single Married Divorced

5) Presence of dependent children 0 1 2 3 or more

6) Industry Banking/ Finance/ Insurance// Accounting Garment Education Government IT/ Engineering / Others:_______________ 7) Tenure (Year) < 2 2-4 5-7 8-10 >10 8) Company size: number of employees : < 100 100-200 201-500 > 500

--End of Questionnaire-- ----

Thank you for your time and participation.

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