Parental leave and work‐family balance among employed parents following childbirth: An exploratory...

Brough et al.—Parental leave and work-family balance 71

Parental leave and work-family balance among employed parents following childbirth: an exploratory investigation in Australia and New ZealandPaula Brough1

Michael P. o’Driscoll2,*

aManDa Biggs1

1school of PsychologyMt Gravatt Campus Griffith University176 Messines ridge roadMt gravatt Q4111, australia

2Department of Psychologyuniversity of WaikatoPrivate Bag 3105hamilton 3240, new Zealand

*corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract although there has been considerable research internationally on the topic of work-family balance, one area largely overlooked concerns the acute demands experi-enced by employed parents in the period of time following the birth of a child. using an exploratory (qualitative) design, we investigated the perceived effects of parental leave provisions, organisational and family support, and job changes on work-family balance among 81 australian and new Zealand parents who had returned to paid employment after the birth of a child. respondents with no or limited access to paid parental leave perceived an imperative to return quickly to full-time employment. This employment transition was generally perceived as premature and as having adverse personal conse-quences (e.g., personal health, child attachment, and breast-feeding) and organisational consequences (e.g., diminished job commitment and increased turnover intentions). Major determinants of work-family balance emerging in this research were access to paid parental leave, adequate leave duration, organisational support, and emotional reactions to returning to work while caring for an infant. Implications for the continued refinement of work-family policies and support in australia and new Zealand are discussed.

Keywords work-family balance; employed parents; parental leave; role salience; turnover

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, 2009, Vol. 4: 71–871177–083X/09/0401–0071 © The royal society of new Zealand 2009

K08011; Online publication date 12 February 2009 Received 27 June 2008; accepted 28 November 2008

Kōtuitui, 2009, Vol. 472

INTRODUCTION

Throughout the past two decades there has been a growing interest in the interface between work and family roles. Inter-domain conflict, produced from the increased blurring of work and non-work lives, is negatively associated with individual well-being, overall life satisfaction, and job performance (Bellavia & Frone 2005; Ford et al. 2007; o’Driscoll et al. 2007). Many reasons have been suggested for this apparent increase in conflict or interference between work and family life, including the development of more sophisticated and versatile technologies and the increasing competitiveness of the global market place, leading to pressure on workers to perform at higher levels and to work longer hours. It is evident that increased conflict (or interference) between work and family life can lead to reduced satisfaction with both work and family life, lower levels of organisational commitment, and a decline in psychological health and well-being (Brough & o’Driscoll 2005). considerable attention has also been given to strategies and mechanisms for enhancing “balance” between work demands and family commitments (Frone 2003; aryee et al. 2005). From psycho-social, economic, and broader societal perspectives, this has become an increasingly important and relevant topic. employed parents represent a particular group of people who are likely to feel the burden of multiple demands from work and non-work commitments (including family life); work-family balance is an especially salient issue for this group. Due to their commitments in both domains, employed parents are more likely than other individuals to experience conflicting demands and responsibilities and to feel the negative outcomes of these stressors (Brough & Kelling 2002). There is now substantial evidence that having dependent children does provide many benefits but also creates additional burdens, as people endeavour to juggle the pressures and demands on their time and energy (Brough & o’Driscoll 2005; somech & Drach-Zahavy 2007). curiously, however, there have been few investigations of changes in work-life balance following childbirth. one notable exception was an investigation conducted by Feldman et al. (2004), who described the transition to paid employment following the birth of a first child as a critical life juncture for employed parents, as they learn to balance the dual demands of work and child responsibilities. in addition, glass & riley (1998) conducted interviews with employed pregnant women in the United States and identified work turnover amongst 21% of their sample during the 12 months after childbirth. glass & riley demonstrated that turnover intentions were moderated by the utilisation of organisational work-family balance policies, and concluded that “policy interventions designed to reduce labor force intermittency and job changing surrounding childbirth should focus on lengthening childbearing leave and eliminating overtime hours for new mothers” (p. 1426). interestingly, glass & riley also observed that a reduction in work hours to a part-time status was not commonly utilised by their sample, due primarily to the deterioration in status, autonomy, salary, and employment benefits of part-time versus full-time work. With a few exceptions, however, investigations focusing on how work and family demands are managed immediately following childbirth are rare. To augment our understanding of work-life balance among parents, it is imperative to assess their experiences following the birth of a child, as these experiences may be qualitatively different from those experienced when their children are older. While the birth of subsequent children may not generate the same level of challenge as having a first child (partly because parents are then somewhat more experienced in handling the demands associated with a child),


it may still create significant pressures and strain for parents. The current research explored the unique situation experienced by parents in australia and new Zealand. The fundamental aim of our study was to explore the main factors that affected parents when they returned to work following the birth of a child. We anticipated that focusing on individuals at this period of their lives would provide valuable information on their needs and the resources that would help them to achieve work-family balance. in addition, this research addresses a current limitation in existing theoretical models of work-family conflict, which fail to differentiate between the needs of people at different life phases (such as becoming first-time parents), despite previous recommendations to consider the specific, acute situation of employed parents (Gault & Lovell 2006). Our research, therefore, focused on strategies that minimise work-family conflict, especially access to parental leave, organisational support, change of job status or job role, and adjustments in role salience. efforts to enhance work-family balance need to come from both individuals and their employers (o’Driscoll et al. 2003; shockley & allen 2007). it is not only an individual concern: organisations need to recognise that the negative outcomes associated with excessive conflict or interference between work and family life among their employees can affect their productivity (via reduced performance, psychological withdrawal, absenteeism, and turnover). in an effort to combat these problems, as well as to promote an image of being “family-friendly”, many organisations have developed human resource policies aimed at reducing the conflict experienced between work and family demands (e.g., Brough et al. 2008). Taken as a whole, these initiatives can lead to what is sometimes referred to as a “family-friendly work environment” (Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran 2006, p. 556). A wide range of initiatives have been implemented in organisations, such as flexible work hours, telecommuting, compressed work weeks, job sharing, child-care support, and parental leave. among these, the most commonly investigated in research are flexible work practices (especially in respect of work time and place) and child-care support (e.g., Brough & o’Driscoll 2005), although how many of these initiatives directly assist parents in the period following childbirth is seldom specifically investigated.

Parental leave in Australia and New ZealandThe present research focused on work-family balance experiences for employed parents in australia and new Zealand. These countries are geographic neighbours and have similar labour markets; for instance, both countries are currently experiencing relatively high rates of labour force participation. The rate of participation of women in the workforce is virtually identical: in 2006, women comprised 45% of the australian workforce and 46% of the new Zealand workforce. Furthermore, in both countries female workers are over-represented in part-time employment: approximately 35% of female workers and 10% of male workers are employed on a part-time basis (statistics new Zealand 2007; australian Bureau of statistics 2008). Most australian and new Zealand employees have access to statutory unpaid parental leave for the primary caregiver, typically up to 52 weeks duration. in 2002, new Zealand extended its unpaid statutory parental leave policies to implement government-funded paid parental leave. This statutory paid parental leave now covers a period of 14 weeks (for the primary caregiver) and offers weekly financial support. In contrast, australia has no statutory paid parental leave provisions, but instead the australian Federal government provides all parents with a lump sum monetary payment (the “baby bonus”).


While the australian government provides this monetary payment as an incentive to increase national birth-rates, criticisms have arisen because this payment “is not tied to any economic activity such as earning income, or expenditure on childcare or education—it is simply conditional on the birth of a child” (guest 2007, p. 11). The capability for this payment to assist employed parents in managing the acute family and work demands, which commonly occur after childbirth, has not been formally assessed. Despite having no government-sponsored paid parental leave, statistics indicate that paid parental leave of between 1 and 24 weeks duration is offered by some individual australian organisations and is accessible to an estimated 45% of australian female employees or 31% of all (male and female) employees (australian Bureau of statistics 2008). relatively little is known about the experience of work-family balance among employed parents immediately following the birth of a child, especially the effectiveness of various statutory policies (including parental leave). existing research does not identify, for example, the relative contribution of paid parental leave to individual health and parenting outcomes, as well as to levels of job commitment and job performance. Published studies of parental leave have focused predominantly on european countries, such as sweden and norway, where paid parental leave entitlements represent both practical (financial) assistance to support employed parents and a moral obligation for the collective (national) responsibility for raising children (for a review of parental leave entitlements see Brough et al. 2007). however, whether statutory parental leave is actually advantageous in increasing female employment rates is vigorously debated. Boeri et al. (2005), for example, identified the advantages of adequate employment parental leave provisions for national birth-rates, illustrating that in european countries with generous provisions of parental leave and flexible work practices, birth-rates are higher compared to countries with more basic provisions. similarly, stier et al. (2001) analysed data from 12 countries and found that, regardless of the predominant welfare regime, patterns of continuous employment were more prevalent in countries that implemented supportive policies and practices for working mothers. in contrast, multi-national research comparing levels of work-family balance reported only small differences (or none at all) in levels of work-family conflict across countries that have different statutory paid parental leave policies (e.g., spector et al. 2007). This inconsistency could be due to a number of methodological issues and confounding factors, such as the inclusion of parents at different life junctures. From the above, it is evident that further exploration of the potential benefits of family supportive policies is warranted. One aim of the present study was to assess, in an exploratory manner, whether parental leave policies yielded positive outcomes for parents returning to work after the birth of a child. in addition, we examined organisational support for parents, the effects of job and career changes, and the salience of both work and non-work roles. The relevance of these issues is discussed next.

Organisational supportWhen investigating the impact of parental leave policies on employment consequences, such as work-family balance, it is essential to establish whether access to parental leave and duration of parental leave are influenced by other factors, such as support from the employing organisation. in addition, it is likely that the perceived supportiveness of the workplace culture, at both the organisational and work group level, will influence the return to work transition for employed parents. For example, lyness et al. (1999) found that pregnant women who perceived the


workplace culture to be supportive of work and family roles reported greater organisational commitment and intended to return to work sooner after the birth of a child, compared to women who perceived their workplace culture to be unsupportive of family demands. other studies have found that women who felt that their organisations were genuinely supportive of them reported feeling highly validated, both as employees and mothers (Milward 2006), and were more likely to return to work after the birth of their child (houston & Marks 2003). similarly, a swedish study by haas et al. (2002) concluded that organisational culture (e.g., support from top management, equal opportunities) and work-group support significantly influenced fathers’ decisions to take paternal leave and the duration of this leave. Behson (2004) demonstrated that informal organisational supports (e.g., supervisor support) were more important in the prediction of employee outcomes (job satisfaction, occupational stress, and turnover intentions) than formal organisational support (e.g., family-friendly policies). in australia, Thompson et al. (2006) noted that immediate supervisors can act as “gatekeepers”, controlling access to family-friendly organisational policies. Thompson et al. demonstrated that, regardless of the actual formal organisational work-family balance policy in existence, the “family-friendliness” of immediate supervisors influenced access to such policies. In view of the above findings, the current research explored whether Australian and new Zealand parents perceived their organisation to be supportive of them, along with the perceived benefits of such support.

Job change and career disruptionschanges in job role, status, and hours, and the impact of a career break, are immediate concerns for employed parents after childbirth. houston & Marks (2003) noted that 42% of (female) respondents in their sample returned to a different and lower-status job after the birth of their child, primarily via a move to part-time work. similarly, Whitehouse et al. (2006) reported that 68% of mothers working full-time prior to the birth of their child worked part-time after the birth. Whitehouse et al. also noted that those mothers who experienced a change in their employment status were more likely to report declining career opportunities. The issue here of course is whether this change of employment is a voluntary and informed choice by these workers. Clearly, changes in job roles and career pathways have a significant impact; hence, in this study, we investigated the extent that job roles changed following childbirth.

Role saliencechanges in the importance of work and non-work roles occur over time due to individual professional development opportunities and different life events (Brough et al. 2007). although this seems intuitively to be correct, until recently most researchers have investigated role salience as if it were a static construct. however, critical life junctures, such as the birth of a child, typically require changes in role salience that may be markedly different from other life events. The implications of these variations for accessing work-life balance employment policies are now only beginning to be recognised. in a qualitative investigation of the transition from employment to motherhood, Milward (2006) identified three key points at which role salience transformations typically occurred: (1) prior to the birth, as the organisation focused on replacing the employee during parental leave, resulting in the employee feeling undervalued and uncertain about their future in the organisation; (2) during parental leave, when the participant’s role identity as a parent increased,


and they reported greater concerns and anxiety about returning to work, as well as conflict between wanting to stay at home, returning to work, and adhering to the image of a “good mother”; and (3) during the return-to-work period, participants reported facing challenges in juggling their identities as worker and parent. Specifically, they had to cope with guilt about leaving their children at home, new roles at work (due to job changes), and lack of genuine organisational support (e.g., some reported feeling that they were on probation and had to prove themselves as committed workers all over again). Feldman et al. (2004) also found that role salience was significantly associated with the duration of parental leave and work adaptation for both mothers and fathers. These studies illustrate the unique challenges experienced by parents following childbirth, but investigations focusing on the experiences of parents after childbirth, and the ways in which they manage work-life balance, are rare, especially in new Zealand and australia. The purpose of the current investigation, therefore, was to examine the experiences of australian and new Zealand parents who returned to paid employment after the birth of a child. Specifically, we investigated parents’ perceptions of whether statutory paid parental leave relieves the acute demands of this critical life juncture and the subsequent consequences on the parent’s employment. as noted earlier, provisions for leave differ markedly between the two countries; specifically, New Zealand has government-sponsored paid parental leave, whereas australia does not. comparison of the experiences of parents in australia and new Zealand would therefore provide valuable information on how this leave may affect parents, including their work hours, work role, changes in role salience, and perceptions of work-family balance.

METHOD

SampleThe research sample consisted of 41 new Zealand and 40 australian parents who had returned to work within 1 year of the birth of their child. research participants were recruited via two methods: first, via calls for volunteers placed at local childcare facilities in two metropolitan areas of new Zealand and australia and, second, opportunity sampling was utilised in which research participants were recruited via social networks and personal contacts. To meet the inclusion criteria, parents were required to have returned to work with the same employer within 12 months of the birth of their child. Participation in the research was voluntary and confidential. The australian sample consisted of more female respondents (n = 26; 65%) than male respondents (n = 14; 35%). Participants’ ages ranged from 25 to 40 years, with an average age of 32 years. all respondents had a partner or spouse. The average age of the child was 9 months at the time of sampling. Just over one-half of the respondents utilised formal childcare arrangements (n = 23; 58%). almost three-quarters of the female respondents were employed part-time (n = 18; 69%); in contrast, approximately three-quarters of male respondents were employed full-time (n = 10; 71%). Three australian respondents were second-time parents. Three-quarters of the new Zealand respondents were female (n = 31; 76%) and all but one participant had a partner or spouse. The new Zealand respondents were more diverse in age (19–40 years), with an average age of 30 years. approximately one-half of the respondents were first time parents (n = 22, 54%) and the remaining 19 respondents had two children.


at the time of sampling the average age of the (new) child was 9 months. nearly three-quarters of the new Zealand respondents utilised formal childcare arrangements (n = 29; 71%). Most female respondents were employed part-time (n = 19; 61%) and all male respondents were employed full-time. respondents in both australia and new Zealand were employed in a wide diversity of occupations, including health (e.g., nursing, dental therapy), education (e.g., university lecturer, school teacher), a variety of service occupations (e.g., customer service, retail, hairdressing), administration, and management roles.

Interview procedure and questionsData were collected via semi-structured interviews (face-to-face or via telephone) at a time and place convenient to the participants. The interviews were approximately 50 minutes in duration. Each interview consisted of a series of semi-structured questions organised under five key topics or areas: Demographics (e.g., age and salary); Work characteristics (e.g., type of work and parental leave provisions); Resource checklist (e.g., use of childcare and assistance with household chores); Returning to work after childbirth (e.g., choice over your return to work hours, likelihood of maintaining current employment); and Consequences (e.g., effects of job change; changes to role salience; organisational support; and perceptions of current satisfaction, health, and parenting). These areas were selected to tap into the core variables outlined earlier as being central to this investigation.

Data analysisall interviews were recorded and then transcribed verbatim. each transcription was checked for accuracy by a second independent researcher. content analysis was conducted to identify categories based initially on the five topics listed above, with subcategories then identified via iterative thematic analysis (i.e., the outcome of each step in the analysis determined the subsequent steps; Bachiochi & Weiner 2002; collis & hussey 2003). The resulting thematic categories and subcategories were coded by frequency of occurrence. To ensure reliability of coding, an additional independent researcher also analysed and coded the transcribed data and this coding was compared with the original. No major differences in coding were identified. Minor differences were discussed and resolved between the researchers. Frequencies of responses in each subcategory were used to (1) identify common themes emerging from the data and (2) conduct statistical analyses of differences between groups (e.g., gender, country, parental experience) and outcomes (e.g., access to parental leave, duration of parental leave, reasons for returning to work, job changes after return-to-work).

RESULTS

Access to and duration of parental leaveThe australian and new Zealand participants in this study reported a marked difference in the availability of paid parental leave, and these differences were significant by country (χ2 = 21.60, p < 0.001). More australian (n = 22; 56%) than new Zealand respondents (n = 3; 7%) reported taking either no leave or unpaid leave from work following childbirth. Specifically, nearly all of the New Zealand mothers (n = 28; 90%) had access to some form of paid maternity leave, compared to only one-half of the australian mothers (n = 13; 50%).


similarly, all male new Zealand participants (n = 10; 100%) reported accessing some form of paid leave following childbirth, compared to just 36% (n = 5) of australian fathers. one-third (n = 4; 29%) of australian fathers reported taking no leave at all following childbirth. in respect of the duration of parental leave, differences by country were also evident in the data. all the new Zealand mothers had leave from work for at least 3 months, while two australian mothers (8%) reported leave of 4 weeks or less. all the new Zealand fathers had leave of 4 weeks or less, while for the australian fathers who did have some leave, the majority (80%; n = 8) had leave of 4 weeks or less. one australian father reported taking leave of 3 months and one father took leave of 6 months. Three themes concerning access to parental leave were identified from the qualitative data and these themes reinforced the descriptive results: (1) the disparity between the new Zealand and Australian respondents in accessing paid parental leave; (2) difficulties in accessing paternal leave for fathers; and (3) negative consequences arising from the duration of paid parental leave. First, the new Zealand respondents considered the government paid parental leave policy to be useful in reducing work-family conflict. This was especially apparent for the new Zealand parents who had received paid parental leave for one of their children only:

i took parental leave but it wasn’t long enough. i took the maximum that you can take which is 3 months paid leave by the government. But with my first child there wasn’t any, there wasn’t any benefit whatsoever so that was really hard. It makes it easier with a little bit coming in. (new Zealand female respondent)It’s been easier because of the paid parental leave. Because when we had [first child] that wasn’t available. So definitely financially it’s been easier. (New Zealand male respondent)

Acknowledging the benefits of having government-supported paid parental leave was a consistent theme that emerged amongst the new Zealand participants. in contrast, as was expected, many of the Australian respondents reported difficulties in accessing paid parental leave. The main reasons for the lack of formal parental leave were either no organisational provisions or insufficient job tenure to be eligible for parental leave:

With the first child I had been with the company for 10 years and I took maternity leave. Unfortunately, that was before the [paid] maternity leave policy had come in, so I didn’t get any [paid] maternity leave. With the second company I had only been there maybe 6 months and so i had been with them for too short a time to get paid maternity leave.Researcher: so you have had two children and no paid maternity leave?Respondent: no paid leave at all. (australian female respondent)When [partner] was pregnant, she had not been [working] there long enough to receive any of their conditions. [Partner] had to leave the job she was in and we were on just one income. since she could not get any sort of leave she basically said “see you later”. (australian male respondent)

second, the majority of fathers from both countries reported a lack of access to paternal leave. Where they were able to, most fathers took leave from work as either paid recreational leave and/or unpaid sick leave. The duration of this leave varied from a few days to a few weeks. in some cases fathers were discouraged from taking any leave at all. This discouragement was experienced via inadequate communications about leave entitlements, not being paid correctly, or via an unsupportive work culture:


[My partner] had 1 week off when [child] was born and they were not impressed at that, not at all. he took that week as annual leave and they actually did not pay him for the last day that week he had off. They were nasty about it. They were like “what does your wife need help for?” no, he just wanted to see the baby. (australian female respondent)My supervisor told me a few weeks after [child] was born that I could have taken a few days carers leave. But he didn’t tell me at the time. (australian male respondent)

Third, the negative consequences of limited parental leave upon levels of individual health, child attachment, and parenting were reported by respondents from both countries. The inability to access an adequate amount of parental leave was also reported as contributing to reduced job commitment and increased turnover intentions:

I’m not as involved [with parenting] as I would like because I didn’t have enough time when [child] was born to be around and bond with her. It’s been difficult, I feel detached from the situation. That’s 5 days a week when i see my child for 30 minutes a day at the most. i’m thinking “i’m missing this, i know that i am missing this and i am not going to get this time again”, and i have no choice, clear and simple, there’s nothing i can do. (australian male respondent)i will probably stay here for a little longer but i am looking at moving. You can put up with their attitudes for so long but then you have to look after yourself. Their philosophy to work and family is quite poor.Researcher: Before childbirth how much were you satisfied with work?Respondent: VeryResearcher: after childbirth?Respondent: not at all. (australian female respondent)

These quotations from the interviews emphasise that although paid parental leave is valued by those who have access to this form of support, a number of issues are outstanding, such as the impact of the duration of leave, lack of genuine organisational support, and difficulties for fathers to access parental leave.

Reasons for returning to paid employmentThree main reasons were provided by the respondents for returning to paid employment: (1) financial concerns (identified by 70% of respondents); (2) salience of the work role to the participant’s identity (21%); and (3) continuation of career (e.g., fear of adverse consequences to career development; 9%). neither the respondent’s country nor parental experience significantly influenced the reason for their return to work. Significant differences were identified for gender in that female participants were more likely to cite salience of the work role and career continuation as reasons for the return to work (χ2 = 6.04, p < 0.01). The following quotation reflects the concerns about finances that compelled 70% of the respondents to return to paid employment:

going back to work has just given us a little bit extra; we were managing but only just. it just makes it a bit more comfortable, a bit more manageable. i do enjoy it when i work; it’s a break from being at home with the kids. (new Zealand female respondent)

The salience of the work role to their own self-identify was identified (by 21% of participants) as another major reason for returning to work. Many of these (all female) respondents also expressed the frustration they experienced at being a full-time home-based carer:


it was important to me and to my identity to continue to be who i was before having my baby. It was a big part of how I identified myself and I was not ready to let go of that. The drive for me was so strong i did not let the domestic churn override it, i was not going to let it beat me. (australian female respondent)i found that i did and did not want to go back… i found going back to work empowering and it was good for my confidence. When you are home 5 days a week in your four walls you lose a bit of your self-confidence. I wanted to keep my computer skills, I wanted to not just change nappies everyday. (australian female respondent)

For the 9% of respondents returning to work for career reasons, most identified a long-term break from work (to look after children) as being detrimental to their skills and career progression:

i felt like i’m at a point in my career that if i got off the roundabout it would be hard for me. i was at a point in the queue and i knew my boss would go in some time and i was the heir apparent and that i needed to keep my stake in that. it was 15 years of career investment. it’s a long-term aim that i have had and you need to keep in there, to keep that on track. (australian female respondent)

Challenges with returning to paid employmentThe qualitative data demonstrated that the return to paid employment was an emotive issue for many respondents. Most respondents (n = 69; 85%) expressed concerns about this transition process. These concerns were both practical (e.g., ability to continue breast-feeding their child) and psychological (e.g., separation anxiety). Two core themes emerged from this data: (1) perceived negative impact on the relationship with their child; and (2) pressure from employers to return to work sooner than was formally agreed:

The impact of going back to work was scary. i was crying for months beforehand, i worked it up in my mind that it would be bad, almost the equivalent of putting [child] into a dog kennel all day. i was breast-feeding but since i have been back to work she will not take it, it is heartbreaking. i have cried a few tears over that. sometimes i feel like i am just another carer and not the mummy. (australian female respondent)That transition [to work] was hard. There was a part of me that wanted to go back to work and do other things but there was still that maternal instinct that did not want to leave him [in childcare]. I didn’t think I would be like that. When I left work I had very clear plans about when i would come back, i didn’t think i would have a problem because I liked my job. That changed after I went through the process and had [child]. (australian female respondent)i was still also doing committee work and stuff on email at home, actually most of the time I was on leave. I didn’t mind it at first. Then my boss started sending me proper work. When they start sending you proper work and you’re on maternity leave that started to give me the shits. (australian female respondent)

The comments above illustrate that returning to work was an emotive issue for the participants. They also suggest that the adverse impact of having no access to paid parental leave or having paid parental leave that is insufficient in duration may be exacerbated by a perceived lack of organisational support.


Returning to different job rolesin terms of the descriptive data, approximately one-half of the participants reported returning to different work conditions, with significantly more females (60%) experiencing job changes compared to the male respondents (25%, χ2 = 6.79; p < 0.01). In addition, significantly more first-time parents (60%) than experienced parents (23%) also reported job changes (χ2 = 7.18; p < 0 .01). The most frequently reported job change was a return to the same job role but with different work hours, typically a change from full-time to part-time employment. a second theme was a change in actual job role, to an easier job and/or a job role of lower status. For the majority of respondents these job changes were at their own request, although some respondents identified a lack of choice in accepting a reduced role or even a demotion. Many respondents reported experiencing unexpected negative implications of these job changes, most commonly in terms of negative reactions from work colleagues and managers. These changes had a direct negative influence on the respondent’s levels of job aspirations and job commitment and were in many instances directly related to turnover intentions:

One of the reasons I did not get it [job promotion] was that I am now part-time … it made me feel a little undervalued and overlooked. The person who [got the promotion] is someone who was my subordinate who i have trained from day one and supervised and is now my boss. That has decreased my job satisfaction. (australian female respondent)The way i’ve been delegated to a non-existent role has been really surprising. Particularly since i talked to the state manager expressing my concern that i would get treated in this way, and she assured me that it would never happen and that my commitment and value to the organisation was too high for them to treat me that way. i don’t have that attachment to the organisation like i used to. i used to work so hard and do so much over-time and this is what i get. (australian female respondent)some of the people i work with were a little negative to me coming back for only 3 days a week. But that only seems to be the older ladies. i thought that they would be more sympathetic because they would have had to go through the same thing when they went back to work. (australian female respondent)

other respondents were more positive about their job changes, especially those respondents who enjoyed the multiple roles of (part-time) employment and childcare. For these respondents, returning to work in a part-time capacity provided a break from childcare responsibilities, and this break was perceived as being beneficial to both the parent and the child:

This is my ideal, 3 days work a week. The balance i have with 1-day childcare is good, it is not much of a burden financially and he is benefiting from it. It is much healthier for me to have that break from [child]; I need that for my own well-being. (Australian female respondent)

Work-family balanceThe most commonly reported type of conflict or interference between work and family responsibilities was time-based conflict (experienced by 67% of the respondents), followed by strain-based conflict (35%). That is, participants were more likely to feel that the time commitments from their job and their family conflicted with each other than to feel that strain from one role (e.g., the job) spilled over into the other domain (e.g., the family). no statistically significant differences were identified when comparing levels of work-family conflict


experienced across gender, country, leave duration, or parental experience. one common theme identified in the data was the endurance of an imbalance between work and family life, even for those participants with access to work-family balance policies. The pertinent question with regards to both individual health outcomes and organisational performance is how long can such an imbalance be endured for?

it’s bad, but i thought it would be this bad. i would say that the balance is not good and i knew that it would not be good because it’s the systematic job that i am in. i know the leave that i am entitled to, i know when i can take it. i know the organisation my wife is in, she’s not permanent yet and she is not entitled to leave. There are all these organisational conditions that you have to wait for and you can’t accelerate them. in the meantime, your child is just getting older. There is no space to create time. it’s essentially time. (australian male respondent)

DISCUSSION

A primary aim of the current research was to identify the specific challenges confronted by parents on returning to paid employment after the birth of a child. Through the adoption of a qualitative research design, a number of issues impacting on the transition back into the workforce were identified for both male and female employees. These issues primarily concerned access to paid parental leave, adequate duration of leave, organisational support through the transition process, role salience, and the emotive process of returning to work while caring for an infant. The inclusion of both male and female employees in this study extended previous research, which has focused predominantly on mothers only.

Parental leaveComparing responses from the two countries, it was apparent that significantly more New Zealand (92%) than australian parents (45%) had access to paid parental leave (as was expected). access to the “baby bonus” payment by australian parents appeared to have no direct influence on either the taking of (unpaid) leave from work or the duration of this leave (supporting previously noted concerns with the usefulness of this baby bonus; e.g., guest 2007). in contrast, the statutory parental leave provision experienced by all new Zealand parents was directly identified as assisting with this critical life juncture. The New Zealand respondents acknowledged that this form of financial assistance was beneficial and appreciated this formal recognition of the parenting role. The descriptive results produced by the current research are similar to other reported statistics concerning parental leave in australia. For example, in a survey of 3573 australian employed parents, Whitehouse et al. (2007) reported that 34% of mothers (20% of fathers) accessed paid parental leave, 65% of mothers (15% of fathers) accessed leave with no pay, and 27% of mothers (25% of fathers) took no leave at all after having had a child. Respondents accessing little or no paid parental leave returned to work significantly earlier (within 3 months of childbirth) compared to individuals accessing paid parental leave. Financial pressure was the primary reason for the return to work, as was expected. however, this transition to paid employment was perceived as being premature by many respondents, who also reported adverse consequences of both a personal nature (e.g., personal health, child attachment, and breast-feeding) and an organisational nature (e.g., diminished job


satisfaction and job commitment). Discussions concerning the optimum length of parental leave to effectively meet both parenting and employment demands have occurred elsewhere. hyde et al. (1996), for example, demonstrated that relatively short periods of maternity leave (6 weeks or less) were risk factors for depression amongst new mothers. short periods of maternity leave were also associated with negative maternal-infant interactions and with a greater occurrence of physical health problems for mothers (with implications for the usage of employment sick leave). More recently, Feldman et al. (2004) recommended that maternity leave of at least 12 weeks provides a buffering effect against adverse physical and psychological outcomes for parents. The advantages produced by adequate parental leave provisions have been described as including organisational benefits such as attracting and retaining staff with dependants, enhancing the health and well-being of these workers (to ultimately enhance levels of attendance and performance), and societal benefits such as contributing to a shared social responsibility for child-raising (e.g., Brough et al. 2007). respondents from both new Zealand and australia were critical of the amount of paternal leave available to fathers. Some fathers also experienced difficulties in accessing recreational leave in lieu of paternal leave. observations concerning a poor attachment between fathers and their child were made by some respondents in regard to a perceived inadequate duration of paternal leave. some respondents also acknowledged that this situation produced increased pressure on the mother to be the primary caregiver during this time. The benefits of an adequate period of parental leave have been recognised by a number of countries within their statutory regulations. sweden, for example, allows 96 weeks parental leave (78 weeks paid at 80% of salary) shared between both parents. norway provides 52 weeks parental leave at 80% of salary (or 42 weeks at 100% of salary) for employed new parents. The united Kingdom provides support for 26 weeks paid parental leave and 26 weeks of unpaid leave, including 2 weeks of paid paternal leave (o’Driscoll et al. 2007). some organisations within new Zealand and australia do recognise the advantages of providing support to parents (especially in regards to attracting and retaining employees) and have parental leave provisions comparable to the cited european examples (although typically with greater access to unpaid rather than paid parental leave). For example, one australian insurance company estimated in 2003 that their family-friendly employment program has accrued benefits of AUD$12 million, primarily via increased staff retention (o’Driscoll et al. 2007). however, 55% of the australian respondents within the current research reported no access to paid parental leave, which suggests that placing parental leave provisions at an organisation’s discretion appears to benefit only a small proportion of the labour force.

Role salienceThe importance of specific roles to an individual at different life stages and the recognition that role salience can change over time have recently been acknowledged to influence individual estimations of work-family balance (e.g., Biggs & Brough 2005; Kalliath & Brough 2008). The impact of childbirth, especially for first-time parents, is recognised as a critical life juncture, potentially changing perceptions of role salience (Feldman et al. 2004). some participants in the current research did identify this change in role salience, although the return to paid employment was also important for some respondents’ perceptions of themselves as a worker and economic provider. individuals who had invested in their career via training, or who had established themselves in the labour market, returned to paid employment to maintain their


skills and status. other respondents returned to work for the intellectual stimulation and as a welcome alternative to full-time childcare. One implication of these findings is that having multiple roles (e.g., both job and family/parenting roles) can generate significant benefits for individuals. however, a key issue is the extent to which individual parents can exert control, especially over their work role and hours of work. This was identified as an important influence in the perceptions of both role salience and work-family balance. in keeping with other research on control and work-family balance (see, e.g., Thompson & Prottas 2006; Valcour 2007), individuals with little control over their return to work (especially the return to full-time employment) expressed the most difficulties in balancing work and family demands. respondents who encountered unexpected negative experiences in their return to paid employment (such as contract and pay issues, missing promotions, lack of collegial support, and being “side-lined” in valueless job roles) were more likely to express an intention to move to a more “family-friendly” employment environment. These results support previous observations on the importance of role salience for work-family balance outcomes. noor (2004), for example, demonstrated that role salience has both a direct and interactive (moderating) influence upon well-being, such that individuals with high levels of job salience experienced more work-family imbalance and greater levels of psychological distress.

The role of the organisationA second major implication of the current findings is that employing organisations can have a substantial influence on whether a parent’s return to work following childbirth is a successful and satisfactory experience or one which is stressful and fraught with problems, for both the individual and the organisation. organisations that wish to retain employees can reap the benefits of providing favourable employment choices and supportive work cultures. For instance, siu (2006) reported that organisations adopting work-family policies cited such benefits as reduced employee turnover, increased productivity, decreased absenteeism, reduced employee burnout and stress, and increased female employment rates. While the benefits gained by organisations in the provision of work-family policies have been discussed for over a decade, the current research clearly demonstrated that some of these organisations still have limited work-family balance policies (primarily in terms of parental leave provisions) and/or limited employee access to these policies, especially in australia. With the current economic climate producing labour shortages (especially of skilled workers), it is strongly recommended that organisations reconsider their human resource policies and support for parents. however, it needs to be recognised that simply offering these policies may be insufficient, by itself, to create a climate which facilitates work-family balance for parents. The culture of the organisation also needs to be supportive of work-family balance. For instance, o’Driscoll et al. (2003) found that the existence of organisational “family-friendly” policies was not directly related to reduced work-family conflict in a New Zealand study. rather, when managers and the organisation as a whole were viewed as being understanding and supportive of employees’ needs, individuals experienced not only less con-flict between their work and family life, but also greater commitment to their organisation and higher levels of job satisfaction. From these findings and those of the current study, it is evident that employing organisations play a significant role in facilitating or hindering work-family balance for their employees, and that a perception that the organisation is supportive is critical for the enhancement of balance between work commitments and family responsibilities.


CONCLUSIONS

a potential limitation of qualitative research is the inclusion of small samples and the degree to which the results are, therefore, generalisable. The current study attempted to address this issue by employing an identical recruitment method in each of the two countries, by recruiting a fairly large sample (for qualitative investigations), and by the use of semi-structured interview questions. however, we acknowledge that subsequent research with a larger sample employing a quantitative research design would provide confirmation of the representativeness of the results reported here. The present research explored the impact of access to, and duration of, paid parental leave, with a view to initiating discussions of this provision in new Zealand and australia and other countries with similar parental leave policies. The findings highlighted some of the acute family demands experienced by employed parents and the implications of providing adequate paid parental leave provisions. Our findings also illustrate the advantages of government intervention in (paid) parental leave provisions, including the accessibility of paid parental leave to all parents and less pressure experienced by parents to return to full-time employment promptly after childbirth. We suggest that organisations seeking to retain (and recruit) valuable employees need to tailor their work-family balance policies and interventions to better acknowledge acute periods of need. Finally, this research identified the issue that, for many employees who are also parents, satisfactory participation in the workforce is substantially dependent upon having adequate private resources to minimise parenting demands or else being employed by an organisation with comprehensive and accessible work-family balance policies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We acknowledge the assistance of elizabeth Kendall, Philippa lawson, annie levine, alison Milner, heather niven, emma nolan, and rachel Tyrrell for their assistance with data collection and/or reviewing a draft of this manuscript. We also wish to thank two anonymous Kotuitui reviewers for their constructive suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. Portions of this manuscript were presented to the 7th australian Psychological society industrial and organisational conference, adelaide, australia (June 2007).

REFERENCES

aryee s, srinivas es, Tan hh 2005. rhythms of life: antecedents and outcomes of work-family balance in employed parents. Journal of applied Psychology 90(1): 132–146.

australian Bureau of statistics 2008. australian labour market statistics (aBs catalogue no. 6105.0). acT, australian Bureau of statistics.

Bachiochi PD, Weiner sP 2002. Qualitative data collection and analysis. in: rogelberg sg ed. handbook of research methods in industrial and organizational psychology. Malden, Ma, Blackwell Publish-ing. Pp. 161–183.

Behson sJ 2004. The relative contribution of formal and informal organizational work-family support. Journal of Vocational Behavior 66: 487–500.

Bellavia GM, Frone MR 2005. Work-family conflict. In: Barling J, Kelloway EK, Frone MR ed. Hand-book of work stress. Thousand oaks, ca, sage Publications. Pp. 113–148.

Biggs A, Brough P 2005. Investigating the moderating influences of gender upon role salience and work-family conflict. Equal Opportunities International 24(2): 30–41.


Boeri T, Del Boca D, Pissarides c 2005. Women at work: an economic perspective. oxford, uK, oxford university Press.

Brough P, Kelling A 2002. Women, work and well-being: an analysis of the work-family conflict. New Zealand Journal of Psychology 31(1): 29–38.

Brough P, O’Driscoll MP 2005. Work-family conflict and stress. In: Antoniou AS, Cooper CL ed. Research companion to organizational health psychology. cheltenham, uK, edward elgar. Pp. 346–364.

Brough P, O’Driscoll MP, Kalliath T 2007. Work-family conflict and facilitation: achieving work-family balance. in: glendon i, Myors B, Thompson B ed. advances in organisational psychology: an asia-Pacific perspective. Sydney, Australian Academic Press. Pp. 73–92.

Brough P, Holt J, Bauld R, Biggs A, Ryan C 2008. The ability of work-life balance policies to influence key social/organisational issues. Asian-Pacific Journal of Human Resources 46: 261–274.

collis J, hussey r 2003. Business research. Basingstoke, hampshire, Palgrave MacMillan.Feldman r, sussman al, Zigler e 2004. Parental leave and work adaptation at the transition to parent-

hood: individual, marital, and social correlates. Journal of applied Developmental Psychology 25: 459–479.

Ford MT, Heinen BA, Langkamer KL 2007. Work and family satisfaction and conflict: a meta-analysis of cross-domain relations. Journal of applied Psychology 92(1): 57–80.

Frone Mr 2003. Work-family balance. in: Quick Jc, Tetrick le ed. handbook of occupational health psychology. Washington, Dc, american Psychological association. Pp. 143–162.

Gault B, Lovell V 2006. The costs and benefits of policies to advance work/life integration. American Behavioral scientist 49(9): 1152–1164.

glass Jl, riley l 1998. Family responsive policies and employee retention following childbirth. social Forces 76(4): 1401–1435.

guest r 2007. The baby bonus: a dubious policy initiative. Policy 23(1): 11–16.haas l, allard K, hwang P 2002. The impact of organizational culture on men’s use of parental leave

in sweden. community, Work & Family 5: 319–342.houston DM, Marks g 2003. The role of planning and workplace support in returning to work after

maternity leave. British Journal of industrial relations 41: 197–214.hyde J, essex MJ, clark r, Klein Mh, Byrd Je 1996. Parental leave: policy and research. Journal of

social issues 52(3): 91–109.Kalliath T, Brough P 2008. Work-life balance: a review of the meaning of the balance construct. Journal

of Management and organization 14(3): 323–327.lyness Ks, Thompson ca, Francesco a, Judiesch MK 1999. Work and pregnancy: individual and

organizational factors influencing organizational commitment, timing of maternity leave, and return to work. sex roles 41: 485–508.

Mesmer-Magnus JR, Viswesvaran C 2006. How family-friendly work environments affect work/family conflict: a meta-analytic examination. Journal of Labor Research 26(4): 555–574.

Milward lJ 2006. The transition to motherhood in an organizational context: an interpretive phenomenological analysis. Journal of occupational and organizational Psychology 79: 315–333.

Noor NM 2004. Work-family conflict, work- and family-role salience, and women’s well-being. The Journal of social Psychology 144(4): 389–405.

o’Driscoll MP, Poelmans s, spector Pe, Kalliath T, allen TD, cooper cl, and others 2003. Family-responsive interventions, perceived organizational and supervisor support, work-family conflict and psychological strain. international Journal of stress Management 10(4): 326–344.

o’Driscoll MP, Brough P, Biggs a 2007. Work-family balance: concepts, implications and interventions. in: houdmont J, Mcintyre s ed. occupational health psychology: european perspectives on research, education and practice. castelo da Maia, Portugal, isMai Publishers. Pp. 193–217.

Shockley KM, Allen TD 2007. When flexibility helps: another look at the availability of flexible work arrangements and work-family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior 71(3): 479–493.

siu ol 2006. summary report on family-friendly employment policies and practices. hong Kong, lingnan university.


Somech A, Drach-Zahavy A 2007. Strategies for coping with work-family conflict: the distinctive relationships of gender role ideology. Journal of occupational health Psychology 12(1): 1–19.

spector Pe, allen TD, Poelmans sa, lapierre l, cooper cl, o’Driscoll MP, and others 2007. cross-national differences in relationships of work demands, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions with work-family conflict. Personnel Psychology 60(4): 805–835.

statistics new Zealand 2007. labour market statistics, 2006. http://www.stats.govt.nz/nr/rdonlyres/Fc56B1a7-Fe92-4F78-a05c-0FD95943778c/0/labourMarketstatisticsfinalpdfversion.pdf [accessed 3 April 2007].

stier h, lewin-epstein n, Braun M 2001. Welfare regimes, family-supportive policies, and women’s employment among the life-course. american Journal of sociology 106: 1731–1760.

Thompson ca, Prottas DJ 2006. relationships among organizational family support, job autonomy, perceived control, and employee well-being. Journal of occupational health Psychology 11(1): 100–118.

Thompson BM, Brough P, schmidt h 2006. supervisor and subordinate work-family values: does similarity make a difference? international Journal of stress Management 13(1): 45–63.

Valcour M 2007. Work-based resources as moderators of the relationship between work hours and sat-isfaction with work-family balance. Journal of applied Psychology 92(6): 1512–1523.

Whitehouse g, Baird M, Diamond c, hosking a 2006. The Parental leave in australia survey: november 2006 report. http://www.uq.edu.au/polsis/parental-leave/level11-report.pdf [accessed 3 April 2007].

Whitehouse g, Baird M, Diamond c, soloff c 2007. Parental leave in australia: beyond the statistical gap. Journal of industrial relations 49(1): 103–112.

Parental leave and work‐family balance among employed parents following childbirth: An exploratory...

Documents

Transcript of Parental leave and work‐family balance among employed parents following childbirth: An exploratory...