The Effects of Family-Friendly Policies on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

• DOI: 10.1177/0091026016689669
• Author: Kwang Bin Bae,Gigeun Yang
• Date: 01 March 2017
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026016689669

Public Personnel Management

2017, Vol. 46(1) 25 –40

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026016689669

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Article

The Effects of Family-Friendly

Policies on Job Satisfaction

and Organizational

Commitment: A Panel Study

Conducted on South Korea’s

Public Institutions

Kwang Bin Bae1 and Gigeun Yang2

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze the effects of family-friendly policies on job

satisfaction and organizational commitment. Using the Korean Labor & Income Panel

Study (KLIPS) from 2006 to 2013, this study finds significant positive relationships

between the number of family-friendly policies and both job satisfaction and

organizational commitment. More specifically, receiving maternity leave and child care

leave benefits is positively associated with job satisfaction, whereas child care subsidy

does not show a significant effect on job satisfaction. Furthermore, organizational

commitment has a positive relationship with child care leave, maternity leave, and

child care subsidy.

Keywords

family-friendly policies, job satisfaction, organizational commitment

Introduction

Over the past decade, the composition of the global labor force has experienced

drastic changes, developing into a heterogeneous workforce (Chin, Lee, Lee, Son,

& Sung, 2012; Riccucci, 2002). In particular, the proportion of women participat-

ing in both U.S. and South Korea’s labor pool continues to grow steadily since the

2000s (Ali, Kulik, & Metz, 2011). In the United States, for example, female labor

1North Carolina Central University, Durham, USA

2Wonkwang University, Iksan, Jeonbuk, Korea

Corresponding Author:

Gigeun Yang, Wonkwang University, 460 Iksandae-ro, Iksan, Jeonbuk 54538, Korea.

Email: withgg@wku.ac.kr

689669PPMXXX10.1177/0091026016689669Public Personnel ManagementBae and Yang

research-article2017

26 Public Personnel Management 46(1)

participation has increased drastically from one third of the working population in

1960 to more than 50% in the 2010s (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Likewise, female

participation in Korea’s workforce has increased from 37.2% in 1965 to 50% in

2012 (Statistics Korea, 2013). Accordingly, organizations have begun to discuss the

imperative need to support female employees by encouraging work-family balance,

which is related to outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment,

and turnover rate (Beauregard & Henry, 2009; Huang, Lawler, & Lei, 2007). Under

these circumstances, governments and firms now adopt various family-friendly

policies such as maternity leave, child care leave, and child care subsidy to better

address social demands.

In line with these changes, scholarly interest is now given in seeking the effects of

family-friendly policies on work motivation, such as job satisfaction and organiza-

tional commitment (Caillier, 2012, 2013; Clifton & Shepard, 2004; Saltzstein, Ting, &

Saltzstein, 2001). Findings on the relationships between family-friendly policies and

work motivation are controversial. While some studies find a negative relationship

between family-friendly policies and motivation (Saltzstein et al., 2001), others find a

positive relationship (Caillier, 2012, 2013; Saltzstein et al., 2001). Most of these stud-

ies examine the effects of family-friendly policies using cross-sectional data (Clifton

& Shepard, 2004; J. Kim & Wiggins, 2011; Lee & Hong, 2011; Saltzstein et al., 2001).

To date, there are few studies that analyze the effects of family-friendly policies using

longitudinal data (Bae & Goodman, 2014; Caillier, 2016).

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether family-friendly policies such as

child care leave, maternity leave, and child care subsidies have positive relationships

with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The contribution of this

research on previous literature on family-friendly policies is twofold. First, this study

explores the causal relationship between family-friendly policies and work motiva-

tion by using longitudinal data from 2006 to 2013. Whereas previous research looks

into the effects of family-friendly policies on work motivation, few studies investi-

gate the relationship using panel data. Bae and Goodman (2014) and Caillier (2016),

for instance, explore the effects of the number of family-friendly policies on organi-

zational performance and turnover rate using organizational-level panel data. This

study builds on previous research by looking into the impact of various family-

friendly policies on job satisfaction and organizational commitment based on panel

data at the individual level. Furthermore, few studies, until now, examine the differ-

ent effects of the official adoption and actual eligibility of telework programs (Bae &

Kim, 2016; Caillier, 2013). In most cases, previous literature does not consider

whether employees are actually entitled to receive the officially adopted family-

friendly policies in the workplace. Therefore, we examine beyond the existence of

family-friendly policies adopted by organizations and instead investigate the effects

of these policies based on eligibility for employees. This study aims to supplement

previous research by examining the effects of employees’ eligibility of family-

friendly policies on job satisfaction and organizational commitment.