Work-family-life balance : antecedents to poor take up of provisions

Providing employees opportunities to balance their work and family/life spheres is a contemporary business phenomenon, with many organisations developing an extensive range of work-family-life balance programs and initiatives. However, despite such trends, employee take up of provisions has characteristically been poor. But poor take up cannot be considered a problem in itself; it is symptomatic of a much larger problem. The literature is abundant with possible underlying causes. The most frequently cited cause is unsupportive organisational culture, attributed mainly to non-supportive managers, supervisors and or negative views of co-workers. However, the study on which this paper is based found other compelling reasons. Empirical evidence from a survey conducted in a family-friendly organisation found a special relationship among respondents' awareness of, need for, and take up of work-family-life balance provisions. This paper argues that there are two critical antecedents, employees' lack of awareness of, and lack of need for, the provisions offered by the organisation that limit take up. Both these antecedents in turn arise from a larger problem of poor communication and ineffective organisational practices.