Gender in Management: An International Journal

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of family support, co-worker support, supervisor support, work-life balance policies (WLBPs), work-family culture and job characteristics, as the predictors of work-to-family (WFE) and family-to-work (FWE) enrichment. In addition, it explored whether such effects were gender specific by examining the moderating effect of gender.

Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from a sample of 485 managers in India. Analysis was done using multiple regressions.

Findings – Analyses revealed that family support, co-worker support, supervisor support, WLBPs, work-family culture and job characteristics predicted WFE while family support and job characteristics predicted FWE. Little moderating influence of gender was found. Gender moderated the relationship between WLBPs and WFE such that the relationship between the two was stronger for women as compared to men. Similarly, gender moderated the link between job characteristics and WFE such that the relationship between the two was stronger for men than women.

Research limitations/implications – The cross-sectional design of the study constrains inferring conclusions regarding causality.

Practical implications – WLBPs have to be offered to women executives and organizations do have to make jobs more enriching in order to increase the level of WFE among women and men, respectively.

Originality/value – The construct work-family enrichment examined in this paper reflects an understanding of work-family interface from a newer lens in a novel socio-cultural context and demonstrates the moderating role of gender.