工作—家庭平衡的企业制度安排

Institutional Arrangements of Work—Family Balance in Chinese Enterprises

工作已经通过网络渗入家庭,员工面临严重的工作—家庭冲突,影响组织绩效和生活质量。工作—家庭平衡作为企业家庭伦理理论的核心问题已成为制度设计的中心问题。对工作—家庭平衡制度安排的理论与实证研究发现,工作—家庭平衡还没有成为政府、企业和员工的共享信念,制度设计失去社会价值观基础;弹性工作制是有效的正式企业制度;家庭照顾福利是无效的正式企业制度;经理须持之以恒支持员工平衡工作—家庭需要、控制因享用工作—家庭平衡福利而带来的负面职业生涯后果。两者是有效的非正式制度安排。据此提出的政策建议是:政府要在全社会倡导、培育以工作—家庭平衡为核心的企业家庭伦理管理哲学、提供家庭照顾福利作为公共制度供给;企业进行系统的组织文化改造;员工培育照顾家庭的应得权利感。

Work and family balance is a central concern for institution makers and researchers in a teleworking era. The serious job-related outcomes of work-family conflict justify the urgency to design institutions to balance work and family demands and reduce the conflicts so as to improve organizational performance and quality life of employees. Balance institutions as the core of business family ethic theory are theoretically designed and empirically analyzed. The qualitative study finds that a shared belief on work and family balance is absent among government, management, and employees. The empirical study tests the direct and indirect effect of two formal and two informal rules of work-family balance. Systematic institutional arrangements are put forth as follows： a shared belief on work-family balance should be developed throughout the society to serve as a base for formal rules; government should provide dependent care benefits as a public institutional supply; enterprises should adopt schedule flexibility as an effective formal rule; managers should control negative career consequences due to utilization of formal rules and support their employees constantly and consistently to balance work and family needs. These two important informal rules should be fully developed in corporate culture. Accordingly, this research puts forth policy suggestions for Chinese government, enterprises and individuals.