Organizational Commitment and Constraints on Work-Family Policy Use: Corporate Flexibility Policies in a Global Firm

Abstract

Academics, policy makers, and human resource professionals advocate flexibility policies as a way to help employees balance work and family and to promote a more committed workforce for employers. This mutually beneficial scenario assumes that employees are interested in work-family policies and perceive themselves as being able to use them. We examine these issues among managers and professionals in a global, high-commitment firm. Our analysis of individual-level and work group–level factors that contribute to workers' feeling constrained from using a corporation's generous official flexibility policies reveals that those with the heaviest job demands and least supportive work groups are most likely to feel unable to use these policies. Further, this sense of constraint is associated with lower organizational commitment. These findings suggest contradictions in the high-commitment model of employment as it has been applied to managers and professionals in the rapidly changing, competitive financial services industry.