Monique Valcour

Across the continuum of satisfaction with work-family balance: Work hours, flexibility-fit, and work-family culture.

This study investigated the association between hours worked per week and satisfaction with work-family balance, using data from a 2007-2008 survey of employees nested within organizations. We tested hypotheses informed by the resource drain and resources-and-demands perspectives using quantile regression. We found that the negative association between hours worked per week and satisfaction with work-family balance was significantly stronger at the 25th percentile, as compared to at the 75th percentile, of satisfaction with work-family balance. Further, there was some evidence that perceived flexibility-fit (i.e., the fit between worker needs and flexible work options available) and supportive work-family culture attenuated the relationship between hours worked and satisfaction with work-family balance. The results suggest that analyses focusing on the average relationship between long work hours (such as those using ordinary least squares regression) and satisfaction with work-family balance may underestimate the importance of long work hours for workers with lower satisfaction levels.

Looking up to regulations, out at peers or down at the bottom line: How institutional logics affect the prevalence of age-related HR practices

Drawing on new institutionalism theory, this study examines the influence of institutional logics, the belief systems that direct decision-makers’ attention to particular sets of issues, on human resource (HR) adaptation to demographic changes. We argue that the prevalence of age-neutral HR management and of age-related HR practices such as age assessment and older worker-targeted practices, are shaped by the strength of the strategic (business case), benchmarking (comparing one’s set of policies with peers’) and compliance (laws and regulations) logics. In a sample of 420 US organizations, a strong strategic logic was associated only with greater prevalence of age-neutral HR management. A strong benchmarking logic was associated with greater prevalence of age-neutral HR management, of age assessment practices, and of older worker-targeted practices. A strong compliance logic was associated with greater prevalence of age-assessment and older worker-targeted practices. This article contributes to research on ageing and extends work on institutional logics by (1) focusing on organizations’ differential enactment of institutional logics, reflecting the contextual embeddedness of HR practices, and (2) showing that the prevalence of age-neutral HR management and of age-related HR practices are associated with competitive as well as institutional isomorphism.