Organizations’ Support for Achieving Work-Family Balance: Evidence from a Scoping Review
Abstract
The present scoping review summarizes recent research from the perspective of what businesses can do to support the work-family balance of their employees. We conducted a scoping review based on the PRISMA-ScR protocol using three databases (Web of Science, JSTOR, and Scielo.org), with the keywords “work-family balance”, “work-life balance”, “family-friendly”, “family policies”, and “family-supportive”. The search returned 4,357 articles. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, a final sample of 57 publications was analyzed. Most articles used quantitative (93%, n = 53) and cross-sectional (77%, n = 44) methodologies, with primary data (52%, n = 29). Studies were mostly conducted in European countries (49%, n = 28), the USA (19%, n = 11), and South Korea (9%, n = 5). The conclusions drawn from these findings point towards a future work scenario in which inclusive businesses have a low workload, shorter working hours and high levels of family-supportive behaviors from supervisors and top management, all of them consolidated in a family-supportive organizational culture.
Keywords: work-family balance, work-life balance, family-friendly, family-supportive.
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