Work–life balance: promises made and promises kept

Abstract

We present evidence on the association between the management practices conventionally identified with high performance workplaces (HPWs) and measures of work–life balance. Our framework identifies those practices associated with workers reporting that their employer makes work–life balance commitments, and separately identifies those practices associated with workers reporting that their employer keeps the commitments they make. Our results do not support a role for HPWs in either the making or the keeping of work–life balance commitments. Rather, they suggest that where workers are interdependent – as in team production – the resulting inflexibility of time scheduling drives down work–life balance commitments.