Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Interventions for Women's Health Issues
The Buffering Effects of a Supportive Organizational Culture on Work-Family Conflict
Yu-Ying Lu, PhD1, Ruth Elder, PhD2, Mary Courtney, PhD2, and Meeiling Gau, PhD3. (1) Department of Nursing, National Taipei College of Nursing, Taipei, Taiwan, (2) School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, (3) Department of Nursing, National Taipei College of Nursing, Taipei, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: understand the appliciation of family-friendly policies in Taiwanese public universities
Learning Objective #2: understand the importance of supportive organizational culture on working women's work-family conflict and well-being
In Taiwan, the increased participation of women in paid work has potentially created significant conflict for them as they strive to balance their work and family roles. Work-family conflict has been shown to have adverse effects on women’s health, as well as negative consequences for the workplace. Research in western countries shows that a supportive organizational culture can eliminate negative effects. However, there is a paucity of research on the quality of work cultures in Taiwan. This research used a cross-sectional methodology to explore the effects of organizational culture on work-family conflict and women’s well-being. Four hundred and forty one female academic and general staff employees of three public universities in Taipei Taiwan were surveyed about the availability of, and their access to, a range of family friendly policies as well as their perception about the supportiveness of organizations. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, bivariate tests, inferential statistics, and multivariate tests. The results showed that female employees in the three public universities perceived a moderate to highly supportive organizational culture. A supportive organizational culture was significantly negatively correlated with work-family conflict and positively correlated with women’s well-being. Women who perceived their organization as supportive experienced less work-family conflict, higher job and family satisfaction, less perceived stress and physical symptoms. A highly supportive organizational culture acts as a buffering factor, helping to eliminate or reduce work-family conflict and indirectly improving working women’s life satisfaction and well-being. The results provided strong evidence to inform organizational cultural changes in assisting employees to reach better work and family life balance. 

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