The Relationship Between Work-life Balance Programs and Employee Success

The purpose of this study is to investigate the importance of work-life balance (WLB) programs to employees. Despite several attempts to understand the relationship between WLB programs and employee outcomes, it has been suggested that there should be a more complex understanding of how WLB programs enhance employee outcomes. This study aims to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between the availability of WLB programs and six workplace outcomes: job performance, turnover intention, deviant workplace behavior, affective commitment, fatigue level, and perceived organizational support. Secondly, the study examines whether perceived organizational support mediates the relationship between WLB programs availability and the employee outcomes. Thirdly, the study investigates how employees’ perception of the programs’ value influences these relationships. Finally, the study explores if the results of the study differ between samples taken from the United States (U.S.) and India. A total of 378 employees from the U.S. and India were surveyed for this study. Results from the PLS analysis showed that the availability of WLB programs has a positive relationship with affective commitment and deviant workplace behavior in the U.S. sample. The relation between the programs and deviant workplace behavior was the opposite of what was hypothesized; however, a possible explanation was provided. Since most of the respondents are between the ages of 18 to 35 years old, they are more prone to engage in counterproductive behavior (Lau, Au, and Ho, 2003). WLB programs have a positive relationship with deviant workplace behavior, turnover intention, and fatigue level in the India sample. Such relationships were the opposite of what was hypothesized; however, possible explanations were provided. The results of the study showed that perceived organizational support serves either as a partial or full mediator for all relationships, except for the relation between availability of WLB programs and fatigue level in the India model. The moderating effect of the perception of WLB programs value showed to be non-significant, except for the relationship between the availability of the programs and deviant workplace behavior. By conducting a country comparison, the results showed that there are some significant differences between the U.S. and India