The Work-Family Interface of Service Sector Workers:A Comparison of Work Resources and Professional Status across Five European Countries

The present paper examines cross-national differences in the utilisation of work-family resources at the organisational level and the relationships between these resources and work-to-home interference (WHI) and satisfaction with work-family balance (SWFB) among professional and non-professional service sector employees in five Western European countries. Further, it explores cross-national variations in the gap between professionals and non-professionals with respect to both outcome variables. Professional service sector employees were consistently found to experience higher levels of WHI and lower levels of SWFB. The use of organisational work-family resources differed across welfare state regimes and levels of national gender equality. It was highest in Sweden and the Netherlands and lowest in Portugal. A family-supportive supervisor and a family-supportive organisational culture differentially affected WHI of professional and non-professional workers, with a family-supportive supervisor being more beneficial to non-professionals and a family-supportive organisational culture being more beneficial to professional employees. Finally, the gap between professionals and non-professionals was also found to vary across countries for WHI but not for SWFB. It was significantly larger in the UK and in Sweden than in the other three countries.