Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification...

34
Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification of access to work-life policies Published as: Ariane Ollier-Malaterre & Cláudia Andrade (2015): Not for everyone: intraorganisational divides and the stratification of access to worklife policies, Community, Work & Family, DOI: 10.1080/13668803.2015.1089840 Link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2015.1089840 Abstract Prior research documented a number of factors pertaining to employees or the organization's culture that can prevent employees from accessing employer-driven work-life policies (WLP). Our study focuses on factors originating in the jobs themselves. We conducted 98 in-depth employee interviews in two multinational companies based in Europe and led feedback sessions with HR executives. Three mechanisms explained the observed stratification of access to WLP across jobs: (1) the intra-organisational digital divide prevented “less digital” employees from collecting information about WLP on the intranet and thus impaired awareness of the policies; (2) the divide in worksite size prevented employees on smaller worksites from accessing childcare centres, sports or health facilities; and (3) the divide in job types restricted access to WLP for specific occupations. The stratification of access to WLP was not strategically driven by human resources; rather the divides were largely unintentional. Our study uncovers inequalities of access originating in the jobs themselves and provides a theoretical integration of the various sets of factors that may promote or hinder employee awareness of WLP. Our findings suggest that organisations should strive to identify these inequalities and to provide ways to cope for these, for instance by offering other forms of support. Keywords: Work-life; Work-family; Awareness; Organisational stratification; Social stratification; Organisational justice; Human resources management; Digital divide

Transcript of Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification...

Page 1: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification of

access to work-life policies

Published as: Ariane Ollier-Malaterre & Cláudia Andrade (2015): Not for everyone:

intraorganisational divides and the stratification of access to work–life policies,

Community, Work & Family, DOI: 10.1080/13668803.2015.1089840

Link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2015.1089840

Abstract

Prior research documented a number of factors pertaining to employees or the organization's

culture that can prevent employees from accessing employer-driven work-life policies (WLP).

Our study focuses on factors originating in the jobs themselves. We conducted 98 in-depth

employee interviews in two multinational companies based in Europe and led feedback sessions

with HR executives. Three mechanisms explained the observed stratification of access to WLP

across jobs: (1) the intra-organisational digital divide prevented “less digital” employees from

collecting information about WLP on the intranet and thus impaired awareness of the policies; (2)

the divide in worksite size prevented employees on smaller worksites from accessing childcare

centres, sports or health facilities; and (3) the divide in job types restricted access to WLP for

specific occupations. The stratification of access to WLP was not strategically driven by human

resources; rather the divides were largely unintentional. Our study uncovers inequalities of access

originating in the jobs themselves and provides a theoretical integration of the various sets of

factors that may promote or hinder employee awareness of WLP. Our findings suggest that

organisations should strive to identify these inequalities and to provide ways to cope for these, for

instance by offering other forms of support.

Keywords: Work-life; Work-family; Awareness; Organisational stratification; Social

stratification; Organisational justice; Human resources management; Digital divide

Page 2: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

2/34

Résumé : De nombreux facteurs, propres aux salariés comme aux cultures organisationnelles,

peuvent empêcher les salariés d'accéder aux pratiques d'harmonisation travail - hors-travail

développées par les employeurs. Cette étude porte sur les facteurs propres aux postes de travail.

Sur la base de 98 entretiens approfondis avec des salariés de deux multinationales basées en

Europe, et de sessions de retour d'information avec les directions des ressources humaines, nous

avons identifié trois mécanismes qui expliquent la stratification de l'accès aux pratiques

d'harmonisation travail - hors-travail en fonction des postes de travail : (1) la fracture numérique

intra-organisationnelle empêchait les salariés "moins numériques" de recueillir l'information sur

les pratiques sur l'intranet et réduisait ainsi la connaissance qu'ils avaient des pratiques; (2) la

fracture en termes de tailles de site privait les salariés travaillant sur des petits sites d'accéder aux

crèches, centres sportifs et cliniques d'entreprise, et (3) la fracture en termes de type de postes

restreignait l'accès à certaines pratiques pour les salariés de certains postes. Cette stratification

n'était pas guidée par la stratégie de ressources humaines de ces multinationales; elle était au

contraire tout-à-fait involontaire. Cette recherche dévoile des inégalités d'accès aux pratiques

d'harmonisation travail - hors-travail ayant pour origine les postes de travail eux-mêmes, et

propose une intégration théorique des différents types de facteurs qui peuvent encourager ou

restreindre la connaissance et l'accès à ces pratiques. Nos résultats suggèrent que les

organisations devraient s'efforcer d'identifier ces inégalités au sein de leur population salariée et

de fournir des compensations aux salaries pénalisés, par exemple en proposant d'autres formes de

soutien à l'articulation entre vie professionnelle et vie personnelle.

Mots clés: Vie professionnelle-vie personnelle; Travail-famille; Connaissance; Stratification

organisationnelle; Justice organisationnelle; Gestion des ressources humaines; Fracture

numérique

Page 3: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

3/34

Given increasing demands made on employees both in the work and non-work domains

(Greenhaus & Kossek, 2014; Lewis, Rapoport & Gambles, 2003), a growing number of

employers are providing work-life policies as part of their human resources (HR) standard

practices. Work-life policies (WLP) typically include flexible working arrangements, employee

assistance programmes and other resources pertaining to childcare, elderly care, health and

personal development. Organisations develop WLP to offset their employees’ strain and work-

family conflict (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux & Brinley, 2005; Kelly, Kossek, Hammer,

Durham, Bray, Chermack, Murphy, & Kaskubar, 2008) and to increase employee commitment,

satisfaction and performance as well as decrease absenteeism and turnover intention (Kelly et al.,

2008; Butts, Casper, & Yang, 2013).

However, reviews consistently report implementation gaps reducing employees’ access to

WLP and therefore their effectiveness (Allen, 2001; Kelly et al., 2008; Kossek, Lewis &

Hammer, 2010) and social justice (Özbilgin, Beauregard, Tatli, & Bell, 2011). Access to a policy

refers to the ability to use it, and is thus different from utilization to the extent that some

employees may have access to a policy and choose not to use it. Research points to discrepancies

between formal HR policies on the one hand and employee awareness of and access to them on

the other hand (Eaton, 2003; Ryan & Kossek, 2008; Kossek, Baltes, & Mathews, 2011). In

addition, inequalities of access amongst categories of employees have been identified, such that

low-level, blue-collar and part-time employees have lesser access to work-life policies than do

professionals and managers and full-time employees (Golden 2001; Swanberg, Pitt-Catsouphes,

& Drescher-Burke, 2005; Haley-Lock, 2009).

Given that actual access to work-life policies, not formal availability of the policies,

matters for organisational performance, employee well-being and social justice (Baltes, Kossek &

Matthews, 2011; Lewis et al., 2003), it is crucial for scholars and practitioners to understand what

Page 4: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

4/34

causes such implementation gaps. Organisational stratification, an approach rooted in the

functional theory of social stratification (Davis & Moore, 1945), focuses on explanations for how

employers allocate opportunities within and across work settings (Lambert & Haley-Lock, 2004).

It further sheds light on how formal HR policies and informal day-to-day practices distribute

opportunities for work-life balance (WLB) across jobs, levels and workers (Lambert & Haley-

Lock, 2004; Lambert & Waxman, 2005). Most research to date has focused either on social

stratification mechanisms stemming from socio-demographic factors such as gender or race

(Golden, 2001; Grady & McCarthy, 2008), from employment-related factors such as employment

status or organisational tenure (Golden, 2001; Lambert & Haley-Lock, 2004) or from lack of

cultural support within the organization (Allen, 2001; Hammer, Kossek, Anger, Bodner, &

Zimmerman, 2011; Thompson, Beauvais & Lyness, 1999). We contend however that factors

related to jobs themselves (e.g. job type, job location) may cause implementation gaps and

inequities, and there is to our knowledge very little theory or empirical research on this.

We therefore investigated employee awareness and access to WLP within two

multinationals that provided broad sets of benefits. Based on 98 semi-directed interviews with

employees of two pharmaceutical multinationals in the US, the UK and Portugal, we investigated

the following research questions: (1) to what extent are employees aware of WLP and to what

extent do they access them? (2) what organisational stratification mechanisms may reduce

employee awareness of and access to WLP and (3) what are the outcomes of stratified awareness

of and access to WLP in terms of organisational performance and social justice?

On the one hand, organisational stratification theory explains inequalities of access to

WLP based on socio-demographic factors such as employees' age or gender, race or social class

(Golden, 2001) and on employment-related factors, in particular the level of the job (e.g.

employees in entry-level and low wage or hourly jobs may have less access), employment status

Page 5: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

5/34

(e.g. part-time employees may have less access) and tenure in the organization (Lambert &

Haley-Lock 2004; Haley-Lock, 2009; Swanberg et al., 2005). On the other hand, work-life

research has identified cultural factors that promote or hinder employee's ability to use WLP,

notably the family-friendliness of the organisational culture (Allen, 2001; Andreassi &

Thompson, 2008; Thompson et al., 1999), of its supervisors (Hammer, Neal, Newsom,

Brockwood, & Colton, 2005; Hammer et al., 2011) and its workgroups (Korabik & Warner,

2012).

This research extends and integrates organisational stratification theory (Lambert &

Haley-Lock, 2004; Lambert & Waxman, 2005) and work-life research by identifying a fourth set

of factors that may promote or hinder employees' awareness of and access to WLP. This fourth

set relates to the jobs themselves, i.e. the characteristics of jobs that create inequalities of

awareness and access. We identify three job-related factors that create intra-organisational

divides regarding awareness of and access to WLP. The most important of these divides is the

intra-organisational digital divide which impairs awareness of the policies: the identification of

this divide is a novel contribution of this paper. The two other divides are the worksite size and

the job type divides, for which there is very limited prior empirical evidence (Baruch, 2000;

Golden, 2001; Kossek, 1989; Swanberg et al., 2005) that this research helps to consolidate and

situate at the theoretical level. In so doing, our research contributes to work-family research by

shedding light on structural factors residing in job categories as an important source of

implementation gaps and social inequities, whilst prior research had mainly focused on socio-

demographics factors, employment-related factors and cultural factors as the main obstacles. This

research has important implications for strategic human resource management since inequalities

can seriously undermine the efficiency of HR practices, and for organisational justice, since

inequalities can undermine employee well-being and perceptions of fairness.

Page 6: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

6/34

LITERATURE REVIEW

The functional theory of social stratification (Davis & Moore, 1945; Kingsley, 1942)

contends that no society is classless and aims at explaining what factors lead to the varieties of

social inequality that can be observed. It argues that stratification is functional in a society, to the

extent that placing individuals in social positions that differ in terms of prestige motivates them

to perform the duties of their position (Davis & Moore, 1945). Thus, successful competition

between positions of differing ranks is not desirable (Davis & Moore, 1945). Stratification is thus

argued to be functional for the allocation of particular individuals to religious and governmental

roles, as well as for the distribution of wealth, property, and labor (Davis & Moore, 1945).

This theoretical angle was recently chosen to analyze how organisations structure access

to benefits for their employees, which has been termed an organisational stratification of access

to benefits (Lambert & Haley-Lock 2004; Haley-Lock, 2009). Lambert and colleagues’ work

investigates organisational rewards offered to attract and retain employees, such as access to

health and pension benefits and to career opportunities. This stream of research showed that

rewards are not distributed equally amongst employees, but rather they are stratified and this

stratification may be functional for organisations. The main stratification mechanisms are formal

HR policies, such as waiting periods for benefits or reduced access for part-timers, and informal

day-to-day practices, such as scheduling techniques that generate under-worked and over-worked

categories of employees (Lambert & Haley-Lock 2004; Haley-Lock, 2009). In particular,

employees in low-level jobs benefit less from health insurance or tuition reimbursement than

higher-level employees in the same organisation (Lambert & Haley-Lock, 2004; Lambert &

Waxman, 2005).

In this paper we argue that the organisational stratification framework may shed light on

access to WLP for two reasons: (1) inequalities of access have been documented and (2) these

Page 7: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

7/34

inequalities might be driven by the business-case rationale that WLP should be to attract talent

and increase employee commitment, satisfaction and performance (Butts et al., 2012; Kelly et al.

2008, Galinsky et al., 2008). Although equal opportunities legislation aims at ensuring that

employers offer the same level of benefits to all employees (Tomlinson, 2006), some

stratification mechanisms can be hypothesized drawing on prior findings in the work-life

literature. For instance, Kossek (1989) observed how childcare centres and gym facilities tend to

be mostly offered on large worksites. In addition, job type also matters: some jobs, typically

white-collar jobs, offer greater autonomy than others to schedule training activities or choose

daily start and end times (Swanberg at al., 2005); some shifts schedules make accessing WLP

possible while others do not (Golden, 2001; Swanberg at al., 2005); some jobs can be performed

at a distance provided that adequate information technology is set up, while others cannot

because they require a presence on site (Baruch, 2000). Likewise, some jobs, such as jobs in

which the pace of work of predictable and in which there is limited client facing activities, may

be construed by managers as being more conducive to working a reduced load than other jobs

where full-time involvement is expected (Kossek, Ollier-Malaterre, Lee, Pichler, & Hall, 2015).

Thus, the size of the worksite where employees work as well as the type of job that they hold are

two likely workplace-related stratification mechanisms of employee awareness of and access to

WLP.

However, we question whether these stratification processes are functional for

organisations, as social stratification theory applied at the organisational level would predict.

According to the business case rationale, the stratification of access to work-life policies should

be strategically driven by HR to improve organisational performance. However, prior research

pointed out that low levels of employee awareness could be observed despite an organisation’s or

government’s will to enable employees to benefit from them (Ryan & Kossek, 2008; Ollier-

Page 8: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

8/34

Malaterre, 2010). This suggests that pragmatic differences across categories of jobs within an

organisation, rather than an intentional targeting of WLP to certain jobs, could be driving the

stratification processes. In light of the lack of evidence regarding how and why access to work-

life policies is stratified, we chose a qualitative approach to better understand the stratification

mechanisms at play.

METHOD

Context. Data were gathered in two leading multinational pharmaceutical companies based in

Europe. This industry was chosen because it has been a pioneer for WLP since the mid-1980s. To

comply with confidentiality agreements signed with the companies, we will call them Pharm1

and Pharm2. Pharm1 employs around 100,000 and Pharm2 around 90,000 people globally.

Both companies provide extensive WLP to full-time employees with no explicitly

identified restrictions related to categories of employees or jobs. At Pharm1, WLP were

introduced in the late 1990s and have been coordinated by a full-time work-life officer. They

include flexible working arrangements (subjected to managerial approval), family and personal

leave, employee assistance programmes (EAP), on-site day-care centres and other dependent care

resources, tuition assistance and employees’ support groups. These policies, owned by HR

managers, include grievance processes. Except for the legal and regulatory contexts that give rise

to differences across countries (notably regarding leave), these WLP are potentially available to

all employees. Pharm1 has been distinguished for these policies, winning awards for their health

and wellness employee self-assessments, on-site preventative actions, and “Lunch & Learn”

seminars. Pharm2 has since 1996 provided a broad range of WLP such as flexitime, telework,

extended parental leave, paid leave at short notice, and financial support for family or educational

needs. Pharm2 has been placed among the top companies in its business segment, according to

Fortune Magazine, in the “World’s Most Admired Companies” ranking.

Page 9: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

9/34

Sample and data collection. We chose a qualitative approach (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007)

due to the paucity of research on job-related sources of unequal access to WLP, compared with

the existing body of work on socio-demographic, employment related and cultural factors. We

targeted large multinationals to analyse the intra-organisational stratification occurring amongst

categories of jobs, and sampled employees purposefully so that they held different jobs and

reflected different workplace characteristics. We focused on full-time employees to eliminate

inequities stemming from part-time status.

Access to Pharm1 was gained in 2006. The first author contacted the company and gained

key HR executives’ trust by agreeing to analyse an employee survey. She was then invited to

conduct seven site visits and given full access to corporate documentation and the intranet. She

personally conducted 73 in-depth semi-structured interviews with employees in the UK and the

US which were the two most important countries in terms of employees and revenues. She

recruited employees in the UK after attending WLB workshops as a non-participant observer, and

through a letter circulated by HR in the US. She purposefully attended workshops in order to

sample employees from the four main business units - R&D, manufacturing, sales and support

functions (specifically, human resources, IT support, customer service and finance). Interviewees

worked in nine different locations and were all full-time employees, either salaried or hourly.

Table 1 summarises the characteristics of the sample.

== Insert Table 1 about here ==

Access to Pharm2 was gained in September 2010 to take part in a research project focused

on WLB in sales teams. The second author contacted the company’s HR department to gain

access to sales team leaders, who briefed their teams about the research project and got their

employees’ agreement to be interviewed. A convenience sample of twenty-five employees

agreed to take part in the research. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted over five

Page 10: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

10/34

months with sales employees and sales team leaders from diverse areas of Portugal. Interviewees

worked in eight different locations and were all full-time salaried employees. The interviews took

place after sales team meetings, with HR managers providing logistical assistance to organise

them. For both sets of interviews at Pharm 1 and Pharm 2, participants were informed that the

confidentiality of the interviews was guaranteed and that only aggregated results would be shared

with HR. Interviewees granted permission to be audiotaped and signed an informed consent in

accordance with the ethical rules of the authors' institutions at the time of the research. The

interviews were then transcribed verbatim.

Although research at Pharm1 and Pharm2 was conducted separately, both sets of

interviews had the same objective of investigating employees' awareness of and access to WLP,

so that the broad prompts of the interview protocols were in fact very close. At Pharm1, the first

author started the interviews by asking general questions about interviewees’ positions and what

they liked or disliked at work. Then she asked: “Would you say you have a good knowledge of

work-life programmes and benefits?” and noted which policies they spontaneously mentioned

and in which order. She asked for details and examples of awareness and access, with questions

such as "How do you collect information about work-life policies", “Which ones in particular do

you know?”, “Can you explain to me how [policy] works?”, “Which ones are you accessing, how

often, and since when?” or “Why are you not accessing them”? The interviews lasted an average

of 36 minutes and were fully transcribed into a total of 602 single-spaced pages.

At Pharm2, the second author used similar questions, namely “Does your company have

WLB policies?”, "How do you know about them?", “Can you name some of your company’s

WLB policies?”, “Which ones do you access?” and "Are there some policies you cannot access

and why"? The interviews lasted an average of 30 minutes. Interviews were recorded and fully

transcribed into a total of 95 single-spaced pages.

Page 11: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

11/34

In order to assess to what extent HR at Pharm1 and Pharm2 were aware of the low and

unequal awareness of and access to WLP, we presented our findings at both companies in the

form of Powerpoint presentations to panels of HR officers and executives. Although we were not

able to record their questions and observations, we took detailed notes during and after these

presentations to keep track of their feedback and reactions. We draw on these field notes to report

HR informants' reactions to our analyses as well as the explanations they proposed for the low

and unequal awareness of and access to WLP.

Content analysis. We wrote a memo right after each interview to keep track of the main themes

that surfaced in the interview and of our thoughts as they progressed from interview to interview,

in observance of Eisenhardt's “24 hours rule” which recommends to write interview memos right

within 24 hours of the interview (1989, p. 547). When the interviews were transcribed, we first

assessed employees’ awareness of and access to WLP by listing which policies interviewees had

mentioned. While this research is qualitative and we do not wish to make oval pegs seem round

by analyzing them in a quantitative way (Pratt, 2007), we reasoned that we needed to first

establish whether or not and to that degree employees in our sample experienced the low

awareness and access to WLP that has typically been lamented in prior research. Therefore we

also analyzed the depth and accuracy of employee awareness (programme names, conditions for

access, and provisions), and listed which policies employees accessed to.

To understand how employees became aware of WLP and what job-related factors could

possibly hinder their awareness of WLP and access to WLP, we read the transcripts line by line.

We used open coding to generate the first-order categories stemming from the informants (Gioia,

Corley & Hamilton, 2013; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). At this stage we had to sort through the

categories and focus our analysis for several reasons. First, some informants mentioned personal

factors, such as the fact that they were parents or had experienced health issues, to explain why

Page 12: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

12/34

they were aware of some policies such as childcare centers and health prevention initiatives. We

did not however have sufficient information regarding personal factors because Pharm1 had

formally requested us to not ask personal questions and therefore we were not able to prompt

respondents in that regard. We thus decided to focus on work-related factors.

Then we used our knowledge of the literature to classify and reduce the categories that we

had retained, in an axial coding approach, to generate our own second-order categories (Gioia,

Corley & Hamilton, 2013; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). It is in this second step that the concept of

the digital divide emerged as a new and important factor explaining inequalities of access.

Finally, we compared and contrasted the second-order categories and based on theoretical

proximity collapsed them into the three categories that we present in the following section: the

intra-organisational digital divide, the worksite size divide and the job type divide. We did not

need to hire an independent coder as we had reached agreement at this stage. To understand the

linkages between the three stratifications mechanisms and employees’ awareness of and access to

WLP, we applied Miles and Huberman's (1994) recommendation to first code interviews on the

horizontal level to understand the patterns and underlying logic of each interview separately, then

on the vertical level to compare and contrast sub-groups of the sample (employees working in the

headquarters versus smaller sites; employees working in manufacturing versus sales, and so

forth).

FINDINGS

In this section, we will first report our findings regarding awareness of and access to

WLP. Then, we will analyse the organisational stratification mechanisms that explain the limited

awareness of WLP as well as the inequalities of access to WLP. Lastly, we will analyse the

outcomes of organisational stratification on the efficiency of HR practices and on organisational

justice.

Page 13: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

13/34

Awareness of and access to WLP. In both companies, employee awareness of WLP was even

lower than what we expected given prior reports of implementation gaps of WLP. Fifty-three per

cent of Pharm1 and 57% of Pharm2 interviewees could cite only one or two policies, most often

the heavily advertised EAPs. Some were completely unaware of employer-driven WLP.

Although most employees mentioned the EAPs, they could not cite any precise service provided

by the programme, and asked questions such as “Does this include legal counselling?” or “Where

can I find a list of time management training?” Some stumbled upon the actual name of the

programme, and others asserted that a specific programme was not available to them, when in

fact it was.

Access was also relatively low as well: 41% and 39% of Pharm 1 and Pharm 2 employees

had never accessed any WLP. However, employees who did access WLP mentioned several

policies. At Pharm1, the most cited policies pertained to health, wellness and sports, followed by

psychological counselling, mostly for personal matters (depression, stress, marital issues,

children and elderly parents), then flexibility of start and end times and occasional telework. At

Pharm2, employees were most aware of flexitime, EAPs, sabbatical leave and telework. The most

accessed policies were flexitime, EAPs, preventive health programmes, sports club and

educational financial aid. Although a large part of the sales job is done through telework (e.g.

meetings with physicians, writing up of sales reports, and online meetings), sales employees still

identified telework as a WLP.

HR informants' explanations for the low level of awareness. We questioned HR informants

about this low level of awareness, which had surprised us given that the two multinationals put

considerable effort into communicating WLP through different channels such as their intranets,

leaflets, on-site benefits fairs and even packages posted to employees’ homes. HR informants

proposed two explanations. The first one is the sheer abundance of policies explained part of the

Page 14: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

14/34

gap in employee awareness. Due to the competition for talent and to isomorphic pressures in a

highly regulated industry, and thanks to relatively abundant financial resources, these two

multinationals offered very broad ranges of programmes. Our HR informants were not surprised

that employees simply did not find or invest the time to get acquainted in detail with the

programmes they could access, given the intense pace of work and the culture of urgency that

they explained were at the core of large firms in this competitive industry. The second reason

explaining low awareness and in particular imprecise knowledge of the policies was that WLP

changed frequently. HR-driven programmes changed both through external drivers (for instance

changes in the legal framework) and through internal drivers (such as a new management team,

new HR policies or cost reduction programmes).

Further analysis on awareness. Still intrigued by the low awareness of WLP, we went back to

the interviews and compared employees' awareness across the three countries. This analysis

enabled us to see that UK employees were slightly less aware of WLP than those in the US and in

Portugal, which helped us to identify yet another reason for low awareness. That reason is the

confusion that UK employees make between employer-driven and government-mandated WLP;

since they tend to confound both types of policies, they are less able to state which policies their

employer provides. In the UK, laws and regulations evolved quickly through the European Union

– perhaps too quickly for employees to keep track of what was employer-driven. State-initiated

programmes and discretionary employer-driven policies were particularly difficult to disentangle

for leave and childcare schemes. These are much easier to identify in both the US, where most

policies are employer-driven and in Portugal, where employees called employer-driven policies

“extra” – such as “extra financial aid for children”. Other than that, we did not observe different

patterns of awareness and access between the UK and the US, concurring with the finding that

Page 15: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

15/34

multinationals tend to manage their HR policies in ways that do not depend greatly on their host

countries (Brewster, Wood & Brookes, 2008).

Although these explanations give us insights into the low levels of awareness of and

access to WLP, they do not shed light on inequalities of access amongst categories of jobs. We

will now turn to the stratification mechanisms that explain inequalities of access to WLP.

Stratification mechanisms explaining inequalities of access amongst categories of jobs.

Inequalities of access were explained in our data by three emerging stratification mechanisms.

Each of these three factors revealed pragmatic mechanisms creating divides amongst categories

of jobs. The importance of pragmatic considerations that can impair the efficiency of HR policies

and therefore be detrimental to both employee well-being and organisational performance, is a

novel finding uncovered by this study. Specifically, the three stratification mechanisms that

emerged from the interviews were: (1) the intra-organisational digital divide that reduced non-

digital employees’ awareness of WLP, (2) the size of the worksite that employees worked at,

which determined access to a number of WLP and (3) job type which also conditioned access to

WLP.

The digital divide. We define the digital divide as the separation within the organisation between

jobs where employees have easy and frequent access to digital information and communications

technology and job where employees do not. We argue that the digital divide impairs both

awareness of and access to WLP, because the intranet is the major source of information on WLP

in both companies (awareness) and it is also a portal to some of the services, such as the EAPs or

registration for training sessions (access). HR in both companies used the front page of the

intranet to display visual reminders of WLP, for instance dates of forthcoming Lunch and learn

seminars or short descriptions of new work-life trainings. As explained by our interviewees,

registration via the intranet was also required for these seminars and trainings, and information on

Page 16: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

16/34

how to access services (e.g. how to apply for a childcare center sport, times when flu shots were

available) was posted on the intranet. In sum, the intranet was not the only communication

channel but it was the default channel, and employees who accessed WLP all mentioned the

intranet.

However, the intranet did not reach all employees. In pharmaceutical companies, R&D

employees working in laboratories and field-based account managers, as well as many

manufacturing employees, do not easily access the intranet when working. This means that,

ironically, populations that are very important to engage and retain in the pharmaceutical industry

are the ones that the intranet misses. Here is how a manufacturing supervisor explains the digital

divide relating to employees on the floor:

“There are terminals that are set aside for that, and it’s just for general use: it’s not

someone’s work station … A lot of people on the production floor don’t realise some of the

things that they could go online and have access to, and I think there’s a lot of help there that the

company provides that’s going wasted.” (Male, Production, Manufacturing, Pharm 1).

The case of field sales employees explains this point particularly clearly, because of the

contrast between Pharm1 and Pharm2. At Pharm1, at the time of the interviews, sales employees

were well equipped, notably with portable computers. However, they did not have easy access to

corporate intranets because they did not often have a broadband internet connection while waiting

in car parks and waiting rooms for their appointments with physicians, and corporate intranets

were not designed for smartphone access. This quotation from a sales account manager at Pharm1

makes this point very clear:

“We seem to have gone very much towards the intranet. If you’re in the office, that’s

great, but for the field it completely misses us. People in the office, they’re on the internet all the

Page 17: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

17/34

time, they’re on broadband and they can download stuff really quickly, and they don’t really

understand that actually for the field people it’s a lot more difficult.” (Female, Sales

representative, Pharm 1).

Sales employees at Pharm1 could use their computer at home, but the additional step it

would have required meant that they were in fact not taking the time to browse corporate

intranets, as illustrated in the following quotation:

“We’re all so busy, the only time we can get onto the intranet is when we’re at home,

which isn’t that often and people forget it is there.” (Female, Sales representative, Pharm 1).

At Pharm2, however, sales employees in the field had access to and used broadband

internet connections and they often mentioned this as a key tool for their daily activities as well

as a way to stay connected with their families. Thus, the digital divide separating employees

working frequently on a computer with a broadband connection to the internet (e.g. HR, IT and

finance employees) from employees not working on computers (e.g. a large proportion of

employees in R&D labs and manufacturing) or lacking broadband connections (e.g. sales

employees at Pharm1) is an important explanation for the low awareness of WLP on the part of

employees holding “less digital” jobs, and therefore an explanation for inequalities of access

amongst the “digital” and the “less digital” jobholders.

The divide in worksite size. In both Pharm1 and Pharm2, work-life facilities and services were

primarily available at headquarters, revealing a divide between employees working there or at

larger worksites and those located at smaller worksites. The headquarters at Pharm1 offered on-

site and near-site childcare, gym, clinic/nurse, concierge, hairdresser and cashpoint facilities; the

headquarters at Pharm2 offered a sports club, cafeteria and health and beauty centre. Moreover,

Page 18: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

18/34

services such as assistance with childcare and elderly care, laundry and grocery shopping were

organised in such a way that they were available only in limited geographical areas, typically

around the headquarters, where EAP providers were located.

As a result, facilities and services were much less available to employees working at

smaller worksites and to sales employees in the field who may visit headquarters only once a

month when attending meetings. A large section of the R&D, sales and manufacturing

populations were penalised due to the way these benefits were structurally set up. For instance, a

production supervisor at a manufacturing site explained that WLP were not a priority on these

smaller sites:

“We actually have a safety manager but we don’t have the nurse; we don’t have an

employee health station or office. That was one of our headcount reductions.” (Male, Production

supervisor, Manufacturing, Pharm 1).

This triggered feelings of unfairness in the availability of these benefits that were assessed

by field employees as “extra benefits for those at the headquarters”.

“I only used the health and beauty programme once. I was so tired after a meeting that I

went for a massage session. It was fantastic but you can only do it if you’re there. I wish that

agreements with health centres around the country were made so we, the field force, could also

benefit.” (Male, Sales Force Team Leader, Pharm 2)

Feelings of unfairness were particularly strong regarding services provided in case of

need, such as childcare or elderly care. In these cases, the majority of sales employees in the field

in Pharm1 and Pharm2 did not believe it would be available to them if they needed it.

Page 19: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

19/34

“You can only have their services if you’re there – do you think if I need some additional

help with my sick kid they will drive half of the country to help me?” (Female, Sales Force,

Pharm 2)

Job types. A third divide emerged: employees in certain job types had restricted access to some

of the WLP. First, a number of jobs required on-site presence, thus preventing access to

telework. These jobs were found in our sample in all four business units: for instance, employees

working with animals in R&D laboratories were required to work on site so as to be able to care

for the animals. Another example in our sample was an industrial design engineer who worked

with costly printing equipment that was only available on his worksite. Other jobs in which

telework was also not accessible involved facilities maintenance where immediate attendance to

support requests were expected, and the coordination of manufacturing shifts for which meetings

had to be held. This last case is well explained by a manufacturing employee:

“In filling and packing they have one meeting at 8.30 and you’ve got to be there, so you

cannot be flexible there ... Because it’s a 24-hour site, if they have issues at night, they have a

morning meeting to discuss issues at night time.” (Male, New Product Introduction,

Manufacturing, Pharm 1).

Access to telework was the most obvious restriction but not the only one. In jobs such as

manufacturing, the way in which production was set up made it difficult for floor employees to

be available for training when it was scheduled (e.g. those working the night shift). In many jobs

actually, such as in customer service jobs, making time for work-life training took extra effort to

organise work across shifts so that call center employees could attend the training without hurting

service quality. In fact, interviewees gave a myriad of examples and each job seemed to have

Page 20: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

20/34

particularities that prevented access to one or several WLP. For instance, some but not all sales

positions in the U.S. at Pharm 1 were organised across vast territories because these territories

were less populated than others. The mere size of the territory prevented job-sharing

arrangements, as explained by this HR facilitator:

“If you talked about a state that is as sparsely populated as Wyoming, you have one sales

rep that has a territory where it takes them several hours to drive from doctor to doctor. So if you

have got three people in that territory, what are the odds that one of those three would be willing

to job-share with you?” (Male, HR facilitator, Pharm 1).

Intersections of digital access, location and job type stratifications. The three stratification

mechanisms revealed by our analysis – the digital, worksite size and job type divides – existed

either separately or in combinations of two (as in the case of the sales account manager facing the

digital divide and having a vast territory to cover), or even in combinations of three (as in the

case of a building maintenance officer of a small manufacturing site, whose job is less digital, is

based on a small worksite, and requires the employee’s presence there). These three stratification

mechanisms always contributed to preventing employees from receiving or collecting

information, thus lowering their awareness of the WLP provided by their employer and

restricting their likelihood of accessing these. This lowered awareness and access, in turn, had

consequences for the efficiency of HR practices and for organizational justice, which we will

now analyse.

Outcomes of organisational stratification. When we presented our findings to HR officers at

Pharm1 and Pharm2, they expressed concerns. Employees, too, mentioned negative outcomes of

the unequal access to WLP. While HR primarily focused on the efficiency of HR practices,

employees were mostly concerned with organisational justice.

Page 21: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

21/34

Organisational stratification and the efficiency of HR practices. Our findings showed that R&D

and sales jobs were the categories of jobs in which employees had lower awareness of and access

to WLP. Our HR informants explained to us that there was no deliberate intent on their part to

reduce access for employees in R&D and sales, quite the opposite in fact, since R&D and sales

employees are crucial populations to attract, engage and retain in the pharmaceutical industry.

They explained that the pharmaceutical industry is a high-risk industry, characterised by intense

competition for drug discovery, market share and talent. As is also confirmed in the literature,

two capabilities are critical: technical knowledge and market knowledge (Bruni & Verona, 2009).

Highly effective sales representatives are an invaluable asset, since general practitioners have

very limited time to hear them out (Becker & Lillemark, 2006).

Our HR informants were therefore very concerned by our findings. They had prior

understanding that the intranet was not the best communication channel for all populations and

they had already taken steps to organise on-site fairs and to send materials to employees’ homes.

What our findings pointed to was that these actions clearly had not fully succeeded in filling the

awareness and access gap. Thus, it was clear that the organisational stratification at play in these

multinationals impaired the companies’ strategic intent to reach out to all groups of employees.

Organisational stratification and organisational justice. In our samples, resentment and

subsequent backlash seemed apparent for employees in the field or working on smaller worksites.

Feelings of unfairness particularly emerged when employees compared themselves with their

peers at headquarters. In addition to our observations, the uneven distribution of both awareness

and access suggests that HR partly fails to meet the support needs of some groups of employees,

such as low-level workers in manufacturing sites.

DISCUSSION

Page 22: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

22/34

This research took an organisational stratification approach to examine the mechanisms

shaping employee awareness of and access to organisational work-life policies (WLP). Based on

98 employee interviews in two pharmaceutical multinationals in the US, the UK and Portugal, we

found relatively low levels of awareness and access. There were clear inequalities amongst

categories of jobs, with some jobholders (such as headquarters employees in support functions)

demonstrating greater awareness of WLP and greater access to them than others (such as sales

managers in the field, laboratory technicians and manufacturing employees on the floor).

The sheer abundance of WLP, the changing nature of WLP and the confusion with

government-mandated policies in the UK undermined employees’ awareness of and access to

WLP. In addition, three stratification mechanisms stemming from three structural factors were

identified: the intra-organisational digital divide that impaired awareness of WLP, and the

worksite size and the job type divides that conditioned access to certain policies. These divides

clearly explained whether employees in given business units, worksites or jobs were likely to be

aware of and to access WLP. The “more digital” jobholders (those who used a computer as part

of their daily job and had a broadband internet connection) were more aware of WLP than the

“less digital” jobholders (who typically worked in manufacturing settings, R&D labs or on the

road, visiting doctors). Employees whose jobs were located at headquarters or larger worksites

knew more about WLP and accessed them more, as did employees in jobs that were compatible

with flexible hours and/or telework. The three stratification mechanisms were often found in

combination, in particular with manufacturing, sales and R&D jobholders who therefore had

narrower access to WLP than support functions employees located at headquarters.

Theoretical and social implications. Our study extends the organisational stratification theory

carved out by Lambert and Haley-Locke (2004) and Lambert and Waxman (2005). It suggests

that the organisational stratification theory is a robust framework to explain the distribution of

Page 23: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

23/34

access to WLP, beyond the opportunities for WLB that were the original focus of this stream of

research. Ryan and Kossek (2008) mentioned that infrequent access to the company’s website

and emails reduced knowledge of the policies. However, this study is to the best of our

knowledge the first to identify the intra-organisational digital divide as a major stratification

mechanism impairing employees’ awareness of WLP, and the first to analyse these three intra-

organisational divides stemming from categories of jobs in a systematic way. This finding is

particularly noteworthy, in a context where intra-organisational divides have been much less

researched than individual and inter-organisational divides (Dewan & Riggins, 2005). The digital

divide may contribute to explaining why the business case for WLP is still uncertain despite

abundant research (Kelly et al., 2008). This study focused on WLP, yet organisational

stratification mechanisms may impair the fairness and the efficiency of other organisational

rewards that require that employees spend some time collecting information or registering via the

intranet, or travel to certain sites; an example of such a practice would be training. Organisational

stratification mechanisms might thus moderate the relationship between the provision of HR

practices and employee and organisational outcomes.

A second contribution of our study regards work-life literature and lies in integrating and

extending work on inequalities of access to WLP amongst employees. While different streams of

prior research identified three sets of factors that may promote or hinder access to WLP - socio-

demographic factors, employment related factors and cultural factors, and while some research

had identified the relationship between job type and access to WLP, our study helps to

conceptualize job type, worksite size and digital divide as a fourth set of factors, i.e. job related

factors, Thus, it provides an integrated framework on sources of inequalities of access to WLP, as

illustrated in Figure 1.

== Insert Figure 1 about here ==

Page 24: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

24/34

While the focus of our research was job related factors, it is likely that the four sets of factors

may interact and combine with one another, such that several layers of potential sources of

inequalities may accumulate. This has important theoretical implications that need to be

considered and tested in future work-life research. In particular, while low-level workers are

under-privileged compared to managers and professionals (Golden, 2001; Lambert & Waxman,

2005; Swanberg et al., 2005), there are likely disparities amongst low-level workers, for instance

between those whose job is located at headquarters and those who work on smaller worksites.

Likewise, there are likely disparities amongst women, between those who hold jobs where part-

time work is feasible and those who do not, and amongst parents, between those who access on-

site day-care centres and those who do not.

Therefore, our study points to a potential intersection of inequalities produced by the

combination of several stratification mechanisms at the social and the organisational levels. Our

study thus suggests that an intersectional approach might help us to understand the distribution of

organisational rewards, much as the intersectional approach delivers new insight in the field of

diversity (Ozbilgin et al., 2011).

Managerial implications. Prior studies pointed out that WLP often fail to meet the needs of

some categories of employees such as low-level workers in manufacturing sites (Di Renzo et al.,

2011). In order to generate an organisational climate that effectively supports employees' work-

life needs, attention must be given to the structures that influence their implementation. As

illustrated the implementation of WLP can divide employees and form perceptions of preferential

treatment that can arouse negative images about them.

To mitigate the risks of creating backlashes and impairing the effectiveness of WLP,

practitioners need to address the gaps induced by working frequently on a computer with

broadband access to the internet and working at a large worksite. Measuring employees’

Page 25: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

25/34

awareness of and access to WLP with a focus on the digital divide, on worksite size, and on type

of job would enable HR practitioners to be more attuned to their diverse workforce and to better

promote existing policies. While HR may not be able to provide digital access to all employees or

to offer all WLP in all worksites for all jobs, identifying the gaps is a first step towards clarifying

with their employees how they cope for these. Actions may include sending extra information via

mail and organizing special events for specific populations that do not work often on computers.

Since some jobs are intrinsically not conducive to specific types of WLP such as telework for

instance, it is important that organisations consider ways to increase access to WLP across the

occupational spectrum. This may in particular imply offering other forms of support on smaller

worksites or for jobs that cannot be flexible in terms of time and space.

Second, HR practitioners may need to fine-tune communication according to business

units and according to the different types of stakeholders they are addressing. It has been argued

that organisations' internal communication often treats employees as "a uni-dimensional single

public” (Welch & Jackson, 2007: 183) instead of differentiating the messages and channels.

Quality of communication has already been identified as a serious issue for WLP (Ryan &

Kossek, 2008). As Hargie and Tourish (2004) state there is often a communication mismatch

between senior managers and employees concerning workplace policies: employees complain

that they have not been informed of main corporate topics, while managers claim that they have

devoted a great deal of time in educating employees about them. With the growing and extensive

use of electronic communications, employees are faced with loads of messages. Such an

information load can act against the effective functioning of organisations (Conrad & Haynes,

2000). It may be that due to communication overload, employees working in high-speed work

environments such as the multinationals in our sample learn to “tune out” information as it comes

in, so that they can get their jobs done. Therefore, it is very important to raise managers'

Page 26: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

26/34

awareness of the policies and of the benefits of knowing them well: knowledgeable managers feel

more confident sharing information about WLP with their employees either along with other

regular work information, or when employees reach out to them for support. In turn, employees

feel more confident using the policies because they are aware of them, know whether they can

access them, and know that their manager supports use.

Lastly, HR officers should strive to simplify the range of WLP provided. Because the

sheer abundance of programmes may be detrimental, it should be clear which policies are

available to whom and at what time. Giving managers and employees a voice in determining

which policies are more valued could help customise WLP and thus achieve a better fit between

these policies and employees’ needs.

Limitations and future research. This study was based on self-reports; while qualitative self-

reports meet our objectives of capturing awareness, perceptions that one has access to the policies

and reasons that one identified for not having access, future research could benefit from

designing objective ways of assessing who does not have access to policies. In addition, this

study focused on two multinationals, which limits generalizability. However, the fact that

findings were consistent across the two studies despite the authors having conducted them

separately tends to signal reasonable generalizability for large organisations characterised by

differences in intranet access, worksite size and job types. Future research would benefit from

replicating our results via a large cross-industry survey. Lastly, future research combining

different sources of inequities such as job categories, socio-demographic factors and

organisational support would shed light on the intersection of these factors.

Overall, the results of this study suggest that pragmatic rather than HR-driven organisational

stratification mechanisms shape employees’ awareness of and access to WLP. Further

Page 27: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

27/34

investigations of these stratifications mechanisms are critical to addressing inequalities of access

and to bridging implementation gaps.

REFERENCES

Allen, T.D. (2001). Family-supportive work environments: The role of organisational

perceptions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58, (3), 414−435. doi:10.1006/jbve.2000.1774

Baruch, Y. (2000).Teleworking, benefits and pitfalls as perceived by professionals and

managers. New Technology, Work & Employment, 15, (1), 4–49. doi:10.1111/1468-005X.00063

Becker, M.C. & Lillemark, M. (2006). Marketing/R&D integration in the pharmaceutical

industry. Research Policy, 35, 105–120. doi: 10.1016/j. respol.2005.09.005

Brewster, C., Wood, G. & Brookes (2008). Similarity, isomorphism or duality? Recent

survey evidence on the human resource management policies of multinational corporations.

British Journal of Management, 19, 320–342. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2007.00546.x

Bruni, D. S. & Verona, G. (2009). Dynamic marketing capabilities in science-based firms:

an exploratory investigation of the pharmaceutical industry British Journal of Management, 3,

101–117. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00615.x

Butts, M.M., Casper, W.J. & Yang, T.S. (2013). How important are work–family support

policies? A meta-analytic investigation of their effects on employee outcomes. Journal of Applied

Psychology, 98, (1), 1–25. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0030389

Conrad, C., & Haynes, J. (2000). Development of key constructs. In F. Jablin, F. and L.

Putnam (Eds). The New Handbook of Organisational Communication: Advances in Theory,

Research and Methods (pp.47-77). Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Davis, K. & Moore, W.E. (1945). Some principles of stratification. American Sociological

Review, 10, (2), 242–249.

Page 28: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

28/34

Dewan, S. & F.R. Riggins (2005). The digital divide: Current and future research

directions. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 6, (12), 298–336.

DiRenzo, M. S., Greenhaus, J.H. & Weer, C.H. (2011). Job level, demands, and resources

as antecedents of work–family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 78, (2), 305-314.

doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2010.10.002

Eaton, S.C. (2003). If you can use them: flexibility policies, organisational commitment,

and perceived performance. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 42, 145–

167. doi:10.1111/1468-232X.00285

Eby, L.T., Casper, W.J., Lockwood, A., Bordeaux, C. & Brinley, A. (2005). Work and

family research in IO/OB: Content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002). Journal of

Vocational Behavior, 66, (1), 124–197. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2003.11.003

Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989). Building theories from case research. Academy of Management

Review, 14, 532–550. doi:10.2307/258557

Eisenhardt, K. & Graebner, M. (2007). Theory building from cases: Opportunities and

challenges. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 25-32. doi: 10.5465/AMJ.2007.24160888

Galinsky, E., Bond J.T., Sakai, K., Kim, S.S. & Guintoli, N. (2008). The National Study of

Employers. New York: Families and Work Institute.

Gioia, D.A., Corley, K. G., & Hamilton, A. L. (2013). Seeking Qualitative Rigor in

Inductive Research. Notes on the Gioia Methodology, Organisational Research Methods, 16, (1),

15-31. doi:10.1177/1094428112452151

Golden, L. (2001). Flexible work schedules: Which workers get them?, American

Behavioral Scientist, 44, 1157–1178. doi: 10.1177/00027640121956700

Page 29: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

29/34

Grandey, A.A. (2001). Family friendly policies: Organisational justice perceptions of

need-based allocations. In R.S. Cropanzano (Ed), Justice in the workplace. Vol. 2, From theory to

practice (pp. 145-174). New York: McGraw Hill.

Grady, G. & McCarthy, A. (2008). Work-life integration: experiences of mid-career

professional working mothers. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23, (5), 599-622.

doi:10.1108/02683940810884559

Greenhaus, J. H., & Kossek, E. E. 2014. The Contemporary Career: A Work–Home

Perspective. Annual Review of Organisational Psychology and Organisational Behavior, 1(1):

361-388. doi: 10.1002/job.1996

Haley-Lock, A. (2009). Variation in part-time job quality within the nonprofit human

service sector. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 19, (4), 421-442. doi: 10.1002/nml.230

Hammer, L.B., Kossek, E.E., Yragui, N., Bodner, T. & Hansen, G. (2009). Development

and validation of a multi-dimensional scale of family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB).

Journal of Management, 35, 837-856. doi:10.1037/a0032612

Hammer, L. B., Neal, M. B., Newsom, J., Brockwood, K. J., & Colton, C. (2005). A

longitudinal study of the effects of dual-earner couples' utilization of family-friendly workplace

supports on work and family outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, (4), 799-810. doi:

10.1037/0021-9010.90.4.799

Hargie, O., & Tourish, D. (2004). How are we doing? Measuring and monitoring

organisationalcommunication. In D. Tourish and O. Hargie (Eds), Key Issues in Organisational

Communication (pp.234-251). Routledge, London.

Kelly, E.L., Kossek, E.E., Hammer, L.B., Durham, M., Bray, J., Chermack, K., Murphy,

L.A. & D. Kaskubar (2008). Getting there from here: Research on the effects of work-family

Page 30: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

30/34

policies on work-family conflict and business outcomes. The Academy of Management Annals, 2,

(7), 305–349. doi: 10.1080/19416520802211610

Kingsley, D. A. (1942). A Conceptual Analysis of Stratification. American Sociological

Review, 7(3), 309–321.

Kossek, E. (1989). The acceptance of human resource innovation by multiple

constituencies. Personnel Psychology, 42, 263–281. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1989.tb00657.x

Kossek, E.E, Baltes, B. & Mathews, R. (2011). How work-family research can finally

have an impact in the workplace. Industrial and Organisational Psychology: Perspectives on

Science and Practice, 4, (3), 352–369. doi: 10.1111/j.1754-9434.2011.01353.x

Kossek, E. E., Lewis, S., & Hammer, L. (2010). Work-Life initiatives and organisational

change: Overcoming mixed messages to move from the margin to the mainstream. Human

Relations, 63, 1–17. doi: 10.1177/0018726709352385

Kossek, E. E., Ollier-Malaterre, A., Lee, M., Pichler, S., & Hall, D. T. (2015). Line

Managers’ Experiences with Reduced-load Work for Professionals in Embracing and Ambivalent

Organizational Contexts, Human Resource Management. doi:10.1002/hrm.21722

Lambert, S.J., & Haley-Lock, A. (2004). The organisational stratification of opportunities

for WLB. Community, Work & Family, 7, (2), 179–195. doi 10.1080/1366880042000245461

Lambert, S.J., & Waxman, E. (2005). Organisational stratification: Distributing

opportunities for balancing work and personal life. In E.E. Kossek and S.J. Lambert (Eds), Work-

life integration. Organisational, cultural, and individual perspectives, (pp.103-126). Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates.

Lewis, S., Rapoport, R., & Gambles, R. (2003). REFLECTIONS: Reflections on the

integration of paid work and the rest of life. Journal of Managerial Psychology,18, (7), 824-841.

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940310511908

Page 31: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

31/34

Miles, M.B. & Huberman, A.M. (1994), Qualitative Data Analysis – An Expanded

Sourcebook (2nd ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ollier-Malaterre, A. (2009). Organisational WLP: Context matters. France Compared to

the UK and the US. Community, Work and Family, 12, (2),159–

178.doi:10.1080/13668800902778942

Ollier-Malaterre, A. (2010). Contributions of work-life and resilience policies to the

individual/organisation relationship. Human Relations, 63, (1), 41-62.

doi:10.1177/0018726709342458

Özbilgin, M.F., Beauregard, T.A., Tatli, A. & Bell, M.P. (2011). Work-life, diversity and

intersectionality: A critical review and research agenda. International Journal of Management

Reviews, 13, 177-198. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2010.00291.x

Pratt, M.G. (2008). Fitting Oval Pegs Into Round Holes. Tensions in Evaluating and

Publishing Qualitative Research in Top-Tier North American Journals. Organisational Research

Methods, 11, (3), 481-509. doi:10.1177/1094428107303349

Rothausen, T., Gonzalez, J.A., Clarke, N.E. & O'Dell, L.L. (1998). Family-friendly

backlash – fact or fiction? The case of organisations" on-site child care centers. Personnel

Psychology, 51, 685–706. doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1998.tb00257.x

Ryan, A.M. & Kossek, E.E. (2008). Work-life policy implementation: Breaking down or

creating barriers to inclusiveness? Human Resource Management, 47, (2), 295–310. doi:

10.1002/hrm.20213

Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and

procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Page 32: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

32/34

Swanberg, J.E., Pitt-Catsouphes, M. & Drescher-Burke, K. (2005). A question of justice.

Disparities in employees" access to flexible schedule arrangements. Journal of Family Issues, 26,

(6), 866–895. doi: 10.1177/0192513X05277554

Thompson, C., Beauvais, L. & Lyness, K. (1999). When work-life benefits are not

enough: The influence of work-life culture on benefit utilization, organisational attachment, and

work-life conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 54, 392-415. doi: 10.1006/jvb.1998.1681

Tomlinson, J. (2006).Part-time occupational mobility in the service industries: regulation,

work commitment and occupational closure. The Sociological Review, 54, (1), 66–86. doi:

10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00602.x

Welch, M. & Jackson, P. R. (2007). Rethinking internal communication: A stakeholder

approach. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 12, (2), 177-198. doi:

10.1108/13563280710744847

Page 33: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

33/34

Table 1. Sample description

Pharm1 Pharm2

N 73 25

Average age and range 41 26 to 59 34 26 to 55

Average tenure and range 12 1 to 36 9 3 to 13

Female 53.4% 40%

Care-givers 52% 28%

Supervisors 57.5% 16%

Country

UK 56%

US 44%

Portugal 100%

Worksite size

Headquarters 37%

Small and medium worksites 49%

Field-based 13% 100%

Business units

R&D 23%

Manufacturing 25%

Sales 14% 100%

Support functions 38%

Page 34: Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides and the stratification …repo.library.upenn.edu/storage/content/2/y0sy9xl89le463j... · Not for everyone: Intra-organisational divides

Stratification of access to work-life policies

34/34

Figure 1: Sources of unequal awareness and access to work-life policies: A theoretical integration

Socio-demographics factors

• Age

• Gender

• Race

• Social class

Employment-related factors

• Job level

• Employment status

• Tenure in the organization

Job related factors

• Digital divide

• Worksite size

• Job type

Culture related factors

• Family-supportive

organizational culture

• Supervisor support

• Workgroup support

Sources of unequal awareness and access to work-life policies:

A theoretical integration

Awareness of and

access to

work-life polciies