Date of Award

1991

Publication Type

Doctoral Thesis

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Psychology

Keywords

Psychology, Industrial.

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The implementation of workplace family support programs such as on-site child care and flexible work arrangements, represents an important step toward acknowledging the increasing numbers of women and mothers of young children within the work force. Nonetheless, work organizations have been slow to adopt these programs. Managers have expressed the fear that some employees will view family support programs as unfair (Fernandez, 1986). The present study addressed how employees conceptualize the justice of family support. A scale designed to measure the perceived importance of six justice rules--equity, equality, need, equality of opportunity, profit maximization, and social responsibility--was administered to 233 employees of public and private sector organizations. Relationships between several background variables and endorsement of justice rules, and between the perceived justice of procedures used in benefit selection and favourability toward family support programs, were also assessed. Respondents conceptualized the six justice rules along two dimensions: one reflecting humanitarian considerations, the other reflecting more traditional, individualistic considerations. Humanitarian considerations, including employed parents' needs, equality of opportunity for women, and organizational social responsibility, were endorsed to a greater extent than were traditional considerations of equity and profit maximization. Gender, attitudes toward women, global distributive orientation, sample (private/public), perceived commonness of work-family conflict, and anticipated impact of the program on personal life and on the company, were associated with endorsement of justice rules. Perceived justice of procedures used in benefit selection was unrelated to favourability toward family support. Implications for the selection and implementation of family support programs are discussed. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-12, Section: B, page: 6598. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1991.

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