Abstract

Introduction

Theoretical background and hypotheses

Method

Measures

Analytical strategy

Results

Robustness checks

Discussion

Theoretical and practical implications

Limitations

Future research directions

Funding

References

Abstract

     The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the provision of supplemental family leave elicits higher work effort and extra-role behavior in employees. Drawing on arguments derived from signaling theory we test whether the beneficial effects of providing longer or better paid family leave on performance exist for all employees, or whether they are limited to the group who either took advantage of the supplemental leave in the past or is likely to do so in the future. In addition, the mechanism proposed by organizational support theory by which supplemental leave is expected to affect employee performance – by increasing affective organizational commitment – is tested. The hypotheses developed are tested using European multilevel organization-data (Van der Lippe et al., 2016a) on 11,011 employees in 869 departments or teams, and 259 organizations. The results indicate that perceived availability of supplemental family leave relates positively to employees’ contextual performance, partially by increasing organizational commitment. This effect is found irrespective of actual use of family leave and is not moderated by characteristics relating to future use such as having young children, being of childbearing age or being female.

Introduction

     In all European countries employees have the right to some form of paternity, maternity and/or parental leave, although the duration and levels of payment differ tremendously between the countries (OECD, 2017). In addition, organizations increasingly provide supplemental leave on top of the policies they are obliged to offer by law, by offering a longer period of leave or increasing the level of payment employees are entitled to (den Dulk et al., 2012; Ronda et al., 2016, den Dulk, 2001). These supplemental family leave provisions are designed to help employees with young children to better combine work and family life, and as such can be beneficial to the employees (Ronda et al., 2016). At the same time, adopting such supportive policies may be beneficial for organizations, by increasing desired outcomes such as employee performance among employees, the so-called ‘business-case argument’ for offering supportive policies (Kossek & Friede, 2006; Wheatley, 2017). With this article we aim to contribute to the literature by investigating the mechanism via which the availability and use of supplemental leave provision is related to self-reported employee performance. By focusing on supplemental family leave provisions, we assess the effect of this policy on performance for employees who have directly benefitted from the policy, those who may benefit in the future, and those to whom it is not personally relevant.

Results

     Descriptive statistics are presented in Table 2. Employees’ average contextual performance was 3.27, meaning that they scored between ‘sometimes’ and ‘often’ on their engagement in extra-task performance. Task performance and organizational commitment show slightly higher averages. 13% of the respondents thought that supplemental leave was offered by the organization. 60% of the sample did not have a child, 13% of the people had a child and did not use any type of family leave, 22% had a child and used statutory leave, and 4% had a child and used supplemental leave. It stands out that the perceived availability and use of supplemental leave among men and women is very similar, which especially for use is somewhat surprising considering the fact that it is known that women use more leave (Burnett et al., 2010; Munn & Greer, 2015). However, it should be kept in mind that this reflects whether respondents used any leave, but says nothing about the duration of this leave and that it refers to extra payment as well.