Satisfaction With Work-Life Benefits and Organizational Commitment/Job Involvement: Is There a Connection?

Given that an employee's personal responsibilities can have an effect on their work, one method increasingly used by government agencies to improve performance has been to offer programs that assist workers in balancing work and personal obligations. Employee demand for such work-life programs is also increasing due to the growing amount of women in the workplace, two-career families, and workers wanting a greater ability to manage work and life. Yet despite the increase in supply and demand for work-life programs, empirical examinations regarding the benefits of these programs in government agencies are scarce. As a result, this article examines the association between employee satisfaction with work-life programs and two important factors that drive work motivation: organizational commitment and job involvement. Data was obtained from the 2010 Federal Employee Viewpoint survey, and the results from the analysis extended previous literature in several important ways. First, work motivation was not consistently affected by employee levels of satisfaction with work-life benefits in federal agencies. More specifically, employee satisfaction with most work-life benefits (i.e., telework, health and wellness programs, child care, and older adult care) were positively associated to organizational commitment, and none were associated to job involvement. Next, organizational commitment was influenced more by family-friendly programs and health and wellness programs than by flexible working arrangements. The implications of these findings are detailed in the study.