Abstract
Over the past decades, the interplay between work and family domains have been a topic of concern for not only individuals but also organisations. As a result extensive literature is available in this regard, where research suggest that a work culture that support, value, and assists with the integration of employees’ work and family lives, becomes a necessity for reducing possible work-family interference. The overall aim of this chapter is to understand the importance and presence of a supportive work-family culture; and identify how organisations can incorporate various positive psychological interventions aimed at improving or aiding in employees’ work-family needs. This chapter contributes to current work-family literature by incorporating a multi-level perspective to explain various positive work-family interventions, i.e. interventions aimed at organisational (e.g. schedule control and results orientation, work-life job analyses); group (e.g. training managers in relational skills, supportive supervisor behaviour training); and individual level (e.g. mindfulness as cognitive-emotional segmentation strategy). The chapter concludes with an evidence-based case study of current organisational work-family interventions as implemented by 30 South African organisations. The empirical study described in this chapter is based on survey data, which was obtained from a non-probability, purposive voluntary sample of 30 organisations in South Africa (including small, medium and large organisations). The survey with open-ended questions was used to understand how these organisations view their role in contributing to the work-life balance of their employees and to ascertain which interventions they currently apply in this regard. The empirical data discussed in the chapter was analysed through thematic analysis.
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Koekemoer, E., Petrou, M. (2019). Positive Psychological Interventions Intended for a Supportive Work-Family Culture. In: Van Zyl, L., Rothmann Sr., S. (eds) Evidence-Based Positive Psychological Interventions in Multi-Cultural Contexts. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20311-5_4
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