“The work must go on”: The role of communication in the use of work-life policies

C.L. ter Hoeven, Vernon Miller, A. Peper, L. den Dulk

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)
105 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The Netherlands is characterized by extensive national work–life regulations relative to the United States. Yet, Dutch employees do not always take advantage of existing work–life policies. Individual and focus group interviews with employees and managers in three (public and private) Dutch organizations identified how employee and managerial communication contributed to acquired rules concerning work–life policies and the interpretation of allocative and authoritative resources for policy enactment. Analyses revealed differences in employees’ and managers’ resistance to policy, the binds and dilemmas experienced, and the coordination of agreements and actions to complete workloads. There are also differences between public and private contexts in the enactment of national and organizational policies, revealing how national (e.g., gender) and organizational (e.g., concertive control) mechanisms play out in employee and managerial communication that determine the use of work–life policies.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)194-229
JournalManagement Communication Quarterly
Volume31
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017

Keywords

  • work–life policies
  • structuration
  • organizational communication
  • concertive control

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