Family-Supportive Organizational Culture and Fathers' Experiences of Work-family Conflict in Sweden

This study explores fathers' experiences with work-family conflict and their perceptions of how supportive the organizational culture at work is regarding fathers' work-family needs, and whether a family-supportive organizational culture is associated with less work-family conflict. A total of 377 fathers working in private Swedish companies were surveyed. While a modest proportion of fathers experienced high levels of work-to-family conflict, less family-to-work conflict was reported. Further, fathers perceived little work-family support from top managers, supervisors, and co-workers. Our results indicate that the cultures in the examined companies have norms that separate work and family from each other. Fathers seem likely to experience work-family conflict as long as the family-supportive organizational culture, especially at the work group level, is not well-developed. When fathers experience their work organizations as family-supportive, they are likely to be better able to combine work and family and thus to help Swedes achieve a more gender-equal society.