Job Quality and the Perceived Work-Life Balance Fit between Work Hours and Personal Commitments: A Comparison of Parents and Older Workers in Europe

Abstract

This chapter explores the influence of two important aspects of job quality – working time arrangements and job strain – on individuals’ reports of the fit between their working hours and their family or other social commitments, which for brevity we term ‘perceived work-life balance’. The volume, schedule and flexibility of working time are known to affect men and women’s reports of their work-life balance (Crompton and Brockman, 2006; Fagan, 1996; Fagan and Burchell, 2002; Burchell et al., 2007; OECD, 2004; Presser, 2006); in this chapter we aim to advance the debate in two ways. First, we bring other aspects of job quality into the analysis by exploring whether job aspects traditionally related to psychological/mental well-being at work may have a spillover effect on workers’ perceptions of their work-l ife balance, in other words, if stress and tensions experienced as a result of unfavourable working conditions disrupt work-l ife balance, for example by making it more difficult for employees to deal with their caring commitments. We focus particularly on job strain resulting from a combination of job demands, job control and social support, a model that has been widely used in occupational health research.