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Employee's Use of Work-Family Policies and the Workplace Social Context
- Social Forces
- The University of North Carolina Press
- Volume 80, Number 3, March 2002
- pp. 813-845
- 10.1353/sof.2002.0002
- Article
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This article analyzes the effects of workplace social context on managers' and professionals' use of work-family policies in a financial services corporation. These official policies are ambiguous and contested and, as institutional theory implies, may fail to become fully implemented. We use a multilevel model to determine the individual-level and work group-level factors that affect respondents' policy use. In addition to individual-level factors, the social context of the work group affects employees' decisions to use work-family policies. We find support for our hypotheses stressing the social resource of power and protection: employees are more likely to use these policies if they work with powerful supervisors and colleagues, who can buffer them from perceived negative effects on their careers.