Determinants of Satisfaction with Work-Life Balance: A Case Study of a Medium-Sized Japanese Company

How can human resource management practices support employees’ achieving a balance between work and family life? This study attempts to analyze the determinants of work-life balance satisfaction for employees at a medium-sized company in Japan using longitudinal personnel-micro data and employee satisfaction data. Because different people have different notions of work-life balance, researchers have a duty to investigate the exact determinants of work-life balance satisfaction for all employees in their workplace, after controlling for individual specific effects. Empirical results show that: 1) if bosses attentively observe the behavior of their subordinates and give real-time actionable advice to them, there is a higher probability of employees’ work-life balance satisfaction improving; 2) bosses putting a great deal of thought into their subordinates’ family/personal lives is related to an enhancement of the possibility of employees’ work-life balance satisfaction; 3) the more employees are able to successfully work together as a team in their workplace, the more employees’ work-life balance satisfaction will improve; 4) workplaces where employees are aware of each other’s home-life situations and are understanding of one another have an increase in the probability of better employee work-life balance satisfaction. The results of this study imply that in order to improving work-life balance satisfaction, facilitating conversation and communication at the workplace from the aspects of both work and family/personal lives is required.