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.