Relationship between availability of WLB practices and financial results
| Date | 04 June 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-12-2017-0402 |
| Pages | 935-956 |
| Published date | 04 June 2019 |
| Author | Inocencia María Martínez-León,Isabel Olmedo-Cifuentes,M. Eugenia Sanchez-Vidal |
| Subject Matter | Hr & organizational behaviour |
Relationship between availability
of WLB practices and
financial results
Inocencia María Martínez-León, Isabel Olmedo-Cifuentes and
M. Eugenia Sanchez-Vidal
Department of Business Economy,
Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Cartagena, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of work-life balance (WLB) practices on the
financial results of Spanish accounting audit SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach –Using survey data from 148 Spanish accounting audit SMEs, a
regression analysis was developed to estimate the direct effects of WLB practices on firms’financial results
(return on capital employed and return on assets). Firm age and size are considered as control variables.
Findings –Senior managers should foster some WLB practices (time-reduction and flexible-work practices)
so as to enhance SME audit firms’financial results. Work-leave practices should be analyzed so as to promote
some positive outcomes for firms, through internal reorganization or by reorienting employees to resorting to
the most beneficial practices.
Practical implications –Not all WLB practices have positive effects on the business results of SMEs.
Therefore, managers may try to reduce these negative effects or redirect employees to WLB practices that
have more positive effects on their firms’financial results. Strategic information is also provided to employees
and public institutions about fostering WLB in SMEs.
Social implications –The availability of WLB practices has been deemed fundamental not only for policy
makers and society, but also for the organizational culture and for human resource management practices.
Originality/value –This study is the first to investigate the association between the availability of WLB
initiatives in SMEs and firms’financial results.
Keywords Financial results, Work-life balance, Spain, Accountingaudit firms, Work-life balance practices
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Nowadays, holding down a demanding professional job and also living a busy private life
can generate inter-role conflict for workers. Establishing work-life balance (WLB) could be a
solution. Employees with high levels of inter-role conflict are generally more susceptible to
exhibiting dysfunctional forms of stress (Siegel et al., 2005). They might reduce their work
effort, which may lead to lower levels of job performance, satisfaction and organizational
commitment (Kossek and Ozeki, 1998). Consequently, their productivity decreases and their
absenteeism and turnover rates increase (Wayne et al., 2004). These all affect organizational
outcomes and financial results.
The employees’inter-role conflict might be intensified in certain sectors, such as in
accounting audit, because the characteristics of this activity go counter to achieving
successful WLB ( Johnson et al., 2008). In particular, this occupation’s long working hours
and its diverse clients, whose production and administrative facilities are often located in
far-flung corners of the country, often mean employees must travel and work outside the
office, which complicates their WLB. An auditor’s job in an SME might involve working on
many different projects simultaneously. Distinct professional teams are created for each
audit project, which means working with different people and establishing different Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 4, 2019
pp. 935-956
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-12-2017-0402
Received 28 December 2017
Revised 18 May 2018
20 July 2018
Accepted 11 November 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
The authors thank two anonymous reviewers whose helpful comments and suggestions improved and
clarified earlier drafts of this paper.
935
WLB practices
and financial
results
deadlines, procedures and work schedules. Hence, for these professional employees, no two
working days are the same and that uncertainty and variability can exacerbate work-life
conflict. Accordingly, employees increasingly demand WLB solutions to cover their
personal, family and professional needs.
Senior managers might be interested in offering WLB practices, mainly if they
perceive positive outcomes for their organizations (Adame-Sánchez and Miquel-Romero,
2012). In (people-intensive) professional services, such as accounting audits, where high
intellectual capital is required and employees’concentration and alertness are crucial,
WLB may play a key role. To date, the literature has focused on the availability and
perceived accessibility of these practices (Budd and Mumford, 2006). The availability of
WLB practices is considered one of the best tools for attracting valuable employees
(Meyer et al., 2001), reducing turnover intentions and stress (Lindfelt et al., 2018;
Thompson et al., 1999) and increasing job satisfaction and productivity (Haar et al., 2014;
Meyer et al., 2001).
Some senior managers remain unconvinced that WLB practices have a positive effect on
business results (Macinnes, 2005). Research that analyses the relationship between WLB
practices and SMEs’financial performance is scarce (Huselid, 2003; Wise and Bond, 2003).
Furthermore, much of the literature on WLB has been conducted in an Anglo-Saxon context
(Chang et al., 2010) and not at a time of crisis, when organizations that face urgent problems
must make drastic changes to ensure their survival. During the crisis, the majority of
Spanish companies reduced their business and even many of them disappeared, generating
an unemployment rate which reached the devastating figure of 26 percent (55 percent for
under 25 s) at the end of 2012 (INE, 2013). Furthermore, the family annual income was
reduced more than 10 percent (Ioakimidis et al., 2014), the average purchasing power was
deteriorated to lower levels than in 2001 (Ioakimidis et al., 2014), and the social benefits
(unemployment benefits, WLB practices or revaluation of pensions, among others)
were reduced (FOESSA, 2013), increasing drastically the inequality (Eurostat, 2013).
Consequently, for companies that are undergoing massive layoffs and expenditure
cuts, WLB becomes less relevant than attending to other pressing issues (Been et al., 2016;
Pasamar and Valle, 2013). Moreover, during a crisis, deteriorating labor market
conditions reduce employees’influence on organizations, thereby affecting human
resources management (HRM). Nonetheless, some studies note that the accessibility of
WLB practices in firms could produce positive outcomes for both workers (e.g. reducing
inter-role conflict, greater employee commitment, etc.) and organizational outcome (Cegarra-
Leiva et al., 2012; Ngo et al., 2009).
This paper aims to extend the findings of the previous literature by investigating the
influence of the availability of WLB practices on the financial results of Spanish accounting
audit SMEs. In doing so, this research could make contributions in several ways.
First, it focuses on SMEs, overcoming the previous literature’s greater emphasis on
analyzing WLB practices in large organizations. Second, by focusing on the consultancy
sector, this investigation might provide new insights into a highly competitive professional
sector where employees have difficulties achieving good levels of WLB. Third, it
aims to overcome a gap in the literature by examining the linkage between the availability
of WLB initiatives and the financial results of firms undertaking these initiatives; this is a
subtopic that has not undergone much analysis. Finally, we contribute to the literature by
providing more information to managers and institutions regarding the financial
effects of WLB practices, hence, providing new information that could enhance their
decision making in HRM and organizational aspects. For example, this information
might be helpful to managers of SMEs because they could offer employees WLB
practices that contribute to positive business results, while avoiding or managing
differently WLB practices with potentially negative effects on organizational performance.
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