Understanding employees’ intention to take sabbaticals. Analyzing the role of supportive supervisors
| Date | 04 June 2018 |
| Pages | 882-899 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-01-2017-0021 |
| Published date | 04 June 2018 |
| Author | Sarah Altmann,Claudia Kröll |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Understanding employees’
intention to take sabbaticals
Analyzing the role of supportive supervisors
Sarah Altmann
Chair of Business Administration in Particular Organization Studies and
Human Resource Management, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf,
Düsseldorf, Germany, and
Claudia Kröll
Chair of Business Administration, University of Münster,
Münster, Germany
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of supervisor support for employees’work-life
balance (WLB) on employees’intention to take sabbaticals. According to the theory of planned behavior,
intentions are based on attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, which mediate the
relationship between supervisor support and the intention to take sabbaticals.
Design/methodology/approach –Survey data were collected from 510 employees in Germany.
The hypotheses developed are analyzed using structural equation modeling.
Findings –The results show that supervisor support has a direct negative effect on employees’intention to
take sabbaticals. In addition, supportive supervisors are associated with a decreased attitude toward
sabbaticals, which reduces employees’intention to take them. In contrast, supervisor support promotes
employees’perceived behavior control, which increases their intention to take sabbaticals.
Practical implications –The findings show that supervisors play an important role in employees’decision-
making process regarding whether to take sabbaticals. If supervisors are supportive regarding employees’
WLB, the need to take sabbaticals decreases. However, in order to encourage participation and to exploit the
positive outcomes of sabbaticals, supervisors should communicate the possibility of taking them.
Originality/value –Prior research has focused solely on the direct link between supervisor support and the
actual use of WLB policies. As behavior is intentional, it is important to understand how supervisor support
affects employees’intention to take sabbaticals. This paper explores the mechanism that explains the
relationship between supervisor support and employees’intention to take sabbaticals.
Keywords Quantitative, Supervisor support, Structural equation modelling (SEM),
Theory of planned behaviour (TPB), Sabbaticals, Social information processing (SIP) theory,
Work-life balance (WLB) policies
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Because of the encroachment of long, unpredictable work hours into non-work life
(Carr and Tang, 2005), employees often experience role conflicts between their personal
interests and work (Rau and Hyland, 2002). In order to adapt the workforce to the changes
in the work environment, organizations have increasingly adopted a variety of work-life
balance (WLB) policies (e.g. flexible work schedules, telecommuting, compressed
workweeks, job sharing, part-time work, sabbaticals; Leslie et al., 2012) that give
employees control over when, where, and how much they work. These policies help
organizations to take into account employees’desire for more flexible and individualized
work time (Beauregard and Henry, 2009). Sabbaticals are comparatively new but are
increasingly part of the WLB policies organizations offer (Society for Human Resource
Management, 2015). A sabbatical is employer-approved time off from work that lasts from
a couple of weeks to several months ( Judiesch and Lyness, 1999) and during which
employees pursue private interests, such as spending time with the family, recreation, and
Personnel Review
Vol. 47 No. 4, 2018
pp. 882-899
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-01-2017-0021
Received 25 January 2017
Revised 16 July 2017
22 November 2017
Accepted 10 February 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
882
PR
47,4
personal development while maintaining their employment (Bourhis and Mekkaoui, 2010;
Carr and Tang, 2005). Research on sabbaticals has shown that they are beneficial for
employees, as they are related to reduced stress (Maslach, 2003), increased motivation
(Miethe, 2000), and improved well-being (Davidson et al., 2010). However, even in
organizations that offer WLB policies such as sabbaticals, only a few employees take them
(Fiksenbaum, 2014; LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, 2015).
One possible explanation for employees’failing to take sabbaticals is that WLB policies
do not address fundamental aspects of the organization that can encourage or discourage
employees from using them (Allen, 2001; Casper et al., 2004). Many organizations implicitly
or explicitly inhibit the use of WLB benefits because of the flexibility stigma that is often
attached to them, such as that one who uses them is less committed to the organization than
are those who do not (Cech and Blair-Loy, 2014; Williams et al., 2013). In this regard,
supervisor support of a WLB has been identified as a critical factor that shapes employees’
decisions concerning whether to use WLB benefits (e.g. Casper et al., 2004; Dikkers et al.,
2007; Thompson and Prottas, 2006). For instance, Blair-Loy and Wharton (2002) show that
supervisors can increase the likelihood that their employees will use WLB benefits by
signaling their responsiveness to work-life issues.
However, little is known about how supervisor support shapes an employee’sdecision
to take a sabbatical. An investigation of this question is relevant for three key reasons:
first, in line with the social information processing (SIP) theory, employees’organizational
context influences their attitudes and behavior expectations (Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978).
Since supervisors are important sources of information about the attitudes and behaviors
that are valued in the organization, it is useful to explore how employees adapt their
attitudes and behavior to the information their supervisors provide. Second, the theory of
planned behavior (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) states that the influence of exogenous variables on
employees’intentions occurs through motivational variables like attitude, subjective
norm, and perceived behavioral control. Hence, it is important to analyze the mediating
effects of these motivational variables on the relationship between supervisor support and
an employee’s intention to take a sabbatical. Third, studies haveinvestigated the influence
of supervisor support on the use of WLB benefits in general, regardless of the types of
benefits (e.g. Allen, 2001; Dikkers et al., 2007; Thompson et al., 1999). Research has shown
that different types of WLB policies regarding the duration, location, and distribution of
work time affect employees differently (Butts et al., 2012). Therefore, a focus on
sabbaticals is important, as their offer of an extended period of absence in which no work
activities are per formed differs from the benefits o f other kinds of WLB policies
(Kossek et al., 2015).
Against this background, the aim of this study is to analyze the influence of supervisor
support on the intention to take a sabbatical, mediated by attitude, subjective norm, and
perceived behavioral control. The study provides new empirical knowledge by providing a
more differentiated understanding of the relationship between supervisor support and an
employee’s intention to take a sabbatical. With the exception of Veiga et al. (2004), research
has neglected to take into account that using WLB benefits is intentional. According to the
TPB (Ajzen, 1991), intention is an important predictor of actual behavior, which is based on
attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms related to the behavior, and the individual’s
perceived behavioral control of the behavior. In this regard, the first contribution this study
makes is to the link between the TPB and employees’intention to take sabbaticals. In doing
so, the study helps to clarify the cognitive mechanism behind employees’intention. As a
second contribution, the study identifies additional variables that factor into intention,
including how supervisor support affects employees’intentions. Understanding what
influences employees’intention to take sabbaticals helps supervisors to encourage
participation and to exploit sabbaticals’positive outcomes.
883
Employees’
intention
to take
sabbaticals
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