Misalignment and Misperception in Preferences to Utilize Family-Friendly Benefits: Implications for Benefit Utilization and Work-Family Conflict.

EMPLOYEE benefits; FAMILY-work relationship; SOCIAL norms; QUALITY of work life; EMPLOYEE well-being

Despite their increasing popularity, family-friendly benefits are frequently underutilized. Drawing on literatures concerning social norms and pluralistic ignorance, this study examines the role of personal preference, group norm misalignment, and misperception of group norms on employees' utilization of family-friendly benefits. In 2 samples (154 firefighters and 440 nurses) across 3 data collection periods, we found that when employees' preferences for benefit utilization were misaligned with the perceived group norm, they adjusted their family-friendly benefit utilization in a manner congruent with the norm, even when that norm was misperceived. Further, we found that family-friendly benefit utilization was negatively associated with work-family conflict. Together, our findings suggest that misperceived social norms regarding family-friendly benefit utilization can lead to situations whereby employees do not utilize family-friendly benefits because they mistakenly perceive utilization is not socially accepted and, as a result, experience higher work-family conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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