Today's competitive global environment and demanding workplace brings work life challenges for everyone all most in all sectors. The Indian IT industry characterized by long working hours, rigorous works, heavy work pressures and pressing deadlines always brings challenges for its employees. The employees are not willing to work in such organization where the prevailing culture is not supportive and many even quit the job; retention happens to be critical then. Off late it is the realization of most of the companies that if the work life conflicts of employees can be taken care of in an appropriate way then it can help in the retention of the talent. Companies interested in increasing organizational outcomes should enhance an organizational culture positive towards employees' balance, communicating their support towards work life balance initiatives.The present study analyses the impact of work life balance practices on employee retention and the mediating effect of a supporting culture based on empirical evidence drawn from Indian IT sector. The findings show that a work life balance supportive culture mediates the effect of the availability of work life balance practices on organizational performance.

The authors examine the influence of individual and collective voice mechanisms on employee access to and use of six work-life flexibility practices. Their multilevel analyses are based on an original survey of 897 workers nested in departments across eight unionized establishments in the United States. Collective voice measures include the effectiveness of union pay benefits and union schedule support at the individual and union (group) levels. The authors' analyses indicate that when unions are perceived to effectively support workers' schedule needs, individual access to flextime, gradual return to work, and a compressed workweek is higher. By contrast, when unions are perceived to effectively negotiate higher wages and benefits and enforce the collective agreement, individual access to flextime and a compressed workweek is lower. Collective voice measures are also significantly related to the use of a number of worklife flexibility practices. These findings suggest that union behavior can have a significant and varied influence on access to and use of work-life flexibility practices. W ith the rise of female labor force participation, the increase in dual earner couples, and the growing work and family conflict among men, a large number of U.S. employees would like more access to work-life flexibility practices, such as flextime, voluntary telework, and leave for family and personal needs (Tang and MacDermid 2010). Access to and use of these practices in U.S. workplaces, however, are often driven by managerial discretion and employer control, especially for working-class jobs (e.g., police, secretarial, and industrial workers) (Kelly and Kalev 2006). Given this situation, greater understanding is needed of the role of labor unions as a form

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to bring a more individual focus to social networks in theorizing the social process of knowledge sharing.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical model proposes that political skill will shape an individual's social network. Further, political skill within a network will influence the degree of complex knowledge sharing, which likely happens through the mechanism of affective- and cognitive-based trust.FindingsTheoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.Originality/valueKnowledge sharing is an inherently social process and as such occurs within the context of social networks in an organization. However, research to date has not fully explored the details of how and why complex knowledge sharing happens within a social network. Generally, theory on social networks has focused on structural qualities of a network, rather than the individual characteristics of the members of that network. This paper brings a more individual focus to social networks in theorizing the social process of knowledge sharing.

Strategic human resource management literature has highlighted the role of high performance work systems as a set of workplace practices that enhance employee productivity and organizational performance. While the high performance literature has been around for over two decades now, research in this area has been staggered, and inconclusive about the organizational variables that comprise high performance work practices, as well as the effects of these practices on organizational outcomes -especially attitudinal employee outcomes such as job satisfaction and commitment. By creating an environment of empowerment and teamwork, high performance work practices motivate employees to perform better. One of the ways in which these workplace practices achieve higher performance is by eliciting discretionary, or extra-role behaviors, from employees. Using foundational research from the high performance paradigm, this paper examines the effects of team-level strategic HR practices on job satisfaction. Analyses of data collected from 138 frontline teams in US Midwestern hospitals, show that while self-managed work teams and team communication result in higher job satisfaction for members, this effect is mitigated when team members display organizational citizenship behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.

According to role theory, employees experience conflict between their enacted roles in the work versus family domain, often resulting in negative individual and organizational outcomes. Flexible work practices such as flextime, in tandem with other HR practices such as higher pay levels or team-based work, have thus gained popularity for their positive impact on employees’ work-family conflict. Related individual variables such as age, gender or family status have also generated research interest owing to their anticipated effects on work-family conflict. However, extant studies have not tested the simultaneous effects of organizational and individual variables on the relationship between HR practices and employee work-family conflict. Using data from the UK Work-Life Balance Study 2011-12 funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, this study tests the effects of HR practices (compensation, team-based work, and flexible work practices) as well as individual variables (gender, family status and managerial status) on employees’ perceived work-family conflict. Results show that gender, family status and managerial status moderate the relationship between flextime and work-family conflict, shedding new light on the differential impact of flextime on different categories of employees – men versus women; married versus unmarried; and managerial versus non-managerial. Conceptual and practical implications are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to apply reciprocity theory to understand how hypothetical work location decision outcomes and individual differences affect employees’ trust in their employer and willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs). Design/methodology/approach Three vignettes were used to manipulate work location decision outcomes and hypotheses were tested using Hayes’ (2008) PROCESS in a sample of 378 adults who worked in the USA during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Participants reported greater OCB intentions through higher trust in the employer when given their hypothetical choice of work location compared to being assigned one, and when assigned to their preferred compared to nonpreferred location. External work locus of control (EWLC) moderated the effects of work location on trust in the employer. The relationship between trust and OCB intentions was weakened when employees perceived greater difficulty in leaving their jobs. Originality/value This study examined the roles of felt reciprocity, individual differences, choice and hypothetically receiving one’s preferred work location, on trust in the employer and willingness to engage in OCBs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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