Alignment matters? The interactive effects of women in top management, board of directors, and middle management on the adoption and implementation of work-life support policies

Work-life balance is growing in importance due to social and economic changes and boundaries between the work and nonwork domains becoming more blurred than ever. Research shows that organizations can contribute to employees’ work-life balance by providing work-life support policies (WLSPs). However, organizations significantly vary in their adoption of WLSPs, and even when policies are adopted, they are often not implemented, leading to a gap between policy and practice. Taking into consideration both the adoption and implementation side of WLSPs, this dissertation seeks to examine the effects that female representation in top management (TM) has on the number of WLSPs available in organizations and whether they are implemented to influence employees’ awareness and perceived accessibility of such policies. Moreover, taking a multi-echelons approach, the dissertation examines the moderating role of female representation in the board of directors and middle management. Results from analyses conducted using panel data of firms and employees from South Korea show that female representation in top management has a positive influence on the adoption of WLSPs, although little support is found for its effects on the implementation of WLSPs. Results also suggest that alignment in gender composition across these levels may matter and that gender composition across different managerial levels may have different effects when it comes to adoption and implementation. Overall, this dissertation seeks to shed light on how female representation across various levels of management may influence the number of available WLSPs as well as employees’ perceptions of awareness and accessibility of such policies. It is likely to inspire further work investigating the interactive effects between top management, board of directors, and middle managers, as well as relevant psychological mechanisms.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Res & Industrial Rels

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Suh, Yon Jin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kramer, Amit
• Mahoney, Joseph
• Park, YoungAh
• Won, ShinJae

• Top management
• Board of directors
• Middle management
• Work-life support policies

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2025 Yon Jin Suh

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129765

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129765