The impact of organizational culture on work-life balance – a scoping review

Abstract

Background: Many things affect the way an individual experiences work-life balance (WLB), and one of the things that affect it is organizational culture. Organizational culture is built through beliefs, values, attitudes and traditions born through shared experience.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate and describe the effects of organizational culture on work-life balance and which elements of organizational culture may affect WLB.

Material and methods: A methodology of scoping review was used. The data was collected through electronic databases and reference lists. Quantitative results were interpreted through the numeric data and qualitative results through thematic analysis.  

Results: A total of 11 articles were included for review. The results show that most studies are conducted at a general level and that there is little information of the more specific impact of organizational culture on WLB.

Conclusions: Organizational culture can either support or prevent the employee from reaching balance and are affected by e.g. attitudes and values.

Significance: To prevent health problems and redundancies, the organization should support the WLB of employees. And this should not be done by providing only means of well-being but by researching and investing in organizational culture.

Keywords:

Organizational culture, work-life balance