"The Work Must Go On": The Role of Employee and Managerial Communication in the Use of Work-Life Policies.

The Netherlands is characterized by extensive national work-life regulations relative to the United States. Yet, Dutch employees do not always take advantage of existing work-life policies. Individual and focus group interviews with employees and managers in three (public and private) Dutch organizations identified how employee and managerial communication contributed to acquired rules concerning work-life policies and the interpretation of allocative and authoritative resources for policy enactment.

Work, family, and managerial attitudes and practices in the European workplace: comparing Dutch, British, and Slovenian financial sector managers.

Managers are key actors shaping employees’ capabilities to utilize work–life policies. However, most research on managers’ implementation of these policies has been conducted in liberal welfare states and ignores the impact of institutional context. In this study, we situate managers within specific workplace and national layers of context.