1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«We [want] to investigate the incidence of organisational culture on the perceptions of work-life balance in different sectors, some more masculine (police) and some more feminine (nursing, social work) and another, mixed but with a more democratic management and different mission, i.e., the coops and the social economy sector, which we want to concentrate on here, while comparing with the other sectors to get a better understanding of the situation of coops and social economy. We decided to study the coop and social economy sector in Québec to see if this factor, the mission and culture, has an influence on the organisational support and the perceptions related to work-family balance.» (p. 4)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«[O]ur paper asks the question whether the coop and social economy sector, with its explicit mission and management approach (participative decision-making process) might have an influence on organizational support to work-life balance (WLB) and thus reduce the perception of WLB-related difficulties over the life course.» (p. 2)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«To qualify as respondents […], participants had to be paid employees and be in charge of at least one child under the age of 18. In the police sector, we processed 164 forms, 418 forms in the social work sector, and 144 in nursing […]. In the coops and social economy sector, 423 persons completed the survey—28 men and 395 women. Among them, 70% are employees while 30% perform management functions.» (p. 6)

Instruments :
- Questionnaire
- Guide d’entretien semi-directif

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«First, it is clearly easier to balance work and family in the coops and social economy sector in comparison with the other sectors. While this could be attributed to the strong presence of women in the sector, this is not sufficient, since the social work and nursing sectors are also very feminine and it appears more difficult to balance work and family in these sectors. […] We also showed that organisational support in the form of the superior’s support and the colleagues’ support are both more important in the coops and social economy sector than in others. […] The history of [this] sector, its accent on a social mission, with principles of democracy, equity, and respect for individuals seems to [explain why it is more supportive]. We were to a certain extent surprised to observe this stronger support since we might have expected that public sector organisations (such as found in nursing, social work and police) would have more means to offer better working conditions and better support for work-family balance. […] Indeed, while formal measures and policies may well exist in public sector organisations, it may be that the application of these is quite rigid and therefore that the objective of work-family balance is much less supported in these organisations.» (p. 13)