Work Schedule Flexibility, Work-Family Enrichment and Job Satisfaction

The purpose of this paper is to propose an empirical model to estimate the level of faculty satisfaction with their teaching role, through its link with work-family enrichment. We also analyze the moderating effect of work schedule flexibility on the relationship between workfamily enrichment and job satisfaction. We test the correlation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment, only in order to verify the relevance of job satisfaction for the organization, considering that organizational commitment is an important organizational outcome.Then, the research problem is stated in the following question: will the moderating effect of work schedule flexibility affect on faculty satisfaction? Data were collected from university teachers in the Faculty of Economics and Finance at Juan Misad Saracho Autonomous University (city of Tarija, Bolivia). Demanding expectations, limited resources of the system and possible mismatch between demands and results that society places on education, justify the need for research on human resources in the education sector (Maillo, Riesco, De-Frutos, Pena, & Gonzalez, 2008). Considering the leading role of teachers in achieving educational and social purposes of the university, Simo, Sallan, and Fernandez (2008) highlight the importance of influencing specific policies in universities, to ensure high levels of commitment and job satisfaction in order to improve teacher performance and reduce costs associated with labor turnover.There is extensive literature on work-family conflict, which refersto the incompatibility between work and family, and its negative consequences on individual health and organizational performance (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brindley, 2005). Recently, researchers have made efforts to examine the positive impact of work-family interface referred to as work-family enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006, Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, & Grzywacz, 2006), positive spread (Allis & O'Driscoll, 2008, Hammer, Neal, Newson, Brockwood, & Colton, 2005), work-family facilitation (Rotondo & Kincaid, 2008, Wayne, Randcl, & Stevens, 2006; Balmforth & Gardner, 2006) or workfamily synergy (Beutel 1 & Witting-Berman, 2008) on attitudes and behaviors of individuals. In general, there is little researchon workfamily enrichment; which is the novelty of this work, focusing on the positive side of this interface and its relationship to job satisfaction. Work-family enrichment is a construct that represents how work and family benefit each other, but has been largely ignored in the literature.This study is based in the organizational behavior approach and focuses in job satisfaction, one of the most relevant variables of such organizational theory (Robbins, 2004). The practical utility has implications for the organizational area because of its connotations in the managerial process of decision making at public higher education sector. In other words, results are inputs to design human resource policies on work-family balance and work schedule flexibility in order to improve teacher's satisfaction, facilitating the achievement of university social and academic goals. Identifying the factors that determine faculty satisfaction, allows university directors/managers define strategies on human resource management, in order to achieve optimal levels of satisfaction that facilitate the teacher's contribution to service provision and improvement of institutional performance.Theoretical Background and Research HypothesesWork-Family Enrichment and Job Satisfaction. Work-family enrichment is defined as the extent to which experiences in one role or function improves the quality of life, performance or affection, in another role or function (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) suggested that the enrichment occurs when benefits of obtained resources in role A, promote an improvement in individual performance in role B. …