Responsible Human Resource in Practice : Towards a Family-friendly Workplace

Abstract

The purpose of this case study is twofold. First, a family-friendly development program in a Finnish health care organization is considered a good example of an attempt to develop an advanced workplace regarding work-family integration. The core idea of the program is that in a family-friendly workplace, human resource practices take employees’ varying circumstances into account. Second, the qualitative data gathered from the case are used to explore employees’ perceptions of family-friendliness, as well as the successes and pitfalls of adopting the development program to enhance work-family integration. The results show that the relationship between employees and their immediate superiors was perceived as a key factor in an organization’s family friendliness. Additionally, putting care and fairness at the centre of responsible human resource management was viewed as promoting a familyfriendly organization. A high organizational hierarchy and different values being placed on various professions and positions (both typical features of Finnish health care organizations) were perceived as obstacles to advancing the organization’s family friendliness. The establishment of family friendliness requires similarly common guidelines and contextspecific flexibility in the organization, meaning that work-family integration can be paradoxical by nature in organizational life.