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Sustainable Global Human Resource: The Impact of Power Distance on Work–Family Balance

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Abstract

The aim of this conceptual paper is to draw the attention of researchers, employers, and human resource policy makers to one of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, power distance, from a communication perspective. Power distance is believed to facilitate the ability of employees in balancing their work and family life. It is possible to view this factor as either a barrier or a catalyst for the accessibility and utilization of an organization’s human resource family-supportive policies to achieve the desired and satisfied work and family life integration. The level of power distance may either facilitates ones’ resource gain to experience positive work–family spillover or resource depletion which leads to negative work–family spillover. Power distance is proposed to have a buffering effect on the relationship between family-supportive policy and work–family balance (WFB) to unveil the possible reasons behind inconsistent findings in prior research. Besides this, the level of power distance is also proposed to have a predictive effect on WFB. The theoretical and practical importance and implications of power distance are addressed.

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Correspondence to Hooi Ching Khor .

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Khor, H.C., Abdullah Effendi, A. (2019). Sustainable Global Human Resource: The Impact of Power Distance on Work–Family Balance. In: Mohamad Noor, M., Ahmad, B., Ismail, M., Hashim, H., Abdullah Baharum, M. (eds) Proceedings of the Regional Conference on Science, Technology and Social Sciences (RCSTSS 2016) . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0203-9_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0203-9_33

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-0202-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-0203-9

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