earticle

영어

This study aimed to identify differences in the level of work-life balance as well as the effect of independent variables, including family (sharing family work, support for working), organization (culture, support services and systems), and community variables (accessibility to and amount of work-life balance programs), on work-life balance in South Korea, Japan, and the U.K. For these purposes, data were collected from 311, 324, and 322 married, working women (from 30 to 50 years of age) from Korea, Japan, and the U.K., respectively. It was consistently shown that U.K. employees scored higher in work-life balance than Korean and Japanese employees. Compared with Japan and the U.K., Korean participants were significantly lower in terms of work-leisure balance and work-self-development balance. The regression analysis revealed that ‘sharing family work with partner’ was commonly important and a major factor in all three countries. A ‘supportive organizational culture’ predicted work-life balance for Korean and Japanese participants, while work-life balance programs had a powerful effect on work-life balance only for U.K. participants. In the case of community variables, there were no significant effects for U.K. participants with regard to work-life balance. In contrast, ‘the amount of work-life balance programs offered’ was shown to affect the work-life balance of Korean working women, while ‘accessibility to the programs’ was significantly influential in Japan. We interpret these results according to social, economic, political, and psychological factors.