The Effect of Long Working Hours

Author/Date	Topic/ Focus/ Question	Concept Theoretical Model		Paradigm/ Method	Contest/ Setting/ Sample	Findings	Future Research
Luo,L. (2011) "Working hours and personal preference among Taiwanese employees", International Journal of Workplace Health Management,4,244-256. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538351111172608	The aim of this research is to explore effects of hours of work and the role of personal preference on job satisfaction, work‐to‐family conflict (WFC) and overall life satisfaction among Taiwanese employees.		Surveyed using structured questionnaires.		Data from a nationwide survey in Taiwan were used. A total of 1,122 full‐time employees were surveyed using structured questionnaires.	It was found that working hours were negatively related to job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction, and positively related to WFC, after effects of demographical and job‐related factors were partialled out. More importantly, it was found that the “fit” between preferred and actual hours of work had an effect upon the above strain variables. Specifically, people who had a fit between preferred and actual hours of work reported lower levels of WFC and higher overall life satisfaction, compared to those who had a misfit in working hours.	Using single‐item measures is a major limitation, though it is a common practice in large‐scale social surveys due to constraints on length and time. However, these results have both theoretical and practical implications. It is recommended that both the actual and individual's preference for hours of work should be taken into consideration in any attempt to improve employees' quality of work and quality of life in general.
Wouter ,A., Rense .N., Minna,G., (2015). "Women’s working hours: The interplay between gender role attitudes, motherhood, and public childcare support in 23 European countries", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 35.582-599. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-10-2014-0073	The purpose of this paper is to show how the interplay between individual women’s gender role attitudes, having young children at home, as well as the country-context characterized by gender egalitarianism and public childcare support, relates to women’s working hours in 23 European countries.		Multilevel regression analyses.		This study presents results of multilevel regression analyses of data from the European Social Survey (Round 2). These micro-level data on 23 European countries were combined with country-level measures on gender traditionalism and childcare expenditure.	The authors found that the negative association between having young children at home and women’s working hours is stronger for women with traditional gender role attitudes compared to women with egalitarian attitudes. The gap in working hours between women with and without young children at home was smaller in countries in which the population holds egalitarian gender role attitudes and in countries with extensive public childcare support. Furthermore, it was found that the gap in employment hours between mothers with traditional or egalitarian attitudes was largest in countries with limited public childcare support.
Lorena Ronda, Andrea Ollo-López, Salomé Goñi-Legaz, (2016) "Family-friendly practices, high-performance work practices and work–family balance: How do job satisfaction and working hours affect this relationship?", Management Research: The Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management, 14,2-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRJIAM-02-2016-0633	Establish to what extent family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices are positively related to work–family balance and to identify the role played by job satisfaction and working hours as mediators of this relationship.				We use data for a representative sample of almost 17,000 employees of dual-earner couples from European countries. To test the mediation mechanism implied by our hypotheses, we follow the procedure outlined in Baron and Kenny.	The results show that, in general, family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices increase work–family balance and that these positive relationships are partially mediated by job satisfaction and working hours. While both family-friendly practices and high-performance work practices increase job satisfaction, only the first increase working hours. Moreover, job satisfaction increases work–family balance, while working hours reduces it. The net effect of these opposing forces on work–family balance is positive.