L’utilisation des dispositifs d’articulation de la vie familiale et de la vie professionnelle. Étude auprès de 48 entreprises de Wallonie (Belgique)

Abstract

Based on a first-hand collection of data from 48 medium-sized and large organizations and private firms located in Wallonie (Belgium), this article provides an initial snapshot of whether workers make use of the institutional dispositions available to help them articulate their professional and family lives (maternity leave, paternal leave, parental leave, etc.). It also identifies and takes account of the extra-judicial provisions introduced by organizations. However, the author goes beyond this descriptive perspective, though this is useful in itself since nothing of the kind currently exists, and takes on the question of how organizational relationships differ with regard to such provisions. To this end, the writer has identified three organizational groups : the first, qualified as “purely legalistic”, a second as “reticent”, and a third which is qualified as “proactive”, since it differentiates itself by the fact that it offers extra-judicial provisions and calls more often on less institutional forms of leave, such as “time-entitlement” or palliative care leave. These research results stress the usefulness of a continued study of “organizational mediation” to balance out institutional measures and individual behaviours.