Parental leave and employee engagement: Insights from highly educated Finnish mothers
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Date
2024
Department
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Mcode
Degree programme
mib
Language
en
Pages
66
Series
Abstract
Employee engagement is widely recognized for yielding numerous desirable outcomes for organizations. However, understanding how unique demographic characteristics influence engagement requires further exploration. One noteworthy demographic is mothers, who often experience a decline in engagement in connection with their parental leave. This issue is particularly significant for highly educated mothers, whom organizations often strive to retain due to their in-demand skills. The objective of this study is to provide insights into the engagement of mothers during parental leave, with a specific focus on highly educated Finnish mothers. It seeks to understand their experiences and identify factors that either promote or hinder their engagement. The study utilizes a model that integrates the theories of Anitha (2014) and Kahn (1990) to examine the relevance of various antecedents of engagement during the parental leave period. These antecedents include leadership, interpersonal relationships, training and career development, compensation, organizational policies, procedures and norms, insecurity and external life events. Furthermore, this thesis aims to identify concrete employee engagement strategies corresponding to these antecedents. A qualitative approach was adopted for this study, involving six in-depth semi-structured interviews with highly educated Finnish mothers who had recently returned to work after parental leave. The findings indicate that while these mothers acknowledge the importance of engagement and want to feel engaged, their need for engagement diminishes during parental leave. Nevertheless, maintaining a degree of engagement is crucial to prevent them from seeking opportunities elsewhere. Based on the findings, the seven antecedents of engagement from the integrated model are relevant for highly educated Finnish mothers during parental leave and practical strategies corresponding to each antecedent can be identified. However, the study suggests that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions for engaging mothers. Instead, tailored engagement strategies that respect individual preferences and provide flexibility are key to enhancing engagement and supporting mothers during and after parental leave, thereby increasing the likelihood of them returning to the same workplace. This thesis brings a new perspective to employee engagement research by focusing on the previously unexplored parental leave period and aims to provide managers with deeper understanding of engagement during this unique time, including strategies to promote it.Description
Thesis advisor
Katila, SaijaKeywords
employee engagement, motherhood, parental leave, work engagement