Maternity protection policies in organizations: The impact of progressiveness on turnover, productivity, and employee usage

Abstract

This study provides one of the first scholastic looks into maternity protection at work: policies that benefit women during stages of pregnancy, nursing, and child-rearing. Extending from prior work-family policy literature, I theorize organizations initiative to cover maternity protection over legal regulation, what I term progressiveness. Drawing from social exchange and signaling processes, I hypothesize that employees may respond positively to an organizations progressiveness associated with maternity protection. The empirical results are based on longitudinal data from 1,905 Korean organizations from 2005 to 2013. This study indicates that organizations initiative in embracing progressive maternity protection policies more than legal mandates has positive signaling effects on employees, thus encouraging more policy usage.