A Review of Flexible Workplace Arrangements as an Alternative Strategy for Korean Female Employees’ Work-Life Balance

Abstract

With the national concern of the labor shortages due to the rapidly aging workforce and the low-birth rate, the Korean government has conceived several policies to attract a larger female work forces as a potential solution. Among the several family-friendly programs, flexible workplace arrangements (FWA) have emerged as an alternative solution to address women’s critical needs for work-life balance (WLB) and prevent career-interrupted women. However, FWA is still quite new to South Korea and FWA research in Korea is focused on limited areas. With the lack of well-organized literature on FWA in Korea, it would be the first step to understand FWA-related issues and to find appropriate conditions and strategies of FWA for improving Korean employees’ WLB. Thus, in the early stages of FWA study, this study focused on providing understanding the general environment surrounding FWA as well as FWA as an alternative for improving Korean female employees’ WLB. The study included definitions and types of FWA, the stakeholders related to FWA, history of FWA adoption in Korea, challenges, and strategies for the vitalization of FWA. Findings from this research not only extends our current knowledge of FWA.