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57 Indus. & Lab. Rel. Rev. 599 (2003-2004)
Taking Stock of Work-Family Initiatives: How Announcements of Family-Friendly Human Resource Decisions Affect Shareholder Value

handle is hein.journals/ialrr57 and id is 607 raw text is: TAKING STOCK OF WORK-FAMILY INITIATIVES: HOW ANNOUNCEMENTS OF FAMILY-FRIENDLY HUMAN RESOURCE DECISIONS AFFECT SHAREHOLDER VALUE MICHELLE M. ARTHUR and ALISON COOK* This study examines share price reactions to 231 work-family human resource policies adopted by Fortune 500 companies and announced in the Wall Street Journal between 1971 and 1996. Consistent with past research, the results suggest that firm announcements of work-family initiatives positively affected shareholder return. The authors also empirically test three hypotheses con- cerning how the timing of work-family initiatives influences shareholder reac- tion. They find that a pioneering company announcing the first-ever implemen- tation of a work-family initiative was likely to realize a larger announcement-day share price increase than did later adopters of the same initiative; the first work- family announcement released by a firm influenced announcement-day share price more than did successive work-family announcements by the same firm; and share price reactions to work-family human resource decisions were not importantly affected by whether those decisions followed a gender discrimina- tion suit. W ork-family programs have long been considered innovative; however, newer arguments suggest they should also be considered a best practice (Perry-Smith and Blum 2001). Work-family programs may provide the infrastructure necessary to attract the best human resources. Research- ers have shown that such programs increase firms' ability to attract and retain employ- ees (Carmichael 1984; Grover and Crooker 1995; Thompson, Beauvais, and Carter 1997). Further, scholars have found that work-family programs allow employees to *Michelle M. Arthur is Associate Professor at the Anderson Schools of Management, University of New Mexico, and Alison Cook is Assistant Professor, Col- lege of Business, Utah State University. work more efficiently (Gannon, Norlan, and Robeson 1983; Rothausen, Gonzalez, Clarke, and O'Dell 1998). Consistent with those results, researchers also have found that work-family programs positively affect perceived firm performance (Perry-Smith and Blum 2001). This study adds to our understanding of the relationship between work-family ini- tiatives and firm-level outcomes in several ways. First, we add to a limited literature A data appendix with additional results, and cop- ies of the computer programs used to generate the results presented in the paper, are available from the first author at Anderson Schools of Management, University of New Mexico, 1924 Las Lomas NE, Albu- querque, NM 87131-1221; e-mail arthur@mgt. unm.edu. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 57, No. 4 (July 2004). © by Cornell University. 0019-7939/00/5704 $01.00

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