This research examined the adoption of work-life programs and the impact of
work-life programs on firm productivity. Human resource executives in a na
tional sample of 658 organizations provided survey data on firm characteris
tics and work-life programs. In these 658 organizations, the percentage of
professionals and the percentage of women employed were positively related
to the development of more extensive work-life programs. Productivity data
were obtained from CD Disclosure for 195 public, for-profit firms. Signific
ant interaction effects indicated that in these 195 firms work-life program
s had a stronger positive impact on productivity when women comprised a lar
ger percentage of the workforce and when a higher percentage of professiona
ls were employed. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.