Male parental leave and workplace factors associated with coworkers’ work productivity and well-being in Japan

Male parental leave policies have been introduced in Japan; however, their effects on coworkers’ productivity and well-being remain underexplored. This study examines workplace and psychological factors associated with coworkers’ productivity and well-being. A mixed-methods design was employed, consisting of semi-structured online interviews with employees whose male coworkers had taken parental leave, followed by a qualitative content analysis that identified factors related to coworkers’ productivity and well-being. Additionally, a cross-sectional, web-based survey was administered to private Japanese company employees who had experienced a male coworker taking parental leave and returning to work. Participants completed measures of work productivity, well-being, cooperative and learning-oriented motivation, social support from coworkers, empowerment by supervisors, family-friendly organizational culture, and mutual-aid mindset. Group comparisons, correlation analyses, and covariance structure analyses were performed. Six higher-order groups comprising 12 categories related to coworkers’ productivity and well-being were identified. In Study 2, path analysis adjusting for gender, parental status, and age showed that the observed data were broadly consistent with the hypothesized pattern of associations. Family-friendly organizational culture and mutual-aid mindset were positively associated with several motivational and workplace support variables. Cooperative and learning-oriented motivation were positively associated with work productivity, whereas social support from coworkers and empowerment by supervisors were positively associated with well-being. These findings identify workplace and psychological factors that may be relevant to coworkers’ experiences when male employees take parental leave, although the cross-sectional design does not establish causal or temporal relationships.