Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine if municipal human resource managers have difficulties implementing the Family Medical Leave Act, and if so, to explore the reasons for these difficulties. To discover the difficulties, this research study focused on two overarching questions: (1) Where is the locus of the Family Medical Leave Act decision making within a municipality? And (2) Does that locus make a difference in the implementation of the policy? Theoretical framework. Implementation Theory was used to focus on a municipality's implementation process. If implementation studies are done, implementers or decision makers can adapt to the change and provide insight to any of the modifications that arise. Factors in the success of implementation are the communication and training of the implementer. Methodology. The researcher used descriptive and explanatory research. The population was limited to human resources representatives implementing the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The location was San Bernardino County, California. A questionnaire was utilized to collect data to answer two questions. Participants were asked to respond to 29 questions of which 15 were Likert scaled. The questions were quantitative and one was qualitative, which focused on the implementation of FMLA. Findings. The findings of this study indicate that human resources representatives implement the Family Medical Leave Act with minor discrepancies. (1) Two of the FMLA implementers were not human resources representatives; (2) All of the municipalities had liberal leave policies, reducing the need to utilize FMLA; (3) A majority of the municipalities were manually monitoring the total use of FMLA; and (4) Employee handbooks need major revisions. Conclusions and recommendations. The Family Medical Leave Act was developed to help the employee manage home and work. It is recommended to (1) standardize the FMLA process for the State of California, (2) reevaluate the need for FMLA in the public sector, (3) mandate required FMLA training for all FMLA implementers, (4) create a position for each municipality (FMLA Coordinator), and (5) develop computer software to manage FMLA usage.