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Abstract Organizations spend trillions of dollars per year on their employee benefits packages. One reason for this may be that benefits packages are key tools for organizations to signal their values. We draw on signaling theory to understand how employees interpret and react to healthcare benefits as a function of (1) benefit universality, (2) benefit political contentiousness, and (3) individual political orientation. We collect two cross-sectional studies that capture reactions to four healthcare benefits: cancer treatment, reproductive care, abortion-facilitation, and gender-affirming care benefits. We find healthcare benefits signal several underlying organizational qualities, including support for employee health and well-being. Signaling support for employee health and well-being was less closely fitted to abortion-facilitative benefits and gender-affirming care benefits compared to more universal and less contentious benefits (cancer treatment and reproductive care benefits), especially among political conservatives. Similarly, abortion-facilitative benefits and gender-affirming care benefits were evaluated less positively and seen as less important and of lower utility than cancer treatment benefits and non-abortive reproductive care benefits, especially among those who identify as politically conservative. The findings extend knowledge of how and why employee reactions to benefits may differ, test under-developed aspects of signaling theory (signal fit, features and individual differences that modify fit), and inform organizational practice regarding benefit offerings. 

Purpose A critical aspect of understanding any culture is how it manifests in artifacts and social interactions, yet this understanding largely remains absent from the MCC literature. We explore one costly organizational artifact: the employee benefits package. Design/methodology/approach Using cross-sectional survey data (N = 486), we examine the relationships between MCC and benefit provision, communication, and knowledge confidence. Exploratory mediation analyses were conducted to explore the role of communication in MCC’s relations with employee benefit knowledge confidence. Findings MCC was significantly negatively associated with the provision of mental health benefits but showed no significant relationship with physical health benefits. MCC was negatively associated with benefits communication and confidence in mental health benefit knowledge, with communication partially mediating the relationship between MCC and knowledge confidence. Originality These findings demonstrate organizational culture is linked to access to healthcare resources, particularly benefits serving mental, but not physical, health. Benefit communication may play a pivotal role in bridging gaps in employee understanding of benefits. This research extends Schein’s framework of organizational culture by highlighting MCC’s relationship with both structural and social artifacts within organizations. MCC may be a fruitful intervention target for employee healthcare access.