Women & Men in Management

1. Women & Men in Management Chapter 8 – Managing the Work-Family Interface

2. Finding Work-Family Balance • Work-family balance represents: • Satisfaction with the effectiveness of one’s work role in relation to the effectiveness of one’s family role • Good work-family balance is dependent on management of work-family interface • How work role influences family role, and vice versa

3. Define Family • Three variables: marital status, parental status, spouse’s employment status • Six basic combinations: • Single, no children • Married, no children, spouse employed • Married, no children, spouse not employed • Single, children • Married, children, spouse employed • Married, children, spouse not employed

4. Define Family • Why are these combinations too simple? • Divorce • Separation • Widowed • Remarried • Same sex vs. opposite sex couples • Unmarried couples with children • Importance of parents, siblings, extended family • Today, those first three variables are not enough to define the family life of each individual!

5. Family Structures in Management • Men • As they become more successful in their careers, they are more likely to have a spouse and children • Women • As women assume managerial positions at higher levels, they are less likely to be married or have children

6. Bias in the Workplace: Family Diversity • Individuals are subject to bias in the workplace based on marital status, parental status, family diversity: • Singlism • Men taking paternity leave • Relocation job offers

7. A Juggling Act • Optimistic view • Involvement in one role enhances functioning in the other. • A heightened sense of well-being and subjective career success • Pessimistic view • Attempting to participate in both work and family roles to a significant extent results in a time bind • “Trade-offs” view • There are costs and benefits to juggling family and work, the challenge is to minimize costs and maximize benefits

8. Conflict Perspective: Work-Family Interface • Work and family roles will inevitably interfere with each other • Work-family conflict • Results from pressures from work and family roles that are mutually incompatible • Has negative consequences for • Employees • Family members • Employers

9. Conflict Perspective: Work-Family Interface • Three types of work-family conflict occur: • Time-based conflict • Time spent working cannot be devoted to family activities, and vice versa • Strain-based conflict • Strain in one role spills over into the other role • Behavior-based conflict • Occurs when incompatible behaviors are required for work and family roles

10. Alleviating Work-Family Conflict • Social support in one role for involvement in the other role • Tangible • Information • Advice • Assistance • Intangible • Affirmation • Affection • Trust

11. Enrichment Perspective: Work-Family Interface • Work and family roles continually enrich or enhance each other • Work-family enrichment • Extent to which individuals’ experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role • Has considerable positive consequences • High job satisfaction & organizational commitment • Family satisfaction and overall health

12. Enrichment Perspective: Work-Family Interface • Work-family enrichment occurs when resources generated in one role are applied to positively affect the other role • Skills • Perspectives • Psychological and physical resources • Social-capital resources • Flexibility • Material resources

13. Work and Family as Segmented or Integrated • Individuals vary in preference to segment or integrate work and family roles • Segmenters • Prefer to keep these roles disconnected by maintaining boundaries between work and family • Integrators • Prefer to have roles interwoven in their lives by merging or blending various aspects of work and family

14. Segmenters vs. Integrators: The Trade Off • Segmenters • Experience less work-to-family conflict • Are able to turn off work stressors in the family role • Leave behaviors at the office that would be dysfunctional in the home • Integrators • Transfer positive effects from work to family • See relevance in applying skills and perspectives from work to their family roles • Experience more work-to-family enrichment

15. The Meaning of Success • Objective career success • Measured by: • Earnings • Level of position in the organizational hierarchy • Rate of advancement • Positively related • Involves more status-based satisfiers • Does not always necessarily lead to career satisfaction

16. The Meaning of Success • Subjective career success • Measured by: • Potential for advancement • Job security • Relationships with coworkers • Positively related • Involves more socioemotional satisfiers

17. The Meaning of Success • Objective family success: • Measured by • Marital or relationship status • Number of children, children’s activities, number of friends • Objective family success is too limited and does not accurately describe family situation • Subjective family success: • Family satisfaction • Quality of family life

18. Sex Differences and Success • Paradox of the contented female worker • Research findings of women who achieve less objective success than men but maintain the same amount of subjective success • Lawyers • Human service workers • Hospitality managers, etc. • Reasoning • Women may expect less objective success than men • Women value objective success less than men do

19. Sex Differences and Success • Paradox of the contented female business owner • Reasoning • Female business owners place less value on achieving business success in traditional terms • They are more concerned with the quality of their relationships with employees and contributions to society

20. Work-Family Decisions • Decisions in one role (work/family) that are influenced by factors in the other role. • Decisions regarding the work domain: • Role entry • Role participation • Role exit

21. Work-Family Decisions • Decisions vary from: • Whether to work part-time or full-time • Whether to start a business • Number of hours to devote to a job or business • Whether to go through a voluntary employment gap • Whether to quit a job • Overall, women’s work decisions likely to be more influenced by family • Decline in gender role endorsement • Leading to more males who take family into consideration

22. Creating a Family-Friendly Work Environment

23. Creating a Family-Friendly Work Environment • Fostering the family-friendly organizational culture • Create supportive managers to make employees feel more comfortable with family matters and work • Combat singlism • Mindset of employing individuals, not simply job holders

24. Balancing Work and Family

25. Chapter 8 Terms • Extreme jobs • Work-family balance • Work-family interface • Gender roles • Gender stereotypes • Singlism • Conflict perspective: Work-family interface • Work-family conflict • Time-based conflict • Strain-based conflict • Behavior-based conflict • Social support • Gender egalitarianism • Enrichment perspective: Work-family interface • Work-family enrichment • Skills • Perspectives • Psychological resources • Physical resources • Social-capital resources • Flexibility • Material resources • Segmenters • Integrators • Segmentation preferences • Objective career success • Subjective career success • Status-based satisfiers • Socioemotional satisfiers • Paradox of the contented female worker • Paradox of the contented female business owner • Work-family decisions • Role entry decisions • Role participation decisions • Role exit decisions