The perceived fairness of work–life balance policies: A UK case study of solo‐living managers and professionals without children

The ability to reconcile work and private life is a matter relevant to all employees, though not all may seek “balance.” Research indicates that organisational work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements often focus on the needs of working parents, with one potential outcome being “family‐friendly backlash,” or counterproductive work behaviour from those without caring responsibilities. This paper analyses data from 36 interviews with childless solo‐living managers and professionals, exploring perceptions of fairness in relation to these policies. In contrast to previous studies, despite recognising a strong family‐care orientation in employer provisions, perceptions of unfair treatment or injustice were not pronounced in most cases, and thus there was little evidence of backlash/counterproductive work behaviour. The paper uses and develops organisational justice theory to explain the findings, emphasising the importance of situating individual justice orientations within perceived organisational policy and wider regulatory contexts. It also emphasises the importance of evaluating fairness of work–life balance policies and flexible working arrangements in relation to other aspects of the employment relationship, notably opportunities for career development and progression.     

All of work? All of life? Reconceptualising work‐life balance for the 21st century

This paper argues that the study of work‐life balance to date has, in the main, adopted a restricted conception of both “work” and “life”, which does not take account of recent developments in life worlds, working arrangements and employment relationships. “Life” has hitherto been viewed as largely comprising caring activities for dependent children, whereas “work” has been premised largely on a traditional model of work, characterised by full‐time, permanent employment with one employer and a conventional understanding of what work involves. This means that extant research and theory only provides a partial view of the work‐life needs and experiences of the workforce. In the paper, we propose extending conceptions of both work and life to incorporate different life worlds and social groups and different working arrangements and employment relationships.     

Feminisation of the medical profession: a strategic HRM dilemma? The effects of family‐friendly HR practices on female doctors' contracted working hours

Health‐care institutions face a strategic HR dilemma. They need to attract female doctors from a tight, feminised labour market by offering family‐friendly HR practices (e.g. part‐time employment), often based on collective labour agreements, while trying to contain their labour costs by employing as many full‐timers as possible. In this study, we investigate which family‐friendly arrangements serve health‐care institutions' HR strategies best in terms of retaining female doctors' working hours. Data collected in 2008 from 1,070 Dutch female doctors indicate that offering family‐friendly HR practices such as flexible working hours (in contrast to part‐time working) minimise the strategic HR dilemma, since it offers scope for improving the work–life balance without encouraging female doctors to work less hours. However, the effect of family‐friendly arrangements on working hours is dependent on the family‐friendly workforce philosophy: only with proper support for career goals do women using family‐friendly arrangements work more hours.     

Part‐Time Work,Fixed‐Term Contracts,and the Returns to Experience

Using data from Spanish Social Security records, we investigate the returns to experience for female workers in different flexible work arrangements. Our model consists of four random‐effects equations simultaneously estimated using Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques. We find a large negative wage effect of working part‐time (PT), which differs by motherhood status and contract type. We also find that working PT involves lower returns to experience than standard full‐time employment and thus a substantial negative wage effect accumulates over time for those employed PT. Finally, our simulations reveal that working PT also raises the probability of working under a fixed‐term contract.     

Dynamic models of the labor force behavior of married women which can be estimated using limited amounts of past information

This paper examines the extent of the inadequacy of standard cross-sectional models of US labor force behavior and considers the abilities of alternative models to capture the observed continuity in the hours of work and earnings of individuals as well as in their employment histories. Both of the alternatives to the standard cross-sectional model considered in this study incorporate limited amounts of information about past work behavior that could easily be collected as part of a national population census. Using a population of 21 to 64 year old married working women taken from a 1969 through 1978 Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the variables included in the Z vector age: 1) age of the wife; 2) education of the wife; 3) state average hourly wage in manufacturing measured in 1967 dollars; and 4) unemployment rate for the state in which the wife lives. Results show that by using information about a women's hours of work and wage rate in the previous year, it may be feasible to improve on forecasts of a woman's employment and earnings behavior. For each model a separate estimate is made for wives aged 21 through 46, and for those aged 47 through 64. The dummy and difference models perform much better than the standard model, with the dummy model having the higher pseudo-chi-square statistic. These models show that systematic errors made in determining which individuals work, what they earn per hour, or how many hours they work, should result in prediction errors of the same sort year after year in the computation of annual earnings. These findings with respect to years of work and nonwork, years of part time versus full time work, and cumulative earnings over a 10 year period, confirm and extend Heckman's findings; thus, forecasting models of the work behavior of individuals should not be estimated using pure cross-sectional data. It would be important if researchers could identify what observable factors, if any, increase the likelihood that wives will alter their work behavior from what it has been in the immediate past, even if they are not able to fully understand or explain this previous work behavior.     

Addressing the Stress of Work and Elder Caregiving of the Graying Workforce: The Moderating Effects of Financial Strain on the Relationship Between Work‐Caregiving Conflict and Psychological Well‐Being

Human resource policies and practices must consider the issues associated with an aging workforce, and, more specifically, the stress experienced by those involved in caring for elders. This study examined such stress by studying the relationship between work–elder caregiving conflict and well‐being, as well as the role of perceived financial need in moderating that relationship. The sample included 583 women who worked full‐time and had significant elder caregiving responsibilities. The analysis showed that work interfering with caregiving (WIC) was significantly associated with both positive and negative affect, but caregiving interfering with work (CIW) was not significantly associated with either. Perceived financial need decreased older women's psychological well‐being and moderated the relationship between work–elder caregiving conflict and psychological well‐being such that the negative effect of WIC was stronger for older women with higher perceived financial need, while CIW decreased the well‐being of older women with lower perceived financial need but not for those with higher need. The results stress the importance of considering elder care as a source of work‐family conflict when managing the aging workforce as well as suggest a way to attenuate the negative effect of work‐family conflict by managing the perception of financial resources and needs of the employees. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The effect of the minimum wage on employment and hours

This study examines the effect of minimum wage increases on teen hours of work and employment using both state- and individual-level panel data in the US. The state-level results indicate that minimum wage increases may lower employment rates but do not adversely affect hours among either working teens or all teens. The individual-level results do not indicate that minimum wage increases have a significant negative effect on hours worked by low-wage teens who are likely to be affected by a minimum wage increase. The results suggest that low-wage teens are less likely to remain employed, relative to high-wage teens, when the minimum wage is raised. However, this adverse effect disappears when these low-wage teens are compared to other low-wage teens during periods when the minimum wage did not increase.     

Labor Market Duality and Leisure Industries in Spain: Quality of Life Versus Standard of Living

Abstract . We discuss the effects that the emergence of the new postindustrial form of flexible capitalist organization has on the Spanish labor market and, by extension, on the working life of two representative groups of employees characterized by their casual and stable working conditions. This brings a growing duality in the labor market, where individuals who cannot escape casual employment coexist with those enjoying long‐term contracts. This concern includes how these changes affect the nature and the ways in which these particular groups understand quality of life and standard of living, which in turn serves to call into question the “end of work” and the expected “leisure society.” In addition, we highlight several circumstances that illustrate a decay in job quality and working conditions, particularly the increase in working hours. Parallel to this process we identify a work‐and‐spend behavior, resulting in overspent families that exhibit financial fragility and give up quality of life, associated with more free time, for higher living standards, which demand an increasing job commitment. Free time from work has become a scarce resource in Spain, and for those individuals belonging to what is known as the “new leisure class,” it is associated with high‐spending leisure activities, which has increased the economic importance of leisure industries.     

Is tax progression really good for employment? A model with endogenous hours of work

This paper discusses the effect of tax progression on wage setting and employment in a unionised labour market. Recent contributions to this field argue that tax progression paradoxically enhances employment if wage setting is subject to collective bargaining. In this literature, individual hours of work are usually assumed to be exogenously given. We show that the positive employment effect of tax progression can be generalized to a model with a positive labour supply elasticity of individual workers. However, the wage-moderating effect of tax progression does not unambiguously carry over to a world where the union may fix both wages and individual hours of work. In this framework, the union reacts to tax progression by cutting individual working time. The wage rate, however, may decrease or increase. If the wage rate increases, the number of employed workers may decline despite the reduction in hours of work.     

Scheduled to work hard: The relationship between non‐standard working hours and work intensity among European workers (2005–2015)

Work intensity is of central importance for organisational performance, as well as workers' health and well‐being, yet its determinants at the workplace‐level remain underresearched. This article addresses this gap by examining consequences of working time adjustments for work intensity and the role of control over scheduling in influencing when working time adjustments have stronger effect on work intensity. Working hours are analysed on three dimensions: duration, distribution and flexibility. Analysis uses the European Working Conditions Survey (2005–2015) and a sample of employees from EU28 countries. Findings reveal that work intensity is closely related to the timing of work. Working long days or weeks, at night, on weekends, and with changes in hours imposed by employers is associated with more intense work. Moreover, the impact of non‐standard hours on work intensity differs depending on who (workers or employers) has control over their scheduling.     

Managing the Contingent Workforce—Gaining the Advantages, Avoiding the Pitfalls

Part-time employment arrangements constitute a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. labor force. Such employment arrangements offer advantages to both employers and employees. Part-time employees offer employers reduced wage and benefit costs, workforce flexibility, aid for special projects, replacement fill-ins and a chance to preview candidates for full-time employment. Part-time work enables employees to supplement family income, enjoy flexible hours as well as a change in job environment and a chance to substitute for full-time employment when there is no choice. The advantages of contingent employment come at a cost. Employers must comply with laws and give up control over much of the employment relationship in order to avoid co-employment status and to gain the benefits of contingent employment. Employees in contingent work arrangements frequently do not qualify for many of the benefits available to full time employees. Suggestions made for managing contingent workers may reduce some of the problems, but they would also remove some of the advantages.     

Gender differences in positive perceptions,anxiety, and depression among mothers and fathers of children with intellectual disabilities: a logistic regression analysis

This study explores gender differences in positive perceptions, anxiety, and depression among mothers and fathers of children with intellectual disabilities (IDs). We examined the relationship between these variables and certain characteristics of both the child (age and severity of disability) and the parents (age, educational level, and employment status). A sample of 60 mother/father couples who had children with IDs completed the Positive Contributions Scale to measure their positive perceptions, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to assess their level of anxiety and depression. Bivariate analyses were used to determine differences between fathers and mothers as regards their positive perceptions and levels of anxiety and depression. A logistic regression model was then applied to identify which of the variables might be significant predictors of the gender differences observed among parents. Both mothers and fathers had positive perceptions of their children with IDs that co-existed with symptoms of anxiety and depression, with scores being higher among mothers. The predictive analysis of gender showed that individual variables (such as the employment status of both parents) may explain these differences.     

The changing job skills of female part‐time workers in Britain 1992–2006

The work situation of female part‐time workers has been a central focus of diverse interpretations of labour market disadvantage. While providing rather different accounts of why this should be the case, these share a view that part‐timers are largely confined to jobs with lower levels of skill than full‐timers. This article, drawing on nationally representative surveys, shows that the skill requirements of female part‐time jobs have improved significantly since the early 1990s relative to male full‐timers. While some sectors of part‐time work have benefited more than others, there is evidence of polarisation only with respect to part‐timers with different working hours. The overall rise in the relative skills of part‐timers poses significant issues about employer practice with respect to the wider involvement of part‐timers in the organisations for which they work.     

University research scientists as knowledge workers: contract status and employment opportunities

University research scientists epitomise knowledge workers who are positioned to avail of the employment conditions associated with ‘boundaryless careers’. Yet while employment flexibility has been hailed as a positive feature of knowledge work, relatively little is known about the forms such flexibility may take or its impact. This article considers the factors shaping the employment conditions of 40 research scientists working in five university research centres in Ireland. The findings suggest that, for knowledge workers such as research scientists, contract employment can deny them access to many of the employment conditions and opportunities that govern their long-term success as researchers.     

Expatriate compound living: an ethnographic field study

In certain countries, closed expatriate compounds have developed. They serve to provide resident expatriates and accompanying family members with a comfortable and safe environment. Unfortunately, not much is known about compound life since associated empirical research is scarce. Through ethnographic field-work methodology, including interviews and participant observation during a period of 3 months, this exploratory study investigated 16 Danish business expatriates of a large Danish corporation and their families living in the same compound in Saudi Arabia. They shared their spare time and the expatriates had the same working hours in the same subsidiary. Results show that a Danish national group was established and maintained. This in-group dominated life in the compound and at work it may have contributed to the perceptual bias and discriminatory behaviour demonstrated by the Danish expatriates in their management of the foreign national employees. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail.     

Dualism in the German Labor Market?A Nonparametric Analysis with Panel Data

A bstract . Orthodoxy in economics gives pride of place to the hypothesis of compensating differentials. Applied to job quality criteria, such as wage levels, job stability, and wage growth, the compensating differentials hypothesis implies that negative or positive job quality characteristics should— ceteris paribus —rarely coincide. Originating in the late 1960s from studies of American inner-city labor markets, dualist labor market theory has raised doubts about this assumption. At its core, dualist analysis proposes that a dualism exists between a primary' labor market where "jobs possess several of the following traits: high wages, good working conditions, employment stability and job security, equity and due process in the administration of work, and chances for advancement" and a secondary market where jobs "tend to involve low wages, poor working conditions, considerable variability in employment, and little opportunity to advance" (Doeringer and Piore 1971). In the 1980s, there were several attempts to apply dual or segmented labor market theory to European economies, including the German labor market. The mixed findings of these analyses have cast doubt upon the transferability of dualist theory to these contexts.     

Human resource management practices and voluntary turnover: a study of internal workforce and external labor market contingencies

We tested relationships between employee quit rates and two bundles of human resource (HR) practices that reflect the different interests of the two parties involved in the employment relationship. To understand the boundary conditions for these effects, we examined an external contingency proposed to influence the exchange-based effects of HR practices on subsequent quit rates – the local industry-specific unemployment rate – and an internal contingency proposed to shape employees’ conceptualization of their exchange relationship – their employment status (i.e. full-time, part-time and temporary employment). Analyses of lagged data from over 200 Canadian establishments show that inducement HR practices (e.g. extensive benefits) and performance expectation HR practices (e.g. performance-based bonuses) had different effects on quit rates, and the former effect was moderated by unemployment rate. The effects of HR practices on quit rates did not differ between FT and PT employees, but a different pattern of main and interactive effects was found among temporary workers. These findings suggest that employees’ exchange-based decisions to leave may be less affected by the number of hours they expect to work each week, and more by the number of weeks they expect to work.     

Economic austerity and healthcare restructuring: correlates and consequences of nursing job insecurity

The healthcare system underwent considerable restructuring and downsizing in the early to mid-1990s in several countries as governments cut costs to reduce their budget deficits. Studies of the effects of these efforts on nursing staff and hospital functioning in various countries generally reported negative impacts. Healthcare restructuring and hospital downsizing is again being implemented in North America in 2009/2010 as governments struggle to reduce their deficits at a time of worldwide economic recession. The present study examines the relationship of hospital restructuring initiatives in and their link with increased threats to job security with a variety of individual and hospital outcomes in a sample of nursing staff working in hospitals undergoing significant restructuring and downsizing. Data were collected from 289 nursing staff working in California hospitals. Nurses reported a relatively large number of restructuring and downsizing initiatives. Restructuring initiatives and threats to job security accounted for a greater increment in explained variance on every outcome measure than did personal demographic factors and work situation characteristics. Threats to job security were generally associated with negative work attitudes and satisfactions, levels of psychological well-being and perceptions of hospital functioning. Some suggestions for more successful approaches to cost reductions are offered.     

Career coordination strategies among dual career expatriate couples

The combination of two trends common in working life – international work and a dual career situation – is challenging for both genders. In order to cope with the situation, international dual career couples have to be able to coordinate their careers. The purpose of this article is to identify how dual career expatriates view their career coordination strategies with their partners, and how these views differ between the genders. Semi-structured interviews were carried out among 39 expatriates on assignment who had a partner working, at least before the assignment. Our findings identify three career coordination strategies applied by dual career couples, and confirm gender plays an essential role in the formation of those strategies. Male expatriates predominated among the group adopting a hierarchical strategy and female expatriates predominated among the group adopting an egalitarian and a loose coordination strategy. Strategies also seemed prone to change over time. Companies should pay attention to both the career development of the partner and the relationship coping skills of the couple to maximize the chances of dual career expatriate assignments being successful.