Work-life initiatives and organizational change: overcoming mixed messages to move from the margin to the mainstream

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hammer LB ; Kossek EE ; Lewis S
• Description:
  This article examines perspectives on employer work-life initiatives as potential organizational change phenomena. Work-life initiatives address two main organizational challenges: structural (flexible job design, human resource policies) and cultural (supportive supervisors, climate) factors. While work-life initiatives serve a purpose in highlighting the need for organizational adaptation to changing relationships between work, family, and personal life, we argue they usually are marginalized rather than mainstreamed into organizational systems. We note mixed consequences of work-life initiatives for individuals and organizations. While they may enable employees to manage work and caregiving, they can increase work intensification and perpetuate stereotypes of ideal workers. In order to advance the field, organizations and scholars need to frame both structural and cultural work-life changes as part of the core employment systems to enhance organizational effectiveness and not just as strategies to support disadvantaged, non-ideal workers. We conclude with an overview of the articles in this special issue. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Behavior Family Mental Health Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological Workplace
• Keywords:
  Adaptation Attitude Author Keywords: Flexibility Effectiveness Research Employees Families Job Analysis Job Design Job Stress Mainstreaming Management-personnel Mental-processes Organizational Change Psychological-responses Psychological Adaptation Sociological-factors Supervisory-personnel Work-environment Work-family Work-family Conflict Work-life Work-life Balance Work-operations Work-organization

  More +
• ISSN:
  0018-7267
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Michigan ; Oregon ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  3-19
• Volume:
  63
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20048240
• Citation:
  Hum Relat 2010 Jan; 63(1):3-19
• Contact Point Address:
  Ellen Ernst Kossek, Center for Work-Family Stress, Safety, & Health, 433 South Kedzie Hall, School of Labor & Industrial Relations, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-1032, USA
• Email:
  kossek@msu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  Portland State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Human Relations
• End Date:
  20250630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8b9b58291a08a9aed8949b72c636d59340486f73eaac57474b2b8d24c1105258207d3349ab08b6d76abe2b83eed8e98138a325b91147f792dbb624ca98bcdc04
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/203046/cdc_203046_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 200.87 KB ]