Work and Family in a Global Context

Details

• Personal Author:
  Allen TD ; Biga A ; Shockley KM
• Description:
  Work and family issues have captured the attention of both researchers and practitioners during the last several decades. It has been suggested that balancing personal demands and career aspirations may be one of the greatest challenges individuals face in contemporary society (Halpern, 2004). Organizations too are grappling with the task of trying to identify ways to help individuals successfully meet both their work and nonwork responsibilities. The work-family dilemma is evident not only in the United States but also in countries across the globe. Currently there is little information available to help guide multinational companies in terms of relationships between cultural context, work-life effectiveness, and use of flexible work arrangement(s) (FWA). The objective of this chapter is threefold. First, we provide an overview of flexible work arrangements within organizations, followed by a brief review of what is known regarding work-family issues in a global context. Although most of the research regarding work and family issues has been conducted in the United States and other Western countries, cross-country comparative studies have recently emerged that suggest Western models may not generalize. Second, based on data from a global company, Procter & Gamble, we compare reports of individual work-family effectiveness across cultural dimensions. We also examine two major forms of flexibility, schedule flexibility (that is, flextime) and location flexibility (that is, telecommuting) in relation to individual work-life effectiveness. We close the chapter with a discussion of the results of our data analyses, the challenges that multinational organizations face in developing strategies for helping individuals manage work and family, and recommendations for best practices. Although a complete discussion of various work-family constructs and terms is outside the scope of this chapter, a few issues are important for clarity at this juncture. Most of the research literature has focused on work-family conflict, which is defined as the extent that demands from work and family roles are mutually incompatible (Greenhaus & Buetell, 1985). Although this is the term most often used in the academic literature, many organizations refrain from using such language. Instead, they employ terminology with a more positive and inclusive connotation, such as work-life effectiveness. For the purpose of this chapter, we use the term work-family conflict when referring to findings from the research literature and the term work-life effectiveness when referring to data originating from our current organizational analysis. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Demography Family Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Demographic Characteristics Families Work-life Balance Work Environment Workers Work Performance Workplace Studies Work Schedules
• ISBN:
  9780470525333
• Publisher:
  Jossey-Bass: a Wiley Imprint
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Book
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  377-402
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20062236
• Citation:
  Going global: practical applications and recommendations for HR and OD professionals in the global workplace. Lundby K, Jolton J, eds. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass: a Wiley Imprint, 2010 Apr; :377-401
• Editor(s):
  Lundby K; Jolton J
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  Sunshine Education and Research Center, University of South Florida
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Going global: practical applications and recommendations for HR and OD professionals in the global workplace
• End Date:
  20290630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:cac0a7b28376c247355de04e9c192b2611272d21bafa6ec48c8ae344f87979e57cbfdb90ac30e93dc090cf8b2a58efb75aa0512066fe1bb864ef0d022376c3b4
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/225526/cdc_225526_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 146.94 KB ]