Prelims

Mervi Rajahonka (South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland)
Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha (Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland)
Miet Timmers (Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Belgium)
Urszula Załuska (Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland)
Kaija Villman (South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland)
Veerle Lengeler (Emino, Belgium)
Tim Gielens (Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Belgium)

Working Women in the Sandwich Generation: Theories, Tools and Recommendations for Supporting Women's Working Lives

ISBN: 978-1-80262-504-2, eISBN: 978-1-80262-501-1

Publication date: 21 February 2022

Citation

Rajahonka, M., Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha, D., Timmers, M., Załuska, U., Villman, K., Lengeler, V. and Gielens, T. (2022), "Prelims", Working Women in the Sandwich Generation: Theories, Tools and Recommendations for Supporting Women's Working Lives, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xi. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-501-120221010

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 Mervi Rajahonka, Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha, Miet Timmers, Urszula Zaluska, Kaija Villman, Veerle Lengeler and Tim Gielens


Half Title Page

WORKING WOMEN IN THE SANDWICH GENERATION

Title Page

WORKING WOMEN IN THE SANDWICH GENERATION

THEORIES, TOOLS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUPPORTING WOMEN’S WORKING LIVES

BY

MERVI RAJAHONKA

South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland

DOROTA KWIATKOWSKA-CIOTUCHA

Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland

MIET TIMMERS

Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

URSZULA ZAŁUSKA

Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland

KAIJA VILLMAN

South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland

VEERLE LENGELER

Emino, Belgium

TIM GIELENS

Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2022

Copyright © 2022 Mervi Rajahonka, Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha, Miet Timmers, Urszula Załuska, Kaija Villman, Veerle Lengeler and Tim Gielens.

Individual chapters © the respective chapter authors.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited.

These works are published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of these works (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and is freely available to read online.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80262-504-2 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-501-1 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-503-5 (Epub)

Contents

List of Tables and Figures vii
About the Authors ix
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Mervi Rajahonka, Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha, Miet Timmers, Urszula Załuska and Kaija Villman
Part A. Theories
Chapter 1. How Do They Manage? Coping Strategies of the Working Sandwich Generation in Flanders 13
Miet Timmers and Veerle Lengeler
Chapter 2. 45+ Polish Women at Home and in the Labour Markets 31
Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha and Urszula Załuska
Chapter 3. Sandwich Generation Women in Search for Meaningful Work and Life 51
Mervi Rajahonka and Kaija Villman
Part B. Tools and Cases
Chapter 4. Family Supportive Supervisors Behaviour for the Sandwich Generation: Considerations for Training Practice 71
Miet Timmers and Tim Gielens
Chapter 5. Tools Developed in and Lessons Learned from the Time4Help Project in Poland 83
Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha and Urszula Załuska
Chapter 6. Cases and Lessons Learned from the Time4Help Project in Finland 95
Kaija Villman and Mervi Rajahonka
Part C. International Comparative Research
Chapter 7. Sandwich Generation in the Workplace – International Comparative Research 109
Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha and Urszula Załuska
Part D. Conclusion
Chapter 8. Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations 131
Mervi Rajahonka, Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha, Miet Timmers, Urszula Załuska and Kaija Villman
Index 143

List of Tables and Figures

Introduction
Table 1. Some Comparisons of the Three Countries 5
Chapter 1
Fig. 1. Profile Analysis of the Respondents 16
Fig. 2. Word Cloud Self-care Strategy 20
Chapter 2
Table 1. Characteristics of the Sample of Mature Women and the Sample of Employers 35
Fig. 1. Semiotic Square of Perception of Mature Women in Popular Culture 39
Fig. 2. The Professional Situation of Mature Women in Poland 42
Fig. 3. Opinions on the Impact of Employing Mature Women on the Functioning and Evaluation of the Organisation According to CATI Research Carried Out Among Mature Women and Employers 43
Fig. 4. Characteristics of the Clusters Obtained in the Classification of Mature Women 46
Chapter 3
Fig. 1. A Model Integrating Women’s Earning, Learning and Meaning Aspects of Life, Work and Entrepreneurship 60
Chapter 5
Fig. 1. The Components of the Time4Help Model 85
Chapter 7
Table 1. Characteristics of the Main Sample and Boost Sample 112
Fig. 1. SG – Differentiation of the Situation 118
Table 2. The Status of the SG Group in the Labour Market (% of Respondents) 120
Fig. 2. Forms of Care Provided by SG Representatives to the Older Generation 124

About the Authors

Mervi Rajahonka, DSc in Economics, MSc in Technology and LLM, works as RDI Specialist in the field of Digital Economy in South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, and Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University, Canada. Her research interests include digitalisation, working women, business models, service modularity, and service innovations. Her research has been published in several journals in the areas of logistics, services, and management.

Dorota Kwiatkowska-Ciotucha, PhD in Economics, is Professor at Wroclaw University of Economics and Business in the Department of Logistics, Poland. She lectures in the field of forecasting and data analysis, and she is a certified adult trainer. She has extensive research experience, being an author and co-author of numerous scientific publications. Her research interests include people with disabilities in the open labour market, sandwich generation, and the skills gap of employees. Since 2006, she has acted as President of the Board of Dobre Kadry Training and Research Center Ltd., a project company for social and professional support for people with disabilities.

Miet Timmers, MA in History, MS in Population and Development, and Postgraduate Diploma in Business Studies, works as Lecturer at Odisee University of Applied Sciences and Researcher at the Centre for Family Studies of Odisee in Brussels, Belgium. She is trained as a family mediator. She has published research-based, practice- and policy-oriented books, book chapters and articles on multigenerational workforce, multigenerational housing, intergenerational projects, and the combination of work and family.

Urszula Załuska, PhD in Economics, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Logistics at Wroclaw University of Economics and Business, Poland. She lectures in the field of data analysis, forecasting, and logistics management. She has participated in many research projects and has been an author and co-author of numerous publications. She is a certified adult trainer. Since 2006, she has been responsible in Dobre Kadry Training and Research Center Ltd. for the implementation of projects for people with sensory disabilities, especially deaf people. Her main areas of research include people with disabilities in society and in the workplace, employee competences today and in the future, and mature people on the labour market.

Kaija Villman, MMus in Arts Management, is Project Manager in the field of Digital Economy in South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Finland. She has participated in numerous national and international EU-funded projects related to creative industries, service development, and digitalisation. She is experienced in coordinating interdisciplinary projects, workshops, and training and she acted as the Project Manager for the Time4Help Finland project. Her research has been published in journals in the areas of services and management.

Veerle Lengeler is Career Coach at Emino, a Flemish based organisation. She is trained as a psychotherapist and has more than 20 years’ expertise in coaching people from very diverse groups, including at least 15 years as a Career Coach. She is also an experience expert from the sandwich generation. Sustainable living, strengthening or restoring connections in all areas of life is one of her motivations.

Tim Gielens is Senior Researcher HRM at the research centre ‘Center for Sustainable Entrepreneurship’ (CenSE) of the Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Belgium. He is also affiliated to Hasselt University. He holds master’s degrees in Organisational Psychology and in HRM. His research focusses on the intersection between people, organisations, and society. Domains in which he has built up expertise are sustainable HRM and sustainable careers, talent mobility, inclusive work, employee engagement, work–life integration, the new ways of working, social dialogue, and the future of jobs.

Acknowledgements

The Flemish Time4Help project was funded by the European Social Fund and the Flemish Government and was carried out by the Center for Family Studies and the Center for Sustainable Entrepreneurship of Odisee, University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with Emino and the Gezinsbond vzw.

The project in Poland is financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland under the programme ‘Regional Initiative of Excellence’ 2019–2022 project number 015/RID/2018/19 total funding amount 10,721,040.00 PLN.

Time4Help Finland: Service Business, Women Entrepreneurs and Leaders project (10/2018-9/2021) was funded by the European Social Fund and the South Savo Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. It was carried out by South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences.