Employee benefits and high-tech fatherhood
Abstract
Purpose
This study, inspired by the theory of the separate spheres, considers the social circumstances of employee benefits, examining the needs of fathers in dual-earner families to cope with work and family responsibilities. The purpose of this paper is to explore how high-tech managers view the work-family interface of R & D engineers and analyzes the typical package of discretionary, non-financial, work-family employee benefits.
Design/methodology/approach
Relying on the phenomenological approach, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 22 private-sector managers disclosed their shared perception and experience, revealing the informal level at which underlying social principles becomes business strategy, often intuitively.
Findings
Values of gender are assimilated into the informal environment and reflected in the selection of benefits which have been effective in attracting labor in demand. Recently these values have been challenged by new ideas of more involved fatherhood, and these are inadequately addressed by the package of benefits.
Research limitations/implications
Larger samples from various socio-cultural settings are needed.
Practical implications
Managers are advised not to be blinded by the financial worth of discretionary employee benefits and consider how these meet the actual, as opposed to stereotypical, needs of employees and their family members. Observing social dynamics and considering non-financial consequences of employee benefits are essential for business-society continuity. Also, organizations of relatively low-social diversity should not alienate themselves from their multicultural environment.
Social implications
The study unveils the reciprocity between organizations and people. Traditional fatherhood is being contested and negotiated at the work-family interface, as embedded to ongoing changes in the social meaning of gender. That employee benefits help to maintain the masculinity of high-tech, reflects also on gender segregation in the workplace.
Originality/value
The study illustrates how businesses apply social values and describes how such values are processed and reinstated in society as employee benefits.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is much indebted to the interviewees, busy managers and devoted fathers, who chose to remain anonymous. They willingly shared their time, disclosed their experience and patiently responded questions. The author also greatly appreciate the comments of the reviewers and editors.
Citation
Blumen, O. (2015), "Employee benefits and high-tech fatherhood", Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 535-549. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-07-2013-0212
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited