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This paper examines the challenges posed for employers by gender equality in the workplace, in a seemingly favourable institutional context (the province of Quebec, Canada), and the reasons why employers adopt (or not) gender equality measures (GEMs) exceeding legal requirements.

The approach draws on both institutional theory and the strategic human resource management (SHRM) approach. Our research is based on a quantitative study involving human resource management professionals in Quebec (n = 296).

The results allow us to link GEMs with certain SHRM orientations (Yang and Konrad, 2011) and institutional pressures (Lawrence et al., 2009). The findings show that, for approximately two-thirds of the employers in the sample, gender equality was not a strategic priority. Consistent with our hypothesis, a greater number of GEMs were found when gender equality was a strategic priority for the employer. Unionization and legal requirements were also positively correlated with the presence of GEMs.

The findings indicate a combined effect of SHRM and institutions on GEMs. They point out the relative dependency of employers on the pressures stemming from the institutional framework, and it captures some of the current challenges involved in adopting a SHRM approach with a view to achieving gender equality.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how small family business (SFB) leader‐founders exhibit a dominant logic of action over less dominant prevailing ones. The authors investigate three logics of action: family, power and economic.

An exploratory qualitative research is conducted based on case studies. The authors use Cisneros and Genin's conceptual model, to identify, through an iterative sampling frame, three extreme SFB cases where in the first the leader exhibits a dominant family logic, in the second, a dominant power logic and in the third, a dominant economic logic.

The authors illustrate the characteristics of the SFB leaders when they exhibit a dominant logic of action and also present some of the implications of SFB leaders’ dominant logics of action on the SFB and the family and non‐family members.

The three extreme case studies provide an important building block for future studies based on larger samples of SFBs. However, the authors’ results cannot be generalised due to the exploratory nature of the study.

The paper highlights the importance, for practitioners and researchers alike, of being able to diagnose when SFB leaders use a dominant logic of action. The paper also accentuates the need for a greater awareness of logics of action in training programmes for SFB leaders and for consultants who work with those leaders.

The concept of logics of action has never been previously empirically applied to large, medium or small family businesses. The paper highlights the relevance of identifying dominant logics of actions in SFB leaders.

Paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers has fed countless debates. Four years after the implementation of a new parental leave policy in Quebec, this paper aims to assess how parental leave is perceived in the workplace.

Using data from employee surveys carried out in a municipal police service, the paper employs analysis of variance techniques to compare the perception of parental leave within two groups of respondents: those who had gone on parental leave and those who had not.

The findings highlight significant differences between the perceptions of parental leave entertained by the respondents who have taken it up and those who have not yet experienced parental leave.

Analysing these differences has produced extremely interesting findings: adopting a public policy is not sufficient; organisations need to make employees feel supported in taking parental leave if they really want the policy to achieve the targeted results.

Paid parental leave is relatively new in Europe and almost non‐existent in North America and few studies have been carried out to measure their perception in the workplace. This research shows how important it is to follow the use of the policy to make sure that it does not have negative impacts for those who use it.

The purpose of this paper is to address the theoretical ordering of the associations between work hours, psychological demands, decision latitude, and psychological distress.

A mediation model, predicting that the association between long work hours and psychological distress is mediated by psychological demands and decision latitude, was tested with a representative sample of 7,802 individuals in full‐time paid employment surveyed by a government agency. Structural equation modeling was used and the full mediation model was replicated for subsamples of men and women. The analysis controlled for demographic variables, work characteristics and socioeconomic status.

As expected, decision latitude is associated with less and psychological demands with more psychological distress. Long work hours are associated with more decision latitude and psychological demands. The association between long work hours and psychological distress is mediated by psychological demands and decision latitude. The mediation process was supported in male and female sub‐samples.

Considering the weak associations between work hours and psychological strain reported in previous research, the findings of this study support new theorizing about this association. Accordingly, long work hours may be viewed as a distal variable influencing the duration of exposure to psychological demands. The study reported here also underscores the need to further investigate the positive consequences of long work hours within the context of psychological contracts.

This is one of the few studies that conceptualize work hours as something other than an occupational risk factor or as a job demand with a direct impact on psychological strain. It thus provides a new basis for thinking about the process through which long work hours may influence psychological strain.

The purpose of this paper is to present some outcomes of the PROMETEA research project funded by the European Union under FP6 from 2005 to 2007 (see www.prometea.info). PROMETEA is a strongly multidisciplinary and collaborative project involving 17 research teams from 13 different countries.

The paper combines existing knowledge with new in‐depth pilot studies on women academics in engineering and technology, linked to qualitative research work on the experiences of both women and men working in this field, using cross‐comparison as a research strategy.

The paper identifies different issues for further investigations on women researchers in engineering and technology.

The paper focuses on comparative perspectives between countries, disciplines or research topics, age groups, academic and industrial research career paths, etc. The similarity and diversity of academic settings are discussed with an emphasis on the impact of the changing environment of research, the balance between research, teaching and administrative workload with its influence on career choices and patterns, the interactions between industry and academia, work‐life balance, the proportion of women academics in the field, gender awareness, and so on.