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1 – 10 of 24Kelly A. Basile and T. Alexandra Beauregard
This paper aims to identify strategies used by successful teleworkers to create and maintain boundaries between work and home, and to determine how these strategies relate to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify strategies used by successful teleworkers to create and maintain boundaries between work and home, and to determine how these strategies relate to employee preferences for segmentation or integration of work and home.
Design/methodology/approach
Forty in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with employees working from home either occasionally (occasional teleworkers), between 20 and 50 per cent of the workweek (partial teleworkers), or the majority of the time (full teleworkers).
Findings
Teleworkers use physical, temporal, behavioral and communicative strategies to recreate boundaries similar to those found in office environments. Although teleworkers can generally develop strategies that align boundaries to their preferences for segmentation or integration, employees with greater job autonomy and control are better able to do so.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation of this research is its potential lack of generalizability to teleworkers in organizations with “always-on” cultures, who may experience greater pressure to allow work to permeate the home boundary.
Practical implications
These findings can encourage organizations to proactively assess employee preferences for boundary permeability before entering a teleworking arrangement. The boundary management tactics identified can be used to provide teleworkers struggling to establish comfortable boundaries with tangible ideas to regulate interactions between home and work.
Originality/value
This research makes a significant contribution to practitioner literature by applying a boundary management framework to the practice of teleworking, which is being adopted by organizations with increasing frequency.
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T. Alexandra Beauregard and Karin A. King
Employer-sponsored family-friendly events are designed to boost engagement and encourage retention by building family members’ identification with the organization. These events…
Abstract
Purpose
Employer-sponsored family-friendly events are designed to boost engagement and encourage retention by building family members’ identification with the organization. These events are usually targeted at employees with dependent children, but LinkedIn’s more inclusive “Bring in Your Parents” (BIYP) initiative aims to introduce employees’ parents to the daily work of their adult children. This study evaluates the impact of BIYP on the attitudes and behavioral intentions of participating employees and their parents.
Design/methodology/approach
Repeated-measures surveys were conducted among participating employees and parents in six organizations in six countries (UK, Ireland, France, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia). These were followed by in-person interviews with participating employees (UK) and phone interviews with HR managers (Brazil, Canada, France, Spain, UK and USA).
Findings
Participation in BIYP increases employee engagement and parents’ instrumental and affective support for their children and for their children’s employers. Hosting BIYP is perceived to enhance corporate reputation among both internal and external stakeholders.
Practical implications
BIYP serves the dual function of building employee engagement and creating new parental brand ambassadors for participating organizations. BIYP can be an effective tool for employers to engage members of staff not traditionally included in organizational family-friendly events and may be particularly useful for firms with a high proportion of younger workers in tech-savvy jobs.
Originality/value
This evaluation of a new workplace initiative demonstrates measurable effects on important employee attitudes and behavioral intentions.
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Kelly Basile, T. Alexandra Beauregard, Esther Canonico-Martin and Kylee Gause
This study aims to explore how working parents use personal technology to manage parenting responsibilities and to identify how technology use might help to support work–family…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore how working parents use personal technology to manage parenting responsibilities and to identify how technology use might help to support work–family balance.
Design/methodology/approach
In-depth telephone interviews with US and UK working parents with children under the age of 18 were conducted.
Findings
Findings suggest that personal technology can facilitate work and family activities and reduce work–family conflict by enabling parents to perform certain parenting duties remotely. However, parental attitudes toward technology and children’s rights to privacy influence both technology use and work and family outcomes.
Practical implications
By better understanding employee personal technology use, and how this use facilitates reduced conflict between work and family roles, organizations might look to creatively expand their benefits offerings to include access/discounts to personal technology platforms that support parenting activities (e.g. Uber One, Amazon Prime and DoorDash).
Originality/value
While substantial research has been conducted on employee use of work-enabled technology to facilitate work–life balance, less attention has been paid to how working parents are using personal forms of technology to achieve this same outcome. This exploratory study establishes certain parenting functions that are facilitated by personal technology use and identifies some parental attitudes that influence technology adoption.
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Tanja Gut, Lilith Whiley and T. Alexandra Beauregard
Human resource management (HRM) departments report a lack of knowledge on supporting transgender employees during gender transition in the workplace. The purpose of this research…
Abstract
Purpose
Human resource management (HRM) departments report a lack of knowledge on supporting transgender employees during gender transition in the workplace. The purpose of this research is to survey the experiences of transgender workers in English-, French- and German-speaking countries to evaluate their experience of transitioning at work and the HRM support they received to do so.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire consisting of 32 quantitative items and qualitative text boxes was completed by 166 transgender individuals.
Findings
Results show a mostly negative landscape with some pockets of good practice.
Research limitations/implications
Answers are based on self-report measures and data are cross-sectional.
Practical implications
Recommendations for good practice are proposed for HRM departments.
Social implications
A move towards a more inclusive workplace is needed.
Originality/value
Questions focus on HRM practices specifically, whereas other surveys have assessed work practices more broadly.
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T. Alexandra Beauregard, Maria Adamson, Aylin Kunter, Lilian Miles and Ian Roper
This article serves as an introduction to six articles featured in a special issue on diversity in the work–life interface. This collection of papers contains research that…
Abstract
Purpose
This article serves as an introduction to six articles featured in a special issue on diversity in the work–life interface. This collection of papers contains research that contemplates the work–life interface in different geographic and cultural contexts, that explores the work–life experiences of minority, marginalized and/or underresearched groups of workers and that takes into account diverse arrangements made to fulfill both work and nonwork responsibilities.
Design/methodology/approach
This introductory article first summarizes some of the emerging research in this area, introduces the papers in this special issue and links them to these themes and ends with highlighting the importance of using an intersectional lens in future investigations of the work–life interface.
Findings
These six articles provide empirically based insights, as well as new theoretical considerations for studying the interface between paid work and personal life roles. Compelling new research directions are identified.
Originality/value
Introducing the new articles in this special issue and reviewing recent research in this area brings together the work–life interface scholarship and diversity management studies and points to the necessity for future investigations to take an intersectional and contextualized approach to their subject matter.
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Gabriela Francke Rojo and T. Alexandra Beauregard
Although interest in inclusion is becoming widespread, there remains limited understanding of how organizations can create environments that promote inclusiveness and unlock the…
Abstract
Although interest in inclusion is becoming widespread, there remains limited understanding of how organizations can create environments that promote inclusiveness and unlock the benefits of workforce diversity. Additional research is needed to better understand how inclusion is conceptualized and experienced in contexts other than North America and Europe. Taking an exploratory approach, the present research seeks to answer the question of how employees in Peru – one of the most socially and economically unequal nations in Latin America – understand the concept of inclusion in the workplace. Semi-structured interviews with 30 employed individuals found that inclusion was generally described as comprising belongingness, uniqueness, and equal treatment. Six elements emerged as key to the creation of workplace inclusion: participation, positive relationships, equality, feeling valued, climate and culture, and positive work conditions. As inhabitants of a developing country with high levels of inequality and discrimination, Peruvian employees’ views provide valuable insight into how inclusion is lived and understood in such a context, and how it may be augmented.
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The purpose of this paper is to report on a seminar sponsored by the Academy of Management's Gender in Management Special Interest Group, which comprised discussions on aspects of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on a seminar sponsored by the Academy of Management's Gender in Management Special Interest Group, which comprised discussions on aspects of diversity policy, initiatives, and programme development within Bank of Scotland, National Australia Group UK, and BBC Scotland, and also academic and industry presentations.
Design/methodology/approach
The report is based upon observations, notes and discussions on a range of issues relating to diversity in organisations.
Findings
The seminar highlighted practitioner perspectives of diversity management – both for staff development and for the development of a customer base in the case of banks, by actively encouraging business from female entrepreneurs and by aiming to make mainstream financial products appropriate for both female and male customers.
Originality/value
This report brings together a number of interesting and important themes linked to improvements in female recruitment and development.
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To examine the direct effects of work domain variables on family‐to‐work conflict (FWC), beyond their indirect effects via the mediating variable of work‐to‐family conflict (WFC)…
Abstract
Purpose
To examine the direct effects of work domain variables on family‐to‐work conflict (FWC), beyond their indirect effects via the mediating variable of work‐to‐family conflict (WFC), and sex differences in the effects of work role expectations and supervisor support on FWC.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted among 208 UK public sector employees. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis tested main and moderating effects of work domain variables and sex on FWC. To test for mediation, the procedure recommended by Baron and Kenny was used.
Findings
Work domain variables had a significant effect on FWC above and beyond the effects of family domain variables, and independent of WFC. The relationship between work role expectations and FWC was found to be significantly stronger for men than for women.
Research limitations/implications
The cross‐sectional design of the study does not permit firm conclusions regarding causality, and the results may be influenced by common method bias.
Practical implications
In the face of evidence that organizations are causing the very phenomenon that hurts them, the responsibility to assist employees with reducing FWC is enhanced. Particularly for men, management of organizational expectations to work long hours and prioritize work over family is an area in which employers can and should play a key role if gender equity with regard to organizational work‐family climate is to be established.
Originality/value
This study indicates that organizational work demands may have more influence over the degree to which employees’ family lives interfere with their work than has previously been assumed, especially for men.
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This paper aims to examine personality as an alternative explanation to social exchange in predicting OCB, and investigate the moderating role of gender in the link between…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine personality as an alternative explanation to social exchange in predicting OCB, and investigate the moderating role of gender in the link between personality and OCB.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted among 223 UK public sector employees. Multiple regression analysis tested main effects of personality and main and moderating effects of gender on OCB.
Findings
Findings indicate that personality has significant explanatory power beyond that of social exchange in predicting OCB. Employees with high levels of adaptive perfectionism report higher levels of OCB. General self‐efficacy also predicted more participation in citizenship behaviours, but only for men. Women appear to carry out citizenship behaviours regardless of how confident they feel in being able to successfully perform. This may be attributable to social and organizational norms that place women in the role of “helper” and expect more communal behaviours from them than from men.
Research limitations/implications
The cross‐sectional design of the study does not permit firm conclusions regarding causality, and the use of self‐report data carries with it the potential for common method bias.
Practical implications
The study's results suggest that encouraging adaptive perfectionistic behaviours and cognitions among employees (e.g. setting high personal standards for performance while taking setbacks in stride) may yield dividends in terms of OCB. Investing in general self‐efficacy training, especially for male employees, may also improve participation in citizenship behaviours.
Originality/value
This study extends previous work on personality by demonstrating that adaptive perfectionism can predict OCB. Existing research on gender and OCB was extended by the discovery that the role of self‐efficacy in predicting OCB may be particularly significant for men. Findings suggest that the use of social exchange theory as the predominant explanation for employees' performance of OCB may need to be reconsidered.
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Soon-Ho Kim, Min-Seong Kim, Stephen Holland and Hye-Sook Han
This study aims to examine the impact of self-efficacy and reciprocity in predicting the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of hospitality employees and the moderating role…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of self-efficacy and reciprocity in predicting the organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) of hospitality employees and the moderating role of cultural values in the hypothesized relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed model of this study has been tested on the basis of the responses from 432 full-time employees who work at hospitality fields in South Korea. This study has conducted frequency, reliability, confirmatory factor, correlation analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
The empirical results indicate not only that self-efficacy significantly influenced reciprocity, consideration, civic virtue and sportsmanship but also that reciprocity had positive influences on the same virtues as well as conscientiousness. The moderating role of cultural values has also been investigated resulting in significant differences in six of the nine cultural values measured (i.e. power distance, uncertainty avoidance, collectivism I and II, assertiveness and gender egalitarianism).
Practical implications
From a practical perspective, the findings of this study yield several strategies relevant to hospitality employee development and training. Especially, the management in hospitality organizations needs to look at multicultural management and leadership styles within their own particular context.
Originality/value
Findings of this study suggest that both self-efficacy and reciprocity are important determinants of OCBs, and indicate the fundamental embeddedness of employment relations within the wider cultural value setting in non-Western contexts.
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