Full Description
The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.
This brief and accessible title integrates contemporary scholarly research with compelling vignettes to make it appealing to both instructors and undergraduate audiences. While focused on the United States in respect to its target audience and emphasis, it contains considerable international data that compares and contrasts social policies adopted in Europe and elsewhere. In so doing, it shows both the strengths and the limitations of the approaches used in the U.S. This title is the only single source that summarizes the origins of work-family concerns, the diversities of needs and experiences, the impact of tensions on the family front, the consequences of tensions for employers, and different types of policies that can make meaningful differences not only in the lives of employees, but also potentially in job quality and national productivity.
Contents
The Origins of Contemporary Work-Family Dilemmas
When Work Separated from Family: The Household Economy Transitions to the
Industrial Economy
When Family and Work Were Defined as Separate Spheres: The Husband/Breadwinner-Wife/Homemaker Economy
Where We Are Now: Most Every Adult Should Work Outside the Home
Summary
Useful Concepts
Issues to Ponder
Mini Project
The Diversity of Work, Family, and Work-Family Arrangements
Diverse Values and Preferences
Diverse Employment
Diverse Families
Summary
Useful Concepts
Issues to Ponder
Mini Project
Individual and Family Frontiers: Personal Responses to Strained Schedules
Dominant Culture Metaphors of Connecting Work and Family
Work-Family Conflict, Spillover, and Segmentation
How Individuals and Families Respond to Work-Family Conflict
Summary
Useful Concepts
Issues to Ponder
Mini Project
Employer Frontiers: Organizational Intransigence and Promising Practices
The Dual Agenda: Establishing Positive Outcomes for Families and Employers
Availability and Use of Employer Provided Family-Responsive Policies and Practices
The Process of Organizational Change: Moving From Awareness to Action
Rethinking the Scheduling of Work
Flexible Work in Multinational Organizations
Summary
Useful Concepts
Issues to Ponder
Mini Project
Global Perspectives on the Work-Family Interface: International Comparative Analysis and Transnational Relationships
International Comparative Analysis of Work and Family Relationships
Intersections of Culture and Policy: National Approaches to Support Care Work
Three Societal Level Approaches to Reconciling Work-Family Strains
Family Well-Being in International Comparative Perspective
Transnational Concerns
Summary
Useful Concepts
Issues to Ponder
Mini Project
The Work-Family Interface as a National Priority
What Governments Can Do
Making the Case and Understanding Resistance
Conclusion
Useful Concepts
Issues to Ponder
Mini Project
Further Exploration
Bibliography
About the Author
