Career Paths that Twist and Turn

2019 ◽  
pp. 161-186
Author(s):  
Jamie Ladge ◽  
Danna Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Career Paths ◽  
Working Mothers ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Career Ladder ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Workplace Flexibility ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Career Model ◽  
Work Family ◽  
Life Path

Chapter 7 moves beyond workplace flexibility to consider career flexibility, which refers to the varied career choices working mothers make as they pursue their work/life path. We begin by introducing a more expansive view of career beyond the traditional career ladder. This holistic career model encompasses work, family, and community interests and activity. This career metaphor more accurately fits the reality of today’s workplace for men and women. It also gives working mothers authority to consider something beyond the next promotion as they construct their careers. We then go into more depth on two of the more prominent twists working mothers make: taking time off from paid work and starting their own business. We focus on the tactics working mothers can use to ensure that these options fit with their work/family interests.

Kaleidoscope Careers and Evolving HRM Issues

2009 ◽  
pp. 584-591
Author(s):  
Sherry E. Sullivan ◽  
Lisa A. Mainiero ◽  
Siri Terjesen
Keyword(s):  
Personal Values ◽  
Corporate Values ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Nontraditional Careers ◽  
Linear Sequence ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Career Model ◽  
Work Family ◽  
Lifestyle Activities

The quotations from Isobel and Jackie illustrate the very real problems that individuals encounter when trying to combine work, family, and lifestyle activities. In the course of our research, we interviewed thousands of men and women, who like Isobel and Jackie, were enacting nontraditional careers; careers based on their personal values, relationships, and life priorities rather than careers dominated by corporate values. Like many others, both Isobel and Jackie later left their corporate jobs to start their own companies. This growing phenomenon of individuals, especially women, leaving established, “plum” corporate jobs was highlighted in recent media stories regarding the “opt-out revolution” which emphasized women’s desire to focus on family rather than career. Similarly, there was a shift in the academic literature away from models that focused on describing careers as a linear sequence of hierarchical promotions in one or two organizations to concepts that reflect nonlinear career structures and view careers as having “multidirectional” patterns (Baruch, 2004). This new, nontraditional, flexible career model has been described as “boundaryless,” “protean,” “post-corporate,” “intelligent,” and “customized” (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996; Arthur Inkson & Pringle, 1999; Hall, 1996; Peiperl & Baruch, 1997; Valcour, Bailyn, & Quijada, 2005). Many of these newer models, however, fail to fully recognize workplaces changes due to increased globalization and technological advances and fail to fully capture the differences in how men and women enact their careers (Powell & Mainiero, 1992, 1993).

Older, Wiser, But Still a Working Mother

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Jamie Ladge ◽  
Danna Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Late Stage ◽  
Working Mothers ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Working Mother ◽  
Raising Children ◽  
Life Paths ◽  
Life Phase ◽  
Parenting Role

Chapter 5 considers how working mothers navigate work and family as they move from the daily responsibilities of raising children to parenting adult children to retirement. As working mothers’ parenting role shifts in conjunction with midlife changes, they may begin a process of career recalibration as they consider what they want to do that is meaningful and engaging in this next life phase. The varied ways working mothers approach this issue is a key focus of this chapter. We go on to discuss some of the late-stage transitions women may experience, including grown children returning home and leaving paid work permanently. Each of these experiences presents women with new choices as they craft the final chapters of their work/life paths.

Towards a multi-active society: daring to imagine a new work–life regime

2019 ◽  
pp. 315-332
Author(s):  
Bernard Fusulier ◽  
Chantal Nicole-Drancourt
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Working Life ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Structural Work ◽  
Work Family

Despite equal opportunity and work/life balance policies, no modern labour societies have solved the structural work/family conflict in a gender equal way. These societies continue to struggle with reconciling working life and family life and to overcome persistent inequalities between men and women. It is possible to talk about an improvement in women’s condition at the same time as an increase in gender inequalities, because though the situation of women has improved in modern societies, that of mothers has been, and today remains, quite worrisome. To be transformative, legislative choices must deconstruct the foundations of the work/family regime in these societies. This chapter analyses these foundations in order to build an alternative ‘reconciliation’ scenario, with the creation of a ‘multi-active society’ as the central goal and whose structuring principle of societal organisation is no longer ‘employment’ but rather ‘contribution’.

Work/Life Balance

Sociology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misun Lim ◽  
Joya Misra
Keyword(s):  
Poor Quality ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
High Productivity ◽  
Worker Turnover ◽  
Work Family

There are many different ways to define work–life balance. Some scholars emphasize that work–life balance requires balancing demands of both paid work and family responsibilities or maximizing satisfaction by minimizing conflict between paid work and family responsibilities. Others view work–life balance as encompassing the way that boundaries blur between work, family, and leisure time. In attempting to address work–life balance, workers are generally trying to preserve both quality of life, and potential for career advancements, while employers are trying to preserve high productivity and reduce worker turnover. Although the term “work–life balance” is widely used, alternative terms are also employed, such as work–family balance, work–life integration, work–life harmonization, or work–life articulation. Research on attempts to manage paid work along with family and other parts of life has been carried out for decades. Yet this scholarship has exploded in the last two decades, particularly as middle-class women have increased their workforce participation, but also work is being carried out during nonstandard hours, technology is creating more permeability between work and home, and union protections have been weakened. Work–life balance efforts may lead to poor-quality jobs in terms of earnings, job security, working time and promotion opportunities, rather than long-term quality employment over the life course that allows for leisure and family time. Research on work–life balance should take structural, rather than individual approaches, to consider workplace cultures, including by occupation and gender inequality, and recognize the different assumptions underlying policies aimed at addressing work–life balance.

Allies, Not Enemies

2019 ◽  
pp. 211-232
Author(s):  
Jamie Ladge ◽  
Danna Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Working Mothers ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Life Path ◽  
At Home

Chapter 9 focuses on the important role men can play in supporting women as they create positive paths through work and motherhood. While we have talked about men at home and at work in previous chapters, this is an important enough topic that it warrants a specific chapter. We begin by discussing the benefits for mothers, children, and fathers when men are caregiving partners. Like women, men are beginning to approach their careers differently, with greater interest in making space for life outside of work. Men face different challenges and opportunities when they integrate fatherhood and work. Women need to be aware of these differences as they look to their partners to support their work/life path. Finally, we turn our attention to the workplace and how men can act as allies and support working mothers at work. To get this support from men, women need to give support—a topic we discuss throughout this chapter.

Entwicklung und Validierung der Trierer Kurzskala zur Messung von Work-Life Balance (TKS-WLB)

Diagnostica ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Syrek ◽  
Claudia Bauer-Emmel ◽  
Conny Antoni ◽  
Jens Klusemann
Keyword(s):  
Family Conflict ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
Family Conflicts ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Reliabilität Und Validität ◽  
Work Family

Zusammenfassung. In diesem Beitrag wird die Trierer Kurzskala zur Messung von Work-Life Balance vorgestellt. Sie ermöglicht eine globale, richtungsfreie und in ihrem Aufwand ökonomische Möglichkeit zur Erfassung von Work-Life Balance. Die Struktur der Skala wurde anhand zweier Stichproben sowie einem zusätzlich erhobenen Fremdbild untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der Konstruktvalidierung bestätigten die einfaktorielle Struktur der Skala. Die interne Konsistenz der Skala erwies sich in beiden Studien als gut. Zudem konnte die empirische Trennbarkeit der Trierer Work-Life Balance Skala gegenüber einem gängigen Instrument zur Messung des Work-Family Conflicts ( Carlson, Kacmar & Williams, 2000 ) belegt werden. Im Hinblick auf die Kriteriumsvalidität der Skala wurden die angenommenen Zusammenhänge zu arbeits-, nicht-arbeits- sowie stressbezogenen Outcome-Variablen nachgewiesen. Die Eignung der Trierer Work-Life Balance Kurzskala zeigt sich auch daran, dass die Korrelationen zwischen den erhobenen Outcome-Variablen und dem Work-Family Conflict und denen der Trierer Work-Life Balance Skala ähnlich waren. Überdies vermochte die Trierer Work-Life Balance Skala über die Dimensionen des Work-Family Conflicts hinaus inkrementelle Varianz in den Outcome-Variablen aufzuklären. Insgesamt sprechen damit die Ergebnisse beider Stichproben für die Reliabilität und Validität der Trierer Work-Life Balance Kurzskala.

Beyond paid work: Volunteering as a psychosocial resource concerning work-life balance and health

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romualdo Ramos ◽  
Rebecca Brauchli ◽  
Theo Wehner ◽  
Georg Bauer ◽  
Oliver Hammig
Keyword(s):  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Psychosocial Resource
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document