Breaking the Cycle of Overwork and Recuperation: Altering Somatic Engagement Across Boundaries

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Creary ◽  
Karen Locke
Keyword(s):  
Management Strategy ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Integration Strategy ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Segmentation Approach ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Virtuous Cycle ◽  
Ideal Worker ◽  
The Ideal

Past research often relegates the management of the ideal worker’s overworking body to the nonwork environment. Reflecting a segmentation approach to managing the boundary between work and nonwork, the nonwork setting is treated as a context for recuperation. Yet, segmentation may, ironically, support the ideal worker image and reinforce the persistence of overwork. Drawing on two-year-long ethnographic studies of yoga teacher training, this paper considers how individuals shift how they manage the boundaries around their bodies. In doing so, we challenge the notion that segmentation of nonwork from work is an ideal boundary management strategy for addressing the negative impacts of overwork. Rather, we suggest that an integration strategy developed in a nonwork community may be productive for breaking the cycle of overwork and recuperation promoted by the ideal worker image and creating a virtuous cycle of activation and release. We bring forward the bodily basis to overwork and conceptualize somatic engagement as a form of engagement through which actors come to connect reflexively with their bodily experience across domains. Relatedly, in revealing how individuals come to connect reflexively with their bodily experience, we elaborate our understanding of the relational phenomena that enhance individuals’ somatic experiences across boundaries.

scholarly journals Who is the ideal worker? How gendered organizations adversely impact women's promotability and development

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Clarissa R. Steele
Keyword(s):  
Past Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Implicit Associations ◽  
Gendered Organizations ◽  
Developmental Opportunities ◽  
Female Employees ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ideal Worker ◽  
The Ideal

Women tend to earn fewer promotions (Roth et al., 2012) and receive fewer developmental opportunities (King et al., 2012) than men, but little research explains why. I explore the stereotype of the ideal worker, someone who meets their supervisor's expectations and has the potential to be promoted to the top levels of their organization over their career, as one reason for this disparity. I propose that supervisors use this stereotype to assess employee promotability and developmental opportunities. I explore the attributes of the ideal worker stereotype using the theory of gendered organizations (Acker, 1990, 1992), which suggests that firms operate from a masculine perspective because men tend to create and lead organizations. I find that the attributes of the ideal worker are broader than suggested by the theory of gendered organizations and past research on the ideal worker, but that these attributes are not perceived as masculine. In addition, I find no differences between how men and women are rated in terms of promotability, recommended development, and the extent to which they exemplify the attributes of the ideal worker. However, the extent to which employees exemplify ideal worker attributes predicts promotability ratings and development recommended for them. Sexism, an individual difference among raters, moderates the relationship between employee gender and outcomes such that women receive lower ideal worker ratings and less recommended development when raters have high sexism beliefs. I also find that the implicit (unconscious) associations between ideal worker attributes and gender role stereotypes affects recommended development such that those with masculine implicit associations give more development to female employees. My dissertation presents future research opportunities to further investigate the ideal worker stereotype and its impact in the workplace.

Land and poverty: the role of soil fertility and vegetation quality in poverty reduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-333
Author(s):  
Martin Philipp Heger ◽  
Gregor Zens ◽  
Mook Bangalore
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Vegetation Growth ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Negative Impacts

AbstractThe debate on the land–poverty nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify the causal dynamics. We use a unique global panel dataset that links survey and census derived poverty data with measures of land ecosystems at the subnational level. Rainfall is used to overcome the endogeneity in the land–poverty relationship in an instrumental variable approach. This is the first global study using quasi-experimental methods to uncover the degree to which land improvements matter for poverty reduction. We draw three main conclusions. First, land improvements are important for poverty reduction in rural areas and particularly so for Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, land improvements are pro-poor: poorer areas see larger poverty alleviation effects due to improvements in land. Finally, irrigation plays a major role in breaking the link between bad weather and negative impacts on the poor through reduced vegetation growth and soil fertility.

Not Just a Mothers’ Problem: The Consequences of Perceived Workplace Flexibility Bias for All Workers

2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 808-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Trimble O’Connor ◽  
Erin A. Cech
Keyword(s):  
Turnover Intentions ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Flexible Work ◽  
Workplace Flexibility ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Work Arrangements ◽  
Workplace Cultures ◽  
Ideal Worker Norm ◽  
Ideal Worker ◽  
The Ideal

Flexibility bias and the “ideal worker” norm pose serious disadvantages for working mothers. But, are mothers the only ones harmed by these norms? We argue that these norms can be harmful for all workers, even “ideal” ones—men without caregiving responsibilities who have never used flexible work arrangements. We investigate how working in an environment where workers perceive flexibility bias affects their job attitudes and work-life spillover. Using representative survey data of U.S. workers, we find that perceived flexibility bias reduces job satisfaction and engagement and increases turnover intentions and work-life spillover for all types of workers, even ideal workers. The effects of perceived bias on satisfaction, turnover, and spillover operate beyond experiences with family responsibilities discrimination and having colleagues who are unsupportive of work-life balance. We show that workplace cultures that harbor flexibility bias—and, by extension, that valorize ideal work—may affect the entire workforce in costly ways.

Counting the Hours: The Influence of Gender and Occupation on Work Hour Mismatch Prevalence and Resolution in Australia

2020 ◽  
pp. 0160449X2093332
Author(s):  
Britta Girtz
Keyword(s):  
Paid Work ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Occupational Differences ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Hours ◽  
Work Hour ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Ideal Worker ◽  
The Ideal

Existing research on work hour mismatches has examined gender and occupational differences, but it has largely assumed that these factors work independently of each other. This paper combines insights from the stress of higher status hypothesis and the concept of the ideal worker to examine the intersections of gender and occupation in relation to inequalities in workers’ abilities to control the amount of time they spend in paid work. I also offer a longitudinal and process-oriented analysis by examining how men and women in upper, middle, and lower prestige occupations differ in their chances of having hour mismatches, resolving mismatches, and in the methods through which they resolve them. Findings indicate that men and women experience different types of mismatches and men in upper level occupations are at greater risk of mismatches and least likely to find resolutions, yet outcomes are heavily influenced by the intersections of gender and occupation, illustrating the need for this type of analysis. There are few results to indicate differences in the mechanism of mismatch resolution by either gender or occupation.

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