This phenomenological study expands from current mentoring literature within the mass communication field in understanding how mentoring can contribute to the successful careers of public relations entrepreneurial women. While many scholars indicate that mentoring is effective for women, the present study describes how mentoring has affected the women participants' public relations careers and personal lives. In-depth interviews focused on following five research questions: What have been the key contributing factors in the success of public relations women entrepreneurs? How has mentoring helped the women participants achieve their goals in a public relations career and in starting their own company? Which mentoring strategy (formal or informal) is perceived as being most effective? Do women benefit more from having a women mentor versus male? What motivating reasons attributed the public relations women participants to undertake their own business? The qualitative interview data generated six common themes which are: (1) networking, mentoring, building key relationships and a strong work ethic as being key to their success, (2) career mentoring from university faculty members and/or Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) as an integral part in the commencement of their public relations careers, (3) mentoring affirmed their self-worth, (4) informal mentoring being perceived as more beneficial due to the long lasting relationship that follows, (5) male mentors being as effective as female mentors relative to career issues, although women provide both career and psychological mentoring, and (6) mentoring, lack of employment opportunities, and a better work-life balance being the three main key contributing factors in women professionals starting their own public relations company.

The current study contributes to the already substantial scholarly literature on telecommuting by estimating a joint model of three dimensions- option, choice and frequency of telecommuting. In doing so, we focus on workers who are not self-employed workers and who have a primary work place that is outside their homes. The unique methodological features of this study include the use of a general and flexible generalized hurdle count model to analyze the precise count of telecommuting days per month, and the formulation and estimation of a model system that embeds the count model within a larger multivariate choice framework. The unique substantive aspects of this study include the consideration of the "option to telecommute" dimension and the consideration of a host of residential neighborhood built environment variables. The 2009 NHTS data is used for the analysis, and allows us to develop a current perspective of the process driving telecommuting decisions. This data set is supplemented with a built environment data base to capture the effects of demographic, work-related, and built environment measures on the telecommuting-related dimensions. In addition to providing important insights for policy analysis, the results in this study indicate that ignoring the "option" dimension of telecommuting can, and generally will, lead to incorrect conclusions regarding the behavioral processes governing telecommuting decisions. The empirical results have implications for transportation planning analysis as well as for the worker recruitment/retention and productivity literature. / text

Using the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) and ordered logistic regression, the relation of intergenerational child care and short-term fertility intentions is explored in the gender-egalitarian Swedish family policy context. Overall, receiving child care help from parents or grandparents does not seem to influence whether women or men with one or two children plan to have another child. The results support the Swedish public child care system's effectiveness in facilitating relatively high fertility and work- and family compatibility, while informal child care is at best complementary. Only women and men aged 18-29 years old with two children were found to be significantly more likely in having another child within three years when receiving intergenerational child care support.

Alternative work arrangements (AWA) policies allow employees to select varied work schedules that are both conducive to the organization’s goals and to employees’ personal needs. Though common in the business sector, such policies are rarely articulated within American colleges and universities. Practitioners within the student affairs profession regularly work beyond the average 40-hour week due to the fundamental nature of their work with students’ co-curricular involvement outside of the classroom; as a result, the lack of work-life balance can result in high employee turnover which can be detrimental to an organization. Utilizing grounded theory, a qualitative methodology that allows researchers to espouse new theories to explain phenomena based on data, 14 student affairs practitioners employed at a large research institution in the southeast were interviewed to examine their experiences which emanated from the institution’s AWA policy implemented in 2007. The emergent theory collectively affirmed the importance of flexibility as participants indicated that they expected variations in their work hours given the unusual hours that are commonly associated with the student affairs profession. They reported benefits such as better work-life balance, increased productivity, reduced stress, and increased job satisfaction. Conversely, participants expressed concerns that AWAs were not consistency available to all employees and awareness of the policy was limited. They also experienced feelings of guilt and often felt the need to prove that they were working. Finally, participants recommended that AWA policies should be transparent, regularly assessed, and benchmarked against existing policies at other universities. Results provided evidence of how proven strategies used in corporate human resource models can be applied in a higher education setting, and the findings further suggested that employees and employers could greatly benefit from the establishment of formal policies that allow flexibility in the workplace through the use of AWAs. Implementation of these policies may provide employees with more opportunities for work-life balance, thereby improving job satisfaction and increasing employee retention in the student affairs profession.

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There is growing concern surrounding the detrimental effect of term-time employment on university students’ academic success. The narrow focus of previous studies has resulted in the literature being characterised by mixed results. This study sought to clarify the effects by comprehensively investigating and controlling for a large number of variables across a diverse range of university students (N = 1841). Students completed an online survey during the first semester of study (2010) and their responses were later matched to their academic records for that semester. The results show that the majority of working students reported working out of financial necessity. There was no difference in grades between employed and non-employed students; however, hours worked had a direct negative linear effect on the grades of employed students. Analysis indicated that employed students would have had significantly higher grades than the non-employed subsample, if they had not worked during term. The variable ‘reported negative effects of work on study’ partially mediated the effect of hours worked on grades. Studying engineering moderated the effect; when engineering students worked, the negative effect on grades was greater than for those studying other subjects. In addition, hours spent in employment partially mediated the effects of age, debt and financial pressure on GPA. Students also reported that work affected other areas of their life (time spent socialising/relaxing, in leisure/sport, sleeping and with family). Just over a fifth of the working students reported feeling that the university did not make it possible to combine work and study. These findings have implications for students, student supporters and academic institutions. Students should be aware of the negative effects of work on academic performance and seek to minimise the amount they work. Supporters may be able to relieve financial pressure on students, encourage realistic perceptions about students’ financial needs, and encourage students to limit the number of hours they work. Finally, academic institutions can also assist students in balancing work and study by providing a flexible learning environment.

Organizational culture defines how employees should behave in a given set of circumstances. The purpose of this study involved analyzing the organizational culture of an Icelandic software consultancy company in relation to employees´ work-life balance as an aspect of health, and explaining the process for creating and sustaining a supportive work-life culture. Achieving this purpose required answers to several research questions, What are the components of the existing organizational culture? What is the managers´ role in creating and sustaining this organizational culture? What are the challenges in sustaining this organizational culture? This case study used both quantitative and qualitative methods, and four data sources for triangulation purposes. The methodological approaches included a questionnaire-based survey, completed by 72 employees (90%); semi-structured interviews with eight employees; observations conducted during two separate weeks; and document analysis of various documents dating back a maximum of two years. The results suggest that the case organization´s culture was work-life supportive, i.e., the organization supported and valued employees´ integration of work and private life. The components of the existing organizational culture were defined as: fun, ambition, flexibility, international character, openness, cooperation, informality, flat organizational structure, responsibility, trust, understanding, support, and pride. The managers´ role in creating and sustaining this culture involved availability, supportiveness, understanding, trusting, and giving feedback. Among the main challenges in sustaining the culture was the growth of the organization, which could affect considerably the informal culture. Description of the components of the case organization’s existing culture includes description of the culture’s enablers, according to the purpose of explaining how a supportive work-life culture can be created and sustained. / <p>ISBN 978-91-85721-57-3</p>

Syfte: Det nya arbetslivet har inneburit en rad förändringar för den lönearbetande populationen i Sverige, gällande allt ifrån tid, rum och tillgänglighet i de alltmer flexibla arbetsvillkoren. Syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka ett antal faktorer i det nya arbetslivet som kan ha inverkan på den lönearbetande populationens livsbalans. Studien undersöker också om det finns skillnader mellan chefers och övriga anställdas livsbalans samt även om chefens nivå i hierarkin påverkar livsbalansen. Metod: Datamaterialet som används i denna kvantitativa studie är hämtat från European Social Survey 2010. Studien bygger på en svensk population bestående av 832 lönearbetande respondenter. Den beroende variabeln är ett index som mäter livsbalans. Kontroll- och oberoendevariablerna mäter bakgrund, familjesituation samt arbetsförhållanden. Analyserna består av medelvärdesjämförelser, korrelationer samt multipel regressionsanalys. Resultat/slutsats: Den huvudsakliga slutsatsen av denna studie är att den faktor som inverkar mest negativt på livsbalansen hos den lönearbetande populationen är om den anställda har personalansvar eller inte. Resultatet av studien visar även en negativ inverkan på livsbalansen för anställda som har barn. En positiv inverkan på livsbalansen är om den anställda har möjlighet att påverka arbetets tempo. Genom denna studie kan även slutsatsen dras att chefsnivå inte har någon inverkan på livsbalansen. / Purpose: Todays changed work-life has caused a number of changes to the wage-earning population in Sweden, regarding everything from time, space and availability in increasingly flexible working conditions. The purpose of this study is to examine a number of factors in the changed work-life that may have caused an impact on the life balance of the wage-earning population. The study also examines whether there are differences between managers and other employees' work-life balance, and also if the manager's level in the hierarchy affects life balance. Methodology: The data used in this quantitative study is taken from the European Social Survey of 2010. Study is based on a Swedish population consisting of 832 wage-earning respondents. The dependent variable is an index measuring life balance. The control and independent variables measures the background, family situation and working conditions. The analyzes consist of mean comparisons, correlations and multiple regression analysis. Results: The main conclusion of this study is that the factor that has the largest impact negatively on work-life balance of the wage-earning population is whether the employee is responsible for supervising other employees or not. Results of the study also shows a negative impact on work-life balance for employees who have children. A positive impact on work-life balance is if the employees are allowed to choose/change pace of work. influence the work. Through this study can also be concluded that the managerial level has no impact on work-life balance.

Idag upplever nästan av alla kvinnor och män i Sverige sitt arbete som psykiskt påfrestande enligt Arbetsmiljöverkets undersökning om den svenska arbetsmiljön, främst individer i tjänstemannasektorn. Denna kvalitativa studie avser att undersöka juristers psykosociala arbetsmiljö i relation till krav, kontroll och stöd, för att slutligen se om det finns könsskillnader i hur arbetsreateradstress upplevs och hanteras. För att nå förståelse för individens subjektiva upplevelse av sin psykosociala arbetsmiljö så används en fenomenologisk ansats där empirin samlades in genom teoretiskt öppna intervjuer. Informanterna bestod av åtta jurister, fyra kvinnor och fyra män, verksamma i både privat och offentlig sektor. Intervjuerna analyserades deduktivt utifrån teorin Krav-kontroll-stödmodellen och modellen coping, men även induktivt för att få en fullständig förståelse. Av det kompletterades studien med work-life balance-modellen. Resultatet visar att samtliga informanter menar att kraven är höga och att den negativa stressen blir påtaglig om arbetsbördan blir för stor. Vidare upplever samtliga att de har stor kontroll över sitt arbete men att arbetet tar tid från privatlivet. Vi fann könsskillnader i hur män och kvinnor hanterar stressen, vilket även bekräftas av den tidigare forskningen. Kvinnor hanterar den främst genom det sociala stödet medan männen väljer att hantera stressen på egen hand. Slutligen fann vi en stor skillnad mellan privat och offentlig sektor vad gäller krav, kontroll och stöd. Studiens resultat bidrar till en ökad förståelse för individens subjektiva upplevelse av sin arbetsrelaterade stress och om den psykosociala arbetsmiljön då majoriteten av den tidigare forskningen inom området är kvantitativ.

Recruiting well-qualified nurses into managerial positions is problematic because of the challenges associated with the role, the nursing shortage and the attraction of other opportunities within nursing. Leadership behavior is known to influence staff nurse retention and ultimately patient care outcomes, which makes it critical that we better understand what factors influence Nurse Managers decisions to leave or stay in management positions. The results of a systematic literature review suggest that Nurse Manager retention is a multifactoral issue. A primary analysis of data from Nurse Managers was conducted as the second part of this study. Job satisfaction, work-life balance, empowerment and the ability to ensure quality patient care were identified to be influential retention factors. These findings should enable administrators to develop strategies in the areas of leadership development and creation of healthy work environments that will increase job satisfaction and ultimately retention. Further research to develop sound theoretical models of Nurse Manager retention is required.