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Ten front-line maternal social workers were interviewed to determine how they are managing in terms of combining their work and family responsibilities. Supervisor support, and the effectiveness of family-friendly work place policies were explored. All agreed, that motherhood, has had a positive impact on practice including increased empathy and understanding, for both parents and children. The following workplace initiatives were determined to be helpful: flexible and predictable work hours; part-time options; and compressed-work-week. Despite half feeling unsupported by their supervisors, the majority indicated that they are managing well primarily due to flexible work hour scheduling. The attitude of supervisors, regarding the value of parenting, appears to be the key factor relating to their level of support. There was some indication of role conflict and much evidence of accommodation, including turning down supervisory/management positions, postponing education and restricting types of practice.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。

This study contributes to an understanding of the causes, consequences and complexities of gender inequity in career success (high levels of status and salary) in the New Zealand accounting profession. Sixty-nine (twenty-seven male and forty-two female) experienced Chartered Accountants were interviewed about their career histories. A feminist, interpretative and qualitative approach was followed and NVIVO was used for analysis. The first significant contribution of the study was the identification of five work/family strategies based on levels of family and work involvement (Traditional Men, Traditional Women, Family Balancers, Stepping Stone Men and Work First Women). Secondly, the level of family responsibilities explained career success much better than gender alone, although these two factors were commonly (but not always) directly related. The third contribution was the revision of the three-pronged model previously offered by Whiting & Wright (2001) to explain gender inequities in salary and status in the New Zealand accounting profession. Because the original model was derived from quantitative data, using qualitative data to revise the model constituted a sequential mixed method (pragmatic) approach. In the revised model, gender centrality and the three explanatory categories (Attributes, Structure and Attitudes) were removed. Career success was enhanced by high career aspirations (related to perceptions of stress, managerial and responsibility requirements and remuneration), long working hours and availability to clients, hard work, high technical competence and skills (enhanced by overseas experience), networking (less attractive to women), self-confidence (enhanced by mentoring for the least self-confident), flexibility to relocate if required (decreased by family and lifestyle ties) and large size and growth of the employing organisation. Most influential were career aspirations and a long hours/available work ethic. This demonstrated the pervasiveness of the male linear career model (derived from the male breadwinner-female carer family structure), that rewarded (in terms of progression) unilateral allegiance to the firm. Career aspirations, desire for responsibility, perceived ability to handle pressure, long hours, availability to clients, networking and possibly technical skills (if there were periods of extended leave) were all influenced by the Chartered Accountant�s level of family responsibilities. Those with the least family responsibilities (childless, Traditional Men and Work First Women) demonstrated unswerving commitment to the firm and were equally the most successful career wise. The impact of family responsibilities on career progression could be ameliorated by organisational cultural change. There were some indications of cultural change, being most prevalent in public sector and educational organisations. Enhancing conditions included a culture of flexibility and a concurrent atmosphere of trust, a less competitive work culture, absence of constant overtime demands and on-call work, encouraging top management who worked positively to retain and foster top performers over a longer period, and high level part-time positions supported by well-trained subordinate teams. To achieve these conditions provides an imminent challenge to organisations which employ Chartered Accountants, because the profession is increasing its proportion of females, has a younger generation more interested in work-life balance, and is losing many of its members overseas.

Contemporary interest in and demand for a healthy balance between work and family/life (WF/L) commitments has resulted in the proliferation of organisations commonly referred to as family-friendly workplaces (FFWs). Such a proliferation has been met with assertions that WF/L balance is as much organisational rhetoric as it is organisational reality. Such claims are damaging for organisations that are genuinely committed to providing WF/L-friendly work environments. Additionally, such allegations if true also indicate a more serious problem of organisational ineffectiveness. This study therefore perceives a way by which FFWs can test and evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts to provide employees with WF/L balance. Three research questions drive this study: Why are FFWs’ efforts to provide WF/L balance regarded as rhetoric? What is the gap level between WF/L balance rhetoric and reality in an organisation? What organisational issues and challenges contribute to the rhetoric claim? In the absence of models or frameworks that can effectively test and measure rhetoric-reality gaps this research may be considered as ‘experimental’, since it introduces a new conceptual framework, ‘The rhetoric-reality discrepancy framework’. The framework illustrates how gaps arise and highlights key underlying contributing factors. These factors represent organisational challenges that impede WF/L balance for employees, and indicate areas that organisations need to address if they wish to dispel claims that WF/L balance is more rhetoric than reality. The ‘experimental’ nature of this framework meant that a within-case approach was the obvious choice, as it allows for the thorough study of the research problem within one organisational setting. The study was based on a case analysis of an Australian organisation that promotes itself as and has achieved formal recognition as a FFW, through nominating itself for and subsequently winning national-level work and family awards. The dual-centred nature of the research inquiry meant that a mixed paradigmatic approach was selected. A positivist approach was used to measure gap levels while an interpretivist approach was used to guide understanding of underlying contributors of these gaps. Additionally, the combined paradigm meant that the choice of research methodology was framed by a mixed methods approach. Quantitative tools such as a questionnaire survey and qualitative channels such as document analysis, personal interviews and participant observation were used. In line with Creswell’s Sequential Exploratory Design (11.2a), fieldwork commenced with the quantitative phase and on its completion was followed by the qualitative phase. SPSS software was the predominant tool used in the quantitative analytical phase while NVivo software was used in the qualitative phase. Three areas of employee experiences - their awareness of, need for, and take up of WF/L balance initiatives - were used to explore the magnitude of the rhetoric-reality gap, while the qualitative phase sought to understand what caused the gaps, what employees thought of their organisation’s efforts, and uncover emergent themes. The two methods were ‘mixed’ in the final stage of the study, and provided a rich and deeper understanding of the research problem. The quantitative results showed that employees had less than satisfactory experiences in all three areas and further supported the notion that WF/L balance may be more rhetoric than reality. The qualitative findings identified a number of contributing factors, many of which could be broadly categorised under key themes in existing literature, such as poor communication, organisational culture, differential access, cost considerations, and managerial discretion. The study also uncovered other issues that could contribute to organisational rhetoric, such as implementation challenges. One such challenge involved an organisational need to cater for a diverse workforce and therefore to provide a broad range of initiatives. Another finding is that need for particular provisions is closely linked to employees’ life stage. Both these issues mean that while organisations should offer a wide range of provisions there is also the strong likelihood that a good number of provisions may have very poor take up or have no take up. An emergent theme, though linked to few participants only, was the set of WF/L balance challenges faced by first generation Australians or immigrant workers. Another finding which appears to contradict the gap level finding of organisational rhetoric is that a number of employees either specifically identified their organisation as being WF/L-friendly or identified that flexibility was a key ingredient of WF/L balance and acknowledged that their organisation provided such flexibility. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-34).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Michigan, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 436-464).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-142). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-86). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.