The aim of this dissertation is to explore various dimensions of work–life balance in Europe. I examine the extent to which institutional factors, working conditions and individual resources influence individuals’ capabilities to have a family and engage in family life. The theoretical framework is inspired by Amartya Sen’s capability framework, a multi-dimensional approach that provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between institutional contexts and individual capabilities. Four studies have been conducted. The first study focuses on women’s short-term childbearing intentions in ten European countries and finds that the association between such intentions and economic uncertainties varies by the policy support for work-family reconciliation in the country as well as individual factors, such as her educational level, and her number of children. The second study addresses the impact of family-friendly working conditions on young adult women’s childbearing behaviour in Sweden, showing the importance of family-friendly working condition for the transition to motherhood of less educated childless women with low income, and for second births of low educated mothers. The third study analyses gender differences in perceived work–home conflict in ten European countries, and the importance of work-family policies and gender norms. I find that gender differences are more pronounced in countries with weaker support for work-family reconciliation and more traditional gender norms. The fourth study focuses on tensions between work and family demands that parents in Hungary and Sweden experience, and on their capabilities to make claims for work–life balance. We find greater agency inequalities for Hungarian parents for claims making for and achievement of work-life balance, in contrast to a strong sense of entitlement to exercise rights to care among Swedish parents, which reflect country variations in policy supports for work−life balance, working time regimes and social norms regarding work and care. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Submitted. Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Submitted.</p>

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.

Work values represent a degree of importance, worth and desirability of the events that occur at work (Knoop, 1993), while job satisfaction represents the gratification of an individual’s needs and wants pertaining to the job. Work values and needs are important concepts that aids in the examination of an individual’s potential for job satisfaction (Drummond & Stoddard, 1991). The purpose of this research was to determine if there is a significant relationship between work values and job satisfaction. A quantitative study was used with a sample of 120 participants. The study consisted of three instruments, the job satisfaction questionnaire (OSI), the VSM 94 (The Values Survey Module), and the biographical information questionnaire. This study revealed that there is a significant relationship between the overall job satisfaction and the overall work values within the sample. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between the work values dimension of uncertainty/avoidance and job satisfaction. There was no difference in work values and job satisfaction between genders. However, there were differences in work values between the various racial groups. Furthermore, there were differences in the work values dimension of masculinity between different age groups. Implications of these findings and differences in the relationship between constructs are discussed. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-Unversity of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.

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.

Med utgångspunkt i de senaste årens uppmärksamhet kring den svenska Polisen och de konflikter som uppstått mellan arbetsgivare och arbetstagare väcktes ett intresse att studera vad som låg bakom dessa problem. Det visade sig att merparten av de problem som uppstått grundade sig i att anställda uppträtt på sätt som inte ansågs gynnande för organisationen och dess förtroende hos allmänheten. Studien ämnar besvara frågor kring hur Polisen som organisation formar sina anställda med utgångspunkt i teorier om identitetsarbete. En kvalitativ undersökning genomfördes med studier av organisatoriska dokument och genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. De intervjuade består av personer verksamma inom den svenska Polisen. Dessutom intervjuades personer från svenska Polisförbundet, det fackförbund som organiserar närmast alla Sveriges yrkesverksamma poliser. I resultatet framkom indikationer på, utifrån de teoretiska begrepp som har valts för studien, att hur individerna formar sina identiteter är relativt individuellt. Dessutom tycks individerna påverkas mycket av sina kollegor, kanske snarare mer än av organisationens ledning.  Hur information förmedlas ut i organisationen framställdes dessutom som vag av de intervjuade. I diskussionen behandlas vidare hur identitetsstyrning tar sig uttryck inom Polisen samt på vilket sätt de anställda ser på arbetet med sina egna identiteter i relation till yrket polis. / During the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the Swedish police. This interest was triggered as the Police organization attempted to dictate what was appropriate when it came to employee behavior outside of work. This essay intends to answer questions regarding how police employees shape their own identities in order to accommodate the requirements of their profession. A qualitative method has been used, using documents and semi structured interviews. A total of eight people have been interviewed.  The results indicated that the organization, in some ways, want to regulate their employees. A few hands-on methods exist, they are however too vague to be regarded as present in the day to day work of employees. The police organization does not offer clear guidelines and it is up to the employee to determine their own individual identity. Overall, there is more impact on individuals behavior from colleagues than from Police policy. In summary, we will examine the Swedish police organization with reference to theories about identity work in organizations and in relation to the empirical data.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the Personal Values, Perceptions of Culture and Achievement Motivation levels of employees in an organisation. Employees were classified according to differences in job grade, race and gender. The influence of Length of Service, Educational Level and Age as biographical variables was also considered. Respondents were drawn from an organisation which provides a service at harbour terminals. Services include loading and off-loading ships and storing freight and bulk cargo. The co-operation of all managers employed in the organisation, classified into f lower, middle and senior categories, was solicited through the offices of the Human Resources Executive. Sets of questionnaires were distributed to the population of 430 managers in the organisation. From the returns, 169 usable sets of questionnaires were processed. Personal Values and Perceptions of Culture were assessed using instruments based on Graves' (1970) "Open System Theory of Values", while Achievement Motivation was measured using the Achievement Motivation Questionnaire (PMV). Analysis of the data was done descriptively as well as by using Pearson's product moment correlations, t-Tests and analysis of variances. Findings indicate there are significant relationships between some factors on the Personal Values Questionnaire and those on the Perceptions of CuIture Questionnaire. Absolutistic/Conformist Personal Values were held most strongly whilst Egoistic values were ranked lowest. The most strongly held perception was the organisation had a Passive Hierarchy culture and the weakest was that it had an Empire culture. Overall Achievement Motivation was at the average level for all managers. There are significant differences in the Personal Values, Perceptions of Culture and Achievement Motivation levels of managers classified by race and job grade. While Achievement Motivation levels were influenced by gender, Personal Values and Perceptions of Culture were not. Age appears to have an influence on Personal Values but not on Perceptions of CuIture and Achievement Motivation. Significant differences were found in Personal Values and Achievement Motivation levels but not in Perceptions of Culture among managers with varying lengths of service. Education level seems to influence managers' Personal Values and Achievement Motivation levels but not their Perceptions of Culture. Construct validity coefficients for the Personal Values and Perceptions of Culture Questionnaires were established and existing coefficients for the Achievement Motivation Questionnaire were analysed. Results of the current study must be regarded as tentative due to limitations in the sampling procedure, the possibility of changes in the meaning of the Achievement Motivation construct as measured on the PMV, as well as shifts in the meanings of the factors on the Personal Values and Perceptions of Culture Questionnaires (all three instruments were designed in the early 1980's). These . movements in. meanings could render existing reliability and validity coeffients suspect. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban Westville, 1998.

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.