Throughout the Western world, governments have increasingly viewed migration through the lens of economic efficiency. In the era of globalisation, they argue, migrants should be selected on the basis of their skills and qualifications. Australian governments have been strongly committed to this policy direction, and over the last two decades, have reoriented the country�s migration program from the recruitment of unskilled labour to targeting educated professionals. The current Liberal-National Coalition government claims that this policy redirection has paid off, with migrants more skilled than ever, and successfully contributing to the economy. The government bases these claims on research conducted by scholars of migrant employment, who equate high levels of human capital with successful employment outcomes. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA), these researchers show that migrants with qualifications and English language ability have higher rates of labour force participation, lower unemployment, and higher occupational attainment and incomes, compared to their less skilled counterparts. This thesis critically analyses this �success story� narrative. It argues that the focus on human capital has overshadowed exploration of other important factors shaping migrants� employment experiences, including the gender and birthplace of new arrivals. This thesis shows that male and female migrants, and migrants from English versus non-English speaking backgrounds, can have very different experiences of working in Australia, regardless of their skills or occupational histories. I highlight the importance of these factors by investigating the experiences of Chinese women in Australia today. Using in-depth interviews with women from China and Hong Kong, and quantitative data from the Australian census and LSIA, I show that Chinese women�s employment experiences in Australia do not conform neatly to the prevailing �success story� promoted by the Government and migration researchers. Migration to Australia causes a widespread reduction in Chinese women�s paid work. While it is normal for men to seek work immediately after arrival, women find that migration intensifies their domestic workloads, while depriving them of sources of domestic support, such as relatives and hired help. Consequently, for Chinese women, migration often means moving from full-time to part-time jobs, or withdrawing from the workforce entirely. In the process, they experience a �feminisation� of roles, as they shift from being �career women� to fulfilling the traditional �female� roles of wife and mother. Thus migration and settlement are highly gendered, and the household context is crucial for understanding migrants� employment experiences. Among those women who are in the labour force, employment outcomes vary substantially by birthplace, pointing to the cultural specificity of human capital. Although both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong migrant women tend to be highly educated, mainland women achieve far poorer outcomes than Hong Kong women. Hong Kong women, with their relatively good English language skills and officially-recognised qualifications, are generally able to secure comparable jobs to those they had in Hong Kong, although they often have problems advancing further in Australia. Meanwhile, mainland women tend to have poorer English skills and greater difficulty in having their qualifications recognised, and thus suffer often dramatic downward mobility, moving from highly skilled professions to unskilled, low-paid and low status jobs in Australia. Thus this thesis demonstrates that the value of human capital is context-dependent. It can only be valorised in a new labour market if it is sufficiently culturally compatible with local standards. Therefore, the experiences of Chinese migrant women complicate the �success story� that dominates discussions of migrant employment in Australia. Ultimately, the prevailing economistic approach fails to see the diversity and complexity of migrant experiences. We need to see migrants as social beings, whose settlement in a new country is crucially shaped by their gender and birthplace, and broader institutional factors, which determine how human capital is used and rewarded. This is the mission of this thesis.

Multiple roles of worker and caregiver are a current reality for American men and women. In response to the need to employ more women and reduce work/family conflict, many companies have adopted work/family initiatives such as flextime and telecommuting. Despite the benefits associated with the use of work/family programs, many companies are hesitant to encourage employees’ use of such initiatives. This study focused on private sector managers’ views of work/family programs and addressed how much they encourage the use of and provide information to employees about flextime and telecommuting. Using a snowball sampling method, 63 managers from private sector companies offering flextime and/or telecommuting participated in an on-line study. These participants answered questionnaires and gave open-ended responses regarding attitudes toward women, men, work, and family, and employees’ usage of work/family programs. The results of the quantitative portion of this study showed a significant correlation between managers’ and employees’ use of flextime or telecommuting policies. Women under the age of 50 (younger) were less likely than their over 50 (older) female, over 50 (older) male, and under 50 (younger) male counterparts to have employees who use flextime or telecommuting programs. Results also showed that women over 50 were more likely to have employees who use flextime or telecommute when compared with men both over and under 50 and women under 50. Measures utilized in these findings were single-item scales developed by the author. Findings from the qualitative portion of this study showed that much of how managers view work/family programs depends on how responsible they believe their employees to be. Further research is necessary to operationalize managers’ view of responsible employees and to understand if this is code for workers who put the job before all else. This study examined private sector managers with a sample comprised of primarily young (Median age for men and women of 37 years), White Americans working as managers in the private sector and therefore caution should be taken when generalizing findings. It is hoped that these findings may be an entry point for interventions aimed at increasing the use and encouragement of work/family policies. / text

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Substantial numbers of Canadians work shifts. The reasons individuals work shifts are varied and complex. Prior research regarding the relationship between work-family balance, gender, quality of life indicators and health has yielded mixed results. The goal of this research was to examine the association between work-family balance, quality of life indicators and Canadians' overall health status while controlling for socio-economic status, education, family structure and life satisfaction. The two objectives of this study were: 1) to explore how the relationship between work-related characteristics, quality of life and overall health status is different among Canadian male and Canadian female workers, controlling for age, education, socio-economic status, family structure, and life satisfaction and, 2) to examine the relationship between shift configuration and employees' overall health status, controlling for socio-economic status, gender, education, family structure and life satisfaction. This study involved analyses of cross-secional national data from the General Social Survey (GSS) 2006, Cycle 20. The sample for the study included employed men and women who were married or living in common-law relationships, ages 18 through 69. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted to address the stated research objectives. Appropriate survey weights were applied to estimate population characteristeics. To fully account for the survey's complex sample design, mean bootstrap weights were used for variance estimation and calculation of confidence intervals. Findings indicated that for women and shift workers, both work-to-family spillover and family-to-work spillover were predictve of poor self-rated health. Spillover was not a predictor of poor health for men or day workers. Shift configuration was not found to be significantly correlated with poor self-rated health. Analyses should be repeated to test for interaction between shift work and sleep quality as sleep quality was controlled for in this study.

Substantial numbers of Canadians work shifts. The reasons individuals work shifts are varied and complex. Prior research regarding the relationship between work-family balance, gender, quality of life indicators and health has yielded mixed results. The goal of this research was to examine the association between work-family balance, quality of life indicators and Canadians' overall health status while controlling for socio-economic status, education, family structure and life satisfaction. The two objectives of this study were: 1) to explore how the relationship between work-related characteristics, quality of life and overall health status is different among Canadian male and Canadian female workers, controlling for age, education, socio-economic status, family structure, and life satisfaction and, 2) to examine the relationship between shift configuration and employees' overall health status, controlling for socio-economic status, gender, education, family structure and life satisfaction. This study involved analyses of cross-secional national data from the General Social Survey (GSS) 2006, Cycle 20. The sample for the study included employed men and women who were married or living in common-law relationships, ages 18 through 69. Bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted to address the stated research objectives. Appropriate survey weights were applied to estimate population characteristeics. To fully account for the survey's complex sample design, mean bootstrap weights were used for variance estimation and calculation of confidence intervals. Findings indicated that for women and shift workers, both work-to-family spillover and family-to-work spillover were predictve of poor self-rated health. Spillover was not a predictor of poor health for men or day workers. Shift configuration was not found to be significantly correlated with poor self-rated health. Analyses should be repeated to test for interaction between shift work and sleep quality as sleep quality was controlled for in this study.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of females entering the orthodontic profession over the past few decades, however, there is very little published literature on female orthodontists and work-family balance. A qualitative study, using the framework of phenomenology, was used to analyze data obtained from semi-structured telephone interviews of a purposive sample of Canadian female orthodontists. Results conveyed that the issue of work-family balance is of paramount importance to the women interviewed. They defined balance in terms of having success, and satisfaction, in both their family life and professional life. However, they recognized the requirement of compromising and prioritizing. The participants discussed the specific challenges of work-family balance in orthodontic practice, and outlined adaptations to the maternal role and the professional role, to help achieve balance. Finally, they identified areas where they experienced the most role conflict. / Medical Sciences - Orthodontics

This study explores the paradoxical nature of cultural norms of feminine perfection and the strategies women employ to manage those paradoxes. Following an analysis of the cultural discourses surrounding women and perfection, this study uses portraiture to highlight how five women face perfection in their lives. Portraiture as a method employs careful, detailed narratives of a participant. The portraits from five participants, from different generations, ethnicities, races, and socio-economic backgrounds are provided and analyzed. Each portrait participant in this study represented a facet of feminine perfection, such as physical, relational, or career. From these portraits, distinct management strategies emerged. While each participant experienced perfection in unique ways, they all were able to transcend the paradoxical tensions of perfection by framing and creating boundaries around how they would personally manage perfection. These accounts suggest that women work within the constraints of cultural norms to create stable identities.

Throughout the Western world, governments have increasingly viewed migration through the lens of economic efficiency. In the era of globalisation, they argue, migrants should be selected on the basis of their skills and qualifications. Australian governments have been strongly committed to this policy direction, and over the last two decades, have reoriented the country�s migration program from the recruitment of unskilled labour to targeting educated professionals. The current Liberal-National Coalition government claims that this policy redirection has paid off, with migrants more skilled than ever, and successfully contributing to the economy. The government bases these claims on research conducted by scholars of migrant employment, who equate high levels of human capital with successful employment outcomes. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (LSIA), these researchers show that migrants with qualifications and English language ability have higher rates of labour force participation, lower unemployment, and higher occupational attainment and incomes, compared to their less skilled counterparts. This thesis critically analyses this �success story� narrative. It argues that the focus on human capital has overshadowed exploration of other important factors shaping migrants� employment experiences, including the gender and birthplace of new arrivals. This thesis shows that male and female migrants, and migrants from English versus non-English speaking backgrounds, can have very different experiences of working in Australia, regardless of their skills or occupational histories. I highlight the importance of these factors by investigating the experiences of Chinese women in Australia today. Using in-depth interviews with women from China and Hong Kong, and quantitative data from the Australian census and LSIA, I show that Chinese women�s employment experiences in Australia do not conform neatly to the prevailing �success story� promoted by the Government and migration researchers. Migration to Australia causes a widespread reduction in Chinese women�s paid work. While it is normal for men to seek work immediately after arrival, women find that migration intensifies their domestic workloads, while depriving them of sources of domestic support, such as relatives and hired help. Consequently, for Chinese women, migration often means moving from full-time to part-time jobs, or withdrawing from the workforce entirely. In the process, they experience a �feminisation� of roles, as they shift from being �career women� to fulfilling the traditional �female� roles of wife and mother. Thus migration and settlement are highly gendered, and the household context is crucial for understanding migrants� employment experiences. Among those women who are in the labour force, employment outcomes vary substantially by birthplace, pointing to the cultural specificity of human capital. Although both mainland Chinese and Hong Kong migrant women tend to be highly educated, mainland women achieve far poorer outcomes than Hong Kong women. Hong Kong women, with their relatively good English language skills and officially-recognised qualifications, are generally able to secure comparable jobs to those they had in Hong Kong, although they often have problems advancing further in Australia. Meanwhile, mainland women tend to have poorer English skills and greater difficulty in having their qualifications recognised, and thus suffer often dramatic downward mobility, moving from highly skilled professions to unskilled, low-paid and low status jobs in Australia. Thus this thesis demonstrates that the value of human capital is context-dependent. It can only be valorised in a new labour market if it is sufficiently culturally compatible with local standards. Therefore, the experiences of Chinese migrant women complicate the �success story� that dominates discussions of migrant employment in Australia. Ultimately, the prevailing economistic approach fails to see the diversity and complexity of migrant experiences. We need to see migrants as social beings, whose settlement in a new country is crucially shaped by their gender and birthplace, and broader institutional factors, which determine how human capital is used and rewarded. This is the mission of this thesis.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Women's roles in the workplace have increased but expectations within their family roles have not diminished. Work-family conflict (WFC) occurs when work and family roles are mutually incompatible in some respect. Mothers' representations of their own particular personal contexts seem largely absent from the cultural iconography and so motivations for the study included bringing to light the phenomenological experiences of contemporary full-time working mothers by developing a rich description of their lived experience. These ideas have not been widely explored in South Africa. The study aimed to explore how full-time working mothers experience work-family conflict, including how they conceptualise their dual roles, how salient each role is to them, the factors in the work and family domains which are particularly pertinent for them and any coping strategies they might employ. The study used as a theoretical framework the model of work-family conflict developed by Greenhaus and Beutell in 1985, together with an extension from the work of Amstad, Meier, Fasel, Elfering and Semmer in 2011. The study used a phenomenological methodology. Eight middle-class, professional, full-time working mothers from the Southern Suburbs and City Bowl of Cape Town were interviewed individually, using a semi-structured interview schedule. A qualitative paradigm was used to analyse the interviews. Emotional and cognitive repercussions of WFC were many, including feelings of unsustainability. Some participants acknowledged a need to compromise in order to cope, but the current normative messages are not conducive to this. Participants aspire, not to stop working, because the role of worker is regarded as important for self-definition, but to reduce their overall load. The generalisability of this study was reduced because of its localised ambit, its small size and some similarities in socio-economic profile among the participants. Future studies could further explore the choices or strategies which are successful in reducing WFC.

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between work-family conflict, stress and burnout among South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) employees. For this purpose data was collected from the SASSA agency offices in Alice, King Williams Town and East London. A sample of 72 agency employees was drawn from the population. Results of the study indicated that the study variables are significantly positively correlated with one another. Work family conflict was found to be significantly positively correlated with stress. Stress was also found to be significantly positively correlated with burnout. A significant positive relationship was also found to exist between work family conflict and burnout. The findings of this study are helpful in the social security agency industry in order to design human resources policies which will reduce turnover of agency employees by reducing stress, work family conflict and burnout among the agency employees.