Amanda Joy Biggs

The ability of work—life balance policies to influence key social/organisational issues

There is increasing evidence that work—life imbalance has a direct impact on societal issues, such as delayed parenting, declining fertility rates, ageing populations, and decreasing labour supply. It is documented that work—life balance policies are beneficial for individuals, their families, organisations, and society. However, other evidence demonstrates that the associated benefits are not always realised and work—life balance policies can result in reinforced gender inequities and increased levels of work—life conflict. This paper reviews the ability of work—life balance policies to actually influence some key social and organisational issues. Current developments, such as an increased casual workforce and the impact of changes in newly industrialised nations, are discussed. Recommendations for work—life balance to be addressed via a comprehensive multilevel approach are made.

Investigating the moderating influences of gender upon role salience and work‐family conflict

The existence of gender differences in the experience of work‐family concflict has been subject to recent debate. Contemporary research generally suggests that men and women experience work‐family conflict at comparative levels. However the majority of this research investigates direct relationships only, published investigations of the moderating influence of gender are scarce. The importance or salience of a role to an individual is also theorised to influence role perceptions, including conflict. However, role salience is commonly ignored in work‐family conflict research. The current research addresses these oversights by investigating the direct and indirect relationships between gender, work‐family conflict, role demands, and role salience. A total of 130 university students rated their perceptions of their university (work) and family roles. No significant direct relationships between gender and bi‐directional work‐family conflict were produced. However, gender significantly moderated the relationship between role salience and conflict; with females experiencing more conflict as their level of family role salience increased. The opposite results were produced for the male respondents. The implications of these findings for work‐family conflict research are discussed.

Parental leave and work‐family balance among employed parents following childbirth: An exploratory investigation in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract Although there has been considerable research internationally on the topic of work‐family balance, one area largely overlooked concerns the acute demands experienced by employed parents in the period of time following the birth of a child. Using an exploratory (qualitative) design, we investigated the perceived effects of parental leave provisions, organisational and family support, and job changes on work‐family balance among 81 Australian and New Zealand parents who had returned to paid employment after the birth of a child. Respondents with no or limited access to paid parental leave perceived an imperative to return quickly to full‐time employment. This employment transition was generally perceived as premature and as having adverse personal consequences (e.g., personal health, child attachment, and breast‐feeding) and organisational consequences (e.g., diminished job commitment and increased turnover intentions). Major determinants of work‐family balance emerging in this research were access to paid parental leave, adequate leave duration, organisational support, and emotional reactions to returning to work while caring for an infant. Implications for the continued refinement of work‐family policies and support in Australia and New Zealand are discussed.

Relationships of individual and organizational support with engagement : examining various types of causality in a three-wave study

The challenges associated with facilitating an organizational environment that promotes work engagement and is supportive of employee psychological well-being are well documented. This study focused on the longitudinal relationships between work engagement and three supportive job resources: supervisor support, colleague support and individual perceptions of the wider resource of work culture support. The sample comprised 1196 employees of an Australian state police service, both police officers and civilian staff, who completed self-report surveys across three waves of data collection. Work culture support predicted higher supervisor support, colleague support and work engagement over time lags of 12 and 18 months. Furthermore, work engagement was a significant predictor of work culture support over the two time lags. Significant indirect relationships were also observed. With the large volume of work-related factors potentially influencing work engagement, the results of this research assist in clarifying the specific supportive job resources that impact upon work engagement over time. The paper discusses practical implications for the promotion of support and work engagement within high-stress occupations.

‘You don’t want people knowing you’re a copper!’ A contemporary assessment of police organisational culture

Police organisations have recently experienced a number of significant transformations, including changes to police officer demography, the adoption of community-oriented policing models and increased accountability requirements. The impacts of these changes upon the dominant police organisational cultural characteristics have been speculated upon, but have not been empirically assessed. Via the use of the cultural web methodology applied in both interviews and focus groups with N = 42 sworn police officers, this research assessed the key dimensions of contemporary police organisational culture. The results indicated the existence of five dominant police organisational culture characteristics: the police family, control, us versus them, masculinity, and subcultural differences. We also identified two dominant themes regarding the key changes to the police culture: reduction in social rituals and increased scrutiny. We discuss how these results both support previous descriptions of the core components of police organisational culture and update previous findings by identifying significant changes to police cultural norms and practices.

Improving Criminal Justice Workplaces : Translating theory and research into evidence-based practice

All organisations, whether private or public sector, seek to improve criminal justice workplace practice from an evidence base, but often find it difficult to effectively translate research findings into policy or design best-practice interventions. This book provides a direct bridge between academic research in organisational behaviour and the management of workers within criminal justice agencies. The public sector in particular is currently experiencing significant funding cuts and increasingly needs to create optimal workplace strategies to maintain frontline services and preserve the well-being of the work force. The aim of this book is to equip managers with knowledge about key processes and appropriate research methods, thereby enabling them to more readily understand and apply academic research to their workplaces. The means to translate research findings into implementation strategies are also clearly explained. Furthermore, essential organisational issues that either impede or enhance productivity, employee effectiveness, and management responsiveness to change are discussed, following a common chapter template of problem definition, research and analysis, evidence translation, implementation, and evaluation. Written by experts in the field, this book applies cutting-edge theoretical discussions and research findings to evidence-based policy. It examines new strategies and best practice in the context of widespread demoralization of staff in the criminal justice sector due to the impact of increased austerity. Improving Criminal Justice Workplaces is essential reading for leadership teams, managers and supervisors in the court, police, probation, and prison services, as well as allied professionals such as forensic psychologists and HR professionals.

Comparing the Impact of Occupation-Specific and Generic Work Characteristics

This chapter discusses the value of assessing occupation-specific job characteristics, in addition to the common measurement of generic job characteristics. We review some key examples of how occupation-specific assessments have contributed to the literature, with a particular focus on research conducted within the Asia-Pacific region. The chapter also discusses the theoretical contributions drawn from occupation-specific job characteristics research and the practical implications this research has for organisational psychological health interventions with high-risk of stress workers (e.g., police, corrections, and health workers). The chapter illustrates these discussions with two cases studies; one describing how the specific job demand of euthanizing animals is a significant job stressor for veterinary nurses, while the second case study examines the value added to assessments of health by measuring correctional worker’s interactions with offenders. Finally, the chapter reviews the recent interest in assessing occupation-specific job characteristics and we suggest this is a highly relevant research topic for researchers based within the Asia-Pacific.

Work Engagement: Investigating the Role of Transformational Leadership, Job Resources, and Recovery

ABSTRACT While the relationship between job resources and engagement has been well established, a greater understanding of the upstream factors that shape job resources is required to develop strategies to promote work engagement. The current study addresses this need by exploring transformational leadership as an upstream job resource, and the moderating role of recovery experiences. It was hypothesized that job resources would mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and engagement. Recovery experiences were expected to moderate the relationship between resources and engagement. A sample of 277 employees from a variety of organizations and industries was obtained. Analysis showed direct relationships between: transformational leadership and engagement, and transformational leadership and job resources. Mediation analysis using bootstrapping found a significant indirect path between transformational leadership and engagement via job resources. Recovery experiences did not significantly moderate the relationship between job resources and engagement. To date, the majority of published literature on recovery has focused on job demands; hence the nonsignificant result offers insight of a potentially more complex relationship for recovery with resources and engagement. Overall, the current study extends the JD-R model and provides evidence for broadening the model to include upstream organizational variables such as transformational leadership.

Challenges of Intervention Acceptance in Complex, Multifaceted Organizations: The Importance of Local Champions

To address rising costs associated with occupational stress experienced in high-stress occupations, we developed and implemented an organizational stress management intervention (SMI) within a large state corrective services organization. During the design phase, we employed several strategies to understand the organizational context and increase acceptance of the SMI, including two pilot studies, a review of the baseline survey results, and consultations with management and employees throughout the organization. Despite these efforts, the intervention did not produce significant improvements in the measured outcomes. These non-significant results were primarily attributed to a lack of acceptance of the intervention at the local (center) level. This chapter discusses the importance of enhancing acceptance and identifying local champions within large organizations and how the failure to do so can undermine SMI effectiveness.

The Highs and Lows of Occupational Stress Intervention Research: Lessons Learnt from Collaborations with High-Risk Industries

Our research over the last 15 years has focused on addressing the rising costs of occupational stress commonly experienced by “high risk” workers. We have developed and implemented a number of organizational interventions within large, public sector organizations. Some of these organizational interventions have been very successful, reducing employee stress and increasing levels of work engagement and job performance, and some have produced less demonstrable results, especially in the long-term. In this chapter we discuss the 17 key lessons we have leant from our organizational stress management intervention research. Some lessons are simple (e.g., the necessity of including both individual-level and organizational-level strategies for change) whilst other lessons are rarely considered in current scholarly discussions (e.g., the diffusion of intervention effects). We identify these 17 key issues and recommend solutions to assist and inspire future occupational stress researchers to actively advance this often stagnant field of research.