Kristina A. Bourne

The paradox of gender equality: an entrepreneurial case study from Sweden

Purpose – Informed by socialist feminist theory, the purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of societal factors such as governmental policies, labor market structure, social norms, and gender ideology on the experiences and practices of women small business owners in Sweden.Design/methodology/approach – Using qualitative data gathered during four months of fieldwork in Sweden, the analysis focuses on the case of Malin Andersson, the founder of a domestic services company, to show how individual situations are intimately connected to the larger social, political, and economic environments.Findings – The analysis demonstrates how the complexities of gender and class dynamics interact with business endeavors in a capitalist society with a strong social democratic political system. In particular, the paper shows how Malin Anderssons experience of entrepreneurship is at the nexus of many social forces, creating many contradictions and paradoxes to understanding her experience.Originality/value – Th...

The Impact of Passing the Professional in Human Resources Exam on Early Career Success for Undergraduates Entering the Human Resource Field

This study investigates the impact of passing the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification exam on the early career success of recent college graduates. Data were gathered from alumni of three Midwestern universities who earned an undergraduate degree in business administration (i.e., BBA) with a major in human resources. The survey was designed to measure early career success indicators including finding a job in the HR field, starting salary, and number of promotions. Results reveal that the probability of ones first job after graduation being in human resources was significantly greater for those who had passed the PHR exam compared with those who did not pass or did not take the exam. Passing the PHR exam was not associated with significant differences in starting salary or early career promotions. Implications, study strengths and limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Living in a Culture of Overwork An Ethnographic Study of Flexibility

This ethnographic study of women business owners questions whether the flexibility their occupation affords is truly an advantage to balancing work and other aspects of life. Drawing on Weber’s ideal types of social action, our analysis suggests that flexibility favors work. Instrumental rationality is evidenced when the participants position their work patterns as a good use of time. We introduce the concept working lightly to show how they use affective and value rationalities as justifications for working during nonwork times (e.g., it’s a way to feel good in the long run). We also develop the concept of working lite, which is when they invoke traditional rationality by melding habits associated with relaxation and work tasks (e.g., working while watching television). Finally, we show how our findings extend the critique of flexibility in the work-life literature.

UNDERSTANDING PART-TIME WORK ARRANGEMENTS: A MULTI-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE

Part-time employment is a vital portion of the U.S. labor force, yet research to date has provided only limited insights into how to successfully create and manage this sector of the workforce. We propose that these limitations are due, at least in part, to an inadequate explication of the levels issues inherent in this area. In this article, we present a summary framework of constructs at the economic, industry, organization, individual, and work levels that influence part-time work arrangements. We then specify a cross-level moderator model that examines how the number of hours worked by employees influences their attitudes and behaviors. We posit that this relationship is moderated by a number of contextual effects at multiple levels. Using this sample model, we demonstrate the way in which researchers examining part-time work arrangements can effectively address levels issues. Our article concludes with a discussion of the implications that this summary framework has for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

Encountering One Another: Feminist Relationships in Organizational Research

As a graduate student attempting to integrate feminist principles into my academic endeavors, I eagerly entered the research field to examine how women business owners who feel a conflict between feminism and capitalism enact their everyday lives. I chose participant observation, a common methodology in feminist research, with the aim of getting “inside” these womens lives to better understand their experiences. However, as the fieldwork proceeded, my focus shifted to examining the space in which the realities of the feminist organizational researcher and of the feminist business owner encounter one another. This paper reflects upon how we made sense of our practices through complex interactions that blurred the binary between subject/object and researcher/researched. By acknowledging the co-constitution of the research process, scholars of organizational studies can begin to rethink the relationship between the ‘researcher’ and the ‘researched’ and ask questions about the power dynamics inherent to fieldwork.

Towards an Understanding of the Relationship between Family-Oriented Benefits and Employee Behaviors: Does Coworker Support Matter?

Drawing on social exchange theory, we explore the reciprocal relationship between the perception of being offered family-oriented benefits (childcare information services and childcare vouchers) and parent-employees’ engagement in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). We examine the moderating role of both general and family-oriented social support from coworkers, an often cited, but less frequently studied aspect of parent-employees’ work experiences. Based on survey data from parent-employees and their supervisors in the United States, we find that the strength of the relationship between the benefits and OCBs varies when coworker support is high versus low and that the direction of the relationship varies according to the type of coworker support. Specifically, the relationship between OCBs and childcare vouchers is more sensitive to differences in the level of general support (i.e., when high, OCB increases), whereas for childcare information, the relationship is more sensitive to levels of family-oriented support (i.e., when high, OCB decreases).

THE CONSTRUCTION ZONE OF PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT RESEARCH: USING A ROADMAP TO GUIDE OUR WAY

The three preceding articles describe the complexity associated with researching part-time work arrangements. Taken together, they highlight the various constructs that must be considered and the complicated relationships among them. Building on Gallagher’s roadmap metaphor, we shift our focus in this article from the content of the roadmap to its use in guiding our future research. We highlight the decisions that must be made and the issues that must be considered while making these decisions.