Matthew M. Piszczek

Expanding the boundaries of boundary theory: Regulative institutions and work–family role management

With the changing demographics of the labor force, management of work and family role boundaries has become an important area of research. However, the literature surrounding boundary theory – one of the most prevalent theories of work–family role management – has evolved too narrowly. Although early boundary theory development acknowledged the importance of higher level social institutions, they have been largely omitted from the current research, which is predominantly individual-focused. The present article further develops the role of international regulative institutions in managing work and family role boundaries, including the consequences of their omission in the current literature for individual employees, organizations and the fit between them.

The limits of equality bargaining in the USA

Gender equality bargaining in the US is poorly understood and lacks analysis. Using existing theories of collective bargaining and gender equality bargaining, we examine the state and process of gender equality bargaining in the US as well as the contextual factors that facilitate or inhibit its development. Based on interviews with national labor union leaders, we find that the practice of gender equality bargaining among US unions is relatively narrow, largely because of the unique inhibitive characteristics of the US environment. Key factors making gender equality bargaining difficult include a lack of public policy support and decentralized bargaining structures. We also find that while most national unions have made an effort to put female leaders in positions of power, this is not necessarily mirrored at the local level. Our analysis also includes a discussion of union strategies for overcoming inhibitive contextual factors and taking maximum advantage of facilitative contextual factors.

Filling the Holes Work Schedulers As Job Crafters of Employment Practice in Long-Term Health Care

Although work schedulers serve an organizational role influencing decisions about balancing conflicting stakeholder interests over schedules and staffing, scheduling has primarily been described as an objective activity or individual job characteristic. The authors use the lens of job crafting to examine how schedulers in 26 health care facilities enact their roles as they “fill holes” to schedule workers. Qualitative analysis of interview data suggests that schedulers expand their formal scope and influence to meet their interpretations of how to manage stakeholders (employers, workers, and patients). The authors analyze variations in the extent of job crafting (cognitive, physical, relational) to broaden role repertoires. They find evidence that some schedulers engage in rule-bound interpretation to avoid role expansion. They also identify four types of schedulers: enforcers, patient-focused schedulers, employee-focused schedulers, and balancers. The article adds to the job-crafting literature by showing that job crafting is conducted not only to create meaningful work but also to manage conflicting demands and to mediate among the competing labor interests of workers, clients, and employers.

It Isn’t Always Rational The Psychology of Voting and Lessons for Labor

Although labor studies research has commonly looked to sociology, history, and economics for new perspectives, behavioral psychology has largely been underutilized. This article provides a popular psychological model of behavior and examples of its application in issues of interest to labor, specifically the Employee Free Choice Act and the auto industry “rescue.” It is the authors’ belief that considering such models will provide a different viewpoint through which to analyze labor issues and promote further integration of psychology and labor studies.

Reciprocal Relationships Between Workplace Childcare Initiatives and Collective Turnover Rates of Men and Women

Work-family practice research has largely been focused on individual outcomes, despite their theorized importance for organizational performance. Additionally, studies of the effectiveness of work-family practices are dominated by cross-sectional designs that are unable to rule out additional causal arguments for observed relationships. Finally, childcare initiatives that help employees better address family demands have received little research attention relative to other work-family practices, and these studies have produced mixed results. Grounded in context-emergent turnover theory, the present study assesses the relationship between establishment childcare initiatives and collective turnover rates of men and women in 24,888 observations of German establishments between 2002 and 2012. Findings indicate childcare initiatives are associated with lower female collective turnover rates in following years and that higher female collective turnover rates are also associated with a higher likelihood of adopting a childcare initiative in subsequent years. These results provide support for the argument that childcare initiatives can improve collective turnover rates of women and are not adopted only by already-high-performing organizations.

Employee work-to-family role boundary management in the family business

ABSTRACT Family-owned organizations present a unique opportunity to study work-to-family boundary management. Boundary theory suggests that work-to-family boundary dynamics may be different in family businesses, and that family businesses are not a neutral ground for individual employees’ segmentation preferences. The present study draws on the sociocognitive processes underlying boundary theory to explain how the family business context may affect family and nonfamily employees’ work-to-family role management differently. The study examines the work-to-family role boundary configurations of 149 family and non-family employees in family businesses. Results suggest that family employee status buffers against undesirable effects of segmentation preferences in the family business context. For family employees, segmentation preferences were associated with lower work-to-family conflict and unassociated with turnover intentions. For non-family employees, segmentation preferences were associated with higher work-to-family conflict and turnover intentions. Implications for work–family theory and family business successorship and work–family policy are discussed.

The Information and Communication Technology User Role: Implications for the Work Role and Inter-Role Spillover

Management and organization research has traditionally focused on employees’ work role and the interface between their work and family roles. We suggest that persons assume a third role in modern society that is relevant to work and organizations, namely the Information and Communication Technology User (ICTU) role. Based on role theory and boundary theory, we develop propositions about the characteristics of this role, as well as how ICTU role characteristics are related to boundary spanning activity, inter-role spillover with the work role, and work role performance. To this end, we first conceptualize the ICTU role and its associations with work and family roles. We then apply identity theory and boundary management theory to advance our understanding of how the ICTU role is related to criteria that are important to individuals and to organizations, namely self-selection into certain types of work roles and positive and negative inter-role spillover. The implications of this role for theory, research, and practice in management and organizations are discussed.