P. Peters

Institutional explanations for managers’ attitudes towards telehomeworking

Building on recent research that stresses the important role of managers in the adoption process of telehomeworking, or telecommuting, this study examines the influence of the institutional context on managers’ attitude formation. Drawing on large-scale survey data from 96 CEOs and 380 HR managers in Dutch organizations, we show that normative and mimetic pressures affect managers’ beliefs, which are reflected in their perceptions of the relative (dis)advantage of telehomeworking. We also find that the perceived improvements of work outcomes and perceived social costs/benefits vary among managers from different ‘occupational communities’. CEOs’ beliefs are more susceptible to mimetic pressures, while HR managers’ attitudes towards telehomeworking are positively fed by pressures from their occupational community. These findings support the view that current debates on work—life initiatives’ diffusion and organizational changes in relation to these initiatives should pay much more attention to the importance of the institutional environment and managers’ subcultures.

The effects of time-spatial flexibility and new working conditions on employees’ work–life balance: the Dutch case

Part-time work, flexible working hours, and home-based teleworking are HR instruments which are used to facilitate reconciliation of work and family life. It can be questioned, however, whether these arrangements really enhance work–life balance. This paper examines whether time-spatial flexibility reduces negative work–home interference, and if so, whether this also holds true for the category of ‘New Employees’ working under so-called ‘New Working Conditions’ which are characterised by professional job autonomy, team working by project, management by objectives, and strict deadlines. Employing survey data collected in 2003 among 807 Dutch employees, it is concluded that time-spatial flexibility does affect the work–life balance of workers positively, also under New Working Conditions. Generally, employees holding a smaller part-time job (12–24 contractual working hours per week) experienced a better work–life balance. In particular, female workers gained from more control over the temporal location of their work. Home-based teleworkers and employees holding larger part-time jobs (25–35 hours per week) did not experience a better work–life balance. In the concluding section, the results of the study are discussed in the context of contemporary Dutch labour market developments.

The time-pressure reducing potential of telehomeworking: the Dutch case

Nowadays, people in all walks of life are increasingly pressed for time. This may be engendered by the intensification of paid work, the increase in female labour-market participation resulting in a growing number of workers having substantive family obligations, and people’s higher expectations of personal development and leisureconsumption (see Robinson and Godbey, 1997; Schor, 1992). In the present study we are concerned with how time and time use are experienced and how specific work and household conditions influence feelings of time pressure. We particularly focus on one work condition and its supposed capacity to reduce time pressure, i.e. telehomeworking. Telehomeworking refers to working at or from home during (at least part of) the employees’ contractual working hours, often, but not necessarily, mediated by IT (Felstead et al., 2000). Among the drivers for telehomeworking is its widely perceived potential to help workers cope with the mutual incompatability of paid work and the rest of life, and to reduce related time pressures, which may improve both the functioning of organizations, individual workers and their households. In previous telehomeworking studies, time pressure is often covered under the general heading ‘quality of life’ (France et al., 2002; Vitterso et al., 2003). Like many other work–family arrangements, however, telehomeworking can be double-edged (Mirchandani, 2000). The relationship between telehomeworking and time pressure has been occassionally looked into (Hill et al., 1996) but rarely explicitly, let alone for various telehomeworking categories. The present study, therefore, questions whether telehomeworking can be regarded as a time-pressure reducing strategy, and whether this differs across gender and ‘occassional’, ‘light’ and ‘heavy’ telehomeworkers. Its main objective is to analyse the time-pressure reducing potential of the telehomeworking practice by showing how male and female telehomeworking categories differ with respect to their perceived levels of time pressure from their on-site working equivalents, and how the relationship between employees’ telehomeworking behaviour and time pressure is mediated by factors that relate to work–life balance (WLB). The study uses data from a large-scale Dutch research programme entitled Time Competition: Disturbed Balances and New Options in

Diversity management beyond the business case

Purpose – This paper aims to introduce the theme of the special issue – diversity management beyond the business case. It addresses two main questions: first, how increased diversification within workgroups or labour is dealt with via diversity management, and second what the effects are of this increased diversity for group performance.Design/methodology/approach – The different contributions are embedded into two important discussions in the literature: problems with the concept of diversity and problems with outcomes of diversity management.Findings – Reflecting on the contributions to this special issue, it is argued that solely emphasizing business case arguments for supporting the implementation of diversity management may be rather risky. They conclude with a plea for emphasis on arguments of justice and sustainability of the employment relationship and discuss future avenues for research.Originality/value – The paper shows the difficulty of universally applying the concept of diversity and diversi...

The extended business case for childcare and leave arrangements in Western and Eastern Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose an “extended conceptualization of the business case” including both organizational characteristics and institutional conditions to analyse employer involvement in extra statutory childcare and leave arrangements. Special attention is given to Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.Design/methodology/approach – The (multi‐level) multinomial regression analyses included company‐level data on human‐resource practices of 2,865 firms nested in 19 countries, representing all European welfare state regimes.Findings – The extended business case appeared fruitful in order to explain variations in employer involvement. Particularly, state support was found to be negatively related to employer involvement. In the liberal regime, employer involvement was high, but variations across organizations were significant. In CEE‐countries, employer involvement was lowest, and did not vary by organizational business‐case factors.Research limitations/implications – The pap...

Work-related smartphone use, work–family conflict and family role performance: The role of segmentation preference

Is work-related smartphone use during off-job time associated with lower conflict owing to the blurring of the boundaries between work and family life? Or does it help employees juggling work and family demands? The present four-day quantitative diary study (N = 71 employees, N = 265–280 data points) aims to shed light on the relationship between daily work-related smartphone use during off-job time, and daily work–family conflict and daily family role performance, respectively. Moreover, individuals’ general segmentation preference is investigated as a potential cross-level moderator in the relationships between daily work-related smartphone use during off-job time and both work–family conflict and family role performance. Overall, the results of multilevel modelling support our mediated moderation model indicating that for integrators more frequent work-related smartphone use during off-job time is associated with better family role performance through reduced work–family conflict. For segmenters, smartphone use does not have any impact on work–family conflict and family role performance. These findings suggest that for integrators smartphone use during off-job time may be useful to simultaneously meet both work demands and family demands, which has the potential to reduce work–family conflict and enhance family role performance; whereas for segmenters no effects were found.

Explaining career motivation among female doctors in the Netherlands: The effects of children, views on motherhood and work-home cultures

The gender imbalance in senior medical positions is often attributed to an alleged lack of motivation on the part of female doctors, especially those with young children. Some researchers argue that an unsupportive work-home culture in the medical workplace also plays a role. This study investigates whether having children (and the age of the youngest child) affects female doctors’ career motivation and whether this relationship is mediated by views on motherhood and the supportiveness of the work-home culture. Cross-sectional data collected on 1070 Dutch female doctors in 2008 indicates that neither having children nor the age of the youngest child significantly affects the career motivation of female doctors. However, views on motherhood and a supportive work-home culture do affect female doctors’ career motivation. Governmental and organizational policies aimed at maternal employment and improving the work-life balance are discussed in terms of their effectiveness in supporting highly educated working women.

Supporting ‘superwomen’? Conflicting role prescriptions, gender-equality arrangements and career motivation among Dutch women physicians

Women physicians are confronted with incompatible gendered role prescriptions, whereby the role of the ‘ideal’ mother contrasts sharply with that of the ‘ideal’ physician. This study introduces four goal frames that reflect how women physicians internalize these conflicting role prescriptions and investigates the relationship between women’s goal frames and their career motivation. It also examines the relationship between gender-equality arrangements – inspired by the same underlying ideals – and women physicians’ career motivation, and whether these arrangements moderate the relationship between goal frames and career motivation. Cross-sectional data on 1070 Dutch women physicians collected in 2008 indicate that women physicians with switching goal frames (i.e. those who want to live up to both ideals) are no less career-motivated than women with one dominant goal frame. However, gender-equality arrangements mainly seem to support women physicians who prioritize one role over the other. No evidence was found that gender-equality arrangements support those who try to combine conflicting role expectations.

Offering choice in benefits: a new Dutch HRM arrangement

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine what kinds of Dutch organisations offer their employees a choice in the composition of their benefits with the aid of a theoretical model that incorporates insights from rational choice theory, the theory of institutional pressures and the bundles of human resource management (HRM) theory. Design/methodology/approach - To test the theoretical model data were collected from nearly 600 Dutch organisations in the market sector. Multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were used to analyse these data. Findings - The research showed that flexible benefit plans (FBPs) are widespread and show a considerable degree of consistency in the options they offer. FBPs are most likely to be offered by organisations that have freedom to manoeuvre in their benefits, that witness other organisations around them offering such arrangements, and that offer HRM policies and practices that are strongly focussed on the combination of work and family, and on flexibility in working arrangements. Research limitations/implications - Attention to HRM policies in addition to a combination of rational choice and institutional theory proved valuable in explaining the uptake of a new arrangement, and this merits further exploration. Practical implications - FPBs offer Dutch organisations the opportunity to give their employees more choice in the way they are paid, and to adjust this pay to their personal situation. Offering this choice fits in with a family-friendly HRM structure and increases flexibility for both parties. Originality/value - The paper provides useful information on FBPs.

Promoting new norms and true flexibility: sustainability in combining career and care

This chapter starts from a conceptual integrative framework on sustainability in combining career and care. To facilitate long-term solutions without career penalties to all who are faced with the challenge of combining career and care under pressing demographic changes and blurring boundaries between work and family, we argue that it is of vital importance to expose, challenge and change underlying normative and gendered beliefs about ideal workers and ideal parents or care providers. Such beliefs pertain not only to gender roles, but also to the notions of permanent accessibility and visibility. We discuss the interplay between normative beliefs, behaviour or ‘choice’, and career outcomes of managing the work–family interface through the societal, organizational and individual layers of our integrative framework. We focus on a critical case study of part-time and flexible working in the Netherlands, which shows that gender specialized arrangements are less sustainable than true flexibility and customization. Promoting sustainability and true flexibility in combining career and care means bending normative beliefs, which can be done by talking differently and openly negotiating norms, by showcasing trailblazers, and by promoting customization and unconventional choices without career penalties.