Wendy Marcinkus Murphy

A Review of Developmental Networks: Incorporating a Mutuality Perspective

During the past decade, mentoring research has broadened from its traditional dyadic perspective to examine the support provided by a “developmental network.” This article reviews the literature on developmental networks—groups of people who take an active interest in and action toward advancing a protégé’s career. Building on positive organizational scholarship (POS) research on high-quality connections and relationships, the authors propose that a “mutuality perspective,” or taking the viewpoints of all members of the developmental network into account, is a notable gap in developmental network research. They apply this perspective to developmental networks research and discuss implications and avenues for future inquiry. As part of their review, the authors clarify the boundaries of the developmental network construct. They also identify and discuss four research streams that encompass extant studies of developmental networks. This article extends previous reviews of the broad field of dyadic mentoring by providing the first systematic review of developmental network research.

Balancing Caregiving and Work: Role Conflict and Role Strain Dynamics

Positing role conflict as a bidirectional construct in which work interferes with caregiving (WIC) and caregiving interferes with work (CIW), this study investigated its antecedents (demands and support of caregiving and work) and consequences (role strain). A national sample of 583 women between the ages of 50 and 64 years identified using random-digit-dial procedures completed a telephone survey. Structural equation modeling revealed that caregiving demands were positively associated with CIW and caregiving burden; instrumental caregiving support reduced CIW and caregiving burden. Work demands were positively associated with WIC, CIW, caregiving burden, and work burden. Emotional workplace support reduced WIC, CIW, and work burden. CIW and WIC were positively associated with caregiving burden; only WIC was positively associated with work burden. Findings suggest that demands and supports related to the caregiving role do not influence work-related role strain; work demands and supports influence role strain experienced from both caregiving and work domains.

Married professional women's career exit: integrating identity and social networks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the idea of “opting out” for married professional women by presenting a conceptual investigation into the impact that a womans identity and social networks have in shaping her decisions surrounding career exit. A model is developed and intended to help researchers in this area move beyond existing frameworks when attempting to explain and predict womens career exit.Design/methodology/approach – Research from the identity, social networks, turnover, and careers literatures was analyzed and integrated to put forth a new theoretical lens, represented by the conceptual model developed in this paper, that helps to explain married professional womens career exit.Findings – Development of the model reveals a complex, reciprocal relationship between a womans identity and her social network and depicts how these factors act in concert to shape womens decisions regarding career exit or “opting out.” This model also highlights the importance of structural constr...

Employee Reactions to Job Insecurity in a Declining Economy: A Longitudinal Study of the Mediating Role of Job Embeddedness

In the context of the Great Recession, we examined the relationships among perceptions of job insecurity, job embeddedness, and important individual work outcomes. Specifically, we tested the role of job embeddedness as a mediator between job insecurity and the withdrawal outcomes of intention to remain and job search behavior. Results of a longitudinal study of 115 working adults indicated that perceptions of job embeddedness fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of job insecurity and intention to remain and partially mediated job insecurity’s relationship with job search behavior.