Family - General & Miscellaneous, Family - Sociocultural Aspects, Discrimination in the Workplace, Sex Discrimination, Industrial & Organizational Sociology

Beyond Work-Family Balance

Name: Beyond Work-Family Balance
Author: Rapoport
ISBN: 9780787957308

by Rapoport, Lotte Bailyn, Rhona Rapoport, Joyce K. Fletcher

Available on Bookshop Write a review

Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.

Overview

Everyone who struggles to meet the demands of work and personal-life responsibilities knows how tough it is to do so. This bold new book shows that it is the deeply engrained separation of work and personal life that has limited our ability to deal effectively with the conflict between them. Beyond Work-Family Balance demonstrates why the image of "balance" is outmoded and why a new approach--work-personal life integration--offers greater promise for meaningful change.
Providing many examples from action research projects in more than a dozen organizations of different kinds, the authors show how using their method of integrating rather than separating personal-life considerations from the workplace can achieve positive outcomes, not only for workers but also for the work. The method offers a way of looking deeply into the work culture to find inequitable and ineffective work practices that are so embedded and routine that no one thinks to question them3/4they are just the way things get done. Once identified, these work practices can be changed to achieve what the authors call a Dual Agenda: a more equitable workplace where both men and women can achieve their full potential and a more effective workplace where the needs of the work, rather than gendered and outmoded assumptions, determine what gets done and how.

Beyond Work-Family Balance offers an approach that achieves what "family friendly" policies, "mommy tracks," and so-called flexibility programs cannot. Such programs address the symptoms of the problem. This book offers a way of changing the everyday work practices and norms that are at the root of the problem.

Synopsis

Drawing from numerous research projects, this book argues for integrating rather than "balancing" work and personal time. It suggests that bringing personal concerns into the workplace benefits both the workers and their performance. Institutionalized inequalities and inefficiencies are identified, their links detailed, and remedies suggested. The authors include managers and scholars of management theory. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Booknews

Drawing from numerous research projects, this book argues for integrating<-->rather than "balancing"<-->work and personal time. It suggests that bringing personal concerns into the workplace benefits both the workers and their performance. Institutionalized inequalities and inefficiencies are identified, their links detailed, and remedies suggested. The authors include managers and scholars of management theory. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

About the Author, Rapoport

Rhona Rapoport is director of the Institute of Family and Environmental Research in London. She is the author or coauthor of numerous books including Dual Career Families; Fathers, Mothers and Society; Leisure and the Family Cycle; and Men and Women as Equals at Work.
Lotte Bailyn is the T. Wilson Professor of Management at the Sloan School
of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author
of Breaking the Mold and Living with Technology and coauthor of Working with
Careers.
Joyce K. Fletcher is professor of management at the Center for Gender in
Organizations, Simmons Graduate School of Management, in Boston, and a senior
research scholar at the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at Wellesley
College Centers for Women. She is the author of Disappearing Acts, which was nominated as one of the year's best management books by the Academy of Management.
Bettye H. Pruitt is president of Pruitt & Company, Inc. She is the author of numerous articles and books in organizational history including Timken: From Missouri to Mars.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet. Log in to write one.

Editorials

From the Publisher

A welcome contribution to theory and practice, this volume describes aprogram developed by the authors (academics and professionals experienced in the work/family and organizational behavior fields) to create a more equitable and satisfying workplace. Their program is different in that it attempts to tie together two organizational goals usually tackled separately: improving the bottom line and improving employees' ability to manage their work and personal lives. The authors' underlying beliefs that work and family life should be integrated and that when it is, gender and diversity issues will be addressed and employees will be more effective contributors to their organizations. When it is not integrated, management often experiences costs without productivity gains, while employees often feel work/family initiatives have not been successful. The authors detail actions taken in several consulting assignments with various companies, sharing surveys and meeting agendas. They describe a process that includes many discussions, frequent feedback, and reevaluation. Problems andfailures as well as successes are reported. Clients are assisted inunderstanding assumptions associated with work needs, personal requirements, communication methods, outcome measurements, and rewards. The ideas presented in this volume are provocative and the suggestions realistically appraised. Recommended for graduate, research, and professional collections.
-- F. Reitman, Pace University