Synopses & Reviews
Across Europe the importance of reconciling paid work and family life is increasingly recognised by a range of diverse government regulations and organisational initiatives. At the same time, employing organisations and the nature of work are undergoing massive and rapid changes, in the context of global competition, efficiency drives, as well as social and economic transformations in emerging economies. "Work, families and organisations in transition" illustrates how workplace practices and policies impact on employees' experiences of "work-life balance" in contemporary shifting contexts. Based upon cross-national case studies of public and private sector workplaces carried out in Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK, this innovative book demonstrates the challenges that parents face as they seek to negotiate work and family boundaries. The case studies demonstrate that employed parents' needs and experiences depend on many layers of context - global, European, national, workplace and family. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of organisational psychology, sociology, management and business studies, human resource management, social policy, as well as employers, managers, trade unions and policy makers.
Review
"This collaborative study provides a subtle and multi-layered understanding of the transition to parenthood within a cross-national comparative framework. Here is a study which is heartily recommended not only to researchers and students of family and social policy but also to those interested in the practice and promise of comparative analysis."
Review
This book provides an interesting and well written account of an extremely useful study into the career pathways of four distinct and important groups within the child care workforce. Fascinating and detailed material is presented to show the differences, similarities and overlaps among these groups. The complementary backgrounds of the writers enable them to present their findings in the context of both valuable theoretical insights and practical implications for policy-makers, relevant agencies and members of the relevant workforce. Malcolm Hill, Research Professor, University of Strathclyde
Review
The authors' adoption of a combined biographical approach has resulted in a rich data set interpreted with great perception, attentiveness to detail and empathy. The study demonstrates how the situations of people at different points in the life course each offer opportunities for childcare employment. I very much hope that what has been learned from this approach will be taken up elsewhere. Professor Joanna Bornat, The Open University
Review
'Coming to Care' is a timely examination of the work and family lives of people who provide care for children and young persons deemed to be vulnerable. The book offers an important critique of popular notions about 'work-life balance'...Gender and Education, Vol 20:5, 2008.
Review
This thought provoking book raises compelling questions about how contemporary ways of working can become compatible with socially sustainable workplaces, families and communities. Rhona Rapoport, Former Director of the Institute of Family and Environmental Research
Review
and#8220;very insightful . . . crucial to understanding the phenomenon of working parenthood . . . underlines the potential positive effects of the economic downturn.and#8221;
Synopsis
This book takes a life course perspective, analysing and comparing the biographies of mothers and fathers in seven European countries in context. Based on an innovative, cross-national EU study, it examines the ways in which working parents negotiate the transition to parenthood and attempt to find a 'work-life balance'. Using in-depth qualitative biographical data, the book offers a deep understanding of working parents' real lives by locating them within diverse national, workplace and family contexts. It provides rich insights into how policies and practices at the institutional level play out in individual and family lives, how they shape the decisions during both transition phases and in parents' daily experiences of juggling work and family life. It highlights some difficult and complex issues about the sustainability of contemporary working practices for bringing up children that are highly relevant in times of economic retrenchment. 'Transitions to parenthood in Europe' will be of interest to an academic readership at all levels of the social sciences, as well as employers, managers, trade unions and policy makers.
Synopsis
This book takes a life course perspective, analysing and comparing the biographies of mothers and fathers in seven European countries in context.
Synopsis
Transitions to Parenthood in Europe analyzes and compares the biographies of mothers and fathers in seven European countries. Focusing on how working people negotiate the transition into parenthoodandmdash;and the work-life balances it requiresandmdash;the contributors provide an in-depth understanding of working parentsandrsquo; real lives within a diverse set of national, workplace, and family contexts. With rich insights into how institutional policy and practices affect individuals and families, it highlights pertinent and sometimes challenging issues regarding the sustainability of contemporary lifestyles as people try to create a healthy, supportive home.
Synopsis
This book provides fascinating insights into the factors that influence why people enter and leave care work, their motivations, understandings and experiences of their work and intersection of it with their family lives.
Synopsis
Coming to Care offers an original contribution to the understanding of care and care work in children's services in Britain in the early twenty first century. It provides fascinating insights into the factors that influence why people enter and leave care work, their motivations and the intersection of their work with their family lives. Focusing on four diverse groups of workers - residential social workers, foster carers, family support workers and community childminders - who take on the care of vulnerable children and young people in the context of relatively low levels of qualifications, the book examines their life course as care workers. It explores: the range of factors that attract people into care work, including the biographical circumstances and the serendipitous factors that propel them into the work; their understandings of and commitment to the work; and how their identities as care workers are created and sustained. The book is highly relevant to current policy debates about the development of children's services and reforming the childcare workforce and offers a range of practical recommendations. It should provide interesting reading to policy makers and service providers, as well as academics and students in the childcare and social care fields.
Synopsis
Based upon cross-national case studies of public and private sector workplaces, "Work, families and organisations in transition" illustrates how workplace practices and policies impact on employees' experiences of "work-life balance" in contemporary shifting contexts.
About the Author
Suzan Lewis is professor of organizational psychology at the Middlesex University Business School.
Julia Brannen is professor of sociology of the family at the Thomas Coram Research Unit at the Institute of Education at the University of London.
Ann Nilsen is professor of sociology at the University of Bergen.
Table of Contents
Work, family and organisations in transition: setting the context - Suzan Lewis, Julia Brannen and Ann Nilsen
Research design and methods: Doing comparative cross-national research - Julia Brannen, Ann Nilsen and Suzan Lewis
PART ONE: PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATIONS
Working parenthood in a social services context: A UK case - Julia Brannen
Social service as human service, between loyalties: A Swedish case - Lars Plantin and Margareta Bäck-Wiklund
Organisational social capital and its role in the support of working parents: the case of a public social assistance agency in Bulgaria - Siyka Kovacheva
PART TWO: PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANISATIONS
Old rights in new times: the experiences of parents in a Slovenian organisation - Nevenka Cernigoj Sadar
Work-life initiatives and organisational change in a UK private sector company: a transformational approach? - Suzan Lewis and Janet Smithson
Work-family policies in a contradictory culture: A Dutch financial sector corporation - Bram Peper, Laura den Dulk and Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes
PART THREE: COMPARISONS
Parents and organisational change: a cross-sector comparison of two Norwegian organisations - Ann Nilsen, Sevil Sümer and Lise Granlund
Changing contexts, enduring roles? Working parents in Portuguese public and private sector organisations - Maria das Dores Guerreiro, Pedro Abrantes and Inês Pereira
Comparing flexible working arrangements across organisational contexts - Ann Nilsen, Suzan Lewis and Julia Brannen
In conclusion - Julia Brannen, Suzan Lewis and Ann Nilsen