Beyond Work-Family Balance: Advancing Gender Equity and Workplace Performance
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Beyond Work-Family Balance, by academic researchers Rhona Rapoport, Lotte Bailyn, Joyce K. Fletcher, and Bettye H. Pruitt, grew out of a decade-long search for ways to restructure business life that would "enhance organizational effectiveness while making the workplace more equitable and improving the quality of working people's lives." While few would oppose such goals at face value, their full attainment has nonetheless remained elusive as business pressures increase and unrealistic gender assumptions--like institutional refusal to acknowledge the increasing emergence of women as primary breadwinners--remain entrenched in our corporate cultures, structures, and practices. This book advances a conceptual framework for appropriate organizational change that is tied directly to the dual agenda spelled out in the two-pronged premise of its subtitle: Advancing Gender Equity and Workplace Performance. With no one-size-fits-all solution possible for such complex issues, the authors draw on related studies in a dozen different workplace settings to instead present a starting point "so that organizations so inclined and the people in them can embark on a similar journey" of exploration and solution. The result will be of interest to anyone who agrees that such change is badly needed and long overdue. --Howard Rothman
Review
A  welcome  contribution  to theory and practice, this volume describes a program  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  and failures as well as successes are reported.  Clients are assisted in understanding 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
Beyond Work-Family Balance: Advancing Gender Equity and Workplace Performance
Beyond Work-Family Balance: Advancing Gender Equity and Workplace Performance,Rhona Rapoport,Lotte Bailyn,Joyce K. Fletcher,Bettye H. Pruitt,Jossey-Bass,0787957305,Business & Economics,Business / Economics / Finance,Business Life - General,Business/Economics,Management - General,Sex Discrimination In Employment,Sex discrimination against wom,Sex discrimination against women,Sex discrimination in employme,Social Conditions Of Labor,Time Management,United States,Work and family,Business & Economics / Management,Personnel & human resources management,Work & labour
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