IS WORK THE NEW NEIGHBORHOOD? Social Ties in the Workplace,Family, and Neighborhood

The work–family literature emphasizes how work intrudes into family life, and some scholars suggest that social ties based in the workplace may be replacing ties to family or neighbors. Using data from the Ecology of Careers Panel Study, we describe the prevalence of strong ties with family, coworkers, and neighbors in a dual‐earner, middle‐class sample. We also examine which respondents are more likely to have strong ties in the workplace. We find that most respondents do not have any strong ties with coworkers; however, coworker ties are much more common than ties to neighbors. Additionally, there are gender differences in network ties and these differences may have important consequences for social support.     

Dual Earner Husbands and Wives: Marital Satisfaction and the Workplace Culture of Each Spouse

This article focuses on the relationship between workplace culture and marital satisfaction for dual-earner husbands and wives (N?=?156 couples). We use contagion theory as a framework, and posit that the experiences of both partners contribute to perceptions of marital satisfaction held by individual spouses. Breaking workplace culture into three components (time demands, work pressure, and workplace social support), we find evidence in the full model of both individual (spillover) and spousal (crossover) effects for the marital satisfaction of dual-earner wives, and spousal (crossover) effects for dual-earner husbands. In particular, our analyses highlight the important role played by wives?? workplace social support. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Workplace Policy and Environment,Family Role Quality,and Positive Family-to-Work Spillover

We used role theory to direct our analysis of the association between family-friendly policies, workplace environment, family role quality, and positive spillover from family to work. Taking data from 104 dual-earner couples with children living in Utah, we examined the influence of both partners’ access to family-friendly policies, both partners’ workplace environments, and the family role quality reported by the couple. We found that family role quality was significantly associated with positive family-to-work spillover for men and women. In addition, women’s own workplace culture and the ability of women’s partners to leave work to care for children were associated with women’s positive family-to-work spillover. These findings were viewed through the lens of gender theory and traditionally structured institutions and roles.     

INTERPERSONAL CONTEXT AT WORK AND THE FREQUENCY,APPRAISAL, AND CONSEQUENCES OF BOUNDARY‐SPANNING DEMANDS

Compared to job‐specific conditions, the interpersonal context of work has received less attention from work–family scholars. Using data from a 2007 U.S. survey of workers (N = 1,286), we examine the impact of workplace social support and interpersonal conflict on work–family conflict and exposure to boundary‐spanning demands—as indexed by the frequency that workers receive work‐related contact outside of normal work hours. Findings indicate that workplace social support is associated negatively with work‐to‐family conflict, while interpersonal conflict at work is associated with higher levels of work‐to‐family conflict. Results also indicate that both supportive and conflictive work contexts are associated with more frequent exposure to boundary‐spanning demands. However, workers in supportive contexts are more likely to appraise these demands as beneficial for accomplishing work tasks, and are less likely to appraise them as disruptive to family roles. By contrast, workers in conflictive contexts are more likely to appraise demands as disruptive to family roles, and are less likely to appraise them as beneficial for paid work. Consequently, our findings underscore the resource and demands aspects of interpersonal work contexts and their implications for the work–family interface.     

Workplace friendships among social work,counseling, and human service educators: Exploring the impact of sexual orientation and friendships in workplace empowerment

Workplace friendships are deliberate bonds between people in the workplace in which various degrees of confidence, care, emotional support, solidarity, honesty, and trust are shared. For lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) academics in higher education, such friendships may be particularly important as sources of social and institutional support. In this study, the authors examine the relationship between workplace friendships and workplace empowerment among a sample (N?=?204) of LGB and non-LGB educators in social work, counseling, and human services. The findings, taken from this sample of university educators, indicate that sexual orientation and workplace friendship opportunities can predict workplace empowerment. Implications of the study are that workplace behavioral health practice and research that supports LGB and non-LGB workers in developing meaningful relationships at work can positively impact the higher education workplace.     

Enhancing Well-Being at the Workplace:

The workplace is a social environment and for many the opportunity for social interaction at work is a source of satisfaction. Yet, the quality of relations is variable and can be a source of anxiety, stress and work dissatisfaction. There is a need to enhance employee well-being and to improve social relations by increasing the opportunity for social support at the workplace. Two approaches are proposed: (a) as a health promotion strategy, to provide employees with training in interpersonal skills, and (b) as a component of aftercare, to foster the development of formal and informal support networks in order to reintegrate employees with emotional difficulties into the workplace. These strategies are discussed in the light of their applicability to EAP practice.     

The role of ‘workplace family’ support on worker health,exhaustion and pain

The goal of this study was to improve understanding of the potential health benefits of social support at work. We utilized 2002 GSS data to examine the relative influence of workplace support on self-reported health, exhaustion and experience of persistent pain in a sample of 1602 workers. Building on previous Demand-Control-Support models, we examined co-worker, supervisor, and organizational safety support (conceptualized as ‘workplace family’) in concert with job demands, job control and work-family conflict as predictors of worker health measures. We further tested the extent to which work-family conflict acted as a mediator between family and work characteristics and worker health outcomes. We found that increased co-worker support in the workplace was associated with better worker self-reported health, lower exhaustion and less pain. In addition, higher levels of perceived organizational safety support were associated with better self-reported health and lowered exhaustion. There is little evidence that work-family conflict mediates between work and family characteristics and worker health, and work-family conflict does not mediate the relationship between workplace family measures and worker health. We discuss results in light of workers’ changing and expanding definitions of family, with implications for changes in the organization of the workplace to improve workers’ health.     

Gender Inequality in Authority and Autonomy in the Workplace in Japan,Britain, and the United States*

Abstract This study examines gender inequality in the distribution of various aspects of autonomy and authority in the workplace in Japan, Britain, and the United States. In all three societies, there are clear gender gaps in access to autonomy and authority relations, but the distributions are most unequal in Japan. The main part of this study involves the testing of four hypotheses which attempt to explain gender differences in autonomy and authority. The first hypothesis, which focuses on family responsibilities, receives limited support from the Japanese and British data. Japanese and British women are disadvantaged in obtaining managerial positions and supervising other employees by the presence of children. The human capital explanation of gender inequality in the workplace appears to be supported to some extent in Japan and Britain because gender gaps are reduced when we controlled for Render differences in education, tenure and work experience in these countries. The differential access to managerial positions is an important source of gender inequality in workplace social relations in all three countries. Nonetheless, significant gender gaps remain. especially in the United States. When all these factors (family responsibilities, human capital and managerial positions) are taken together, gender gaps are reduced substantially in Japan. In contrast. persistent gender inequality is found in the United States.     

The State,Unauthorized Mexican Migration,and Vulnerability in the Workplace

For the last 20 years, migration scholars have generated a number of important empirical insights about the ways in which the state, through the enactment of immigration policies, creates workplace vulnerabilities such as discrimination, harassment, wage theft, workplace raids, and the threat of deportation. Recent studies of illegality also examine the role of the state but do so in a way that explores what legal status means and how it is experienced in everyday lives of migrants marked as “illegal” by the state. This article reviews recent research that shows that the state operates in a gray zone of enforcement that puts migrants in ambiguous social spaces and heightens their vulnerability at work. However, research also finds that migrants find ways to exert their agency in challenging work environments.     

Profession and Workplace Expectations of Social Workers: Implications for Social Worker Subjective Well-Being

The expectations people have of social workers, and those that social workers hold of themselves, can negatively affect social worker's perceived well-being, via work stress and strain and other negative workplace experiences. This qualitative research presents findings that help to better understand what aspects of these expectations have the greatest impact on the well-being of a sample (n = 19) of social workers with reported low levels of workplace and profession satisfaction. Our data support a conceptual framework of social worker's expectations that relate to outcomes of practice, social worker roles, the perceived functioning by other health-related professionals, conflict in direct practice with social worker identity and having to work in adverse situations, as all contributing to the well-being of social workers. Findings are discussed in relation to social work practice and the role and function of professional associations and educational programmes in addressing these issues that emerge in practice.     

Cisgendered Organizations: Trans Women and Inequality in the Workplace

This article responds to calls to better understand how intersecting “inequality regimes” operate in organizations. Through in‐depth interviews with 25 white trans women about their workplace experiences, my analyses highlight how trans women navigate relational practices that are simultaneously gendered and cisgendered—that is, practices that maintain cultural connections between sex and gender and maintain gender as immutable. Findings demarcate three distinct mechanisms by which cisgenderism, a system that devalues women and trans people, operates and strengthens hierarchical privileges at work: (1) double‐bind constraints; (2) fluid biases of cissexism and sexism; and (3) group practices of privilege and subordination. In the first regard, analyses reveal unique double binds that trans women face—binds that dictate contradictory feminine and masculine ideal worker expectations but also expectations of gender authenticity. Second, I find that trans women often hover between two subordinate statuses (i.e., gender and transgender status) in a given workday, a fact that prods a more fluid conception of cisgenderism. Finally, this study highlights how cis men collectively mobilize through group practices to repair cisgender system breaches. All three dimensions are critical for understanding the production of workplace inequality between not only trans women and cis men, but all feminine‐identified workers.     

Family Network,Workplace Network,and Their Influence on Condom Use: A Qualitative Study Among Older Female Sex Workers in China

The objective of this study was to qualitatively explore the components of social networks and their influence on condom use among female sex workers (FSWs) aged 35 years and older in China. In-depth interviews with 63 older FSWs and 6 focus group interviews with pimps and owners of roadside salons and hotels were conducted in 3 Chinese cities. The mean age of participants was 42.6 years old (SD = 6.9 years) and the mean age of starting sex work was 38.6 years old (SD = 6.6 years). Two types of networks that influenced condom use were identified: family networks (relationship with children and husbands) and workplace networks (relationship with peers, clients, pimps, and owners). Relationships between older FSWs and their children negatively influenced condom use. Low levels of network support and norms regarding condom use were observed in the relationship between older FSWs and their clients, whereas positive social support and norms were prevalent among older FSWs who had frequent contact with peers. Norms for condom use existed among pimps and owners but were counterbalanced by monetary gains. Future human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) interventions for older FSWs should take the different features of social network components into consideration.     

Diversity Regimes in Worker Cooperatives: Workplace Inequality under Conditions of Worker Control

Two major shifts in contemporary work organizations—“employee participation” and “diversity management”—have typically been studied in isolation from one another. Building on theoretical work by Acker (2006a,b), we ask how the interaction of these two constructs has affected the pursuit of workplace democracy at two worker cooperatives in Northern California. Using qualitative methods, we find that distinct “diversity regimes” have emerged at these establishments, substantially affecting the configurations of inequality that evolved. We distinguish two types of diversity regimes—“utilitarian” and “communitarian”—which operate either to obscure the workings of inequality or to foster attention to their presence. Our results suggest that how sociodemographic differences are managed has material consequences for the development of egalitarian structures at work.     

Social Work Strategies and Tactics in the Workplace

Abstract

Those social workers who offer employment services can frame job development and placement as a process of workplace socialization in which they facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities in mainstream work settings. This paper examines the construct of workplace socialization and offers five specific strategies and related tactics for its facilitation in the context of social work practice in disability and rehabilitation.     

Social profile,maternal depression and welfare concerns in clients of health visitors and social workers: a comparative study

Research into the practice of health visitors and child care social workers with depressed mothers is limited. This is surprising in view of the known relationship between motherhood and depression, and the association also between child care problems and maternal depression. The study described below is the first which seeks to compare health visitor and child care social work clients/service users in relation to the issue of maternal depression. In particular, it seeks to compare the extent to which maternal depression is a feature of the work of social workers and health visitors, the relationship between maternal depression and the social composition of different client groups, the relationship between maternal depression and welfare concerns—particularly child abuse—and the extent to which such concerns lead to referral from health visitors to social workers. The research shows: (1) interesting similarities between the depressed health visitor clients and social work clients as a whole; (2) the importance of low income and absence of support in the ‘progression’ from health visitor to social work clients status; and (3) an alarming emerging gap in services provided for severely disadvantaged families with child and family care problems.     

Types of Workplace Social Support in the Prediction of Job Satisfaction

Research on social support and job satisfaction has yielded mixed results, partly because studies have rarely examined different types of workplace social support, such as collegial support, task support, coaching, and career mentoring. This study identified the relative contributions of different types of social support to job satisfaction and explored the relationship between social support and job tenure. Overall, social support accounted for approximately 17% of the variance in job satisfaction and 9% of the variance in job tenure. Career mentoring and task support were the types of social support most predictive of job satisfaction. Coaching and task support were the types of social support most predictive of job tenure.     

Workplace support of fathers’ parental leave use in Norway

ABSTRACT

This article highlights the importance of social policy and working life contexts for employed fathers’ use of parental leave. It directs attention towards the Norwegian model, which is known for its gender equality aims and welfare-state support to families, but which is also active in the regulation of working life. Based on interviews with fathers who have used the father’s quota (a statutory, earmarked, non-transferable leave), findings run counter to work–family research where gendered assumptions in work organizations are found to prevent active fathering. The interviewed fathers report positive attitudes and supportive practices among employers. Fathers’ stories show that their use of the leave is subject to cooperation and compromising processes at the workplace level that research on fatherhood and organizations have hardly addressed.     

Popular Culture and Workplace Gendering among Varieties of Capitalism: Working Women and their Representation in Japanese Manga

Female empowerment is a prerequisite for a just and sustainable developed society. Being the most developed non‐western country, Japan offers an instructive window onto concerns about gender worldwide. Although overall gender equality is advancing in Japan, difficulties remain, especially in achieving equality in the workplace. We draw on theories of ontological commitment and the psychology of fiction to critically analyse the role of popular culture — in this case manga — in the reproduction of gender inequality in the Japanese workplace. We present examples of four of the most popular mainstream manga aimed at working men and women in Japan and show how women are depicted. We argue that the hyper‐mediated fictional realism of representative tropes generates an ontological commitment to characters and narratives among consumers that reinforces the reproduction of a culturally exceptionalist national political economic space, one of whose essential defining characteristics is a gendered workplace. Our research suggests important implications for researching the relationship between culture, in all its forms, and spatial variation in persistent institutional biases among varieties of capitalism.     

PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION AND WORK‐TO‐LIFE CONFLICT AMONG WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES

Following scholarship that highlights the importance of negative workplace relationships in predicting conflict between work and nonwork domains, this study examines whether perceptions of sex, race, and age discrimination are related to work‐to‐life conflict using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 2,335). The potential moderating role of workplace social support, including coworker support and supervisor support, is also examined. All three forms of perceived discrimination are associated with higher levels of work‐to‐life conflict even when workplace social support is controlled for. The findings indicate limited support for the moderating role of workplace social support.