Workplace Flexibility: Realigning 20th-Century Jobs for a 21st-Century Workforce

by Kathleen Christensen (Editor), Barbara Schneider (Editor)

Overview

Although today's family has changed, the workplace has not—and the resulting one-size-fits-all workplace has become profoundly mismatched to the needs of an increasingly diverse and varied workforce. As changes in the composition of the workforce exert new demands on employers, considerable attention is being paid to how workplaces can be structured more flexibly to achieve the goals of employers and employees.

Workplace Flexibility brings together sixteen essays authored by leading experts in economics, demography, political science, law, sociology, anthropology, and management. Collectively, they make the case for workplace flexibility, as well as examine existing business practices and public policy regarding flexibility in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Workplace Flexibility underscores the need to realign the structure of work in time and place with the needs of the changing workforce.

Considering the positive and negative consequences for employer and employee alike, the authors argue that, although there is not an easy solution to creating and implementing flexibility practices—in the United States or abroad—redesigning the workplace is essential if today's workers are effectively to meet the demands of life and work and if employers are successfully able to attract and retain top talent and improve performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801475856
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2010
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kathleen Christensen is Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and coeditor of Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in Transition, also from Cornell. Barbara Schneider is John A. Hannah University Distinguished Professor in the College of Education and the Department of Sociology at Michigan State University and a Senior Fellow, NORC and The University of Chicago. She is coeditor of The AERA Handbook on Education Policy Research.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: Evidence of the Worker and Workplace Mismatch Kathleen Christensen Barbara Schneider 1

Part 1 Twenty-First-Century Workers and Family Life

1 The Long Reach of the Job: Employment and Time for Family Life Suzanne M. Bianchi Vanessa R. Wight 17

2 Multitasking among Working Families: A Strategy for Dealing with the Time Squeeze Shira Offer Barbara Schneider 43

3 Coming Together at Dinner: A Study of Working Families Elinor Ochs Merav Shohet Belinda Campos Margaret Beck 57

Part 2 The Misfit Between Old Workplaces and a New Workforce

4 Customizing Careers by Opting Out or Shifting Jobs: Dual-Earners Seeking Life-Course "Fit" Phyllis Moen Qinlei Huang 73

5 Keeping Engaged Parents on the Road to Success Sylvia Ann Hewlett 95

6 Elderly Labor Supply: Work or Play? Steven J. Haider David S. Loughran 110

Part 3 Workplace Flexibility: Voluntary Employer Practices in the United States

7 Employer-Provided Workplace Flexibility Ellen Galinsky Kelly Sakai Sheila Eby James T. Bond Tyler Wigton 131

8 Will the Real Family-Friendly Employer Please Stand Up: Who Permits Work Hour Reductions for Childcare? Robert Hutchens Patrick Nolen 157

9 Workplace Flexibility for Federal Civilian Employees Kathleen Christensen Matthew Weinshenker Blake Sisk 178

10 The Odd Disconnect: Our Family-Hostile Public Policy Joan C. Williams 196

Part 4 Workplace Flexibility: Practices from Abroad

11 Limiting Working Time and Supporting Flexibility for Employees: Public Policy Lessons from Europe Janet C. Gornick 223

12 Parents' Experiences of Flexible Work Arrangements in Changing European Workplaces Suzan Lewis Laura den Dulk 245

13 Work Hours Mismatch in the United States and Australia Robert Drago Mark Wooden 262

14 Renewed Energy for Change: Government Policies Supporting Workplace Flexibility in Australia Juliet Bourke 276

15 Flexible Employment and the Introduction of Work-Life Balance Programs in Japan Machiko Osawa 303

16 Government Policies Supporting Workplace Flexibility: The State of Play in Japan Sumiko Iwao 317

Conclusions: Solving the Workplace/Workforce Mismatch Kathleen Christensen Barbara Schneider 337

Notes 351

References 365

Contributors 393

Index 399

What People are Saying About This

Jerry A. Jacobs

Workplace Flexibility collects state-of-the art contributions to the field of work-family research. Leading scholars crystallize what is known and present new findings in an accessible manner on an impressive array of issues. By pulling so much research in this area together in a single volume, Kathleen Christensen and Barbara Schneider have performed a most valuable service.

Arlie Russell Hochschild

For the first time in American history, women compose half the paid workforce, so more than ever before, America needs well-paying flexible jobs that fit the family needs of the workers in them. In this book, two of the country's leading experts bring together cutting-edge research on just this issue. Workplace Flexibility is a must-read for scholars and concerned citizens alike.

Editorial Reviews

"Workplace Flexibility collects state-of-the art contributions to the field of work-family research. Leading scholars crystallize what is known and present new findings in an accessible manner on an impressive array of issues. By pulling so much research in this area together in a single volume, Kathleen Christensen and Barbara Schneider have performed a most valuable service."--Jerry A. Jacobs, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

"For the first time in American history, women compose half the paid workforce, so more than ever before, America needs well-paying flexible jobs that fit the family needs of the workers in them. In this book, two of the country's leading experts bring together cutting-edge research on just this issue. Workplace Flexibility is a must-read for scholars and concerned citizens alike."--Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of The Time Bind and The Commercialization of Intimate Life

From the Publisher