Transition to fatherhood and adjustments in working hours: The importance of organizational policy feedback

Objective: This study investigates whether the normalization of the use of the family-friendly workplace policy flexiplace in the organization affects men's adjustments in working hours following their transition to fatherhood. Background: Men's stable full-time employment after childbirth remains to be a barrier to the equal distribution of care and paid work. Recent research suggests that state family policies promoting dual-earner/dual-carer family models can involve new norm setting of active fatherhood, albeit so far with only modest consequences for fathers' working hours. Unclear is, however, whether family-friendly workplace policies, such as flexiplace, and involved organizational policy feedback are of complementary importance. Method: We estimated fixed-effects regression analyses on men's adjustments in actual and contracted hours after a transition to fatherhood. Analyses are based on linked employer-employee panel data (2012/13; 2014/15; 2018/19) from large German work organizations, considering a random sample of 1,687 men in 131 work organizations. Results: Findings revealed that the normalization of using flexiplace in the work organization was associated with a reduction in men’s overall working hours as well as marginal adjustments in their contracted hours after transitioning to fatherhood. Conclusion: Although a normalization of flexiplace is more likely in demanding workplace contexts, men experience at least some leeway in adjusting extensive temporal investments to cater to private demands. - Appendix: https://ubp.uni-bamberg.de/jfr/index.php/jfr/article/view/946/748Fragestellung: Diese Studie analysiert am Beispiel von Telearbeit, inwieweit eine betriebliche Normalisierung der Nutzung familienfreundlicher Politiken die Arbeitszeitanpassungen von Männern nach Übergang in Elternschaft beeinflussen. Hintergrund: Die Vollzeiterwerbstätigkeit von Männern auch nach Geburt eines Kindes bleibt ein Hindernis für die geschlechtergerechte Aufteilung von Erwerbs- und Carearbeit in deutschen Paarhaushalten. Aktuelle Studien legen nahe, dass staatliche Familienpolitik welche dual-earner/dual carer Familienmodelle fördert, auch die Norm aktiver Vaterschaft verstärken kann - bisher allerdings mit nur geringeren Auswirkungen auf väterliche Arbeitszeiten. Unklar bleibt ob familienfreundliche Politiken im Betrieb, wie Telearbeit, und damit verbundenes betriebliches Policy Feedback zusätzlich für väterliche Arbeitszeitanpassungen bedeutsam ist. Methode: Es werden Fixed-Effects Regressionsanalysen für väterliche Arbeitszeitanpassungen (vertraglich/tatsächliche Stunden) berechnet. Die Analysen basieren auf einem Sample von 1,687 Männern aus 131 Betrieben aus einem linked-employer employee Datensatz für deutsche Großbetriebe (2012/13; 2014/15; 2018/19). Ergebnisse: Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die betriebliche Normalisierung der Nutzung von Telearbeit mit einer Reduktion der tatsächlichen Arbeitszeit nach Geburt eines Kindes einhergeht sowie mit einer marginalen Reduktion der vertraglichen Arbeitszeit. Schlussfolgerung: Wenngleich eine Normalisierung der Nutzung von Telearbeit vor allem in sehr fordernden Betrieben zu beobachten ist, scheinen Männern in diesen Organisationen immerhin gewisse Freiheiten in der Abstimmung der ausgeprägten zeitlichen Anforderungen und ihren neuen, privaten Anforderungen im Zuge der Vaterschaft gewährt zu werden

German fathers and their preference to reduce working hours to care for their children

Abendroth A, Pausch S, Böhm S. German fathers and their preference to reduce working hours to care for their children. SFB 882 Working Paper Series. Vol 41. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2014.This article studies the relevance of the workplace and family context as well as the experience of conflicts between the work and family domain for fathers’ preference to reduce working hours to care for their children. Previous research was not able to disentangle whether the preference to reduce working hours is related to fathers’ caring involvement or to other reasons. Integrating insights from work-family research and arguments on the relevance of the social context for preference formation we formulate need-based and opportunity-based arguments. Findings on data from the German study "Employment Relationships as Social Exchange" (beata), indicate that the experience of a work-family conflict as well as time-based workplace demands increase the likelihood of fathers’ to hold the preference to reduce working hours, supporting need-based arguments. Our findings further call attention to the importance of the family-friendliness of the organisational culture for fathers’ opportunity to develop the preference to reduce working hours to be more involved in caring tasks

Equality Through Equal Opportunity Policies? Workplace Mentoring Programs, Female Quotas, and the Gender Pay Gap Within German Workplaces

Peters E, Drobe J, Abendroth A. Gleichheit durch Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen? Betriebliche Mentoringprogramme, Frauenquoten und geschlechtsspezifische Einkommensungleichheiten in Großbetrieben. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. 2020;72:225-263.Dieser Beitrag untersucht, inwiefern Mentoringprogramme und betriebliche Frauenquoten als zwei zentrale Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen mit geringeren geschlechtsspezifischen Einkommensungleichheiten in deutschen Großbetrieben einhergehen. Zusätzlich wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern die Bedeutung dieser Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen zwischen Beschäftigtengruppen mit unterschiedlichem Qualifikationsniveau variiert und ob traditionelle Geschlechterideologien innerhalb der Belegschaft die Effektivität von Gleichstellungsmaßnahmen konterkarieren. Auf Grundlage von Linked-Employer-Employee-Daten, die sowohl administrative als auch Befragungsdaten für 5072 Beschäftigte in 93 Betrieben beinhalten, wurden Regressionsanalysen mit betriebsbezogenen Fixed Effects berechnet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Einkommensbenachteiligungen von Frauen innerhalb von Betrieben nicht mit dem Angebot von Mentoringprogrammen variieren. Demgegenüber zeigen sich geringere Einkommensungleichheiten zwischen den Geschlechtern in Betrieben mit Frauenquote. Dies gilt allerdings nur für Beschäftigte mit hohem Qualifikationsniveau und in Betrieben, in denen gleichzeitig eher egalitäre Geschlechterideologien in der Belegschaft vorherrschen. In traditionellen Betriebskontexten bestehen trotz Frauenquote geschlechtsspezifische Einkommensungleichheiten zwischen Beschäftigten mit höherem Qualifikationsniveau.This article examines the extent to which mentoring programs and female quotas, as two central diversity policies, are associated with smaller gender wage gaps within large German workplaces. Furthermore, we investigated whether the implications of these diversity policies vary among workers with different levels of qualification and whether they are counteracted by traditional gender ideologies within the workforce. Using linked employer-employee data consisting of administrative and survey data for 5072 employees and 93 workplaces, we estimated fixed effect regression models. The results suggest that within workplaces, gender wage gaps are not associated with the presence of mentoring programs. In contrast, there is a substantial gender wage gap between women and men with higher qualification levels in workplaces without female quotas, whereas women earn similar wages as their male counterparts in workplaces with female quotas. However, this is only true if egalitarian gender ideologies are dominant within the workforce as we detect significant income disparities in traditional workplace contexts despite a female quota

From ‘home work’ to ‘home office work’?: Perpetuating discourses and use patterns of tele(home)work since the 1970s: historical and comparative social perspectives.

In contemporary debates, it is regularly overlooked that working from home already has a long history, while the phenomenon of ‘tele(home) working’ has even gained momentum since the 1970s, being increasingly technologically enabled and socially prepared. This article aims to identify the self-perpetuation of work from home by investigating phases, turning points and diverging temporalities of gender- and parenthood-specific discourses and use patterns of tele(home)work in Germany and the United Kingdom from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining historical and comparative social analysis

Work-life balance of dual-earner couples: Do advantages and disadvantages of workplace demands and resources accumulate within partnerships?

Pausch S, Reimann M, Abendroth A, Diewald M. Work-life balance of dual-earner couples: Do advantages and disadvantages of workplace demands and resources accumulate within partnerships?. SFB 882 Working Paper Series. Vol 54. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2015.This study investigates the complex interplay between couples’ work and private life spheres and disentangles how demands and resources affect partners’ satisfaction with their work-life balance. Next to the individual process of spillover of workplace demands and resources to the private life sphere we investigate processes of crossover of one spouse’s demands and resources to the other. We particularly argue that within partnerships an accumulation of individual demands and resources from both partners takes place leading to specifically disadvantaged situations, when it comes to demands, and specifically advantaged situations, when it comes to resources. Furthermore we investigate gender differences in the relevance of spillover, crossover and accumulation for a satisfying work-life balance. We make use of a German Linked Employer-Employee Panel Survey (LEEP-B3), which includes information on 100 work organizations, 6,454 employees, and their partners (2,185). Our results mainly support the spillover of demands and resources from work to private life meaning that workplace demands make integrating work and private life more difficult whereas workplace resources can help reaching a satisfying work-life balance more easily. The results also partly support the hypothesized crossover of demands and resources from one partner to the other. However, there is no such clear-cut picture for the accumulation of demands and resources within partnerships

Work-life balance of dual-earner couples: Do advantages and disadvantages of workplace demands and resources accumulate within partnerships?

Pausch S, Reimann M, Abendroth A, Diewald M. Work-life balance of dual-earner couples: Do advantages and disadvantages of workplace demands and resources accumulate within partnerships?. SFB 882 Working Paper Series. Vol 54. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2015.This study investigates the complex interplay between couples’ work and private life spheres and disentangles how demands and resources affect partners’ satisfaction with their work-life balance. Next to the individual process of spillover of workplace demands and resources to the private life sphere we investigate processes of crossover of one spouse’s demands and resources to the other. We particularly argue that within partnerships an accumulation of individual demands and resources from both partners takes place leading to specifically disadvantaged situations, when it comes to demands, and specifically advantaged situations, when it comes to resources. Furthermore we investigate gender differences in the relevance of spillover, crossover and accumulation for a satisfying work-life balance. We make use of a German Linked Employer-Employee Panel Survey (LEEP-B3), which includes information on 100 work organizations, 6,454 employees, and their partners (2,185). Our results mainly support the spillover of demands and resources from work to private life meaning that workplace demands make integrating work and private life more difficult whereas workplace resources can help reaching a satisfying work-life balance more easily. The results also partly support the hypothesized crossover of demands and resources from one partner to the other. However, there is no such clear-cut picture for the accumulation of demands and resources within partnerships

Methodological Report Employee and Partner Surveys of the Linked Employer- Employee Panel (LEEP-B3) in Project B3 “Interactions Between Capabilities in Work and Private Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations”

Abendroth A, Melzer SM, Jacobebbinghaus P, Schlechter F. Methodological Report Employee and Partner Surveys of the Linked Employer- Employee Panel (LEEP-B3) in Project B3 “Interactions Between Capabilities in Work and Private Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations”. SFB 882 Technical Report Series. Vol 12. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2014

Methodenbericht Beschäftigten- und Partnerbefragung des Linked-Employer- Employee Panels (LEEP-B3) im Projekt B3 „Wechselwirkungen zwischen Verwirklichungschancen im Berufs- und Privatleben“

Abendroth A, Melzer SM, Jacobebbinghaus P, Schlechter F. Methodenbericht Beschäftigten- und Partnerbefragung des Linked-Employer- Employee Panels (LEEP-B3) im Projekt B3 „Wechselwirkungen zwischen Verwirklichungschancen im Berufs- und Privatleben“. SFB 882 Technical Report Series. Vol 6. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2014

Employee and partner surveys wave 3 of the Linked-Employer-Employee-Panel (LEEP-B3) Project (DFG – 373090005): Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations. Technical Report

Marx C, Abendroth A, Bächmann A-C, et al. Employee and partner surveys wave 3 of the Linked-Employer-Employee-Panel (LEEP-B3) Project (DFG – 373090005): Organizational Inequalities and Interdependencies between Capabilities in Work and Personal Life: A Study of Employees in Different Work Organizations. Technical Report. Bielefeld: Univ., Fak. für Soziologie; 2020

Methodenbericht Faktorieller Survey (Vignetten) Projekt B3 „Wechselwirkungen zwischen Verwirklichungschancen im Berufs- und Privatleben“

Reimann M, Andernach B, Schunck R, et al. Methodenbericht Faktorieller Survey (Vignetten) Projekt B3 „Wechselwirkungen zwischen Verwirklichungschancen im Berufs- und Privatleben“. SFB 882 Technical Report Series. Vol 9. Bielefeld: DFG Research Center (SFB) 882 From Heterogeneities to Inequalities; 2014