Maternity management in SMEs: a transdisciplinary review and research agenda

This paper provides a transdisciplinary critical review of the literature on maternity management in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), embedded within the wider literatures on maternity in the workplace. The key objectives are to describe what is known about the relations that shape maternity management in smaller workplaces and to identify research directions to enhance this knowledge. The review is guided by theory of organizational gendering and small business management, conceptualising adaptions to maternity as a process of mutual adjustment and dynamic capability within smaller firms’ informally negotiated order, resource endowments and wider labour and product/service markets. A context sensitive lens is also applied. The review highlights the complex range of processes involved in SME maternity management and identifies major research gaps in relation to pregnancy, maternity leave and the return to work (family-friendly working and breastfeeding) in these contexts. This blind spot is surprising as SMEs employ the majority of women worldwide. A detailed agenda for future research is outlined, building on the gaps identified by the review and founded on renewed theoretical direction

Sensemaking through the storm: how postpartum depression shapes personal work–family narratives.

Many women experience psychological and emotional challenges during their transition to becoming a working mother. Postpartum depression (PPD) is one common, salient aspect of motherhood that can serve as a work–life shock event and profoundly shape women’s work and nonwork lives yet has evaded discussion in the organizational sciences. Taking a grounded theory approach, we interviewed 41 women who experienced PPD as well as key informants who provided additional insights about PPD (e.g., an obstetrician, women working for organizations that support postpartum health). Our analysis highlights how being diagnosed with PPD activates a complex sensemaking process in which women process an imposing identity—a concept we introduce to the identity and work–family literatures reflecting an unexpected, undesirable identity that imposes upon existing (e.g., work) and/or provisional identities that may or may not be fully elaborated (e.g., motherhood), ultimately shifting how women think about the intersection of work and family. We also delineate how supports and antisupports (i.e., overt acts dismissive of women’s PPD) shape the aforementioned processes. Combined, our research aims to advance the discussion of PPD within organizational scholarship, rendering significant implications for both theory and practice

Qualitative Research on Work-Family in the Management Field: A Review

Despite a proliferation of work-family literature over the past three decades, studies employing quantitative methodologies significantly outweigh those adopting qualitative approaches. In this paper, we intend to explore the state of qualitative work-family research in the management field and provide a comprehensive profile of the 152 studies included in this review. We synthesize the findings of qualitative work-family studies and provide six themes including parenthood, gender differences, cultural differences, family-friendly policies and non-traditional work arrangements, coping strategies, and under-studied populations. We also describe how findings of qualitative work-family studies compare to that of quantitative studies. The review highlights seven conclusions in the current qualitative literature: a limited number of qualitative endeavours, findings worth further attention, convergent foci, the loose use of work-family terminology, the neglect of a variety of qualitative research approaches, quantitative attitudes towards qualitative research, and insufficient reporting of research methods. In addition, implications for future researchers are discussed

A Call to Action: Taking the Untenable out of Women Professors’ Pregnancy, Postpartum, and Caregiving Demands

Despite becoming increasingly represented in academic departments, women scholars face a critical lack of support as they navigate demands pertaining to pregnancy, motherhood, and child caregiving. In addition, cultural norms surrounding how faculty and academic leaders discuss and talk about tenure, promotion, and career success have created pressure for women who wish to grow their family and care for their children, leading to questions about whether it is possible for these women to have a family and an academic career. The current paper is a call to action for academia to build structures that support women professors as they navigate the complexities of pregnancy, the postpartum period, and the caregiving demands of their children. We specifically call on those of us in I-O psychology, management, and related departments to lead the way. In making this call, we first present the realistic, moral, and financial cases for why this issue needs to be at the forefront of discussions surrounding success in the academy. We then discuss how in the U.S. and elsewhere, an absence of policies supporting women places two groups of academics—department heads (as the leaders of departments who have discretion outside of formal policies to make work better for women) and other faculty members (as potential allies both in the department and within our professional organizations)—in a critical position to enact support and change. We conclude with our boldest call—to make a cultural shift that shatters the assumption that having a family is not compatible with academic success. Combined, we seek to launch a discussion that leads directly to necessary and overdue changes in how women scholars are supported in academia

Encontrar tiempo para los hijos. Paternidad, ocupaciones y tiempo disponible en España, 2003-2010

Parents of young children are supposed to be interactive with, responsible for and available for their children (Lamb, Pleck and Levine 1985). This study aims at shedding light on how work schedules allows Spanish fathers to be available to take care of their children when they are not at school or childcare centres. By using time-use data, this study seeks to contribute to previous research by providing a nuanced description of how much and when work takes place throughout the day , as well as how this is associated to occupational and parental statuses, gender and the incidence of the economic recession. ‘Available time’ for the family is analysed, understood as time away from work excluding the core business hours (i.e. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Results show that being a mother has still a direct reflection on time availability, while fatherhood does not. Also, time availability presents a complex relationship with the class structure, which does not seem to have been altered by recession. Finally, there seems to be a gender convergence in time availability, only due to its reduction in the case of women.Los padres de niños pequeños deben ser interactivos, responsables y estar disponibles para cuidarlos (Lamb, Pleck, y Levine 1985). Esta investigación pretende arrojar luz sobre hasta qué punto los horarios de trabajo en España permiten a los padres estar disponibles para sus hijos cuando estos salen del colegio o la guardería. Usando datos de uso del tiempo, se pretende contribuir a la literatura ofreciendo un análisis detallado de cuánto y cuándo se trabaja a lo largo del día, así como su relación con el estatus ocupacional y parental, el género y la incidencia de la crisis. Se analiza el “tiempo disponible” para la familia, entendido como el tiempo en que no se está en el trabajo, excluyendo las horas estándar “de oficina” (de 8 a 17). Los resultados muestran que ser madre aún tiene una relación directa con el tiempo disponible, no así la paternidad. Además, el tiempo disponible presenta una relación compleja con la estructura de clase, que la crisis no ha alterado. Por último, se comprueba una tendencia convergente entre hombres y mujeres, debido a la reducción del tiempo disponible de estas últimas

Forgone, but not forgotten: Toward a theory of forgone professional identities

Through an inductive, qualitative study, I developed a process model of how people deal with professional identities they have forgone by choice or constraint. I show that, when forgone professional identities are linked to unfulfilled values, people look for ways to enact them and retain them in the self-concept. I further identify three strategies that people use to enact foregone professional identities: (1) real enactment (i.e., enacting the forgone identity through real activities and social interactions either at work or during leisure time), (2) imagined enactment (i.e., enacting the forgone identity through imagined activities and interactions, either in an alternate present or in the future), and (3) vicarious enactment (i.e., enacting the forgone identity by observing and imagining close others enacting it and internalizing these experiences). These findings expand our conceptualization of professional identity beyond identities enacted through activities and interactions that are part of formal work roles, and illuminate the key role of imagination and vicarious experiences in identity construction and maintenance

Spinning CNT based composite yarns using a dry spinning process

Recently, CSIRO has developed a modified dry spinning process for converting CNT forests into yarn in which the CNT structure is more aligned and the mechanical properties of yarns are improved.The partitioning of the spinning system into separate zones has enabled further development of other types of CNT based products. Using this modified system, a CNT polymer composite yarn manufacturing process was set up with simple control of the alignment and tension of the CNT-based reinforcing structure. In contrast to previous methods where the CNTs are dispersed in polymer solution, in this work, the polymer filled the pores between the stretched and aligned CNT web/sliver and formed a unique CNT-polymer composite. The aim of this work was to demonstrate a different approach for producing the CNT-based polymer composite yarns with properties that may satisfy many different engineering specifications, including biomedical device applications