PurposeThis paper seeks to examine the experience of, and attitudes towards, work/life balance (WLB) by female and male senior managers in a major Irish organisation for which WLB is now a strategic corporate objective.Design/methodology/approachBoth quantitative and qualitative data were collected using an electronic questionnaire survey designed to obtain the views of female and male managers on strategies that would contribute to a better gender balance, promote diversity and raise leadership capacity in the organisation. Work/life balance emerged as a major issue in impeding the career progression of female managers. All female managers and a sample of male managers were surveyed. This paper concentrates on the responses of the two senior management grades below Executive Director on the issue and strategies to promote work/life balance. Additional qualitative data were drawn from interviews (with eight women and five men) and three focus group sessions with all male, all female and mixed gender groups.FindingsThe greatest obstacle to achieving WLB is seen as the “long hours” culture in which availing oneself of flexible options (e.g. working from home/reduced hours/flexitime) is incompatible with holding a senior management post. Many of the senior men have followed the “breadwinner” model by being able to delegate family and caring activities to their wives. This option has not been possible for the majority of women in senior posts. Hence, men seek WLB to resolve commuting/working time issues. Women want to avail themselves of more flexible arrangements for family/quality of life reasons. Both men and women in senior management recognise that their own careers would be seriously jeopardised by taking up WLB arrangements.Originality/valueIn the absence of role models willing to display any contrary behaviour there is a pragmatic need to align corporate policy and practice with prevailing and future family structures and demonstrate, by senior management example, how WLB can work and provide assistance for managers/staff who seek to avail themselves of it. WLB policies are not enough in themselves to ensure take‐up and acceptance. It will require trust, courage and a range of interventions to champion WLB, not just at management level.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore and critically analyse the relationship between gender and entrepreneurial motivations theories in an Irish context. The paper examines potential differences in motivational factors for entering entrepreneurship between men and women, with a particular emphasis on the distinction between push and pull factors, but also with respect to other social factors such as being a parent, marital status or age.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws upon data obtained from a national survey of 832 entrepreneurs undertaken in Ireland in 2003/2004. This survey is based on a sample of 3,498 Irish entrepreneurs, which was predominantly constructed using the Kompass Directory 2001 and the majority of the city and county enterprise boards throughout Ireland. The analysis relies on ordinal logistic modelling to examine the impact of gender and other social factors on entrepreneurial motivations.FindingsThe paper shows that there is a strong gender effect on some motivational factors, but that gender itself needs to be examined along with other social factors in order to understand differences in motivations. In particular, marital status, being a parent and/or age, as well as their interaction with gender, are useful in explaining differences in pathways into entrepreneurship for men and women.Originality/valueMotivations and gender have been widely debated in the international literature on entrepreneurship, but relatively little is known about gender and entrepreneurship in an Irish context. This paper seeks to address this gap. The results will be useful to other researchers in the field of gender and entrepreneurship, as well as practitioners and business support agencies.

Since the 1960s, women have begun emerging into the public sphere and the public/private divide has been eroding. However, women's participation in the public sphere remains limited by the ongoing need to do two jobs ('the double day'), working both in the home and in the labour market. Thus, a study conducted into gender difference in the legal professions in Ireland [Bacik, Ivana, Costello, Cathryn, and Drew, Eileen (2003), Gender InJustice: Feminising the legal professions?, Trinity College Dublin Law School, Dublin.] found that, while women are entering legal studies in increasing numbers, they remain concentrated at the lower levels of practice. Women lawyers have immense difficulty in achieving work/life balance, due to the long hours culture, an ingrained hostility to flexible work arrangements, and to the fact that they retain a disproportionate caring burden in the private sphere. Changes in the structuring of legal work are clearly required to address this gender imbalance and the associated work/life imbalance-but cultural changes are ultimately needed to end the ongoing "struggle to juggle." as these characteristics by their nature prevent women 37 from developing a sense of justice. 38 39 The public and private divide, although no longer 40 impermeable, remains. As Eisenstein (1981, p. 22) writes, 41 "although the meaning of 'public' and 'private' changes in 42 concrete ways, the assignment of public space to men and 43 private space to women is continuous in Western history. " 44 Walby (1990) has extended this to the theory of patriarchy 45 and the phenomenon of occupational segregation as a 46 crucial mechanism for ensuring women's subordination. 47 According to Walby, the strategy of exclusion was the 48 prevailing one in 19th century Britain that evolved into a 49 segregation strategy by the 20th century in Britain and 50 elsewhere. Hence, this represented a shift from 'private' 51 patriarchy in which women were excluded from paid work 52 and restricted to the domestic sphere to 'public' patriarchy 53 in which women gained limited access to lower grade and 54 lower paid work, often performed on a part-time basis.

PurposeThe objectives of this study were to investigate the degree to which quality initiatives, including quality standards, have been adopted in Irish organisations and to provide comparisons with survey results of surveys in 1995/1996.Design/methodology/approachA national survey was conducted in 2002 of Irish employers in manufacturing/services within the private and public sectors. The questionnaire was sent to 2,487 organisations – 932 questionnaires were returned representing a 34 per cent response rate from the private sector organisations and 47 per cent in the public sector.FindingsThe survey illustrates the continuing importance of, and reliance upon, standards. Among organisations that had been awarded ISO 9000 certification, 93 per cent believed that it had improved their reputation and 90 per cent that it resulted in better products or services. Nearly two‐thirds of respondent organisations had adopted a total quality approach compared with less than one‐third in 1995/1996. The results demonstrate that total quality organisations did not differ significantly from non‐TQ organisations in relation to having been awarded ISO 9000. However, there were statistically significant differences between TQ and non‐TQM organisations in relation to: a commitment to quality, quality structures, measures to evaluate effectiveness in relation to customers, employees and suppliers, team working, quality assurance systems, use of quality tools and techniques and investment in training.Originality/valueThis study shows that interest and adoption of quality improvement in Irish organisations is growing rapidly, particularly since the mid‐1990s that has marked a distinct period of economic growth in the Irish economy.

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