Among the different Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields, engineering continues to have one of the highest rates of attrition (Hewlett et al., 2008). The turnover rate for women engineers from engineering fields is even higher than for men (Frehill, 2010). Despite increased efforts from researchers, there are still large gaps in our understanding of the reasons that women leave engineering. This study aims to address this gap by examining the reasons why women leave engineering. Specifically, we analyze the reasons for departure given by national sample of 1,464 women engineers who left the profession after having worked in the engineering field. We applied a person-environment fit theoretical lens, in particular, the Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) (Dawis and Lofquist, 1984) to understand and categorize the reasons for leaving the engineering field. According to the TWA, occupations have different “reinforcer patterns,” reflected in six occupational values, and a mismatch between the reinforcers provided by the work environment and individuals’ needs may trigger departure from the environment. Given the paucity of literature in this area, we posed research questions to explore the reinforcer pattern of values implicated in women’s decisions to leave the engineering field. We used qualitative analyses to understand, categorize, and code the 1,863 statements that offered a glimpse into the myriad reasons that women offered in describing their decisions to leave the engineering profession. Our results revealed the top three sets of reasons underlying women’s decision to leave the jobs and engineering field were related to: first, poor and/or inequitable compensation, poor working conditions, inflexible and demanding work environment that made work-family balance difficult; second, unmet achievement needs that reflected a dissatisfaction with effective utilization of their math and science skills, and third, unmet needs with regard to lack of recognition at work and adequate opportunities for advancement. Implications of these results for future research as well as the design of effective intervention programs aimed at women engineers’ retention and engagement in engineering are discussed.
This study investigated the factors that underlie the relationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and women engineers' intention to leave the occupation. The study draws from three theories: Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, turnover theory, and Rhodes and Doering's (1983) integrated model of career change. We proposed that both work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW) influence women's intention to leave an engineering occupation by decreasing their commitment to the occupation. Using insights from the above theories and models, we further examined how perceptions of support from the organization changed the relationship between commitment to the occupation and intention to leave the occupation, as well as how conflict between work and family was related to intention to leave the occupation. We tested our predictions using time‐lagged data from a sample of 245 women engineers. The results revealed that occupational commitment mediated and explained the positive relationship between FIW and occupational turnover intentions but not the relationship between WIF and occupational turnover intentions. In addition, perceptions of organizational support influenced the relationship between occupational commitment and occupational turnover intentions and also the indirect relationship between FIW and occupational turnover intentions. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings as well as future research directions are discussed.
Our work investigates the influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality (SBLM) (i.e., a one-dimensional focus on bottom-line outcomes to the exclusion of other organizational priorities) on employees’ organizational commitment via the work-family interface as well as the crossover effects of SBLM on the organizational commitment of the employees’ spouse. More specifically, we examined how SBLM contributes to work-family conflict (WFC) and impacts the experienced commitment of the dyad along three paths. We conducted two studies across three samples (Study 1, Sample A: 186 employees; Study 1, Sample B: 258 employees; Study 2: 399 employee-spouse dyads) to demonstrate the unique role of SBLM in this context and find support for the hypothesized relationships. First, the resource drain of SBLM had a spillover effect through WFC to decrease the employee’s commitment at work. Second, it crossed over to the spouse to reduce their own organizational commitment due to the employee being a source of family undermining, which subsequently influenced the spouse’s family-work conflict (FWC). Third, SBLM impacted the spouse such that it crossed back to contribute to decreased organizational commitment for the employee. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed as well as directions for future research.
Our study aimed to understand how cross‐domain communication via technology affects employees’ work–family interface. We examine the relationships among cross‐domain communication, role‐based resource loss and gain, and the bidirectional forms of work–family conflict and enrichment. Building on Conservation of Resources theory, we expect that cross‐domain communication has positive effects on role‐based resource loss and gain as well as both work–family conflict and enrichment. Furthermore, we suggest that the relationships between cross‐domain communication and role‐based resource loss and gain vary across different levels of role response expectations and role relationship quality. We test our ideas with data from two studies. Results confirm the role of cross‐domain communication on work–family conflict and enrichment through role‐based resource loss and gain. We also find significant interactions involving cross‐domain communication, role response expectations, and role relationship quality on both work‐ and family‐based resource loss and gain as well as on the mediating effects of family‐based resource loss. Practitioner points Cross‐domain work and family communication is not always harmful to employees’ work and family interface. When employees engaged in cross‐domain communication perceive high work (family) response expectations and high‐quality work (family) relationships, they experience more personal resource losses and gains within the family (work) domain. Managers need to educate employees regarding both the pros and cons of cross‐domain work and family communication and provide them with explicit rules about how they can navigate the double‐edged functions of communicating across work and family domains. Training employees to manage communications across domains will enable them to reduce potential work–family conflict and enhance work–family enrichment.
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