More Control, Less Conflict? Job Demand–Control, Gender and Work–Family Conflict

Grönlund, Anne

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00361.x

Cited by 141 publications

(185 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…It has been widely acknowledged that women take more responsibility for household labour and childcare (Posig and Kickul, 2004;Grönlund, 2007;Gregory and Milner, 2009) and that gender moderates the relationship between family-work conflict and job performance (Yavas, Babakus and Karatepe, 2008). In this study, married women described how they worried about office tasks while they were at home (for example, having 'sleepless nights' over clients in arrears) and about how their work sometimes left them exhausted.…”

Section: Gender In the 'Field' And Social Contextmentioning

confidence: 97%

Microfinance and Loan Officers’ Work Experiences: Perspectives from Zambia

Siwale

2016

The Journal of Development Studies

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The article studies the challenges faced by microfinance institutions in Zambia, whose remit it is to provide financial services to the poor. It focuses on loan officers -the agents of delivery on the ground. With reference to loan officers' experiences and words, the paper examines how gender and class shape and structure their day to day encounters. The study finds that different social spaces -'the office' and 'the field' -and wider context explains the gendered, culturally complex and multidimensional nature of developmental work at grassroots level. Social expectations emerge as major pressure points more for female loan officers than their male counterparts, making them less suitable for microfinance work, which has traditionally targeted poor women. However, in the process of delivering financial services, managers and clients not only come to depend on loan officers to maintain the quality of services provided, but also place varied and often conflicting expectations on them. Notwithstanding loan officers' critical role in the functioning of microfinance, less scholarship has focused on their work realities and how their everyday encounters at the grassroots with borrowers can leave them disillusioned with the seemingly 'noble' work of microfinance. Little is known, for example, about how social factors such as education, gender and location influence and complicate the work of loan officers in extending credit and other financial services to the poor. In addition, less is known about whether male and female loan officers consequently perform or are judged differently.As the analysis of two Zambian MFIs will show, these social factors do structure loan officer-client encounters and are capable of adding complexities to an already difficult jobespecially for female loan officers. Examining how education, gender and location intersect 1 Other titles such as field staff, credit officers and fieldworkers have also been used to refer to such MFI employees. This study adopts the title of loan officers. 2 Microfinance generally includes a range of financial services, including loans, savings deposits, insurance and money transfers provided to low income clients who lack formal financial access (Tomaselli et al., 2013). In this study we focus on provision of microcredit in a group-based lending methodology.

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Section: Gender In the 'Field' And Social Contextmentioning

confidence: 97%

Microfinance and Loan Officers’ Work Experiences: Perspectives from Zambia

Siwale

2016

The Journal of Development Studies

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“…Results regarding the feeling of control are coherent with quantitative research to assess the impact of "job control" on reducing stress in "work to family conflict" (Grönlund, 2007). Yet our qualitative approach has brought additional light in understanding women's experience in jobs with high demands and high control and who have flexible work conditions (Lundberg & Frakenhaeuser, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…This change would be beneficial especially to mothers, by improving childcare services, promoting external caring responsibilities, and facilitating flexibility in duty sharing as the Swiss sample has revealed (Costa, Sartori, & Åkerstedt, 2006;Grönlund, 2007). Indeed, as Bianchi and colleagues (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, & Robinson, 2000) have suggested, employed mothers may experience a greater dilemma in reconciling work and family duties within the Swiss context, among other things due to the cultural expectations of devotion to children and the home.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Articulation of Different Life Domains among Female Senior Managers and Their Subjective Well-Being: Focusing on Meaning Constructions in Everyday

Carral

2015

IJPS

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Work-life issues have become a major concern across Western societies with the objective to promote women's careers and well-being. However, despite growing attempts to increase the number of women in senior management positions in European countries, such as Switzerland, they remain highly underrepresented. Inspired from the cultural approach in psychology, this article focuses on these women's concrete everyday life to understand how they articulate different life domains and how this influences their subjective well-being. A narrative approach based on reflexivity is adopted to analyze women's activity. Results show meaning intertwinements between life priorities that are often conflicting. Two psychological functions are identified: the feeling of control and the letting go of control. Each of these contributes to women's subjective well-being through the use of diversified supports, but their structuring roles appear only in relation to one another. Results are discussed in the light of existing literature and of their implications.

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“…In some studies, part-time work was associated with a lower level of interference between work and family for women (Bonney 2005, Higgins et al, 2000, Hill et al, 2001. This is also found in studies which include female employees in the Nordic countries (Crompton 2006:80, Abrahamsen and Storvik 2002, Grønlund 2007. In other studies, part-time work is associated with the same level of interference or even worse conflicts compared to full-time work (Tausig et al, 2001).…”

Section: Part-time Work and Interference Between Work And Familymentioning

confidence: 48%

Work–Family Interference: Nurses in Norway and Finland

Abrahamsen¹,

Holte

Laine

2012

P&P

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Abstract:The aim of the study is to investigate the level of work-family interference (WFI) for part-time nurses in Norway and Finland. Part-time work is usually cited as a desirable way in which to facilitate work and family harmony. However, the opportunity to work part-time in professions may be associated with greater difficulties and challenges than commonly presumed. Part-time professionals are often stigmatized as being less committed to work and report fewer job rewards than colleagues in full-time positions. This study challenges the notion of the desirable consequences of work hour flexibility concerning the integration of work and family. Part-time nurses in Norway and Finland report an equal level or even higher levels of interference than nurses in full-time positions. A disproportional distribution of inconvenient work schedules appears to be a central explanation for the results reported by Norwegian nurses, but to a lesser degree by Finnish nurses.Keywords: nursing profession, part-time work, inconvenient work schedule, workfamily interference, Nordic countries Academic attention to professionals' part-time work has increased in the past decade, mainly driven by the increased demand for professionals in Western countries (Amble, 2008). The connection between the shortage of personnel and part-time work is clear. Part-time professionals are potential full-time professionals and constitute a major labour resource, particularly in countries with a high proportion of part-time work. However, part-time professionals are often stigmatized as being less committed to work, which can have profound consequences for their status and professional career opportunities (Epstein, Seron, Oglensky, & Saute, 1999). Women's career patterns, involving career breaks and part-time work, are at the root of assumptions about commitment. However, job rewards appear to be an equally relevant factor (Abrahamsen, 2010;Wallace, 1995). Within professions, part-time workers frequently report fewer job rewards and poorer work conditions than do colleagues in full-time positions (Abrahamsen, 2010; Andersen, Køber, & Rønning, 2008:27). Nevertheless, part-time work is usually depicted as positive for women and their work experience and home life. A common reason among women professionals for choosing part-time work is the need to be able to manage multiple life roles, especially those involving a caregiving responsibility (Jamieson, Williams, Lauder, & Dwyer, 2008; Olsen, 2002:59).The aim of this study is to investigate work-family interference (WFI) among Nordic nurses in part-time positions. Previous research has revealed that some nurses find the combination of full-time work and family obligations to be challenging. In addition to high workload, nurses mainly have to work schedules that include shift work and weekend work, which has been reported to increase work-family conflicts substantially (Albertsen et al., 2007:52; Jansen, Kany, Nijhius, Swaen, & Kristensen, 2004). A number of studies have dealt with the question of ho...

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More Control, Less Conflict? Job Demand–Control, Gender and Work–Family Conflict

Cited by 141 publications

References 42 publications

Microfinance and Loan Officers’ Work Experiences: Perspectives from Zambia

Microfinance and Loan Officers’ Work Experiences: Perspectives from Zambia

The Articulation of Different Life Domains among Female Senior Managers and Their Subjective Well-Being: Focusing on Meaning Constructions in Everyday

Work–Family Interference: Nurses in Norway and Finland

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