Social innovators or lagging behind: factors that influence managers' time use

Abstract

PurposeThe broad aim of this paper is to investigate whether managers in Australia allocate their time differently than other occupational groups, and the impact gender and life situation (using marital status and presence or absence of dependent children as a proxy) has on time allocation.Design/methodology/approachTo address these broad aims, data are drawn from the 1997 Australian Time Use Survey. This is a nationally representative survey that examines how people in different circumstances allocate time to different activities.FindingsThe results of this study highlight three important issues. The first is that male and female managers display different patterns of time use. Male managers' time is dominated by paid employment activities, whereas female managers' time is spent predominantly on employment and domestic activities. The second is that life situation impacts on the time use of female managers, but not male managers. The third important find of this study is that managers' time use is different to other occupational groups.Practical implicationsThese findings have policy implications relating to work‐life balance, career progression and changes in patterns of work. In terms of work‐life issues, it reveals that male and female managers face a “time squeeze”, with some evidence of a “second‐shift” for female managers. In addition, the findings provide insight into the work‐life issues faced by male and female managers.Originality/valueThe results of this inquiry provide insight into how different individuals spend their time – insight into “lifestyles”. However, in‐depth qualitative studies are required to reveal why individuals allocate their time in this way and to understand the opportunities and constraints individuals face in time allocation.

Gender perceptions of work-life balance: management implications for full-time employees in Australia

“…Table 1 provides a detailed summary of the non-work roles of women and men. It confirms previous research findings about men's wider range of social activities than that of women in Australia (Blunsdon et al, 2005), and the predominance of women's household duties (Halford et al, 1997;Tang and Cousins, 2005). Notably, women's lack of time and narrower range of social activities indicate that their non-work time is considerably more restricted than men's, implying women's greater social immobility.…”

“…In 2012, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data reported that women's participation rate in the Australian labour force is 59.4% (ABS, 2012). Although some research indicates that men tend to spend more time at work and engage in more unregulated work hours than women (Bergman and Gardiner, 2007;Blunsdon et al, 2005), a considerable body of research contradicts this to show that that women spend as much time at work, and also engage in more domestic and family duties than men (Bergman and Gardiner, 2007;Blunsdon et al, 2005;Lewis, 2009;Moen and Yu, 2000;Swanberg et al, 2005;Toth, 2005). Amongst Australian women, this trend has increased significantly in the past decade (Hosking and Western, 2008).…”

Time use among New Zealand Members of Parliament

“…In order to gain further insights into MPs’ different time use according to their gender and seniority, I performed a correspondence analysis using SPSS (see also e.g. Blunsdon et al., 2005). 9 Correspondence analysis is an exploratory data technique with the capacity to graphically display the underlying structure of the numerical data; in this case the amount of time MPs spend on given tasks on a daily basis (Doey and Kurta, 2011; Greenacre, 1993).…”

“…Abendroth and den Dulk, 2011). Similar to managers who operate in a work environment characterized by the pressure to work long hours as a sign of commitment and by heightened insecurity (Blunsdon et al., 2005), MPs have no job security, get continuous demands from a variety of actors on their time, have to be mobile, and work unsociable and family-unfriendly hours. An epitomic example of the work–life balance challenges MPs are expected to face is the female NZ MP breastfeeding her baby in Parliament when it was sitting ‘under urgency’ on a Friday night until midnight in May 2013.…”