Investigating workplace flexibility using a multi-organization database: A collaboration of academics and practitioners

Abstract

In most countries of North America, Europe, and Oceania; and increasingly in Asia and Latin America as well; dual-earner families have become the norm. This major shift in the global labor market and the realities of a global economy, have brought about important changes in the lives of many individuals and families. The conflict between working and caring responsibilities has intensified and both men and women have to come to terms with changing gender role expectations. A new field of inquiry has emerged, under the broad umbrella of work–family research, drawing on scholars from a wide range of disciplines. Testimonies of this growing, multi-disciplinary field are the many work and family special issues published in journals like Human Resource Management (Lobel, 1992), Qualitative Sociology (Gerstel & Clawson, 2000), International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management (Poelmans, 2003), Public Finance and Management (Amuedo-Dorantes & Kimmel, 2005), and Career Development International (de Janasz, 2007). In 1999, Community, Work & Family became the first journal to create a dedicated forum for this multi-disciplinary field. This special issue, ‘Investigating Workplace Flexibility Using a Multi-organization Database: A Collaboration of Academics and Practitioners’, is unique and offers an important landmark in this growing domain of scholarship.