Abstract
This thesis is concerned with identifying the conditions under which it is possible for mothers and fathers to successfully combine career progression and parenthood in an organisational context. I developed the ‘family-adaptive’ theoretical framework in order to examine the extent to which a) organisations can adapt to facilitate the changed working conditions of new parents associated with childbirth, and b) employees can find ways, through the use of formal entitlements and informal arrangements, to adapt to their new role as parents while maintaining their professional identities and career goals. The framework, which has its foundations in the theory of gendered organisations and identity theory, identifies how the gendering of a range of formal and informal organisational processes and practices interacts with individuals’ processes of identity negotiation and resource constraints at various levels in the organisation to determine how ‘family-adaptive’ an organisation is. The research focuses on the ‘parental leave process’, defined as the time spanning from when staff members inform the organisation about their intention to go on leave, through the parental leave period and including the time when they return to work while they avail of entitlements associated with parental leave. A single organisational case study methodology was adopted, focusing on general staff in an Australian university. A ‘qualitative dominant’ mixed methods approach was followed. The primary data source comprised of qualitative interviews carried out with 28 participants in a range of roles in the case study university. This rich data source was supplemented with quantitative analysis of parental leave provisions in the Australian university sector. Three specific levels of analysis were examined: senior managers at the organisational level, middle managers at the work unit level and non-managerial employees at the work unit level. The research findings indicated that gendering processes interacted with identity and resource constraints in a variety of ways across the three levels of analysis to contribute to family-adaptiveness. At the senior management level I focused on formal parental leave policy development. Evidence suggested that senior managers adopted a narrow business case focus in enterprise negotiations regarding parental leave policy. Their stance was dictated by a concern with resource constraints, whereby the short-term costs, but not the long-term benefits of improvements, were acknowledged. While the rhetoric surrounding the university’s provision of parental leave was framed in terms of a concern with gender equity, evidence suggests that these ‘social justice’ motivations were strongly entangled with strategic business motivations. Additionally, evidence suggested that the gendered understructure, based on the male-breadwinner norm, shaped management’s approach to parental leave negotiations. The reliance on a narrow business focus coupled with the male-breadwinner organisational logic resulted in a parental leave policy that reaffirms male-breadwinner norms and has limited potential to promote a family-adaptive environment. At the middle management level the focus was on policy implementation across the parental leave process. Evidence suggested that while resource constraints inhibited managers in their approach to policy implementation, they had some discretion to implement informal practices to manage work-family needs. The extent to which managers were willing to exercise this discretion was related to the salience of their managerial and/or parent identities. Three distinct approaches to the management of work family issues were identified, which resulted in differing gendered effects. ‘Family blind’ managers displayed highly salient managerial identities and took a restrictive approach to policy implementation. ‘Family first’ managers generally displayed salient parent identities and were likely to utilise informal practices to enable employees achieve work-family balance. ‘Family fair’ managers straddled a line between these approaches, displaying salient parent and managerial identities. The approach taken by managers had implications for family-adaptiveness, with the family first approach most likely to result in gender equitable outcomes in work and care while the family blind approach was associated with gendered effects which inhibited family-adaptiveness. At the employee level the salience of respondents’ professional and parent identities was a key factor in shaping their approach to the management of their career and caring responsibilities. The ways in which employees invoked their identities could significantly affect family-adaptiveness, both in terms of their own work-family balance and in terms of broader organisational processes. Those who contested gendered norms surrounding work and care had the greatest potential to contribute positively towards a family-adaptive environment. Women who invoked a prominent professional identity were most successful in challenging the male-breadwinner, female-carer norm and could open up opportunities for career progression. Similarly, men who invoked a salient parent identity could challenge the ‘ideal worker’ norm and develop opportunities for alternative work practices which facilitated their greater involvement in childcare. Overall, the findings indicated that individuals at various levels within the organisation had the potential to influence family-adaptiveness and that the interaction of gendering processes with identity work and resource constraints across all three levels was crucial in determining how family-adaptive an organisation is.
Published Version
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