Ideal Worker Norm Research Articles

Work Hard Parent Hard: Gender and Work Life Conflict in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Women are leaving the workforce at historic rates due to the inability to negotiate work and household labor. Despite considerable gains in the workforce, women still account for a greater share of domestic work. To be ideal workers, women are expected to fulfill ideal worker norms of long hours and undivided dedication, in stark contrast with gender roles which dictate that ideal women should take primary care of the household. This imbalance of unpaid domestic labor stunts women’s achievement in the paid workforce. Prior research has demonstrated the tension between work and family domains and COVID-19 has exposed the ubiquity of gender roles, as women have taken on a greater share of childcare and household chores during the pandemic (Giurge et al., 2021). In this symposium, will delve into the consequences of the push and pull of work and family responsibilities, and why women are feeling especially burdened during COVD-19. Across a variety of methodology, including longitudinal, survey, interview and experimental, we unpack the experiences of women and the undercurrent of work family conflict pushing women out of the workforce. In these four talks, we study how remote work effects work life balance, how domestic arrangements effect work outcomes, how work arrangements effect domestic arrangements, and a precursor and consequences of the conflict between the two realms. By examining the link between personal and professional lives, we demonstrate the interconnectedness of these two domains, with specific focus on the pressure women face from both, and how it may be alleviated. A Blessing or a Curse? The Benefits and Challenges of Remote Work for Working Mothers Presenter: Aurora Turek; Harvard Business School Presenter: Salvatore J. Affinito; Harvard Business School Presenter: Ashley Whillans; Harvard Business School Presenter: Leslie Perlow; Harvard Business School The Shared Parenting Premium: Caregiving, Chores, and Earnings Presenter: Stephanie Chan-Ahuja; London Business School Presenter: Eliot Sherman; London Business School New Employment Arrangements: Changes at Work and at Home Presenter: Alexandra Feldberg; Harvard Business School Presenter: Kathleen L. McGinn; Harvard U. Holding the Belief that Gender Roles Can Change Reduces Women’s Work-Family Conflict During COVID Presenter: Charlotte Townsend; Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley Presenter: Laura Kray; U. of California, Berkeley

The entrenchment of the ideal worker norm during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from working mothers in the United States.

We study shifts in the ideal worker culture as experienced by working mothers across organizations in the United States during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Experiences of 53 interviewees who attended to increased responsibilities across both work and family domains revealed an entrenchment of the ideal worker culture across nearly all organizations and professions. This manifested in three levels: as (1) a reinforced ideal worker culture in the workplace through work intensification, increased competitiveness, and surface‐level support; (2) the reinforcing of organizations' ideal worker norms at home, with gendered division of space and labor; and (3) experienced internalized ideal worker norms in the expectations working mothers maintained for themselves. These findings offer insight into the lives of working mothers during the COVID‐19 pandemic and the challenges which have pushed many mothers to reduce work hours or leave the workforce. Highlighting the intricate nature of the entrenchment of the ideal worker culture informs implications for theory of gendered organizations and for organizational practice.

Rules of Engagement: Flexplace and Ideal Workers

Employees increasingly claim they do not have enough time to manage the demands of both work and family/life. Workplace flexibility policies have been offered as a key solution to managing these conflicting demands. Yet, employers remain resistant to develop, implement, and endorse these policies. We suggest one avenue to further our understanding is a more holistic look at the connection between availability and use of flexibility, and the workplace context. We specifically examine flexplace. The data derive from 25 in-depth interviews of employees in professional and supervisory positions in the U.S. automotive industry. By examining the variation of flexplace policy availability, we unpack the logics of employee use/non-use of flexplace. We argue that different assumptions of the ideal worker norm undergird flexplace availability, which in turn create different rules of engagement and use. This study offers an analytical model to extend our theorizing on the availability/use gap. Examination of ideal worker norms allows insight into how employees struggle to decipher signals on permissible flexplace use. The findings capture dynamic and interrelated relationships to uncover the constraints of policies and the power of the workplace context.

Developing the concept of leaveism: From presenteeism/absence to an emergent and expanding domain of employment?

AbstractThe changing nature of employment has led to increased awareness of leaveism, a practice involving employees using allocated time off when unwell, taking work home, and picking up work when on annual leave. However, there are theoretical, methodological, and policy/practice‐related weaknesses, apparent in current understandings. The main article aim is to develop, theoretically, the emergent notion of leaveism, drawing on concepts related to work intensification (WI) and ideal worker norms (IWNs), concepts underpinned by reference to information communication technologies (ICTs), then exploring such ideas via an electronic questionnaire (n = 959), aimed at UK‐based employees performing leaveism. The main argument is leaveism is more than a lacuna between presenteeism and sickness absence; it is an unsustainable employer‐driven social phenomenon sitting at the intersection of WI, IWNs and ICTs. The findings have policy/practice implications for human resource management (HRM) professionals, trade unions and governments. Recommendations for future research including exploring leaveism in an international context, and in a Covid‐19 pandemic‐defined era.

The effect of parental leave duration on early‐career wage growth

AbstractWork–family policies are meant to support labor force participants, but they often result in lower rewards for those who use them. Based on the ideal worker norm framework and signalling theory, we hypothesise that parental leave duration will result in lower wage growth, above and beyond that of having children. The 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data from 2000 to 2015 are used to test the hypotheses with a longitudinal sample (14 waves) of individuals in the United States who worked before and after taking parental leave (n = 6723). Discontinuous growth models are used to predict the penalty for parental leave duration for men and women. We find that both men and women suffer from a lower hourly wage growth for taking longer parental leave and that there are more severe penalties for taking paid parental leave than taking unpaid parental leave.Practitioner notesWhat is currently known? utilization of parental leave is significantly related to the wellbeing of employees and their families. However, employees are penalized for taking parental leave. What this study adds? Paid parental leave, which is mostly available to skilled, professional employees carries a noticeable early‐career wage penalty, but the use of unpaid leave, does not. Both men and women are penalized for taking parental leave, but the longer parental leaves women take increase the gender pay gap. Implications for practitioners: HR practitioners should monitor whether employees are penalized for taking parental leave. HR practitioners should try incentivizing male employees to take parental leave that is comparable to the one taken by their female employees.

"I might not fit that doctor image": Ideal worker norms and women medical students.

Despite the increasing numbers of women students in medical schools, focused attention on their perceptions about medical school and the medical profession remain underexamined. These perceptions are important to understand, particularly since women students are likely burdened with a host of gender norms related to work, family, and their future roles as physicians. Early experiences in medical school offer important insights into the larger student experience and are tied to academic outcomes and feelings of belonging. To examine early experiences of women medical students, this qualitative study used sensemaking theory to describe the current context and "story" of ideal worker norms. Critical qualitative interviews of 38 women students were performed during their first 2 months of medical school and explored both how the students perceived and experienced ideal worker norms, and how they made sense of the "story" of ideal worker norms. The participants described ways they encountered gendering and ideal worker norms through displays of nurturing behaviour, expectations to balance a future family, and whether they looked or acted the part of a doctor. This article highlights the challenges women medical students are already aware they will face, the opportunities they look forward to, and the strengths they anticipate leaning on to navigate their profession. Results from this study have implications for women medical students' learning experiences and transitions into medical school and for faculty, staff, and scholars concerned with challenging gendering norms that shape medical education.

Involved fatherhood and the workplace context: A new theoretical approach

AbstractThe prevalence of the ideal worker norm and the unwillingness of organizations to acknowledge the transition to fatherhood as a life‐changing event are key factors that continue to inhibit men who pursue greater involvement as parents. This article applies fresh theoretical perspectives that influence the situated agency of new fathers in the workplace. It argues that informal structural conditions at organizational level, specifically the organization of working time (materialized by the influence of organizational rhythms) and the difficulty of articulating a caring masculine identity are factors that significantly contribute to the debate on fathers' reluctance to embrace involved fatherhood. Drawing together the issues discussed above, the article presents a conceptual model, which argues for a recursive relationship between fathers' ability to achieve involved fatherhood and these structural conditions in an organizational context. The article concludes by considering the practical implications of the model for fathers and organizations and presenting a research agenda based on the issues raised.

“I Had to Jump through a Lot of Hoops”: How Working Mothers in Student Affairs Navigate Institutional Policies and Student Affairs Norms

In this instrumental case study, we explored the experiences of working mothers in student affairs and how their situated realities are shaped by institutional and professional norms, including commonly understood written and unwritten practices. We conducted interviews and focus groups with 21 mothers working full-time at a research-intensive university in the South. We crafted themes to illustrate how ideal worker norms, inequality regimes, and the maternal wall were persistent concerns for the mothers in our study. Mothers had to make decisions based on inadequate institutional policies while the institution simultaneously benefited from skills they imported from motherhood to student affairs work. Given the condition of federal and state policies, we offer implications for institutional and unit changes to better meet mothers where they are, accommodate their unique needs, and provide pathways for them to continue contributing meaningfully to the field.

Pushing the boundaries: A qualitative study of how stem women adapted to disrupted work-nonwork boundaries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

National reports widely publicized that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic's disruption of work-nonwork boundaries impacted women's careers negatively, as many exited their jobs to manage nonwork demands. We know less about the adaptations made by highly career-invested women to remain in the workforce in occupations where they are extremely under-represented. Based on qualitative data from 763 academic Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) women at 202 universities, we examined adaptation to disrupted work-nonwork boundaries and identified workplace contextual features associated with these adaptations. Results show that STEM women varied in their adaptation. Many women adapted their professional image management approaches: From concealing nonwork roles-particularly when in less supportive contexts, to revealing them-often to challenge existing ideal worker norms and advocate for change. Also, women adapted through varying forms of role sacrifice; trading off one role's execution for another, mental detachment through psychological role withdrawal, or abandoning role duties through behavioral role exit. Notably, some sacrificed their nonwork roles, although the dominant media narrative highlights women sacrificing work roles. Work contextual features associated with boundary management adaptation include structural support (e.g., flexibility) and social support (e.g., empathy). Results illuminate the complex decisions faced by STEM women when they lose the scaffolding supporting their work-nonwork interface. Moreover, the results have practical and theoretical implications for advancing workforce gender equity, and for supporting all employees' work-nonwork boundary management. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Effect of the Ideal Worker Norm on Employees

In today’s organizations, supervisors expect employees to be highly productive throughout their workday, no matter how long they work or when they work. These expectations have been termed the “ideal worker norm” (Davies & Frink, 2014). The ideal worker prioritizes their work over other life domains and shows this dedication to work by working overtime and non-traditional hours, being always available, visibly working (e.g., sending emails during non-work hours), and being unhampered by non-work obligations (Kelly et al., 2010; Reid, 2015; Sallee, 2012). The nascent ideal worker literature has focused on defining the norm, but the effects of the ideal worker on employees has been little studied. For example, gendered social roles, in which women are caretakers and men are breadwinners, may affect perceptions of female employees’ ability to fulfill the ideal worker norm, regardless of family context, negatively affecting their careers. Likewise, for men who deviate from this expectation, such as those who request flex time or parental leave (Sallee, 2012), they may be perceived as unable or unwilling to live up to the ideal worker norm. This paper symposium explores the effects of the ideal worker norm on the careers of male and female employees. Family-to-Work Conflict, Ideal Worker Norm Violation and Trust: Gender Bias in Evaluations Presenter: Jennica R. Webster; Marquette U. Presenter: Gary A Adams; Marquette U. Presenter: Andrea Schneider; Marquette U. Just Not Good Enough: How Supervisor Sexism Beliefs Affect Employee Promotability and Development Presenter: Clarissa Rene Steele; Kansas State U. Who are “Ideal Workers”? Intersection of Age, Gender, and Race Presenter: Vanessa Burke; Pennsylvania State U. Presenter: Alicia A. Grandey; Pennsylvania State U. Presenter: Teresa Frasca; Pennsylvania State U. Individual Worker and Managerial Characteristics that Influence Granting of Working from Home (WFH) Presenter: Alyson Gounden Rock; McGill U. - Desautels Faculty of Management “We Deserve Work-Life Balance Too”: Experiences of Dual-Career Professional Couples Without Children Presenter: Galina Boiarintseva; Niagara U. Presenter: Souha R. Ezzedeen; York U. Presenter: Julia Richardson; Curtin U. Presenter: Christa Wilken; York U. Getting Down to Brass Tacks: The Effect of Focusing on Results Instead of Ideal Worker Cues Presenter: Aurora Turek; -

Well but Unwanted: The Subtle Backlash Against Prioritizing Mental Wellbeing at Work

Organizations are investing more into mental wellbeing initiatives than ever before, seeking to become more inclusive workplaces and combat rising employee stress. Yet 75% of employees still struggle with mental health and many hesitate to use these initiatives over fear of backlash. Our research suggests this fear is warranted, and that the nature of this backlash is particularly nuanced. Across 4 studies (N=2,107), we show that although displays of overt discrimination may be less common, employees who prioritize their mental wellbeing experience subtle forms of backlash, including social aversion (Study 2) and feedback withholding (Studies 1, 3). Although mental wellbeing prioritization violates the “ideal worker norm,” we demonstrate that political correctness norms (specifically concerns about appearing discriminatory) both lead evaluators to suppress overt backlash and simultaneously engage in subtle backlash (Study 4). Together, these results suggest that while prioritizing mental wellbeing may leave employees well, it may also lead them to be unwanted. We discuss the implications of this paradox for scholarship on social norms and wellbeing interventions in modern organizations.

The Ideal Worker Norm and Workplace Social Support among U.S. Workers

ABSTRACT Research has shown that the ideal worker norm stipulating workers should be completely devoted to their jobs without interference from outside responsibilities creates difficulties for workers. At the same time, scholarship continues to emphasize the positive outcomes associated with coworker and supervisor support in making it easier for workers to combine work and family. Yet we know little about what shapes the extent to which workers have access to supportive coworkers and supervisors. This study brings together these two strands of scholarship to explore the relationships between the perceived presence of the ideal worker norm and two forms of workplace social support: coworker support and supervisor support. Using data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. workers, this study finds that the perceived presence of the ideal worker norm—regardless of gender and largely irrespective of parenthood and elder-care responsibilities—is associated with decreased levels of both forms of support. Taken together, these findings contribute to the literature by documenting the impact of the ideal worker norm on the workplace social support to which workers have access.

Work‐life (re)negotiation for mid‐career faculty

AbstractWhile working towards tenure, faculty members are rewarded for enacting ideal worker norms (Acker, 1990) or prioritizing work resulting in high levels and quality of production over other components of one's life. Striving to meet ideal worker norms has real costs to faculty members who may experience high levels of stress, negative health outcomes, or strained relationships. However, failing to comply with these norms also has implications and may impede individual's career advancement. Having achieved promotion and tenure, mid‐career faculty are uniquely positioned to renegotiate their relationship to ideal worker norms in the academy and can use their agency to contest them. Accordingly, this chapter examines the construct of the ideal worker (Acker, 1990) and how it affects faculty work before providing insight on how mid‐career faculty may change their relationship with ideal worker norms and notions of productivity in their lives and at their institutions.

The Menopause Taboo at Work: Examining Women’s Embodied Experiences of Menopause in the UK Police Service

This article contributes to the growing body of knowledge about gendered ageing at work through an examination of the embodied experiences of women undergoing menopause transition in the UK police service. Drawing on 1197 survey responses, providing both quantitative and qualitative data gathered across three police forces in 2017–18, the findings highlight the importance of a material-discursive approach that considers contextual influences on women’s bodily experiences. The article evidences gendered ageism and the penalty suffered by women whose ageing bodies fail to comply with an ideal worker norm. It makes an important contribution both to theorising embodiment, drawing in age as well as gender discourses, and to promoting a material-discursive approach that recognises the materiality of the body while also offering the potential for agency, reflection and resistance.

From ideal workers to ideal work for all: A 50-year review integrating careers and work-family research with a future research agenda

Historically, the careers literature, (grounded in vocational psychology) and the work-family literature, rooted in industrial-organizational psychology and organizational behavior (IO/OB), were not well-integrated, developed at separate speeds, and differed in gender focus. Early career studies targeted men's careers, while work-family studies centered on women's careers. Both literatures assumed conformity to an Ideal Worker norm. Looking over fifty years, the goal of our paper is to conduct a review in order to identify commonalities and gaps, and suggest integrative lenses for future research. The 71 studies we identified that addressed both work-family and careers issues clustered into three main approaches: careers studies emphasizing vocational psychology lenses, work-family studies from IO/OB research, and dual-realm focused research that was usually from other disciplines. Surprisingly, two-thirds of the articles were conceptual, suggesting that integration is currently more aspirational than it is reality. Most empirical articles took a trade-off lens, assuming an incompatibility between high dual role investments in career and family, which helps perpetuate ideal worker models. This gendered siloing of work-family and careers issues and the need for studies to address critical integrative problems was observed over fifty years ago in Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s seminal (1977) monograph, an agenda that our review suggests is still largely unrealized today. To guide the next decades' future research, we build on Kanter's prescient agenda, and propose expansion to four integrative lenses: Whole Life Demands-Resources; Linked-Lives of Family Life Course and Career Stages; Diversity, Intities; and Ideal Work in Changing Social, Technological, and Economic Contexts. Our agenda will help advance understanding of the pressing problems that affect the integration of employees' careers and work-family concerns, and the conditions that support the design and implementation of ideal work for all.

“Be a Gutsy Girl!”: Essentialism in Success-at-Work Books for Women

This article examines how essentialism is depicted in recent popular press “success-at-work” books that are marketed for women. Our qualitative content analysis of fourteen advice books published from 2013 to 2018 identifies the subtle, yet powerful, messages about how men and women supposedly “are” and the depictions of men and women at work. We find a persistent tension in the advice that relies on two types of essentialism in this success discourse: (1) women are deficient, and, simultaneously, (2) women have unique strengths. We argue that these contradictory depictions of essentialism are embedded in the organizational logic of workplaces and bolster gendered ideal worker norms in the new economy. We discuss the implications of these conflicting representations and speculate about their impact and consequences for eradicating gender inequality at work.

The Ideal-Worker Myth: The Consequences of Self-Disclosure for Newcomers’ Onboarding Outcomes

While the prevailing organizational culture continues to rely upon conservative ideologies (e.g. ideal-worker or work devotion scheme), we witness an increasing number of employees who strive to manage personal-professional boundaries in order to fulfill their different roles and aspirations. In this study, we explore the consequences of self-disclosure – i.e. behaviors that signal deviation from the ideal worker norm – for newcomers’ onboarding outcomes. Building on the signaling theory and the stereotype content model, we argue that newcomers’ behaviors that signal deviation from the ideal worker image negatively influence the supervisors’ perception of newcomers’ task mastery via stereotype of competence. However, self-disclosure during the socialization process enhances perception of newcomers’ warmth and in turn social adjustment. Finally, we argue that newcomers’ gender and past employment experiences moderate these relationships such that the consequences of self-disclosure are stronger for males and neophyte workers than the others. We test our hypotheses in three different studies. Our results contribute to the personal-professional boundary and organizational socialization literatures.

The Portfolio Ideal Worker: Insecurity and Inequality in the New Economy

Abstract The white-collar ideal worker norm helps to explain why social inequality persists in the workplace, yet the concept reflects corporate workplaces of the mid-twentieth century. This article identifies emerging cultural ideals for white-collar workers in today’s economy by examining the experiences of high earners in financial services. Despite its glorification of flexibility and independence, scholars have shown how the “new economy” produces different forms of inequality at work than in the post-World War II era. Drawing from interviews with 48 hedge fund workers and field observations at workplaces and industry events, I bring together well-known features of work in the new economy to update the white-collar ideal worker norm to reflect changes in the organization of work. I call this the portfolio ideal because it captures how white-collar workers must make ongoing investments in resources and development to create a portfolio of skills and experiences that allows them to navigate the turbulence of the neoliberal new economy. As portfolio workers, hedge fund workers identify as independent workers, value a passion for the work, take risks to get ahead, and invest in social capital. Although it appears to be disembodied, the portfolio norm reflects implicit assumptions about gender, race, and social class. By shedding light on cultural responses to job polarization and income inequality, this research helps to identify a shift from a more collective work arrangement to one that is individually oriented, which transfers the risks of employment from employers to workers.

The Status Dynamics of Role Blurring in the Time of COVID-19.

Has the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic altered the status dynamics of role blurring? Although researchers typically investigate its conflictual aspects, the authors assess if the work-home interface might also be a source of status—and the relevance of schedule control in these processes. Analyzing data from nationally representative samples of workers in September 2019 and March 2020, the authors find that role blurring is associated with elevated status, but the onset of coronavirus disease 2019 weakens that effect. Likewise, schedule control enhances the status of role blurring, but its potency is also weakened during the pandemic. These findings align with the suggestion that role blurring signals a commitment to work and adherence to ideal worker norms. However, the pandemic changed that by intensifying role integration and possibly by reducing the degree of agency once associated with role blurring. The loss of choice around role blurring might have also diluted the distinctive status that it once carried.

What Helps and What Hinders? Exploring the Role of Workplace Characteristics for Parental Leave Use and Its Career Consequences

The division of parental leave among couples today is still unequal—even in countries with progressive leave schemes. Given the gendered nature of the workplace, we examine how organizational characteristics relate to fathers’ uptake and length of parental leave as well as to the perceived career consequences of leave uptake among those fathers who took leave. In our mixed methods study, we draw on unique quantitative and qualitative data on different-sex couples with young children in Germany (2015). We find that the fear of professional repercussions and the lack of a replacement at work inhibit fathers both from taking leave in general and, for those who take leave, from taking it for more than two months. Interestingly, however, the majority of fathers who took leave did not think that their leave negatively affected their professional advancement. This positive evaluation was independent of the length of leave. We compared fathers’ perceived leave consequences to those of mothers, who tended to have a more negative view of the impact of taking leave on their careers. Both fathers and mothers were more likely to report negative career consequences if they worked in organizations that promoted a strong ideal worker norm, that is, where employees thought that they were expected to prioritize paid work over their private life.