Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T12:56:10.576Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Family-friendly management: testing the various perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Stephen Wood
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The emphasis in recent research on family-friendly practices has been on the determinants of their use rather than on the nature of this usage. Yet within the institutional-based organisational adaptation perspective, adopted in recent research, the existence of a family-friendly management cannot be automatically assumed from the use of certain practices. This article explores through latent trait analysis whether there is any pattern to the use of family-friendly practices, and then, having found there is, uses regression analysis to assess the determinants of family-friendly management.

Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 168 , April 1999 , pp. 99 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

∗

Comments should be addressed to the author at the Department of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton St, London WC2A 2AE. Tel: 0171 955 7033, fax: 0171 955 7424, e-mail: s.j.wood@lse.ac.uk. I am extremely grateful to David Bartholomew, Shirley Dex, John Evans, and Jane Galbraith for their comments on an earlier draft of this article, to Paul Osterman for providing me with the data set on which the analysis is based and to Irini Moustaki for conducting the latent variable analysis for mixed variables.

References

Albanese, M.T. and Knott, M. (1992), ‘A latent variable model for attitudes to employment’, mimeo, London, Department of Statistics, London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar
Appelbaum, E. and Batt, R. (1994), The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Bartholomew, D. (1987), Latent Variable Models and Factor Analysis, London, Charles Griffin.Google Scholar
Bartholomew, D., De Menezes, L. and Tzamourani, T. (1996), ‘Latent trait and latent class models applied to survey data’, in Rost, J. and Langeheim, R. (Eds), Latent Class and Latent Trait Models, Müenster, Waxmann Verlag, pp. 219–32.Google Scholar
Capelli, P., Bassi, L., Katz, H., Knoke, D., Osterman, P. and Useem, M. (1997), Change at Work, Oxford and New York, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Child, J. (1972), ‘Organizational structure, environment and performance: the role of strategic choice’, Sociology, 6, 1, pp. 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daft, R.I. and Weick, K.E. (1984), ‘Toward a model of organization as interpretation systems’, Academy of Management Review, 9, 2, pp. 284–95.Google Scholar
De Menezes, L.M. and Bartholomew, D.J. (1996), ‘New developments in latent structure analysis applied to social attitudes’, Journal of the Royal Statistical Association, 159, Part 2, pp. 213–24.Google Scholar
Freeman, R.B. and Medoff, J.L. (1984), What Do Unions Do?, New York, Basic Books.Google Scholar
Friedman, D.E., and Johnson, A.A. (1997), ‘Moving from programs to culture change: the next stage for the corporate workfamily agenda’, in Parasuraman, S. and Greenhaus, J. H. (Eds), Integrating Work and Family, Westport, Connecticut and London, Quroum Books, pp. 192–208.Google Scholar
Gonyea, J. and Googins, B.K. (1996), ‘The restructuring of work and family in the United States: a new challenge for American corporations’, in Lewis, S. and Lewis, J. (Eds), The Work Family Challenge, London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi, SAGE Publications, pp. 63–78.Google Scholar
Goodstein, J. (1994), ‘Institutional pressures and strategic responsiveness: employer involvement in work-family issues’, Academy of Management Journal, 37, 2, pp. 350–82.Google Scholar
- (1995) ‘Employer involvement in eldercare: an organizational adaptation perspective’, Academy of Management Journal, 38, 6, pp. 1657–71.Google Scholar
Hall, D.T. (1990), ‘Promoting work/family balance: an organization-change approach’, Organizational Dynamics, 18, 3, pp. 4–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huselid, M.A. (1995), ‘The impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity and corporate financial performance’, Academy o f Management Journal, 35, 3, pp. 635–72.Google Scholar
Ingram, P. and Simons, T. (1995), ‘Institutional and resource dependence determinants of responsiveness to work-family issues’, Academy of Management Journal, 3, 5, pp. 1466–82.Google Scholar
Kochan, T. and Osterman, P. (1995), The mutual gains enterprise, Boston, Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Lawler, E. (1986), High Involvement Management, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
MacDuffie, J.P. (1995), ‘Human resource bundles and manufacturing performance: organizational logic and flexible production system in the world auto industry’, Industrial and Labor Relations, 48, 2, pp. 197–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milliken, F.J., Dutton, J.E. and Beyer, J.M. (1990), ‘Understanding organizational adaptation to change: the case of workfamily issues’, Human Resource Planning, 13, 2, pp. 91–107.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. and Milliken, F.J. (1992), ‘Keys to action: understanding differences in organizations' responsiveness to work-and-family issues’, Human Resource Management, 31, 3, pp. 227–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moustaki, I. (1996), ‘A latent trait and a latent class model for mixed observed variables’, British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 49, 2, pp. 313–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, C. (1991), ‘Strategic responses to institutional processes’, Academy of Management Review, 16, 1, pp.145–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osterman, P. (1995), ‘Work/family programs and the employment relationship’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 40, 4, pp. 681–700.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M. (1985), The Competitive Advantage, New York, Free Press.Google Scholar
Walton, R. (1985), ‘From control to commitment in the workplace’, Harvard Business Review, 63, 2, pp. 77–84.Google Scholar
Wood, S. (1996) ‘How different are human resource practices in Japanese transplants in the UK?’, Industrial Relations, 35, 4, pp.511–25.Google Scholar
- (1999), ‘Getting the measure of the transformed organization’, mimeo, London, Department of Industrial Relations, London School of EconomicsGoogle Scholar
forthcoming in British Journal of Industrial Relations, 37, 3.Google Scholar
- and Albanese, M. (1995), ‘Can you speak of a high commitment management on the shop floor?’, Journal of Management Studies, 32, 2, pp. 215–47.Google Scholar
- and De Menezes, L. (1998), ‘High commitment management in the UK: evidence from the workplace Industrial Relations Survey and Employers' Manpower and Skills Practices Survey’, Human Relations, 51, 4, pp. 485–515.Google Scholar