Taking over a broken program can be one of the hardest tasks to take on. However, working towards a vision and a common goal--and eventually getting there--makes it all worth it in the end. In this article, the author shares the lessons she learned as the new director for the Bright Horizons Center in Ashburn, Virginia. She suggests that new…

Males and females are markedly different in their choice of college major. Two main reasons have been suggested for the gender gap: differences in innate abilities and differences in preferences. This paper addresses the question of how college majors are chosen, focusing on the underlying gender gap. Since observed choices may be consistent with…

The "Recognising Fathers" research began in 2005 in response to hearing from mothers and fathers that fathers often felt marginalised in the process of arranging care and support for their children with learning disabilities. At the same time it was apparent that national family policy was indicating a growing recognition of the…

Although research has examined work-family issues and organizational support for employees' family responsibilities, few studies have explored the work-life issues of single employees without children. The current study examines single employees' perceptions of how their organizations support their work-life balance in comparison to employees with…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the development of a protean career orientation. In doing so, the paper also aims to assess how work experience, parents and peer networks co-influence the development of a protean career orientation. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses semi-structured interviews with young adults and…

Drawing upon a discourse analysis of public-use policy documents and qualitative interview data, this paper explores how mothers on social assistance in three Canadian provinces balance actual or expected policy expectations of their employability (e.g., participation in welfare-to-work programming) with their caregiving responsibilities. The…

We examined the association between work-related stress of both spouses and daily fluctuations in their affective states and dyadic closeness. Daily diary data from 169 Israeli dual-earner couples were analyzed using multilevel modeling. The findings indicate that work stress has no direct effect on dyadic closeness but rather is mediated by the…

This paper stems from a longitudinal research project that explored the perceptions and experiences of teaching assistants (predominantly women) who have undertaken a foundation degree. It draws upon Bourdieu's notion of habitus and investigates shifts in economic, cultural and social capital for this particular group of educational professionals.…

Family responsibilities discrimination--bias against workers based on their responsibilities to care for family members--is rapidly becoming a 21st-century workplace concern. Employers who harass, pass over for promotion, or terminate workers because such workers care for children, spouses, elderly parents, or family members with disabilities have…

This article explores the dynamics of how female faculty members at 2-year colleges balance the demands of their faculty jobs with motherhood. Results suggest that the community college appears to be a place that offers women the opportunity to balance their interests in teaching at the postsecondary level with the demands of having a family. This…

With more companies allowing "flextime", more access to elearning, and telecomuting, the line between workplace flexibility and work-life balance begins to blur. Companies "sell" to employees the flexibility of being able to complete training programs from the comfort of the participant's home, allowing them to learn at their own speed. In many…

This paper addresses HRD's current absence from career development discourse and practice. The authors suggest a framework for reintegrating career development into the HRD function and offer recommendations for future action. (Contains 1 figure.)

A comparison was made of IBM employees in traditional offices (n=4,316), virtual offices (n=767), and home offices (n=441). Home office teleworking helped balance work and family and enhanced business performance with cost savings. Virtual office teleworking was associated with less work-family balance and less successful personal/family life.…

To understand the challenges African American families face when combining employment commitments and informal caregiving responsibilities, uses data from a sample of 119 African American elder-caregiver dyads. Examines the nature of caregiving relationships and extent to which caregivers' employment statuses affect the hours of care provided.…

Using family resilience theory, this study examined the effects of work-family conflict and work-family facilitation on mental health among working adults to gain a better understanding of work-family fit. Results suggest that family to work facilitation is a family protective factor that offsets and buffers the deleterious effects of work-family…