RECENT EVENTS

Global Workforce Roundtable Summit in San Francisco, CA- April 26-27, 2011

Attendees at this year's Global Summit on the theme of Addressing Global Talent Challenges indicated that the meeting was a great success, providing an overall evaluation of 4.9 out of 5.0 - our highest ranked Global Summit ever! The following member quotes speak to the meetings' content and opportunities to interact with other senior leaders:

This was a great two days with relevant topics and thought provoking speeches. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Learned a lot; it's important to work at global and diversity holistically

Programming was substantive, relevant to my role and I will take great ideas back to my organization

Great insightful presenters and open conversation from smart people

We have prepared Summit Takeaways, a document designed to distill some of the key learnings from the meeting and translate them into potential actions for organizations, and presentations and meeting materials are available on our Global Members-only Website. We have also started  a discussion about the Summiton our CWF Virtual Roundtable, the online community for CWF members (sign up here if you haven't already!), and please feel free to share any comments on meeting topics, presentations, or any other information with your fellow members here!

Upcoming web conference:

Global Teaming Tools and Resources, July 2011 Date and Time TBA 

The Center for Work & Family Virtual Roundtable

Please join us on the CWF Virtual Roundtable-

an online community that allows members to share best practices and resources, as well as connect on multiple levels in a secure online outlet. The Virtual Roundtable consists of interactive features such as forums, live chat, groups, a CWF blog, and up-to-date resources and events, as well as other aspects of the community. 

GLOBAL RESOURCES

Flexible working times: Effects on employees' exhaustion, work-nonwork conflict and job performance

This German research explores the tension between organisational workplace policies framing the operation of flexibility, job demands and resources, and the level of autonomy given to teams and employees to design workplace arrangements which will enable work/life balance. Findings indicate that employees with more autonomy in decisions about their work arrangements experienced less work/life conflict. Plus, time restrictions had a larger negative effect on the level of conflict than did time autonomy. Both of the impacts of time (autonomy and restriction) on work-nonwork conflict were stronger than conflict created by job demands.

Multinational Workforce Health: Building a Sustainable Global Strategy

As companies around the world strive for competitive advantage, they are stepping up their efforts to improve the health and productivity of their workers.  Towers Watson's second annual global survey on workforce health issues presents insights into the strategies and local approaches currently used by multinationals.

"Men and Work-Life Integration: A Global Study"

Results from a research study conducted by WFD Consulting and  WorldatWork's Alliance for Work-Life Progress on employees around the world reveal that, when it comes to work and family, men and women are more alike than different. This finding conflicts with a widely held assumption that male identity is rooted in work whereas women place a higher priority on personal/family life.

Japan Drafts New Pension Reforms

Under this new proposal, Japanese pensioners will be eligible for benefits under the national basic pension plan if they pay premiums for 10 years or more. Currently, Japanese pensioners are only eligible for national pension benefits after paying premiums for 25 years or more. The proposed shorter period for national pension eligibility will benefit an additional 1 million Japanese workers who have not fulfilled the current 25-year requirement.

Coping with Work-Family Conflicts in the Global Career Context

A new study out of the Thunderbird School of Global Management looked at the work-life struggles of global careerists, or employees whose careers involve frequent international relocations. They found high levels of work-life conflict among members of this population, but also found specific coping skills and employer-based resources that helped decrease this high amount of conflict for global careerists.

Have a question about what's happening at the Center for Work & Family?   Please contact us - we always love to hear from you!

Listserv Responses

• Responses to inquiries on Smoke Free Campus and Part-Time Work are now posted on the Members-only website 

• If your organization is looking for some benchmarking information, feel free to send an e-mail to newfa@listserv.bc.edu    

Global and National Roundtable Members receive complimentary membership in NEWFA! If your organization has representatives in New England, we would love to get them involved! For more information about NEWFA, please contact Jennifer Fraone at 617-552-2862 or sabatinj@bc.edu. 

Mission

The Boston College Center for Work & Family is committed to enhancing the quality of life of today's workforce by providing leadership for the integration of work and life, an essential for individual, organizational, and community success. Our vision is that employers and communities will work together to ensure their mutual prosperity and the well being of employees and their families.

Values

Bridging Research and Practice

We seek to advance the depth and quality of knowledge in the work-life field and serve as a bridge between academic research and organizational practice.

Transforming Organizations

We believe any work-life initiative is also an organizational change initiative. We help identify and develop organizational models to meet the needs of a contemporary workforce and provide expertise to assist in implementing these changes successfully.

Strengthening Society

We believe employers who recognize and manage the interdependence of work, family, and community build stronger organizations and a more vibrant society.

Last week, the Boston College Center for Work & Family released the results of a study we completed on nearly 1,000 American fathers.  The New Dad: Caring, Committed and Conflicted explores the experience of mainly "white collar" fathers who work in large American companies. The results present a clear picture of fathers who care deeply about their work and their families but who are struggling to be active, engaged parents while investing significant energy in successful careers.

At work, these new dads are succeeding by traditional measures: they work for highly respected companies, many are in leadership positions, and they are well paid. They are also succeeding in other important career aspects as well: 90 percent said they find the work they do meaningful, 87 percent said that they feel respected in their organizations, and more than 80 percent said they "really feel a part of the group of people they work with." By any measure, this sounds like success.

At home, these men put a strong premium on good partnering and good parenting. They report spending more than 2.5 hours per work day with their children and more than three-quarters say they would like to spend even more time with the kids. They enjoy high levels of support from their spouse. When asked to rate six aspects they felt would define them as good fathers, being a breadwinner was important, but it ranked behind other roles including providing their children with love and support and being involved and present in their children's lives. These are not the absent fathers of days past who saw their role as simply bringing home a paycheck.   

Dividing their attention between work and family seems to be paying off for them and their employers. Four out of five fathers reported that their role as family members had a positive spillover for their employers. They reported that fatherhood puts them in a good mood and the happiness they derive from being fathers makes them better workers. Conversely, the support they received from their employers and their managers to live balanced lives led to higher levels of work-life alignment but also higher levels of job satisfaction, greater commitment to their employer, and a lower likelihood to look for jobs elsewhere.   

What has proved difficult of course is their effort to "do it all" - to meet high career aspirations and to fulfill their expectations of being a good father. It was also challenging to be present in their children's lives while they worked 45, 55, or more hours per week. And they were cognizant of the fact that their intentions to share equally with their spouse or partner in parenting responsibilities did not match with the reality: while 65 percent of the fathers said caregiving should be shared 50/50 with their spouse, only 30 percent said that was actually the case.

Just as it is important to take stock of the challenges faced by working moms, it is important to see the challenges that confront working dads reflect a significant shift in attitudes and expectations that's been taking place over the last generation. What these fathers report offers concrete data that runs counter to some of the old stereotypes of workaholic, absent fathers who focus on career above all else. While television shows and the media seem intent on casting fathers as inept, clueless caregivers, this national sample of working fathers suggests otherwise and perhaps will help change outdated or inaccurate mindsets.

Based on what fathers are telling us, it's clear that they carry an appreciation of the important role that fatherhood plays in their lives and the lives of their family members. A steady string of high-profile men behaving badly - a sit-com actor, a former governor, an international banking executive, a one-time Vice Presidential candidate and a former Congressman - may grab the majority of media attention. But from our research, we see American men who are striving to be good workers, good fathers, and good men.