You are here

The Work-Family Interface
Share

The Work-Family Interface
An Introduction

  • Stephen Sweet - Ithaca College, Boston College, Cornell University, State University of New York at Potsdam


March 2013 | 176 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

The author is a proud sponsor of the 2020 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.

This brief and accessible title integrates contemporary scholarly research with compelling vignettes to make it appealing to both instructors and undergraduate audiences. While focused on the United States in respect to its target audience and emphasis, it contains considerable international data that compares and contrasts social policies adopted in Europe and elsewhere. In so doing, it shows both the strengths and the limitations of the approaches used in the U.S. This title is the only single source that summarizes the origins of work–family concerns, the diversities of needs and experiences, the impact of tensions on the family front, the consequences of tensions for employers, and different types of policies that can make meaningful differences not only in the lives of employees, but also potentially in job quality and national productivity.
 
The Origins of Contemporary Work-Family Dilemmas
When Work Separated from Family: The Household Economy Transitions to the

 
Industrial Economy

 
When Family and Work Were Defined as Separate Spheres: The Husband/Breadwinner-Wife/Homemaker Economy

 
Where We Are Now: Most Every Adult Should Work Outside the Home

 
Summary

 
Useful Concepts

 
Issues to Ponder

 
Mini Project

 
 
The Diversity of Work, Family, and Work-Family Arrangements
Diverse Values and Preferences

 
Diverse Employment

 
Diverse Families

 
Summary

 
Useful Concepts

 
Issues to Ponder

 
Mini Project

 
 
Individual and Family Frontiers: Personal Responses to Strained Schedules
Dominant Culture Metaphors of Connecting Work and Family

 
Work-Family Conflict, Spillover, and Segmentation

 
How Individuals and Families Respond to Work-Family Conflict

 
Summary

 
Useful Concepts

 
Issues to Ponder

 
Mini Project

 
 
Employer Frontiers: Organizational Intransigence and Promising Practices
The Dual Agenda: Establishing Positive Outcomes for Families and Employers

 
Availability and Use of Employer Provided Family-Responsive Policies and Practices

 
The Process of Organizational Change: Moving From Awareness to Action

 
Rethinking the Scheduling of Work

 
Flexible Work in Multinational Organizations

 
Summary

 
Useful Concepts

 
Issues to Ponder

 
Mini Project

 
 
Global Perspectives on the Work-Family Interface: International Comparative Analysis and Transnational Relationships
International Comparative Analysis of Work and Family Relationships

 
Intersections of Culture and Policy: National Approaches to Support Care Work

 
Three Societal Level Approaches to Reconciling Work-Family Strains

 
Family Well-Being in International Comparative Perspective

 
Transnational Concerns

 
Summary

 
Useful Concepts

 
Issues to Ponder

 
Mini Project

 
 
The Work-Family Interface as a National Priority
What Governments Can Do

 
Making the Case and Understanding Resistance

 
Conclusion

 
Useful Concepts

 
Issues to Ponder

 
Mini Project

 
 
Further Exploration
 
Bibliography
 
About the Author

We are starting the FDA in H&SC in Sept 2015. This will be on our reading list!

Mrs Nikki Southgate
CHILDCARE AND HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE, Central Bedfordshire College
March 31, 2015

Stephen A. Sweet

Stephen Sweet is Associate Professor and Chair of Sociology at Ithaca College and formerly the associate director of the Cornell Careers Institute, a Sloan Center for the Study of Working Families. He has written a number of articles on the challenges confronting working families, focusing on the issues of concern to dual career couples across the life course. His studies have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New Directions in Life Course Research, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Innovative Higher Education, The International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, Journal of... More About Author

Purchasing options

Please select a format:

ISBN: 9781452268781
$68.00

SAGE Knowledge is the ultimate social sciences digital library for students, researchers, and faculty. Hosting more than 4,400 titles, it includes an expansive range of SAGE eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more.

The platform allows researchers to cross-search and seamlessly access a wide breadth of must-have SAGE book and reference content from one source.