Offers therapists ideas for helping clients (and themselves) balance family life and work. Explores both theoretical and immediately applicable ideas for helping clients achieve and improved balance between work life and family life. Examines a national study of dual-earner couples caring for children and aging parents and the behavioral accommodations they make at home; assesses the impact of relocation on family/work life; brings diversity issues to the forefront; assesses the impact of dominant metaphors about personhood and family.

Parents around the globe are facing the common challenges of balancing family and work. And the need has never been more urgent for organizations to recognize how having a family impacts an employees creativity, productivity and performance. Here is a useful guide to help leaders implement country-sensitive work-family policies and create family-responsible environments in which employees can carry out their work and still be fully engaged with their families. In nine chapters, Balancing Work and Family: Reviews and addresses the unique cultural, social, political and economic climates in the United States, Latin America, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa; Provides practical recommendations based on solid international research; Presents theory as well as vivid accounts of employee experiences from different geographical regions and cultural backgrounds; Shares examples and business cases illustrating best practices from companies in these regions. The books perspective is truly global, with chapters written by international authors. It brings together a diverse team including an academic expert who has conducted rigorous studies on work family conflict, a lawyer who addresses the legal environment in some countries and a practitioner with hands-on experience with real employers and employees. Each chapter presents an overview of the factors in a specific region impacting work-family integration, the main challenges to individuals and organizations, solutions companies have implemented and many examples of the processes companies use to foster family-responsible cultures. The authors make a strong case that it is the job organizational leaders not HR professionals to direct change in this important area.

Both research and policy on balancing work and family life have tended to focus on mothers' lives. There has been a general lack of comparative research to the complex intersection between old and new forms of masculinity; and between fatherhood, work-life balance, gender relations and children's well-being. As a result, men's fathering roles and their struggle with work-life balance have often been neglected. These cultural challenges should be better theorized within family and social policy research. This volume examines how fathers fulfill their roles both within the family and at work and what institutional support could be of most benefit to them in combining these roles.

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Technology is changing the way we integrate work and family life today. In an age in which information technology has brought the promise of autonomy and control by allowing asynchronous communications; in which work systems have enabled people to work from various times and in various locations; and in which work and non-work boundaries have as a result been blurred, the work and family interface needs to be reconsidered. This collection is the result of a careful selection of articles presented at the Sixth International Conference for Work and Family organized by the International Center for Work and Family at IESE Business School, Spain. It has a clear focus on technology, managers, globalization, and gender, and contributions analyse the state of affairs in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North America. The chapters here offer innovative approaches to how technology, globalization, managers and gender issues are affecting the dynamics of work and family balance around the world. As such, the book will help practitioners and academics to make better decisions, to stay up to date on current developments, and to think critically about these fascinating and complex topics.

A practical guide combines personal stories, anecdotes, and a wealth of advice on such topics as telling a boss about a pregnancy, protecting one's rights, understanding health coverage and labor laws, planning a maternity leave, and combating pregnancy symptoms on the job. Original. 35,000 first printing.

Communication and the Work-Life Balancing Act: Intersections across Identities, Genders, and Cultures offers scholarly research related to work-life balance in today’s environment, with a particular focus on the fields of communication and gender studies. The chapters examine the choices, challenges, and gendered experiences that women and men face as they navigate structures of work, domestic duties, and childcare in search of balance. Underpinning this text is the notion that work-life balance affects everyone but is experienced differently through the intersections of sex, age, gender, socioeconomic status, and race. Recommended for scholars of communication, gender studies, organizational communication, sociology, and family communication.