Beyond Work-Family Balance

Everyone who struggles to meet the demands of work and personal-life responsibilities knows how tough it is to do so. This bold new book shows that it is the deeply engrained separation of work and personal life that has limited our ability to deal effectively with the conflict between them. Beyond Work-Family Balance demonstrates why the image of "balance" is outmoded and why a new approach--work-personal life integration--offers greater promise for meaningful change.
Providing many examples from action research projects in more than a dozen organizations of different kinds, the authors show how using their method of integrating rather than separating personal-life considerations from the workplace can achieve positive outcomes, not only for workers but also for the work. The method offers a way of looking deeply into the work culture to find inequitable and ineffective work practices that are so embedded and routine that no one thinks to question them3/4they are just the way things get done. Once identified, these work practices can be changed to achieve what the authors call a Dual Agenda: a more equitable workplace where both men and women can achieve their full potential and a more effective workplace where the needs of the work, rather than gendered and outmoded assumptions, determine what gets done and how. Beyond Work-Family Balance offers an approach that achieves what "family friendly" policies, "mommy tracks," and so-called flexibility programs cannot. Such programs address the symptoms of the problem. This book offers a way of changing the everyday work practices and norms that are at the root of the problem.

Preface. The Authors. Chapter 1. Introduction: The Equity Imperative. Part 1: Context and Concepts. Chapter 2. Pursuing Equity in Gendered Organizations. Chapter 3. Linking Equity and Organizational Effectiveness: The Dual Agenda. Part 2: Collaborative Interactive Action Research (CIAR). Chapter 4. Pursuing the Dual Agenda with CIAR. Chapter 5. Making Change. Chapter 6. Walking the Talk: Reflections from the CIAR Team. Part 3: Looking Ahead. Chapter 7. Sustaining and Diffusing Equitable Change. Chapter 8. Looking Ahead to an Equitable World. Appendix: The Book in Context. Notes. Published Reports of Dual Agenda Experiments and Additional References. Index.