Work creates assets for personal life and vice versa, although sometimes they're different for women and men. Those assets can help affect integration between work and family, and make the two domains mutually enriching.
Individuals and families should seek new and creative ways to make this integration a reality. Employers should strive to create work environments that promote integration by respecting the whole person and allowing for flexibility. Society, too, has a stake in enhancing opportunities for work-fam- ily integration.
Establish networks of support at home and at -work. Key to making each domain an ally of the other is to utilize partner support and support from coworkers and managers. Each of us can benefit from a network of support both at home and at work that includes people who value what we do and who we are in our different roles. Integration can't happen on its own; each of us needs some help from people who care about us.
We've identified partner support as a resource particularly important in
work-family integration. It reduces work-family conflict, helping us to main- tain boundaries between the two domains and adjust our mentalities when we cross those boundaries.16 We need to strengthen partner support, and take advantage of the support that's potentially available to us. Couples need to talk about their values and needs, and get support from each other.
Children stand to benefit here, too. Partner support, especially of the emotional sort, makes for better-adjusted kids, because their parents have a better relationship.
Recall that we find that partner support is best when it is given to prevent rather than alleviate the stress that comes with work-family conflict. We should strive to anticipate our partner's need for support. This requires lis- tening, actively and persistently, to the subtle and not-so-subtle cues our partners give us about what's important. That's how we can be the most help- ful. And one other point to recall here: we found that one way we can get more support from our partner, as it turns out, is to be involved in hammer- ing out new roles, to challenge the existing norms and assumptions about what men and women are supposed to do.
Educate employees about the value of support from others. Employers ought to build the concept of partner and coworker support into formal career devel- opment programs, as well as into mentoring initiatives. One way is to help employees focus on their individual life role priorities and the role of social support in achieving integration of work and personal life.17
Invest in what employees do outside of work. Managers should view their employees' lives beyond work as potential business assets, and look for ways to invest in what people do when they're not on the job.
We know of a great example of how such an investment can pay off. One company turned the intense dedication of one of its sales reps to her alma mater into a win-win situation for employer and employee. It seems the sales rep spent much of her free time actively fundraising for the school, and recruiting local high school students. With her permission, her manager worked things out so she could be assigned as the company's liaison to the school in its recruiting efforts there. In the end, the employer benefited by recognizing and supporting the whole person in that employee. The employee benefited as well. Recruitment efforts improved substantially in the hands of this booster for the school and company, and the employee was more committed than ever to her employer.18
Create work environments that value employees as whole people. Companies need to get away from the notion that people who are serious about their families are not serious about their careers. Charles Romeo, the director of employee benefits at ConAgra, Inc., puts it well: "When we make our employees choose between work and family, we lose every time."19 The John- son & Johnson credo gets it right: "We must be mindful of ways to help our employees fulfill their family obligations."20
Family-friendly employers make a tremendous contribution in the strug- gle to make allies of work and family. Those of us—men and women—who
What Can Be Done? 155
feel that our employers support our lives beyond work experience less con- flict and more opportunities for integration between work and family. Fam- ily-supportive organizations create greater employee commitment and career satisfaction, and everyone wins.
Companies should take an activist approach to this recommendation.
Supervisory personnel need training if they are to become business leaders capable of capitalizing on the skills people develop outside work. They need to be supportive supervisors who know the company's work-family policies, apply those policies fairly, and believe work-family programs and policies are a legitimate part of the workplace and a means of creating long-term value for the company.21
Creating an Organization that Supports Work-Life Integration Joan Kofodimos is a creative thinker in the work-family area, with a keen eye for how to deal with the practical dilemmas of work-family conflict. The author of numerous works on the subject, she is now a freelance consultant based in the Boston area.
One of her most important contributions to this field of study is her book titled Beyond Work-Family Programs: Confronting and Resolving the Underlying Causes of Work-Personal Life Conflict. It is a great piece on the cultural underpinnings of resistance to change.
Kofodimos points out that most work-family programs are "a prod- uct of the value system they seem to be trying to change and . . . as a result, they cannot accomplish their intended purpose of enhancing individual well-being and organizational productivity." Employers are usually concerned with treating the symptoms of work-family conflict, rather than addressing the fundamental causes. These programs, she argues, would be more effective "for both individuals and organizations if they were refrained around a broader context of creating a balance- supportive culture."
How can we get there? Kofodimos has a plan. To create an organiza- tion that supports work-life balance, employers must support
• Time-and-energy balance across life areas—recognize that those who are involved in areas outside of work bring valuable skills and cre- ative ideas, are more likely to be adaptive, and less likely to burn out; find new ways to define contributions from individuals (these provide an ongoing standard against which to choose activities and behaviors that add value)
• Collaborative connected leadership—embrace power-sharing and con- sensus decision making; be more sensitive to changes in the envi- ronment and supportive of others' life balance needs, which will lead to more widespread commitment and ownership
• Self-realization—value the personal development of employees as
much as valuing organizational outcomes; provide opportunities for identifying personal goals and talents and integrating them for the common purpose
Creating change, Kofodimos notes, requires that change agents model behavior. There must be a climate for safe dialogue and support to others seeking to balance their lives. It must be a collaborative process, with widespread involvement and consensus on the vision and associated interventions. And employers need to think systemically—
look at the organization as a whole and all its component parts and practices.
Where should employers consider new practices? Kofodimos rec- ommends a number of important areas:
• Work design and staffing—optimize existing strengths; provide cross-training so co-workers can cover one another; eliminate low- value activities; manage staff reductions collaboratively
• Measurement, compensation, and incentives—focus measurement on behaviors and outcomes that contribute to the organization's value creation rather than hours spent at work; develop measures collab- oratively with members and stakeholders; "assess the extent to which the individual has acquired critical knowledge or skills or the extent to which the individual's output has created value for the organization as a whole, rather than basing compensation on hier- archical level or seniority"; create a menu of incentives from which employees can pick those most valuable to them; provide incen- tives for lion-work behavior that create value for the organization;
stop rewarding behaviors such as overwork and unilateral decision making
• Performance management—assessments should be collaborative and focused on value creation; collaboratively develop criteria and include items focused on "collaborative-connected" orientation
• Training and development—help supervisors develop flexible styles for administering work-family programs; consider the develop- mental value of nonwork activities; help individuals develop strate- gies for balancing their lives
• Career development—paths should offer alternatives and flexibility, focusing not on hierarchy but on contribution; involve and assist other family members; allow for leave without penalty
To sum up, Kofodimos warns that balanced organizations must man- age their boundaries and guard against being pressured to adopt their old ways. Work with partners "so that all organizations interacting along the value chain operate according to congruent principles."
What Can Be Done? 157 Train managers to take a new look at work processes. Firms should train man- agers in the principles and skills that will help them see that redesign of work processes—experimenting with how goals are achieved—is an opportunity to enhance business results and the personal lives of employees. As these employers set on the road to developing this kind of family-friendliness, they need to ask how work gets done and what about that makes it difficult (or easy) for employees to juggle work and personal life so that neither suffers.
These questions must be raised in a safe environment where employees who might acknowledge their difficulties balancing involvement in the two domains aren't concerned that they'll be "branded as less committed or unde- pendable."22
Training of the sort we're recommending can help dispel two distortions managers may promulgate. One is that if the boss doesn't have a life, neither should workers. This is a costly error for employers. The other is that paying one's dues—through face time, for example—equals results. It doesn't.
That last point is especially important, because employers have a tendency to measure employees according to how much time they are visibly on the job. Women and men do spend less time at work and more with kids when they work for family-friendly employers. At first blush, it would seem that we're confirming the greatest fears hard-nosed businesspeople have about introducing personal life considerations into the workplace. But we find that workers in family-friendly organizations perform just as well as those in non- supportive organizations. And they perform as well in less time—they've experimented with how goals are achieved, and now they're working smarter.
And they bring greater commitment to the workplace. For forward-thinking CEOs, then, there should be little doubt about which is the better choice.23
Promote family-friendliness in the terms of employment. Family-friendly firms should also establish policies that govern the conditions of what might be called the "contract" between employee and employer. Many companies have implemented policies such as those in the following list:24
• Travel policies that avoid last-minute trips, so families can plan ahead for the absence of mom or dad. Use of technology—such as video- conferencing—to avoid travel.
• Sick-leave policies that allow mom or dad to care for children home from school or childcare.
• Personal days that mean employees don't have to present their
"excuses" and ask for permission to do personal things that are important to them but are in conflict with work schedules.
• Paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers (and encouragement to fathers so they use the benefit).
• Vacation policies that discourage the mindset of employees who feel they can't use vacation time because they can't afford to get away from the job, and that make it possible for parents to take more time off with their children, who have nearly three months off school.
• Policies that avoid "macho meetings" at 7 A.M. or on the weekends and which concede that it's poor management if everyone must stay in the office until midnight.
• Family-friendly relocation policies which first question whether relo- cation is really necessary, which offer job relocation assistance for spouses, and which guarantee that employees who are reluctant to move don't lose their prospects for future promotion.
IBM has the right idea. Lou Gerstner, the company's CEO, explains why IBM has become one of the leading employers committed to work-family integration: "I don't want IBMers worried about who's watching their chil- dren. I don't want them worried whether they'll be able to leave early to attend their child's first recital or take elderly parents to the doctor." That's from an IBM booklet called "We the people @ IBM."
The booklet is filled with great examples of the many initiatives IBM is supporting that are aimed at fostering integration of work and personal life. It includes a letter from Ted Childs, the company's director of workforce diver- sity, in which he talks about the benefits of investment in diversity, which includes the diverse needs of people with various work-family demands: "In the final analysis, workforce diversity is about real change in our corporate culture. It's about replacing old assumptions. With our individual and collec- tive commitment to diversity, by offering all of our constituencies the oppor- tunity to attain their full potential, and the rewards that come of it, we will provide our employees, our customers, and our shareholders the very best chance to succeed."
In other words, IBM recognizes the bottom-line value—the economic value—of family-friendliness. It's an excellent example of private sector com- mitment to work-family integration.
There are a growing number of concrete examples of family-friendliness steps taken by employers, big and small. When Mobil Oil was losing more and more employees who didn't want to relocate, the company implemented placement assistance for spouses and created career development programs at hub locations to minimize geographical relocations.25 Having received a quick education in the connection between work and family, and the need to find ways to integrate the two domains, Mobil took action.
Merck, the pharmaceutical firm, is an innovator in work-life initiatives.
Early on, the company responded to growing work-family conflict by expanding childcare assistance, flexible work hours, and parental leave poli- cies. The company inaugurated lunchtime seminars on family matters, and introduced training programs to encourage manager sensitivity to family concerns and awareness of accommodations they can make.26 It has contin- ued to lead with initiatives in work redesign and a full range of options for flexibility.
At Xerox, a leader in family-friendliness, benefits include flexible sched- ules, uninterrupted quiet times, childcare and eldercare referrals, adoption subsidies and counseling, and education information. The company also
What Can Be Done? 159
offers "benefits credits"—$10,000 for an employee to use over the course of his or her career for specific life needs. Credits have been used as mortgage assistance for first-time buyers, childcare subsidies, and healthcare benefits have been extended to parents and siblings.27
These are only a few of the many examples we have noted as we survey the landscape of American business.28 The monthly Work and Family Newsbrief provides a very useful way to keep track of what corporations are up to across the country.29
Demonstrate the value of investing in family-friendliness. Companies need to demonstrate to their shareholders that investing in policies and practices that encourage integration between work and family has a positive effect on the bottom line. Researchers can help here by studying the beneficial impact on employee health, retention, productivity, and commitment. Even the hard evidence of positive economic benefits to corporations is increasing.30
A Note to Researchers
The issues we've raised in our book require ongoing exploration, both at the level of theory and at the level of their practical impact. For instance, we show that career satisfaction and commitment to the work organization are affected by the experience of work-family conflict.
Further research into how satisfaction and commitment are linked to job performance can provide a better understanding of the effects of work-family relationships on organizational effectiveness. There also is a crying need for more research into the ways in which work and family affect one another over time.
We have other suggestions, too, for what future researchers can do.
One critical area is gender differences. Researchers ought to explore the differences between men and women that must inform policymak- ing. For instance, how do women and men apply work-related resources to their family lives? What factors may lead to greater involvement of men in child-rearing and other household responsibili- ties?
Other gender-related questions deserve closer scrutiny. Do men and women attribute different meanings to their involvement with and their role in family life? How does the role of gender in work and family life change over the course of men's and women's lives? We believe that analyses incorporating family or life stage may reveal when the linkages between the two domains are similar and different for both sexes.
So much research to date has focused on the individual. We think there's a critical need for more research at the level of the dual-earner couple or family. How do dual-earner partners make decisions about their role, and that of their partner, in family and career? What are the consequences of those decisions? What happens to one partner when the other is stressed, or when work or family strains the relationship?
A great deal of attention has been paid to understanding work-fam- ily conflict. We believe it's time for researchers to examine work-family integration more thoroughly. What are the mechanisms that integrate work and family lives? Through what process are work and family expe- riences utilized as resources in each domain?
In this area of work-family integration fall several of the practical implications researchers should explore. We'd like to see research help establish the business case for why employers ought to be family- responsive. What is the financial impact of family-friendly policies on businesses? What happens when employees are treated as whole people with lives beyond work? We'd also like to see documentation of the costs of turnover, absenteeism, and, more subtly, benefits of commit- ment and motivation towards organizational goals. And are there pub- lic-image benefits for corporations that take a highly visible role in advancing a socially responsible agenda like work-family benefits? A quantification of the bottom-line possibilities would be a tremendous contribution to the discussion.
At the societal level, research can help identify the societal costs of not changing cultural values and norms towards greater family-respon- siveness? What is the impact of work-family conflict on societal costs like healthcare and productivity? For instance, recent studies have demonstrated that clinical depression costs society billions of dollars.
These are but a few of the contributions researchers can make to understand how to make allies of work and family.
Enact even more flexible family leave legislation. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is the prime example of the public sector recognizing and supporting the whole person. The first bill signed into law by President Clin- ton, the FMLA is an important federal social policy initiative with a profound impact. As the Department of Labor's Interim Final Rule for the law states:
"The FMLA—like similar State laws and employer policies—is intended to promote a healthier balance between work and family responsibilities, ensur- ing that family development and cohesiveness are encouraged by this nation's public policy."31
The FMLA has benefited large numbers of working Americans while imposing minimal burdens on employers. A Congressional report in 1996 noted that "The Family and Medical Leave Act has had a positive impact on employees overall. It has succeeded in replacing the piecemeal nature of vol- untary employer leave policies and state leave statutes with a more consistent and uniform standard. The FMLA has not been the burden to business that some had feared."32 In fact, Andrew Scharlach's analysis suggested that family leave legislation actually contributes to economic growth.33
The Congressional report continues: "For most employers, compliance is easy, the costs are nonexistent or small and the effects are minimal. Most