Highlights

The Work-Life Evolution Study:  The purpose of The Work/Life Evolution Study is to assess the patterns of change in workforce management strategies over time and to develop a better understanding of the trends and forces that will catalyze the field moving forward. The study, published in the summer of 2007, recommends future approaches to managing people through their career lifecycle that will yield highly positive outcomes for organizations and their employees.  For the full report click here.

Executive Briefing Series: Written for an executive level audience, the Boston College Center for Work & Family Executive Briefing Series addresses topical and strategic issues of particular relevance to the current business climate. The series highlights business trends and best practices in a concise format, aiming to foster action-oriented dialogue within organizations. Recently released titles include Exploring Diversity: Race and Culture in the Inclusive Workforce, Exploring the Complexities of Exceptional Caregiving, The Next Step: Exploring Dynamic Workforce Trends and Business or Busyness: Strategies for Managing Workload. Please visit our Publications page to access these reports. 

Kanter Award: The Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research is an annual research award resulting from a joint partnership between The Center for Families at Purdue University and the Boston College Center for Work & Family. Named in honor of Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who has been identified as the most influential contributor to modern literature on work and family, the Kanter Award is given for the best research paper(s) published during the year. The rigorous nomination process for award selection involves scholarly reviewers from 8 countries who decide on the Kanter winner from numerous studies published in the top peer-reviewed journals. This award raises awareness of excellent work-family research, fosters debate about standards of excellence, and identifies the “best of the best” on which to base future research. For research summaries of top candidates and award winners, please click on:

Best of the Best 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

Sponsored by

Leaders in a Global Economy: A Study of Executive Women and Men

This landmark study examines common misconceptions about male and female corporate executives. It was made possible by the first-time alliance between researchers at three nonprofit work/life organizations, FWI; Catalyst; and the Center, and the data given by ten leading global companies, Baxter International, Inc.; Citigroup; Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu; The Dow Chemical Company; Eli Lilly and Company; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; IBM Corporation; JPMorgan Chase; Marriott International; and The Procter & Gamble Company. These companies recognize the importance of retaining female leadership and share a concern about the way gender seems to interact with career satisfaction and work/life balance.

This three-year long project resulted in nine major findings that promise to shed a new light on male and female executives and organizational practices.

Major findings from the study include:

• Most executives are work-centric: 61 percent have placed a higher or much higher priority on their work than on their personal or family life over the past year
• Women executives are more likely than men executives to have made important life decisions in order to manage both their careers and their personal lives
• Executive women and men describe the personal strategies that have helped them succeed as much more alike than different

To download a PDF of the Executive Summary, please click here. To order a hard copy of the Executive Summary, please contact the Center.

Bringing Work Home: Advantages and Challenges of Telecommuting

This working paper provides practitioners with a history of telecommuting, its underlying rationale, and the strengths and potential pitfalls of telecommuting programs.

Telecommuting first gained notoriety in the late 20th century with the advent of home computers and sophisticated telecommunications technologies. While organizations today are offering telecommuting programs in greater numbers than ever before, acceptance and utilization of these programs is still inhibited by a number of factors. These factors include manager reliance on "line-of-sight" management practices, lack of telecommuting training within an organization, misperceptions of and discomfort with flexible workplace programs, and a lack of information regarding the effects of telecommuting on an organization's "bottom line" (Wells, 2001).

A new "anytime, anywhere" work culture is emerging (Van Horn & Storen, 2000). Continuing advances in information technology, the proliferation of a global workforce, and increased desire to balance work and family are three of the main factors that will likely help eliminate the current barriers to more pervasive use of telecommuting.

With implications for organizational cost savings and increased employee flexibility and productivity, telecommuting has become a critical human resource management strategy in many leading organizations. This paper provides a comprehensive explanation of the current issues surrounding telecommuting and is organized into eight major sections:

• The Basics of Telecommuting
• Telecommuting: Is it Right For Me or My Organization?
• Cost-Benefit Analysis of Telecommuting
• Telecommuting Paradigms: Benefit or A New Way of Doing Work?
• Impact of Telecommuting on Professional Relationship Building and Career Progression
• Telecommuting and Work-Family Issues
• Creating and Implementing a Telecommuting Program
• Case Studies: Telecommuting in Today's Organizations

The cost of the paper is $40. For more information or to order a copy of the paper, please visit our publications page.

Workplace Flexibility: A Powerful Strategy for Today's Dynamic Marketplace

In the fall of 2000, we released Measuring the Impact of Workplace Flexibility. The report, which reflects information from over 1,500 employees and managers, concludes that when managed effectively, greater workplace flexibility is a win-win situation for both companies and the individuals they employ. Among the findings:

• "87%" of employees and "70%" of managers report that flexible work arrangements have positive effects on productivity
  
• "87%" of employees and "65%" of managers report that flexible work arrangements have positive effects on the quality of work
  
• "80%" of employees and "76%" of managers report that flexible work arrangements have positive effects on retention

The results of this study reveal that the most promising form of flexibility is daily flextime, defined as the ability to vary work hours on a daily basis. Today's world is more complicated, the pace of life has quickened dramatically, and technology has placed even greater demands on our time. Employees who are able to adjust their hours to meet the needs of their jobs and their personal lives report higher levels of job satisfaction and better work/family balance.

The picture regarding telecommuting was more mixed. On the one hand, telecommuters reported some of the same positive impacts on productivity, quality of work, and plans to stay with the company. However, they also reported working longer hours, working more while on vacation, and rated their work/life balance lower.

Flexible work arrangements are a valuable part of an employer's work/life strategy, and an effective tool for attracting and retaining talented employees. However, it is crucial that managers, co-workers, and the employees themselves be trained regarding how and when to effectively use flexible work arrangements. It is this 'coaching' and education that will help employers retain the best and the brightest.

This report presents an in-depth look at the impact of workplace flexibility on managers, co-workers, and overall work group productivity. It suggests that companies who proactively invest in the management of flexible work arrangements - addressing issues such as communication, clarity of objectives, and equity - will reap far better results than companies failing to attend to these issues.

Included in this report are:

• distinctions between the experiences of employees who use daily flextime, traditional flextime, and telecommuting;
• views of managers and co-workers about what it is like to supervise or work with employees using flexible work arrangements;
• implications for employers who are considering the implementation or enhancement of their flexible work policies;
• details about how employees who use flexible work arrangements negotiate them.

Measuring the Impact of Workplace Flexibility is available for $149 from the Center. For more information on the study please contact Jaclyn Fitzgerald at (617) 552-2869.

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Executive Summary