Overcoming the Implementation Gap: How 20 Leading Companies are Making Flexibility Work

• Executive Summary

1. Introduction

2. Overview of the Report

3. Executive Summary

4. Research on Flexibility in the Context of a Changing World

5. How 20 Leading Companies are Making Flexibility Work

6. Examplars of Successful Implementations

7. Compelling Quotations

8. Conclusion

9. Appendices

To purchase a hardcopy of the full report, please contact cwf@bc.edu

2008

CitiSales: Jobs that Work

2008

The Work Life Evolution Study

2007

Model Programs and Policies for Hourly and Lower Wage Employees

2004

Women at Midlife Study

This report summarizes the results of a project that focused on understanding the special issues and challenges pertaining to career and balancing work and family faced by women age 35 and older.

2003

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

This study examines the work lives of close to 1,200 senior executives from around the world.

2003

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.

2002

   Measuring the Impact of Workplace Flexibility

This report presents the findings of the National Work/Life Measurement Project and focuses on issues most important for managers as they strive to introduce and/or continue to implement flexible work arrangements.

2000

The Quality of Life in Brazil and Mexico

This paper discusses the complex dimensions of work/life experiences in Latin America. The information presented details the work/life issues in Brazil and Mexico and offers the reader an opportunity to reflect on contrasting and shared work/life beliefs and priorities.

2000

Work and Family Issues in Japan and the Republic of Korea

This paper explores the growing awareness of organizations regarding employees needs. It reviews global diversity strategies regarding work and family issues as they relate to economic stability in Japan and the Republic of Korea.

2000

Enhancing Strategic Value: Becoming a Company of Choice

This paper, published in collaboration with the Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations, examines the employer of choice business strategy through a work-family lens, helping organizations to explore this new territory by discussing the important elements of the perspectives of employee and community stakeholder groups.

Fall 1998

Forgotten Families: The Move to Provide Paid Time Off to Adoptive Parents

This report, published in collaboration with the National Adoption Center, examines the many ways in which employers strive to provide equity to adoptive parents in relationship to the benefits they offer to birth parents.

Fall 1998, 32 page

European Perspectives of Work and Family Issues

This paper discusses circumstances surrounding work-family issues as they are manifested in European Union countries.

1998

Taking Time: Parental Leave Policy and Corporate Culture, ISBN# 1-56639-647-6.

(Please order through Temple University Press, Broad & Oxford streets, Philadelphia, PA 19122. 1-800-447-1656. Price is $49.95, $16.95 paperback.)
Author: Mindy Fried, Ph.D. Through an inside look at life in one major U.S. corporation, this book shows how the rituals and norms of workplace culture affect the users, and in turn, the uses of well-intentioned family friendly policies.

1998

Participation in Change: Work/Family Groups in Corporations

This report summarizes the findings from a study of work/family taskforces and committees in 18 U.S. companies recognized for their leadership in the area of work and family.

1997, 36 pages

A Catalyst for Change: Promoting the Involvement of Working Parents in Their Children's Education

This paper details the promise of involving businesses, schools and parents in collaborative efforts to promote the involvement of working parents in their children's education. Includes the Employers' Inventory for Action.

1997

International Work/Life Country Briefings

These four-page content-rich summaries highlight key work/family facts and trends within specific countries.

Norway - download .pdf
United Kingdom - download .pdf

1997

Business Week's Work and Family Corporate Ranking: An Analysis of the Data

This report provides a summary of Business Week's inaugural ranking of corporate best practices in work and family.

1997, 36 pages

Culture and Work/Life Balance: Findings from the Business Week Study

This series, designed to increase practioner's access to studies about current work/life topics, provides select findings relevant to planning and decision making.

1997

Work/Life and Diversity: Perspectives of Workplace Responses

This paper explores how "lessons learned" from the work-family and diversity arenas can be shared.

1996

The Displaced Family: Job Loss, Family Supportiveness, and the Role of Outplacement Services

This exploratory study looks at unemployment in the new economy and its effects on families. The study includes analysis of data collected from over 100 unemployed persons, their spouses or partners, and their children.

1996, 32 pages

Behind the Scenes: Corporate Environments and Work-Family Initiatives

This report examines the relationships between the development of work-family programs, organizational structure and workplace values.

1995, 75 pages

Contingent Work Arrangements in Family Sensitive Corporations

This paper provides information for corporate readers that contributes to their analyses of the relationships between contingent work arrangements and work-family programs and philosophies.

1995

The Family and Medical Leave Act: Analysis and Appraisal

This paper provides an analysis and appraisal of the Family Medical Leave Act, and includes case studies and recommendations for employers.

1995

Strategic Responses: Corporate Involvement in Family and Community Issues

This paper explores the reasons that corporations are addressing diverse social issues and the implications of such actions, and provides frameworks for corporate consideration of family and community issues.

1995

Working Single Parents and Schools

This report details the experiences of working single parents and the school-related issues that help or hinder parents from balancing their work and family lives.

1994, 26 pages