Aktive Vaterschaft in Organisationen – Anspruchsbewusstsein und verborgene Regeln in Unternehmenskulturen

Abstract

Anspruchsbewusstsein und verborgene Regeln in Unternehmenskulturen Involved fatherhood in work organizations Sense of entitlement and hidden rules in organizational cultures Zusammenfassung: Das Verständnis von Vaterschaft hat in den letzten Jahren einen Wandel erfahren, der sich u.a. in veränderten Leitbildern aktiver Vaterschaft und entsprechenden politischen Maßnahmen äußert. Viele Arbeitsorganisationen weiten ihre Vereinbarkeitsprogramme auf Väter aus. Organisationskulturen enthalten jedoch immer noch latente Verfügbarkeitserwartungen und an traditionellen hegemonialen Männlichkeiten orientierte Karrierenormen, die sich negativ auf die Verwirklichung aktiver Vaterschaft auswirken. Wir nehmen an, dass verborgene Regeln im Unternehmensalltag wirksam sind, die offiziellen Unternehmenspolitiken zuwider laufen (können). Unser Beitrag fragt danach, in welcher Weise Organisationskulturen das Anspruchsbewusstsein von Vätern beeinflussen und wie diese Faktoren mit Geschlechternormen interagieren. Empirische Grundlage sind sieben Unternehmensfallstudien aus unterschiedlichen Wirtschaftsbereichen.

What Helps and What Hinders? Exploring the Role of Workplace Characteristics for Parental Leave Use and Its Career Consequences

“…Moreover, the prevalence of the ideal worker norm may also contribute to fathers' reluctance to take leave (von Alemann et al 2017). In this vein, Kaufman (2018) found that a low uptake of parental leave was associated with fathers' perception of an unsupportive workplace and hence backed up the finding by Thompson et al (2005) that fathers in Britain who had very supportive bosses took longer leave on average than those whose bosses were not at all supportive.…”

“…Most of the existing studies on the relationship between workplace characteristics and fathers' parental leave have been conducted in Nordic countries. Empirical work on the relationship between workplace characteristics and fathers' uptake and length of leave in Germany is still relatively scarce and has, thus far, predominantly been qualitative (von Alemann et al 2017;Aunkofer et al 2018;Neumann and Meuser 2017). Hence, while we know that the workplace matters, we do not know which workplace characteristics contribute to the persistent gender gap in the uptake of parental leave.…”

Parents’ Strategies in Dealing with Constructions of Gendered Responsibilities at Their Workplaces

“…Nevertheless, it is mostly companies or hierarchical levels with high shares of women that implement and expect to profit from these family-friendly measures (Bergmann and Schiffbänker 2016;Frodermann et al 2018). Although there is an increasing awareness that also men and fathers have to be a central target group of these measures, it is mostly women and mothers who feel entitled and claim certain benefits or rights (Alemann et al 2017). Employers and companies view family-friendly policies for fathers primarily as an economic necessity.…”

“…Factors constituting the frame of reference for gender-equality policies for women, such as equality or justice, hardly play a role (Liebig and Kron 2017). On the one hand, organizations offer services for parents to better reconcile their employment with their parental responsibilities, while on the other hand, they reward long working hours and availability with good salaries and career opportunities (Alemann et al 2017). Consequently, mothers continue to have the main responsibility for unpaid care and family work.…”

“…Even when these general rules, which are equally available for fathers and mothers, have been set and announced, the sense of entitlement might be gendered, as a number of studies have found (Alemann et al 2017;Gatrell and Cooper 2016;Haas and Hwang 2016;Walters and Whitehouse 2015): Fathers feel that it is unjustified for them to use certain reconciliation services or offers for parents, because their sense of entitlement is restricted by cultural norms reproduced at their workplaces. They feel thankful and appreciate their employer's support and assume that they have to give something back (Alemann et al 2017). However, a sense of entitlement to family support is growing stronger among some men.…”