Is it the Kids or the Schedule?: The Incremental Effect of Families and Flexible Scheduling on Perceived Career Success

Is using work–life interface benefits a career‐limiting move? An examination of women, men, lone parents, and parents with partners

“…Signaling theory (Spence, ) argues that because information about employee abilities and motivation is often incomplete or ambiguous, managers must rely on signals or observable qualities to make reward allocations in organizations. Research findings documenting a decrement in promotability ratings for employees who use work–life interface benefits (Almer et al, ) support the notion that benefits utilization constitutes a negative signal that is stigmatizing (Goffman, ) or discrediting to the employee. Because benefits utilization is clearly observable, whereas employee motivation and ability are not, managers might use benefits utilization as a heuristic device to screen out particular candidates during the promotion decision‐making process.…”

“…Work-life interface benefits improve attitudes, retention, and performance (Baltes et al, 1999;Gajendran & Harrison, 2007) for employees with many role demands, and our findings showed that using these benefits is positively associated with the chances of promotion for both women and men. These findings should help to assuage employee fears that using work-life interface benefits is a "career-limiting move" (Almer et al, 2004;Hochschild, 1997;Pleck, 1993). This study is the first longitudinal quantitative analysis to examine the impact of using work-life interface benefits on promotions, and we are heartened that the impact turns out to be positive.…”

“…Although employees rate work–life interface benefits as highly desirable (Haar & O'Driscoll, ), many worry that using these benefits is a “career‐limiting move” that reduces one's chances for promotion (Pleck, ). Indeed, in a field experiment examining the reactions of 299 senior professionals in public accounting firms, hypothetical employees who used a flexible work arrangement were viewed as less promotable, and male users were penalized significantly more than their female counterparts (Almer, Cohen, & Single, ).…”

Caught in the Middle: Organizational Impediments to Middle Managers’ Work-life Balance

“…This again tied in with the idea of impression management and being seen to want to progress within the organization. These respondents' concerns for how their use of flexibility options may be viewed here were justified by an American study of accounting professionals (Almer et al 2004). Using vignettes which depicted both managers who used flexible working arrangements and those who did not, this study revealed that senior managers made a judgement that the former groups were less likely to be committed to the organization and their careers than those in the latter group.…”

Individual Values and Work/Non-Work Conflict in Their Relationship to OCB

“…The theory of conformance to social expectations suggests that the family environment of men and women may have a significant impact on their career success. Despite the widely touted "family friendly" focus of the 1990s, recent research has found some evidence of the potentially detrimental career effects of a family (Almer, Cohen & Single, 2004). Cohen (1999) found that family domain variables were strongly related to voluntary turnover of male and female lawyers.…”