Managers’ views on employees’ parental leave: Problems and solutions within different institutional logics

Abstract

An examination of managers' perspectives on employees' parental leave rights is presented, drawing on qualitative interviews with 34 managers in the Norwegian police and in the legal profession. The aim of the article is to explore how managers approach employees' parental leave within different institutional logics and how their approach relates to gendered norms of good parenthood. According to these norms, parental leave is used fully, but mothers take the main share of the leave. The findings show that the managers do not necessarily perceive parental leave as a problem. However, the practical solutions the managers propose to possible challenges give important clues about what parental leave entails within the frame of different institutional logics. The managers' concerns reveal that parental leave rights may clash with central values, goals and strategies in an organisation. Within the logics of the police and private law firms, work is more individualised and thus perceived as more challenging than in the public sector law offices. When the solution suggested by the managers is for individual employees to adapt their leave, gendered norms come forward. However, the analysis also shows that gendered parenthood norms play out differently with the different institutional logics. With these insights, the analysis shows how policy regulations and local workplace contexts interact in shaping the consequences of family policies for gender equality in wages and career progression

Increasing Parental Leave Uptake: A Systems Social Marketing Approach

“…Managers tend to discourage male employees from taking leave by communicating the idea that “leave is a choice, not an expectation” (Haas and Hwang, 2019). Regardless of leave rights and policies in an organisation, managers tend to characterise fathers taking leave as a form of employee absence, which presents challenges such as finding a replacement or operating with a staff shortage if a replacement cannot be found (Nordberg, 2019). Fathers with managerial and leadership roles plan and take shorter periods of parental leave for fear of loss of opportunity (Gartzia et al, 2018; Horvath et al, 2018; Williams et al, 2013).…”

“…The trend for managers to take less parental leave not only reduces the likelihood that other employees will take leave (Haas and Hwang, 2019; Lott and Klenner, 2018; Nordberg, 2019) but also affects managers’ assessment of employees who take their full parental leave, making them seem less committed and therefore less valuable to the organisation (Ellison et al, 2009). Experimental studies show that fathers who take parental leave face more negative consequences from their managers in terms of denied promotions and lack of career growth compared to mothers (Wayne and Cordeiro, 2003) and to fathers who took no leave (Rudman and Mescher, 2013).…”

Å bli uerstattelig i omsorgen og erstattelig på jobb

“…I en kvalitativ studie av ledere som tilhører det norske politiet og juridiske yrker undersøkes deres syn på bruk av foreldrepermisjon blant ansatte (Nordberg, 2018). Det er tatt utgangspunkt i ledere fra både privat og offentlig sektor.…”

“…Studien tar utgangspunkt i et teoretisk perspektiv hvor ulike organisasjoner forstås som baerere av ulike institusjonelle logikker og at dette vil prege lederes syn på ansattes bruk av foreldrepermisjoner. I studien finner man at ledere som tilhører den offentlige sektoren ikke ser uttak av foreldrepermisjon som problematisk (Nordberg, 2018). Dette sees i sammenheng med en logikk hvor arbeidsoppgavene er langvarige og kan utsettes.…”

Old and New Methods in Police Research

“…Both previous and future police research will imply many questions where the new methods and data discussed in this paper, cannot provide answers. To use recent examples, both Nordberg (2018) and Haake, Rantatalo, and Lindberg (2017) describe gendered norms among police leaders, norms that would have been hard to grasp using quantitative methods. However, the methods and data suggested in this paper can be suitable when the goal is to increase the likelihood of being able to make causal claims and/or produce results that are externally valid (being transferable to a wider population and other settings).…”