Increased tethering to work via technology (e.g., smartphones, computers) is a critical issue for U.S. employees. This trend has fueled 24-7 "always-on" work cultures, contributing to blurring work-life boundaries, defined as the separation between work and personal life domains. Work-life boundaries may be more permeable for women, and any worker with family demands, causing work-nonwork stress and lower well-being. Yet the issue of work-life boundaries is not well understood as a gender career equality and inclusion issue, which may be limiting the representation of women in male-imbalanced STEM disciplines. This project bridges the work-life, diversity, and gender fields to advance knowledge on how work-life inclusive climates and practices influence women faculty's career well-being. The project defines a work-life inclusive climate as the degree that people perceive that they entirely belong and thrive while incorporating work and nonwork roles in ways that do not sacrifice their nonwork identities while performing their jobs. The project will help to frame workplace policies promoting effective boundary management in not only universities and STEM/non-STEM disciplines, but workplaces across U. S. society.
This project will identify current boundary management practices and challenges, how to measure work-life inclusive climates and provide new insights into women's work-life experiences and career well-being. Project objectives are 1) to identify the characteristics of work-life inclusive climates and the role that work-life boundary management practices play in the career experiences of women and men, and 2) to contrast university, STEM/non-STEM disciplinary and departmental influences on men and women's inclusion, boundary management experiences, and career well-being. The project includes multi-source, multi-method, multi-level data. A qualitative study based on interviews with 40 university leaders and faculty will be used to help develop a national survey of 700-1,000 faculty in Tier 1 U.S. public research universities. Qualitative data will be analyzed using the grounded theory constant comparative method. Quantitative data will be analyzed using standard general linear and mixed-model approaches for clustered designs to detect group differences (e.g., gender, family demography, STEM/non-STEM disciplines, job role, universities) in the relationships between boundary management, inclusion, and faculty career perceptions. It will identify the characteristics of work-life inclusive climates, the range of boundary management practices in use by individuals and departments, and how these vary between men and women in STEM and non-STEM contexts across U.S. universities. Findings will contribute to organizational science regarding the ways in which boundary management blurring practices relate to work-life inclusive climates, gender, and career outcomes.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
