This paper explores how pregnancy discrimination at work is perceived by both employers and pregnant employees. Using a public, qualitative dataset collected by the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission that offers perspectives from both employers and pregnant employees, we explore the unfair and unethical treatment of pregnant employees at work. Our findings show how pregnant workers are expected to conform with workplace systems that are treated as sacred. We suggest that employer valorization of the mythical figure of ‘ideal worker’ disadvantages pregnant workers. We observe how, even if this contravenes maternity protection laws, some employers self-justify discrimination against pregnant employees who they perceive to have transgressed ‘appropriate’ workplace behaviors as ethical and reasonable. To illuminate and conceptualize the notion of transgression, our analysis has led us to the ideas of philosopher Georges Bataille, specifically his reflections on how individuals who ‘transgress’ social norms are treated as taboo, as well as his metaphorical descriptions of people and practices as either sacred or profane. We theorize that pregnant workers who are treated as profane should be reclassified as sacred, opening up this idea for debate so as to disrupt long-standing patterns of discrimination.

In this review, we synthesise the growing body of interdisciplinary research on fatherhood and employment for the purpose of guiding future management studies research on the topic. We argue that shifts in research approaches and assumptions are required to fully understand the situation of contemporary employed fathers. Our review draws attention to four distinct but related lenses: work, family, and fatherhood; masculine hegemony and fatherhood; involved fathering; and diversity and fatherhood. Extant research on fatherhood and employment reflects often static notions about the ‘nuclear family’, with expectations about paternal work orientation failing to reflect contemporary paternal experience. We introduce the sociological concept of ‘family practices’ as a means of shifting from traditional (wherein fathers are positioned as breadwinners and mothers as child-carers within heterosexual couples) to more fluid family forms that characterise 21st century ways of ‘doing fatherhood’. Implications and avenues for future management studies research are discussed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic many countries enforced mandatory stay-at-home orders. The confinement period that took place may be regarded as a multi-domain work-life shock event, severely disrupting both the professional and the family sphere. Taking an identity lens, this study examines whether and how identity changed during confinment by drawing from a diary study consisting of 14 working parents who filled out a daily diary over a period of seven weeks of mandated home confinement in France. The findings suggest how both work-related and family-related identity change may occur when individuals are confronted with a multi-domain work-life shock event such as the pandemic. Further, the findings point to three identity responses to this event: work-life identity threat, work-life identity reflection, and work-life identity reconstruction. For most participants, the seven-week period resulted in significant and positive shifts in their work and family identities to better align with their internal beliefs rather than relying on societally imposed expectations about what it means to be a good parent and worker.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has raised the visibility of health care workers to the level of public heroes. We study this phenomenon by exploring how nonphysician health care workers, who traditionally believed they were invisible and undervalued, perceive their newfound elevated status during the pandemic. Drawing from a qualitative study of 164 health care workers, we find that participants interpreted the sudden visibility and social valorization of their work as temporary and treated it with skepticism, incredulity, and as devoid of genuinely transformative power. We seek to contribute to the recent call to develop novel approaches to understanding the contours of the paradoxical nature of invisibility in the workplace by offering insights into what makes "invisible" workers accept or reject publicly driven elevation in their sudden social valorization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

© 2020 John Wiley. &. Sons, Ltd. The adoption of work–family supports (WFSs), defined as discretionary and formal organizational policies, services, and benefits aimed at reducing employees' work–family conflict and/or supporting their family roles outside of the workplace, has become a growing trend in contemporary organizational life. Yet, despite their widespread popularity and vast scholarship investigating their effects, questions remain as to the value (i.e. positive effects or benefits) they provide to organizations and their stakeholders. In this review, we carefully examine and critique current research that explores the value of WFSs conducted within different academic disciplines, across global research contexts, and using a variety of methodological approaches. We pay particular attention to understanding the different ways and conditions under which employees and organizations can benefit from WFSs, and we highlight the potential paths (i.e. why and when) through which value can be experienced. In conducting this comprehensive review, we also discuss the critical theoretical and empirical limitations associated with extant studies. Lastly, we offer a path forward and agenda to explore new and novel directions for future research, including work and family relationships and cross-level investigations of WFSs that integrate individual, interpersonal, and organizational perspectives.

Although participation of women in entrepreneurship continues to grow, a gender-performance gap persists. While the differential inputs and values perspectives have investigated both external and internal forces that help explain this gap, neither perspective has considered an important cognitive mechanism that captures gender differences: identity. The purpose of this article is to examine the role of imposter fears in shaping entrepreneurial identity and the desire for business growth. Entrepreneurship has long been associated with masculine notions of success, which may lead women to discount themselves as ‘real’ entrepreneurs or successful in the context of these masculine norms. Our goal is to draw attention to women entrepreneurs’ imposter fears in order to understand how women think about and construct their identity as entrepreneurs and subsequently contemplate the success and growth of their ventures. We also propose mitigating factors that can disrupt gendered norms and facilitate self-efficacy for women entrepreneurs in the pursuit of business growth.

This study explores the experiences of young professionals as they move through different career paths and narrate their careers. Drawing primarily from semi-structured in-depth interviews with 40 young professionals with at least three years of professional employment post-graduation from the same program of study as well as data obtained from the subjects' LinkedIn profiles, our findings suggest that young professionals engage in a dynamic process of constructing their career narratives with often complex emerging career self-concepts. While prior research suggests that people move toward an increasingly stable and cohesive self-concept as they attain a professional occupation, we find that there is an interplay between the need for flexibility to explore opportunities and to adapt to challenges, as well as the desire for stability and predictability that drives the construction of young professionals' careers. We also find that the way young professionals communicate their career narrative can differ in substantive ways from their external-facing resume, raising the potential for dissonance. Exploring the intricacies of developing career narratives is important for understanding how young professionals make sense of their career, which can better inform career counselors, recruiters, and hiring managers—as well as young professionals themselves—on how to integrate past, current, and desired future career experiences to allow for continuity and resiliency in their career self-concept and planning.

Working parents often contend with how to effectively portray themselves as both devoted professionals and good parents. In this article we introduce the construct “work-family image” as a cross-domain, collective image representing how competent an individual is perceived to be as a parent and a professional by key constituents in both work and life domains. We present a theoretical framework to explicate a process in which work-family image management drives work-family identity adaptation. Specifically, we suggest that work-family image management occurs when work-family norms, derived from societal, organizational, and familial expectations, create image discrepancies that drive impression management behavior. These behaviors, in turn, can create image-identity asymmetries and lead to work-family identity adaptation. We contribute to existing research by highlighting the dynamic interplay between image management and identity adaptation and explain the process by which work-family norms can influence working parents' identities.

In this multimethod study, we explore why some new mothers may “opt out” of the workforce while others stay after the birth of their first child. Findings from a qualitative study of 40 professionally employed new mothers revealed the importance of maternal confidence, managerial support, and work hours to their experience of work–family conflict (WFC) and subsequent intent to stay with their organization. We tested these relationships in a follow-up survey-based study of 802 professionally employed first-time mothers and found that the relationship between maternal confidence and intent to stay is mediated by WFC, suggesting that WFC acts as an important cross-domain mechanism that links confidence in a nonwork role to women's intent to stay with their organization. We also found that for women who work full-time, those who lack maternal confidence experience significantly greater WFC than those with strong maternal confidence. While we did not find support for managerial support as a moderator in the quantitative study, our analysis revealed that it directly affects WFC and intent to stay. To increase professionally employed new mothers’ intent to stay with their organization, our study therefore emphasizes the importance of nurturing maternal confidence and encouraging managers to display support for working parents.

This study explores the experiences of lesbian couples as they move through the different stages of pregnancy and re-enter the workforce after maternity leave. The study draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted at three points in time: middle and late pregnancy and after the return to work. The findings suggest that the transition to motherhood is a complex process for lesbian women and that this experience differs for the birth versus the non-birth mother depending on whether there is a positive or negative diversity climate in their workplace. Our analysis revealed that the birth mother is better equipped to ‘claim’ her maternal identity and feels ‘validated’ as she discloses her pregnancy, transitions to motherhood, and returns to work, whereas the non-birth mother experiences greater difficulty. We also found that the ability to disclose and feel validated as a new mother freely at work was tied to the level of ‘outness’ at work and thus, experiences differed depending on how the interviewees perceived the diversity climate in their organization.

In this study, we examine whether female entrepreneurs are held to a different standard than male entrepreneurs in obtaining financing from banks. To test this idea, we draw from the literature on signaling theory to propose that characteristics specific to the firm and the entrepreneur act as a means to communicate (i.e. signal) the inherent quality of the venture and thus impact the amount of capital the entrepreneur is able to obtain. We then explore the moderating role of gender based on gender role congruity theory to argue that capital providers reward the business characteristics of male and female entrepreneurs differently to the disadvantage of women.

“Necessary evils” require employees to psychologically or physically harm others to produce a perceived greater good. Employees can also help others during necessary evils tasks by providing assistance and support to those harmed. Through an inductive, qualitative study of human resources employees’ experiences carrying out downsizing, we explore how the perception of helping the person one has harmed relates to the harm-doer’s ability to withstand the challenges of having to carry out necessary evils. Our research culminates in a theoretical model showing that (a) seven kinds of stressors were associated with participants’ involvement in necessary evils tasks, (b) these stressors triggered a series of negative personal outcomes (negative self-focused emotions, emotional exhaustion, and intention to turnover), and (c) perceived prosocial impacts ameliorated these negative personal outcomes. We discuss the implications our findings for research and practice, address limitations of our study, and offer ideas for future research.

The work reentry period following the birth of a first child is a time of uncertainty for a professional woman. During reentry, a new mother is often questioning who she is and how effective she can be as a mother and working professional. In this study, we conceptualize reentry as a period of resocialization as we explore the first-time mother's changing self-concept during this time. Specifically, we develop a model that explores the identity and efficacy uncertainties that women experience during resocialization. This model draws attention to the influence organizational context has on the degree of uncertainty women experience and to the adjustment tactics women engage to manage their identity and efficacy uncertainty. We discuss the implications these findings have for both socialization research and work-life theory and practice.

Purpose: This study takes an identity lens to explore how men experience fatherhood in the context of their work amid shifting ideologies of fathering. Methodological Approach: This study uses a qualitative, inductive approach with an interview methodology. Findings: This study finds that men hold multiple images within their fathering identities that reflect a range of meanings spanning from traditional to more involved fathering. Norms and expectations from participants work and home lives invoke these various images of fathering, which create potential tensions in how men see themselves as fathers. While some participants navigate the multiplicity by defending traditional meanings of fathering, most fathers maintained the multiplicity by embracing the synergy or accepting the ambivalence among the images. Implications: As fathers take on more caregiving and other family responsibilities, workplace norms may inhibit the development of a father’s identity, as this study suggests. Fathers respond to potential tensions in ways that do little to alter images of them as “organization men,” and the primary support they receive is through ad hoc and stealth methods. Further, fathers feel constrained in discussing the stress of managing fathering at work. This study emphasizes that organizations and managers must better recognize and appreciate fatherhood as a more serious and time-consuming role than it has been seen to be in the past. Originality/Value: While more attention is being paid to the work–family experiences of men, few studies have considered in-depth how the organizational context shapes the identity dynamics fathers experience. This study offers a more nuanced consideration of the complexities associated with taking on a new identity that has multiple meanings, as a result of different contextual factors and shifting ideologies, and offers important insights into the power of the workplace to shape the content and meanings of individual’s non-work identities.

While the organization man was once synonymous with being an "ideal worker" who prioritized work over family, men's increased involvement in childrearing has changed the meaning and value placed on fatherhood. Little, however, is known about how this "involved fathering" shapes identities, work experiences, and work-related outcomes for fathers. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative studies, we explore the complexities associated with how men experience fatherhood in the context of their work, and examine workplace and professional norms that may inhibit them from being the kinds of involved fathers they espouse a desire to be. We find that involved fathering has positive work-related outcomes that can benefit organizations. More involved fathers experience greater job satisfaction and work-family enrichment and less work-family conflict, and they are less likely to think about quitting their jobs. Although we find that more involved fathers have lowered career identity, this is offset by perceived managerial support. Our findings offer important practical insights into the benefits of fostering supportive workplaces for fathers.

Through our grounded theory qualitative research, we explore how women begin to construct and react to images of possible multiple selves as professionals and mothers during the liminal period of pregnancy. Our study makes a contribution to identity transition scholarship by introducing and exploring the intricacies of cross-domain identity transitions, which we define as those identity transitions that occur when an individual's established work identity must be adapted to be integrated with a change in a nonwork identity (e.g. becoming a mother). Our work also contributes to workfamily scholarship by demonstrating how women begin to experience and address inherent conflicts and enrichments between their maternal and professional identities during pregnancy, long before a child is born. We do so by demonstrating how organizational and personal context color the vision a woman builds of her possible multiple selves as mother and professional. © Academy of Management Journal.

This study examined the effects of family and career path characteristics on objective and subjective career success among 916 employed mothers. Among family variables, age at first childbirth was positively related and career priority favoring the husband was negatively related to both income and subjective career success; number of children was negatively related and years elapsed since first childbirth was positively related to income only. Among career path variables, career gaps, interorganizational mobility and proportion of one's career spent in part-time work were negatively related to income; career gaps were negatively related to subjective career success. Income was positively related to subjective career success. Results suggest that integration of traditional and protean career perspectives helps to explain women's career success. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.