Shaping Work-Life Culture in Higher Education

A Guide for Academic Leaders

Laura Koppes Bryan, Cheryl A. Wilson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781136312243
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

Shaping Work-Life Culture in Higher Education provides strategies to implement beneficial work-life policies in colleges and universities. As compared to the corporate sector, higher education institutions have been slow to implement policies aimed at fostering diversity and a healthy work-life balance, which can result in lower morale, job satisfaction, and productivity, and causes poor recruitment and retention. Based on extensive research, this book argues that an effective organizational culture is one in which managers and supervisors recognize that professional and personal lives are not mutually exclusive.

With concrete guidelines, recommendations, techniques, and additional resources throughout, this book outlines best practices for creating a beneficial work-life culture on campus, and documents cases of supportive department chairs and administrators. A necessary guide for higher education leaders, this book will inform administrators about how they can foster positive work-life cultures in their departments and institutions.

Chapter 1
The Importance of a Positive Work-Life Culture

In the summer of 2013, the American Council on Education (ACE) announced a challenge to presidents of higher education institutions to become involved with a national campaign promoting faculty career flexibility. College and university leaders were invited to sign a statement of support for expanding workplace flexibility that includes the following conviction: “We believe that supporting flexibility must become a core leadership competency to enable our faculty to meet the increasing demands of twenty-first century workplaces and to meet their personal and family responsibilities.”¹ We commend ACE for issuing this challenge; it is somewhat surprising that academic leaders must be convinced in 2014 given that corporations have been responding to employees trying to balance work and family responsibilities (i.e., work-life) for more than 40 years.² Corporate leaders have recognized that demographic changes over the past four decades, such as an increase in the number of women working full time, rise of dual-career and single-parent families, and the expansion of an aging population, have resulted in an increasingly diverse workforce and a greater potential for individuals to face work-life conflict and stress.³

Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that conflict and stress resulting from work-life demands negatively affects individuals, families, and organizations.⁴ Thus, organizations have realized the necessity and value of implementing strategies, benefits, programs, and policies to promote work-life effectiveness and satisfaction among their employees.⁵ Family-friendly policies include “any benefit, working condition, or personnel policy that has been shown empirically to decrease job-family conflicts among employed parents.”⁶ More recently, “work-life policies include any organizational programs or officially sanctioned practices designed to assist employees with the integration of paid work with other important life roles such as family, education or leisure.”⁷ Flexible work environments, alternative work schedules (flextime, telecommuting), and dependent care (child and elder care) are common examples of organizational strategies that have been implemented to help employees manage their work and life obligations.

Table 1.1 Importance of Work-Life in Higher Education⁸

Colleges and universities are not immune to demographic and societal changes; thus, one of the most critical issues facing higher education today is the changing workforce in the academy. Giving birth, adopting a child, and caring for children are the primary reasons that women faculty, in particular, leave academe or do not achieve tenure and/or promotion. As men become more engaged with child caregiving, they, too, have reported increased conflicts from managing faculty and family responsibilities. In addition, elder care is rapidly becoming a significant concern for both men and women (Table 1.1).

As effective academic leaders, we are expected to see the big picture and anticipate forthcoming issues and challenges facing our institutions. Although it is beyond the scope of this guide to review all of the literature on effective leadership (e.g., characteristics, behaviors, skills) in academic settings,⁹ most academic leaders agree that “Creating and sustaining a culture of support and excellence… at all levels of the institution involves the president, provosts, deans, department chairs, and senior faculty.”¹⁰ In contemporary higher education institutions, academic leaders must also facilitate an institutional culture that is responsive to work-life needs (i.e., work-life culture) in order to support the success and excellence of faculty, staff, and students (Table 1.2). Supervisors and leaders are the gatekeepers for employee participation in policies; thus, it is critical to understand the importance of the academic leader’s role in responding to work-life issues.¹¹ An effective academic leader is one who understands the prevalence of work and life obligations and is proactive, open, and creative about helping faculty and staff to succeed at work while also managing life responsibilities.¹² This guide provides strategies for achieving excellence in the role of an academic leader by facilitating a work-life culture that is supportive of faculty, staff, and students.

Table 1.2 Work-Life Scenarios in Higher Education

A National Conversation about Work-Life

The importance of addressing employee work-life satisfaction and effectiveness through flexible workplaces is a topic of national conversation. In 2003, the U.S. Congress designated October as National Work and Family Month to celebrate healthier and flexible work environments. In 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed the month of November as National Family Caregivers Month, explaining,

Across our country, more than 60 million Americans take up the selfless and unheralded work of delivering care to seniors or people with disabilities or illnesses. The role they play in our healthcare system is one we must recognize and support. During National Family Caregivers Month, we thank these tireless heroes for the long, challenging work they perform behind closed doors and without fanfare every day, and we recommit to ensuring the well-being of their loved ones and of the caregivers themselves.¹³

In March 2010, the U.S. President’s Executive Office of the President, Council of Economic Advisers issued a report titled “Work-Life Balance and the Economics of Workplace Flexibility” following from The White House Workplace Flexibility Forum. Upon a review of changes in the U.S. workforce, an examination of current flexible work arrangements, and a discussion of the economic benefits of workplace flexibility, the report concludes that “especially at this time as the U.S. rebuilds after the Great Recession, it is critical for the 21st century U.S. workplace [including higher education] to be organized for the 21st century workforce.”¹⁴

“The best available evidence suggests that encouraging more firms to consider adopting flexible practices can potentially boost productivity, improve morale, and benefit the U.S. economy.”¹⁶

During 2010 and 2011, the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor led a National Dialogue on Workplace Flexibility¹⁵ consisting of a series of forums that brought together stakeholders from various communities across the United States. The discussions focused on meeting the challenges of improving workplace flexibility while also achieving organizational goals.¹⁷ Additionally, throughout 2013, numerous relevant articles about the role of women in the workplace, in particular, were published in The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Huffington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Women in Higher Education, Dean and Provost, and The Washington Post.

Although the work-life conversation is newer to academe compared to the corporate world, a few private and public research intensive universities recognized the value of promoting work-life balance for faculty as a recruitment and retention strategy as early as the 1990s when work-life professionals and researchers formed a national professional organization called the College and University Work/Family Association (CUWFA) (now known as the College and University Work-Life-Family Association) to provide a venue and network to discuss best practices and research. In 2001, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a statement of principles for family responsibilities and work, followed by an entire issue of Academe in 2004 focused on balancing faculty careers and family work.¹⁸ In 2005, the ACE issued a groundbreaking report titled An Agenda for Excellence: Creating Flexibility in Tenure-Track Faculty Careers that addressed critical work-life dilemmas in the academy.¹⁹ A national panel of presidents and chancellors from major research universities across the country endorsed this report, and it was the first national call for institutional leaders to implement flexible career policies and practices to help faculty manage work and life demands more effectively. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in partnership with ACE has funded many relevant initiatives, including the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Faculty Career Flexibility. Additionally, the National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant program has promoted best practices and strategies for programs and policies specifically geared toward faculty members (e.g., tenure-clock extension, modified duties, reduced or part-time appointments).²⁰ In 2013, The Chronicle of Higher Education Annual Survey of the Great Colleges to Work For revealed work-life balance to be a dimension of a “great” college or university.²¹ The next section reviews some strategic reasons that justify a more serious attention to work-life satisfaction and its connection to th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figure
• Foreword
• Preface
• 1 The Importance of a Positive Work-Life Culture
• 2 Understanding Work-Life Challenges
• 3 Emerging Practices and Strategies
• 4 Facilitating Cultural Change
• 5 Reflections of Academic Leaders
• 6 Strategizing Solutions
• Appendix: Work-Life Resources
• Bibliography
• Index