Research

In recent years, employers have paid increasing attention to their employees’ struggle to balance work and family responsibilities. Often, this effort has taken the form of providing more family-friendly benefits and policies. However, it now seems that work redesign may be one tool available to employers. Valcour’s study of service employees and their work-family satisfaction concluded that, while the more hours a person works, the less likely that person is to be satisfied with the work-family balance, job complexity and control over work hours is much more important.

Pregnant women have a special status, but “special” is not necessarily good, particularly when it comes to the workplace.  In a fascinating exploration of the Theory of Ambivalent Sexism, Hebl and her colleagues examined how pregnant women are treated differentially from non-pregnant women in two kinds of settings: one consistent with a sexist view of the “proper”, or more traditional role for women (e.g. shopping), and one inconsistent with that view (e.g. employment in a traditionally masculine job).  The short answer to their questions is this: through a series of subtle manifestations of sexism, pregnant women are more likely than non-pregnant women to be treated rudely and evaluated harshly as job applicants, and are more likely to be treated in an overly benevolent, even patronizing way than nonpregnant women when shopping.

There is a widely held belief, among both entrepreneurs and researchers, that the world of entrepreneurship is best navigated by instinct, not careful, elaborate planning. However, Frese and his colleagues at Justus-Liebig-University, in Giessen, Germany, would disagree. As it turns out, “elaborate and proactive planning” is significantly related to entrepreneurial success.

Today I feel like summarizing some of the more interesting research out of the current issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology (“JAP”) (Volume 93, Number 1, January 2008). I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I’m not always as disciplined as my mentor, Dr. Richard Klimoski, might have hoped in keeping up with the latest research and industrial organizational psychology. This little exercise, if done regularly, might not only help me to show some more of that discipline but also bring to light some interesting things about organizations that might not be widely known. Frankly, I’ve not seen JAP on the bookshelves of very many of my friends and colleagues, which would suggest that some of the cool things I find in there may not be common knowledge.