The Role of Workplaces in Changing Conventional Definitions of Ideal Workers

在美国的工作场所，人们越来越期望工人长时间工作，然而这样做会对他们的健康和家庭生活产生负面影响。这种过度工作的文化源于这样一种期望，即理想的员工应该把工作放在家庭之前，并对工作表现出无限的、全心全意的投入。这种规范对美国女性来说可能尤其成问题，因为她们的时间更有可能受到照顾责任的限制。本研究探讨了这种理想的工人规范，以及规范可能发生变化的条件。该项目研究允许休假和工作时间表和地点灵活性的组织政策，以及实施这些政策的条件。它还调查了组织中女性管理人员的代表性，这可能对组织采用新政策以帮助工作场所中的妇女很重要。该项目还将研究这些组织条件如何影响员工的结果，例如员工对自己是否符合理想员工规范的评估，以及他们的职业和健康状况。这个项目展示了在当代美国工作场所中，过度工作文化的变化是如何可能的。该项目对员工进行具有全国代表性的基于概率的调查，然后将员工数据与平等就业机会委员会（EEOC） EEO-1数据库中提取的组织层面数据进行匹配。EEO-1数据提供了机构层面的工作场所性别和种族构成，以及基本的工作场所特征，如行业和机构规模。这种关联的员工-雇主数据将允许检查理想员工规范如何随工作场所特征而变化，以及不同的组织条件如何在控制其他组织特征的同时影响员工的结果。基于概率的员工样本允许调查结果推广到在美国大中型组织工作的成年雇员。雇员-雇主关联的数据集将提供一个独特的机会来解决跨越个人和组织层面的问题，并确定可能重塑理想工人规范及其对个人工人的影响的宏观条件。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Workers have increasingly been expected to work long hours in American workplaces, yet doing so carries negative consequences for their health and family life. This overwork culture stems from the expectation that ideal workers should put work before family and demonstrate unlimited and undivided commitment to work. This norm may be especially problematic for American women, whose time availability is more likely to be limited by caregiving responsibilities. This study investigates this ideal worker norm, and the conditions under which the norm might change. The project studies organizational policies that allow time off and flexibility in work schedules and locations, as well as conditions under which these policies are implemented. It also investigates female managerial representation in the organization, which may be important for organizational adoption of new policies to help women in the workplace. The project will also examine how these organizational conditions affect employee outcomes, such as employee assessment of their fit to the ideal worker norm, and their careers and health. This project shows how changes in the overwork culture may be possible in contemporary American workplaces.The project conducts a nationally representative, probability-based survey of employees and then matches employee data to organization-level data drawn from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) EEO-1 database. EEO-1 data offer workplace gender and race composition at the establishment level, as well as basic workplace characteristics, such as industry and establishment size. This linked employee-employer data will allow examination of how the ideal worker norm varies by workplace characteristics, and how different organizational conditions influence employee outcomes while controlling for other organizational characteristics. The probability-based employee sample allows findings to generalize to employed adults working in medium to large organizations in the United States. The employee-employer linked data set will provide a unique opportunity to address questions that span the individual and the organization-level, and in identifying the macro conditions that may reshape the ideal worker norm and its impact on individual workers.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.