Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

In a Different Voice. Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge, MA (Harvard University Press) 1982.

An examination of the literature on conflict between work and family roles suggests that work-family conflict exists when: (a) time devoted to the requirements of one role makes it difficult to fulfill requirements of another; (b) strain from participation in one role makes it difficult to fulfill requirements of another; and (c) specific behaviors required by one role make it difficult to fulfill the requirements of another. A model of work-family conflict is proposed, and a series of research propositions is presented.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/258214.pdf

Sources of Conflict Between Work and Family Roles

Previous research indicates that perceived usefulness is a major determinant and predictor of intentions to use computers in the workplace. In contrast, the impact of enjoyment on usage intentions has not been examined. Two studies are reported concerning the relative effects of usefulness and enjoyment on intentions to use, and usage of, computers in the workplace. Usefulness had a strong effect on usage intentions in both Study 1, regarding word processing software (β=.68), and Study 2, regarding business graphics programs (β=.79). As hypothesized, enjoyment also had a significant effect on intentions in both studies, controlling for perceived usefulness (β=.16 and 0.15 for Studies 1 and 2, respectively). Study 1 found that intentions correlated 0.63 with system usage and that usefulness and enjoyment influenced usage behavior entirely indirectly through their effects on intentions. In both studies, a positive interaction between usefulness and enjoyment was observed. Together, usefulness and enjoyment explained 62% (Study 1) and 75% (Study 2) of the variance in usage intentions. Moreover, usefulness and enjoyment were found to mediate fully the effects on usage intentions of perceived output quality and perceived ease of use. As hypothesized, a measure of task importance moderated the effects of ease of use and output quality on usefulness but not on enjoyment. Several implications are drawn for how to design computer programs to be both more useful and more enjoyable in order to increase their acceptability among potential users.

Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation to Use Computers in the Workplace1

We describe the development and validation of a new instrument, KEYS: Assessing the Climate for Creativity, designed to assess perceived stimulants and obstacles to creativity in organizational work environments. The KEYS scales have acceptable factor structures, internal consistencies, test-retest reliabilities, and preliminary convergent and discriminant validity. A construct validity study shows that perceived work environments, as assessed by the KEYS scales, discriminate between high-creativity projects and low-creativity projects; certain scales discriminate more strongly and consistently than others. We discuss the utility of this tool for research and practice.

Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity

The development of commercially viable new products requires that technological and market possibilities are linked effectively in the product's design. Innovators in large firms have persistent problems with such linking, however. This research examines these problems by focusing on the shared interpretive schemes people use to make sense of product innovation. Two interpretive schemes are found to inhibit development of technology-market knowledge: departmental thought worlds and organizational product routines. The paper describes in some depth differences among the thought worlds which keep innovators from synthesizing their expertise. The paper also details how organizational routines exacerbate problems with learning, and how successful innovators overcome both interpretive barriers. The main implication of the study is that to improve innovation in large firms it is necessary to deal explicitly with the interpretive barriers described here. Suggestions for practice and research are offered.

Interpretive Barriers to Successful Product Innovation in Large Firms

This article describes the experience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after the publication of its report A Study on the Status of Women Faculty in Science at MIT. It starts by describing aspects of the academic career that make it difficult for women, or anyone with responsibilities outside of their academic work. It then outlines three definitions of gender equity based on equality, fairness, and integration, and probes the reasons behind persisting inequities. The MIT results fit well into the first two definitions of gender equity, but fall short on the last. Finally, the article analyses the factors that came together at MIT to produce the outcome described and indicates the lessons learned and those still to be learned.

Academic Careers and Gender Equity: Lessons Learned from MIT1

This article distinguishes between “strategic autonomy” (the freedom to set one's own research agenda) and “operational autonomy” (the freedom, once a problem has been set, to attack it by means determined by oneself, within given resource constraints). The article argues, and presents some preliminary corroborating data, that technical careers in the R&D lab should start lower on strategic than on operational autonomy, that operational autonomy should show initial fairly rapid increase, which should be followed by increases in strategic autonomy, and that thereafter a number of different career paths should be available for technical employees. Most labs, however, seem to espouse a philosophy of strategic autonomy combined with operational controls, which creates dilemmas and contradictions in the technical career, particularly at its start. It is proposed that these two aspects of autonomy can usefully be thought of as a two-dimensional grid. Different positions on this grid seem to fit with different orientations and different tasks, and require different strategies for career management. The article ends with a discussion of these management implications.

/pdf/autonomy-in-the-industrial-r-d-lab-4cmdes80fo.pdf

Autonomy in the industrial R&D lab

Most businesses' efforts to coordinate work and private life have been unsuccessful. Now an MIT professor and noted consultant to Xerox, Exxon, Honeywell, and others shows how businesses can rethink career paths, management strategies, and the time clock to reap greater benefits for themselves and their employees.

Breaking the mold : women, men, and time in the new corporate world

east to the west. (This is probably the case in Russia, which has recorded substantial capital flight in the past two years.) They conclude that only proper economic policies in the eastpolicies supported heavily by foreign aid with strong conditions attached-will be able to create enough growth to reduce the pressure to migrate in the long run. These policies include clear property rights; macroeconomic stabilization, establishing clear and sustainable rules for authorities' behavior, particularly fiscal restraint; and development of the financial sector. Most economists will subscribe to the policies suggested by the authors and agree with their argument that good economic policies are the best measure to achieve income convergence between east and west and that foreign aid should be used to encourage these policies. On the other hand, the authors' discussion of migration and its effects is unclear. For example, in Chapter 2 they suggest that about 3% of the east's labor force will want to migrate, but they later claim, based on a simple production function, that almost all the east's labor force will have to migrate west to remove the pressure to migrate. Again, their calculations show that the effect of free international trade on the economies of the east and west is likely to be of a magnitude similar to a migration of about 8% of the east's labor force, but then they claim that this will do very little to reduce the pressure to migrate. Also, the authors add the number of potential migrants among people of German origin who live in eastern Europe (and are permitted to migrate to Germany at will) to the number of those who will want to migrate for economic reasons, rather than determine the overall number of potential migrants by their economic analysis and then determine the composition of migration by ethnic group. The book seems to suggest that as long as the ratio of average wages in the east to those in the west is lower than a benchmark, 3% of the east's labor force will want to migrate west. However, one could conceive, for example, of a dual economy in eastern Europe that is able to relieve the pressure to migrate much faster than suggested by the authors. Those who still adhere to the Communist era habits (and are unlikely to want to migrate) will stay in secured low-income/ low-effort jobs, while those who have higher motivation (and are the potential migrants) will work in higher wage/higher effort enterprises producing for exports or incorporating foreign capital. In this way (which is consistent with policies in most of eastern Europe, although probably not with those in European FSU countries), trade and capital movements of the magnitudes suggested by the authors' calculations could be sufficient to reduce the pressure to migrate, even in the presence of significant east-west average wage differentials. The authors' recommendation to only allow (restricted) migration of skilled east Europeans to the west could increase, rather than decrease, the pressure to migrate, especially among the less skilled, who are more likely to migrate illegally. The departure of many entrepreneurial skilled workers will decrease the ratio of skilled to non-skilled workers in the east, increase east-west wage differentials of non-skilled workers, and undermine a critical precondition for foreign investment. A policy of granting working permits based on western employers' recruitment could be more efficient and give hope to people of all socioeconomic levels, even if the total number of east Europeans migrating is smaller because of migration from other parts of the world. Despite its loose analytical reasoning, this book will make interesting reading for economists, and some of the ideas suggested in it may inspire more research incorporating the effects of government policies into existing economic models. The discussion would gain, however, by placing east-west relations in a global context, particularly by taking into account the likely competition for western investment and markets between eastern Europe and East Asia. Once the authors dismiss the fear that illegal migration from eastern Europe cannot be controlled, there are few economic arguments to justify the preferential treatment of eastern Europe that is implicit in their suggested policies.

Lotte Bailyn

Papers

Academic Careers and Gender Equity: Lessons Learned from MIT1

Autonomy in the industrial R&D lab

Breaking the mold : women, men, and time in the new corporate world

Breaking the Mold: Women, Men, and Time in the New Corporate World.

Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization.