Browsing by Subject "työ ja perhe"

Objectives. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of work and family coordination. The study focused on parents of young children working shortened work week as well as their superiors and the HR experts of their organizations. The study also looked at whether the employees experience conflicts of roles in the coordinating work and family as well as the importance of the organization and the management of the organization in work and family coordination. The theoretical background consisted mainly of theories and interaction models describing work and family as well as the models describing organizational culture and the well-being at work. Methods. Interviews which were collected from three organizations were used as the research material. The interviewees were parents of young children working shortened work week as well as their superiors and the HR experts of their organizations. Total number of interviewees was 11. The study was a qualitative study and the analysis method used was content analysis. Results and conclusions. The results of the study showed that the experiences of coordinating work and family were mainly positive and the employees felt having succeeded quite well in coordinating work and family. The importance of management and supervisors in the success of coordinating work and family turned out to be very significant. Even though the employees in this circumstance did not feel the need for specific personal support, they saw it important that the family-friendliness is reflected in the attitudes, behavior and organizational culture. The study results highlighted the division of labour between the spouses and the taking care of their own areas of responsibility to succeed in coordinating the everyday life effectively. Problems seen involved with coordinating work and family were career stagnation, as well as the fact that the workload didn't decrease in relation to working hours. The study results confirm the importance of the individual's own decisions, the organization's participation as well as the opportunities offered by the society in coordination of work and family. The study results support the views expressed in the theory on coordinating work and family life and on the family-friendliness of the organizations. Further research, particularly on male-dominated fields would be important for men's voice to be heard and to think about what types of incentives would make fathers to join the arrangements more often.