Basia McDougall MPhil.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

were asked about how they could contribute to the firm’s mission rather than listingsuccesses to date. Another success story, with respect to employees’ perceptions of workingtime is offered by McCracken (2000): Deloitte and Touche was the 3 rd largest accounting taxand consulting firm in America. Since the 1980’s there was a drive towards gender equalityin recruitment, yet only 14% of women reached partner status. The paper tells a story froman individual inside the organisation from the point when the then Chief Executive Officer,Mike Cook, made a business case for change. A number of two-day workshops were held touncover assumptions about careers and needs of women. The workshops found that thefemale drop-out was not to start families; most women left because of male-dominatedculture. It was emphasised that the culture did not just affect women, younger men were alsohappier with shorter hours and less pay. In other words, there was a significant proportion ofthe workforce that desired a better work-life balance. There is still some way to go as‘doublethink’ is prevalent. BP, for example, actively advertises its work-life balancestrategies, drawing attention to its move way from long hours culture and experimental, openapproaches, see BP (2011) The website also offers an example of a working mum as a casestudy. The story is of a high flyer who on having her first child, returns to manage theconflicting demands successfully: “some simple rules including being home before bedtimethree nights a week, not working weekends and never travelling away from home for morethan five days a month” [online] The fact that she returned to work after only ‘two or threemonths’; her husband does not work and looks after the children seems incongruous withthe case study’s intentions. A light-hearted approach was taken by the Times citing alongitudinal study ‘New ways forward: A working mother’s first job is to be our scapegoat’(Knight, 2008). It could be hypothesised that women, who have experienced the effects oforganisational policy as well as the reality of taking on another role, are being forced into anactive resolution of work-life balance concerns. Research on work-life balance policies inScotland is sparse (MacPherson and Bond 2009). From the above, it seems that women’srole conflict, if slipped under the umbrella term of ‘work-life balance’ somehow becomesmore palatable – and therefore more likely to be championed. The underlying issues thatcause role conflict in the first place are still however, gender orientated. Yet this does notnecessarily have to result in negative outcomes according the role accumulation theory(Sieber, 1974):where multiple roles are seen to enrich each other and the stress arising from onerole can be compensated for by the satisfactions of another. (Borrell and Kidd 1974pp.267-8).Importantly, for the current research, organisations expect role conflict to be inevitable – andnegative - for women. Chapter 3 on feminism digs a little deeper to understand why this maybe the case. The issue of work balance can in fact, be re-framed to positively perceive a life30