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“Death Threats don’t Just Affect You, They Affect Your Family”: Investigating the Impact of Whistleblowing on Family Identity
Abstract
Organizational whistleblowers routinely encounter retaliation such as job loss, ostracism, intimidation, and death threats which can impact their “master status,” or core identity. Questions remain about whether whistleblowing experiences can “spill over” into homes, affecting family identities. This study aimed to understand how spillover related to whistleblowing affected family identity, and to identify communicative factors which influenced family identity (re)construction. Thirty one individuals, including 15 whistleblowers and 16 family members of whistleblowers, were interviewed for this study. Data analysis revealed three family identities emerged from whistleblowing experiences: affirmed families, wounded families, and fragmented families. Social support processes and boundary management played key roles in family identity (re)construction. These findings engender theoretical implications for effective negotiation of work-home spillover and social support processes, whistleblowing models, and whistleblowing policies’ impacts on families. Specifically, findings indicate boundary negotiation that facilitate matching levels of social support was integral to maintaining healthy family identities.
... Even though whistleblowing is now a regular occurrence in democratic societies, only a small percentage of the workforce ever engages in this form of action (Skivenes & Sissel, 2017;Transparency International Ireland, 2017). This is hardly surprising given the negative consequences that most whistleblowers experience (Alford, 2001;Richardson, 2022;Rothschild & Miethe, 1999). As a result, research has been consistently curious about who these rare whistleblowers are and not least how and where they find the resolve to speak up despite all the personal risk and uncertainty. ...
Who is the whistleblower, and how do they reach the difficult decision to blow the whistle? The article argues that the extant literature has not paid sufficient attention to the profound moral reflexivity in this transition from employee to whistleblower. What is missing, in particular, is a better, sociologically informed, understanding of the various social domains in which whistleblowers are embedded. These domains are important because they provide different kinds of resources for the whistleblower’s moral reflexivity. To pursue this idea, the article conducts a qualitative analysis of 14 whistleblower autobiographies. The analysis is structured around four social domains, which are prevalent in the material: Childhood and adolescence, professional ethics, organizational loyalty, and societal and civic duty values. The autobiographical data clearly demonstrate how whistleblowers actively draw on these domains, and often several of them, as they justify and give meaning to their actions. Such a multidimensional understanding of the whistleblower’s social embeddedness opens up to new ways of analysing the deep personal and moral challenges that most whistleblowers experience.
... Within the realm of communication studies, scholars have explored various facets of whistleblowing, including its impact on employees' family life, whistleblowers' motivations, and stakeholder perceptions of those who blow the whistle (Richardson, 2022). Previous research has also made distinctions between identified and anonymous whistleblowing (Park et al., 2008). ...
Drawing upon deonance theory and expectancy violation theory, we investigate how employees react when their companies engage in corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR) that harms external stakeholders who are not employees themselves. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of perceived internal corporate social responsibility (CSR), which refers to employees' perceptions of how organizational actions and policies benefit them personally. We developed a conceptual model that illustrates the joint influence of external CSiR and internal CSR on employees' perceptual, relational, and behavioral outcomes. An online survey with 417 full‐time US employees revealed that employees tend to evaluate unethical corporate practices holistically, in the context of other factors, such as the company's moral character and internal CSR, rather than based on external immorality. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of employee reactions to both CSR and CSiR, emphasizing the importance of organizations evaluating the broader ramifications of their unethical actions.
... It is a very important factor in encouraging employee career advancement and can form the impression that supervisors care about their well-being and contributions (Tahiry and Ekmekcioglu, 2022;Yang et al., 2018). Consequently, this support is considered the most effective way to manage subordinates' attitudes (Richardson, 2022;Yang et al., 2018). A. Rosadi et al. ...
Purpose:
This study aims to explain the interaction of perceived privacy legislation on the relationship between affective commitment and whistle-blowing. Additionally, it seeks to determine the consequences of whistle-blowing on employee careers moderated by perceived supervisor support in government organizations.
Design/methodology/approach:
A Moderated Regression Analysis was used to analyze survey data from 411 local government employees in West Java, Indonesia.
Findings:
The result found a positive relationship between affective commitment and whistle-blowing. Perceived privacy legislation also had a significant moderating effect on the correlation between the two variables. Furthermore, whistle-blowing found a positive relationship with career opportunities, moderated by perceived supervisor support.
Originality/value:
The finding may contribute to the extension of scientific literature by making privacy legislation a moderator with the potential to increase employee affective commitment to whistle-blowing behavior. It determines the relationship between whistle-blowing on employee careers opportunity moderated by perceived supervisor support. In contrast, previous studies only focused on factors influencing whistle-blowing behavior.
Whistleblowers risk great personal cost to expose injustice. While their actions are sometimes deemed morally courageous, existing evidence that whistleblowers are primarily motivated by moral concerns is mixed. Moreover, little is known about the extent to which moral concerns predict whistleblowing relative to other organizational and situational factors. To address these gaps, we present two studies demonstrating the power of moral concerns in predicting whistleblowing decisions. Study 1 uses a large cross-sectional dataset of federal employees (N = 42,020) to test how moral concerns predict real-world whistleblowing decisions relative to other factors. Study 2 provides a more controlled replication of the association between moral concerns and whistleblowing decisions in an online sample of the U.S. workforce. Results revealed that moral concerns consistently predicted whistleblowing decisions above and beyond other organizational and situational factors. Specifically, whistleblowing decisions were associated with a tradeoff between moral concerns; whereby, concerns for the fair treatment of others beyond one's organization were associated with reporting unethical behavior, while loyalty to one's organization was associated with not reporting unethical behavior. Organizational factors, such as whether the organization educates its employees about how to disclose wrongdoing, showed a somewhat weaker association with whistleblowing decisions across studies. However, they were the only significant predictors of how people blew the whistle; that is, reporting unethical behavior through internal versus external channels. Together, these findings reveal important psychological motivations underlying whistleblowing, highlighting the power of moral concerns in these decisions and supporting conceptualizations of whistleblowing as an important example of moral courage.
What form does power take in situations of retaliation against whistleblowers? In this article, we move away from dominant perspectives that see power as a resource. In place, we propose a theory of normative power and violence in whistleblower retaliation, drawing on an in-depth empirical study. This enables a deeper understanding of power as it circulates in complex processes of whistleblowing. We offer the following contributions. First, supported by empirical findings we propose a novel theoretical framing of whistleblower retaliation and the role of mental health, which draws upon poststructuralist psychoanalytic thinking. Specifically, we highlight how intra- and inter-psychic affective and ambivalent attachments to organizations influence the use of normative violence in cases of whistleblower retaliation. The second contribution is empirical and builds upon the existing literature on whistleblower retaliation by highlighting how organizations position whistleblower subjects as mentally unstable and unreliable individuals, to undermine their claims. We conclude by highlighting the implications of normative power for the outcomes of whistleblower struggles.
The relationship between social support and work–family conflict is well-established, but the notion that different forms, sources, and types of social support as well as contextual factors can alter this relationship has been relatively neglected. To address this limitation, the current study provides the most comprehensive and in-depth examination of the relationship between social support and work–family conflict to date. We conduct a meta-analysis based on 1021 effect sizes and 46 countries to dissect the social support and work–family conflict relationship. Using social support theory as a theoretical framework, we challenge the assumption that social support measures are interchangeable by comparing work/family support relationships with work–family conflict across different support forms (behavior, perceptions), sources (e.g., supervisor, coworker, spouse), types (instrumental, emotional), and national contexts (cultural values, economic factors). National context hypotheses use a strong inferences paradigm in which utility and value congruence theoretical perspectives are pitted against one another. Significant results concerning support source are in line with social support theory, indicating that broad sources of support are more strongly related to work–family conflict than are specific sources of support. In line with utility perspective from social support theory, culture and economic national context significantly moderate some of the relationships between work/family support and work interference with family, indicating that social support is most beneficial in contexts in which it is needed or perceived as useful. The results suggest that organizational support may be the most important source of support overall.
This paper provides an exploration of whistleblowing as a protracted process, using secondary data from 868 cases from a whistleblower advice line in the UK. Previous research on whistleblowing has mainly studied this phenomenon as a one-off decision by someone perceiving wrongdoing within an organisation to raise a concern or to remain silent. Earlier suggestions that whistleblowing is a process and that people find themselves inadvertently turned into whistleblowers by management responses, have not been followed up by a systematic study tracking the path of how a concern is repeatedly raised by whistleblowers. This paper provides a quantitative exploration of whistleblowing as a protracted process, rather than a one-off decision. Our research finds that the whistleblowing process generally entails two or even three internal attempts to raise a concern before an external attempt is made, if it is made at all. We also find that it is necessary to distinguish further between different internal (e.g. line manager, higher management, specialist channels) as well as external whistleblowing recipients (e.g. regulators, professional bodies, journalists). Our findings suggest that whistleblowing is a protracted process and that this process is internally more protracted than previously documented. The overall pattern is that whistleblowers tend to search for a more independent recipient at each successive attempt to raise their concern. Formal whistleblower power seems to determine which of the available recipients are perceived as viable and also what the initial responses are in terms of retaliation and effectiveness.
This study focuses on communication surrounding adult adoptees’ (N = 127) adoptive identity (comprised of reflective exploration and preoccupation with adoption), shared family identification with birth and adoptive families, and self-esteem. A negative correlation emerged between participants’ identification with their adoptive family and their identification with their birth mother. Family identities were stronger when adoptees were higher in reflective exploration and lower in preoccupation. This same combination was related to decreased self-esteem. Adoptive parents’ open communication about adoption related to decreased preoccupation, and strengthened the association between birth mother contact and shared family identity. Implications for intergroup theorizing are explored.
This research examines how family discourse or talk about severe mental illness (SMI) creates and animates familial identity. More specifically, we sought to understand the interplay of competing discourses present in family members’ talk about their experiences of living with and caring for a family member with SMI. We gathered data through ethnographic interviews with 20 family members of persons with SMI and a history of violent behavior. Our analysis revealed two primary discursive struggles: a normal yet abnormal family and physically/emotionally close yet distant family relationships. Our findings highlight how participants use various discourses to co-create a sense of who they are and what it means to be part of a family defined by SMI and violence.
This study examined the relationship between workplace sexual harassment as perceived by female employees and the family satisfaction of their husbands. It also considered the mediating roles of employees’ job tension and work-to-family conflict (WFC) and the moderating role of employees’ work–home segmentation preference in this relationship. The results, based on data from 210 Chinese employee–spouse dyads collected at four time points, indicated that employees’ perceptions of sexual harassment were positively related to their job tension, which in turn increased WFC. Moreover, WFC was negatively related to spouse family satisfaction. The negative relationship between sexual harassment and spouse family satisfaction was mediated by employees’ job tension and WFC. Finally, work–home segmentation preference attenuated the relationship between job tension and WFC. Our results provided insightful theoretical contributions and managerial implications for the sexual harassment and work–family literatures.
Blowing the whistle on organizational wrongdoing is a stressful process, complicated by the prevalence of interpersonal and organizational retaliation, including the possibility of slander, physical intimidation, and death threats. This study provides insight on how whistle-blowers experience and characterize social support throughout the whistle-blowing process. Qualitative analysis of 13 in-depth interviews with whistle-blowers in the collegiate sports industry revealed whistle-blowers experienced reduced social support as a result of blowing the whistle. Problematic conditions related to whistle-blowers' experience of social support included the duality of private support but public alienation, diminished size of social support networks, and apathy from the affected organizations. Although whistle-blowers received some support from friends and colleagues in private settings, those same individuals avoided the whistle-blower in public contexts. Themes of private support/public alienation, diminished support network, and institutional apathy emerged from the data. Whistle-blowers responded through cathartic engagement with the media and seeking community amongst fellow whistle-blowers in an effort to augment public social support. Organizational members stigmatized whistle-blowers for speaking out against the organization, reducing whistle-blowers' experience of social support. Contextual factors negatively affected whistle-blowers' experience of social support, including the heightened role of sports on campus and the presence of external stakeholders in the form of fans and alumni. Results indicate that social support is an integral component of the whistle-blowing process. The authors discuss theoretical and practical implications, including the influences of stigma, taint, and social alienation that “mark” whistle-blowers.
Organizational wrongdoing is frequently exposed by whistle-blowers, individuals who disclose unethical behavior to parties they believe can take corrective action. This study aimed to illuminate whistle-blowers’ experiences with particular attention to how their industry and organizational contexts affected their cases. We analyzed personal accounts of thirteen whistle-blowers in the collegiate sports industry. Results revealed three themes that significantly affected whistle-blowing accounts: the existence and influence of tightly coupled stakeholders, including the athletic governing body and news media; the hypermasculine character of collegiate sports; and the presence of highly identified fans as agents of retaliation. Implications of the study include the recognition and consequences of nonorganizational members as agents of retaliation and the importance of analyzing context when considering whistle-blowing experiences both inside and outside of collegiate sport.
A career in law enforcement is highly stressful given the nontraditional shiftwork, uncertain interactions, and risk of harm. These combined stressors likely spillover into one's romantic relationship and, thus, the study reported here explored one potential communicative coping mechanism—humor. Research exploring humor suggests that humorous communicators are better able to respond to stress, and this study explored if humor appears to benefit relational communication in police officer relationships. Findings begin to support this argument, revealing that romantic partners of police officers with a high humor orientation (HO) report using humor more to cope as well as experiencing less stress (both perceived and physical) and conflict (lower frequency of conflict and less intense/hostile conflict). Path analyses revealed that the use of humor to cope mediated the relationships between self-reported HO and stress, as well as conflict. Implications for humor and romantic relational communication are discussed.
Based on nationwide data the authors collected on whistle-blowers and on silent observers, this article reports, that (a) whistle-blowing is more frequent in the public sector than in the private; (b) there are almost no sociodemographic characteristics that distinguish the whistle-blower from the silent observer; (c) whistle-blowers suffer severe retaliation from management, especially when their information proves significant; and (d) no special method of disclosure or personal characteristics can insulate the whistle-blower from such retaliation. Furthermore, the authors found that retaliation was most certain and severe when the reported misconduct was systematic and significant—when the practices exposed were part of the regular, profit accumulation process of the organization. The authors conclude from their interviews that the journey to exoneration that follows a whistle-blower's disclosures often alters the whistle-blower's identity, leading them to see themselves as people who resist hurtful or criminal conduct in the workplace.
From the perspective of daughters-in-law (N=190), this study examined communicative and relational factors associated with positive and negative mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationships. A structural model tested perceptions of shared family identity as a mediator between communicative factors (supportive communication, nonaccommodation, self-disclosure), family-of-origin factors, and daughter-in-law intentions regarding caregiving and future contact with the mother-in-law. Further, open-ended responses were content analyzed to identify additional relational aspects associated with satisfying mother-in-law relationships. Results from both analyses were integrated into a conceptual model to guide future research on this relationship.
Adult bullying at work is an unbelievable and, at times, shattering experience, both for those targeted as well as for witnessing colleagues. This study examines the narratives of 30 workers, some of whom where targeted and all of whom saw others bullied. Their responses paint a complex picture of power in bullying situations that reframe the "power-deficient target" into agents who galvanize a variety of resources on their own or others' behalf but also place them at considerable risk. In some cases, employees evaluate the abusive situation and quickly resign. Others protest but, if resistance fails to stop abuse, they also leave organizations. The paths of resistance, case outcomes, and dialectic nature of resistance and control are discussed.
Although considerable research has linked workplace bullying with psy- chosocial and physical costs, the stories and conceptualizations of mistreat- ment by those targeted are largely untold. This study uses metaphor analysis to articulate and explore the emotional pain of workplace bullying and, in doing so, helps to translate its devastation and encourage change. Based on qualitative data gathered from focus groups, narrative interviews and target drawings, the analysis describes how bullying can feel like a battle, water tor- ture, nightmare, or noxious substance. Abused workers frame bullies as nar- cissistic dictators, two-faced actors, and devil figures. Employees targeted with workplace bullying liken themselves to vulnerable children, slaves, pris- oners, animals, and heartbroken lovers. These metaphors highlight and delimit possibilities for agency and action. Furthermore, they may serve as diagnostic cues, providing shorthand necessary for early intervention.
The purpose of this study was to develop a theoretical model of communal coping in postdivorce families and other naturally occurring groups. This framework builds upon previous models of communal coping (C. A. Berg, S. P. Meegan, & F. P. Deviney, 1998; R. F. Lyons, K. Mickelson, J. L. Sullivan, & J. C. Coyne, 1998) in its identification of appraisal and action dimensions. However, the current model extends this work in five important ways by: (a) providing a more complex picture of the interdependent nature of coping; (b) extending current thinking about the transactional and fluid nature of the coping process; (c) addressing the different levels of responsibility for stressors within groups; (d) articulating how coping is affected by group dynamics, like group norms, power, and differences in perspectives; and (e) demonstrating the influence of context and the type of stressor on the coping process. The dimensions of the model are discussed in terms of the literature on communal coping and group processes.
The current study is among the first to address the question of efficacy of a couple-oriented prevention program in the context of the workplace. As many spillover and cross-over effects between the workplace and couples’ private lives are known, such a focus seems promising. One hundred and fifty-seven couples participating in the study were randomly assigned to three treatment conditions: a couple-oriented intervention (Couples Coping Enhancement Training; CCET), an individual-oriented coping intervention (ICT), and a waiting-list control group. Self-report data were collected at pre-test, post-test (2 weeks after the intervention), and at follow-up (5 months after the training). Results are promising for the couple-oriented intervention that significantly outperformed both the ICT and the waiting-list control group. CCET participants scored not only higher in relationship variables (such as communication and dyadic coping) after the training but also in individual variables (e.g. burnout). These findings support the notion that companies should invest more in the well-being of the relationships of their employees.
A literature review of studies analyzing work-family conflict and its consequences was conducted, and 427 effect sizes were analyzed meta-analytically. Work-family conflict was analyzed bidirectionally in terms of work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW). We assessed 3 categories of potential outcomes: work-related outcomes, family-related outcomes, and domain-unspecific outcomes. Results show that WIF and FIW are consistently related to all 3 types of outcomes. Both types of interrole conflict showed stronger relationships to same-domain outcomes than to cross-domain outcomes. Thus, WIF was more strongly associated with work-related than with family-related outcomes, and FIW was more strongly associated with family-related than with work-related outcomes. In moderator analyses, parenthood could not explain variability in effect sizes. However, time spent at work did moderate the relationships between WIF and family-related outcomes, as well as FIW and domain-unspecific outcomes.
This paper argues for a substantial re-conceptualization of coping. The strong focus on emotional distress as the marker of coping efforts has masked the importance of social functions, processes and outcomes in coping with life stress, particularly the role of communal coping. Communal coping is a cooperative problem-solving process salient in coping with both individual and collective stressors. It involves the appraisal of a stressor as `our' issue and cooperative action to address it. Beyond its important role in coping, communal coping is endemic to notions of social integration, interdependence and close relationships, and may underlie the resilience of families and other social units dealing with stressful life events. The authors present a framework that distinguishes communal coping from other individual and social coping processes. We also provide an analysis of benefits and costs of communal coping, a discussion of key factors in its utilization, and suggestions for further research on the functioning of communal coping in contemporary society.
American states have statutes with whistleblowing protection provisions for employees. These laws may focus on the duty to divulge misconduct, procedures for reporting disclosures, and protection from retaliation. The research question is, “What is the scope, content, and perceived effectiveness of these provisions?” The premise is that they have value, albeit uncertain, in the practice of public administration. To investigate this subject area, documentary and attitudinal data were gathered. This article presents the results of the first comprehensive study of state-level whistleblowing provisions. The importance of this work is evident for two reasons. First, though corruption varies across state lines, overall it is common. Second, given the low visibility and high complexity of organizational activities, detection of abuse rests in large part with the workforce.
Applying the stress-divorce model to explain the impact of spillover stress, this study analyzes 1,961 married participants in the National Study of the Changing Workforce. Specifically, it tests the individual and combined effects of work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, work-to-family enrichment, and family-to-work enrichment on marital satisfaction. Additionally, this study tests whether these effects are mediated by mental and physical health. The results suggest that mental health and physical health both fully mediate the effect of work-to-family conflict, while mental health and physical health both partially mediate the effect of work-to-family enrichment on marital satisfaction. On the other hand, neither of the health measures mediates the effects of family-to-work conflict and family-to-work enrichment on marital satisfaction. These results suggest the importance of examining both the positive and the negative aspects of work-family balance in understanding marital satisfaction and highlight the mediating effects of mental and physical health in shaping how work-family balance affects marital satisfaction.
Disaster recovery is a stressful, uncertain, and traumatic experience for communities. In order to alleviate links between disaster recovery and negative outcomes, collectives may engage in communal coping, an understudied process. We interviewed 37 citizens of a town devastated by Hurricane Ike. Results revealed three communal coping activities: mutuality, a reciprocal pattern of emoting and shared problem recognition; co-construction of a community narrative, or participants relaying the story of the town’s unity and bootstrap mentality; and problem-centered communal coping, which centered on material assistance and information sharing. We propose connections between communal coping, identification, and (community) identity in drawing distinctions between communal coping and social support. The study concludes with practical implications for communities engaged in disaster recovery.
The present study addressed the question: How are families communicating to construct a family identity in the face of a child’s autism diagnosis? Interviews with 19 parents of children, teens, and adults with mild, moderate, and severe autism highlighted the discursive construction of family identity. Findings reveal that families construct an internal family identity that is marked by unified usage of the name “autism,” emotive and mundane daily discussions, narratives that serve functional purposes, and normal/structured rituals. Externally, families communicate about autism to outsiders to help others understand, to educate others about autism, to show their loyalty and protection for their family, and to highlight their family’s normalcy. These findings illustrate that the discourse-dependent practices are useful not just for constructing membership in families that differ structurally from societal expectations, but also for constructing identity in that face of unique family functioning resulting from a chronic health concern.
We often turn to our friends, family, spouses, and partners for help in coping with daily stress or major crises. Daena Goldsmith provides a communication-based approach for understanding why some conversations about problems are more helpful than others. In contrast to other research on the social support processes, Goldsmith focuses on interpersonal communication - what people say and how they say it, as well as their reactions to the conversations. Her studies cover adults of all ages and various kinds of stresses, ranging from everyday hassles to serious illnesses and other major crises.
One career path that sheds light on the relationship between work and family for women is that of care-giving professionals. Because of the stressful nature of their socialized roles as caregivers at work and at home, these women constitute a unique population. This interpretive study investigated female care-giving professionals' family-to-work spillover stress and revealed eight communication strategies the women used to cope with it in the workplace. Insight is also provided into the organizational factors that facilitated and inhibited supportive communication in the workplace. Practical implications regarding how “family friendly” communication may enhance the work environment for employees are also discussed.
This study examines public safety employees’ (PSEs) (police officers and fire fighters) experiences with work and family as well as the experiences of their family members. Past research concerning work–family has typically concentrated on white-collar professions, rather than the non-standard workforce, which includes PSEs. Moreover, research has not considered the perspective of family members who openly strive to share equally in managing the relationship between work and family. Using interviews and focus groups, this study focuses on metaphors that were employed by PSEs and their family members with regard to how they articulate the relationship between work and family. Previous research has relied upon constructs and metaphors that have been created by scholars and researchers (i.e., balance, conflict, segmentation). Rather than imposing these past constructs on participants, this study allows participants to craft their own way of describing work and family. Theoretical and practical implications are offered as well as directions for future research.
Whistle-blowers frequently face severe retaliation for their actions. This retaliation has power to destroy, marginalize, and even metaphorically murder those who speak out. Perhaps the greatest loss described by many whistle-blowers, however, is loss of personal identity, an experience we term the abyss. This study’s purpose was to explore organizational whistle-blowing experiences, specifically the abyss, and identity transformation of whistle-blowers through the construct of narrative identity theory. We interviewed 11 individuals who had blown the whistle against perceived corruption in various Texas school systems, and had experienced retaliation. Narrative analysis revealed four identities personified by whistle-blowers: crusader, citizen, mom, and popularity seeker. These various identities offered explanations for whistle-blowers’ choices to disclose, their perceptions of retaliation, and their abilities to either maintain their identities or reconstitute new identities. We conclude by offering implications for understanding how and why some whistle-blowers can seamlessly manage retaliation, whereas others are transformed by it.
Although scholars theorize that identities are layered or nested within one another, little is understood about whether, how, and what layers are expressed by individuals. Such understanding could offer insight into organizational membership decisions, particularly within voluntary organizations where financial incentives are not involved. This study used semi-structured interviews to explore how individuals articulate identities and identification sources when discussing their desire to join and continue participation in a community choir, a voluntary leisure organization. The findings highlight how specific individual activities and higher order nested family and music identities, in addition to the more traditional organizational identifications, all play into membership decisions. The results also suggest that identity researchers and voluntary organization managers may benefit from focusing more attention on (a) higher order and cross-cutting social category identities, (b) individual activities in the organizations, and (c) the isomorphism among different layers of identity and identification.
The rise of dual-earner couples challenges traditional gender stereotypes of women as “caregivers” and men as “breadwinners” and significantly impacts the ways in which partners define their roles as family members. The way in which individuals construe their family identities has implications not only for the decisions they make at home but also decisions in the workplace. In this paper, we propose an updated understanding of the different ways in which men and women can construe their family identity—specifically, in terms of care and/or career. Based upon this nuanced understanding of family identity, we outline five dual-earner couple types—traditional, non-traditional, family first, outsourced, and egalitarian—that stem from distinct combinations of partners' family identities. We also outline an agenda for theory and research that challenges scholars to further explore our proposed construals of family identity, work–family decisions at the couple level of analysis, and the interplay between family identity and social context. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This study examined whether the type of support individuals receive when they are verbally ruminating affects their cognitive rumination (brooding), anxiety, and relationship satisfaction; 233 young adults were randomly assigned to be the subject, 233 others the confederate. The confederate was trained to provide “good support” or “poor support” to the subject who talked about a topic he/she had been verbally ruminating about recently. When individuals verbally ruminated and received poor support, they became more anxious and dissatisfied with the friendship. When individuals received good support, they were more satisfied with their friendship, but their anxiety was not significantly reduced. In addition, verbal rumination was directly associated with more brooding after the conversation, regardless of the type of support provided.
We conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis of 33 cases of internal and external whistleblowers wrongfully fired for reporting wrongdoing. Our results show external whistleblowers have less tenure with the organization, greater evidence of wrongdoing, and they tend to be more effective in changing organizational practices. External whistleblowers also experience more extensive retaliation than internal whistleblowers, and patterns of retaliation by management against the whistleblower vary depending on whether the whistleblower reports internally or externally. We discuss implications for organizations and whistleblowers, and we conclude that researchers need to develop different theoretical explanations of internal and external whistleblowing processes.
This article introduces work/family border theory - a new theory about work/family balance. According to the theory, people are daily border-crossers between the domains of work and family. The theory addresses how domain integration and segmentation, border creation and management, border-crosser participation, and relationships between border-crossers and others at work and home influence work/family balance. Propositions are given to guide future research.
While EEOC guidelines for managing sexual harassment prescribe a strong sexual harassment policy and aggressive remedial action following complaints, a communication approach suggests a need for a more complex understanding of sexual harassment as diffused throughout an organizational culture. The present case study uses a sensemaking approach to explore the response of members of an academic department to an alumnus donor's serial sexual harassment of three of its members. Sensemaking proceeded through three phases: the phase of discovery, the debriefing phase, and the dispersal phase. Insights into the role of humor, white men, shared experiences, and responding to sexual harassment are discussed.
The subject of work/life balance and boundaries has received much scholarly attention in the last 15 years. How employees understand these concepts and organizational response to this construction can and does have real consequences for an employee's work/life balance. Consistent with work/life border theory, initial qualitative data indicated that employees identify flexibility and permeability as key concepts in work/life balance. We sought to understand how contemporary employees define these terms. Interview data suggested that contemporary employees desire four distinct but interdependent types of flexibility: time, space, evaluation, and compensation. The emphasis on flexibility suggested a trend, at least among this sample, toward integrating the domains of work and life consistent with work/life boundary theory and raised questions about the changing conception of work in contemporary organizations. Conclusions and implications are discussed. Results of this study suggest that future research should seek to uncover what communicative strategies organizations and employees use to co-create and negotiate this work/life border.
In the present study, I examined the turning points identified by lesbian parents that facilitated discourse with their children regarding family identity. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 13 lesbian parents and an interpretive analysis was performed. Three turning points were identified: coming out to the child, challenges to family identity, and announcement of commitment ceremonies/weddings. Lesbian parents also stressed the importance of creating “normalcy” for their children.
L'A. se propose de construire une theorie ethique a partir du recit de l'experience morale de certaines personnes, comme les detracteurs ou les sauveteurs. Examinant la personnalite altruiste des sauveteurs, ainsi que le phenomene d'identification avec la victime, et le sens particulier du moment historique, l'A. compare la fonction de la parole dans le temoignage des detracteurs avec la conception de la pensee chez H. Arendt.
This meta-analytic review combines the results of more than 60 studies to help determine the relative effects of work, nonwork, and demographic and individual factors on work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW). As expected, work factors related more strongly to WIF, and some nonwork factors were more strongly related to FIW. Demographic factors, such as an employee’s sex and marital status, tended to relate weakly to WIF and FIW. Overall the analysis supports the notion that WIF and FIW have unique antecedents, and therefore, may require different interventions or solutions to prevent or reduce their occurrence. Lastly, the analysis suggests that demographic variables, such as sex and marital status, are alone poor predictors of work–family conflict. Researchers are advised to attend to more finely grained variables that may more fully capture employees’ likelihood of experiencing work–family conflict.
Nurses involved in whistleblowing often face economic and emotional retaliation, victimization and abuse. Yet for many nurses, one major part of their whistleblowing experience is the negative impact it has on their families. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study pertaining to the effects of whistleblowing on family life from the perspective of the nurses. Using a narrative inquiry approach, fourteen nurses were interviewed who were directly involved in whistleblowing complaints. Data analysis drew out three themes: strained relationships with family members, dislocation of family life, and exposing family to public scrutiny. The harm caused to the nurses involved in a whistleblowing event is not restricted to one party but to all those involved, as the harrowing experience and its consequences are echoed in the family life as well. It is important for organizations to seek strategies that will minimize the harmful effects on nurses' families during whistleblowing events.
Whistleblower program for auto safety has yet to launch, years after Congress mandated it
- B Foldy