Women, Organizational Development, and the New Science of Happiness
Virginia H. Milhouse
University of Oklahoma
Women, Organizational Development, and the New Science of Happiness
Do people need a lot of money or wealth to be happy? Some social scientists say no. Once people get beyond having their basic needs met, making more money does little to raise the sense of satisfaction (Diener & Seligman, 2002). What, then, makes people happy? According to a new science of happiness, authentic happiness centers on conditions that enable people to flourish in their lives (Seligman, 2003). When asked what conditions brought them the greatest source of happiness, more than 900 women said their greatest sense of happiness came from their children, religious or spiritual life, family connections and friendships, contributing to the lives of others, and leisure and holiday time (Diener & Seligman, 2002). Further, research reported in the Miller, Caldwell, and Lawson (2000), the Sloane Business Review (1991), and by the Business Women's Network (2002) reveals that many professional working women, if given the option, would choose flextime, spending time with family, and helping others over making more money. Other studies show women want friendly and supportive work environments and are, therefore, working with organizational leaders to achieve them. In fact, a recent article, The Opt-Out Revolution, reports that because the corporate world has not enabled conditions that help women flourish, many are unhappy and many others are leaving the traditional corporate world altogether (Belkin, 2003). Thus, while some studies suggest that women are leaving the workplace only for reasons such as maternity leaves or day care problems, this paper suggests that although “motherhood” is very important to women, it is not just about this. Social scientists such as Gallos (1989), Ehrenreich (1995), and Hall (1986) say this trend is more about conditions that impede women’s satisfaction with the workplace. Therefore, this study seeks to know more about the conditions which can impede or enhance women’s happiness in the workplace.
Theoretical Perspectives
Work is just one of many key areas that make up the lives of women. Issues such as family, friendship, community, and religion/spirituality are also vitally important. In fact, recent research shows that women are most happy when they are able to balance their energy and effort – emotional, intellectual, imaginative, spiritual, and physical – between these areas (Halpin, 2005). At the same time, if any one of these areas are neglected, this can reduce the amount of happiness women experience in both their work and personal life. Thus, striking a balance between their work and personal life is of utmost importance to women at the turn of this new century.
To examine the theoretical debate surrounding the questions about women’s happiness in the workplace, this paper reviewed the literature related to women’s issues in the workplace (i.e., corporate organizations, educational institutions, and law firms). The framework for this review is guided by questions about conditions that can impede women’s happiness or help it flourish in the workplace. The review also looks at the perceptions of women of color, Caucasian women, and international women as they relate to the three conditions.
What “Conditions” Impede or Enhance Women’s Happiness in the Workplace?
A review of the literature revealed three salient conditions which can hinder or enhance the success and well-being of women in the workplace: Work-Life Balance (or Quality of Work-Life), Job Satisfaction, and Spirituality-at-Work. An understanding of why these three conditions are important to women’s happiness or unhappiness in the workplace can be gleaned from studies associated with the rapidly growing field of academics called the new science of happiness (Diener, 2004; Seligman, 1998) and traditional studies in organizational development and women’s developmental theories in the workplace.
Though some scholars may think that the term happiness is too “slippery” to be studied scientifically, Seligman (2005) argues it is not only scientifically measurable but useful in building one’s personal and professional life. He breaks happiness (i. e., reflective happiness) down into three discrete components: (1) The Pleasant Life, (2) The Engaged Life, and (3) The Meaningful Life. Each of the three components is useful to an understanding of the work related conditions. However, the most consequential of these are “engagement” and “meaningfulness.” Research shows that women are the happiest when they can be deeply, but equally, engaged in both their work life and their personal life. The deeper the involvement they have in these areas, the more meaningful life is to them. Also, inherent in the principles of engagement and meaningfulness is a consciousness of spirituality. Although spirituality is a dimension of both men and women’s personality, Gallos (1989) argues that women are more willing to risk bringing their spirits to work with them. For Gallos, this means bringing “a creative perspective to work and an ethic of caring which is essential to the development and productivity” of all workers (p. 128).
Therefore, in the paragraphs below, the author examines the importance of a balanced life for women’s happiness and state of well-being by looking specifically at each of the three work related conditions (also referred to as categories or themes) in depth. First, the concept of quality of work life is reviewed. The review seeks to define this condition and explain how it impacts the happiness of women in the workplace.
Quality of Work-Life/Work-life Balance
Work-Life balance is defined as the balance between an employee’s work demands and outside interests or pressures. This aspect of work has been a long-standing, yet ever-evolving area of corporate social responsibility. However, in its infancy, work-life balance/quality of work-life focused primarily on the needs of working mothers. Today, this initiative has expanded, in response to the demands of all employees for quality work-life programs, to include flexible scheduling, dependent care, time-off policies, and family supportive programs such as financial assistance and health and wellness programs (Business for Social Responsibility, 2005). Parasuraman and Greenhaus (1997) define work-life balance (i.e., quality of work-life) as
having a connection with all of our priorities; that is, a connection with all of the relationships that are important to us, development and reliance upon solid values and beliefs, and a sense of success in each of these areas. (p. 35)
How might this impact women’s happiness in the workplace? Excessive interference of work with family, personal time, friendship, or religious/spiritual development not only reduces the amount of happiness women enjoy in their lives but can cause psychological strain. This is particularly true for women in highly professional fields such as university professors, lawyers, women CEOs, or women in executive and administrative positions. Research shows that when women in highly professional positions experience extreme unhappiness in the workplace and are not able to change the conditions that generate the unhappiness, or to engage in forms of either physical or psychological job withdrawal, many experience problems with anxiety, fatigue, and irritability. Ultimately, these problems can lead to women having difficulty concentrating on the job, missing work more often, and in extreme cases, voluntarily exiting the workplace altogether (Galinsky, Friedman, & Hernandez, 1991). For example, in a recent article, “Opting out of the Workplace,” Belkin (2003) found that the primary reason the 15 professional women she interviewed left their jobs was because of the conflict between their jobs and their personal lives.
Job Satisfaction
Another condition that can impede or enhance the success or well-being of women in the work place is job satisfaction. Job satisfaction has been described as the degree of pleasure an employee derives from his or her job (Spector, 1997); or as having a feeling of positive effect toward one’s job (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000). When looking at how job satisfaction relates to other workplace variables, most researchers associate it with the work-related dimensions of pay, promotion, supervision, benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, coworkers, nature of work, communication, and feeling accepted (Ash, Dandridge, Kovel, & Chris, 1999). Job satisfaction has also been described as encompassing the broader dimensionsof organization commitment, organization justice, and organization citizenship. For example, Meyer and Allen (1991) reported that employees who are satisfied with their jobs are also committed to staying with their organizations. Organization commitment has three primary sub-dimensions: “(1) Affective Commitment - emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization; (2) Continuance Commitment - awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organization; and (3) Normative Commitment - a feeling of obligation to continue employment; thus, people with a high level of normative commitment feel that they ought to remain with the organization” (p. 28). As for organizational justice, Spector (1997) and Meyer and Allen (1991) report it is concerned with fair treatment of individuals in the organization including how justice is distributed (e.g., equity and equality) and the perceived fairness of the policies and procedures which are used to make decisions about equity and equality. Finally, the employee who exhibits organizational citizenship behavior (e.g., altruism, conscientiousness, courtesy, and sportsmanship) is also perceived as happier in his or her job and more pro-organization than one who does not exhibit such citizenry (Spector, 1997).
This perspective of job satisfaction can obviously be viewed as a sign of employee commitment, loyalty, and productivity. However, researchers such as Bailyn (2003) and Gonyea and Googins (1991) explain that this type of job satisfaction implies that the employee’s time belongs to the company. When women are expected to be like Whyte’s (1959) organizational man or to have an unwavering, singular devotion to work alone, and their family and personal time are viewed as unnecessary diversions (Gallos, 1989), the job often becomes a source of dissatisfaction because it creates work-family and personal life conflicts.
Such was the case with women faculty at the University of Kansas. In its Faculty Work Satisfaction Survey (Ash, et al., 1999), the University of Kansas found that women were significantly more dissatisfied than men with 97 % of 15 job related issues, among which “time constraints” were a central source. This study, therefore, provides organizations with some empirical insight into the consequences of job dissatisfaction; noting, for example, that many negative consequences can result from high levels of employee work dissatisfaction. These consequences can involve “high levels of turnover, absenteeism, tardiness, reduced work effort, unionization activity, whistle-blowing (taking grievances against organization and management public by going to the media), theft, and violence in the workplace” (p. 46). For example, a 40-year old female college professor is reported to have left her job because of negative office politics and an unsupportive work environment (Pennington, 1999).
In their study on “Occupational Stress, Burnout, and Job Status in Female Academics,” Doyle and Hind (1998) found that job stress/burnout, when submitted to factor analysis, loaded on the factor of job dissatisfaction. Using the Faculty Stress Index (FSI), these researchers asked 312 men and 251 women faculty to indicate which aspect of their jobs created the greatest amount of pressure. The FSI measure consisted of the following 10 items: too heavy a workload, time to keep up to date, time for teaching and preparation, inadequate salary, conflict between personal and departmental goals, securing financial support for research, meetings taking too much time, job interference with personal life, and preparing manuscripts for publication. Fifty percent of the women in this study reported significantly and consistently higher levels of stress on the 10 FSI items compared to 41% of men.
While it is not totally clear from this study why women reported more pressure than men when performing these work related responsibilities, the difference might be due to the nature of the work environment. Osborne (1991) noted that men perform better in highly individualized and competitive work environments, while women tend to value work environments that encourage connectedness and emotional sensitivity.
Brewer and McMahan (2003) conducted a study of job stress and burnout among industrial and technical teacher educators. The researchers asked a total of 109 men and 24 women to indicate how often they experience feelings related to emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Women differed significantly from men only on the emotional exhaustion scale. Other researchers have reported similar results. For example, Blix, Cruise, Mitchell, and Blix (1994) reported on the effects of stress on the well-being of postsecondary faculty including women. More than 80% of the postsecondary teachers responding to a faculty stress index measure reported a decrease in productivity due to stress. In addition, these authors reported that postsecondary faculty who report high levels of stress are more likely to leave the workplace versus those who experience lower levels of stress. In summary, as noted above, stress is a factor of job dissatisfaction. When women experience high levels of job dissatisfaction, this can impede or hamper their success or happiness in the workplace.
Spirituality in the Workplace
What is spirituality in the workplace and how might it impact the morale, motivation, and productivity of women in the workplace? When 158 women at the 2002 Women-Business-Spirituality: A New Formula for Leadership Conference were asked “How do you define spirituality?,” 39.9% said it means being balanced in mind, body, and spirit; 37.3% said having faith in superior power or being; 36.7% said connecting to others and the universe; 28.5% said it was an approach to life; 18.4% said it was an attitude of mind; 15.4% said respect for the individual; 6.3% said religious beliefs; 5.1% said ethics; 6.3% checked other; and 12.0% gave no answer. To the question “How important a role do you, personally, believe spiritual values have in the workplace?,” 82.9% said extremely important and 15.2% said somewhat important. When asked to indicate the two most important manifestations of spiritual values in the workplace out of a total of six (corporate policies, practical support programs, community outreach, world outreach, and religious accommodation), the women said the two most important manifestations were corporate policies (e.g., diversity, hiring practices, zero harassment, top management) and practical support programs (e.g., counseling programs, job sharing, telecommuting, parental leave, flextime, support networks, childcare, and health programs), 60% and 50% respectively (Litrell, 2002). These results seem to support other studies (i.e., Coombs, 2003; Gallos, 1989; Lewis, 2001) which indicate a movement of spirituality in the workplace and that women might well be the ones who will take the risk or be the grassroots of this new movement to infuse trust and integrity into business.
There are other proponents of spirituality whose perspective on the meaning of spirituality in the work place is simply about addressing the demands of time and energy in a 24 hour-seven day workplace (IME Annual Report, 1995). Also, others say it is being able to express one’s spiritual values in the workplace and working for economic and social justice in local, national, and global systems (Smith, 2005). Hendricks and Ludemon (1996) argue that spirituality is very important to the corporate world and “leaders who think [it] has no place they are selling themselves and those around them short” (p. 12). Others report that successful leaders of the 21st century will be spiritual leaders who are comfortable with their own spirituality and who will know how to nurture spiritual development in others (Cacioppe, 2000; Smith, 2005).
Moreover, female and male employees are increasingly asking themselves questions that are essentially spiritual in nature: "What do I want to do with my life?", "Why do I go to work?", and “What is important to me?". Bruzzese (1996) explained,
It is not that [women] are unhappy just because they may not be well paid or don't have good [extrinsic] benefits - it's something else. It is a sense of struggling in a job that adds no value to their lives spiritually or otherwise. ( p. 12)
In a recent article, “Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance,” Garcia-Zamor (2003) reports it is not enough for women to merely feel productive and effective, they also need to feel connected. People connect with their work and each other not just intellectually, but spiritually as well: “Spirituality is, [therefore], about recognizing that people come to work with more than their bodies and minds. It is also about the individual talents and unique spirits employees bring to work with them everyday” (Labbs, 1995, p. 360). In her research, Pennington (1999) found that women described time for motherhood, community service, and or serving others as a type of ministry or pastoral care that permeates the domains of work and life.
In another study on spirituality in the workplace, Mitroff and Denton (1999) asked 231 HR executives and managers what gives them meaning in their work, in particular, and their lives in general? In response, the managers and executives noted things such as full potential, meaningful work, and serving humankind. In the qualitative part of the interview, participants were asked which part of themselves they were able to express at work. In almost all instances, they used phases like their “total intelligence” and “complete creativity.”
How might an examination of these studies on spirituality at work inform organizational leadership about the conditions that encourage women’s development in the workplace? To begin, research shows that for those women for whom spirituality means many things (i.e., having “mind/body/spirit balance,” a “faith in a superior power or being,” and a “connection to the universe”), spiritual values have an extremely important role in the workplace (Glaser & Smalley, 1999, 2003). These studies also speak about the conditions that make women most productive in the workplace. As stated earlier, women are most productive when they are able to balance their energy and efforts - emotional, intellectual, imaginative, spiritual, and physical - between work and life issues.
Do Women of Color, Caucasian, and International Women Need Similar Conditions to Flourish in the Organization?
Caucasian Women
What are the needs of Caucasian women in the workplace? Do they differ from women of color and international women? Research suggests that there are some workplace differentials between these groups. If we look, for example, at the three workplace conditions (job satisfaction, work-life balance, and spirituality at work) in terms of categories of met and unmet needs, where Job Satisfaction (i.e., workplace acceptance, mentoring/coaching, formal training, advancement and promotion, and income) is the first category of needs, Work-life Balance (i.e., family and work, flextime, and family friendly employers) is category two, and the third category is Spirituality in the Workplace (i.e., creativity, serving others, connection, and faith in a superior power), Caucasian women may have fewer unmet needs in the first category (Job Satisfaction). In a recent study where Caucasian women and women of color were asked to rate their level of satisfaction on the workplace issues of job authority, income, access to training and development, promotions, access to developmental relationships with higher level managers, informal interactions, treatment differences according to race, acceptance, and diversity, all Category One issues, Caucasian women reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction than women of color (Cianni & Romberger, 1997).
However, research also shows that high levels of workplace success are seldom achieved without sacrifice. Thus, to achieve high levels of workplace success, Caucasian women have often had to sacrifice family and personal needs. For example, one 45-year old Caucasian woman executive vice president for a Fortune 101 company in the U. S. disclosed,
My entire life is work … [and] in my quest for success, I have neglected family and friends, and when I look at what I have become, I don’t particularly like what I see. All of my hard work and the tangible rewards it brought me have not given me the joy and peace of mind I thought it would. Sure on the outside, I appear successful. But I keep wondering “is this all there is.” (Glaser & Smalley, 1999, p. 3)
A survey of 234 Caucasian women by Freidman & Greenhaus (2000) revealed that 76% said they were no longer happy with having to sacrifice time for family, friends, and themselves for the precious job title, the impressive salary, the corner office with a view, and the power and perks that come with what was traditionally thought of as success. A growing number of Caucasian women at the turn of the millennium seem to be at “emotional—and even spiritual—crossroads” (Glasser & Smalley, 1999, p. 3). Thus, while they may be satisfied with the extrinsic rewards of their jobs, they have an equal need for those rewards (i.e., time for family and personal needs) which bring intrinsic happiness.
Women of Color
In comparison to Caucasian women, women of color have more unmet needs in the area of Job Satisfaction. However, this is not due to a lack of qualifications or job commitment. After interviewing 963 African-American women from across the country, Catalyst (2002, 2004), a nonprofit research and advisory organization working for the advancement of women in business, reported that despite their qualifications, African-American women represent a miniscule 1.1% of corporate officers at Fortune 500 companies. In other words, out of a total of 10,092 corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies, only 106 are African-American women.
In addition, this study revealed that African-American women were faced with more barriers in the workplace than Caucasian women. For instance, African-American women received fewer job advancements, promotions, and salary increases; they enjoy a less supportive work environment; feel less influential in their positions; and receive less adequate on the job training, development, or coaching in the workplace. Moreover, some of the women talked about experiencing what Catalyst describe as a “double outsider” status. Whereas Caucasian women share gender or race in common with most colleagues or managers, African-American women report exclusion from informal networks and even conflicted relationships with their Caucasian counterparts (Catalyst, 2004). For example, one 40-year old divorced mother with three children left her position in management in a large Fortune 500 production and distributor company because of a growing dissatisfaction with workplace dynamics. That is, she experienced many of the problems other women of color reported such as conflicted relationships, exposure to negative race-based stereotypes, more frequent questioning of her credibility and authority, a lack of company support, and exclusion from formal and informal networks (Catalyst, 2004; Pennington, 1999). Thus, while African-American women may not be as successful as Caucasian women in the Job Satisfaction category, they expend just as much energy and effort in this area. Pennington (1999) writes that some African-Americans have left the workplace because it interfered with their family and spiritual life.
In their report, “Advancing Latinas in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know,” Catalyst (2002), based on quantitative findings from 342 Latina survey respondents and qualitative data collected from focus groups and in-depth interviews, found that Latina women face work/family issues that are not adequately addressed by corporate policy or practices. Latina women, like African-American women, also place a great deal of emphasis on their relationships with extended family members who often serve as sources of support (Catalyst, 2003). However, these extended relationships are not recognized in the same way by corporations. For example, when a grandparent or a great aunt is ill, most employer-family-friendly policies or practices do not extend to these members. As a result, Latina women are faced with the issue of “work interference with family” or in the reverse “family interference with work.” Another challenge Latina women face is building effective professional relationships in their companies because there are no role models, sponsors, mentors, or informal networks available to them in corporate environment. Like African-Americans, “many feel they have to overcome negative stereotypes in order to form successful relations” (p. 2). In terms of their experience with “double outsider” status, some Latina women feel they have to lose their identity in order to fit in. In addition, they report similar perceptions about corporations’ diversity policies as other women of color. That is, they are inadequate in creating inclusive work environments.
In 1998, Catalyst gathered quantitative findings from 413 Asian women, qualitative findings from 12 focus groups of entry and mid-level Asians, as well as in depth interviews with senior Asian women. The findings revealed many work-related challenges. For example, some reported feeling unaccepted and unsupported in the workplace because of their cultural upbringing. As a result, they felt pressured to change in order to fit in. Very similar to the first two groups of women, about 60 % of these women reported a lack of mentors and networks as a barrier to advancement and are more likely to report having lower quality relationships with their managers. These challenges also were reported as reasons why Asian women were not advancing in their careers, did not receive the same promotions, and/or intellectually satisfying work task.
Thus, the primary category of unmet needs for women of color appears to be Job Satisfaction. However, research (Garcia-Zamor, 2003; Pennington, 1999) shows that both women of color and Caucasian women have had to neglect family, friends, community involvement, and their spiritual development because of an unwavering devotion to their jobs. But this is changing. Some U. S. women of color and Caucasian women are leaving the workplace, others are working with organizational management to improve their workplace conditions, and still others are striking out on their own to start businesses for themselves.
International Women
Thus far, this paper has focused mainly on the work related conditions women face in the United States. However, to fully address the second research question (Do women of color, Caucasian, and international women need similar conditions to be successful in the workplace?), this section looks at women in other countries: Canada, Britain, Mauritius, South Africa, and Malaysia.
Canadian women seem to have some of the same workplace issues women have in the United States. Many women report that they started their own businesses or became self-employed because they were unhappy with the quality of their work-life (leisure time and time for family and friends) and job satisfaction issues (i.e., job advancement, job authority, income, etc.). In a survey of more than a 1,000 Canadian women, Hughes (2003) and Catalyst (1998) report that many felt pushed into “self-employment out of a need for independence, flexibility, and the opportunity to escape barriers in paid employment and job advancement” (p. 1).
The issue of working-time preferences has also emerged as an important one for women working in Britain. According to Fagan (2001), it has become both an academic and a policy debate. Although Fagan’s study found that work schedules were important to both men and women, they were more inconvenient for women than men. Women cited child care problems and the need to fit household chores into their day much more often than men. Both men and women said some schedules interfered with family and leisure time and their health.
To determine the degree of awareness and level of supportiveness of top managers of women’s issues in Mauritius, Ramgutty-Wong (2002) surveyed 147 chief executives of private and public sector organizations. This author reported that although none of the chief executives opposed the idea of women in management, they said they believed that most Mauritian men would feel uncomfortable working for a female manager. This study also showed that women specific workplace issues such as family supportive employers, flexible work schedules, and work-life balance also did not find favor with these male executives.
The South African Business Women Association (BWA) in association with Catalyst (2004) revealed that quite a bit of work needed to be done in addressing the needs of women in the South African workplace. More specifically, these groups reported that while 52% of the adult population were women, only 41% were gainfully employed, and only 14.7% of all executive managers and 7.1% of all directors in the country were women. This disproportionate representation becomes even more dismal as one examines the upper ranks of the management population. Only 19.8% of executive managers and 10.7% of directors are women. What makes this picture so unacceptable for women in South African is “one of [its] major thrusts of economic development in the country is the empowerment of all sectors of the community.” The president of BWA notes that “these figures are cause for concern that organizations may be short changed themselves.” In order words, “women are a potential source of competitive advantage, and their presence on boards is an indicator of a company’s intentions and environmental climate” (p. 2).
In another study about black and white working mothers of Durban, South Africa, Magwaza (2003) reports that there is a contradiction between what societies expect of child rearing and parenting and what the mothers themselves can meet. The main concern of the respondents in this study was that the criticisms leveled against working mothers appeared to come from people in society who lack first-hand experience with parenting. For example, in some South African families ideas about mothering are shaped by patriarchal ideologies. According to the author, such ideologies include the notion that good mothering means being with the children every waking moment. Magwaza notes that although parenting is shouldered extensively by mothers, fathers can help by being more receptive to the opinions of mothers about the challenges of motherhood. It would also be helpful if South African fathers were more open to the notion that mothers are also individuals and have needs of their own which may not be related to the role of mothering. This study suggests that some South African women experience some of the same conflicts with work and family issues as women in the U. S. and other countries.
Many of the physical and psychological stressors Malaysian women experience are reported to be associated with the conflict between their work and family roles. In a recent study, Noraini (2002) surveyed 310 Malay women who were struggling to balance their work and family roles. This author found that because the Malaysian culture places a great deal of importance on women’s family roles, women often experience conflict between their family responsibilities and their commitments to their work. However, this study does show women who had more independence or control over their personal and work lives reported higher levels of job satisfaction and higher retention rates than women with less control in these areas.
International women are dealing with some of the same issues in the workplace as women in the United States. While most seem to have the greatest unmet need in the category of Job Satisfaction, many still express a need for more balance between work and life issues.
To summarize, the preceding literature review suggests three conditions that may impede or enhance women’s happiness and well-being in the workplace. Thus, to investigate the validity of these conditions, the researcher formulated four research hypotheses for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Hypothesis one states: Quality of Work Life, Job Satisfaction, and Spirituality at Work enable the happiness of work place well-being of women. Hypothesis two states: The proportion of job satisfaction needs would be greater for women of color, while Caucasian and international women would indicate a greater need for quality of work life issues. Hypothesis three states: All groups will indicate a need for the importance of spirituality in the workplace. Hypothesis four states: Women have the same work related concerns across occupations (e.g., business, education, and law).
Methods
To examine the validity of the first hypothesis, a random sample (i.e. texts) was drawn from social science literature related to three occupational clusters: businesses, postsecondary educational institutions (e.g., colleges and universities), and the legal profession (e.g., major law firms). The sampling method involved (1) electronically importing texts from several on-line sources (the Library Online Resource Access (LORA) database, scholarly books, and E-journals and E-books on the internet) into the Provalis Research Qualitative Data Management (QDA) computer software program, (2) assigning the texts a random case number, and (3) sorting the cases in ascending order for each cluster creating three random database samples: business corporations, universities/colleges, and law firms. This procedure yielded 75 useable texts. Twenty-five addressed women’s concerns in the corporate world. Another 25 addressed women’s concerns in the university. And 25 addressed women’s concerns in law firms.
To obtain sampling data for the second, third, and fourth hypotheses, the researcher estimated need variations among women of color, Caucasian women, and international women, as far as the conditions that enable them to flourish in the workplace are concerned, by merging demographic data from the U. S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau (DOL/WB), the American University College of Law Corporate Counsel Work Life Statistics Report, The National Association for Legal Professionals (NALP), the America Bar Association (ABA) Market Research Division, the National Center for Education Statistics (NECES), Catalyst, and the Professional Association for People Involved with Spirituality in the Workplace. These agencies provided a cross-section of probability sample surveys (conducted annually for the period 2001 thru 2005) on professional women in the United States, Canada, and Europe. All agencies have been a valuable source of individual and organizational level data analysis of opinion polls (Ewald, 2004; Less & Hay, 2002; Winters, 2005) and have been used extensively to examine effects of the demands of work and family on women in the workplace (Freeman, 2004; Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000; Hurst & Hudson, 2005; Parasuraman & Greenhaus, 1997).
Data Analysis
To gain insight into the meaning of the data collected from the two samples, two separate analyses were conducted. The first analysis was based on the textual data related to H1: Quality of Work Life, Job Satisfaction, and Spirituality at Work enable the happiness and work place well-being of women. To analyze this data, a contextual content analysis was performed. A key element in contextual content analysis is the systematic and reliable coding of textual data (McTavis & Pirro, 1990). In fact, the codial process is the foundation upon which the analysis rests (MacQueen, McLellan, Kay, & Milstein, 2001). It was important, therefore, to identify a profile of idea or theme categories associated with the first research question. To do so, the researcher developed a coding scheme using emergent coding (Fierros, Gulek, & Wheelock, 1997). Emergent coding involved the preliminary analysis of a subset of nine texts (three per occupational cluster) and the independent extraction of the dominant themes that emerged from this subset. This process yielded three dominant themes and 30 subcategories (10 per dominant theme) which were then used to code the remaining 66 texts. It is important to point out that before the coding of these 66 texts, each of the three themes was assigned a numerical category score for subsequent statistical analysis. Theme one was assigned the category score of C-1, theme two was assigned a category score of C-2, and theme three was assigned a category score of C-3.
The remaining 66 texts were coded using the QDA Miner computer program. This was done with the help of a codebook, developed from the three major themes and 30 corresponding subcategories, and a two step codial process: (1) analyzing, selecting, and highlighting segments of imported texts (i.e., one text at a time) and (2) coding the segments by double-clicking on a subcategory in the codebook that matched the highlighted words/phrases in the text. The code markings were displayed in color brackets at the right margin of the highlighted text segment. Each marking identified the physical limits of the coded text segment, the major theme (or category), the code (or subcategory), date, and coder’s name. The markings also identified the numerical category score assigned the major themes.
Table 1 presents the results of the contextual content analysis by clusters. Employing the framework developed through emergent coding, the researchers, with the help of QDA Miner and SPSS Text Analysis computer programs, systematically coded 75 texts. As shown, each cluster is separately analyzed. This made it possible for the researcher to compare the percentage of categories/subcategories among each occupational cluster. Frequency counts were computed for each of the three major categories. This number is shown as the “total percent” for each category and represents the unique occurrence of a major category in a specific text. In addition to computing the unique occurrence of the major categories, the researcher also computed the number of co-occurrence of the sub-categories within each of the major categories. Because an occupational cluster may have a single text which contains multiple sub-categories, the “percent total” for each major category represent the number of texts that listed one or more sub-categories. For example, the “percent total” for the major category of quality of work life means that 30% of the texts for this cluster contained one or more of the sub-categories listed (i.e., flexible work schedule, work, and family, etc.). Therefore, the “percent total” refers to the overall occurrence of a particular category, not the sum of the sub-categories.
Inter-intra rater reliability tests
The goal of content analysis is to identify and record relatively inter-subjective characteristics of contextual concepts (Neuendorf, 2002). Therefore, there was a need to determine the reliability of agreements made by the researchers. In this study, reliability was defined as the extent to which the raters’ agreed in their ratings and not just the extent to which their ratings were correlated. Therefore, two types of reliability ratings were completed: (1) the agreement made between the researcher and a trained research assistant (interrater reliability) and(2) two agreements between ratings made by the researcher (intrarater reliability) on two separate occasions (Sim & Wright, 2005) on the same 66 texts. To avoid contamination of intra-rater agreement, the two rating sessions were done three to four weeks apart.
There are a number of ways to report inter-rater and intra-rater agreement. The simplest way is the overall “percent agreement.” Although “percent agreement” offers a measure of agreement, it was too limited for this study due to the fact that it does not take into account the agreement that would be obtained purely by chance. And since chance agreements often yield inflated coefficients, a more conservative technique, one that controls for chance agreement between raters, was needed. Cohen kappa is recommended (Crocker & Algina, 1986; Kvalseth, 1991; Sim &Wright, 2005) as such a technique because it indicates the proportion of agreement beyond which is expected by chance. A kappa standard of .61 to .80, according to Landis and Koch (1977), suggests a substantial amount of inter- and or intra rater agreement.
After coding all 66 texts, several qualitative analysis functions were performed (i.e., code retrieval, co-occurrence, clustering, and code-word collapsing). These functions provided a preliminary structure for the subsequent quantitative statistical analysis. This included the variable list of all 66 major themes and subcategories coded as C1, C2, and C3 which was saved and imported into the SPSS Data Editor where the researcher re-structured it according to coders (coder 1 and coder 2), cases (1 thru 66), occupational cluster ID (corporate, university, and law firms), and the data (thematic codes C1, C2, and C3). After this restructuring, data were submitted to Crosstabs procedures, which produced a crosstabulation table and kappa statistics for the “Rating” of coder 1 by the “Rating” of coder 2 on all variables. As shown in Table 2, the overall kappa coefficient obtained for the inter-rater agreement for the major themes (Quality of Work Life, Job Satisfaction, and Spirituality at Work) was .80 (n = 75). Specifically, the reported kappa coefficients for the individual clusters: corporate, university, and law firms were .80, .82, and .78 respectively.
The intra-rater agreement, which was completed during two coding sessions (approximately 4 weeks apart) for 5 thematic categories for each cluster (corporate, university, and law firms), obtained an overall kappa score of .80 (n = 15).
The second analysis was based on the second, third, and fourth hypotheses, which are concerned with the relationship among the major themes by demographic group by occupational clusters. This relationship was examined via hierarchical log-linear analyses in which the unit of analysis was the three major work related themes. A test of the independence model revealed a substantial amount of association among these three factors as indicated by the likelihood-ratio chi- square (L) of 97.87 (df = 4, p < .001). HiLog analyses also offer a selection procedure that first determines the necessary order of interaction termsrequired for a model to fit the data; then through backwards elimination, it determines the best sufficient model to satisfactorily fit the data (SPSS, 2003). The saturated model was such a model. Saturated models include all possible terms, including all interaction effects. They also provide an exact fit for the observed cell count. The optimal model, thus, had the generating class demographic groups by category and category by occupational cluster (L = 112.41, df = 20, p < .001).
Table 3 reports cell frequencies for the demographic groups (WOC, CA, and Int’l Women) by category (major categories) contingency table. The chi-square for this interaction was 36.10 (df = 1, p < .001). The strongest of the three work categories was most likely Job Satisfaction and Quality of Work Life for each demographic group. While Spirituality at Work received the lowest frequency count, its importance was almost identical across groups. Chi-square tests were computed to test the hypothesis that the proportion of Job Satisfaction needs was greater for women of color, while Caucasian women would indicate a greater need for quality of work life issues. To guard against Type I error, the criterion value of p was set at .001. Issues like job advancement, diversity, gender and racial equality, development, pay raises, full-potential, acceptance, and resourceful were significantly (p. < .001) more likely to be identified by women of color (50%), compared to Caucasian women (32%), and international women (33%) as the most critical work-related concerns for them. Issues such as work-life balance, flexible work schedules, family and work, family-friendly employer, broad family leave benefits, and work interference with family and personal time were significantly(p < .001) more likely to be identified by Caucasian women (56%) than women of color (41%), although international women (50%) were just as likely to identify these issues as significantly (p < .001) important to them.
Cell frequencies for the category by cluster breakdown are also reported in Table 3 (X= 38.09, df =1, p. < .001). Follow-up chi-square tests revealed that each work related category (Quality of Work Life, Job Satisfaction, and Spirituality at Work) had a significant amount of association (p. < .001) with each occupational cluster (e.g., corporate, university, and law firm).
Discussion
This study found what women, universally, have predicted. That is, workplace well-being is directly related to their concept of happiness. By using computer contextual content analysis to examine patterns of work related themes in relevant texts, the researcher identified three conditions, quality of work life, job satisfaction, and workplace spirituality, which can impact women’s well-being in the workplace. These results strongly support the first hypothesis and extend the findings of Parasuraman and Greenhaus (1997), Diener and Seligman (2002), and Giacalone, Jurkiewicz, and Fry (2005).
The second hypothesis was also accepted. A significantly higher proportion of job satisfaction concerns were reported by women of color than either Caucasian women or international women. On the other hand, Caucasian women and international women reported significantly higher concerns for quality of work life issues than women of color. Although spirituality at work received the lowest frequency count among the three categories, it was yet accepted because it was hypothesized that the importance was almost identical across the three groups.
In addition to revealing how these work-related conditions correspond with the needs of each group, this study also provides insight into the robustness of Maslow and Lowery (1998) organizational needs theory. First, it determined that one level of workplace needs does not have to be completely satisfied before another one emerges. This was indicative of the large number of Caucasian and international women who reported a greater need for “quality of work life” issues, but still had unmet needs in the area of “job satisfaction.” That is more than 1/3 was also concerned about issues such as job design, the work environment, and social relations.
However, when compared with women of color, Caucasian women report fewer unmet job satisfaction needs. This means they receive more job advancements, promotions, and salary increases. They enjoy more supportive work environments, feel more influential in their positions, and receive more on the job training, development, and/or coaching than women of color. This part of the findings extends the research of Catalyst (2002) and Pennington (1999), which reveal that Caucasian women face fewer barriers in the workplace than women of color.
Women of color reported fewer concerns for quality of work life issues than Caucasian and international women. On the face of it, this finding seems to defy conventional policies because it implies that women of color were receiving more flexible schedules, childcare assistance, family friendly benefits, leave time, and so forth than the other groups. While it is possible that these women did indeed have fewer unmet needs in this area, it is unlikely that their needs were being met by their employers. Historically, women of color have relied on an informal network of family caregivers, which is an outgrowth of the relationship between their nuclear families and their extended families. This network is one possible explanation why the women of color had fewer needs on this issue than the other groups. Research shows that family networks can be: (1) helpful to the psychological well being of working women; (2) helpful with the amount of time devoted to home, childcare, and development (emotional, health, and educational); (3) helpful with overall family and personal life choices; and (4) helpful to shoring up women’s sense of self-worth, coping, and adapting strategies through feedback and validation (Boyd-Franklin, 1989; Chao, 1999; Connard & Novik, 1996).
The third issue was spirituality in the workplace. In this area, all three groups reported a lower score than they did in the other two areas. This finding may be interpreted in relationship to a host of studies on workplace spirituality (Cavanaugh, 1999; Fry, Vitucci, & Cedillo, 2005; Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003; Gilligan, 1992; Harman & Hormann, 1990; Koenig, 2002; Malone & Fry, 2003; McCormick, 1994; Palmer, 1998; Sass, 2000; Seligman & Diener, 2002; Siegel, 1991) which reveal that there are many possible theories of spirituality. One theory which emerges from the literature is the theory of “segmented spirituality.” The segmented spirituality theory argues that employees may fail to bring their spirituality to work out of a fear of reprisal, or because they do not know how to integrate it into their work. The opposite of this theory is the “integrative spirituality” theory. Integrative spirituality is when employees bring their spiritual values to work and integrate them into their work to enhance their performance (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003). If one conceptualizes the first theoretical perspective as the individual level of spirituality and the second perspective as the organizational level of spirituality, then it is possible that the three groups in this study may have responded in terms of their individual spiritual values and not the organizational values. Thus, the lower scores found on this issue may mean that the women’s spiritual needs were being met, at least, at the individual spiritual level.
However, since the goal of this study was to determine the need for spirituality at the organizational level, future studies should differentiate between individual level and organizational level spirituality, then assess whether or not employees needs are being met at the organizational level. One way to do this is in the context of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model. Many of the characteristics of the individual workplace spirituality are interchangeable with Maslow’s “self-actualization” characteristics (i.e., full-potential, creativity, inclusiveness of all humanity, wholeness, authenticity, value-based judgment, interconnectedness, ethics, and meaningfulness). Yet Maslow believes managers can motivate employers to integrate these individual needs within an organizational culture whose values reflect altruistic love, profitability, competitive positions, and reputation (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003).
Others (Giacalone, et al., 2005) argue that even if one accepts that spirituality is associated with these characteristics, creating spiritual workplaces will require demonstrating that workplace spirituality is aligned to organizational goals. Thus, the likelihood of these associations being put into effective operation will depend on several developments: (1) Employees having an understanding of the vision of the organization and being empowered with the autonomy to act as they see fit, (2) Employees feeling that through their work they are making a positive difference in other peoples’ lives which in turn enriches their own, and (3) Leaders committing to the legitimacy of this association (Fry, 2003). According to Giacalone et al. (2005),
It is such outcomes, ultimately based in the satisfactions that result from work performed as if it were a calling that will result in higher levels of organizational commitment, productivity, and reduced stress, the same organizational goals most often reported as affective outcomes of organizational research. (p. 14)
This is consistent with the science of happiness research which shows that authentic happiness centers on conditions that enable people to flourish in their lives (Seligman, 2003). Three such conditions are workplace spirituality, quality of work life, and job satisfaction. When there is equilibrium between these conditions, organizational outcomes are limitless. And research has shown that these need not be directly tied to a financial outcome (such as increased individual productivity or decreased theft), but could be tied indirectly to financially-related outcomes such as associations with positive employee attitudes (yielding lower turnover), lowered rates of illness (reducinghealthcare costs and absenteeism), or improved public image (yielding more interest in the company) (Giacalone et al., 2005, p.14).
In conclusion, while some may scoff at this new organizational science as being too “soft,” there is a growing body of literature which shows that the nature of modern business requires what is ultimately typical of creative management. According to Amabile (1998), as well as others (Fry, 2003; Maghroori & Rolland, 1997; Pallavi, 2000) creative leadership is one of the most powerful tools in the realm of the business world today. But out of an unwavering pursuit of productivity, efficiency, and control, all legitimate business strategies, many workplace managers unknowingly use managerial practices that kill the creative spirits of their workers. A single unwavering focus on productivity, efficiency, and control can crush employees’ intrinsic motivation, that strong internal desire to do something based on interests and passions. This happens because managers do not understand that those desirable business imperatives, they pursue primarily through productivity, efficiency, and control, can coexist, harmoniously, with creativity. Inherent in the nature of creativity is the ability to think flexibly and imaginatively and to use one’s expertise to motivate others to achieve goals. However, if this model of thinking is to be profitable, managers must find a way to merge the individual level values of ethics and spiritual well-being (e.g., happiness, caring, connection), commitment and productivity with organizational level values (e.g., a culture with values of altruistic love, social responsibility, profitability, competitive positions, and reputation) (Giacalone et. al., 2004). It is only through this type of merger will organizations get the kind of productivity, efficiency, profit, and authentic employee happiness that is so vitally needed in the 21st century economy.
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Table 1
Percent of Major Categories and Sub-Categories by Occupational Clusters
Occupational Clusters
Categories |
Corporate Cluster (N=25) Percent |
University Cluster (N=25) Percent |
Law Firms Cluster (N=25) Percent |
|||
Quality of Work Life |
||||||
(1) Work Life Balance |
15 |
6 |
14 |
|||
(1) Flexible Work Schedule |
35 |
7 |
20 |
|||
(1) Broad Family Benefits |
6 |
9 |
3 |
|||
(1) Overworked/Work Load |
12 |
20 |
25 |
|||
(1) Work Interference w/Family |
9 |
5 |
10 |
|||
(1) Leisure-Time/Personal Time |
4 |
4 |
5 |
|||
(1) Family-Friendly Employer |
6 |
10 |
1 |
|||
(1) Family Work/Market Work |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|||
(1) Work and Family |
5 |
1 |
9 |
|||
(1) Time-Off/Leave Time |
6 |
10 |
4 |
|||
Total Percent |
75% |
50% |
40% |
|||
Job Satisfaction |
||||||
(2) Development/Training |
10 |
9 |
9 |
|||
(2) Diversity/Diversity Workforce |
12 |
20 |
10 |
|||
(2) Acceptance/Support |
7 |
10 |
6 |
|||
(2) Promotion/Job Advancement |
21 |
22 |
12 |
|||
(2)Resourceful/Utilization |
5 |
9 |
0 |
|||
(2) Retention |
10 |
20 |
8 |
|||
(2) Consultation/Communication |
8 |
8 |
0 |
|||
(2) Discrimination/Racial/Gender |
20 |
25 |
15 |
|||
(2) Pay Raises/Levels |
15 |
28 |
12 |
|||
(2) Recognition by Management |
9 |
6 |
10 |
|||
Total Percent |
80% |
70% |
69% |
|||
.
Spirituality |
||||||
(3) Community |
5 |
5 |
3 |
|||
(3) Connection |
3 |
8 |
3 |
|||
(3) Meaningfulness |
5 |
12 |
10 |
|||
(3) Creativity |
7 |
6 |
3 |
|||
(3) Valued-Based Thinking |
3 |
8 |
0 |
|||
(3) Mind-Body-Spirit |
2 |
7 |
0 |
|||
(3) Serving Others |
10 |
10 |
9 |
|||
(3) Faith in Higher Power |
4 |
3 |
0 |
|||
(3) Full-Potential |
6 |
7 |
4 |
|||
(3) Ethics |
8 |
8 |
3 |
|||
Total Percent |
30% |
29% |
28% |
|||
Table 2
Cohen Kappa Reliability Agreement Major Themes across Clusters
Clusters and Major Themes
|
Raters |
Corporate Major Themes |
University Major Themes |
Law Firms Major Themes |
(N=25) |
Inter-Raters |
.80 (N=25) |
.79 (N=25) |
.81 |
|
Intra-Raters |
.76 (N=25) |
.80 (N=25) |
.79 |
Table 3
Frequency of Demographic Groups, Broken Down by Category and Occupational Cluster
|
Women of Color N=5,225 |
Caucasian Women N=8,401 |
International Women N=2,839 |
|
Quality of Work Life |
||||
Corporate Cluster |
1060 |
2654 |
503 |
|
University Cluster |
763 |
1230 |
240 |
|
Law Firm Cluster |
318 |
1506 |
494 |
|
Job Satisfaction |
||||
Corporate Cluster |
1372 |
1200 |
735 |
|
University Cluster |
934 |
803 |
118 |
|
Law Firm Cluster |
351 |
330 |
375 |
|
Spirituality at Work |
||||
Corporate Cluster |
160 |
160 |
89 |
|
University Cluster |
162 |
366 |
139 |
|
Law Firm Cluster |
105 |
152 |
146 |
|
