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Charles Satterlee

Alfred P. Sloan Work and Family Research Network (Boston College) - 2 views

http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/ This is the Alfred P. Sloan Work and Family Research Network website. This website provides a multidisciplinary teaching resource covering the following work-family topics...

MGT444 wfnetwork.bc.edu work family research network policy briefs

started by Charles Satterlee on 05 May 11 no follow-up yet
Rachel Ona

Project on Global Working Families at Harvard School of Public Health (PGWF) - 2 views

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    The Project on Global Working Families (PGWF) is a research unit at Harvard School of Public Health. It was founded by Dr. Jody Heymann & co-directed by Dr. Alison Earle. They have developed a Work, Family, & Equity Index of government performance, around the world, to systematically define & measure the success of public policies on working families relative to that index. Research on demographic changes & policy initiatives is currently being performed throughout 150 countries. The information provided on this site requires a certain level of prior knowledge. The reading itself was fairly simple, but the graphs required more attention to comprehend. This leads me to believe that the site is designed for an audience that is familiar with the intricacies of the issue such as educators, public health students & professionals, & policy makers. The site's credibility relies on the reputation of Harvard University & a successful author & scholar (Jody Heymann is the author of The Widening Gap). The information is the same that we have been studying in this class, but with a global perspective. Statistics, analysis, interviews, case studies, & the public policy index are all available on the website for review. The purpose to understand & change the things that offer work-life balance to support family health gives additional credibility to the site; and since it is not a business trying to sell a service, it makes it slightly more trustworthy. The boundaries between work, family, & community are becoming more & more blurred. These areas of our life are so interconnected that any decision or incident, in one area, impacts all three. This website gives us a glance at the global condition surrounding the topic(s). It was interesting to recognize that the US is not the only country to suffer from the stresses of the work/family imbalance; it also gives a humbling image of the daunting task that confronts us. It is not a simple issue of fighting only for policy changes; it
Mindy Farris

9 to 5, National Association of Working Women - 2 views

9 to 5, National Association of Working Women http://www.9to5.org/ http://www.feminist.com/9to5.htm 9 to 5 was established in 1973 by a group of working women out of Boston, Massachusetts. They a...

Lisa Breymeier

Workplace Flexibility 2010 - 2 views

http://www.workplaceflexibility2010.org/ Workplace Flexibility 2010, Georgetown Law, is a powerhouse of up-to-date information relating to all aspects of work and family policy issues. Three main...

Work Family Balance Flexibility

started by Lisa Breymeier on 24 Apr 11 no follow-up yet
Jessica Davis

Workplace Flexibility 2010 - 1 views

Workplace Flexibility 2010 serves as a campaign to support the advancement of a comprehensive national policy on workplace flexibility. They help to set a stage for national debate on how to restru...

www.workplaceflexibility2010.org

started by Jessica Davis on 26 Apr 11 no follow-up yet
Krzysztof Miszczak

Families and Work Institute - 3 views

http://www.familiesandwork.org/ This organization researches the dynamic work, family, and community culture. It is known for it's extensive research, and their motto is "Our purpose is to create ...

Families Work

started by Krzysztof Miszczak on 23 Apr 11 no follow-up yet
Cory O'Connor

MIT: Great Example of Hands on Approach - 1 views

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    The MIT Workplace Center collects baseline date from these sectors such as demographics and work-family policies and practices. The second prong to their approach is to work collaboratively with the organization at all levels to create alternative structures, work redesign, and other appropriate initiatives. The intended audience is scholars and decision makers who recognize an all encompassing approach to dealing with work-family balance. Although the site is accessible and easily read by the layman. There is a variety of evidence that supports the credibility of this site and its information. Not only does this project consider that policies need to be amended, but it goes so far as to intervene and suggest, in addition to policy changes, that organizational structure may need to change and that work processes be updated. I was quite impressed with the information provided, interviews, impacts on employees, down to the approach of specific work restructure. Ann Bookman, with whom we are familiar from readings in our class, is Executive Director of this program and give it credibility with her positions in the Clinton Administration, publications, and involvement in family and medical leave issues. This organization originates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It gathers information from a number of sources such as post secondary institutions and its own studies. What I find interesting is that the focus in not on the statistics, but on the hands on approach that the organization takes. It doesn't hide behind theory development or ideology, they are part of the organizations that they study. They gather information, advise on implementation, and track results. At last, a website worthy of adding to a favorite list as a valuable resource. It seems apparent to me know that jumping into the workplace and actually experiencing the difficulties in a systematic approach is the best way and if we can create benchmarks for each industry, at least we
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    Your review seems to capture the essence of the MIT Workplace quite well. I like the fact that this organization seeks out opportunities to show action rather than rest on research and studied information. I am a factual person and can relate to approaches based on demographics and other work-family based statistics that can show a more complete picture. From your review I gather that MIT Workplace Center has a well thought out strategy with appropriate goals that help provide beneficial change to company structures and workplace initiatives.
Mindy Farris

Unmarried America - 1 views

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    Unmarried America http://www.unmarriedamerica.org/ Unmarried America is a website to be used as a source for information about single people throughout America. The website contains an online library containing pages of material containing information about unmarried and single people in the United States and in other countries. The website is intended for the many different types of people in the United States that are unmarried, whether they are single, divorced, widowed, parent, or childless. I feel this website is more of an advocacy type of website promoting the views of Spectrum Institute and their views of unmarried Americans and how laws and policies are geared more toward "traditional families". Spectrum Institute is a nonprofit corporation based out of Glendale, California that is involved with Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts for charitable organizations. When going into the "What's New" there are up to date stories from March 2011 and before, but when looking through the rest of the website most things are prior to 2007. This website brings to the surface that unmarried people are now becoming the majority in the United States and the government and businesses need take this into consideration when creating policies, benefit packages, and tax laws.
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    I liked your review of this site. Unmarried people definitely are now becoming the majority int he United States with more people men and women alike are becoming more dedicated to their careers, leaving less time for families. Companies should take this into consideration and I hope that their policies would be beneficial to both married and unmarried individuals.
Nicholas Spannaus

childrensdefense.org - 8 views

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization is working on policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure...

http:__www.childrensdefense.org_

started by Nicholas Spannaus on 03 Apr 11 no follow-up yet
Nicholas Spannaus

http://www.worklifepolicy.org/index.php/pageID/26 - 5 views

The Center for Work-Life Policy (CWLP), a non-profit organization based in New York, has emerged as a thought leader in diversity and talent management, driving ground breaking research and seeding...

worklifepolicy.org

started by Nicholas Spannaus on 03 Apr 11 no follow-up yet
Lisa Breymeier

Corporate Voices for Working Families - 4 views

http://www.cvworkingfamilies.org/about-us Corporate Voices for Working Families: A Unique Voice Bridging Business and Policy to Shape the Competitiveness of the Workplace and Workforce. It is a b...

Work Balance Family

started by Lisa Breymeier on 24 Apr 11 no follow-up yet
Ernest Moore

Companies That Care - 1 views

Jessica, when Ilooked at this site I thought it was geared more to corporate managers and executives. Although it had some good informationit just seemed to me that it was more interested in saying...

www.companies-that-care.org

Rachel Ona

Website Name: National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) - 0 views

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    The mission of The National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) is to improve the well-being of children by increasing the percentage of children being raised by "involved, responsible, and committed fathers." It is a well-known fact that children who lack the involvement of responsible, committed fathers are more susceptible to life difficulties. NFI brings together those in need & those who can help & offers a forum for anyone interested (from future parents, to educators, to policy makers) to study & collect reliable information as well as a community of similar interests & concerns. The home page of the website was easy to use & understand. It is accessible to the general public, does not require any knowledge, and it provides valuable information and resources (including mailing lists) for free. Among the many items that speak to this organization's credibility is its executive office. Roland Warren, a Princeton alumnus, husband of a doctor, father of a Harvard alumnus and a UNC alumnus who has recently completed his master's degree. Christopher Brown, the organizations Executive VP trains individuals and organizations on creating father-friendly organizations; he teaches how to develop, market, and evaluate fatherhood programs. He is the author and co-author of NFI curricula and has appeared as a fatherhood expert in media outlets including the L.A. Times, New York Times, Nick Jr. Magazine, and CNN. I was impressed that the site focused more on resources to improve involvement as well as ideas not only on the website, but also in the form of email newsletters that offer suggestions & solutions. Our studies have focused on the business aspect of creating family-friendly work policies and while crucially important, I like that this website recognizes accountability on both sides of the fence. It is important for organizations to recognize that parents need to be there for their children, but parents need to ensure that they are making good use of the time they
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    I really liked your review and your site. It is so important for companies to realize the importance of a child's need for their father in their lives, but also for parents to understand this importance as well. I think this is a great site for fathers to refer to in scheduling time for their work, self, and family.
Cory O'Connor

Consulting Advertisement offering Healthier, Flexible, Effective, and More Supportive W... - 1 views

shared by Cory O'Connor on 29 Apr 11 - Cached
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    Website Overview: This is a company website for an organization that offers consultation to employers who wish to provide a "healthier, flexible, effective, and supportive workplace." The site offers organizations insights into assessing staff and how to improve engagement and motivation. WFC utilizes online and Telework training e-courses to implement best practices and to share information and research related to transforming company cultures. Relationship to work, family, community class: Recognizing the need for change is important for any decision maker in any organization. Acting on that recognition may, perhaps, be just as important. This website sells that action in the form of changes to work practices, leave policy, time-saving assistance, in addition to better management of existing services already offered by the organization. The website briefly describes work-life as the "interaction between employers and employees, because everything that happens at work has an impact on workers' lives." It's not that I don't believe they are a credible resource in turning around a drowning corporate culture, it's that I generally don't believe anyone or thing that can't give me some example to support their cause. The site promotes its cause with scientific and academic research, but cost $29.99. So, I moved on. Next stop, case studies. I clicked on the "Business Case for Work-Life." In one of a handful of actual statistics, WFC cites a SHRM report that "work-life balance and flexibility were winners when recruiting skills, compensation came second." An agreeable statistic no doubt, unfortunately, this is the entire scope of this business case. No particular reference to a success of the company on implementing such a balance in any organization. However, respectable organizations such as Xcel Energy, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and decision makers of a few other companies offer words of appreciation The President of StressStop.com
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    I agree with you in that paying for this information is probably not our best option. It seems to be a good site with credible information. The company I work for does a lot of in-house training for managers and executives in order to provide better working environments to our employees so I think it would be interesting to read into some of their strategies.
Luke Miller

Military Family Research Institute - 1 views

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    The Military Family Research Institute was founded in 2000 through a cooperative agreement with the Office of Military Community and Family Policy in the Department of Defense. This organization is one of the leading organizations in the nation with the mission of conducting research regarding military families. As stated in the website the overall goal of this organization is to conduct research on the connection between quality of life for families and outcomes of interest to the military: job satisfaction, performance and retention. The overall intended audience is directed towards those individuals who are a part of the military and the families that are connected to the military as well. This organization directs five strategic goals to help support military related individuals by supporting the military infrastructure that sustains families, growing the capacity of communities to assist military families, generating new knowledge about the experiences of military families, influencing the policies, programs and practices supporting military families and creating and sustaining a vibrant learning organization. The Military Family Research Institute offers enough information on their website to proof their validity as a credible source. Information regarding their contact information, funding information and links to their national involvement throughout the country are present in their website and can be found publicly as well. Video links to military based work and events are present within this website. Military life can be biased by our government to showcase our proudest moments and hide moments that can hinder national moral. Information shown in this website I believe is not biased based on the fact that this organization is trying to provide relief to those who have to struggle with the hardship involved with the military. The .edu also states a link to Purdue, and educational institutions especially the University of Purdue has the reputation o
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    Hi Luke, I agree with the websites approach to community involvment. Quite a few of my friends are in the military and I dont see as much community support at the enlisted ranks. Although there seems to be plenty of support at the officer ranks, I would like to see non-military communities take on a greater role assisting military families...if only their employers might permit it.
Dana Severson

Texas work and family clearing house - 0 views

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    The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) is the state government agency charged with overseeing and providing workforce development services to employers and job seekers of Texas. For employers, TWC offers recruiting, retention, training and retraining, and outplacement services as well as valuable information on labor law and labor market statistics. For job seekers, TWC offers career development information, job search resources, training programs, and, as appropriate, unemployment benefits. While targeted populations receive intensive assistance to overcome barriers to employment all Texans can benefit from the services offered by TWC and our network of workforce partners. The Texas Work & Family Clearinghouse provides information and links to resources on work-family programs and policies for employers, employees, policymakers, and the public. They use the TWC as their researching source. They are funded by the federal tax revenue and are a free service for Texans. Because they are funded by the federal government, it leads me to believe that they have credibility about the reliability of the site and its information. Does the site have built in bias? For example is the Web page an advertisement for a product or service? I really didn't see any advertizing or political agenda for this site.
Dana Severson

When work works: Creating Effective and Flexible Workplaces - 0 views

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    When work works "When Work Works is a nationwide initiative to bring research on workplace effectiveness and flexibility into community and business practice. It is a project of Families and Work Institute in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for a Competitive Workforce and the Twiga Foundation, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation It seams that the site is very user friendly and is intended for the general public. It is a site that provides links to information on topics concerning workplace effectiveness and workplace flexibility. There is no certain level of knowledge assumed. When Work Works has grown from eight community partners in 2005, to having locations today that span the country that covers nearly one third of the total U.S. population. Families and Work Institute's National Study of Employers (NSE) is the most comprehensive and far-reaching study of the practices, policies, programs and benefits provided by U.S employers to address the changing needs of today's workforce and workplace. Conducted in 1998, 2005 and most recently in 2008, the NSE provides trend data on changes that have occurred over the past ten years. Any group can give itself an official sounding name or logo. What beyond surface credibility gives you clues about the reliability of the site and its information? I am not really sure. I know there was a lot of links to very interesting articles. Is the sponsoring organization involved in research and/or does it provide supporting documentation to back up its points? The whole organization is involved in research as a group. Does the site have built in bias? For example is the Web page an advertisement for a product or service? No, there were actually no advertisements. Does it have a particular political or social agenda? (Please see table 1 following these instructions for websites you can refer to about evaluating the credibility of web page sources.) Ther
Ernest Moore

Corporate Voices for Working Families - 0 views

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    Corporate voices for working families a business membership that is dedicated to helping public and corporate organizations discusss working family issue. It is clearly lead by private and publicly traded companies. I believe that the intended audience for this site is both corporate managers and working families that have hourly and non exempt worker. The corporate voices for working families work on 5 key issues and they are workforce readiness, workplace flexibility, family economic stability, work and family issues and legislative issues. Overall I think the website offered some great information as to how managers can implement more family friendly policies. I also thought the website is non partisan because it has section dedicated to Congress men and women that have helped to advance the work/family issue. In reading some of the information the site provide one of the things that I really enjoyed reading was the idea of helping make hourly employees just as successful as non hourly employees. One of the things comapnies forget that their hourly employees are just as important as non hourly employees. The website does provide documentation as to who are the corporate partners are and in my opinion does not have a hidden agenda. It seems to care about issues that working families face and how to improve work/life issues for hourly employees. There are several issues that I learned about in reading the website. First is that companies need to be concerned about work family issues not just for managers and exempt employees but also hourly workers. Many companies only look at work life from an exempt employee point of view and not hourly workers that are just as critical. I also learned about lactation programs for working mothers. I also learned about work place development. That at a time when there is so many having economic hardship that now is not the time to eliminate work for development programs. One of the best things that I learned in readin
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    Ernest - I really like this site. What impressed me is the annual report that is on the site which lists 64 corporate sponsors and included the full board member list and their corporate affiliation. The site is going on my favorites list. I especially like the area they call workforce readiness where they offer information about our education system and the changes needed to get our young person's ready to join the workforce. The brochures are a nice touch that highlights the corporate sponsors that helped to evaluate or study the area covered in each handout. This really showcases the corporate involvement in the community.
heather oliver

Chrysula Winegar - 0 views

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    Chrysula's website is a blog where she writes about work life balance strategies. She also has a section to where you can contact her for coaching and advisement. Many of her posts focus on ways to lead an integrated life to include raising a family, working, and living by your values. She seems to usually write from either personal experience or the experiences of acquaintances. She also includes categories from work life balance to mothering, fathering, and reforming and has links for work life reformers such as Sloan Foundation Work and Family and Alliance for Work Life Progress. Chrysula's experience and qualifications include a Masters degree focusing on work life issues and training and development. She blogs regularly with MomsRising.org and the Huffington Post and she will also have work published in two books this year: Dare to Dream and The 12 Powers of Motherhood. She is the Social Media Marketing Director for Foundation/Mashable Digital Media Lounge for UN Week on Changing the World One Mother at a Time. Chrysula's information was both subjective and objective. She listed links in her blog posts to different research that was done on the topic she was discussing to back up her opinion or information. She also provided links to changes in government policy that dealt with work life balance. Her blogs and information were all current as well and the website was easy to navigate. It was also well maintained and every link to outside sites worked. Chrysula's attended audience seemed to be geared toward working mothers and women in general although she has a whole category on fathering and much of her advice can used by both men and women searching for balance in their lives. One thing that Chrysula mentions in many of her blog posts is the importance of actually talking to your boss about you work/life balance issues. You can complain all you want, but if you never ask for flexibility then you are never going to get it. I think that
terry wilke

The Military Family Research Institute (MFRI) - 1 views

shared by terry wilke on 07 May 11 - Cached
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    The Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University researches military families for military families. Founded in 2000 by the Office of military Community and the Family Policy in the Dept of Defense. In 2007 MFRI received funding from a Lilliy Endowment grant, the organizations has grown to include the "development and delivery of outreach activities for the military" they also work with civilian organizations that support military families. The MFRI is guided by the belief that researchers and practitioners should work in together to improve outcomes. The web site is primarily directed towards military leadership and civilian professionals who work with military personnel and of course to the military personnel themselves. There are resources available on the site but the raw research data is not presented. A great deal of resource is spent on how families cope with extended and or repeated deployments that separate families for extended time periods. Credibility is aided by the easily recognizable and highly respected partners and grant providers such as the Lilly Endowment, the Dept. of Defense, Zero To Three and the Sesame Workshop. There seems to be no built in bias other than that of being military centric which is plainly stated and there are no advertisements found on the site other than those that support their mission statement. I learned that whatever problems civilians have with work-family, military personnel have those same issues and added to that they must find ways to cope with being away from their children for extended time periods. Worse yet is the idea that being a single parent is not an justification for not being deployed so in the worst case you may have your children looked after by strangers for up to six months at a time, at which time you may have only two weeks leave to spend with your children before being shipped out again. One can only imagine the types of recurrent support that would be required over a career.
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    Terry - It is definately a priority in my family to support the military and their families. I really enjoyed your review and this site. This site provides a huge number of resources for military service persons and their family and that is the focus of the site. There is a tiny fund raising spot, way down at the bottom of the main page, where you can donate funds. This says alot about the site, they are interested in helping those in need and provide lots of resource links. Supported by Purdue University gives it a lot of presence and hopefully funding for the programs.
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    I think that's a great asset for many military families as they struggle with the challenge of deployments. It's difficult enough to pay bills and raise a family but with one spouse having to serve remotely for an extended period of time they take on many more issues than the average family. I hope that our government continues to support families with this need to ensure those that do deploy are comfortable that their family is being assisted.
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