The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users
One of the great paradoxes of inequality in organizations is that even when organizations introduce new programs designed to help employees in traditionally disadvantaged groups succeed, employees who use these programs often suffer negative career consequences. This study helps to fill a significan...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
SAGE Publications
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105488 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4372-3498 |
| _version_ | 1811079579597537280 |
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| author | Briscoe, Forrest Kellogg, Katherine C. |
| author2 | Sloan School of Management |
| author_facet | Sloan School of Management Briscoe, Forrest Kellogg, Katherine C. |
| author_sort | Briscoe, Forrest |
| collection | MIT |
| description | One of the great paradoxes of inequality in organizations is that even when organizations introduce new programs designed to help employees in traditionally disadvantaged groups succeed, employees who use these programs often suffer negative career consequences. This study helps to fill a significant gap in the literature by investigating how local employer practices can enable employees to successfully use the programs designed to benefit them. Using a research approach that controls for regulatory environment and program design, we analyze unique longitudinal personnel data from a large law firm to demonstrate that assignment to powerful supervisors upon organization entry improves career outcomes for individuals who later use a reduced-hours program. Additionally, we find that initial assignment to powerful supervisors is more important to positive career outcome--that is, employee retention and performance-based pa--than are factors such as supervisor assignment at the time of program use. Initial assignment affects career outcomes for later program users through the mechanism of improved access to reputation-building work opportunities. These findings have implications for research on work-family programs and other employee-rights programs and for the role of social capital in careers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:17:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/105488 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:17:15Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1054882022-10-01T02:35:59Z The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users Briscoe, Forrest Kellogg, Katherine C. Sloan School of Management Kellogg, Katherine C. Kellogg, Katherine C. One of the great paradoxes of inequality in organizations is that even when organizations introduce new programs designed to help employees in traditionally disadvantaged groups succeed, employees who use these programs often suffer negative career consequences. This study helps to fill a significant gap in the literature by investigating how local employer practices can enable employees to successfully use the programs designed to benefit them. Using a research approach that controls for regulatory environment and program design, we analyze unique longitudinal personnel data from a large law firm to demonstrate that assignment to powerful supervisors upon organization entry improves career outcomes for individuals who later use a reduced-hours program. Additionally, we find that initial assignment to powerful supervisors is more important to positive career outcome--that is, employee retention and performance-based pa--than are factors such as supervisor assignment at the time of program use. Initial assignment affects career outcomes for later program users through the mechanism of improved access to reputation-building work opportunities. These findings have implications for research on work-family programs and other employee-rights programs and for the role of social capital in careers. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Industry Studies Fellowship) 2016-11-30T21:13:56Z 2016-11-30T21:13:56Z 2011-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0003-1224 1939-8271 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105488 Briscoe, Forrest, and Katherine C. Kellogg. “The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users.” American Sociological Review 76, no. 2 (March 31, 2011): 291–319. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4372-3498 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0003122411401250 American Sociological Review Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf SAGE Publications Kellogg |
| spellingShingle | Briscoe, Forrest Kellogg, Katherine C. The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users |
| title | The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users |
| title_full | The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users |
| title_fullStr | The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users |
| title_short | The Initial Assignment Effect: Local Employer Practices and Positive Career Outcomes for Work-Family Program Users |
| title_sort | initial assignment effect local employer practices and positive career outcomes for work family program users |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105488 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4372-3498 |
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