Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/ChrisTilly

Analyses of work-life balance typically do not address the role of organizational structure but generally focus on individual worker attributes and a company's work-life policies. This paper focuses on the interrelationship among structural changes in industries and firms, managerial strategy, and jobs. This chapter appears in Work and Life Integration in Organizations and is based on our broader research on internal labor market changes over the past decade and the implications for the quality of jobs as a consequence of corporate restructuring in four industries. We find that although employer-driven restructuring is the predominant factor shaping job structure, and that changes in flexibility are usually collateral consequences rather than goals of restructuring, worker needs for job flexibility to accommodate work-life balance exert pressure on managers to structure jobs around those needs. The paper details those changes in jobs and career paths that affect the opportunities for work-life balance.

Corporate restructuring of the past decade has changed the fate of lower-skilled workers, but the exact nature of that fate—whether loss of long-term employment or of job ladders—is widely debated. Case studies and analysis of employment and industry data on jobs in the food industry, as part of a four-industry study (retail, finance, electronics manufacturing), find that industry consolidation and the shift of food preparation work out of food service providers (restaurants, and cafeterias in schools and businesses) to suppliers—in particular manufacturers—may create higher-quality jobs and more extensive job ladders. However, these improved jobs have lifted many opportunities beyond the reach of many lower-skilled workers in the industry. The findings suggest an explanation for the puzzle about why the media report individual firms downsizing while aggregate data exhibit no change in average job tenure and related measures: processes that dismantle job ladders in one set of businesses may create new jobs and opportunities elsewhere, averaging out to little change overall.

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