Setting Incredible Expectations - Your Perception of Yourself Defines Who You...
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1. The Transition to Fatherhood:
Men's Narrative Identity Work on the Path to Working Father
Melinda M. Carlison
BS Business Administration, Ithaca College Class of 2015
Masters in Business Administration Candidate, 2016
19th Annual James J. Whalen Symposium
April 14, 2016
2. Study Overview
Literature Review
– Gaps in Literature
Pilot Study
Full-Study (2016-2017)
Preliminary Findings will be presented at the
Work & Family Researchers Network Conference
June 2016, Washington DC
3. Literature Review: Themes
Shifting Meaning of “Father”
– Home
– Work
Competing Identities
– Father
– Husband
– Worker
Fatherhood in the Workplace
4. Literature Review Gaps
Limited Focus on how Men Combine Career & Family
Unclear Organizational Resources for Working Fathers
Reconciliation of Work-Self and Father-Self
Lack Longitudinal Studies
5. Pilot Study
Full-Study
Target Sample
– Expectant Fathers
– Professional/Managerial Careers
– Minimum Bachelors Degree
– 3-5 Year Fulltime Work Experience
Purpose of Pilot Study
6. Preliminary Findings
Combining Career & Family
– Marital Ideology: Ranges from Traditional to Egalitarian
– Even more traditional-minded men are getting more involved
“I'm a robot, I'll do what I'm told.”
“So, I come home at 5:00 or 4:00 to be with the baby versus working ‘til 7:00.”
“So, there's no break... I've taken on more household duties because (wife), I would say, she's
breastfeeding so she is spending more time with (baby)… so I cook a lot more often. We used to
sort of 50-50. I'd say that I cook about 75% of our meals.”
"It's less about trying to move my career forward, and more about I would like something I feel a
little more secure in.”
“I want to focus more more on the things that I have to learn from my career. I still have a lot to
learn with [department], and I would love to spend more time with [child].”
7. Preliminary Findings
Crafting a Fatherhood Identity
– The Stoic Father-Figure
– Breadwinner
– “Super Dad”
“What can you do? […] Do what you’ve got to do.”
“All I can say is that I will do my best to do whatever I can do and whatever happens, happens.”
“It's just that I have been willing to roll with it. Whatever it is and so nothing has really taken me
aback or anything.”
“Yes, I think being a father you have a lot more sense of responsibility. […] You have to be a bread
winner, right?”
“You need me to lay down on the railroad tracks and have the railroad go over me in order for my
daughter to do whatever she's got to do?" That's what I would do. I will come, I will help, and do
whatever. I will give (her) every dime I have to make sure that (her) house is nice...”
8. Preliminary Findings
Self-Sacrifice
– Giving up personal time and activities to be with family
“I play guitar, which I haven't been able to do. But it's fine. It's not a big deal.”
“So I went from between 15 and 25 hours a week [pre-baby] to-- I got two workouts in
this week, and that was a miracle.”
“I put on the Daddy 15… Physically I feel like I'm totally out of shape [laughter]. I'm not
as active as I was.”
“I have some friends from Boston from when I lived here, undergrad, but [going out] is
far less often. You know, you’ve got to get to bed early so you can wake up early. And
you can’t – you can’t be hung over... taking care of your baby while you’re hungover.”
9. Next Steps
Continue Recruiting & Interviewing
Continue Writing Paper for WFRN Conference
Develop a Concept Paper
Apply for Grants & Funding
10. A Special Thanks
Michael Jr. & Kristen Carlison
Michael Sr. & Deborah Carlison
Matthew McGill
Assistant Dean Dawn Kline
Dean Sean Reid
Professor Christine Bataille
Professor Steven Sweet
Ithaca College Sponsored Research REACHE Funding Program
11. New & Expecting Fathers
Christine D. Bataille
Assistant Professor of Management, Ithaca College School of Business
cbataille@ithaca.edu
(607) 274-1449
Editor's Notes
Hello everyone, thank you for attending the 19th annual James J. Whalen Symposium. My name is Melinda Carlison. I am a Masters in Business Administration student in the School of Business at Ithaca College and I am also an alumna of the class of 2015. Today I will present the research I am conducting with Assistant Professor Christine Bataille on the identity work which occurs during the transition to fatherhood for working professional.
Currently we are conducting our pilot study and developing a working literature review. From this review we have extracted some interesting themes and critical gaps in the literature, which will be covered during our full-study. Our pilot study is currently ongoing but has been accepted to the Work & Family Researchers Network Conference for a roundtable discussion in June where I will travel to Washington, DC to present our preliminary findings. Our full-study should be complete by 2017.
Twenty-five peer-reviewed articles
Published in, primarily, Sociology, Phycology and Family Science publications
However little research is present in Management and Business journals
Through this literature three clear themes have been evident.
First is the shifting meaning of what it means to be a good father. Traditionally, being a breadwinner equated to being a good father. However, the literature has indicated a clear shift in societal expectations for fathers over the last few decades. Increasingly fathers today desire to provide more than just financial stability for their children.
This is strongly tied to the concept of competing identities, or how a man sees and divides himself in terms of roles. Consistently, father, worker and husband are the top three role-identities presented in these studies.
Lastly, the theme of the “silent father” in the workplace is evident. It appears that fatherhood is seldom talked about the workplace, especially for expectant fathers who are reluctant to discuss paternity leave and resources for once they return to work. In the role of worker, men feel as though they must separate from their fatherhood identity to be successful creating a lack of discussion about a fathers’ needs and expectations in the workplace.
While some very clear themes are evident in current literature, there are also gaps we seek to fill through our current study.
Through our study we will determine how men combine career and family. While this is commonly evaluated in terms of working mothers, working father literature is limited.
Additionally, we will focus on resources available for these fathers in their workplaces and we will further investigate how these men reconcile their work-self and father-self to form their new father identities.
Finally, we will provide a longitudinal study through interviewing fathers both before and after the birth of their first child, a course of about one year.
Prior studies primarily focus on fathers before or after the birth of the first child, however through our study we will be able to demonstrate how identity is crafted over a longer period.
Our full-study, which will begin in just a few months, will observe a target sample of 30-35 expectant fathers who have held full-time professional positions for at least to three to five years.
Allowing for a work identity to have been established. From these we will be able to observe identity changes, if any, in these men.
Our pilot study aims to capture information from eight to ten men with similar characteristics. To date we have collected a little over half of our pilot study data.
The preliminary information we obtain through this pilot study will allow us to develop a concept paper to apply for grant to fund our full-study.
While our sample is still fairly small, we are seeing a few interesting preliminary findings emerge.
Overwhelmingly we are seeing a spectrum of approaches that men are taking to combining work and family.
On one end, some men are taking a traditional approach, focus on providing for the child through financial means.
The other end of the spectrum holds fathers of more egalitarian beliefs, where nurturing and financial care for the child are shared with the mother.
By interviewing men before and after the birth of the child we will be able to understand how personal expectations of fatherhood and self-perception change during this transition.
We will also examine how these roles are negotiated between spouses.
A few interesting quotes from completed interviews include:
We are also seeing distinct ways that fathers are thinking about, in the case of expectant fathers, and developing, in the case of new dads, their fatherhood identities. One such identity is that of the “stoic” father figure. These fathers have developed a, “do whatever it takes attitude” in order to accommodate the addition of the new role of father without appearing to be affected or burdened with increased responsibility. Other fathers are developing a breadwinner identity, with emphasis on their work role in order to provide for their family financially. We are also seeing, what Cooper refers to in the literature as a “superdad”, a father who maintains the roles of father, worker and husband without sacrifice to the responsibilities of any roles. Some quotes that capture these fatherhood identities include:
Very similar to crafting the identity of a “Superdad”, we are seeing that men self-sacrifice in order to maintain the father, worker and husband roles without compromise. This is often present, as we can see through the following remarks, that this time is often reallocated away from hobbies and exercise that the father once experienced and seemingly enjoyed. For example:
As we move forward with our study we will continue to recruit and interview for both our pilot and full study as well as continue developing our paper for the WFRN Conference in June. Additionally, we will begin to develop a concept paper in order to apply for funding opportunities applicable to our full-study.
I wish to thank my parents, grandparents, and fiancé for always being supportive and for joining me here today. I would also like to thank both Assistant Dean Kline and Dean Reid of the School of Business for supporting my research endeavors. As well as a very special thank you to Christine Bataille for taking me on as a research assistant on and helping me achieve my professional goals. And lastly, a thank you to the Ithaca College Sponsored Research REACHE Funding Program for funding the pilot study of our project.
As I thank the rest of the audience for being here today, I will encourage you to contact Professor Bataille if you are, or know of an expectant father who meets our target sample. After my presentation I will be available to discuss participation and I have contact cards for anyone who is interested. Thank you all!
