New Web Site Highlights Smeal Faculty Research
From improving the efficiency of international supply chains to identifying personality traits that make some individuals better leaders than others, Smeal faculty members thrive in conducting pertinent business research that has a measurable impact on the academy and business practices. Outside of the classroom and academic journals, however, few people have regular access to the insights, expertise, and research findings of Smeal's business faculty. That is, until now.
The college recently launched a new Web site dedicated to the research and expertise of Smeal's award-winning faculty. Research with Impact, named after one of the college's four key strategic goals, highlights key research findings by Smeal faculty as they seek to solve intricate business problems. Through feature articles, brief write-ups, and multimedia, the new site makes Smeal research accessible to alumni, business leaders, and students who are curious about the issues and trends influencing business today.
Currently, the main feature on the new site highlights the work of Glen Kreiner, assistant professor of management. Through interviews with individuals who face particularly extreme challenges in balancing work and home demands—Episcopal priests—Kreiner and his co-authors have identified 11 tactics to help employees achieve work-life balance by negotiating the boundaries between their office life and their home life.
According to the research, individuals differ in the level of integration they prefer between their work lives and personal lives. Some people, called "segmenters," like to keep work at work and home at home. Others, "integrators," tend to bring work home or bring parts of their personal lives to work. Kreiner and his colleagues find that most of us are somewhere in between, and that we set up specific boundaries to keep some parts of our lives separate.
The other people in our lives—colleagues, supervisors, spouses, children, etc.—also have their own preferences for segmentation and integration. So while you may prefer not to be bothered while on vacation, your boss might have a different idea. Kreiner and his colleagues call these incidents—a coworker calling you at home, or not calling you, depending on your preference—work-home boundary violations.
To help achieve work-life balance, Kreiner says that individuals must first identify their own preferences for segmentation and integration. Next, they must manage their boundaries accordingly, including the boundary violations inflicted by others. How to do this? In the video on the right, Kreiner outlines the 11 tactics used by the Episcopal priests he and his colleagues interviewed.
For more on the latest research being conducted by Smeal faculty, visit the Research with Impact Web site regularly for updates or subscribe to its RSS feed.
