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    Negotiating grandmothering, paid employment and regular childcare in urban Aotearoa New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2021) Day, Caroline
    Grandmothers are increasingly called upon to provide regular childcare to enable parents to engage in paid employment. Many of these grandmothers are in paid employment themselves. Combining paid employment and regular childcare is managed in the context of their lives, which includes family relationships and broader societal expectations for older women. This thesis examined the experience of grandmothers living in Auckland City, who were in paid employment at least twenty hours a week and who provided regular weekly childcare of at least ten hours a week to their grandchildren. This research was based on feminist poststructuralism. Poststructuralism focusses on multiplicity and subjectivity, attending to the wider contexts in which language is located. Feminist poststructuralism focusses on gender and how gendered norms describe and establish the ‘right’ ways of behaving. These expectations contribute to assumptions that the accommodation of childcare and paid work is normal and natural for women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen grandmothers and their accounts were analysed using narrative analysis. Narrative analysis focusses on the importance of stories as the primary way in which people make sense of their lives. These stories draw on wider social, cultural, political and gendered narratives. The analysis found that paid employment was particularly important in the participants’ lives, allowing for the construction of an identity which was different to a grandmother-focussed identity. This importance of paid employment also shaped participants’ understandings of the importance of paid employment in the lives of mothers; maternal paid employment was constructed as important for wellbeing and for enabling an identity different to that of ‘mother’. Two clear intentions for providing childcare were storied: supporting maternal paid employment, and childcare as a response to concerns about grandchildren’s wellbeing. Finally, holding multiple roles and balancing paid employment and childcare were storied as the juggling of identities rather than the juggling of the tasks involved in combining paid work and childcare. The research findings have contributed to how grandmothering is understood; it has contextualised participants’ experiences in wider societal expectations for how women can and should combine their paid employment and family lives in later life.
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    It's all about relationships : women managing women and the impact on their careers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Hurst, Jane Ann
    Women represent nearly half of New Zealand’s workforce, making it likely that a woman will, at some stage during her working life, have a woman manager. She may also manage women employees. However, despite this likelihood, very little is known about the nature of women’s hierarchical workplace relationships and even less about the impact these relationships have on women’s careers. This research used narrative inquiry, relational cultural theory and the Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM) to explore the relational experiences of 15 New Zealand women and the impact of these hierarchical relationships on career decisions. It was undertaken in two phases. Phase One used a combination of creative methods and semi-structured interviews to explore the participants’ experiences. Phase Two brought the participants together in workshops to develop personal and organisational strategies aimed at strengthening workplace relationships. Phase One found that most of the participants had experienced a negative relationship with a women manager and/or employee. Many of those participants subsequently left the organisation they worked for as a direct or indirect result of that relationship. Conversely, nearly half of the participants spoke of a positive relationship and while these were beneficial, they were not linked to a subsequent career decision. These findings suggest that negative relationships affect a woman’s career decisions to a greater extent than positive relationships. The research also extends the KCM by adding the impact of women’s hierarchical relationships to the career parameters of balance and challenge. Phase Two delved further into these findings to determine that women have gender-based expectations of women managers, such as an expectation of a higher degree of emotional understanding and support from a woman manager than would be expected from a man. In addition, while the participants look to women managers for some form of career support, most were not striving for senior management positions. They were instead motivated by a desire to make a difference and live a balanced life, with the demands of senior organisational roles seen as being in conflict with their relationships and family responsibilities. This raises a dilemma from a gender equity perspective, with research suggesting that a critical mass of women at the senior leadership level reduces the gender pay gap and increases the promotional opportunities of women at all organisational levels. Phase Two identified a number of personal and organisational strategies to better support women’s hierarchical relationships, as one way of enhancing women’s careers. Taking a relational approach, an holistic gendered framework is proposed that situates relationships within the broader personal, organisational, societal and temporal context. Strategies are recommended to enhance personal and organisational relational awareness and acceptance, development of relational skills and support, as well as structural change to better align career paths to senior management with women’s career aspirations and realities. In doing so, this thesis aims to progress the discussion on the ways in which organisations and women can better support each other to promote workplace gender equity.
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    'It's not a him, it's a her' : an exploration into the changes and challenges, meanings and mechanisms in the lives of Timorese women workers on the offshore Bayu-Undan Gas Recycling Project : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2014) Adams, Virginia
    This thesis is concerned with the ways in which the potentials of a group of Timorese women, with early aspirations of achieving economic self-reliance through formal work, have been realised through their recruitment into non-traditional jobs on the Bayu-Undan Gas Recycling Project in the Timor Sea. The aspirational horizons and experiences of the sixteen women who comprise the sample of this study run counter to those of most women in Timor-Leste, where poverty and pervasive patriarchal ideologies relegate them to the domestic sphere as wives and mothers subject to the authority of men. Their reality as working women also runs counter to that of other female waged workers in the developing world reported as experiencing poor wages and working conditions and discrimination in the workplace and for some, resentment or violence from husbands. The findings of this study point to new evidence of young Timorese women at the beginning of their post-secondary school journeys exhibiting a high level of agency. This is reflected in their personal qualities, both inherent and socially fostered, of determination, courage and self-belief, and confidence in their aptitude to learn new competencies, with strategic goals of economic independence and an awareness of their right to shape their own lives towards this end. In addition to this they have had the crucial social resource of support from family members and from husbands and male partners. It is rare to see the inclusion of gender, explicitly or tacitly, in the local content commitments associated with petroleum extraction projects in developing countries. This thesis has identified the pivotal role, played by a locally-owned Timorese contracting company, confident in the capacity of Timorese women to be effective offshore crewmembers, in shaping the employee component of the Bayu-Undan project’s local content to incorporate females. What is also of significance is that these women occupy well-paid, valued positions of responsibility on the western platform, where a culture of non-gender discrimination sees them receiving respect from male personnel, including their Timorese male co-workers, and being supported in their ambitions to up-skill, in some cases into historically male areas. At home, the women’s new identities as high income-earners employed in non-traditional work have given them greater social and economic status. While there is some concern that their economic autonomy could be eroded by excessive family demands, the new financial resources provided by the women are seen by them, and others, as important obligations towards improving the lives and prospects of extended family members. Additionally, as a ‘realising potential’ outcome from their incomes, new opportunities and valued ways of being have opened up for the women themselves and their immediate families.
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    An in-depth study into how organisational wellness programmes impact the work-life balance of CPIT's female part-time employees : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Business Studies in Human Resources Management at Massey University, Extramural, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Miles, Laura Elizabeth
    The purpose of this research was to gain an in- depth understanding of the organisational wellness programmes that contribute to and impact on the work- life balance of current female, part- time employee’s at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT). The literature review has shown that although there has been extensive research conducted in the areas of work- life balance, organisational wellness programmes, flexible working arrangements and part- time employees, these topics have not been widely researched specifically looking at the impact of these factors on part- time employees. Some of the main literature findings include the idea that an employee’s wellbeing is holistic and because employees spend a lot of time in the workplace, it is important that the organisation recognises this and develops a workplace that contributes to their employee’s wellbeing and happiness. Unfortunately for some employees many organisations do not see employee wellness as a crucial workplace priority but rather as something that is nice to have. It is significant that this study focused on part- time employees, as working part- time has become an international phenomenon, with a substantial increase in the numbers of part-time workers occurring over the last twenty-five years. The methodology that was used for this research was a single organisation case study, which included semi- structured interviews, an analysis on policies and guidelines, and data from previous research. The main findings show that the interviewees use a wide range of organisational wellness programmes and benefits, and these make a positive contribution to their lives, work and their ability to achieve and maintain a work- life balance. They have many different motivations to voluntarily work part- time hours but the most common was the ability to be able to spend time with their families and children. Working part- time allows them to achieve a work- life balance and to spend more time doing things that they enjoy such as hobbies which helps to maintain that balance. This research contributes to the gap in the part- time employee literature and encourages other researchers to pursue further research in this area. It would be beneficial to conduct follow up research with the same group of employees to measure any change in attitude and perception towards their workplace, as it was apparent conducting the interviews that they were starting to realise just how much they value and enjoy their workplace, the benefits, wellness programmes and the ability to work flexibly.
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    An exploration of New Zealand work value orientations, gender, and personality traits : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Hamman, Chloé M
    The research objectives of this thesis were a) to explore gender differences in New Zealand work value orientations, and b) to explore the relationships between work value orientations and the Big Five personality traits. The purpose of these objectives was to identify if previous international findings on gender differences in work value orientations could be replicated in New Zealand (e.g., Elizur, 1994; Lips & Lawson, 2009; Weisgram et al., 2010) and to further clarify relationships between important behavioural and motivational influences (Parks & Guay, 2009). The thesis employed a correlational research design. The Values and Motives Inventory (VMI) was used as a measure of work values orientations. A respondent group of 1311 individuals had completed this assessment as part of selection and/or assessment purposes. Of these participants, 459 had also completed the Fifteen Factor Questionnaire Plus (15FQ+) as a measure of the Big Five personality traits. Findings suggested that females scored significantly higher than males on work values endorsing benevolence and supportive relationships with others. Conversely, males appeared to be more financially driven. These gender differences in work values orientations are discussed in terms of their implications for gendered roles and work interests in New Zealand. Findings suggested that the strongest work value-trait relationships occur between Affiliation and Extraversion, Affection and Extraversion, and Aesthetics and Openness. These, and other significant value-trait relationships, are discussed in terms of their implications for goal orientated behaviour, motivation, vocational choice, and the practice of assessment testing in New Zealand.