Role of Institutional Climate on Underrepresented Faculty Perceptions and Decision Making in Use of Work–Family Policies

• Author: Ruth Enid Zambrana,Kris Marsh,Debra Joy Pérez,William Vega,Rosina Becerra,Mari Castañeda
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12159
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Date: 01 December 2015

M C University of Massachusetts at Amherst

R E Z University of Maryland∗

K M University of Maryland∗∗

W V University of Southern California∗∗∗

R B University of California, Los Angeles∗∗∗∗

D J P Annie E. Casey Foundation∗∗∗∗∗

Role of Institutional Climate on Underrepresented

Faculty Perceptions and Decision Making in Use

of Work–Family Policies

The authors examined the institutional chal-

lenges that underrepresented minority (URM)

faculty perceive in higher education with use

of family support workplace policies. Evidence

reveals that faculty encounter differences in

Department of Communication, College of Social and

Behavioral Sciences, University of Massachusetts, S328

Integrated Learning Center, Amherst, MA 01003–9278

(mari@comm.umass.edu).

∗Department of Women’sStudies, 1208 Cole Student Activ-

ities Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD

20742.

∗∗Department of Sociology, 3123 Art/Sociology Building,

University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.

∗∗∗School of Social Work, MRF 102R, MC 0411, University

of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089.

∗∗∗∗UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, 2539 Schoenberg

Music Building, University of California, Los Angeles, CA

90095.

∗∗∗∗∗Annie E. Casey Foundation, 701 St. Paul St., Baltimore,

MD 21202.

Key Words: class, ethnicity/race issues, family policy/law,

family/work issues, workplace policies.

access to information and explanations of how

to use workplace–family statutes. A qualitative

study of 58 URM faculty members highlighted

ve particularly notable themes: (a) faculty per-

ceptions of how the institution views their family

caregiving responsibilities, (b) inadequate com-

pensation matters in the utilization of formal

policies, (c) informal policies are often inacces-

sible and invisible, (d) social networks affect the

inclusiveness of work–family institutional prac-

tices, and (e) fear of being regarded as a “red

ag” constrains decisions regarding the use of

policies. Given the push in higher education to

diversify its faculty ranks, if administrators are

to successfully implement diversity, equity, and

inclusion and retain URM faculty, institutions

need to pay particular attention to how URM

faculty experience the academic climate regard-

ing work–family balance.

As academic institutions continue to grapple

with the challenge of becoming more diverse

and inclusive, it is increasingly important to con-

sider the conditions that affect the recruitment,

Family Relations 64 (December 2015): 711–725 711

DOI:10.1111/fare.12159