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Briscoe, F. and Kellogg, K.C. (2011). The initial assignment effect: Local employer practices and positive career outcomes for work-family program users. American Sociological Review, 76(2). 291-319.
One of the great paradoxes of inequality in organizations is that even when organizations introduce new programs designed to help employees in traditionally disadvantaged groups succeed, employees who use these programs often suffer negative career consequences. This study helps to fill a significant gap in the literature by investigating how local employer practices can enable employees to successfully use the programs designed to benefit them. Using a research approach that controls for regulatory environment and program design, we analyze unique longitudinal personnel data from a large law firm to demonstrate that assignment to powerful supervisors upon organization entry improves career outcomes for individuals who later use a reduced-hours program. Additionally, we find that initial assignment to powerful supervisors is more important to positive career outcomes—that is, employee retention and performance-based pay—than are factors such as supervisor assignment at the time of program use. Initial assignment affects career outcomes for later program users through the mechanism of improved access to reputation-building work opportunities. These findings have implications for research on work-family programs and other employee-rights programs and for the role of social capital in careers.

Glavin, P., Schieman, S., and Reid, S. (2011). Boundary-spanning work demands and their consequences for guilt and psychological distress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52(1). 43-57.
Using data from a national survey of working Americans (Work, Stress, and Health Survey; N = 1,042), the authors examine the associations between boundary-spanning work demands and self-reported feelings of guilt and distress. The authors document gender differences in the emotional and mental health consequences of boundary-spanning work demands, as indexed by the frequency of receiving work-related contact outside of normal work hours. Specifically, the authors observe that frequent work contact is associated with more feelings of guilt and distress among women only. Analyses also demonstrate that guilt accounts for the positive association between the frequency of work contact and distress among women. Statistical adjustments for levels of guilt reduce the positive association between frequent work contact and distress among women to nonsignificance. The findings underscore the importance of focusing on gender and emotions in work-family interface processes, as well as their implications for psychological health.

Encyclopedia Articles

“Correlation.” Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods. (2004): 200-204.
Generally speaking, the notion of correlation is very close to that of association. It is the statistical association between two variables of interval or ratio measurement level. To begin with, correlation should not be confused with causal effect. Indeed, statistical research into causal effect for only two variables happens to be impossible, at least in observational research. Even in extreme cases of so-called unicausal effects, such as contamination with the Treponema pallidum bacteria and contracting syphilis, there are always other variables that come into play, contributing, modifying, or counteracting the effect. The presence of a causal effect can only be sorted out in a multivariate context and is consequently more complex than correlation analysis.