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It's `give and take'

Maternity leave as a conflict management process

Purdue University, USA, buzzanel{at}purdue.edu

Meina Liu

University of Maryland, College Park, USA, liu{at}umd.edu

To examine maternity leave as a gendered conflict management process, we analyzed a sample of interviews (from a larger data set of 102 interviews) with 26 women who reported feeling discouraged (n = 15) or encouraged (n = 11) about their employment status and career opportunities at the times of their leaves. Whereas these two groups of women converged on perceptions of a) incompatible (individual and organizational) goals and b) increased stress, they diverged on perceptions of a) interdependence, and b) use of negotiation strategies. Although this study is exploratory, findings indicate the need for additional research on perspective taking and influence tactics as ways of handling potential gendered conflict interactions for female workers and their bosses.

Key Words: bosses and supervisors • conflict • family leave • family policies • negotiation

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