Phyllis Moen
Professor, McKnight Presidential Chair in Sociology
Ph.D. 1978 University of Minnesota
Room 1123 Social Sciences
Office: 612-625-5483
email: phylmoen@umn.edu
web: http://www.soc.umn.edu/~moen/
Flexible Work and Well-Being Study
Interest Areas
Work, Family, Health and Gender, Age and Life Course Dynamics; Organizational, Public Policy, and Social Change.
Current Research
Dr. Moen is a life course scholar, which means that she is interested time. Specifically, what are the patterned ways jobs, families, and lives play out over the life course? And what are the impacts of these different pathways? Individuals and families make key decisions – about jobs, about relationships, about health practices -- at all life stages. But their “choices” are shaped by the culture and structure of age, gender, organizations, communities, and social policies in which they are embedded, as well as by their previous experiences, along with any broad-scale social changes along the way. People confront different options and opportunities, resources and constraints, depending on their social class and ethnic backgrounds, to be sure, but also on whether they are men or women at different ages and life stages. Diverse pathways over the life course, in turn, result in disparities in health, stress, and life quality. Improving life chances and life quality of individuals and families often means changing the multilayered contexts of their lives.
A famous psychologist, Urie Bronfenbrenner, always said, “if you really want to understand something, try to change it.” Accordingly, Dr. Moen, together with Dr. Erin Kelly and a team of graduate and undergraduate students, launched the Flexible Work and Well-Being Study. It involves collecting both ethnographic and survey data over time in order to assess the process and impacts of organizational change, in the form of an innovation launched within a large corporation in the Twin Cities. As part of the National Institutes of Health Network on Work, Families and Health, Moen and Kelly are investigating the family, health, and productivity impacts of changing the way jobs are organized so as to offer employees greater control and flexibility over the time and timing of their work. Collaborators on this project include Prof. Patricia McGovern from the School of Public Health and Prof. Andrew Van de Ven from the Carlson School of Management.
Moen is also engaged in other research, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, focusing on the changing nature of careers, the experiences of dual-earner couples, and the plans and transitions of babyboomers as they move toward and into retirement.
Latest Books:
The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream, with Patricia Roehling. 2005. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield (selected as the best publication in sociology in 2005.by Association of American Publishers, Professional and Scholarly Publication).
It’s About Time: Couples and Careers. 2003. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Other Recent Publications:
“Work-Family Spillover among Dual-Earner Couples” with Joyce Altobelli. 2007. Pp. 361-382 in Advances in Life Course Research, Volume 12, Interpersonal Relations Across the Life Course, edited by Timothy J. Owens and J. Jill Suitor. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
““Not So Big Jobs and Retirements: What Workers (and Retirees) Really Want.” 2007. Generations 31(1): 31-36.
Rethinking the Clockwork of Work: Why Schedule Control May Pay Off at Home and at Work” with Erin Kelly. Forthcoming. In Advancing Work-Life Integration in Individuals, Organizations and Communities, 9 (4).
“Making Sense of a Mess: Phased Retirement Policies and Practices in the United States” with Erin Kelly, Eric Dahlin, Donna Spencer. Forthcoming. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health (Vol 22, 2 & 3).
“Integrating Educational Careers in Work and Family: Women’s Return to School and Family Life Quality” with Stephen Sweet. 2007. Community, Work, and Family 10(2): 23-250.
“Dual Earners in Double Jeopardy: Preparing for Job Loss in the New Risk Economy,” with Stephen Sweet and Peter Meiksins. 2007. Pp. 437-461 in Research in the Sociology of Work, Volume 12, Workplace Temporalities, edited by Beth A. Rubin.. San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
“Strategic Selection as a Retirement Project: Will Americans Develop Hybrid Arrangements?” with Joyce Altobelli. 2007. Pp. 61-82 in The Crown of Life: Dynamics of the Early Postretirement Period (Vol. 26), Jacquelyn James and Paul Wink, eds. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
"When Workers Care: Dual-Earner Couples' Caregiving Strategies, Benefit Use, and Psychological Well-Being," with Noelle Chesley. 2006. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(9): 1248-1269.
"Deciding the Future: Do Dual-Earner Couples Plan Together for Retirement?" with Qinlei Huang, Vandana Plassmann, and Emma Dentinger. 2006. American Behavioral Scientist 49 (10): 1422-1443.
“Converging Divergences in Age, Gender, Health, and Well-Being: Strategic Selection in the Third Age,” with Donna Spencer. 2006. Pp. 127-144 in Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences, R. Binstock and L. George, eds. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press.
“Third Age Pioneers,” with Marc Freedman. 2005. The Chronicle of Higher Education. 29 April:B1.
It’s About Time: Couples and Careers. 2003. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.