The New Ideal Worker Organizations Between Work-Life Balance, Gender and Leadership

Many managers and organizations still assume that employees who devote long hours to their jobs with no family interference are “ideal workers”. However, this assumption has negative consequences for employees, their families and, more interestingly, for their organizations. This book provides a wealth of empirical evidence from around the globe, as well as innovative conceptual frameworks, to help practitioners and researchers alike to go beyond the classic notion of the “ideal worker” and to rethink what companies actually need from their employees. As it demonstrates, doing so will be beneficial for countless men and women, and for society at large.

Mireia Las Heras Maestro is a professor at IESE Business School –University of Navarra, Spain – where she serves as the director of the International Center for Work and Family. She is an industrial engineer by training, holds an MBA from IESE Business School, and a PhD in business administration from Boston University, USA.

Nuria Chinchilla Albiol received a PhD in economics and business studies from the University of Navarra, Spain, a law degree from the University of Barcelona, Spain an MBA and a PhD from IESE Business School. She studied at Harvard Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Management, USA. She started her career as a professor at IESE in 1984 and is a consultant to a wide range of companies and a member on the boards of various organizations. She is the founder of the International Center for Work and Family. 

Marc Grau Grau received a PhD in social policy from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He has obtained a MBA from ESADE Business School, Spain and a MA in political and social sciences from University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. He is a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, USA and he currently serves as a researcher at Institute for Advanced Family Studies at the Universitat International de Catalunya.