Introduction and Situational Analysis
The issue of balancing parenting and the roles at work has seen many parents, most of them being those that have newborn babies, quit from the job as they try to be closer to their families. The issue has had various implications on the companies as well as the employees themselves. The firms have ended up losing qualified employees who have turned towards ensuring their families receive their proper care (Wayne et al., 2017). The workers have ended up losing their sources of income to devote their time to their families even more. The Swedish employees who are raising families find themselves in a dilemma when their babies arrive. One of the options in a dilemma is to quit their jobs and become full time parents to their children. The significant advantage of the alternative is that their families do not suffer from neglect when it comes to the presence of their fathers. The major con of choice is that the Swedish daddies may end up losing their only sources of income as they endeavor to be physically present to their children (Wayne et al., 2017). The other option in a dilemma is to neglect family and go on with the job. The main advantage of such an undertaking is that it ensures that the family has all the help it needs (Wayne et al., 2017). On the dark side, neglecting the children may have lasting adverse effects on their psychological development.
Stakeholder Analysis
The stakeholders involved in the dilemma are the employers, employees and their families. If the employees leave the workplace, their employers have to go through a set of challenges and opportunities as they try to fill in their positions (Wayne et al., 2017). On the bright side, if an employee leaves to focus on his or her family, vacancies are created and give an opportunity to the employer to fill them up with workers that are more competent (Wayne et al., 2017). On the other hand, employers may lose valuable employees as they try to focus more on their families while sidelining their jobs. On the employees' side, the major advantage derived in a dilemma is their ability to be closer to their families and those that they love. Although the employees get to spend more time with family, they lose their breadwinning capability as they have devoted their time to full time parenting, which may be hard for them (Wayne et al., 2017). On the side of the employees' families, the significant advantage in having the workers devote more time to their children is that they receive adequate parental care, which is particularly helpful to the young children as they grow (Wayne et al., 2017). The most significant demerit they derive from the situation is that in case the employees decide to devote their time to their work and a little time for family, the children will feel the gaps in parenting.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Analysis based on Ethical Theories
According to the cultural relativism theory, every society has defined roles for every gender. Mostly, the functions regarding childcare have been given to the women. Traditionally, the part of a man has been to act as the breadwinner for the family (Turiel, 2015). Modern society has defied the conventional principles of the cultural groups across the globe, as explained in the cultural relativism theory. The fathers are being seen integrating family care in their breadwinning role, same as the mothers becoming breadwinners while at the same time have positions in the family care (Turiel, 2015). Ethically, the intertwining of roles for the male and female genders can be described as leading to a dilemma to both Swedish mothers and fathers. Legally, either parent in a family is allowed to be a breadwinner as well as both of them being allowed to carry out family care roles.
According to the teleological theory, the parents have been expected to act according to what is considered good. Parents find themselves at crossroads when they have to perform for the good of their children (Hoover & Pepper, 2015). The dilemma results from the need to financially provide for their children as a trait possessed by competent parents while at the same time the parents need to provide their children with moral and psychological support, which stems from their devotion to parenting and family care (Hoover & Pepper, 2015). According to the teleological model, the parents can make either decision so long as they target to achieve better parenting for their children.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The issue of balancing between parenting and working, for instance in the case of the Swedish daddies, has been a cause of a significant ethical dilemma as their options present pros and cons that have the same magnitude. The parents who decide to stay at home and be with their kids more end up losing their jobs, which affects their financial capabilities to provide to their families. On the other hand, those who opt to keep working tend to lose valuable bonding time with their families, which may have lasting adverse effects on the growth of the children in the long term, in their quest to provide for their children.
Not all hope is lost in the balancing between career and parenting for the parents. One of the recommendations to ease the ethical dilemma they are currently facing is to have an integrated system of providing the parents with time to take care of their families while at the same time ensuring that they are still at work (Goh, Ilies & Wilson, 2015). The modern parent has increased their multitasking capabilities and can handle job while at the same time being a parent. Parents with newborn children can be given a paid leave to take care of their children (Goh, Ilies & Wilson, 2015). The paid leave can cut across both genders to help them entirely focus on the upbringing of their babies (Goh, Ilies & Wilson, 2015). Those parents in a dilemma may opt to employ full time nannies to take care of their children while they work to provide food on their tables.
References
Goh, Z., Ilies, R., & Wilson, K. S. (2015). Supportive Supervisors Improve Employees' Daily
Lives: The Role Supervisors Play in the Impact of Daily Workload on Life Satisfaction via Work–Family Conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior , 89 , 65-73.
Hoover, K. F., & Pepper, M. B. (2015). How did they say that? Ethics Statements and Normative
Frameworks at Best Companies to work for. Journal of business ethics , 131 (3), 605-617.
Turiel, E. (2015). Moral Development. Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental
Science , 1-39.
Wayne, J. H., Butts, M. M., Casper, W. J., & Allen, T. D. (2017). In Search of Balance: A
Conceptual and Empirical Integration of Multiple Meanings of Work–Family Balance. Personnel Psychology , 70 (1), 167-210.
