Premium
Perspective of Managers towards Breastfeeding Support in the Workplace
Author(s) -
Chow Tan,
Olson Beth H.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.446.8
Subject(s) - breastfeeding , productivity , business , public relations , loyalty , focus group , marketing , psychology , nursing , medicine , political science , economic growth , pathology , economics
Managers influence new mother employees’ perceptions of breastfeeding support in the workplace. The objective of this study was to assess manager attitudes towards breastfeeding support. Five focus groups were conducted with managers mainly from the finance, education and community sectors, who had experience supervising non‐managerial female employees. The results were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using NVivo. Emerging themes were knowledge of and need for company policies, managers’ role in providing support to breastfeeding employees, workplace consequences such as decreased productivity and coworker conflict, and benefits both to the health of mothers and infants and to the company. Most managers did not know if a company policy existed and showed mixed attitudes towards the need for a policy. All managers felt they should accommodate breastfeeding employees, but the extent of accommodation might vary by job nature, workflow, and facilities. Managers concerned lower productivity and co‐worker jealously of breastfeeding time, but that benefits would include recruitment, employee retention and loyalty, and potential increased productivity. Managers showed some understanding of breastfeeding benefits compared to infant formula. This research will be used to develop an instrument to measure managers’ attitudes towards breastfeeding support in the workplace. Funded by: National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, grant number 2006‐35215‐16703