Changing managers′ defensive reasoning about work/family conflicts Available to Purchase

Describes a management development process based on action science which was designed to surface and examine deeply‐held beliefs about the role of the manager or supervisor in handling work/family conflicts. The process enabled individuals to examine their reasoning about work and family conflicts and led to the identification of a number of defensive reasoning patterns among managers in dealing with work/family conflicts,particularly the use of bypass and threats. The management development process is most effective when focused on first getting managers to state what they would think and do in a given situation, making typical responses problematic, and then pushing managers to generate more creative alternatives. This is the essence of genuine dialogue.