In the 70s, Coser (1974) defined the Greedy Institutions as those institutions who asked their members for an “exclusive and undivided loyalty”. These institutions assumed that the “ideal worker” was the one who devoted long hours to their jobs with no family interference (Williams 2000). In some sense, this image of “ideal worker” still exists, but empirical evidence seems to suggest that far from being positive for the organizations, having old “ideal workers” may have a negative impact on the twenty-first century organizations (Reid 2015; Rudman and Mescher 2013; Stone and Hernandez 2013; Williams et al. 2013). Moreover, recent technological, social and demographic changes have reshaped the way people work and the way families organize themselves (Jacobs and Gerson 2001; Presser 2003). In a situation like that, where more employees ask for a real work-family balance/integration, it is timely and relevant to examine the “new ideal worker”, and to understand how companies adapt to this new situation. Can we define a (new) ideal worker? If yes, are there cultural differences? Do companies offer new programs and policies for the (new) ideal worker? What role does technology play? The first goal of this edited volume is to answer these intriguing questions regarding the new ideal worker.

In parallel, a second goal of this volume is to create a vision and to build theory on women and leadership, as well as to provide empirical evidence not only for the academia, but also for organizations. Gender equality is a fundamental right (Eurobarometer 2015), yet still in many regions of the world reducing gender inequality is still a challenge extremely necessary for having a more humane society. In many countries inequalities between men are women are still the norm. Inequalities between men and women are still prevalent in organizations (Acker 1990) in political representation (Kenworthy and Malami 1999), and in the family (Craig and Mullan 2011) This edited book aims to focus on “Women and (new) leadership” acknowledging that the needs for leadership have changed, and that women contributions might be more relevant than ever to contribute to organizational needs. Interesting questions that we examine are: Who holds stereotypes of men and women? How do those affect men and women career progression? Do men and women cope with leadership challenges differently? Is it beneficial to have a higher representation of women in Boards, and if so why?

To answer all these relevant questions, this new collection is the result of a careful selection of articles presented at two conferences: (1) the seventh bi-annual International Conference of Work & Family (July 2017), which aimed to focus on the (new) ideal workers, as well as on their needs, desires and new forms of flexibility, and (2) the first bi-annual International Conference of Women and Leadership (July 2017), which paid special attention to women and leadership styles and stereotypes, women and careers, women and corporate governance and women and social networks. In total, around 100 scholars of more than 25 nationalities participated in one of the two conferences, both organized by the International Center of Work and Family and supported by Carmina Roca and Rafael-Pich Aguilera Women and Leadership Chair at the IESE Business School. This book, as with the conference, has a clear international focus. As the reader will see, the chapters in the book represent countries like India, Chile, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, United States or Canada. We also selected those papers that used different analytical approaches. Among others, the reader will find a qualitative study about work-family balance among male police officers in UK, a quantitative study among Millennials in Chile, or a theoretical chapter about flexibility-availability paradox for the new ideal worker. In summary, this book consists of 14 chapters divided into two parts: (I) The New Ideal Worker, and (II) Gender and Leadership.

FormalPara Part I: The New Ideal Worker

In the second chapter, Worley and Gutierrez present in their conceptual chapter a very interesting paradox (flexibility-availability paradox). According to them, advances in technology increase the opportunities for flexible arrangements, and this flexibility also increases the potential availability of an employee, which imposes a more permeable boundary structure between work and family. Worley and Gutierrez also offer an innovative proposal for blending the concepts of ideal worker and ideal workplace and integrating performance management principles to guide boundary management across the changing landscape of organizational structures.

In the third chapter, Bünning and Bernhardt argue that today many fathers would like to work less, but they are not able to reduce their working hours. Using a sample of 711 German fathers, they reveal that working fathers are more likely to reduce their working hours when formal, universal and transparent policies exist in their workplaces. Their findings are totally in line with the research grounded in Amartya Sen’s capability approach, which argues that making use of the legal right to work shorter hours requires a sense of entitlement.

In the fourth chapter, Bosch and Hernandez explore the expectations, motivations and values of Millennials in Chile, using a sample of 358 young adults. They found that the new generations place a high value on the family. They want to play an active role in their own homes, and they care about having a life apart from work. These results are in line with the findings of the previous chapter. Thus, one of the challenges of contemporary organization is to offer a sustainable work-family balance to their employees.

In the fifth chapter, Senarathne Tennakoon makes a great contribution by expanding our understanding on the organizational reasoning behind flexible work arrangements. Her qualitative study with Canadian HR executives and university students reveals that most organizations are genuinely interested in creating an ideal organization for their ideal employees.

In the sixth chapter, Gutierrez and Worley set out to discuss the notion of the new ideal worker in the Academia, grounding examples of faculty work-life from research studies conducted in the United States. The authors first discuss the concept of all-access to technology as the premise that faculty work can conceivably be done anytime, anywhere as faculty see fit to do so. Next, a discussion of empirical research on faculty-work life in U.S. institutions is added to further the readers’ understanding on some issues explored about the integration of faculty work-life aspects.

In the seventh chapter, Machado bridges a gap between the findings of psychology and other social sciences and the embedded beliefs in mainstream management theories about workers motivations and work values hierarchies. It presents Schwartz Values Theory and shows how the findings it has enabled in the last decades can open a much wider perspective for a scientifically plausible ‘new ideal worker’, motivated by self-transcendence values, as well as openness to change, self-enhancement and conservation values.

Finally, in the eighth chapter, Kring presents a general reflection about how we can learn to navigate work and private life in new ways in the twenty-first century. Kring introduces a very interesting concept “The Life Navigation”, and presents the three necessary steps for preparing organizations and employees to make the final cultural shifts to become ideal organizations and ideal workers.

FormalPara Part II: Gender and Leadership

The second part of this edited collection, Gender and Leadership, consists of six more chapters. In the ninth chapter, Bosch and her colleagues examine if gender bias affects the recruitment process for top managerial positions in Chile. Using conjoint analysis, they evaluate how recruiters, ranked a set of multi-attribute profiles, showing their preferences among profiles. In contrast to previous research, and surprisingly, their results show that gender is the less important variable in the recruitment process.

In the tenth chapter, Kaushiva and Joshi, argue that South Asian countries face a challenge of low labor force participation of women with the exit of women significantly high in middle and senior levels of an organization. Their qualitative study with the experiences of 15 Indian women who left their jobs post child-birth and returned to the industry after a prolonged absence, present their work and family expectations and try to understand how they navigate these during their re-entry.

To increase gender equality, it’s crucial to understand men in organizations. In the eleventh chapter, Bahadur explores the concept of work-life balance from a male perspective based on a case-study of the police sector with 30 face-to-face interviews. Her results present two types of work-family balance described by police officers: overall work-life balance and ongoing work-life balance. According to this study, while overall work-life balance can be achieved through work-life separation, ongoing work-life balance is achieved by minimizing work-life interference.

In the twelfth chapter, Salvaj and Kuschel, review the latest empirical evidence from 2009 to 2016 to identify, organize, and describe the factors that affect women executives and directors’ career success (or failure). They integrate the 113 selected publications providing a novel framework of factors organized around (1) career persistence (staying at the organization) and (2) career advancement or mobility (getting promoted in the organization). Their framework organizes the factors at the individual, organizational and public policy level that affect both career persistence and advancement of women in top management positions.

In the thirteenth chapter, Hollanda examines the predictors and outcomes of work-family conflict and work-family enrichment in Brazil, using an app based daily survey measures during two workweeks. The results suggest that work-family conflict was negatively associated with awareness at work and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and positively related to absent-mindedness. In an opposite way, work-family enrichment was positively associated with awareness at work and OCB and negatively related to absent-mindedness at work.

Finally, in the last chapter, Kim and her colleagues, study the effects of the federal regulation Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) which followed one of the largest accounting fraud scandals worldwide. They also study the 2008 financial meltdown crisis (following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers) on the position and pay of female CEOs. Using Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Executive Compensation database (Execucomp) from 1992 to 2011, they found that SOX led to an increase in women serving as CEOs. However, neither the federal act nor the financial meltdown had an effect on the total compensation of CEOs. This evidence suggests that the gender pay gap remains constant regardless of particular events happening in the macro context.

In summary, all these chapters provide very rich empirical evidences across the globe, as well as innovative conceptual frameworks to help practitioners and academics to go beyond the classic notion of ideal worker and greedy institutions, and to put a solid base for building ideal organizations for the new ideal workers, with no discrimination between men and women.