On July 1, 2022, PhD candidate Philip Badawy will join the University of Alberta’s Department of Sociology as a tenure track Assistant Professor. His dissertation, which will be defended in August, is titled “A ‘Holy Grail’ of Work and Economic Life? When and How Schedule Control Functions as a Resource.” The dissertation was completed under the supervision of Professors Scott Schieman (supervisor), Melissa Milkie, and Markus Schafer.
In his new position, at the University of Alberta, Philip will teach classes in research methods, statistics and work and occupations. He looks forward to mentoring students and continuing his research on the impact of working conditions on workers' health and well-being which draws on quantitative and qualitative data sources.
Currently, Philip is involved in the Sociology of Mental Health cluster for the American Sociological Association and Canadian Sociological Association. He is also a member of the Work, Professions, and Occupations cluster at the Canadian Sociological Association. He is part of a research team studying the impact of working conditions on work-family life and health both before the pandemic (CAN-WSH study spanning from 2011-2019) and during the pandemic (C-QWELS beginning in 2019 and surveying respondents throughout 2020 and 2021). He has recently published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Work and Occupations, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Socius. Philip received his BA in Social Psychology at McMaster University in 2015, and his MA in Sociology at McMaster University in 2016.
Philip’s dissertation abstract is as follows:
My dissertation identifies the conditions and statuses under which schedule control functions as a job resource versus scenarios where it might have circumscribed benefits or even unintended consequences for work-family life and health. Three patterns derived from longitudinal data analysis complicate the characterization of schedule control as solely a job resource. First, I reveal some of the downsides of schedule control for the work-family interface. Though I find that increases in schedule control are linked with declines in work-to-family conflict, it is also associated with a greater frequency of blurring the boundaries between work and non-work roles. Moreover, schedule control exacerbates the association between job pressure and role blurring—and these observed downsides are stronger for women. Second, I compare the protective resource functions of schedule control and mastery for mitigating the detrimental health effects of competing work and family roles. After establishing that work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict are linked with psychological distress and physical symptoms, I find that mastery has generalized stress-buffering functions whereby it alleviates the health effects of both work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict. In contrast, schedule control has asymmetrical moderating functions: It attenuates the health effects of work-to-family conflict only. Third, I identify some of the status-based inequalities in the relationship between schedule control and job pressure. While I find that increases in schedule control helps alleviate job pressure, my results reveal that schedule control is more effective in mitigating job pressure among professionals (relative to non-professionals) and those with more managerial power in the workplace. Collectively, this dissertation integrates interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives to advance knowledge on when and how schedule control functions as a resource for workers.