Tug of war: Caring for our elders while remaining productive at work. The Academy of Management Perspectives

As countries around the world experience the graying of their populations, longer life expectancies mean greater possibility of illness and incapacitation. At the same time, demographic trends are altering the traditional arrangements for eldercare. Given that a high percentage of caregivers are employed outside the home, the tension hetween employment and caregiving responsibilities is likely to increase. However, the rela-tionship between eldercare responsibilities and work outcomes is understudied, espe-cially in the management literature, and the results are inconclusive. This article analyzes 31 empirical studies on the relationship between eldercare and work pub-Lisbed in peer-reviewed academic journals since 1995. Although methodological lim-itations exist in the current literature, a number of noteworthy advances have been identified tbat bave implications for future researcb directions and tbe ways in which organizations respond to the eldercare needs of their employees. On January 1, 2011, 10,000 baby boomers a day began tin-ning 65 in the United States; this will continue for the next 19 years (O'Connor, Prusiner