Julie Wayne Awarded 2024 Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research

Julie Wayne is the 2024 recipient of the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research. Wayne, Professor and David C. Darnell Presidential Chair in Principled Leadership at the Wake Forest University School of Business, received the prestigious honor for her latest research examining the invisible family load.

The Kanter Award, presented by the Center for Families at Purdue University and the Boston College Center for Work & Family, celebrates the best work-family research articles published during a calendar year. Selected articles represent the forefront of research and offer significant potential to influence future studies and impact workplace practices.

“It is an honor to receive this prestigious award and to have our research recognized by such esteemed work-family scholars and practitioners,” Wayne said. “Our study aimed to bring visibility to the invisible family load, its meaning, and its impact on individuals, families, and organizations. We hope our findings will inform policies and practices that enable gender equity and foster worker health and well-being.”

Wayne’s award-winning paper, “Who’s Remembering to Buy the Eggs? The Meaning, Measurement, and Implications of Invisible Family Load,” published in the Journal of Business and Psychology, was selected from over 2,500 work-family articles published in English-language journals worldwide in 2023. Wayne and co-authors Maura Mills (University of Alabama), Yi-Ren Wang (Asia School of Business), Russell Matthews (University of Alabama), and Marilyn Whitman (University of Alabama), used a mixed method, five-study approach to define the invisible family load and develop a scale to measure managerial (planning), cognitive (thinking and remembering), and emotional (worrying) activities related to family needs and responsibilities.

Findings reveal that women disproportionately report higher levels of each type of load in their families than do men. Managing the emotional load, such as worrying about family needs, is associated with adverse outcomes, including worse sleep and greater job and family exhaustion. However, contrary to the popular belief that managing the invisible family load is entirely negative, the study revealed potential benefits. People find a sense of meaning and purpose when taking on cognitive and managerial loads, and they are linked to better life and family satisfaction. Wayne’s research also examined the implications of invisible family load for employee health, well-being, and job attitudes, as well as family-to-work spillover.

“Professor Wayne’s work exemplifies the kind of scholarship that bridges academic rigor with real-world relevance,” said Dean Annette L. Ranft. “Her research not only highlights critical issues that many families face, but also provides actionable insights that can impact business practices and societal norms. She is incredibly deserving of the Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award, and we continue to be proud of her accomplishments at the Wake Forest School of Business.”

Throughout her career, Wayne has focused on the positive aspects of individual and organizational functioning, publishing extensively on topics such as work-family interface and workgroup diversity. Her expertise has positioned her among the top 60 work-family researchers in the field. Additionally, Wayne’s research has been featured in top-tier journals and cited nearly 10,000 times in academic literature. She has been named among the top 1 percent of the most impactful researchers worldwide, according to a Stanford University study.

The Kanter Award is named in honor of Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the most influential contributor to modern literature on work and family. The rigorous award process involves a review committee of over 60 international scholars who review articles published in more than 75 leading English-language journals.