Changing managers′ defensive reasoning about work/family conflicts

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.