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conversation A Conversation with Robert Orrange by Darcy Gifford


Sociology professor Robert Orrange didn’t initially set out to study large, complex organizations. Instead, he was part of one. Orrange, who studied engineering management at Clarkson University (N.Y.) as an undergraduate, started his career at a Fortune 500 wholesale industrial distribution company. It didn’t take long, he says, to realize that this career path wasn’t for him. He eventually earned a Ph.D. in sociology fom the University of Texas at Austin and draws on his early experiences in business as he studies the role of large organizations in the modern world. One of his early research interests was work- family balance, a notion that many people strive for but few understand. We wanted to learn more.


Eastern: We read a lot in popular media about work-family balance, but what exactly does this term mean?


Orrange: Tere are a whole range of scholars and practitioners weighing in on the topic— psychologists, sociologists, business scholars, organizational development scholars, hu- man resource professionals, journalists. I think “work-life balance” is a nice term that gets discussion going. It’s a buzzword. It probably is an ideal that many people would like to


12 Eastern | SUMMER 2013 Photograph by Michael Andaloro


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