Doing cross-national research is complex and challenging. In this chapter we discuss the project design and methods but also the challenges we met and the strategies we adopted to meet them.

The study on which this book is based adopted a comparative cross-national framework. The study design involved the use of several methods in order to address several layers of the social context. The three contextual layers in this study are:

• • the macro layer of societal trends, national institutions, public policies and public discourses;

• • the organisational layer of the workplace;

• • mothers and fathers located in their households, wider families, workplaces and communities.

For a cross-national study to be context sensitive, it is necessary to take account of several contextual levels or layers, while comparisons can be made at each level. While this book relates largely to the organisational layer, account is taken of the macro layer involving analysis of national surveys and public policy and literature reviews; and also the level of the individual parents.

Two types of organisation – namely public and private sector – were studied using a variety of methods. Human resources directors and between six and 11 managers were interviewed in each public and private sector organisation and a variety of documentary material was collected from each organisation. Working parents with a young child were selected from the cohort born between 1965 and 1975 and invited to take part in focus groups (4-11 groups) which were conducted in the workplace (see the Appendix for details of the numbers and composition of the focus groups and details of the manager interviews) (in total 283 parents took part in the groups). The upper age limit of 12 years for the children was originally set lower because of the study's focus on the transition to parenthood; plans were revised when we found that the number of parents with very young children in the organisations was insufficient. Parents from these workplaces were then selected to reflect those in high- and low-status jobs to take part in individual biographical interviews. Interviewees across the organisations were matched on occupational status and other factors.

The project design is an example of an embedded case study where the cases – countries, workplaces and parents – were selected from larger (linked) wholes (Yin, 2003a).