This study attempts to identify differences in the perceptions of top management (defined as CEOs, directors, and presidents) and employees (defined as middle and supervisory management) regarding (a) the effects of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and (b) the extent of a firm's responsibility in providing support for those faced with caring needs concerning eldercare, childcare, substance abuse, and mental/physical handicaps.
The results indicate that these two groups have significantly different perceptions of the effect of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and on the firm's responsibility in providing support for three types of dependent care.
Bette Ann Stead is Professor of Marketing in the College of Business Administration at the University of Houston. She edited Women in Management, Second Edition, published by Prentice-Hall Inc., in 1985. She authored 
Corporate Giving: A Look at the Arts,
which appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics (Spring, 1985); coauthored Can Social Awareness be Increased through Business School Curricula?, published in the Journal of Business Ethics (July, 1988); and coauthored Women's Adoption of a Business Uniform: A Content Analysis of Magazine Advertisement, which appeared in Sex Roles (August, 1986).
Janice J. Miller is Assistant Professor in the College of Business Administration, University of Houston. Dr. Miller has coauthored two international business books and has lectured on the area of business and society issues in Europe and the Far East. She is coauthor of Can Social Awareness be Increased through Business School Curricula?, published in the Journal of Business Ethics (July, 1988). She has taught at the University of Iowa and the University of Texas at Dallas. Arum Pereira is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Marketing. He has a B. Tech degree and an M. B. A. He is presently completing his dissertation in the area of retail promotions and will be joining St. Louis University in the Fall of 1991 as Assistant Professor of Marketing.