Several topnotch specialists will be speaking at the “Family Values in the Work Place” conference in the Campanile Room of the Memorial Union on Sept. 4.

The keynote speaker for the free, one-day conference sponsored by the Murray Bacon Center for Ethics in Business is Distinguished Bacon Lecturer James Autry.

Autry, former vice president of the Meredith Corporation, is a well-known author and business consultant, said Brad Shrader, ISU associate professor and co-chair of the Bacon Center.

The focus of the conference comes from the need for many companies to strengthen employee commitment, he said.

To strengthen that commitment, “some of today’s most successful companies are implementing programs and policies to help employees better integrate work and family,” he said.

All of the conference speakers are experts in their areas, Shrader said.

“They’re as good as you can get as far as families in the workplace,” he said.

The afternoon portion of the conference features a presentation on employee commitment by ISU professor of management Paula Morrow and a presentation on women returning to work after childbirth by University of Iowa associate professor of sociology Jennifer Glass.

Morrow, who has done extensive research on employee commitment for the last two decades, said she has seen a reverse in employee commitment because companies have to be so competitive.

“Rather than offering a lifetime employment, companies are more loosely committed to their employees,” she said. “Lay offs are much more common now.”

Morrow will focus on strategies for restoring employee commitment in this era of downsizing.

Although many companies are not dealing with people as fairly as they could, Morrow said most of them do want to treat employees fairly.

“They are just unsure how to do it in this day and age,” she said.

A business round table also will be a key part of the conference.

Human resource officials from 3M Corporation, Principal Financial Group, AmerUs and Pioneer Hy-brid will be talking about family-friendly practices that work in their companies.

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