There is a subtle, but potentially seismic shift happening in the workplace. From sweeping diversity initiatives and radical strategies that tackle the gender wage gap to extended paid parental leave policies , the next decade could reveal a very different picture of American workers.

But change often comes with backlash. In the case of working mothers, we’ve seen unprecedented numbers among the rank and file of companies and finally a few more making it to the executive suite. At the same time, a long-term study of young adults revealed that gender roles are still very much in place, and the current generation of young men do not expect to take on primary caregiving roles. This is despite the fact that men see value in changing what it means to be men (and stand to benefit from gender equality).

New research published in the Journal of Business and Psychology reveals that as fathers take on more caregiving and other family responsibilities, workplace norms still see them as “organization men” married to their jobs, which potentially inhibits their development as true, involved fathers. The study also found that there isn’t much in the way of formal support for working dads.

The researchers first conducted a pilot study interviewing first-time fathers with children under the age of two, whose spouses also worked. All the men were professionals and some were management-level employees. They then added a group of dads for a further study, all of whom had working spouses and children under the age of four. The group of 31 men was predominantly white, and their average age was 33. One man was part of a gay couple, and some had multiple children.

The researchers asked three groups of questions. One focused on career history, satisfaction, aspirations, and responsibilities, as well as asking whether or not their current job made it easy to combine work and family. Another set asked personal questions about the man and his family. The third asked participants to describe what fatherhood meant to them, to rate themselves as fathers, and to list the ways their workplace supports their ability to be good dads.

Several themes emerged that indicate men toggle between seeing themselves in the traditional role of breadwinner dad and variations of the more modern involved father. They also found that the workplace influences the way they see themselves, and that can cause tension between the different images. Despite the tension, most of the fathers surveyed held on to the multiple images, either by embracing synergy between them or accepting the ambivalence among them.

Not surprisingly, all the men interviewed saw themselves as providers, which subscribes to the long-held societal norm of father as breadwinner, even though all of them had working spouses. Most of the men also saw themselves as role models for their children.