scholarly journals Failures of Flexibility: How Perceived Control Motivates the Individualization of Work–Life Conflict

ILR Review ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison T. Wynn ◽  
Aliya Hamid Rao
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Control ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Work Demands ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Consulting Industry ◽  
Depth Interviews

Firms have increasingly used flexibility policies to facilitate work–life balance, yet existing research shows that employees are stigmatized for using these seemingly beneficial policies. In this article, the authors identify perceived control, that is, the sense of control employees feel they have over managing their work–life conflicts, as a key factor in their avoidance of flexibility policies. Through 50 in-depth interviews with management consultants from five firms, the authors find that employees frame managing their work–life conflicts as a test of their professional skills, emphasize their “natural” suitability for the consulting industry, use choice rhetoric to reframe oppressive work demands as personal choices, and accentuate their ability to exit the consulting industry if they are unable to manage their work–life balance independently. Empirically, this study provides a fuller explanation for the pervasive avoidance of flexibility policies and expands on prior explanations that focus on flexibility stigma.

scholarly journals Work-life balance policies in high performance organisations: A comparative interview study with millennials in Dutch consultancies

2020 ◽  
pp. 239700222095273
Author(s):  
Onno Bouwmeester ◽  
Rose Atkinson ◽  
Lucie Noury ◽  
Riku Ruotsalainen
Keyword(s):  
Work Experience ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Work Demands ◽  
Dirty Work ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Young Professionals ◽  
General Management ◽  
Health Programmes

The literature on work-life balance primarily focuses on how individuals cope with high work demands. This study, however, investigates how young professionals experience the work-life balance support offered by organisations. Twenty-four millennial consultants were interviewed to explore their perceptions of work-life balance and organisational support policies in an extreme work context. Twelve consultants worked for strategy houses with an average working week of around 60 hours, while the other 12 worked for general management consultancies with average working weeks of roughly 50 hours. Our comparative findings suggest that overall work-life balance perceptions stay positive in both settings. In strategy houses, where work pressures are highest, reported policies and practices go beyond health programmes, training and coaching, which are the most common work-life balance measures. Strategy houses monitor their consultants’ work-life balance experience weekly, provide options to outsource components of the work, and offer multiple forms of compensation. These further policies are much appreciated. Despite these positive assessments, we also observe an increase of negative work-life balance experiences due to the higher work pressures at strategy houses. There is, therefore, some ambiguity in the work-life balance perceptions of consultants, who recalibrate what are ‘normal’ work demands and reframe and refocus on the bright side of work life. Such occupational ideologies indicate a ‘dirty work’ experience.

scholarly journals Public sector austerity cuts in Britain and the changing discourse of work–life balance

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzan Lewis ◽  
Deirdre Anderson ◽  
Clare Lyonette ◽  
Nicola Payne ◽  
Stephen Wood
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Public Sector Organizations ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Financial Pressures

The relative importance of economic and other motives for employers to provide support for work–life balance (WLB) is debated within different literatures. However, discourses of WLB can be sensitive to changing economic contexts. This article draws on in-depth interviews with senior human resources professionals in British public sector organizations to examine shifting discourses of WLB in an austerity context. Three main discourses were identified: WLB practices as organizationally embedded amid financial pressures; WLB practices as a strategy for managing financial pressures; and WLB as a personal responsibility. Despite a discourse of mutual benefits to employee and employer underpinning all three discourses, there is a distinct shift towards greater emphasis on economic rather than institutional interests of employers during austerity, accompanied by discursive processes of fixing, stretching, shrinking and bending understandings of WLB. The reconstructed meaning of WLB raises concerns about its continued relevance to its original espoused purpose.

scholarly journals CONCEPTUAL REVIEW ON RELIGIOSITY, WORK-LIFE BALANCE (WLB) AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS (HEIs)

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-27
Keyword(s):  
Employee Performance ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Moderating Effect ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Good Time ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Work Demands ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Working From Home ◽  
Depth Study

Working from home (WFH) is now becoming a new normal, and today it brings a big change in the way people think and act. However, some people find that working from home is a big challenge, especially for those with families and young children. This is not easy and it leads to stress and burdens because the employees were not able to share a good time with their family and work demands. This study aims to identify the influencing factors of Work-life balance (WLB) on employee performance and moderating effect of religiosity towards WLB and employee performance of HEIs. The study will be used to accumulate empirical literature by the name of religiosity towards WLB and employee performance in different online database sources. The review findings show that there is a significant effect of WLB especially, technological, institutional, and individual factors are considered the most influential effects on employee performance. This study also identified that there is a moderating effect of religiosity towards WLB and employee performance of HEIs. The findings will be used to develop a reach framework and will be conducted a rigorous depth study and will be drawn policy guidelines for further improvement of WLB and employee performance in HEIs.

scholarly journals REALITIES OF WORK LIFE BALANCE IN NIGERIA: PERCEPTIONS OF ROLE CONFLICT AND COPING BELIEFS

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Babatunde Akanji
Keyword(s):  
Global Scale ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Role Conflicts ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Work Family ◽  
And Coping ◽  
Work Family Enrichment ◽  
Depth Interviews

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of Work-Life Balance (WLB) practices in a developing nation of Nigeria. Evidently, on the threshold of widened globalization propensities, work-life research is beginning to spread outside the western context. Thus, a qualitative approach was employed by conducting 61 in-depth interviews with Nigerian employees (41 women and 20 men) working in frontline employments in the banking, telecommunications and insurance sectors about their perceptions of WLB. The findings showed that though conflict situations existed more than work-family enrichment, but under different circumstances due to the long legacy of national challenges facing Nigeria. The apparent role conflicts have generated various coping strategies adapted by participants of study to moderate their perceived work-life conflict and this paper seeks to add to the compendium of WLB discourse on a global scale by examining key barriers detected to hinder its workable practices in Nigeria.

scholarly journals Effects of Multiple Job Holding on the Work-Life Balance

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne McClintock ◽  
Nick Taylor ◽  
Julie Warren
Keyword(s):  
Community Involvement ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Significant Feature ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Family Activities ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

Multiple job holding is a significant feature of the contemporary New Zealand labour market, with at least one in ten people actively involved in the workforce holding more than one job at a time. Research into the effects of multiple job holding on the lives of workers in three sectors shows there can be considerable impact on their work-life balance. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with male and female health professional, farmers, and cafe or restaurant workers. The research shows that multiple job holding is comparatively well established in the agriculture and health sectors, with multiple job holders expecting to remain as such for the longer term. While multiple job holding may be equally established in the cafe and restaurant sector, the multiple jobs holders do not generally expect to remain so for long so the multiple job holding appears more transitional. Multiple job holders, who typically work long hours, are motivated by a range of factors, with economic reasons dominating. However, personal factors and pulling together a portfolio of work are also important. Overall, workers interviewed in the three sectors tend to hold their jobs because they want to rather than because they have to. Nevertheless, multiple job holding affects lives outside work, particularly family activities, participation in leisure and exercise, and community involvement. These effects on work-life balance vary by sector.

Work-life Balance: Perceptions of the Non-work Domain

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-108
Author(s):  
Vineetha Prakash
Keyword(s):  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Work Demands ◽  
Life Domains ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Domains Of Life ◽  
Work Preferences ◽  
Work Family ◽  
Indian Cities

Work-life balance research suffers from a lack of consistency in defining the scope of non-work (life outside work). Considering the evolving life preferences of modern workforce, work-life balance researchers should have a broader view of life which expands beyond work-family, and includes other non-work domains of life. This study is an attempt to establish that for today’s employees, work-life balance means balancing work not only with family life; but also with other non-work domains. Several non-work domains were identified from previous literature and a survey was conducted to identify the different non-work aspects important for respondents to have work-life balance. Based on results from 214 Indians working in various Indian cities and abroad, it was established that in the context of work-life balance, non-work includes not just family, but a combination of life domains, which varies from person-to-person. Although family remained the topmost priority, other non-work aspects were also chosen by varying proportions of respondents. Non-work preferences and related experiences of employees varied based on gender, marital status and child-care responsibilities. Satisfaction with organization’s work-life balance facilities differed when employees chose family, from when they chose other non-work domains. Findings indicate that various non-work preferences of employees should be considered during work-life balance research, and while designing work-life balance practices. This would help to address the non-work demands of different types of employees, and hence give more acceptance to such initiatives.

De werk-privé balans van gescheiden ouders : De rol van werkeisen, privé-eisen en hun combinatie

2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-90
Author(s):  
Arda van den Berg ◽  
Anne-Rigt Poortman
Keyword(s):  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Work Demands ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Family Balance ◽  
Work Family Balance ◽  
Family Demands ◽  
Work Family ◽  
High Work

Abstract The work-family balance of divorced parents: The role of work demands, family demands and their interplayAfter a divorce, parents may face difficulties in combining work with the care for children. Few studies have examined the work-life balance of this particular group. Using data from 1.577 employed divorced fathers and 2.059 employed divorced mothers, we examined how work demands (long work hours, commuting times) and family demands (number and age of children, postdivorce residence arrangements) affected the work-family balance of divorced parents. High work demands lowered the work-life balance among both fathers and mothers. Greater family demands had a smaller impact than work demands and led to a worse work-life balance only for mothers. Family demands, however, became more important for fathers’ work-family balance when combined with high work demands. Such an interplay of work and family demands was also found for mothers: work demands had stronger effects in case of high family demands and vice versa.

scholarly journals French Fathers in Work Organizations: Navigating Work-Life Balance Challenges

2021 ◽  
pp. 213-229
Author(s):  
Sabrina Tanquerel
Keyword(s):  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Work Organizations ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Successful Career ◽  
Cultural Ideals ◽  
Perceptions And Expectations ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Working Fathers

AbstractThis chapter aims at contributing to a better understanding of the challenges and tensions that French working fathers experience at work in trying to achieve work-life balance. Drawing on a sample of 20 fathers, aged 27–51, working in different work organizations, in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate how these fathers navigate tensions between the simultaneous pressure for having a successful career and for embodying an involved fatherhood. The findings show that the fathers’ perceptions and expectations towards work-life balance are different from women, fathers often associating their needs for work-life balance with occasional and informal flexibility and not always viewing the organization as a source of solutions. Heterogeneously influenced by their cultural ideals of work and fatherhood, they expect now more proactivity, recognition and support on the part of their organization and supervisor to fully carry out their fatherhood. A typology of three profiles with different ways of combining fatherhood and work is derived: the ‘breadwinner’ father, the ‘caring father’ and the ‘want to have it all’ father. These categories are further developed highlighting the practices and strategies French fathers mobilize to solve their work-life equation.

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