Definitions of work-life balance in childfree dual-career couples: an inductive typology

PurposeWork-life balance experiences of dual-career professional couples with children have received considerable attention, but there remains a paucity of research on the definitions of work-life balance among dual-career professional couples without children. This qualitative investigation sheds light on childfree couples' lives outside of work and their concomitant understanding of work-life balance.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on interviews with 21 dual-career professional couples in Canada and the US, exploring their non-work lives and how they conceive of work-life balance.FindingsThematic analyses demonstrate that this group, while free of child rearing responsibilities, still deals with myriad non-work obligations. These couples also defy uniform characterization. The inductive investigation uncovered four couple categories based on the individual members' career and care orientations. These included careerist, conventional, non-conventional and egalitarian couples. Definitions of work-life balance varied across couple type according to the value they placed on flexibility, autonomy and control, and their particular level of satisfaction with their work and non-work domains.Originality/valueThis study contributes to research at the intersection of work-life balance and various demographic groups by exploring the work-life balance of professional dual-career couples without children. Using an interpretive ontology, the study advances a typology of childfree dual-career professional couples. The findings challenge the rhetoric that these couples are primarily work-oriented but otherwise carefree. Thus, this study demonstrates ways that childfree couples are different as well as similar to those with children.

Taking a Step Back? Expatriation Consequences on Women in Dual-Career Couples in the Gulf

This article develops our understanding of how host country contextual features affect the career coordination strategies of dual-career couples (DCCs) from the perspective of expatriate women. The lived experiences of nine women expatriates in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were explored through in-depth interviews. The findings challenge our understanding of the coordinated career strategies of DCCs by suggesting that sociocultural features of the host country context can hamper egalitarian career strategies such that they become hierarchical and subsequently negatively impact women expatriates’ career capital. Not only are women’s careers hampered while in the GCC, but the contextual setting has a long-term adverse effect on women’s career capital. The main results from this study suggest that sociocultural features of the host country setting, such as the inability to access professional networks due to gendered segregation, prevent women’s careers from being prioritised and force a ‘tipping point’, creating a lag in women’s careers and negatively impacting their career capital.

Zum Forschungsstand über Ansätze des Dual Career Coachings

ZusammenfassungDer vorliegende Artikel zeigt den Forschungsstand zur Beratung von Dual Career Couples (DCCs) anhand von zehn theoretisch, empirisch und praxeologisch entwickelten Ansätzen auf. Zunächst wird die Bedeutung des Phänomens DCCs für die Karriereberatung konturiert und anschließend vor dem Hintergrund gesellschaftlicher Transformationsprozesse eingeordnet. Die Einführung eines triadisch konzeptualisierten Beratungsraums schafft einen Rahmen, der eine vergleichende Darstellung und Einordnung der zehn Ansätze ermöglicht. Abschließend werden Perspektiven zur Weiterentwicklung des Dual Career Coachings aufgezeigt und eine Standortbestimmung vorgenommen.

A Qualitative Exploration of Role Salience among Malaysian Professional and Managerial Dual-Career Couples

This paper explores work and family roles salience in the context of dual-career couples in Malaysia. Semi-structured qualitative interviews has been conducted on 18 couples in professional and managerial position. The data were transcribed and analyzed using template analysis. The findings revealed that several factors namely culture, religious values, gender, work characteristics and personal preferences influence the couples’ role salience. Women tend to face more struggles to maintain the salience of both roles despite the fact that couples regard both roles to be central to their lives. Factors such as culture and religious values influence the couples’ role salience making them holding to traditional gender attitude and reduce the impact of family to work. Some couples are more affected with spouse work condition or personal preferencesleading them to practice less traditional roles in their family arrangements.Conflicting views within couples also exist, which influence their challenges and satisfaction. This study adds to the work and family research using couple-level analysis in a non-Western context. The qualitative data gained has also enabled the study to extend the understanding on how the dynamic of the interaction between culture, religion, gender, work characteristics and personal preferences come into play to shape couples’ role salience and consequently their work-family experiences and perceptions.

Satisfying Marital Relationship among Dual-Career Couples: A Validation Study

The aim of this study was to develop a culturally relevant scale of satisfying marriage for dual-career couples. In order to explore the phenomenology of satisfying marriage, 25 participants, 25–42 years of age, were interviewed and their responses were recorded. Responses were then collated and duplicate and vague items were discarded. The remaining responses were transformed into a four-point Likert scale to assess the content validity; 45 items constituted the Satisfying Marriage Scale (SMS). meaning] After expert validation by 13 experienced psychologists, the scale was administered to 250 married couples with age ranging from 21 years to 50 years (M = 31.40, SD = 6.27) to establish psychometric properties. meaning] SMS along with a demographic performa, Couple Satisfaction Index (CSI), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) were administered. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded three factors cooperation and coordination, mutual support, and mutual respect. The scale was found to have high internal consistency ( α = 0.95), and split-half reliability ( r = 0.81) with moderate levels of concurrent and construct validity. Results of the indigenous scale were further discussed in relevance to Pakistan’s cultural context.