Role negotiation and systems-level work-life balance
ISSN: 0048-3486
Article publication date: 28 February 2019
Issue publication date: 7 March 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes underlying a systems perspective on work–life balance (WLB), with a particular focus on the tensions and role negotiations that arise within and across work and non-work roles.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employed a qualitative methodology, conducting 42 interviews with lawyers at large law firms, which is a context notorious for long work hours.
Findings
While a cornerstone of a systems view is that balance is social in nature, and that negotiations occur among stakeholders over role expectations, the process through which this happens has remained unexamined both theoretically and empirically. The authors learned that negotiating around work and non-work role expectations are often contested, complex and fluid. The authors contribute to the literature by elaborating on how these negotiations happen in the legal profession, describing factors that inhibit or facilitate role negotiation and exploring how interdependencies within work systems and across work and non-work systems shape these negotiation processes.
Originality/value
The findings offer a more nuanced conceptualization of the system-level perspective on WLB, and in particular an enriched explanation of work and non-work role negotiation. The authors encourage employers who are interested in promoting WLB to ensure that their employees feel empowered to negotiate their roles, particularly with others in their work systems.
Keywords
Citation
Robertson, K.M., Lautsch, B.A. and Hannah, D.R. (2019), "Role negotiation and systems-level work-life balance", Personnel Review, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 570-594. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2016-0308
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited