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This article serves as an introduction to six articles featured in a special issue on diversity in the work–life interface. This collection of papers contains research that contemplates the work–life interface in different geographic and cultural contexts, that explores the work–life experiences of minority, marginalized and/or underresearched groups of workers and that takes into account diverse arrangements made to fulfill both work and nonwork responsibilities.

This introductory article first summarizes some of the emerging research in this area, introduces the papers in this special issue and links them to these themes and ends with highlighting the importance of using an intersectional lens in future investigations of the work–life interface.

These six articles provide empirically based insights, as well as new theoretical considerations for studying the interface between paid work and personal life roles. Compelling new research directions are identified.

Introducing the new articles in this special issue and reviewing recent research in this area brings together the work–life interface scholarship and diversity management studies and points to the necessity for future investigations to take an intersectional and contextualized approach to their subject matter.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the resilience of a national-level initiative (Improving Working Lives (IWL)) in the face of local-level initiative (Turnaround) in an NHS hospital and compare to Bach and Kessler’s (2012) model of public service employment relations.

Case study research consisting of 23 in-depth semi-structured interviews from a range of participants.

The principles behind IWL were almost entirely sacrificed in order to meet the financial objectives of Turnaround. This indicates the primacy of localised upstream performance management initiatives over the national-level downstream employee relations initiatives that form the basis of the NHS’ claim to model employer aspiration.

The case study was conducted between 2007 and 2009. While the case study falls under previous government regime, the dualised system of national-level agreements combined with localised performance management – and the continued existence of both Turnaround and IWL – makes the results relevant at the time of writing.

Some studies (e.g. Skinner et al., 2004) indicated a perception that IWL was not trusted by NHS staff. The present study offers reasons as to why this may be the case.

Draws attention to recent broad trends in UK employment regulation that refocus the emphasis in employment rights away from a primary concern with safeguarding collective rights toward a more differentiated approach privileging more individual concerns.

Seeks to explain the reasons and consequences of this development.

Argues that rights are defended on the basis of their ability to secure greater employee motivation and productivity.

Explains that this is a business-case defense rather than a requirement for social justice.

Advances the view that modern Conservatives see society as made up of a broad range of actors and not reducible to state action.

Claims that the extension of the minimum period of employment required before an employer may be taken to tribunal to two years, together with a greatly increased fee required to bring a case, mean that cases are much more difficult to make.

This article examines how human resource (HR) practitioners are responding to the current UK Government's “business case” approach to promoting family‐friendly policies. The ethical basis of the Government's approach to work‐life balance is examined and the results of a survey of HR practitioners’ views on this issue are presented. Findings indicate that, when examining the interdependent factors that determine the ethical basis of support and opposition to such policies, respondents are more likely to reject the Government's rationale on equal and opposite terms to which they are being promoted.

This article explores the implementation of quality management initiatives in four local authorities and considers how far such a scenario offers a possibility for social partnership between management and trade unions. Although no collective bargaining processes are defined in the social partnership model, it is contended here that the implied collective bargaining model in social partnership is Walton and McKersie’s “integrative bargaining” model. It is further contended that the scenario of implementing quality management in local government offers all the preconditions for integrative bargaining to take place – both in terms of the legitimate presence of recognised unions and through the pursuit of an issue in which management, staff and trade unions may have mutual interests. In practice, however, conditions for integrative bargaining outcomes did not emerge. Evidence for this was based on assessing senior manager and union branch official opinions through interviews, and on survey responses from Unison members.

This monograph contains abstracts from the 2005 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, 6‐7th September 2005

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical evidence in support of widespread calls for new approaches to understanding small business growth, by exploring the use of non-positivist methods (e.g. critical realism) to analyse how owners’ innate dispositions shape growth in practice.

In 2014, a telephone survey was used to inform two focus groups and 29 in-depth interviews with small business owners throughout England, covering attitudes towards growth, the use of particular strategies and perceived barriers. Discourse analysis was used to develop a multi-layered explanatory model incorporating key ideas from critical realism and the work of Bourdieu.

Bourdieusian analysis reveals the existence of orientations among small business owners towards or against business growth. Such attitudes tend to impact upon their response to perceived barriers. Growth-inclined owners were willing to strategise for long-term benefit, in return for lower returns in the short term. Growth-resistant owners were more likely to view obstacles as absolute, stating that they cannot grow their firms as a result.

Removing or reducing obstacles may not encourage growth if motivations and attitudes of owners do not change to embrace more growth-oriented positions. Banks’ lending practices, for example, were seen by many as problematic, but growth-oriented owners were more willing to seek and use alternatives to raise funds for growth.

The authors suggest that entrepreneurship researchers should look beyond positivist research to epistemologies that provide more multi-layered modes of explanation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consumer meaning-making and brand co-creation and the role of brand value and the consumption context of luxury goods in the emerging South African market.

An extant segmentation approach that classifies luxury brand consumers into four different segments was used to guide the identification of a total of 16 luxury consumers with whom in-depth interviews were conducted.

The findings identify differences between four consumer segments’ levels of brand knowledge and indicate how these differing levels produce interesting meanings assigned to luxury brands which in turn co-create the brands. A framework is also proposed that maps each of the four luxury segments according to the value they derive from luxury brands and the context in which luxury consumption holds the most meaning for each segment.

Managerial recommendations concerning the implications of consumers assigning meaning and value to luxury brands and recommendations pertaining to the managing and positioning of luxury brands to each of the four luxury segments in this market are proposed.

The study provides interesting insights with regards to how consumers assign meaning and value to luxury brands in the emerging South African market. The proposed framework also uniquely demonstrates underlying behaviours within each of the four luxury segments and contributes to a better understanding of how and why these segments consume luxury brands.