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Work-life challenges experienced by employees navigating pregnancy, maternity, and parenting young children are well documented in the literature. Correspondingly, work-life balance policies and provisions aimed at supporting affected staff are well established in many modern organizations. Within this agenda however, complications within maternity journeys, and specifically the intersection with mental health has been neglected. In this chapter, we consider the work-life issues associated with perinatal (pregnancy and post-birth) mental illness. After introducing perinatal mental illness, and its impact on individuals and families, we consider the two-way relationship between illness and work: how employment factors influence the development of perinatal mental illness and recovery trajectories, with implications for family life; and how such illnesses impact work and employment. We offer key insights from our empirical research on this topic in the context of UK policing, highlighting challenges linked to the nature of police work and organization culture, and issues that are more broadly applicable to how maternity and mental illness are treated in the workplace. The chapter offers recommendations for people management practice aimed at reducing or mitigating occupational factors that exacerbate illness and maximizing those facilitating recovery in the perinatal period and beyond, thus advancing work-life inclusion.

This study aims to measure the level of satisfaction among women with childbirth services provided at public health facilities. Further, to analyse the impact of their socio-economic and obstetric characteristics on their level of satisfaction.

To accomplish these objectives a cross-sectional survey was conducted in two districts of an Indian state, Bihar. Structured questionnaire was developed based on the scale proposed by Okumu and Oyugi (2018) both for vaginal and caesarean birth patients. For empirical analysis multiple linear regression model was employed.

Results suggest that majority of mothers are satisfied with the care they received during childbirth, regardless of whether they chose a caesarean (55%) or vaginal delivery (53%). Women report the lowest levels of satisfaction with postpartum care and the privacy that was preserved by healthcare personnel at health facility. Further the study also confirms the association between patient’s socio-economic characteristics and their satisfaction level.

This is the first study of its kind to highlight the situation of public healthcare system in Bihar, which is the third most populated state in India with poor social and health indicators.

This paper aims to examine the current quality of work-life (QWL) situation and the effectiveness of labor laws for promoting QWL in the context of Nepalese workplaces.

It uses a descriptive-interpretative-qualitative approach to analyze the responses. Information is gathered through discussions with 85 higher- and middle-level managers of large and medium-sized organizations.

The majority of Nepalese organizations accept safe and healthy working conditions, social relevance of work-life, social integration in the work organization, and work and total life space as the key aspects of QWL. They have become even more critical as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they face challenges in providing employees with opportunities for continued growth and security, immediate opportunity to use and develop human capacities, adequate and fair compensation and constitutionalism in the work organization. QWL-related provisions in Labour Act, 2017, play a vital role in promoting the QWL situation. The QWL programs offer many benefits to employees’ private and working lives. The lack of such programs would undoubtedly have negative consequences for Nepalese companies. Compliance with labor laws will promote a better QWL situation at Nepalese workplaces.

Only managerial perspectives are considered for examining the current situation of QWL and the effectiveness of QWL-related provisions of the Labour Act, 2017. It excludes the views of union leaders.

This paper indicates that labor laws’ QWL-related provisions are effective. It also provides several policy measures for promoting a better QWL in Nepalese workplaces.

This study presents QWL-related legal provisions and the actual situation at the workplaces of Nepal. It also presents the key aspects of QWL in the context of Nepal.

Almost four years after the COVID-19 pandemic, the changes in the labour market and legislation, but also in people's lives, do not stop. At the same time, employees' perceptions regarding the change in the legislative and contractual framework, as well as in the working conditions and the use of telework, also change. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to identify the perceptions of employees regarding the use of telework in the post-pandemic period.

The research was based on a survey carried out on 128 teleworkers in the post-pandemic period. The statistical hypotheses were tested using Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Kruskal–Wallis tests, multiple linear regression and pairwise comparison analysis.

The results of the study demonstrate that the modification of the legislative and contractual framework and of the working conditions, as well as of the way of using information and communication technology in the post-pandemic era, generates a positive and significant impact on the use of telework by employees. Some of the main advantages valued by teleworkers included the possibility of benefitting from a flexible work schedule and the possibility of reducing transport costs.

The study highlights the need to continuously develop and update labour policies and strategies in line with current and future labour market requirements, considering the implications of telework on the perceptions of employees, so that government organisations and managers who want to protect the rights and interests of teleworkers, aspects of their lives and organise an appropriate work environment manage to do so in order to achieve the expected results.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive effect on the health system. Health facility leaders were at the forefront of maintaining service delivery and were exposed to varied stressors in the early phase of the pandemic. This study aims to explore the leadership experiences of health facility leaders during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria’s epicentre.

This study conducted an exploratory descriptive qualitative study. To achieve this, 33 health facility leaders of different cadres across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of the public health care system in Lagos, Nigeria, were remotely interviewed. The key informant interviews were transcribed verbatim and were analysed by using thematic analysis.

The health facility leaders experienced heightened levels of fear, anxiety and stressors during the early phase of the pandemic. They also had genuine concerns about exposing their family members to the virus and had to manage some health-care workers who were afraid for their lives and reluctant. Coping mechanisms included psychological and social support, innovative hygiene measures at health facility and at home, training and staff welfare in more ways than usual. They were motivated to continue rendering services during the crisis because of their passion, their calling, the Hippocratic oath and support from the State government.

The experiences of health facility leaders from different parts of the world have been documented. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies that specifically report multi-layer leadership experiences of health facility leaders during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted organizations, bringing in unforeseen situations and highlighting the need for organizational leaders to develop a capacity for resilience, i.e. the ability to recuperate, exhibit agility and rebound. Hence, this paper aims to explore leaders’ views on what resilience capabilities are needed to manage themselves, the team and the organization.

This qualitative research study uses an in-depth interview tool and adopts a reflexive thematic analysis. The capabilities approach and resilience theory framework were applied to view resilience capabilities. The sample comprises 19 middle and senior leaders, both men and women, from the information technology Industry in India.

This study unravelled different capabilities to manage individuals, teams and organizations. The three key themes of resilience capabilities observed were as follows: self-leadership capabilities – where leaders focussed on capabilities that developed themselves; people leadership capabilities – which focussed on leading people and the team; and organisation-focussed leadership capabilities – which focussed on the macro level.

The findings of the study benefit organizations, leaders, human resource professionals, talent management strategists and academic leadership scholars to identify, train, conceive and deliver resilience capabilities.

The present paper seeks to reveal the factors underlying the intentions of women on maternity leave to engage in informal economy activities.

A representative cross sectional survey of 417 women on maternity leave was selected as a main research approach. A structural equation modelling – partial equation modelling served as a research tool.

The study revealed that the most important determinants of intentions to become involved in informal economy activities during maternity leave are unsatisfactory financial situation, complicated legal regulation and fear of becoming uncompetitive in the labour market.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, it is the first scientific attempt to investigate the informal work/economy during maternal leave.

The communications industry faces a recruitment crisis. Despite the pivot to hybrid working and the ever-increasing number of young people opting to study the discipline, over half of recruiters in the public sector and three quarters of those recruiting for agencies struggle to fill vacancies. This chapter examines these trends from a radical feminist perspective, arguing the communications industry is squandering young, female talent by failing both new entrants and mothers returning to work after childbirth. This analysis is based on a series of surveys undertaken between 2020 and 2022 to examine the expectations and lived experience of women, and in particular communications students and mothers, working in or aspiring to work in the sector. Over 73% of the women surveyed had experienced gender-based discrimination and harassment, and 66% had been forced to choose between their careers and having a child. Of the young entrants to the profession surveyed, 88% believed becoming a mother would negatively impact their career, while 32% had experienced discrimination while undertaking their student placement. Analysis of these data indicates the sector faces a crisis of its own making by failing to provide a workplace culture worth working in. The chapter concludes only a direct challenge to male hegemony can redress the gender imbalance, free up talent to meet skills shortages and provide lasting change for women working in communications. It offers a series of recommendations for how professional bodies can address these issues and empower young women to achieve the career outcomes they deserve.

Although women have advanced in the economic sphere, the gender pay gap (GPG) remains a persisting problem for gender equality. Using Acker's theory of gendered organisations, this study strives to gain a better understanding from a macro and micro approach, how family and work-related policies, especially family-friendly measures (FFMs), and their uptake, contribute and maintain the GPG in Malta and specifically within the Financial and Insurance sector.

Two research instruments were used. National policy documents were analysed through the gender lens, followed by structured interviews with HR managerial participants within this sector.

Findings suggest that at a macro level, family and work-related policies could be divided into two broad categories: A set of family-friendly policies that contribute to the GPG because of their gendered nature, or because the uptake is mostly taken by women. These include make-work pay policies, which initially appear to be gender neutral, but which attracted lower educated inactive women to the Maltese labour market at low pay, contributing to an increase in the GPG. Second, a set of policies that take on a gender-neutral approach and help reduce the GPG. These include policies like the free childcare and after school care scheme that allow mothers to have a better adherence to the labour market. At the micro level within organisations, pay discrepancies between women and men were largely negated and awareness about the issue was low. Here, “ideal worker” values based on masculine norms seemed to lead to covert biases towards mothers who shoulder heavier care responsibilities in the families and make a bigger use of FFMs. Because men are better able to conform to these gendered values and norms, the GPG persists through vertical segregation and glass ceilings, among others.

Since not all the companies in the Eurostat NACE code list participated in this research, results could not be generalised but were indicative to future large-scale studies..

At the macro and policy level, some FFMs take on a clear gendered approach. For example, the disparity in length between maternity (18 weeks) and paternity leave (1 day) reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, which contribute to the GPG in the long run. While some FFMs like parental leave, career breaks, urgent family leave, telework, flexible and reduced hours seem to take on a more gender-neutral approach, the uptake of FFMs (except childcare) seems to generate discriminatory behaviour that may affect the GPG. When considering the make-work pay policies such as the “in-work benefit” and the “tapering of benefits”, this study showed that these policies attracted lower educated and low-skilled women into the labour market, which in turn may have further contributed to the increasing GPGs. On the other hand, the childcare and after school policies relieve working mothers from caregiving duties, minimising career interruptions, discriminatory behaviour and overall GPGs.

This study confirmed that organisations within the Financial and Insurance sector are gendered and give value to full-time commitment and long working hours, especially in managerial roles. Managerial positions remain associated with men because mothers tend to make more use of FFMs such as parental leave, reduced, flexible hours and teleworking. Mothers are indirectly penalised for doing so, because in gendered organisations, the uptake of FFMs conflict with the demands of work and ideal worker values (Acker, 1990). This maintains the vertical segregation and widens the GPG within the Financial and Insurance sector.

By using the gender lens and taking a wider and more holistic approach from the macro and micro level, this study highlights how interlinking factors lead to and sustain the GPG in the Financial and Insurance sector in Malta.

Female entrepreneurship discussions will broaden and diversify as a result of global shifts. Studies of female entrepreneurship must take into account differences between male and female entrepreneurs due to the historical, cultural and social specificity of developing countries to narrow gender gaps, identify barriers, fine-tune support systems, release dormant potential and provide information for policymaking. This paper aims to measure and estimate the most crucial socioeconomic characteristics that Southeast Asian countries leverage to advance women’s business initiatives.

Using a panel data model whereby the Female Entrepreneurship Indicator Score serves as the dependent variable and the ten most important socioeconomic indicators serve as the independent variables. Ten southeast Asian countries are analyzed using the panel fixed effects approach of Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) from 1980 to 2021.

It has been found by empirical panel quantile regression using the MM-QR method that the following indicators positively affect female entrepreneurship in southeast Asian countries: the assets indicator, the pay indicator, the workplace indicator, the mobility indicator and the a woman can sign a contract in the same way as a man indicator. But the parenthood indicator, the unemployment indicator, the school enrollment indicator, the men and women have equal ownership rights to immovable property indicator and the marriage indicator all have negative effects.

This paper uses a new method called MM-QR to look at how the most important socioeconomic factors affect female entrepreneurship in Southeast Asian countries. The results obtained will also add to and broaden the small amount of research that has been done on female entrepreneurs in developing countries.