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The study aims at exploring the constructive role that organizations can play in enabling their employees move from work-family conflict (WFC) to a more integrated work–life solution.

Being socially and culturally contextual by nature, a qualitative methodology that involved in-depth interviews with the respondents was chosen for the study. This facilitated the respondents to discuss in detail their WFC experiences and the expectations that they hold from their organizations.

The findings of the study suggested the importance of effective two-way communication between employees and top management, structural and cultural support from the organization and the importance of redesigning and restructuring jobs in an attempt to reduce work-role overload.

Organizations can foster initiatives that can lead to a healthier work–life balance of the employees, which can further result in a more creative, committed, satisfied and diverse workforce for them.

A better work environment that facilitates smoother balance between work and non-work responsibilities can lead to better physical and psychological health of the employees and reduced instances of discord in work and family domains.

Most studies on WFC have focused on the adverse impact of WFC; the present study adopts a solution-oriented approach to finding ways in which resourceful entities such as big organizations can take steps in alleviating WFC experiences of their employees.

The major purpose of this paper is to examine how gender differences impact the enactment of careers. An additional goal is to examine whether, as suggested by recent conceptualizations, careers are indeed becoming more boundaryless.

This paper is based on the results of two in‐depth qualitative studies (n=52; n=27).

Two major patterns were found that describe the careers of professionals in the contemporary workplace. One pattern is called the alpha career pattern: over the life span, people with this pattern first focus on challenge, then authenticity, and then balance. The second pattern is called the beta career pattern: over the life span, people with this pattern first focus on challenge, then balance, and then authenticity.

This paper offers a framework that HR managers and other organizational leaders can use to increase the authenticity, balance and challenge experienced by their employees in order to enhance organizational effectiveness.

This paper addresses the numerous calls for the development of a model to explain the complexities of women's careers as well as to recognize gender differences in career enactment. It was found that, in general, men followed the alpha career pattern while women followed the beta career pattern. However, a limited number of women had career experiences that were more consistent with the alpha career pattern more closely aligned with men while some younger men consciously developed more family‐driven beta patterns.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for future research on the intersection of gender, work and family.

This paper offers personal reflections on needed research in a post-pandemic future.

This paper identifies several promising areas for future research on the intersection of gender, work and family.

The paper offers numerous recommendations for a post-pandemic research agenda, including future research on essential workers, virtual workers, workers with enhanced family demands, single employed parents, social supports and issues of gender associated with these populations and topics.

The paper reinforces the value of social supports at the individual, family, organizational, community and societal levels.

The paper discusses implications for future research of an original event, the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is still transpiring.

As an increasing number of women enter the workforce, the traditional boundaries between work and family become less defined. The two important directions for dealing with this new phenomenon are further research and development of family‐oriented policies by government and corporations. New research involves the use of longitudinal studies and more refined definitions of work and family variables. The focus of the policies, in response to the issues of work and family, revolves around family leave, child and dependent care programmes, flexible work schedules and other assistance. Though there has been some momentum by governments and corporations, much progress is needed in the 1990s to develop more effective policies and to overcome attitudes as the impact of women in the workforce becomes more prominent.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence perceptions of work-life balance among owners of copreneurial firms. Research on work-life balance in the context of family firms has focussed on the effects that perceptions of balance can have on the emotional well-being of business owners and performance of the firm. Less attention has been given to understanding the factors affecting an owner's perceptions of work-life balance. This paper not only explores the antecedents of perceptions of work-life balance but does so with copreneurs, or couples who own and manage a firm.

Data for this study were collected using surveys. In all, 210 copreneurs with businesses in nearly 20 industries answered questions about their perceptions of work-life balance, work-life conflict (WLC), life-work conflict, communication practices, characteristics of their jobs, and spousal support.

WLC was negatively related to perceptions of work-life balance. Job involvement, flexibility at work, and permeability of communication were significantly related to perceptions of WLC. Interestingly spousal support did not affect individual perceptions of life-work balance, but had a direct influence on perceptions of work-life balance.

The sample was not randomly selected, and participants were surveyed at only one point in time. Notwithstanding these limitations, the findings have implications for advancing research and theory in the areas of family business, work-life issues, and communication. While the paper focus on copreneurial firms, the findings may have implications for family firms and co-founded ventures.

The potential benefits of copreneurs’ increased awareness of these findings (from readings or through coaching) are important given prior research demonstrating that family to work conflict and work to family conflict affect the emotional well-being of family business owners, their satisfaction with work, and firm performance.

This project offers two important contributions to research in family firms. First, it focusses on copreneurial firms as a unique type of family firm which has the potential to shed light on the differences between family firms. Second, results from this study provide a picture of the predictors of work-life balance for couples who are firm owners.

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.

States that there is a need for a practical instrument to measure the present situation of work‐life balance. Describes the development process of the Family and Business Audit within the Flemish context. Details the setting up and aims of the system before outlining its application in some detail and other existing instruments also emploiyed. Provides a number of short case studies to demonstrate its effectiveness.

The purpose of this article is to explore the impact of life cycle stage, specifically parenting stage, on work‐family conflict among working parents to determine whether discernible differences are evident among those individuals at the early stage of their parenting cycle compared with those with older children.

An explorative study was undertaken among parents employed within the Irish hotel sector. The questionnaire was distributed to 22 hotels and 76 individuals who reported having children responded. A number of measures were used to assess the impact which a number of factors, namely job stress, job involvement, managerial support and colleague support, may have on working parents' work‐life conflict. Correlation and regression analysis are performed to test the hypotheses proposed.

The research findings provide initial support for the possibility that the factors influencing work‐family conflict differ for each of the parenting groups analysed. For all parents with dependent children it was found that job involvement, job stress and colleague support all have predictive powers in terms of explaining the antecedents of work‐family conflict.

The findings provide a compelling case for the need to begin to address work‐family conflict in a more holistic manner, examining both the immediate and long‐term consequences for employees with childcare responsibilities.

The ability to design and implement specific, targeted responses to employees' work‐life needs is an area where HRD can make a real and significant contribution. Strategic HRD has the potential to reduce the misappropriation of organisational resources by ensuring a focused and targeted response, thereby minimising the fruitless pursuit of “one size fits all” approaches to this complex issue.

The paper seeks to lay the first key foundation‐stones in framing the debate in relation to work‐life balance in terms of the entire working lives of individuals and not just specific snapshots during the course of that employment. The paper is critical of current organisational thinking in relation to employees' work‐life balance needs and challenges HRD professionals to begin to examine this important and complex issue in a more holistic manner.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influences of informal organisational and family support on work-family conflict (WFC) and its subsequent impact on turnover intentions among female employees.

To evaluate the WFC among female individuals, data were collected through a questionnaire distributed among female employees in the service sector in Lahore, Pakistan, by using convenience-sampling technique. The collected data were analysed through a well-known statistical technique, SEM, using AMOS software.

The findings suggest that supports (informal organizational and family) have no impact to resolving the issues of WFC arising because of female members of the family working. Also, it was found that WFC is positively linked to employee turnover intentions.

By addressing WFC issues, this research has key implication for WFC practically. This study has essential implications for organization, so it can reduce the WFC by creating a supportive environment to create balance amongst work and family life. Specifically, managers need to be aware of the impact that social support and WFC have on turnover intention.

This study provides the model of WFC that helps in future research. The research also improves past studies’ methodology by testing the direct and mediation impacts between the constructs specifically in female employees. This study is a valuable addition to the existing body of literature.

The aim of the research is twofold: to explore relations between work/family demands, work‐family conflict (WFC), family‐work conflict (FWC) and wellbeing outcomes, and to contrast employees from an individualistic (UK) and a collectivistic (Taiwan) society.

Heterogeneous samples of full‐time employees in Taiwan and UK were surveyed using structured questionnaires.

For both the Taiwanese and British, work demands were positively related to WFC, whereas family demands were positively related to FWC. Both WFC and FWC were negatively related to wellbeing for employees in the two countries. More importantly, it was found that, for British, there was a stronger positive relation between workload and WFC, as well as a stronger positive relation between sharing household chores and FWC than for Taiwanese.

The relatively small sample size and the use of self‐report method are limitations of the present study. However, our results have both theoretical and practical implications. It is noted that Western findings regarding work/family issues may not generalize completely to a different cultural context. Consequently, company policies pertaining to work time and family issues should be re‐formulated, taking the core cultural values such as individualism‐collectivism into account.

The cross‐cultural comparative design is a major thrust of the present study, and the systematic examination of antecedents, moderators, and consequences of WFC and FWC is a rare effort in the field.