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Students in full-time higher education are increasingly combining work with study. This can present challenges and conflicting priorities which may result in stress and compromised academic performance. However, working can also afford students a better quality of life and enhanced employability. The growth of student employment creates implications for universities and employers. In this chapter, we report the results of our research which explored experiences of students at a business school in a large UK university who were working while studying. We examine the experiences and perceived consequences of combining employment with full-time study and seek to understand why students work during their degree program, the challenges and benefits of balancing work and factors which may help and hinder their efforts. The chapter builds on the existing knowledge base about the effects working has on students’ academic performance and well-being, and considers how universities, employers and social circumstances may support students in managing their complex lives.

Recent advancements in the field of organizational psychology have transformed the employees’ perceptions related to the reactions of the employment relationship. The main aim of the study is to explore the consequences of psychological contracts among the nursing staff and how to provide better patient care and quality service in the health-care system as nurses play a pivotal role in the context of Pakistan. Significantly, this study attempts to bridge the research gap by exploring consequences of psychological contracts. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study examined the psychological contracts of nurses and their reactions to the perceived violation.

This research adopted a qualitative method and was based on an exploratory approach. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews from 21 nurses working in public, private and charity hospitals in Karachi, Pakistan. The thematic content analysis is employed for the analysis of data by using NVivo software.

The study identified the relational and transactional elements related to the psychological contract of nurses who predominantly consisted of supervisor support, autonomy, tangible/intangible rewards and trust. The intrinsic motivation which relates to their devotion to work was found as an additional element to balance their psychological contract. This research also establishes that the psychological contract of nurses is being violated in their work settings.

By highlighting the importance of psychological contract breach, the findings demonstrate that health-care institutions should take measures to cope with psychological contract breach issues at the workplace.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring psychological contract breach. Substantially, there are rare studies conducted on psychological contract breach among nurses in developing country context (Pakistan). However, this study adds to the previous studies related to the psychological contract of nurses in the context of Pakistan by using social exchange theories. Finally, this study enables the management of healthcare to balance the psychological contract issues effectively.

Work–family conflict (WFC) is rife among construction professionals, leading to a significant negative impact on their work engagement. Building on an extant body of research, this study provides nuanced insights into the link between WFC, work–life balance (WLB) and work engagement and identifies the boundary conditions of these relationships.

Data were collected from 257 dyads of construction professionals and their immediate supervisors from a sample of five construction firms based in India using an online survey.

The results found that WLB mediates the relationship between WFC and work engagement, and the relationship is controlled by professionals' gender and perceptions of psychological contract breach (PCB). An important finding is that PCB accentuates the negative influence of WFC on work engagement via WLB. The study also reveals that the negative impact of WFC on WLB is stronger for women.

The findings are relevant for construction firms since they are primarily dominated by men and continue to struggle to attract more women professionals. The study insights provide avenues to expand existing research on the relationship between WFC and work engagement and offer managerial implications for improving construction professionals' work engagement in the high-pressure context of the construction industry.

The study significantly advances the underdeveloped literature on work–family interface, especially in the unique work settings of the construction industry, by establishing WFC as a predictor and revealing how engagement at work is affected. It highlights the importance of boundary conditions such as gender and PCB. It is one of the first to assess the relationship between WFC, WLB, PCB and work engagement among construction professionals in India.

In a post-pandemic era, the hybrid workspace (HW) that came into practice now remains a new normal way of working for employees. This new practice has received a great deal of attention from researchers recently. However, the impact of HW on the affective well-being (AWB) of employees is less investigated. The present study focuses on the relationship between HW and affective states (positive and negative affects together) and the role of positive work reflection (PWR).

This present research work is based on the cross-sectional data collected from employees of IT and software sectors in India, through the purposive convenience sampling method (N = 329). Respondents were identified through the social and industrial connections of the authors. Structural equation modeling with AMOS 24 was adopted for hypothesis testing.

The empirical findings showed that HW is positively related to positive affects, negatively related to negative affects and positively associated with PWR. In addition, the PWR can partially mediate the relationship between HW and affective states, which is in line with the existing literature on PWR.

By exploring the less investigated link between HW and affective states, this study offers new insights into the understanding of HW and AWB. Based on the ideas of cognitive appraisal theory, this study contributes to the literature by proposing and analyzing PWR as a mechanism that partially mediates the influence of HW on the positive and negative affects of employees. These findings will facilitate the decision-makers, employees and organizations to understand the essential benefits of HW in the form of affective states and PWR. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to explore the relationship between HW, PWR and AWB of employees.

This study aims to find out if organizations are still practicing a hybrid workplace arrangement after COVID-19 ease of restrictions, determine the positive and negative sides of a hybrid workplace, ascertain the challenges organizations are currently facing in implementing a hybrid workplace and examine how successful team learning has been in hybrid workplaces.

This study adopted a mixed approach. Two sets of data (quantitative and qualitative) were used to answer the research questions.

This study found that most organizations within professional service firms are still implementing hybrid workplaces even though COVID-19 restrictions have been eased. This study also found that one of the advantages of implementing a hybrid work arrangement includes employees’ opportunity to spend more time with their families. On the other hand, the disadvantages discovered were gradual loss of corporate identity, a feeling of loneliness and others. One of the challenges organizations are facing in implementing this working system is the lack of an ergonomic workplace and appropriate technology for remote working. With evidence, this study ends with finding out that companies are not successful as expected in terms of team learning in a hybrid workplace.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is among the first to look at hybrid workplace in the African setting where COVID restrictions which highlights the practice has not really been an issue. This study also combines its findings with those done on the subject before to firmly clarify attributes as they exist.

Policing requires atypical work hours. The present study examined associations between shiftwork and pregnancy loss among female police officers.

Participants were 91 female officers with a prior history of at least one pregnancy. Shiftwork information was assessed using daily electronic payroll work records. Any prior pregnancy loss (due to miscarriage) was self-reported. Logistic regression estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for main associations.

On average, the officers were 42 years old, had 14 years of service, and 56% reported a prior pregnancy loss. Officers who worked dominantly on the afternoon or night shift during their career had 96% greater odds of pregnancy loss compared to those on day shift (OR = 1.96, 95% CI:0.71–5.42), but the result was not statistically significant. A 25% increase in percent of hours worked on night shift was associated with 87% increased odds of pregnancy loss (OR = 1.87, 95% CI:1.01–3.47). Associations were adjusted for demographic and lifestyle factors. Objective assessment of shiftwork via electronic records strengthened the study. Limitations include small sample size, cross-sectional design and lack of details on pregnancy loss or the timing of pregnancy loss with regard to shiftwork.

The present study is preliminary and cross-sectional.

With considerable further inquiry and findings into this topic, results may have an impact on police policy affecting shift work and pregnant police officers.

Implication on the health and welfare of police officers.

To our knowledge, there are no empirical studies which associate shiftwork and pregnancy loss among police officers. This preliminary study suggested an association between shiftwork and increased odds of pregnancy loss and points out the need for further study.

This study aims to explore how information technology (IT) professionals perceive work-life balance (WLB) in a work-from-home (WFH) setup. Additionally, it explores what emotions one may associate with such changing work environments, which have high implications for organisational success.

The two primary research questions guided this research. An online questionnaire-based survey was conducted to collect the data so that respondents’ both subjective and objective perceptions were documented. Purposive cum snowball sampling was used to collect data from 262 IT professionals. However, the data was analysed using both qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative (chi-square) techniques.

The findings of this study are interesting in nature and reported the work-life experiences at various socio-demographic levels (age, gender, educational qualification, designation, work experience, income, type of family and the number of children). The comprehensive examination of the data obtained from diverse aspects related to remote work environments has shed light on crucial facets impacting IT professionals. A predominant observation derived from the study reveals a significant disparity in working hours between male and female respondents during remote work. This discrepancy is notable, with male employees tending to work longer hours (i.e. 10 or more hours daily) than their female counterparts. The investigation into respondents’ sleep patterns revealed that the majority slept between 5 h and 7 h daily, underscoring reduced sleep hours for IT professionals during remote work. This comprehensive study thus emphasises the multifaceted nature of gender-associated influences on work patterns, health and well-being during remote work scenarios among IT professionals. As remote work is the new normal, this study has high implications for future work arrangements and organisational success.

The findings of the study will assist managers in dealing with the work conflict issue of remote workers. Importantly, these managers should try eliminating or reducing workplace conflict, emotional exhaustion and social overload associated with remote work.

This study is a humble attempt to highlight the employee’s WLB in the context of WFH in an emerging market (i.e. India). Furthermore, emphasises practical issues associated with changing work paradigms and concludes with interesting recommendations for future work arrangements.

Purpose of This Chapter: >The study examines the importance and effect of working over office hours and lengthy commutes on work–life balance because both consume time away from the official working hours. The study utilized perceived organizational support to measure the moderating role of working over office hours, lengthy commutes, and work–family balance.

Design / Methodology / Approach: An inferential statistics cross-sectional study collected data from 437 full-time employees of IT-BPM companies in 5 metropolitan cities in India. The study used the PLS-SEM to examine the hypotheses.

Findings: The results show a negative relationship between working over office hours and lengthy commutes on work–family balance. This study also found the moderating effect of perceived organizational support on working over office hours and lengthy commutes on the work–family balance. Also, the study revealed that half of the respondents spend three hours, and one-fourth of the respondents spend four and half hours working over office hours and lengthy commutes.

Research Limitations: This research is limited to IT-BPM companies in India. Nevertheless, the findings highlight the factors associated with IT-BPM employee work–family balance, and only two factors were identified.

Practical Implications: This study enhances the work–family balance’s theoretical and practical effects. The results provide a competitive benchmark for IT-BPM managers, administrators, and governing bodies of employee well-being.

Originality: To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to adopt extrinsic variables in work–family border theory to measure the work–family balance of IT-BPM employees.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain which competences are seen by employers as important for accounting students in an emerging economy, to triangulate this list with the experiences of working students and compare with those work competencies acquired during the period of study.

This study employs a novel mixed-method approach, with interviews of employers (n = 11) to identify key work competencies, and then with a quantitative study of working students (n = 184) to examine the work competency gap, using paired T-tests and mean weight discrepancy scores. The study was undertaken between September and December 2022.

The paper provides empirical insights into key work competencies in an emerging economy. There is a focus on technical skills at the university, whilst soft skills are preferred by employers. New key work competencies were uncovered relating to intuition, innovation and communicating in a foreign language. The key personal characteristics required for the job relate to change and uncertainty.

A qualitative assessment of key work competencies of employers and the use of mean weighted discrepancy scores is recommended in further studies in this field.

Practical approaches for educators, government and employers are offered to address the increasing demand for soft skills and other work competencies specific to an emerging economy.

The study is set in an emerging economy, which is underdeveloped in this field. The findings inform key stakeholders with a vested interest in reducing the work competency gap.