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1 – 10 of 150Pooja Purang, Archita Dutta and Sailee Biwalkar
This study aims to focus on understanding the work–family conflict of Indian women engineers through the lens of identity conflict.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on understanding the work–family conflict of Indian women engineers through the lens of identity conflict.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 Indian women engineers working in India and abroad of varying ages and work experience helped in understanding the types, sources and coping decisions about work–family conflicts experienced by them. Thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the qualitative data.
Findings
The findings reveal that as women engineers negotiate their “engineering” and “woman” identities, work–family conflict manifests as a battle of time and responsibilities, psychological strain and behaviour-based conflict. Furthermore, self-expectations and negative social sanctions play an important role in augmenting the experiences of these conflicts. The results also reveal how women re-strategize their career decisions to conciliate their conflicting identities.
Originality/value
This study furthers the literature on resolving work–family conflict by taking an identity perspective. Recommendations in literature such as work flexibility and part-time work, place the onus on women to increase their capacities to perform different roles better. Examining work–family conflict from an identity perspective allows us to look at the psychological processes underlying the challenges women face in balancing work and home in a male-dominated profession. These give insights into the need to go beyond accommodations in the workplace to redefine gender roles and relations for equal participation of women in the modern workforce.
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Juman Iqbal, Mohammad Nurul Alam and Hamia Khan
Elucidating on the concrete outline of conservation of resource theory, this study aims to explore the links between work-family conflict and workplace thriving. In particular…
Abstract
Purpose
Elucidating on the concrete outline of conservation of resource theory, this study aims to explore the links between work-family conflict and workplace thriving. In particular, this study has integrated depersonalization as a mediator and tested the moderated mediation effects of intrinsic motivation in work-family conflict and depersonalization relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a sample of 357 doctors working across various public hospitals in India over two waves (T1 and T2) and was tested using AMOS and Process Macros.
Findings
Exploration reveals that work-family conflict is negatively associated with workplace thriving. The mediating role of depersonalization in between work-family conflict and workplace thriving was established. Moreover, the moderating role of intrinsic motivation in work-family conflict and workplace thriving via depersonalization was also established.
Originality/value
The present study makes a theoretical addition to the literature by investigating nuances through which work-family conflict relationships and thriving at the workplace can be affected. To date, such a relationship has not been established. The study also extends the role of depersonalization as an underlying mechanism between work-family conflict and workplace thriving, making an imperative contribution. This study also tested the moderating role of intrinsic motivation. Overall, these relationships are novel and have been seldom reported.
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This article tackles the intersection of mothering and labor through the author's own experience as a feminist mother/manager from Istanbul, Turkey. It aims to revisit the first…
Abstract
Purpose
This article tackles the intersection of mothering and labor through the author's own experience as a feminist mother/manager from Istanbul, Turkey. It aims to revisit the first years of motherhood, exploring the struggle to invent a peculiar maternal subjectivity in opposition and negotiation with the patriarchal institution of motherhood, the new definition of maternal labor in a highly digital, neoliberal context and the issue of marital fairness in a dual-income heterosexual marriage.
Design/methodology/approach
The article presents an autoethnographic, retrospective and introspective inquiry into the first seven years of the author's mothering experience in order to offer an in-depth exploration of the various aspects of contemporary maternal labor.
Findings
The article shows how maternal labor has shifted in nature and expanded in scope in a contemporary non-Western context. It investigates the dissolution of the spatial, temporal and sensorial boundaries between the managerial labor dedicated to the workplace, and to the family. Highlighting the similarities of the two forms of labor, the article manifests the materiality, tangibility and visibility of maternal labor.
Research limitations/implications
Further intersectional studies shall be beneficial to redefine maternal labor in different contexts.
Practical implications
Departing and diverting from the terms “invisible labor” and “mental load”, the article suggests a shift in terminology to stress the multifaceted medley of managerial tasks mothers undertake today.
Originality/value
The article provides an original take on maternal labor through the first-hand experience of a middle-class, professional mother from Istanbul, Turkey.
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Shubhi Gupta, Sireesha Rani Vasa and Prachee Sehgal
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Practical implications
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Katarzyna Mikołajczyk, Dorota Molek-Winiarska and Emily Kleszewski
The main aims of the paper were to explore the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in shaping the work-life balance of managers working remotely and to identify…
Abstract
Purpose
The main aims of the paper were to explore the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in shaping the work-life balance of managers working remotely and to identify individual recovery strategies and organisational interventions to support digital managers. The theoretical background was based on the work-family border theory and the effort-recovery model.
Design/methodology/approach
A semi-structured individual in-depth interview (IDI) was used as the research method. The research group consisted of 13 managers from companies in Poland representing various industries. In all, 560 min of recordings and 201 pages of text were obtained and subsequently coded and categorised.
Findings
The results showed that remote managers struggle with the work-life imbalance and blurred boundaries between work and private roles, as well as difficulties in maintaining digital hygiene. The use of ICT enables high flexibility but contributes to work-life conflict. Managers who work from home experience a constant workload and suffer from impaired recovery. The use of ICT creates a need to recover and maintain digital hygiene. However, there are constraints that impede managers' recovery attempts. Many feel that their work does not allow to recover but requires to be “always on” to help their subordinates fulfil their responsibilities, even though they do not expect their subordinates to work after hours. Finally, managers perceive organisational support as insufficient or inappropriate for their needs. They admit that they do not participate in organisational interventions due to lack of time and do not believe that they help them to maintain or restore their well-being.
Originality/value
The role of ICT in blurring the boundaries between work and private roles was explored in depth, as was the “always on” phenomenon as a factor contributing to the tension between the need to recover and the inability to engage in recovery activities. The study has practical implications for integrating individual and organisational approaches to well-being and identifies solutions to encourage managers to maintain digital hygiene and mental health.
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Alistair Anderson, Anca Maria Clipa, Albrecht Fritzsche, Catalin Ioan Clipa and Daniela Tatiana Agheorghiesei
This research objective was to explore how Romanian IT family businesses' co-founders enable entrepreneuring through familiness practices. The authors explored what familiness…
Abstract
Purpose
This research objective was to explore how Romanian IT family businesses' co-founders enable entrepreneuring through familiness practices. The authors explored what familiness practices emerge and how these are facilitated and supported by the rhetoric framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on Romanian IT entrepreneurs' practice from five case studies of IT family businesses and purposive revelatory cases, the authors considered the family co-founders' narratives and representations of familiness presented in 31 interviews.
Findings
The respondents' communication in entrepreneuring is a joint collaborative effort of the family co-founders to function well. Family entrepreneurs generate positive perceptions in favour of enterprising families using persuasive communication via rhetoric appeals to familiness ethos, familiness logos and familiness pathos, leading to constructive conflict management. The rhetoric of persuasion supports family entrepreneuring.
Research limitations/implications
The authors conducted multiple case studies, profiling technological co-founders and family entrepreneurs in the challenging circumstances of an emerging economy.
Practical implications
The analysis of the use of rhetoric contributes to a better understanding of familiness practices in the family business. Through appeals to ethos, family business entrepreneurs enforce family values built on shared history, complementarity and moral exemplarity. The appeals to logos in entrepreneuring involve fulfilling complementary roles, alignment and continuous learning and coaching. The appeals to pathos are about emotions and how the family entrepreneurs' discourse enforces constructive handling of emotions.
Social implications
The perceived familiness communicated through appeals to ethos, logos and pathos contributes to legitimating the family firm structures.
Originality/value
Theorising from family entrepreneurs' familiness practices, the authors suggest that entrepreneuring requires good communication of the representation of familiness for co-founders, employees and other stakeholders to also serve constructive conflict handling. The perceived familiness communicated through appeals to ethos, logos and pathos helps family businesses leverage their unique strengths and resources in the entrepreneuring process.
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Chima Mordi, Hakeem Adeniyi Ajonbadi and Olatunji David Adekoya
This study explored the challenges academics faced with work structures during the COVID-19 pandemic and their implications for their work–life balance (WLB).
Abstract
Purpose
This study explored the challenges academics faced with work structures during the COVID-19 pandemic and their implications for their work–life balance (WLB).
Design/methodology/approach
Relying on the interpretative paradigm and the qualitative research method, the dataset consists of semi-structured interviews with 43 academics in the United Kingdom.
Findings
This study’s findings indicate that academics in the UK experience issues around increased boundary permeability between work and nonwork domains and role overlap, which engender the transfer of negative rather than positive spillover experiences and exacerbate negative consequences to the well-being of academics. ICTs also reinforced gendered work-family boundaries and generated more negative work–life/family spillover for women than for men.
Practical implications
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) need to address ICT-related health issues through better work designs and HR initiatives that respond to the health requirements of academics. Policymakers should be futuristic and ensure comprehensive work–life policies for academics, which are necessary for humanising overall organisational well-being.
Originality/value
Although COVID-19 challenges are common to all workers, the experiences and effects on specific workers (in this case, UK academics) within specific national jurisdictions play out differentially, and they are often experienced with different levels of depth and intensity.
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The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify and highlight the challenges faced by the dual-career couples with one or multiple child/children in maintaining their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify and highlight the challenges faced by the dual-career couples with one or multiple child/children in maintaining their work–family balance based on family systems theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The author purposely selected 26 families (52 participants) in Bangladesh where both husbands and wives work on a full-time basis having one or multiple child/children. The author used focus group discussion (FGD) technique to identify the challenges encountered by them.
Findings
After summarising the FGD results, the study identified several challenges faced by those dual-career couples, such as inability to differentiate between professional and family lives, lack of quality time for partners/children, challenges to raise children, lack of childcare centres and lack of professionalism of care workers; and tension and anxiety for their child/children while at offices.
Originality/value
The author expects the results of this qualitative study to be conductive as groundwork for upcoming research studies concerning dual-career couples with child/children. The author also hopes that such results will assist the human resource managers in efficiently crafting and executing some policies regarding dual-career couples with one or multiple child/children.
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Nan Xu, Chunyong Tang, Chengchuan Yang and Yanzhao Lai
Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to explore the indirect effect of work/family boundary violations on teleworkers’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to explore the indirect effect of work/family boundary violations on teleworkers’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In addition, it examines the moderating role of involuntary teleworking in this context.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the diary study method, this study used 543 questionnaires collected from 122 teleworkers in China.
Findings
The findings indicate that working time demands mediate the relationship between work boundary violations and teleworker CWB, and threats to family roles mediate the relationship between family boundary violations and teleworker CWB. In addition, involuntary teleworking positively moderates the relationship between work boundary violations and working time demands, as well as the relationship between family boundary violations and threats to family roles.
Originality/value
The study makes several valuable contributions to the extant literature. First, it enhances research on the antecedents of teleworker CWB. Second, by introducing two mediating variables corresponding to two types of boundary violations, the paper provides new insights and a fresh understanding of the effects of boundary violations in teleworking situations. Third, by considering the moderating role of involuntary teleworking, this research adds to the current knowledge on the impact of discussing boundary violations solely on teleworking or traditional office days.
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Innocent Chigozie Osuizugbo, Olalekan Shamsideen Oshodi, Patricia Omega Kukoyi, Amos Okemukoko Lawani and Anthony Ogochukwu Onokwai
The current study seeks to investigate and determine the principal barriers to the adoption of work–life balance (WLB) practices amongst construction companies operating in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study seeks to investigate and determine the principal barriers to the adoption of work–life balance (WLB) practices amongst construction companies operating in the developing countries using Lagos, Nigeria as a case study.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a survey research technique. Snowball sampling technique was adopted to identify the target respondents for the administration of questionnaire. A total of 156 questionnaires were distributed and a response rate of 66% (103 questionnaires were completely filled and returned) was attained. Data elicited were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings
The results from the exploratory factors analysis show that the principal barriers to the adoption of WLB practices amongst construction companies in Lagos, Nigeria are categorised into four components: nature of construction job and limited evidence on impact of WLB, support, awareness and culture, lack of involvement of management staff and organisational factors.
Originality/value
This study contributed to more effective WLB studies by highlighting the barriers to the adoption of WLB practices in the construction sector. An understanding of these barriers can aid policy makers and management personnel in construction organisations as well as facilitate development of strategies required to reduce the barriers to WLB practices in the construction sector.
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