Search results

The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which self-tracking data have meaning and value in and after the life of the creator, including how such data could become part of the larger historical record, curated in an institutional archive. In doing so, the article expands upon existing shared interests among researchers working in the areas of self-tracking, human–computer interaction and archival science.

A total of 18 people who had self-tracked for six months or more were recruited for the study. Participants completed a survey which gathered demographic data and characteristics vis-à-vis their self-tracking behavior. In-person semi-structured interviews were then conducted to ascertain the beliefs of the participants regarding the long-term use and value of personal quantified-self data.

The findings reveal the value that people place on self-tracking data, their thoughts on proper modes for accessing their archive once it moves from the private to the public space, and how to provide fidelity within the system such that their experiences are represented while also enabling meaning making on the part of subsequent users of the archive.

Today’s quantified-self data are generally embedded in systems that create a pipeline from the individual source to that of the corporate warehouse, bent on absorbing and extracting insight from a totality of big data. This article posits that new opportunities for knowing and for design can be revealed when a public interest rationale is appended to rich personalized collections of small data.

Imai defined Kaizen as: “a means of continuing improvement in personal life, home life, social life, and working life. At the workplace, Kaizen means continuing improvement involving everyone – managers and workers alike”. According to Imai, Kaizen can take at least three forms: Kaizen management; Group Kaizen; Individual Kaizen. In this last form, the strength of the continuous improvement of this Japanese management approach is focused on the work of each person as an individual. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore how some people have applied Personal Kaizen to their personal lives in order to improve their quality of life. The research question that drives the study is: How do some people apply Personal Kaizen in order to improve their quality of life?

An exploratory qualitative study was conducted. Using theoretical sampling, three persons who have implemented Personal Kaizen in their daily lives in order to change their quality of life were identified and interviewed. Similarly, documentary references of the three cases cited were used to generate a cross‐case analysis of the methodological techniques used.

This paper analyses the cases of three persons who have implemented Personal Kaizen in their lives in order to change their quality of life. The authors cross the empirical data with the theoretical framework of Kaizen and quality of life and try to corroborate three hypotheses.

This paper has the same limitations as all other qualitative research, including subjectivity of analysis and questionable generalisation of findings. Furthermore, there may well be a theoretical gap with respect to the geographic region, given that the paper only considers three individuals living in Mexico.

The description of how three persons apply an individual Kaizen approach in order to change their quality of life may prove to be of value to other persons who wish to change their health‐related behaviour.

The study contributes to the limited existing literature on the Personal Kaizen approach and subsequently disseminates this information in order to provide impetus, guidance and support for improving individual quality of life.

Despite a wealth of research and policy initiatives on “work‐family”, “work‐life balance” or what we prefer to call work‐personal life integration, societies seem stuck about how to make equitable, satisfactory and sustainable changes in the ways in which paid work can be combined with the rest of life. So what is holding back satisfactory change? And how can people move beyond this apparent deadlock in workplaces and other institutions and really go forward? This paper looks at some of the reasons why issues about work‐personal life integration have become so pressing and then reflects on implications for working towards more fundamental changes at many different levels. It highlights sticking points holding back change and argues that these could be developed into new levers for change by emphasising the need to rethink and question many deeply held – but outdated – assumptions about working practices, families, culture and personal lives.

Futures research is commonly reported on the macro scale, and involves analysis of a global or national situation with a long‐range view of trends and alternative futures. This article approaches ageing and the future from the micro scale, examining the future one life at a time; suggesting that futures methodology can, and should, be effectively applied to individual lives. Three propositions relating to development of personal futures are introduced, focusing on life stages, personal trends and life events after age 60. These three elements of life are then shown as a framework on which individuals can build personal scenarios and create personal strategic plans for the stages of life after age 60.

This qualitative study is grounded on in-depth interviews with 30 Western women self-initiated expatriate (SIEs) currently living and working in the UAE. When selecting the interviewees, the author used purposeful sampling to ensure a diverse sample of interviewees with respect to nationality, age, gender and occupation.

The present study, drawing on boundary theory, aims to investigate the work–life balance (WLB) of Western women SIEs regarding how these women construct and manage the borders between the non-work and work lives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results demonstrate that women SIEs experience conflicts and enrichment during overseas employment. Both directions – the impact flowing from working life to personal life and vice versa – were significant. Different career and life phases appeared to be crucial to these experiences. The study also found that some women SIEs in the UAE experience high pressure in the WLB approaches, which are primarily impacted by the specific work–life environment in the UAE. Mostly, work–life boundaries are culturally and socially induced. Hence, many women SIEs encounter disparities between the robust work–life separations in the home country compared to the host country; women SIEs, therefore, need to relax the boundaries to adapt to the competitive work–life environment in the UAE.

The present study contributes to research on work–life boundary management approaches in local settings, such as UAE, by analyzing cross-cultural and individual dimensions. Moreover, although women are still a minority among SIEs, the number of women is increasing. As prior studies have mainly focused on male SIEs, more research is required focusing specifically on women with overseas jobs. The present study endeavors to fill this research gap.

Stress damages us and our performance. It is a real part of most manager's experience and can be said to occur when significant demands exceed perceived management responsibilities and routines. Stress can be the essence of working life, and certainly need not always be damaging to us. But when it becomes excessive, it is something unwanted.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relations between the life-domain interactions (i.e. interactions between the personal and professional lives) of internationally mobile employees (IMEs) and their well-being and to examine whether these links are different for assigned expatriates (AEs) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs).

Questionnaire data were collected from 284 IMEs including 182 SIEs, and 102 AEs. Two measures of IMEs’ well-being were used: subjective, namely satisfaction with life, and psychological well-being (PWB), which refers to self-acceptance, personal growth, and reaching for life goals. Life-domain interactions were measured from a conflict and an enrichment perspective, each in two directions: Work Life → Personal Life (WL → PL) and Personal Life → Work Life (PL → WL).

Regression analyses confirm that IMEs’ life-domain conflicts (WL → PL and PL → WL) have an adverse impact on their subjective and PWB, IMEs’ life-domain enrichments account for their subjective well-being over and above what is explained by their life-domain conflicts, the relationship between WL → PL conflicts and subjective well-being is more negative among SIEs than among AEs.

This study underscores the need for both employers and IMEs to take action not only to reduce conflicts but also to promote enrichments between their personal and their professional lives. It is of particular importance to reduce the WL → PL conflict of SIEs, often left to fend for themselves, because it has a significant negative impact on their subjective well-being.

This study innovates in using conservation of resources theory and recent theoretical work linking this theory with the interplay between personal and professional lives to understanding SIEs’ and AEs’ well-being.