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2011 | Buch

Creating Balance?

International Perspectives on the Work-Life Integration of Professionals

herausgegeben von: Stephan Kaiser, Max Josef Ringlstetter, Doris Ruth Eikhof, Miguel Pina e Cunha

Verlag: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

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A satisfactory and healthy integration of work with other life domains is one of the key challenges of modern society. Work-life balance and work-life integration have become focal points of today’s human resource management practice and theory. Professionals who have been described as “extreme workers” regarding their work hours and engagement are under particular pressure to balance work and ”the rest of life”.

This collection maps the increasingly extensive discussion of work-life issues for professionals and discusses key aspects in depth. What is work-life integration? What are the specific challenges for professionals? How do they manage their blurred work-life boundaries? How can companies intervene? Internationally leading authors discuss antecedents and individual and organizational outcomes of work-life integration, gender-specific perspectives and challenges as well as the use and usefulness of corporate work-life balance initiatives. In five sections distinguished researchers from across the world present experiences and research findings to provide a compendium of academic and applied research on the work-life integration of professionals. Cutting-edge research and novel theoretical perspectives make this collection a source of knowledge and inspiration for academic and business audiences interested in work-life integration issues in general and in the case of professionals in particular.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Perspectives On The Work-Life Integration Of Professionals

Chapter 1. Integrating Professional Work and Life: Conditions, Outcomes and Resources
Abstract
In the last 30 years a remarkable amount of research has been dedicated to the work–life interface, investigating work–life conflict and enrichment from many different angles and in different populations. A group that deserves particular attention and has received increasing interest in work–life research in the last few years is what we call professionals. These are usually hard working individuals in highly demanding work environments characteristically facing long working hours, high workload and pressure to succeed, and the need to travel frequently.
Cornelia U. Reindl, Stephan Kaiser, Martin L. Stolz
Chapter 2. Introducing Theoretical Approaches to Work-Life Balance and Testing a New Typology Among Professionals
Abstract
Clark (2000) defines work-family balance as “satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home, with a minimum of role conflict” (p. 751). In this chapter, we examine how professionals have succeeded in achieving work-life balance in their lives. First, we examine classic and current approaches to multiple roles and then introduce a typology of work-life balance based on the synthesis of the presented theoretical foundation. We propose four types of work-life balance; beneficial, harmful, active, and passive. The employees belonging to each type are expected to differ qualitatively from each other in relation to psychological functioning and role engagement.
Johanna Rantanen, Ulla Kinnunen, Saija Mauno, Kati Tillemann
Chapter 3. From ‘Balancers’ to ‘Integrators’? Young Professionals’ Talk About ‘Work’ and the Rest of ‘Life’ in the UK
What Does ‘Work-Life Balance’ (WLB) Mean to Today’s Generation of University Graduates and Future Professionals and What Support Do They Expect?
Abstract
The topic of WLB has gained wide academic and public attention in recent times. However, an emergent critical perspective signifies the problematic nature of the WLB discourse (e.g., Fleetwood, 2007; Lewis et al., 2007). One problem is that much of the current work-life debates and research tend to focus on workers who have caring and/or other family responsibilities, thereby confining our understanding of work and personal life experiences to a particular demographic cohort and phase in the life course. Nevertheless, the WLB discourse is part of a wider context in which today’s young people, not yet in the workforce, develop impressions of what employment will entail.
Uracha Chatrakul Na Ayudhya, Suzan Lewis
Chapter 4. Redefining Success: The Foundation for Creating Work-Life Balance
Abstract
The line between work and home has become blurred by our ability to communicate and share information 24/7. The work day, indeed the work week, has expanded beyond the boundaries of place and time that formerly provided some buffer between work and the other arenas of life. While employees at all levels of the organization are affected by this blurring of boundaries, this is especially true for managers, technical people, and individual contributors in the middle and upper ranks of an organization – referred to throughout the chapter as professionals – because they are often expected to do “whatever it takes” to accomplish their assignments.
J. Lee Whittington, Rosemary Maellaro, Timothy Galpin

Antecedents and Consequences Related To Professionals’ Work-Life Integration

Chapter 5. Personality and Work-Life Integration
Abstract
Researchers and lay persons alike have long been intrigued by the behaviors and thoughts of human beings. Likewise, personality has been an area of great interest and research within the Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior disciplines (Viswesvaran et al., 2007; Zimmerman, 2008). Interestingly, though the field of work-life integration has received enormous attention in recent years, very little of this has incorporated personality (Eby et al., 2005).
Jesse S. Michel, Malissa A. Clark
Chapter 6. Potential Antecedents and Consequences of Work-Family Conflict: A Three Country Study
Abstract
Work-family issues have received increasing attention by both organizations interested in effective human resource management and by researchers (cf. Brough and Kalliath, 2009). Work-family concerns were initially included in the occupational stress field but have now emerged as an important research focus on its own. Work-family issues, whether seen in terms of conflict, balance or synergy, have important consequences for individuals, families and organizations. Work-family conflict (WFC) has been found to be associated with lower levels of work satisfaction, organizational commitment, absenteeism, and psychological well-being (Allen et al., 2000; Byron, 2005; Kossek and Ozeki, 1998; Parasuraman and Greenhaus, 1997).
Ronald J. Burke, Lisa Fiksenbaum, Ghada El-Kot, Mustafa Koyuncu, Weng Jing
Chapter 7. Work-Family Balance, Role Integration and Employee Well-Being
Abstract
Researchers have long been interested in understanding the antecedents of subjective well-being, which has been generally defined as “how people evaluate their lives” (Diener et al., 2003, p. 404). A number of studies have adopted a top-down approach to predicting subjective well-being, whereby a person’s dispositional characteristics influence the level of life satisfaction that the person experiences (see Heller et al., 2004). On the other hand, there is also evidence for a bottom-up process whereby a person’s levels of satisfaction with specific life domains (e.g., work, marriage, etc) are combined to form an overall level of satisfaction with one’s life in general (Heller et al., 2004).
Ann Chunyan Peng, Remus Ilies, Nikos Dimotakis

Mothers, Fathers, and Couples: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

Frontmatter
Chapter 8. What to Expect When She’s Expecting
Work-Family and Identity Integration Challenges and Opportunities of “Soon-to-Be” Working Professional Mothers
Abstract
There has been extensive writing both in the popular press and the academic literature on the unique work-life challenges of professional working mothers. Professional working mothers often must manage competing gender biases – being perceived as cold-hearted (Cuddy et al., 2004) or worse, bad mothers (Epstein et al., 1999) on one hand and less committed to their work roles (Correll et al., 2007) on the other.
Jamie J. Ladge, Danna Greenberg, Judith A. Clair
Chapter 9. Fatherhood and Flexible Working: A Contradiction in Terms?
Abstract
This chapter derives from a desire to investigate the issues of modern fatherhood in the context of flexible working practices and gender; offering a broad-scale analysis as to the extent to which predominantly Western, employed, white-collar, middle-class fathers are embracing flexibility and under what familial and workplace circumstances. In so doing, we highlight the tensions and correlations between traditional notions of fathers as economic providers who go “out” to work and the emergence of late modern ideas concerning the dynamism between fatherhood and more flexible modes of working. Our focus on the work-life situation of fathers in senior roles is both timely and relevant to the growing body of research on work-life balance and male working patterns, which identifies white-collar fathers as under-researched and insufficiently catered for within policy.
Simon Burnett, Caroline Gatrell, Cary Cooper, Paul Sparrow
Chapter 10. Dual-Career Couples: Specific Challenges for Work-Life Integration
Abstract
Over the past 40 years, industrialized nations have experienced major changes in their labor market characteristics. Of special importance is the steady increase of women’s participation in the paid workforce. In the United States (US), 72.3% of all women aged between 25 and 54 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009) were in employment, and 59.1% of women aged between 15 and 64 in the European Union (EU) (EUROSTAT, 2009).
Andrea E. Abele, Judith Volmer

Corporate Strategies Facilitating Work-Life Integration

Frontmatter
Chapter 11. Corporate Work-Life Balance Initiatives: Use and Effectiveness
Abstract
Managers and professionals are uniquely placed to experience difficulties combining work responsibilities with non-work commitments, due to long hours of work and extensive use of communications technologies enabling work tasks to be performed at any time, anywhere. In response to a workforce increasingly concerned with maintaining a work-life balance, organisations now offer a range of initiatives designed to facilitate the integration of work and non-work domains.
T. Alexandra Beauregard
Chapter 12. Temporal Workplace Flexibility and Associated Work-Life Outcomes for Professionals
Abstract
An increasing proportion of workers are dual-earners in professional occupations, actively seeking rewarding, full-time careers while at the same time engaging in satisfying home and personal life. However, the demands of today’s global economic environment often make work-life integration problematic (Hill et al., 2006). One adaptive strategy to deal with work-life conflict is to choose to be flexible about when one works and opting to reduce work hours, especially when demands in the home are great (Allen and Shockley, 2009; Grzywacz, 2009; Voydanoff, 2007). This adaptive strategy is called temporal workplace flexibility.
E. Jeffrey Hill, Sarah June Carroll, Blake L. Jones, Lydia A. Buswell, Tamara A. Fackrell, Adam M. Galovan
Chapter 13. Causes and Consequences of the Utilization of Work-Life Policies by Professionals: “Unconditional Supervisor Support Required”
Abstract
The European workplace has changed. Employees increasingly ask for organizational policies that allow them to combine their work and their private lives (Lewis et al., 2009). In the Netherlands it is estimated that no less than 40% of employees face troubles in combining their work and private lives (Geurts et al., 2003), which brings high costs, both for individuals and for organizations (Allen et al., 2000).
Bram Peper, Josje Dikkers, Claartje Vinkenburg, Marloes van Engen

Boundary Issues of Professionals’ Work-Life Integration

Frontmatter
Chapter 14. The Pressures of Commitment: Taking Software Home
Abstract
The current era has seen a number of academic and policy debates over the claimed increase in the porosity of the boundary between the work and domestic spheres of social activity (Baldry et al., 2007; Houston, 2005; Warhurst et al., 2008). The causes of this have been identified variously as the shift to more “flexible” forms of employment (Department of Trade and Industry, 2004), an increasing rate of female participation in the labour market with consequent demands on child-care resources (Cousins and Tang, 2004; Crompton, 2002), the intensification and extensification of the labour process in time of heightened competition (Cousins and Tang, 2004) or economic crisis and the enabling qualities of IT which have made possible an increase in both mobile work (Hislop and Axtell, 2009) and teleworking at home (Haddon and Brynin, 2005).
Jeff Hyman, Chris Baldry
Chapter 15. The “Myth of Separate Worlds”: An Exploration of How Mobile Technology has Redefined Work-Life Balance
Abstract
Technology has changed the business practices of millions of professional workers worldwide. The hardware and software that revolutionized how people worked were initially found only in the workplace and were used only during traditional 9-to-5 working hours. The typewriter stayed on the desk when its user went home, the office telephone was physically tied to its spot by a cable and computers were too heavy to be carried anywhere. Nowadays, however, the act of performing work is not limited to specific hours at a specific location. The latest incarnations of work related technology for professional employees, such as laptops, cell phones and the Blackberry, support work outside the confines of the office, at almost any time of the day or night (Towers et al., 2006).
Linda Duxbury, Rob Smart
Chapter 16. Working in Polycontextual Environments: An Empirical Analysis of Flexpatriates’ Lifestyles
Abstract
As international organizations enter new markets and exploit the advantages of location to increase their global scope they face the challenge of transferring resources. Very often this has to be done on a short-term basis and cannot be met by classical expatriation or local adaptation. In this chapter we focus on flexpatriate assignments, short-term, unaccompanied business travel assignments of workers who hold a job in a home office and carry a workload in other countries while their family remains in their home location (Mayerhofer et al., 2004a, b).
Helene Mayerhofer, Barbara Müller, Angelika Schmidt
Chapter 17. Spatial Aspects of Professionals’ Work-Life Integration
Abstract
Work-life integration is often associated with workplace flexibility and choice – the ability of individuals to choose when, where and how much to work (Hill et al., 2008). Organizations offer a range of options, including flexible working arrangements, under the umbrella of work-life policies aimed at supporting individuals in their efforts to achieve a satisfactory integration of their work and non-work domains (Poelmans and Caligiuri, 2008). When employees take advantage of flexible working arrangements that change the time and place of work, this may result in the blurring of boundaries between work and non-work activities (Warhurst et al., 2008). For organizations there may be a dual agenda (Bailyn et al.
Deirdre Anderson, Clare Kelliher
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Creating Balance?
herausgegeben von
Stephan Kaiser
Max Josef Ringlstetter
Doris Ruth Eikhof
Miguel Pina e Cunha
Copyright-Jahr
2011
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Electronic ISBN
978-3-642-16199-5
Print ISBN
978-3-642-16198-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16199-5