This mixed-method study examines the work and personal life balance of Marriage & Family Therapy faculty members across the U.S., 16 of whom were interviewed to gain a deeper understanding of their work and personal life balance issues. Of those, six felt they had good balance, six felt they had poor balance, and four were "middle of the road." More men than women felt they had good balance. Faculty members indicated external and internal indicators such as family and workplace messages, health cues, feelings of contentment, and congruence with personal values help them determine how they feel about their work and personal life balance. Other findings indicate that many factors impact MFT faculty member's sense of their work and personal life balance, including child and relationship status, tenure status, and gender issues. Balance enhancers included job flexibility, setting healthy boundaries, their ability to say no, spirituality, positive work esteem, and participation in non-work activities. Balance reducers included developing bad habits, negative work esteem, problematic but temporary life circumstances, and poor work boundaries. Faculty members also discussed some of their coping strategies and made recommendations for future MFT faculty members such as good self care, not viewing work as a race, being intentional, prioritizing, and strategizing. / Master of Science

The study’s aim is to explore and explain the strategies working women without children use to manage their work-life balance. In order to do this, the study utilizes border theory to explain how the women handle the borders between the domains of their private life as well as their work. To complement this, the theory of doing gender is also utilized to explain why certain strategies are needed and used, as well as what obstacles the women may face and why. The study uses a qualitative approach and consists of seven interviews with working women over 30 who do not have children. The study showed that women without children primarily utilize the strategy of regulating their time borders in order to maintain a satisfactory work-life balance. Furthermore, their colleagues and managers served as important border keepers who ensured that the interviewees did not work more than they ought to. The results also showed that the interviewees did gender through fulfilling the ideal of the male worker, but that this ideal also was rejected and actively worked against. The ideal of the male worker was fulfilled primarily through adapting to expectations, both from managers and colleagues, of availability and priorities. These ideals acted as obstacles in the work towards a good work-life balance, and the women used strategies to reject the ideals and protect their private spheres. Furthermore, the results show that an absence of children does not necessarily mean that work-life balance is achieved more easily. Instead, a new set of challenges present themselves and require specific strategies for defining and maintaining borders.

No / This article presents a vivid account of the day to day reality of a female manager in a busy UK city centre food retail store. Insights into some of the transformations in retail work are illuminated, namely restricted store budgets, lean staffing and a long-hours culture. The combination of these factors has resulted in increasing workplace demands and time pressures, with health and well-being consequences. This unique account enhances understandings of the twin challenges for managers in attempting to accommodate work-life balance for their staff and themselves personally. Despite these workplace pressures, the narrative is peppered with instances of practical and emotional concern and support.

Since COVID-19 pandemic, flexible work arrangements have been in vogue. People have started to rethink their way of living and especially their way of working. The well-being of employees has become a priority in this fast-changing economy. Improving well-being includes finding balance between personal and professional lives, which can be achieved through different flexible work arrangements. In this thesis, we explore the specific model of the four-day workweek (4DWW). The 4DWW can be implemented with condensing the same number of hours of a 5-day workweek in 4 days or simply with the reduction of the number of hours worked in total. In this thesis, we choose to focus on a reduced number of working hours, as we believe a condensed version of a 5-day workweek in 4 days would not be sustainable and would possibly lead to burn-out.  The 4DWW has received a lot of attention in the 1970s, but only as a condensed version of the five-day workweek and has come back in the literature since the Covid-19 pandemic. It has mostly been studied during a trial run of a few months, measuring its impact only while being under study. The Hawthorne effect shows that data can be biased while being under study, and the fact that the 4DWW is observed only for a few months can make the analysis seem out of time. We wanted to dig deeper and observe the influence of the 4DWW when it has been implemented for several years. This study investigates the influence of the 4DWW on employees and the organizing of work in the long run, paying attention to changes that are persistent after several years of implementation and stretch beyond the ones that are mainly present in the beginning.  The 4DWW is a flexible work arrangement that can have different purposes such as improving well-being and increasing productivity. The aim of the study was to analyse the influence of the 4DWW on both levels, the individual employee level and the level of the organization as a functioning dynamic between employees. Our thesis aims to observe how the well-being and productivity of employees are influenced by the 4DWW, and how the coordination can be adjusting to this fast-paced work rhythm, focusing on the collaboration and the surveillance at work. This thesis gains perspective on this subject and aims to expose practical implications for employees and their ways of working together to inform and broaden people’s minds and theoretical knowledge about flexible work arrangements, especially the 4DWW concept.

While there is abundant research and literature on the transition to becoming a mother while working and on mothers and work-life balance, literature on clergy and, in particular, clergywomen and work-life balance is scarce. This study contributes to that literature by utilizing role theory and grounded theory methods to investigate the experience of 12 clergywomen who negotiated maternity leave with their congregations and the implications of that process on how they understood and managed their roles as mothers and pastors. The result is a model for role management through the process of negotiating maternity leave which identifies and describes the causal conditions; personal, church and intervening factors; overall experience of negotiation and consequences of the negotiation, including decisions about role management. Major findings include the observations that the most influential church factor seems to be the overall stability and organizational health of the congregation and its leadership and that a presbytery level policy may be the only effective intervention in a difficult negotiation. Limitations of the study, as well as recommendations for future study, clinical implications, and recommendations for denominational leaders are also discussed. / Master of Science

Research Question: How does the availability of remote work options influence employee     motivation and subsequently impact employee performance in a hybrid workplace setting? Purpose: The purpose of this research is to delve into the dynamics involved in hybrid work environments and evaluate the factors that contribute to employee motivation and consequently, performance. The research aims to determine how intrinsic, extrinsic and other facilitators influence employee motivation in these recently implemented work environments. Additionally, it seeks to explore two perspectives: that from an employee perspective and from a managerial perspective.  Method: A qualitative research method was employed in this thesis, with empirical data being collected through semi-structured interviews with managers and employees who work in office-based roles. Additionally, this study examines the relevant motivation theories to help understand the interview findings, providing a comprehensive framework for analyzing employee motivation in the context of hybrid work.  Conclusion: The employee interview respondents indicate that fulfillment of autonomy,   relatedness and work-life balance are crucial for maintaining motivation in a hybrid work setting. Although overall performance levels did not experience significant changes, managers reported encountering delays and challenges during the initial transition to remote work. Competence was one of the basic needs with little to no evidence of being impacted, however work efficiency tended to decline in a remote setting.

I det moderna arbetslivet suddas gränsen mellan arbete och privatliv ut, samtidigt ökar stressrelaterade sjukskrivningar, särskilt för kvinnor. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vad kvinnor i arbetsledande roll behövde för att uppnå balans mellan arbete och privatliv samt vilka strategier som användes. 10 semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes och analyserades tematiskt. I analysen identifierades tre teman som var gynnande och fyra teman som var hindrande avseende balans mellan arbete och privatliv samt fem strategier som aktivt användes för att skapa en god balans. Resultatet visade att inflytande över och möjlighet till planering för det egna arbetet var av stor vikt och att aktiv fritid användes för återhämtning. En attraktiv arbetsgivare behöver ge stöd, struktur och tydligt ledarskap för att främja god balans. Studiens resultat stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning inom området, men den bidrar med ökad förståelse kring självledarskapets betydelse avseende att stärka kvinnors egenansvar och förmåga att sätta gränser.

Syftet med undersökningen är att fördjupa vår förståelse för hur undersköterskor som arbetar inom kommunal äldreomsorg upplever gränsdragningen mellan arbete och privatliv till följd av att de anpassar och justerar sina känslor i vardagen. Eftersom vi båda har arbetat inom kommunal äldreomsorg finns viss förförståelse för ämnet. Den teoretiska referensramen fokuserar på det emotionella arbetet samt work life balance, vilket ligger till grund för hur vårt insamlade material tolkas. Materialet har insamlats genom åtta telefonintervjuer, vilka vi sedan har analyserat och kopplat samman med den teoretiska referensramen. Resultatet visar på att det emotionella arbetet upplevs olika av undersköterskorna. Däremot uppfattar samtliga undersköterskor att de ofta kan behöva gå in i en roll och uttrycka sig på ett sätt som inte alltid stämmer överens med vad de egentligen känner. Studien visar även att de flesta undersköterskorna upplever att deras balans mellan arbete och privatliv är bra, men det går att se att gränsdragningen mellan arbete och privatliv påverkas av att de har ett känslomässigt arbete.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att redogöra för de utmaningar och möjligheter anställda upplever med att bibehålla en sund work-life balance när de arbetar på distans.  Metod: Studien har sin utgångspunkt i teorin, därmed innebär det att en deduktiv forskningsansats har använts. En kvalitativ forskningsstrategi har använts och studiens empiriska data har samlats in genom strukturerade intervjuer för att testa teoretiska utgångspunkter gentemot respondenternas upplevelser. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att arbete på distans till största del bidrar med fördelar som flexibilitet och kontroll, vilket kan förbättra livstillfredsställelse, arbetsprestation samt reducera rollkonflikter. Det ger anställda mer tid för sina olika roller och uppgifter, vilket främjar välbefinnande. Arbete på distans bidrar även till utmaningar som otydliga gränser mellan arbete och privatliv, särskilt för de med småbarn, och kan resultera i isolering och minskat engagemang. För att bibehålla en sund balans mellan arbete och privatliv är det viktigt med tydliga gränser och effektiva strategier för att hantera kraven från båda sfärerna.

The increased pace of life can create difficulties for individuals to manage their time efficiently and sustainably, this in turn could lead to more stress. As a result of this, work- life balance has become a frequently used term to describe the relation between work and life. Since the increased awareness regarding work-life it has also been important for organizations to apply strategies to provide employees with the tools necessary to withhold a balanced lifestyle to become an attractive employer. Factors that can influence work-life balance that an organization can implement are to give the ability to work remotely and have more flexible conditions. The employee attitudes we set out to find if they have relation with work-life balance were: Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, employee engagement and employee health. These were chosen due to the fact that there had been little research connecting work-life balance influence on these topics. Furthermore, these employee attitudes have been found to create a better organizational performance and overall create better employee well-being. As found in earlier studies, work-life balance has shown to increase employees' life and job satisfaction. Furthermore, it also showed that it had some influence on employees' well-being, meaning reduced stress, risk for burnouts, depression and anxiety due to the fast pace of life and work (Haar, 2013, p. 3319). Furthermore, it also indicates that work- life balance is defined as having a balance between professional and personal interests (Kelliher et al., 2019, p. 98; Hall et al., 2013, p. 548). This research set out to answer the following question: “How does work-life balance influence different employee attitudes?”. To be able to answer our research question we conducted qualitative research and gained a deeper understanding of the reality of the subject. Furthermore, our data was gathered using six semi-structured interviews. Furthermore, this study provides practical implications which might be of use to managers and organizations. First, this study showed that work-life balance does in fact have an influence on different employee attitudes. Secondly, the study also provides insights into which attitudes relate to each other and what factors influence work-life balance. This could be taken into consideration of managers and organizations when planning to implement new policies or strategies to better increase organizational performance and retention rates.