Earnings by women in dual income families account for a significant portion of a household’s income, which sustains the financial well-being of their families. Cultural expectations and gender role stereotypes around a woman’s role in the family, pose challenges to career growth and retention. The social perception still occurs that women ought to be main caregivers of family members and households, and are more likely than men to have part-time jobs. The aim of the study was to determine the relationships between flexible work, financial well-being, work-life balance, productivity and job satisfaction of employed women. A cross-sectional survey was used with a convenience sample (n = 252) of female support employees, employed in a higher education institution in the North-West province. Findings of the study indicated statistically significant relations between the variables. Another objective was to determine the impact of flexible work, financial well-being, and work-life balance on productivity and job satisfaction. Results indicated that financial well-being, work-life balance and productivity were statistical significant predictors of job satisfaction, and in addition, subjective experiences of productivity serve as partial mediator in the relationship financial well-being and work-life balance on the one hand and job satisfaction on the other hand. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Technology has become part of society’s everyday functions, changing rapidly and providing widespread mobility. In South Africa alone, the amount of internet users grew from 8,5 million to 24,9 million in only three years (2011-2014). Currently 90% of these users access this facility from their mobile devices. This statistic illustrates the trend that South Africans are moving towards a continually connected lifestyle, a situation in which information and communication technology (ICT) seems to have become omnipresent. Due the rapid growth of ICT technology and its adoption into people’s lives (both personally and professionally) the influence of such a phenomenon needed to be investigated to understand its impact on individuals and society. Thus, the objective of the present research was to explore the role ICT plays in employees’ work and family domain. The research followed a qualitative research approach and made use of snowball sampling. The sample of participants (N=25) were mostly employees from a professional organisation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data and the interviews were recorded, transcribed and processed through thematic analyses. The analyses revealed the following four main themes with sub-themes flowing from it: 1) the usage of ICT; 2) the role of ICT usage; 3) the challenges relating to ICT usage; and 4) managing work-life interaction by using ICT. Theme 2 lend itself to be sub-divided into four minor subthemes namely: 1) the positive role of ICT usage; 2) the negative role of ICT usage; 3) the role ICT plays in relationships; and 4) the increased expectations brought about by ICT usage. The current research was not without certain limitations, which should be noted. The researcher only investigated the employees themselves and did not extend the unit of analysis to include the household of employees (esp. the partner or spouse). In addition, the majority of the participants were Afrikaans-speaking males, which is not a true reflection of the multicultural society of South Africa promoting gender equality in the work place. Based on the findings of the present research, various recommendations could be made. Future research could firstly enlarge the sample to be more representative of South Africa’s multicultural and diverse society, and secondly, to include the partner or spouse of employees. Organisations should also consider the implementation of various policies on ICT usage. These directives could include the following: a policy to ensure across the board ICT implementation; an after-work hours policy to ensure as little as possible infringement on employees work-life interaction; and a hierarchical policy ensuring the correct communication channels are followed. Lastly, future research could also do multiple comparative studies on the differences between the degree of ICT adoption, or the amount of ICT devices employees utilise and the impact this has on their work-life interaction. Such research can also investigate how the decrease in face-to-face communication impacts social interaction in both the work and nonwork domains and thereby affects employees’ work-life interaction. / MCom (Industrial Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Earnings by women in dual income families account for a significant portion of a household’s income, which sustains the financial well-being of their families. Cultural expectations and gender role stereotypes around a woman’s role in the family, pose challenges to career growth and retention. The social perception still occurs that women ought to be main caregivers of family members and households, and are more likely than men to have part-time jobs. The aim of the study was to determine the relationships between flexible work, financial well-being, work-life balance, productivity and job satisfaction of employed women. A cross-sectional survey was used with a convenience sample (n = 252) of female support employees, employed in a higher education institution in the North-West province. Findings of the study indicated statistically significant relations between the variables. Another objective was to determine the impact of flexible work, financial well-being, and work-life balance on productivity and job satisfaction. Results indicated that financial well-being, work-life balance and productivity were statistical significant predictors of job satisfaction, and in addition, subjective experiences of productivity serve as partial mediator in the relationship financial well-being and work-life balance on the one hand and job satisfaction on the other hand. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Research indicates that Kentucky agricultural educators are overworked and experience job related stress. Balancing work and home can be a struggle and stress induces burnout and teacher attrition. Shortages in the agriculture classroom could result in loss of agricultural education programs and negatively affect the profession. The purpose of this study was to 1) describe the demographics of Kentucky high school agricultural educators; 2) describe the work and home life balance for Kentucky agricultural educators; 3) determine the level of job satisfaction among Kentucky agricultural educators; 4) determine the perceived busiest time of the school year for Kentucky agricultural educators. The study was conducted on a census of the 2015-2016 Kentucky agriculture teacher directory and the survey was distributed online. Results indicate that agricultural educators work 52 hours per week, can balance work and home responsibilities with assistance from spouse/partner and experience job related stress on a regular basis. It was concluded that Kentucky agricultural teachers are satisfied with their job, but stressed about meeting the needs of work and family balance based on barriers including FFA activities, nightly meetings, childcare and time with spouse/partner.

Research about employed fathers of children with special health care needs (SHCN) is still limited, leaving fathers without the necessary workplace and community supports to better integrate work and life. Caregivers with exceptional caregiving responsibilities report greater levels of work-family conflict and considerable caregiver strain, as well as negative employment and financial consequences related to their caregiving responsibilities. These caregivers often struggle to access community supports such as childcare, after-school care, and support from friends and neighbors. This study provides insights into the types of job, home, and community resources that are relevant for fathers of children with SHCN in order to better integrate work and family. The exploratory cross-sectional design employed an online survey to collect the data, with 122 fathers meeting the study criteria of living at least part-time with a child with SHCN under the age of 18 and being employed at least part-time. The fathers had a mean age of 42 and most of them identified as Non-Hispanic White. The majority stated holding a college degree and over 90% reported being married or partnered. Fathers indicated having on average two children and Autism Spectrum Disorder was the most cited diagnosis for the child with SHCN. Regression analyses were conducted to analyze the study's research questions. Access and use of workplace flexibility were significant job resource measures predicting difficulty combining work and family, and spillover. Family flexibility to handle work issues was a significant predictor across all dimensions of positive and negative spillover. The availability of community services was found significantly related to negative family to work spillover and support from friends/neighbors was a significant predictor for both difficulty combining work and family, and spillover. Regression analyses with interaction terms of job and home resources showed buffering effects of resource ecologies on spillover. The study's findings illustrate that, fathers of children with SHCN struggle to integrate work and family even if they are not considered primary caregivers. Community, home, and job resources were salient for these fathers to mitigate a lack of resources across ecologies. This lack of resources tended to reinforce traditional gender norms for both mother and father. Resources within and across the three different ecologies were found to have direct and compensatory effects. Community resources were identified as the most important resources for both positive and negative spillover. The study also highlights the positive spillover effects related to employment and family care for fathers of children with SHCN. Organizations are called to reduce flexibility stigma and decrease barriers to using workplace flexibility to improve work-life fit for fathers caring for children with SHCN. Social services like childcare, or after school care, and social support are of critical relevance and need to better support these fathers and families. Considerations for future research are presented.

ABSTRACT In this dissertation, I explore my role as an administrator in higher education admissions at a major university and as a working mother who faces many real world challenges. The grueling travel demands, lofty enrollment goals, campus and inter-office politics, as well as the weekend and late night hours required, made it extremely difficult to achieve a healthy work life balance in admissions while also raising a small child. Additionally, "admissions" is increasingly becoming the "hot seat" within institutions of higher education. Gone are the days of an almost tenure like quality to enrollment professionals. If an enrollment director or vice president does not meet his numbers, their position is gone. Through Scholarly Personal Narrative methodology, I seek to inquire into my experiences and to understand and focus on my resilience and spirituality and how I have come to harness this power in my work with students and their parents in one of the most anticipated and often dreaded parts of individuation-- the college admissions process. I share how becoming a working (single) mother in this profession was especially challenging amidst the highest-ranking professional women where I worked, many of whom were not mothers. I could not find a role model at the top that had small children. In this process, I discovered that I could use my experience and education in a more family-friendly role--higher education consulting.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the legislation of parental leave in the Czech Republic and in Sweden in particular with respect to the possibilities of work-life balance, to evaluate an actual use of the system, its impacts on the individual labour markets and gender equality, to subsequently compare these two models and to propose amendments of legislation. The topic was chosen due to its significant impact on a vast amount of people and due to its currency with respect to a progressive change of perception of single parent's roles. The thesis is divided into five chapters following the main aim of the thesis, a comparison of several legislations. The first Chapter shortly describes the main terminology which has been used within the thesis and which is the main subject matter of the paper. Maternity, parental and paternity leave are defined mainly with respect to the purposes of the individual matters. The second Chapter deals with the legislation of the European Union. The relation of the Czech and European law in this field in general is analysed at first. An overview of legal documents related to the so called "family friendly policies" follows and the core of the chapter is the description of particular legislation of maternity, parental and paternity leave based on corresponding...

För att vara produktiv på sin arbetsplats bör rum för återhämtning finnas där arbete och fritid finner en balans. Denna balans kan vara komplex att finna då krav ställs på individen både på och utanför arbetet och det kan upplevas som ett pussel att få vardagsbitarna att gå ihop. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka upplevelser hos individer i varierande arbetssituationer, hur de uppfattade sin egen balans mellan arbetsliv och fritid samt om det fanns något stöd från arbetsgivare till anställdas fritidsintressen och återhämtning och hur det vidare samverkade med de anställdas prestationer och hälsosituation enligt dem själva. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med fem deltagare och innehållet analyserades med tematisk induktiv analys. Resultatet visade på att återhämtning, motivation och stöd spelade en betydande roll för balans mellan arbete och fritid samt att arbete och fritid hade en samverkan på varandra där förståelse, tillit, respekt, identitet och motivation ansågs ha en inverkan på produktiviteten i arbetet och återhämtning på fritiden. Det diskuterades om arbetstagares vilja att uppfattas som en individ, stressen om att vara tidsflexibel och vikten av stöd på och utanför arbetet i strävan efter en hälsosam situation. Diskussionen berörde även huruvida arbetslivsbalans uppfattades som individuellt och berodde av situation och person. / In order to be productive in the workplace, room for recovery should be made where work and leisure find a balance. This balance can be complex to find when the demands on the individual, both on and off the job are required and it can be experienced as a stressful puzzle to get everyday pieces to go together. The purpose of this study was to examine experiences of  individuals in varying work situations, how they perceived their own balance between work and leisure, and furthermore if it existed support from the employer, related to the employees' leisure activities and recovery and how that in its turn co-existed with employee performance and health status according to themselves. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five participants and the content was analysed through thematic inductive analysis. The result indicated that recovery, motivation and support played a significant role in the balance between work and leisure. It also indicated that work and leisure had an effect on each other where understanding, trust, respect, identity and motivation was considered to have an impact on productivity at work and likewise recovery during leisure hours. The discussion touched the employee's desire to be perceived as an individual, the stress of being time-flexible and the importance of support on and off the job in the pursuit of a healthy situation. The discussion included whether work-life balance was perceived as individual and highlighted that it depended on the unique situation and person.

This thesis focuses on work-life balance policy; one of the key field of EU gender equality policies. The purpose of this study was to analyze most recently proposed policy on work-life balance ‘An initiative to support work-life balance for working parents and carers’ that aims to upgrade existing policy and legal frameworks. The main objective of the study is to identify problem representation(s) of gender equality in the stated policy. The study objectives comprises of problematizing identified problem representation(s) by drawing attention to silences and underplayed issues including its far-reaching implications on various groups. Analysis presented in this thesis is guided by theoretical framework of poststuructural feminism chiefly through discourse analysis methodology. In that endeavor, Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach has been applied for discourse analysis of the policy by employing 3 out 6 postulated questions. The study identifies several problem representations of gender equality in the stated EU reconciliation policy. Among others, childcare responsibility is identified as the most dominant problem representation. Likewise, the study points out silenced issues in the policy. This includes structural challenges affecting accessibility and advancement of women in labour market, the type of work, division of unpaid work besides caring responsibilities, inequalities engendered by intersectional factors, well-being of individuals, family, children, elderly care and commitment from employing organizations. The study finally notes ensuing lived effects on women due to added responsibilities. The study analysis concludes some still present pitfalls in the modernized work-life balance policy.

Denna studie undersöker kvinnliga undersköterskors upplevelser av att kombinera arbetsliv med familjeliv under tiden som de är småbarnsföräldrar. Empirin till studien utgörs av semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Studien har utgått från en fenomenologisk ansats med fokus på att nå respondenternas subjektiva upplevelser kring ämnet. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter har tagit fasta på hur samhällets könsnormer och organisationers uppbyggnad påverkar respondenternas upplevelser av att kombinera arbetsliv och familjeliv. Könsnormer är även relevanta utifrån hur fördelningen av det obetalda arbetet i hemmet ser ut och hur de skapar olika förutsättningar av att kombinera förvärvs- och hemarbete. Tillika illustrerar vår studie utifrån krav- och resursmodellen hur respondenterna upplever att de inte har tillräckliga resurser för att möta de krav som ställs från arbetslivet. Studien har även utgått från ett konfliktteoretiskt perspektiv för att kunna beskriva hur undersköterskornas upplevda höga krav från omgivningen skapar konflikter mellan arbete och familjeliv. Resultatet i studien visar att respondenterna upplever svårigheter att kombinera arbetsliv med familjeliv. Obekväma arbetstider blir ett påtagligt problem att kombinera med barnomsorgen.   Därmed blir det sociala stödet de får från sin familj och partner, samt kontroll över arbetstiden centrala faktorer för att respondenterna ska kunna arbeta obekväma arbetstider samtidigt som de är föräldrar. Likaså har ett jämställdhetsperspektiv visat sig vara av betydelse eftersom det skapar olika förutsättningar för undersköterskorna att arbeta samtidigt som de är föräldrar. Män och kvinnor deltar inte på lika villkor i arbetslivet och detta bidrar till att det finns löneskillnader, där män oftast har högre lön. Ekonomin bidrar i sin tur till att det uppstår ojämlikhet då den individ i förhållandet som tjänar minst oftast är den som får ta huvudansvar för barn och hem. Härmed har samhälle och arbetsgivare en betydande roll för hur jämställdheten upprätthålls och vilka förutsättningar som skapas för hur kvinnliga undersköterskor ska kunna kombinera sitt yrke med ett fungerande familjeliv.