This thesis examines the issue of marriage breakdown in the British Armed Forces in light of claims that rates are double that of the civilian population. The research is situated within the context of existing research on the relationship between the service family and the military organisation. This thesis is distinctive in that it employs Bacchi's (1999) method of critical analysis to problem framing in Governmental policy and existing discourses on service families. The objective is to show how the impact of military demands on marriage and family life are framed by the media, politicians, and academics as a problem for the military, in relation to a tension that exists between retention and divorce. Attention to the effects of service life on families is therefore embedded in policy directives, and framed by concerns over the retention and recruitment of military personnel as implications for operational effectiveness. By re-focusing attention to the implications of marriage breakdown for service families this thesis constructs new problem frames, a key question being: what is problematic about marriage and marital breakdown for military wives? The empirical areas explored through in-depth qualitative interviews with a sample of ex-service wives from across the tri-Services are women s experiences and perceptions of marriage and family life, and of marriage breakdown in the military. This methodological approach is unique in that previous studies of service wives have focused on a single community. The voices and experiences of ex-service wives are noticeably absent in previous research, representing neglected routes to experience and knowledge that are vital to a more holistic understanding of the impact of military demands on the family. This thesis highlights the role of emotion in the socialisation of service families which has not been made in the existing literature to date. It has been acknowledged that the conceptual boundaries between the public and private spheres are practically non-existent where the military and service families are concerned. The interface between work and home can be explained in terms of the invisible emotion work service wives perform in support of husbands careers and the institutional goals of the military. This thesis is also distinctive in that it defines wives work in relation to the military in terms of emotional labour and the two-person career. As wives receive little recompense for this labour, responding to role appropriate emotions can have implications for the well-being of military wives, and illustrates the complex picture that emerges as to the reasons why military marriages might end. Factors linked to issues of marital adversity were: infidelity, domestic violence and emotional and psychological abuse, the effects of a culture of alcohol, and the impact of post-operational stress. In addition, family separation was viewed as creating emotional distance between couples. Many women became very independent and adept at coping with the military lifestyle, which created problems for the reintegration of personnel into family life. Moreover, husbands that were perceived by women to be married to the military, in terms of an institutional and social identity, were less satisfied with their relationships. This thesis concludes that the construct of the service family is embedded in institutional rules and regulations regarding marriage and family life, therefore current problematisations of marriage breakdown fail to reveal the difficulties experienced by families in navigating post-divorce family life. Non-intact families are rendered operationally ineffective, hence there are a number of consequences experienced by service families, and women and children in particular, that represent a far-reaching problem of marriage breakdown in the UK Armed Forces.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / Work and family are the central and salient domains in an individual's life. Juggling work and family life have always been a challenge for many employees and families (Hammer et al., 2005). However, with the increased interest in the construct of workfamily enrichment, more attention was given to the positive influences across the life domains. Grzywacz and Butler (2005) found that work-family enrichment improved mental and physical well-being. The objective of this study was twofold; (i) to explore and add to existing research done on work-family enrichment and (ii) investigate the relationships between workfamily enrichment, psychological health and subjective wellbeing of employees within a financial services organisation in South Africa. Three hundred and forty seven questionnaires were administered and one hundred and sixty eight completed questionnaires were returned. Purposive sampling was used to select employees to participate in the study. Data was collected by a self-developed biographical questionnaire, Calson, Kacmar, Wayne, and Grzywacz's (2006) Enrichment Scale, General Health Questionnaire developed by Kalliath, O'Driscoll and Brough (2004) and the Personal Wellbeing Index developed by the International Wellbeing Group (2006). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data and to interpret the descriptive and inferential statistics. Specifically the Pearson Moment Correlation analysis and the T-Test was used. The results indicated that a relationship between work-to-family enrichment and psychological health exist. There was a significant relationship for family-to-work enrichment and psychological health. Furthermore, results indicated a significant relationship between work-to-family enrichment and subjective wellbeing. A significant relationship between family-to-work enrichment and subjective wellbeing was also found. However, no significant differences were found for gender for both work-to-family and family-to-work enrichment. Future considerations, theoretical implications and recommendations for organisations are discussed.

The aim of the present study was to develop two conceptual frameworks / that are antecedents of family-to-work conflict and enhancement in the family domian, and antecedents of work-to-family conflict and enhancement in the work domain / and to test the relationships that are proposed by these frameworks. A pilot study was conducted with 73 career people to investigate the psychometric qualities of the adapted or constructed measures. The main study was conducted with 293 married career people. Results supported some of the hypotheses. In the family-to-work framework, gender role ideology, family salience, perceptions of family/home demands and core self-ealuations predicted family-to-work conflict. Furthermore, direct effects of family salience and core self-evaluations on family-to-work enhancement were found. In the work-to-family framework, work salience predicted both work-to-family conflict and work-to-family enhancement. In addition, core self evaluations moderated the relationship between subjective work demands and work-to-family conflict and between subjective work demands and work-tofamily enhancement.

This study focuses on the importance of considering the interaction between gender and family life stages to properly understand gender similarities and differences in the work and family interface. Data for this study come from the IBM 2004 Global Work and Life Issues Survey representing 79 countries (N=41,813). This study is a first step toward a better understanding of similarities and differences among male and female workers across the life course and it shows that work, family and life outcomes are similar across groups, independent of life stages or gender. Six family life stage groups were created: no children and workers age 35 or less, transition to parenthood, preschool children, elementary children, teenagers, and empty nest (workers age 50 years or older and no children dependent). The findings indicate that gender differences increase when young children are present. Parenthood creates or maintains a more gendered family and work life. A key characteristic of the first stage is that gender differences are smaller than in later stages. In the transition to parenthood stage, gender differences increase substantially. For example, the difference in work hours increases four times from the previous life stage and males experience substantially more work-to-family conflict than females. The preschool stage is the stage in which gender differences in work hours and work-to-family conflict reach their highest point. In the elementary children stage, gender differences in work hours and work-to-family conflict decrease to a level very similar to the transition to parenthood stage. In the teenager children stage, differences in work-to-family conflict decrease to levels similar to the first life stage and differences in access-use of work-family programs decrease to levels similar to the transition to parenthood stages. Finally, in the empty nest stage gender differences are small and some are unique to this stage. Future research could benefit from exploring how the fit of the model may change with the addition of other important work-family variables that were not adequately measured in this study because the data were collected in a corporate setting. Employers could benefit from applying these research findings to the development of work policies and programs attentive to shifts in work-family linkages over the life course.

Suite à la globalisation des affaires et aux multiples changements démographiques, de plus en plus de professionnels vont travailler à l’étranger de leur propre initiative ou encore, pour réaliser un mandat au sein d’une filiale de leur entreprise localisée à l’étranger. L’objectif de cette recherche consiste à étudier le bien-être des travailleurs à l’international en s’appuyant sur deux courants théoriques, celui du bien-être psychologique et du bien-être subjectif. Le bien-être subjectif se réfère à l’évaluation que font les personnes des conditions et des caractéristiques de l’environnement. Le bien-être psychologique fait référence à l’ampleur avec laquelle la personne se sent bien avec elle-même et à la cohérence de son projet de vie avec ses valeurs et ses objectifs de vie. Tenant compte du fait qu’un travail à l’étranger affecte tout autant les vies professionnelle, personnelle et souvent de couple et familiale, cette étude analyse les incidences du conflit et de l’enrichissement travail-famille sur le bien-être des travailleurs en mobilité à l’international. Notre recherche permet aussi d’explorer comment l’articulation travail-famille (tant par les perceptions de conflit que d’enrichissement) des TMI peut être expliquée par trois grands déterminants: le soutien social, l’autoévaluation de soi et l’intelligence culturelle des TMI. L’étude a été menée auprès de 284 travailleurs en mobilité à l’international vivant et travaillant dans différents pays. Au terme de multiples analyses, nos résultats confirment l’importance pour les TMI de ne pas ressentir de conflit travail-famille, mais de percevoir de l’enrichissement travail-famille pour ressentir plus de bien-être. Nos résultats démontrent que le conflit travail-famille est lié négativement aux deux types de bien-être évalués, alors que l’enrichissement travail-famille est seulement lié au bien-être subjectif. Nos résultats confirment aussi les liens négatifs entre d’une part, le soutien offert par l’organisation et la famille et le sentiment d’autoévaluation de soi et d’autre part, sur le conflit travail-famille que ressentent les TMI. Il apparaît aussi que le soutien offert par les collègues a un effet positif sur le sentiment d’enrichissement travail-famille exprimé par les TMI. Cette thèse conclue sur les implications de ses résultats pour la recherche et la pratique. Pour finir, les limites et les perspectives de la recherche future sont exposées / As a result of the globalization of business and the many demographic changes, more and more professionals are working abroad on their own initiative or, to achieve a mandate within a branch of their company located abroad. The objective of this research is to study the concept of the foreign workers well-being. We associated this concept with two theoretical currents refereeing to the subjective well-being and the psychological well-being. The subjective well-being refers to the assessment made by the workers about the conditions and characteristics of the environment. The psychological well-being refers to the extent to which the individual feels good with himself and the consistency of his life project with its values and life goals. Taking into account that working in a foreign context can affect both the professional and personal lives of the individual, often affecting the couple and family, in this study we aim to examine the impacts of work-family conflict and enrichment experienced by workers (that are) in international mobility. Our research also allows us to explore how the work-family articulation (both by perceptions of conflict and enrichment) of workers in international mobility can be explained by three major determinants: social support, self-esteem and cultural intelligence. The study was conducted among 284 workers in international mobility that was living and working in different countries. After multiple analyzes, our results confirm the importance for these workers in international mobility to feel no work-family conflict, but to perceive work-family enrichment in order to experience more well-being. Moreover, our results show that work-family conflict is negatively related to both types of well-being assessed, while the work-family enrichment is only related to subjective well-being. Our results also highlight the negative links between on the one hand, the support offered by the organization and the family with the feeling of self-esteem and on the other, with work-family conflict experienced by workers in international mobility. It also appears that support from co-workers has a positive effect on work-family enrichment experienced and expressed by workers in international mobility. This thesis concludes on the implications of its results for research and practice. Finally, limitations and vision statement for the future research are explained

It is argued that key to gender empowerment and the success of women in leadership is the exploration of the work-family interface which serves to enhance the understanding of issues faced by women leaders as they navigate through their domestic and management roles. It is also contended that work-family scholarship move beyond the study of objective characteristics, and the overt conscious level of functioning of the interface, to an understanding of the intra-psychic experiences of individuals. Recognising the preoccupation with the role strain perspective, it is argued that work-family scholarship adopts a more balanced view and considers the positive and negative effects of participating in multiple roles. Hence the general aim of this qualitative study was to understand the systems psychodynamics underlying the work-family interface that influence the processes of enrichment and conflict among managerial women in the public sector. In the empirical study, data was gathered using the organisational role analysis method, and analysed by means of systems psychodynamic discourse analysis. Six themes and their related subthemes were identified, namely anxiety and conflict, identity, boundary management, authority, role and task. The findings explored the manner in which these behavioural dynamics of participants, and their family and organisational systems interacted, mutually influencing each other, and shaping the way managerial women found, made and took up their domestic and management roles at the work-family interface. This led to resource generation and role enhancement, or resource depletion and role strain in the role (domestic or management). Through relatedness, projection and introjection between the systems and roles, the quality of life in one role influenced the other role, promoting enrichment and conflict at the interface. This study concluded that both enrichment and conflict occur at the interface. While participants oscillated between experiencing enrichment and conflict, some participants experienced more enrichment than conflict, while others experienced more conflict than enrichment at the work-family interface. The extent to which enrichment or conflict occurred between the systems was mediated by participants’ ability to self-contain, and/or the receiving system’s ability to serve as a “good enough” holding environment containing the anxieties experienced in the other role. / D. Litt et Phil. (Industrial & Organisational Psychology)

It is argued that key to gender empowerment and the success of women in leadership is the exploration of the work-family interface which serves to enhance the understanding of issues faced by women leaders as they navigate through their domestic and management roles. It is also contended that work-family scholarship move beyond the study of objective characteristics, and the overt conscious level of functioning of the interface, to an understanding of the intra-psychic experiences of individuals. Recognising the preoccupation with the role strain perspective, it is argued that work-family scholarship adopts a more balanced view and considers the positive and negative effects of participating in multiple roles. Hence the general aim of this qualitative study was to understand the systems psychodynamics underlying the work-family interface that influence the processes of enrichment and conflict among managerial women in the public sector. In the empirical study, data was gathered using the organisational role analysis method, and analysed by means of systems psychodynamic discourse analysis. Six themes and their related subthemes were identified, namely anxiety and conflict, identity, boundary management, authority, role and task. The findings explored the manner in which these behavioural dynamics of participants, and their family and organisational systems interacted, mutually influencing each other, and shaping the way managerial women found, made and took up their domestic and management roles at the work-family interface. This led to resource generation and role enhancement, or resource depletion and role strain in the role (domestic or management). Through relatedness, projection and introjection between the systems and roles, the quality of life in one role influenced the other role, promoting enrichment and conflict at the interface. This study concluded that both enrichment and conflict occur at the interface. While participants oscillated between experiencing enrichment and conflict, some participants experienced more enrichment than conflict, while others experienced more conflict than enrichment at the work-family interface. The extent to which enrichment or conflict occurred between the systems was mediated by participants’ ability to self-contain, and/or the receiving system’s ability to serve as a “good enough” holding environment containing the anxieties experienced in the other role. / D. Litt et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

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