Unsatisfactory working conditions and job stress may be indicative of working in a society where work-life balance is a desired, but often elusive, goal (Duxbury & Higgins, 2001; Smola & Sutton, 2002; Sturges & Guest, 2004). Working conditions in the healthcare sector are reported to be particularly problematic and stress inducing compared to other work sectors (Yassi, Ostry, Spiegel, Walsh, & de Boer, 2002). In fact, quality of work life (QOWL) among healthcare workers is believed to have deteriorated to the point where it is impeding the capacity of the system to recruit and retain staff needed to provide effective patient care (Koehoorn, Lowe, Rondeau, Schellenberg, & Wager, 2002). The purpose of the study was to examine the experiences of healthcare staff who participate in QOWL initiatives aimed to provide employees with creative, educational, and fun activities designed to address feelings of stress. This study included thirteen staff members from disciplines that comprise the Health Care Team at a facility specializing in aging and veteran's care. Data were collected through conversational interviews with staff from each of the following disciplines: nursing, recreation therapy, physiotherapy, creative arts, clinical nutrition, social work, audiology, occupational therapy, and pastoral care. The data were deconstructed into common themes through an open-ended process, which lead to the identification of common experiences across the data provided by the staff. Upon further comparison of the themes, it was identified that work demands were believed to detract from care provision and strained manager relations were believed to minimize quality of care. However, a strong professional identity was evident as staff described being able to rise above adversity and use their skills and competencies to provide quality care to residents. The data also suggested QOWL initiatives seem to be valuable because they provide opportunities for staff to interact socially. This interaction helps foster and strengthen connections amongst staff, which they feel transfers to the work place through improved working relationships. Participants described feelings of personal gratification that can be derived from team cohesiveness. They also acknowledged the carry over value that team work brings to residents by way of improved care provision. Furthermore, the relationships that staff members develop with one another were viewed as sources of strength, particularly in times of increased stress. In addition to the social element associated with the QOWL initiatives, these initiatives also seem to address a need for restoration, humour, and balance within the work day. Without planned opportunities for rejuvenation and humour appreciation, participants admitted that they would seldom take the time to incorporate these into their work day. Therefore, QOWL initiatives can provide staff with a reason to take a break and find their balance. The findings indicate the factors affecting QOWL are varied and complex. The findings also indicate that there can be a paradoxical nature to work within a health care setting. Paradoxes exist in relation to the provision of professional care and the provision of minimized care. Paradoxes also exist in relation to the expressed need for restoration, humour, and balance and the low priority staff will place on taking time to fulfill these needs.

In North America, to become an architect, students must acquire a wide range of knowledge, create designs in studio, and spend some time working in an architecture firm. There are various lessons that they need to learn, and techniques that they develop through their education that combine to give them the necessary skills to write their professional exams. However, the education of an architect is not a process that is simple or straight-forward, and there are a series of other elements that, combined with this basic knowledge, ultimately create contemporary architects. Qualities like individual development, experience, emotional response, personal attitudes, and behaviours are not elements that are going to show up in any architecture school’s brochure, but their effect on the student is just as important as the knowledge that he or she will require to practice. To date, pedagogical inquiry into architecture seems to take two views: either looking at educational techniques and courses; or focusing on the detrimental symptoms of the less-tangible elements mentioned above. This thesis will bridge these two areas by researching the educational process and combining this knowledge with the important but more subjective areas of individual development. Through this study a clearer understanding of the profession will emerge, creating an opportunity for it to improve in the future.

Work gets more seamless and the demand on workers increases because of changes in the labour market. Studies show benefits for workers and companies if the employee achieves a balance between work and family, a way to facilitate it is family-friendly policies. A study done by Unionen shows that three out of four white collar workers choose to vobba (working and caring for a sick child), which blurs the boundaries between work and family. Research on flexibility, organisational culture and gender structures shows how these aspects affect the balance between work and family. This is a study where seven white collar workers (three men) that vobbar and two managers (one man) were interviewed. The study adds deeper insights into how white collar workers and managers are experiencing vobb and the results suggest that they experience vobb as something positive to achieve a balance between work and family, but there is a risk of vobb being considered a constraint, creating a lack of boundaries where one is working almost all the time. / Förändringar på arbetsmarknaden gör arbetet mer gränslöst och ökar kraven på arbetstagarna. Studier visar på vinster för arbetstagare och företag om arbetstagaren uppnår balans mellan arbete och familjeliv, ett sätt att underlätta är genom familjevänliga policies. En undersökning genomförd av Unionen visar att tre av fyra tjänstemän väljer att vobba (jobba och vårda sjukt barn), vilket suddar ut gränserna mellan arbete och familj. Forskning om flexibilitet, företagskultur och könsstrukturer visar hur de påverkar balansen mellan arbete och familjeliv. Detta är en kvalitativ studie i form av intervjuer med sju tjänstemän (tre män) som vobbar och två chefer (en man). Studien tillför en fördjupad insikt i hur tjänstemän och chefer upplever företeelsen vobb och resultaten tyder på att de upplever vobb som positivt för att uppnå balans mellan arbete och familjeliv, men med en risk för att uppfattas som ett tvång och skapa en gränslöshet där man halvjobbar nästan hela tiden.

Work-life issues have been concerned by employees and employers from decades ago. The family structure has been transformed for the work style and most practices have been changed with human resource policy. However, the organizational climate of work and life is not clear and few of organizations implement comprehensive evaluation for the work-life culture. This research proceeds the cross-level analysis by using the hierarchical linear model which provides more precise outcomes. Besides, supervisor support has been recognized one of social supportive and informal organizational supportive resources, included by the work-life culture. Because of the unclear conception of informal organizational support, this research talks about the relationship of supportive supervisor behavior and organizational work-life policy. Furthermore, supervisor support comes up with employees¡¦ subjective well-being. Many scholars recognize employees who have supervisor support experience can reduce work-family conflict and turnover rate. Reasonably, job search behavior is the priority of voluntary quitting and job choosing, which helps to understand the process of employees¡¦ mind changing. To sum up, this research emphasizes on the influence among supportive supervisor behavior to work-life integration policy, subjective well-being and job search behavior. There are three dimensions for individuals, departments and organizations, combing employees¡¦ subjective well-being and objective job research behavior, excluding individual segmentation preference and segmentation support of workplace so as to strengthen the casual relationship and impersonal evaluation.

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe agriculture teachers on factors related to career retention and to explore the relationships between agriculture teachers? work engagement, work-life balance, occupational commitment, and personal and career factors as related to the decision to remain in the teaching profession. The target population for this study was defined as experienced agricultural educators who had completed a minimum of four years of teaching experience, who were currently employed in a secondary agricultural education classroom for the 2009-2010 school calendar. The accessible population consisted of those experienced agricultural educators in the southern region of the United States: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The study sought responses from a stratified random sample of those teachers to ensure geographical and gender representation equivalent that of the target population. This study employed descriptive-correlational research procedures. The instrument was constructed utilizing portions of the four studies to measure the variables of interest. Independent samples t-tests revealed there were no statistical differences between genders on any responses. A regression analysis revealed a 25% variance in occupation commitment attributed to work-life balance and work engagement. Note: This student obtained a joint doctoral degree from Texas A&M University and Texas Tech.

The managing concept of improving quality of work life has attracted attention of the researchers and practical managers gradually. The purpose of this study is to apply this concept on disposal of real estates by public and private sectors. Through discussion of relevant literature and experimental surveys, we used registrars of land administration authorities and land administration clerks of Land Administration Personnel¡¦s Association as subjects. The variables are quality of work life (including measurement perspectives such as learning development, dignity in work, nature of job, evaluation on promotion, working environment, salary and bonus, family leisure, and interpersonal interaction), attribute of individuals, city and county, and job satisfaction (including internal satisfaction, external satisfaction and overall satisfaction). In this study, the real estate operators¡¦ quality of work life, job satisfaction and the correlation between them were discussed. The return rate of questionnaires was 93% in this study. We carried out our study based on the 374 valid questionnaires with the descriptive statistical analysis, reliability analysis, independent sample T-test, one-way ANOVA analysis and Pearson¡¦s product moment correlation analysis. The important results of our research are as the following: 1.The average of quality of work life and job satisfaction is higher than the median value. This indicates that the real estate operators in both the public and private sectors recognized their perceptual experience in quality of work life and were quite satisfied with their jobs. While marriage, age and educational degree of the real estate operators in the public sector might create appreciable differences in their perceptual experience in quality of work life. 2.Differences between public and private sectors and between city and county and analysis on such differences: With respect to the perceptual experience in quality of work life and the overall job satisfaction, both the public and private sectors and the city and county have a degree of satisfaction above average. However, in terms of the degree of satisfaction, the private sector is higher than the public sector; Kaohsiung County is higher than Kaohsiung City. The parts that got the highest points and had the same perspective are nature of job and learning development. The part getting the lower points and having consistent perspective is family leisure. However, evaluation on promotion is the part in which the public sector had the lowest perceptual experience. In private sector, the lowest perceptual experience fell in salary and bonus. 3.Correlation between quality of work life and job satisfaction: In the public sector, the highest positive correlation exists between interpersonal interaction and the overall job satisfaction. In the private sector, the highest positive correlation is between family leisure and the overall job satisfaction. Based on the study results and the review of literature, we submit some suggestions on policies to public and private real estate dealers and their competent authorities, real estate operators at the basic level, and subsequent researchers for their reference in practical management.

The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of former beginning agriscience teachers and to explore the relationships between these perceptions, the characteristics of former beginning agriscience teachers, work satisfaction, work-life balance, and their reasons for leaving the profession. Information was gathered from former secondary agriscience teachers across Texas who left the profession during the 2001-2 through 2005-6 academic years. A survey instrument was created specifically for this study through which information about perceived work satisfaction, work-life balance, effect of work-life on attrition, and demographic characteristics of the former beginning agriscience teachers was gathered. Data were analyzed using descriptive and correlational statistics. For this population, work satisfaction, work-life balance, and teacher attrition were not found to differentiate among demographic and career characteristics: age, gender, ethnicity, employment, salary, teacher training institution, years of experience, agriscience department size, hours on the job, or FFA area association. The results suggested evidence of an inverse relationship between work satisfaction and beginning agriscience teacher attrition as well as an inverse relationship between work-life balance and agriscience teacher attrition. Nearly half of all respondents reported the wanting of balance between professional work and personal life as their chief reason for leaving the profession. Closely following this reason were the placement of students in agriscience classes who did not choose to be in the elective courses and too much time away from family. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents offered the recommendation to set a maximum student enrollment per class period and to decrease the number of class preparations/course sections taught by beginning teachers. Over half of the respondents made the recommendation to share the load of shows and contests equally among teachers and to increase the number of teachers in the agriscience department. To improve the preparation and retention of agriscience teachers, two-thirds of the respondents recommended a salary increase. The recommendation following salary and given by nearly half of respondents was to provide mentor teachers. And, one-third of respondents offered the recommendation for more follow-ups from university teacher trainers.

Research has established that workplace aggression leads to a multitude of negative outcomes for individuals and organizations. This study aimed to determine if certain coping strategies could assuage the negative impact of workplace aggression on two outcomes: job satisfaction and psychological well-being. A study of nurses explored their experiences with being the target of verbal, passive, and physical workplace aggression, their job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and their coping strategies. Results indicate that coping style does indeed moderate the relationship between being the target of workplace aggression and negative outcomes. Implications for the workplace are discussed.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Saint Mary's University, 2009. / Running head: Factors affecting applicant attraction Includes abstract. Supervisor: Victor Catano. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-46).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Münster (Westfalen), 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 441-486).