abstract: The aim of this research was to better understand the experience of bereaved individuals following their return to work, and the ways in which they communicatively negotiate their relationships at work and at home. One of the most salient facts of life is that everyone will all experience the death of a loved one. The amount, frequency, type, and recovery response for the bereaved may be vastly different, but inevitably everyone has to cope with death. Even though it is an integral part of life, the bereavement experience often is acknowledged as one of the most traumatic and stressful processes that occurs in individuals’ lives (McHorney & Mor, 1988; Miller & McGowan, 1997). In fact, roughly 5% of the workforce is affected by the passing of a close family member each year, and this number excludes those who experience the deaths of close friends (Wojcik, 2000). Evidence suggests that bereavement affects the physical and mental health of survivors, many of whom are in the workforce (Bauer & Murray, 2018; Hazen, 2003, 2008, 2009; Wilson, Punjani, Song, & Low, 2019). In order to explore how work-life roles are integrated into the lives of bereaved individuals, this dissertation qualitatively analyzed 36 interviews with bereaved employees (12), cohabitants (12), and coworkers (12). Through the use of procedural coding (Saldaña, 2009) and emergent codes, this dissertation answered the five posited research questions and their sub-questions. The results of this analysis have numerous implications for social support, emotion at work, grief, and bereavement leave policy. The following dissertation delineates the significance of this research, the literature review providing rationale for study of bereaved employees, qualitative methodological design, analysis of the data, and conclusions about bereavement and work-life relationships. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Communication 2020

The work environment has vastly become more demanding and organizational practises have required have needed to be cognisant of methods to keep employees engaged. The topic of flexible working arrangements (FWA) has grown in popularity by research scholars and business practitioners. Considerable research has been conducted on the various dynamics of FWA and the influence of employee engagement. This research however aims to explore emerging themes in perceived organizational support (POS) and employee engagement in the context of flexible work arrangements, to gain in-depth understanding of the relationship between POS and employee engagement, in addition to what has been contributed to literature. The research study was conducted through qualitative methodology of exploratory obtained by the researcher. 14 semi-structured interviews were largely conducted through virtual communication platform, Zoom; and where possible interviews were conducted face-to-face, through open-ended questions. Respondents consisted of 7 Managers and 7 Employees from different organisations across three different industries. The analysis of the interviews was conducted through the six-stage thematic analysis. The research found four emerging themes FWA associated with flexible working schedules, enabling infrastructure, work life balance and adapting to a new way of working. The research also found a positive relationship between employee engagement and POS through common themes such as trust between managers and employees, decision making and dedication to work tasks. The perspectives and views from the participants were commonly affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore the researcher made every attempt to gain perspectives prior the pandemic and during the pandemic from the participants. The research was limited to medium to large sized organisations operating in South Africa. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

This diploma thesis deals with flexible and innovative forms of employment and the form of cooperation in a selected company. Flexibility is becoming more and more important, as employees are less willing to spend their entire day of work and prefer more personal life. The thesis is divided into three parts - the theoretical, the analytical and the part dealing with own solutions. The theoretical part is based on a comprehensive overview of flexible forms of employment that make it possible to reconcile work and personal life. The analytical part examines and evaluates the current state of the selected company with best practices of similar companies in the Czech Republic and abroad and in the final part proposes the optimal solution of flexible forms of employment or cooperation in the context of possible changes in the provision of legal services for selected organization.

Sedan december 2019 sprids ett nytt virus i världen, sjukdomen som viruset orsakar har fått namnet Covid-19 och effekterna av viruset har varit dramatiska för organisationer och anställda över hela världen. I och med det nya viruset har många organisationer tvingas till förändring för att försöka förhindra ytterligare spridning, vilket har lett till att många idag arbetar hemifrån. Vi har därför valt att göra en kvalitativ studie i ett företag där de anställda tvingas arbeta på distans sedan våren 2020. I studien har vi undersökt hur de anställdas work-life balance upplevs i det tvingande distansarbetet, som uppstått på grund av Covid-19. Hittills är det oklart om distansarbete underlättar eller snarare komplicerar kombinationen av arbete och hem. Distansarbete kan bidra till positiva effekter som flexibilitet och självstyre men de kan även medföra negativa aspekter som stress och obalans i livet. Tillsammans med informationen från empirin som kommer från semistrukturerade intervjuer där sex personer medverkat samt tidigare forskning har vi analyserat och sett över hur det tvingade distansarbetet påverkar denna organisations work-life balance. Studiens resultat visar på att medarbetarna arbetar längre arbetsdagar, gränsen mellan arbetsliv och privatliv har suddats ut och den sociala kontakten med kollegor har minskat. Vår slutsats från studien är att de anställda upplever en sämre balans mellan privatliv och arbetsliv när de arbetar på distans. / Since December 2019, a new virus has spread around the world, the disease caused by the virus has been named Covid-19 and the effects of the virus have been dramatic for organizations and employees around the world. Due to the new virus, a lot of organizations have been forced to change to try to prevent further spread, which has led to compulsory teleworking. We have therefore chosen to conduct a qualitative study in a company where employees are forced to work at home since the spring of 2020. In the study, we examined how the employees' work-life balance is experienced in the mandatory telework, which has arisen due to Covid-19. So far, it is unclear whether teleworking facilitates or rather complicates the combination of work and home. Teleworking can contribute to positive effects such as flexibility and self-control, but they can also lead to negative aspects such as stress and imbalance in life. Together with the information from the empirical data that comes from semi-structured interviews in which six people participated and previous research, we have analyzed and reviewed how the forced telework affects this organization's work-life balance. The results of our study shows that employees work longer working days, the boundary between work and private life has been blurred and social contact with colleagues has decreased since they started working from home. Our conclusion from the study is that employees experience a poorer balance between private life and working life when they work remotely.

The diploma thesis deals with the issue of work-life balance of employees and especially managers in a chosen company. The theoretical part is about issues of gender, factors influencing managers’ careers and possibilities of work-life balance. In the practical part, there is an analysis of a present situation in a company. On the basis of theoretical findings, analysis of company’s documents, a questionnaire and interviews with chosen employees, there will be made some suggestions for improving a present situation in a company. There will be also a financial evaluation of new steps as a part of final suggestion.

The purpose of this thesis was to contribute with new information within the research area, due to the low amount of secondary research regarding it. This thesis was conducted with a desire to gather primary data contributing to deeper knowledge and understanding of the gap between virtual meetings and technostress in relation to work-life balance, psychological well-being, and effectiveness. In order to conduct this research, a research design was developed in accordance with the field of research chosen to further investigate. A descriptive design with a deductive quantitative approach and the usage of an online survey sent out to a sample, with 107 valid responses, has enabled the completion of this thesis. For the analysis of the primary data collected for this study, the tool SPSS was used in order to investigate the correlations. This research concludes that a majority of the hypotheses are accurate and that technostress, in these hypotheses, does impact employees through virtual meetings in a negative way. The respondents felt that virtual meetings do in fact decrease their ability to obtain a healthy work-life balance, psychological well-being, and an effective standard. Therefore, the conclusion becomes highly recognizable as it contributes to fulfilling the distinguished gap.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2019 / Municipal firefighters face a number of risks and much stress at work. In the South African context, the quality of work life (QWL) is impacted considerably by high stress levels and work-related demands. Currently, firefighting organisations face serious challenges that hamper the QWL among municipal firefighters. These challenges include physical and mental challenges, and the element of work which negatively affects the job performance among the firefighters. The primary research objective has been to identify the key factors that impact on the QWL of municipal firefighters in the Western Cape, South Africa. In addition, this study explores a common approach for measuring the QWL and determining an effective way to maintain a better work life for the firefighters. The quantitative research method was employed. This study measured and analysed the key factors that had impacted on the QWL of municipal firefighters in the Western Cape, South Africa. A questionnaire was used to collect data from a group of 120 municipal firefighters from the Goodwood Fire Department. This study used the ethical principles of informed consent, the right to privacy and honesty, and confidentiality/anonymity in the research process. The quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings and results provide insight into and guidance to management and employees in a practical way to improve the QWL among municipal firefighters. The fire department should upgrade the QWL of its workers so as to hold them and get its very own vital needs. The fire department should develop and keep up QWL programmes. Support from ranking employees are basic to a useful QWL programme. In addition, unmistakable upper level management contribution is one of the critical factors in the procedure accomplishment.

Syftet med denna studie var att bidra till fördjupad kunskap om och förståelse för hur smartmobiler används i arbetssammanhang. Studien var av kvalitativ ansats där datainsamlingsprocessen bestod av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Ett målinriktat bekvämlighetsurval tillämpades och totalt deltog 15 respondenter (N=15), 8 män och 7 kvinnor. Deras ålder varierade mellan 20–56 år där heltidsarbete på kontor samt en daglig användning av en smartmobil var de kriterier som fanns för att deltaga i studien. För att bearbeta och analysera det insamlade materialet användes tematisk analys som resulterade i 6 övergripande teman och tillhörande underteman. Studiens resultat visade att samtliga respondenter upplevde smartmobilen som ett verktyg i arbetet med många fördelar, dock fanns även tecken på att den kunde distrahera och stressa användarna. Analysresultatet visade även att upplevelserna skiljer sig i arbets- och privatliv, där smartmobilerna används i en större utsträckning och till mer nöjesrelaterade funktioner på fritiden.

Flexible working hours is a work regulation which both creates opportunity for an increased flexibility but on the other hand demands the same from the employee. An increase in availability for the employees has contributed to a more blurred line between work and free time. This study has examined how flexible working hours affects the employees stress levels, workload and work life balance. Previous research has shown that stress, workload and work- life balance continuously interact and correlate with each other. Results both show that flexible working hours has positive and negative effects on all the subject matters. Using a qualitative method six interviews has been completed and from the collected data it can be concluded that all the interviewed work more than their contracted hours. Furthermore, it can also be shown that the constant availability complicates work-life balance. Finally, the data also presents a form of acceptance and normalizations around the demands and what is expected from an employee with flexible working hours. / Förtroendearbetstid är en arbetstidsreglering som både möjliggör en ökad flexibilitet men samtidigt kräver detsamma från den anställda. En ökad tillgänglighet för de anställda har bidragit till att gränsen mellan arbete och fritid inte är lika tydlig. I den här studien undersöks det hur förtroendearbetstid påverkar den anställdas stress, arbetsbelastning och gränsdragningen mellan arbete och fritid. Tidigare forskning visar att stress, arbetsbelastning och gränsdragning är sammankopplade till varandra och att det sker en ständig växelverkan. Det finns resultat som både visar på positiva och negativa effekter på samtliga forskningsområden till följd av förtroendearbetstiden. Med hjälp av kvalitativ metod genomfördes sex intervjuer och utifrån det insamlade materialet dras slutsatsen att samtliga respondenter arbetar mer än avtalad tid. Vidare visar resultatet att den ständiga tillgängligheten försvårar gränsdragningen mellan arbete och fritid. Resultatet leder även fram till att det finns en acceptans och normalisering kring vad som krävs och förväntas från den anställda med förtroendearbetstid.

Background: Innovation is usually connected with benefits inside companies, the most cited by researchers is the competitive advantage. However, the pursuit of innovation may lead to a harmful working environment that can increase stress levels among employees. An industry that is well known by its innovativeness is the tech industry, therefore an investigation on their working environment is important. Purpose: Our purpose is to analyse if tech companies are creating a stressful working environment for their own employees, what are the factors that creates this and what kind of techniques and methods are companies using to tackle the increase stress in their working environment. Understanding these topics, we provide a contribution to the theory and a suggestion for companies follow in order to reduce stress among employees without losing their pursuit for innovativeness. Method: We utilize secondary data collected from different type of sources. Also, we use real life examples of companies that are trying tackle stress in their working environment, providing insights on their actions and the outcome of them. Conclusion: The results show that technology companies have several factors that increase stress in their working environment, some of them associated with company characteristics, and other associated with the industry that the tech companies are competed in. Also, some of those stressors are not being tackled by methods or techniques that companies areiiusing in order to reduce the stress among employees. In order to improve their working environment, we suggest technology companies to follow our proposed strategy based in three pillars: flexibility, support and communication.