In recent years, the interest in work-life balance within organizations has increased to a great extent due to the high technology development such as smartphones, laptops, tablets etc. The existing high technology work equipment has generated a possibility for employees to be more available and work more if needed and expected by the employer. The extended availability has caused a lot of employees to increase their working time, which in turn has induced increased stress and pressure (Yarnall, 2008, 121). The consequences have led to that the dichotomy work-life and private life adopts more blurred borders and often develops into a situation like the ”role-overload” (Allvin et al., 2013, 107) and a conflict between these two life spheres becomes a fact. Nowadays, several Swedish organizations have work-life balance practices for their employees. Some of these practices are regulated under Swedish legislation, for instance parental leave and the possibility for parents with small children to work part-time. This study investigates the employees’ actual experiences of work-life balance practices and how these practices affect the employees and indirectly the employer. There is a general assumption that organizations that offer different work-life balance practices do so to attract and keep employees, which is the reason why such practices are being viewed as a positive measure (Doherty, 2004, 447). This study investigates if and in what way there are positive and/or negative experiences or consequences of work-life balance practices for the employees, which in turn also could be affecting the employers. The study is qualitative and empirical. Eight Swedish officials employed in different Swedish organizations (one informant works for an American organization) have been interviewed. The theoretical models that have been used to specify and define the research method are “The Career Active System Triad, CAST” (Baruch, 2004, 100) and “The pros and cons of alternative work arrangements” (B.H. Gottlieb, E.K. Kelloway and E. Barham 1998) and to explain the result “The role expansion theory” (Nordenmark, 2004, 47). This study reveals the informants’ reality and experiences, which shows how society through companies and organizations (mezzo level) forms and guides the individuals (micro level) to act in certain ways. This phenomenon illustrates how society generates a “collective conscience” (Durkheim in Andersen & Kaspersen, 2007, 64). This study shows that organizations and societies implicitly through legislation, rules, practices and policies generate “value rational social action” (Weber in Andersen & Kaspersen, 2007, 74-75) among the individuals, which make them act in a certain way in accordance with the value rational social action, whether or not it fits in their individual life at the moment. Nevertheless, the result also demonstrates the positive attitudes towards the work-life balance practices offered by organizations and society through legislation. These practices allow employees regardless of gender to make choices that enables them to have several roles in life, which has been verified in previous research to be beneficial for well-being and health in general.

過往工作生活平衡措施皆著重在對於員工態度、行為或組織績效的影響，甚少從女性的管理階層層面探討，故本研究從董事長性別、工作生活平衡措施、工作生活平衡措施自由使用度三個面向予以探究對於女性高階經理人比例之影響，並以產業別、本國商/外商與公司成立時間作為控制變項，以組織為分析單位進行研究。 本研究針對不限產業的國內企業為抽樣對象，一家公司包含年資至少兩年的1位人資部門人員與3位不限部門的主管或員工協助填答問卷，共收集55家企業，有效問卷252份，並利用階層迴歸分析檢驗研究假說。研究結果歸納如下： 1.董事長性別與女性高階經理人比例呈正向關係。 2.工作生活平衡措施中，受撫養者的照顧服務措施與女性高階經理人比例呈正向關係。 3.工作生活平衡措施自由使用度中，受撫養者的照顧服務自由使用度與女性高階經理人比例呈正向關係。 / In the past, the study about work-life balance practices was focused on the influence on the employee attitudes, behavior or organizational performance, and it was rare to investigate from the perspective of the female management level. So this study is to investigate the effects of the gender of the chairman, work-life balance practices, and the freedom to use of work-life balance practices on the proportion of female senior mangers. The samples of this study are domestic companies from any industry, and each company included a two years of experience expert in human resource and three executives or employees from any department to answer the questionnaires.There are totally 55 companies with 252 valid questionnaires. And this study use hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Following are the results of this study: 1. The gender of chairman has a positive correlation with the proportion of female senior managers. 2. In the work-life balance practices, dependent care service has a positive correlation with the proportion of female senior managers. 3. In the freedom to use of work-life balance practices, dependent care service has a positive correlation with the proportion of female senior managers.