Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy

Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...] / Doctor of Philosophy

Contemporary interest in and demand for a healthy balance between work and family/life (WF/L) commitments has resulted in the proliferation of organisations commonly referred to as family-friendly workplaces (FFWs). Such a proliferation has been met with assertions that WF/L balance is as much organisational rhetoric as it is organisational reality. Such claims are damaging for organisations that are genuinely committed to providing WF/L-friendly work environments. Additionally, such allegations if true also indicate a more serious problem of organisational ineffectiveness. This study therefore perceives a way by which FFWs can test and evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts to provide employees with WF/L balance. Three research questions drive this study: Why are FFWs’ efforts to provide WF/L balance regarded as rhetoric? What is the gap level between WF/L balance rhetoric and reality in an organisation? What organisational issues and challenges contribute to the rhetoric claim? In the absence of models or frameworks that can effectively test and measure rhetoric-reality gaps this research may be considered as ‘experimental’, since it introduces a new conceptual framework, ‘The rhetoric-reality discrepancy framework’. The framework illustrates how gaps arise and highlights key underlying contributing factors. These factors represent organisational challenges that impede WF/L balance for employees, and indicate areas that organisations need to address if they wish to dispel claims that WF/L balance is more rhetoric than reality. The ‘experimental’ nature of this framework meant that a within-case approach was the obvious choice, as it allows for the thorough study of the research problem within one organisational setting. The study was based on a case analysis of an Australian organisation that promotes itself as and has achieved formal recognition as a FFW, through nominating itself for and subsequently winning national-level work and family awards. The dual-centred nature of the research inquiry meant that a mixed paradigmatic approach was selected. A positivist approach was used to measure gap levels while an interpretivist approach was used to guide understanding of underlying contributors of these gaps. Additionally, the combined paradigm meant that the choice of research methodology was framed by a mixed methods approach. Quantitative tools such as a questionnaire survey and qualitative channels such as document analysis, personal interviews and participant observation were used. In line with Creswell’s Sequential Exploratory Design (11.2a), fieldwork commenced with the quantitative phase and on its completion was followed by the qualitative phase. SPSS software was the predominant tool used in the quantitative analytical phase while NVivo software was used in the qualitative phase. Three areas of employee experiences - their awareness of, need for, and take up of WF/L balance initiatives - were used to explore the magnitude of the rhetoric-reality gap, while the qualitative phase sought to understand what caused the gaps, what employees thought of their organisation’s efforts, and uncover emergent themes. The two methods were ‘mixed’ in the final stage of the study, and provided a rich and deeper understanding of the research problem. The quantitative results showed that employees had less than satisfactory experiences in all three areas and further supported the notion that WF/L balance may be more rhetoric than reality. The qualitative findings identified a number of contributing factors, many of which could be broadly categorised under key themes in existing literature, such as poor communication, organisational culture, differential access, cost considerations, and managerial discretion. The study also uncovered other issues that could contribute to organisational rhetoric, such as implementation challenges. One such challenge involved an organisational need to cater for a diverse workforce and therefore to provide a broad range of initiatives. Another finding is that need for particular provisions is closely linked to employees’ life stage. Both these issues mean that while organisations should offer a wide range of provisions there is also the strong likelihood that a good number of provisions may have very poor take up or have no take up. An emergent theme, though linked to few participants only, was the set of WF/L balance challenges faced by first generation Australians or immigrant workers. Another finding which appears to contradict the gap level finding of organisational rhetoric is that a number of employees either specifically identified their organisation as being WF/L-friendly or identified that flexibility was a key ingredient of WF/L balance and acknowledged that their organisation provided such flexibility. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Diss. Univ. Zürich, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2010. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 23, 2010). "Department of Political Science." Includes bibliographical references.

Eichstätt, Univ., Diss., 2009.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2006.

Butiksanställda idag behöver ständigt vara tillgängliga för såväl arbetsgivare och kunder som för familj från tidig morgon till sen kväll vilket kan påverka deras balans mellan arbetsliv och privatliv. Syftet med undersökningen är att bättre förstå hur butiksanställda upplever och hanterar work-life balance och se om den ständiga tillgängligheten kan påverka deras work- life balance. Tanken är även att se hur butiksanställda hanterar emotioner som uppstår i arbetslivet och privatlivet. Undersökningen tar upp olika teorier och modeller om work-life balance, tillgänglighet, emotionellt arbete och socialt stöd för att förklara den situation som butiksanställda kan hamna i kring hanteringen av balansen mellan arbetsliv och privatliv. För att undersöka det här har sex personer intervjuats och datamaterialet som har samlats in har gett en bättre förståelse kring hur work-life balance kan se ut hos butiksanställda. Resultat som har framkommit av undersökningen visar att upplevelsen och hanteringen av work-life balance varierar från individ till individ men att flextid och möjligheten att kunna välja när arbetet ska skötas är en stor inverkan för en bra balans. Dock gäller det butiksanställda med mer ansvar eller butikschefer. Det som framkommer som den största och viktigaste faktorn för att hantera work-life balance och emotioner som uppstår är det sociala stödet hos kollegor, vänner och familj, oavsett om det handlar om tillgängligheten eller om det är problem i privatlivet eller i arbetslivet.

Arbetslivet har förändrats, vilket har skapat olika förutsättningar att utföra arbetet.Digitaliseringen och förändringen av deltagare på arbetsmarknaden är orsaker till att arbetslivoch privatlivet smälter samman. Chefsrollen är komplex och är en position som utsätts försvårigheter med att skapa livsbalans. Denna studie syftade till att utforska work-life balanceför högt uppsatta chefer inom olika organisationer i Sverige. Studien använde sig av etttidsperspektiv som sträcker sig från 1960-talet fram till idag. Syftet var att undersöka omförutsättningar för work-life balance varierat med tiden samt samla uppfattningar om worklifebalance för chefer från olika generationer. För att kunna genomföra studien, undersöktesäven innebörden av chefsrollen samt förändringar i arbetslivet under de senaste decennierna.Den metodologiska ansatsen i denna undersökning var en kvalitativ intervjustudie med högtuppsatta chefer. Resultaten visade att arbeta som högt uppsatt chef var en ansträngandeyrkesroll i ett högt arbetstempo. Förutsättningar för en livsbalans har ändrats under de senastedecennierna, bland annat av att kvinnor har börjat förvärvsarbeta och lanseringen av tekniskaredskap. Det framkom även att det fanns olika uppfattningar och synsätt på vad en livsbalansär bland cheferna.

- Working hours, their duration and work schedule This thesis introduces an overview of the current regulation of working hours and related institutes. It is focused on the particular options how to regulate working hours duration and working hours schedule, as well as on legal limits and restrictions. Working hours are crucial not merely for employers, but also for employees. For employees working hours also determine their leisure time. Therefore, this thesis is focused also on work-life balance with suitable work hours schedule. The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part outlines the most important historical development of working hours regulation from medieval rules to the current regulation and its position in the current legal order, which is essential to correct grasp of subsequent parts. In the second, principal part of the thesis, are analysed particular concepts of working hours regulation, there is also an overview of related judicature which defines working hours, working hours duration and possibilities of scheduling. This part also includes a description of minimal rest periods, rest breaks, night work and on-call duty. The third part aims to introduce the special rules for two specific groups of employees. The first are teachers, trainers, and other teaching stuff, and...