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.

High-Tech industries in Taiwan realize that employees with professional knowledge and skills are the core advantage to competition, therefore implement so call Strategic Human Resource Management(SHRM). Recently, ¡§high performance work practices(HPWPs)¡¨, one of SHRM, becomes more and more emphasized. It is one of management systems that help employees to get needed competences through commitment, involvement, and incentives and to enhance the contributions to organization. However, are employees in high performance work organization feeling well-being? The purpose of this study is to realize the relevance of these two variables, and also if mediating variables, work motivation and work-family balance, work. Literatures about HPWPs are all about the outcomes of organization, however, this study emphasizes on individual with mediating variables, work motivation and work-family balance. Questionnaires was adopted for this study and 301 valid samples are collected from individuals in high-tech industry. Through statistics analysis, the main results are as below: 1. HPWPs separately have partial positive effect on work motivation, work-family balance, and well-being. 2. HPWPs have positive effect on work motivation and this work motivation mediates the effect of HPWPs on well-being. 3. the positive effect of HPWPs on well-being is mediated by work-family balance.

This research follows the positive psychology to explore the synergies from playing multiple roles in Taiwanese banking employees¡¦ life to expand the scope of work-family field by developing a work-family facilitation scale through qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaires. The antecedents and outcomes of work-family facilitation were also included to further examine needed resources from both work and family domains to support the better role performance in each domain. Two-stage survey study consisting separately 60 and 200 samples of each that was composed of three groups of samples (i.e. employees, their supervisors and spouses). Results revealed that, firstly, job autonomy as well as supportive supervisors help engender action- and development-based work-to-family facilitation; spouse practical support promote psychosocial-based family-to-work facilitation; Organisational citizenship behaviour were encouraged by development-based family-to-work facilitation. The insignificant results showed there may be other possible resources as well as consequences needed to be further uncovered, and the work-family facilitation scale is encouraged to be re-examined in the future. This study can not only measure the work-family facilitation but investigate the resources and outcomes relevant to the construct. Organisations may make good use of the mechanisms to re-allocate the current resources and practices to improve the effectiveness as well as convey the positive brand image to stakeholders.

Past research concerning work and family has largely been from traditional, white-collar settings and has only taken into consideration the perceptions of the employees' experiences with regard to the relationship between work and family. However, there is no doubt that employees' in non-traditional settings, particularly those employed in public safety professions (i.e. police and fire) experience the relationship between work and family differently than those in white-collar settings, especially since they put their lives on the line daily for the protection and betterment of the community, society and even the world. In addition, the experiences and perceptions of work and family will undoubtedly be different for the family members (i.e. children and spouses) of those employed in such "life-threatening" professions. This study sought to understand how public safety employees, as well as their families, make sense out of the relationship between work and family by first examining what metaphors they employ to articulate the relationship between work and family. In addition, this study sought to examine if male versus female public safety employees experience the relationship between work and family in similar or different ways, as well as if police officers and fire fighters experience the relationship similarly or differently. Using qualitative methods, the findings indicate that public safety employees and their families articulate and make sense of the relationship between work and family in both similar and different ways. Contrary to previous work-family research, dominant metaphors and constructs such as balance, conflict, segmentation, etc. did not appear at all within this study. Instead, participants likened the relationship between work and family to competition, nature, organism, change, integration, opposition, ambiguity, and destruction. Public safety employees and their families also experienced and made sense of the relationship between work and family through humor, emotion management, fear and risk assessment. Findings also indicate that both male and female public safety employees internalize risk in much the same way, as well as agree that parenthood in general, is devalued in the public safety profession. With regard to differences, findings indicate that females have a harder time negotiating a healthy relationship between work and family, have their competency levels always questioned by family or co-workers, and use different language and rhetoric from males when talking about work and family. Finally, results show that police officers and fire fighters make sense of work and family in much the same way with regard to "dirty work" and communication rules but differ in terms of coping mechanisms and job satisfaction. This study suggests a number of implications for both theory and practice. The findings also point to many necessary areas of future research which could further our understanding of the relationship between work and family, not only in professions characterized by high-risk, non-standard hours and stress, but also in standard white-collar professions as well.

The advance of technology brings the flourish and vigor in economy to global market. It also changes the way we do business. Every company is struggle to gain the competitive advantage. Peter Drucker (1999), a management master, points out that in the 21st century, the most valuable assets of an organization are knowledge workers and the productivity of knowledge workers. Last ten years, high-tech industries become the main force in Taiwan. However, there are some attributes under this industry that make employees hard to differentiate between work and life, for example, short period of product life cycle, nonstop product line and so on. The researches from Fassel(1990), Schaef & Fassel(1988) indicate that some companies are workaholics itself. Schneider(1987) thought that people will stay in a company suitable to himself/herself longer due to attraction-selection-attrition theory. Many researches pointed out that workaholics are more involved in work than other workers.(Fassel, 1990; Scott et al., 1997; Spence & Robbins, 1992). Therefore, maximizing the efforts from workaholics is an challenge. In this study, workaholism is defined as an independent variable. Other variables like health, work-family conflict and job performance are as independent variables. Besides, personal attributes and job characteristics are defined as antecedents. This study will take 136 engineers in high-tech industry to examine the effect of workaholism on other dependent variables, like health, work-family conflict and job performance. The findings in this study are as follows: 1. After using factor analysis to examine three dimensions of wokaholism from Spence & Robbins(1992), the result points out that job involvement is an unstable factor, but work enjoyment and driveness are applicable to this study. 2. The hypothesis that there is a significant effect of health on work enjoyment and driveness is partly supported. Driveness is a risk factor related to health because it has a negativ effect on general health, social function and mental health. Besides, work enjoyment has a positive effect to general health, vitality, social function and mental health. 3. The hypothesis that there is a significant effect of work-family conflict on work enjoyment and driveness is supported. Work enjoyment has a negative effect on work-family conflict. However, driveness has a positive effect on work-family conflict. 4. The hypothesis that there is a significant effect of job performance on work enjoyment and driveness is partly supported. Work enjoyment has a positive effect on task and contextual performance. However, driveness has a positive effect on contextual performance. 5. The hypothesis that there are significant differences in work enjoyment and driveness among personal attributes is partly supported. No significant difference was found in work enjoyment among personal attributes. In addition, there is a significant difference for marital status in driveness. The married workers experience a higher level of driveness than unmarried workers. 6. The hypothesis that there is a significant effect of job characteristics in work enjoyment and driveness is partly supported. The result indicates that time control is positively related to work enjoyment. Monitoring demand and product responsibility are positively related to driveness. Method control is negatively related to driveness. 7. After using cluster analysis, three types of workaholics are identified in this study. They are enthusiastic workers, disenchanted workers and relaxed workers.¡@Among three types of workaholics, enthusiastic workers have a better health condition, job performance and a lower level in work-family conflict than other two types of workaholics. Furthermore, enthusiastic workers have a higher level in time control and method control than disenchanted workers.

Social science research has been slow to incorporate the international migration of skilled and educated women, and the impacts of their return migration. At the same time, Turkish female migrants have been negatively stereotyped in the literature. This exploratory and descriptive study aims to address these gaps by examining the impacts of emigration and return migration on the social and work lives of educated Turkish women who have returned to Turkey from Canada. Oral history interviews were conducted with six working-age, educated female returnees in Istanbul and Ankara between February and April 2007. Aside from some common features, the six women in this study differ greatly in terms of age, marital status, field of study and work, length of time in Canada and Turkey, and the opportunities and resources available to them throughout their migrations. From the interpretive examination of the women&amp / #8217 / s narratives, patterns in their subjective social and work life experiences emerged. The issue of gender was found to pervade all aspects of the women&amp / #8217 / s lives at all stages of their migrations as they negotiated their often contradictory social roles as mothers, wives, daughters, and professionals. This study also reveals that none of the women migrated as an individual actor. Rather, contextual and stratification factors such as marital status, family configuration, language skills, prior exposure to different cultures, socio-economic background, education and labour force participation were found to shape and influence their initial potential for migration, as well as the processes and outcomes of their migrations.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of social support, perceived control, locus of control and demand on adopting coping strategies to deal with workto- family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC). A questionnaire was administered to Turkish dual-career couples with diverse occupational backgrounds (N = 300). Results suggested that (a) those who received social supported adopt problem-focused coping strategies through the effect of having high perceived control, (b) those with external locus of control adopted emotion-focused coping strategies which in turn increased family-to-work conflict, but not such relationship was observed on work-to-family conflict, and (c) work/home demands moderated the relationship between perceived control and coping strategies only when it was measured as a combination of both self-reports and objective demand indices. Practical implications of the findings are discussed along with the limitations of the study.

Abstract With the international age coming, a number of studies have been done regarding the management of expatriates, but little research has focused on the expatriates' decisions to quite their assignment. A comprehensive model is developed to test the cause of the expatriates' turnover tendencies. The model is applied both of the theories from socialization and work-family conflict. Date were obtained with a sample of 171 expatriates in Mainland China from Taiwan's international businesses. Results were indicated that work-family conflict and socialization have the direct effect on intent to leave organization and intent to transfer back prior to the completion of their foreign assignments. Work-family conflict, job similarity, organization support have the direct effect on intent-to-leave the job. Family support has both of the direct and indirect effects on the intent to transfer back prior to the completion of their foreign assignments. Parents' health and the youngest child's age have the indirect effect on the expatriates' intent-to-leave through work-family conflict. Expatriate's position has the indirect effect on the expatriates' intent-to-leave through expatriate's socialization. Implication for international HRM researchers and practitioners are discussed.

A Study of Female Managers¡¦ Coping Behavior with Work-Family Conflicts in Terms of Sex-Role Attitudes, Life-Style and Job Involvement Abstract In terms of human resources, female managers has come into a spotlight for their outstanding professional performance, efficiency and competitiveness in today¡¦s business world. According to the 10 managerial roles defined by Mintzberg(1973), female managers are required to take greater responsibility and spend longer working hours at their managerial job. Furthermore, family role expectations also require a female manger¡¦s time and energy. Therefore the fact that multiple role-demands compete a female manager¡¦s limited time is seen, and it is found that female managers are considered to face work-family conflicts more than their female counterparts working at the non-management level. The focus of this dissertation is based on the time-based interrole conflict proposed by Greenhaus & Beutell(1985) and is in accordance with three types of coping behaviors suggested by Hall(1972). This study was conducted in terms of sex-role attitudes, life-style and job involvement to understand how these factors interact with each other, affecting a female manager¡¦s coping behavior as a whole. Furthermore, how each of these factors affects a female manager¡¦s coping behavior with work-family conflicts is also discussed. Four Taiwanese female managers, who are working at the senior management level are interviewed, producing the quantitative data in this study. A case study approach was utilized and a semi-structured interview framework was used based on three factors mentioned above. This study concluded that sex-role attitudes, life-style and job involvement indeed affect a female manager¡¦s behavior to cope with work-family conflicts. It also suggested that better supportive organizational programs, sensitive family supports, and self-identity-clarified by a female manager herself- will aide them in handling work and family obligations, and will provide a ¡§no trouble back home¡¨ environment, allowing them to devote themselves to their managerial work. Keywords: sex-role attitudes, life-style, job involvement, work-family conflict, coping behavior

The Relationship among Work-Family Conflict, Job Burnout, and Turnover Intention of Female Professionals in High-Tech Companies Abstract Last ten and more years , high-tech industries grow prosperous in Taiwan. There are lots of professionals entering to the high-tech industries. Though the environment of high-tech industry is better than traditional industry-- the better payment and the better future vision, it is also the place which makes the job pressure, stress, and burnout. The job burnout, coming from the long-term stress, brings to individual the embarrassment in his life, family, and career development. The stress management in professional job becomes the future issue to those managers in high-tech industry. Today, the structure of global human resource has changed, large of educated women join the labor market, they are playing multiple roles. In the limitation of time and energy, it¡¦s easy to make the inter-role conflict during she hopes to play each role perfectly. Evidence is increasing that work-family conflict negatively influences individual¡¦s physical and psychological aspects. Under the high-tech industry speedy innovation and intense competition, employee¡¦s work-family conflict and the work stress are more catching the attention. Though female professionals are the developing resource in the labor market, they are also the crowd tending to work-family conflict. If the female professionals are always in the condition of stress and no proper way to diminish it, eventually, they will be burnout and withdraw from the working place. It will be big loss not only to individuals but also to the companies. This study examined the relationship among burnout, perceived Job stress, and turnover intention using 165 female professionals from the companies in Science-Based Industrial Park, Hsinchu, in particular, whether job burnout played a mediating role and social support played a moderating role in the stress-burnout process . The results indicated that : 1. Among the three components of work-family conflict, work interfering family was in high degree. And among the stressors, family involvement, and kids pressure were in high degree. 2. Among the three components of burnout, the exhaustion phenomenon was in high degree. 3. Work-family conflict was positively significant to job burnout. 4. A significant positive correlation was identified between job burnout and turnover intention. The exhaustion and cynicism components of burnout were positively significant predictors of turnover intention. 5. Job burnout was found to have significant mediating effect between work-family conflict and turnover intention. 6. Boss support, one of the social support components, was negatively associated with job burnout and turnover intention. In the moderating effect, most social support in higher-grades groups influenced work-family conflict and job burnout, and job burnout and turnover intention more significantly than lower-grades groups. Key words: work-family conflict, job burnout, turnover intention, social support, high-tech company, female professional.