The purpose of this study was to explore working single mothers’ work-life balance in order to better understand how employers can assist them. Role theory, role conflict theory, and spillover theory were utilized to examine how working single mothers experience work-life balance and how they perceive it. In this study, the researcher sought to discover, analyze, and report work-life balance experiences of working single mothers through extended narrative accounts, which answer the following research questions: 1. In what ways do working single mothers strive to attain work-life balance? 2. What challenges do working single mothers encounter that affect their ability to obtain work-life balance? 3. How do working single mothers believe their employers’ policies, practices, and attitudes impact their ability to balance work and family responsibilities? Narrative inquiry was the best research approach for this study because it allowed the individuals to narrate their own stories. The methods of collecting data for this study consisted of a basic demographic questionnaire and in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The data analysis revealed four main themes and several subthemes highlighting the strategies, challenges, and employers’ contributions to the work-life balance of working single mothers.

This exploratory study examined the perceptions and realities of work life balance among medical doctors in Nigerian Public Hospitals. The study aimed to investigate the coping strategies adopted by medical doctors to manage work life balance and finally to examine the gender differences in the lived experiences of male and female medical doctors in Nigeria. The literature revealed that conceptualising work life balance models or employee flexibility in an African work setting is problematic when juxtaposed with primordial African cultural values where work and life are an indissoluble existential unit. The transition from an agrarian economy to new capitalist workplaces in many African countries is still relatively new. This study fills the gap by unveiling the implications this narrative has for understanding contemporary WLB. Forty-one semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted for this study. It involved male and female doctors from public hospitals across three geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The sample of doctors interviewed were specifically resident doctors with a wide range of specialties. Thematic method of data analysis was adopted to provide major themes which were used to discuss the findings of the research investigations. The findings reveal that work in the Nigerian medical sector is notoriously intense as it underscores challenges of long working hours, intense work demand and staff shortage. The findings further suggest women must tread a ‘delicate balance’ between subordination to male authority, domestic responsibilities and ambition/achievement in a professional career. This study makes two key contributions to knowledge. Firstly, the study contributes to existing literature on work-life balance in the Nigerian context, elaborating the situation with work-life balance initiatives and how medical doctors in Nigeria manage to cope with the shortcomings of the organisations. Secondly, the findings fostered a useful extension of the work-family border theory. The border theory explains how individuals navigate between life domains and boundary management. However, the theory has provided little information on the factors that affect how employees manage and negotiate between the domains. This led to the development of the work spiritual life balance model.

Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur synen på en 4-dagars arbetsvecka ser ut i samband med upplevelsen av arbetskrav och work-life balance hos anställda inom spelutvecklingsindustrin. Denna industri är unik för sina olika arbetsrelaterade problem, som bland annat återkommande tidsperioder med en extrem överbelastning av arbete, där 4-dagars arbetsveckan har blivit omtalad runtom i världen och anses kunna förbättra många av de utmaningar inom arbetet som spelutvecklingsindustrin i nuläget har. För att samla in data distribuerades en enkät till 120 anställda i ett svenskt spelutvecklingsföretag. Skalor om work-life balance, arbetskrav och synen på 4-dagars arbetsveckan inkluderades i enkäten, samt demografiska frågor och frågor om boendesituation och crunch. Totalt deltog 58 respondenter i undersökningen, där en deskriptiv- och korrelationsanalys gjordes av datan. Resultatet visade på ett statistiskt signifikant samband mellan synen på 4-dagars arbetsveckan och work-life imbalance, samt mellan work-life imbalance och arbetskrav. Uppsatsen har bidragit med skapandet av ett nytt mått för synen på 4-dagars arbetsveckan och diskuterar metodologiska styrkor och begränsningar i samband med resultatet och framtida forskning.