Work-life Boundaries Research Articles

Sense of courage: The mediating role of courage between emotional reflexivity and work-life integration among nurses in Indian hospitals

ObjectivesThis study aimed to determine the relationship between emotional reflexivity and work-life integration through the mechanism of moral courage and enhance our understanding of the importance of these nursing concepts to enable the nurses to develop better coping strategies for work-life integration. MethodsA cross-sectional survey was performed with 249 nurses, including staff nurses, ICU and critical care nurses, operation theatre nurses, pediatric nurses from 17 hospitals. Emotional Reflexivity, work-life integration, and courage were measured using a demographic information questionnaire, Life Project Reflexivity Scale (LPRS), Nurse’s Moral Courage Scale (NMCS), and Work-Life Boundary Enactment (WLBE) scale. A series of multiple regressions analyzed the mediating effect. ResultsEmotional Reflexivity was positively correlated with work-life integration (β = 0.66, P < 0.01). There was a positive correlation between emotional reflexivity and moral courage. But the path did not get the necessary support in the structural equation modeling (SEM) (β = −0.13, P = 0.40). When controlling for courage (β = 0.42, P < 0.01), the association was significant between emotional reflexivity and work-life integration with partial mediation. ConclusionThe study reported a positive correlation between reflexivity and work-life integration. Thus, nurses’ work-life integration becomes better by reinforcing their emotional reflexivity and moral courage.

Researchers working from home: Benefits and challenges.

The flexibility allowed by the mobilization of technology disintegrated the traditional work-life boundary for most professionals. Whether working from home is the key or impediment to academics' efficiency and work-life balance became a daunting question for both scientists and their employers. The recent pandemic brought into focus the merits and challenges of working from home on a level of personal experience. Using a convenient sampling, we surveyed 704 academics while working from home and found that the pandemic lockdown decreased the work efficiency for almost half of the researchers but around a quarter of them were more efficient during this time compared to the time before. Based on the gathered personal experience, 70% of the researchers think that in the future they would be similarly or more efficient than before if they could spend more of their work-time at home. They indicated that in the office they are better at sharing thoughts with colleagues, keeping in touch with their team, and collecting data, whereas at home they are better at working on their manuscript, reading the literature, and analyzing their data. Taking well-being also into account, 66% of them would find it ideal to work more from home in the future than they did before the lockdown. These results draw attention to how working from home is becoming a major element of researchers' life and that we have to learn more about its influencer factors and coping tactics in order to optimize its arrangements.

A Review of Methodological Choices Relating to Work-Life Boundary Research

A methodological review was performed on work-life boundary-related studies published from the year 2010 to 2018. This review systematically selected 59 journal articles on the work boundary phenomenon. The selection criteria for this review closely followed three previous systematic methodological reviews performed on work-life research. Where possible, comparisons were made to integrate the findings of the current study with these previous systematic reviews. Articles were reviewed based on methodological choices such as research design, sampling strategy, data collection, data analysis, reliability, and validity measures. Findings of the review revealed that researchers had utilised a variety of methodological stances to conduct their studies. The majority of the studies in the field followed a quantitative approach, and most studies relating to work boundary management were field studies with a cross-sectional design. Qualitative studies in the area were primarily based on grounded theory. Significant methodological gaps were identified that could be bridged by future studies. Further, notable suggestions were proposed relating to reliability and validity measures taken by the researchers.

Excessive Workload in Special Collections Public Services Librarianship: Challenges, Feelings, and Impact

In the academic librarianship literature, a significant amount of research on burnout, and excessive workload has been conducted. However, researchers frame the issue differently: some view this conflict as a work–life boundary issue, others view it simply as in-role related responsibility conflicts. This study focuses on the in-role related responsibility conflicts of Special Collections librarians in public services. Survey findings revealed that some current responsibilities exceeded the official position description of Special Collections librarians, and professionals were at times ambivalent about those additional responsibilities. Areas for future research are discussed.

Families under Pressure: The Costs of Vocational Calling, and What Can Be Done about Them

This conceptual article extends the literature on the disadvantages of calling. The article makes four main contributions. First, it argues that some of the burden of calling is shouldered not by called individuals or their employers, but rather by close family members. Second, it argues that calling influences work–life ideology, limiting a called person’s ability to exercise choice and self-manage their work–life boundary. Third, it introduces the novel notion of the sacrifice-reliant organisation, which relies on calling to achieve organisational goals. Fourth, the article argues normatively that organisations with called members have an enhanced duty of care towards families of its members that is commensurate with the extent to which they rely on calling to achieve their goals. Using ethics of care, it also develops guidelines on the extent and components of such an enhanced duty of care.

Not Able to Lead a Healthy Life When You Need It the Most: Dual Role of Lifestyle Behaviors in the Association of Blurred Work-Life Boundaries With Well-Being.

As there is a growing trend for people to work from home, precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this research examines the impact of blurred work-life boundaries on lifestyle and subjective well-being. Our cross-sectional study in the Netherlands demonstrates that heightened levels of blurred work-life boundaries predict negative changes in happiness through enhanced emotional exhaustion. In addition, the findings point to a dual role of lifestyle in this process. On the one hand, we observed that healthy overall lifestyle patterns buffered employees against the detrimental effects of blurred work-life boundaries and emotional exhaustion on happiness. On the other hand, employees who experienced increases in blurring of work-life boundaries reported a deterioration in healthy lifestyle behaviors, which in turn was related to reduced happiness. Paradoxically, it seems that those who would benefit the most from a healthy lifestyle are less able to sustain health-promoting behaviors. A case for shared responsibility between employers and employees is built as we discuss the practical implications of the current research.

Who benefits from time-spatial job crafting? The role of boundary characteristics in the relationship between time-spatial job crafting, engagement and performance

PurposeUsing the theoretical framework of job demands-resources and boundary management, the purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating role of work and life boundary characteristics in the relationship between time-spatial job crafting, work engagement and job performance.Design/methodology/approachA total of 176 employees working in the IT sector and having an opportunity to use flexible work arrangements were surveyed online.FindingsWork and life boundary characteristics were found to moderate the relationship between time-spatial job crafting and work engagement as well as between time-spatial job crafting and job performance. Moreover, boundary characteristics moderated the indirect relationship between time-spatial job crafting and job performance through work engagement.Practical implicationsTime-spatial job crafting becomes a key strategy for maintaining work engagement and job performance, when work–life boundaries are less flexible and less permeable.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates that boundary characteristics determine the effects of time-spatial job crafting on work engagement and job performance.

Technology Intense Workplaces, Boundary Preferences and Work–Life Conflict: Evidence from Sri Lanka

Workplaces today are more technologically pervasive than ever before, and communication devices such as smartphones have blurred traditional boundaries between work and non-work spheres of people. In fact, employers need to be mindful about this phenomenon when they have technology-based work expectations from their employees. Within this backdrop, this study attempts to reveal how the technological intensity at workplaces affects work–life conflict of employees who have different boundary preferences. The analysis based on 225 respondents shows that technological intensity is a significant mediator between work–life boundary preferences and work–life conflict of employees. Further, this study validates the findings of prior research based on Western samples on non-Western countries, followed by a discussion on the implications to practice and avenues for future research.

An Interactional Space of Permanent Observability: WeChat and Reinforcing the Power Hierarchy in Chinese Workplaces

Does digital media empower or disempower workers? In existing studies on how information and communication technologies influence work, researchers investigate work–life boundaries and how workers use digital media to obtain more control. This article focuses on how digital media influences daily interpersonal interactions in the workplace: how does social media use influence workplace hierarchies and power dynamics? Based on 56 in‐depth interviews with WeChat users in Chinese workplaces, I find that lower‐ranked individuals were compelled to constantly express loyalty and appreciation, and publicly submit to their superordinates by clicking “like” or commenting on their WeChat posts. They also had to provide immediate and polite responses to their superordinates in WeChat group chats after work hours or to non‐work‐related issues. The distinctive features of online interaction—lack of physical interaction spaces, recordability of past conversations, and n‐adic nature of online disclosures—created an environment where past encounters were omnipresent and accessible, and placed workers under permanent observability. This social interaction environment leaves little room for forms of resistance and, in response, employees retreat into cynical performances of submission. This study finds that, under certain circumstances, WeChat use actually intensifies workplace hierarchies and power dynamics, thereby sharpening social inequality, rather than eliminating it.

‘Selling themselves’: conceptualising key features of freelance work experience

ABSTRACT Existing research on freelance workers has highlighted its distinctiveness in terms of vocation, precariousness, work-life boundaries, professional autonomy and co-working. However, there is a need to better understand the lived experience of freelance working and its impact on practitioners compared to traditional employment. Using Arendt’s (1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press) conceptualisation of human activities, I analyse a case study of freelancers through notions of work, labour and action in order to conceptualise distinctive features of freelance work experience. This analysis brings into focus how freelance workers manufacture social arrangements and represent their output and work persona within their respective marketplace, whilst involved in and reliant on non-instrumental forms of sociality. Arendt’s concepts make it possible to conceptualise tensions and contradictions within the underlying ends of everyday freelance activities, and how this affects freelancers on an experiential level.

Blurring work-life boundaries: Jung and organizational relationships within South Korean workplaces

Blurring work-life boundaries: Jung and organizational relationships within South Korean workplaces

Researching Home-Based Technical and Professional Communication: Emerging Structures and Methods

With the massive shift to remote work, what does researching home-based workplace writing look like? We argue that the collapse of traditional work–life boundaries might allow for a renaissance of feminist research methods in technical and professional communication, specifically because the home is a domestic space largely associated with women. Inspired by methodologies like apparent feminism and examinations of positionality, privilege, and power, the authors suggest three research methods that help capture the intricacies of blurred personal and professional lives: time-use diaries, embodied sensemaking, and participatory data collection and coding. These methods seek to illuminate the invisible work of women, as well as the diversity and range of experiences of home-based workplace communicators.

Evaluation of a novel intervention to reduce burnout in doctors-in-training using self-care and digital wellbeing strategies: a mixed-methods pilot

BackgroundBurnout for doctors-in-training is increasingly cause for concern. Our objectives were to assess the feasibility, acceptability and impact of a novel intervention to reduce burnout and improve wellbeing. This is the first wellbeing intervention for medical doctors to include strategies for work-life boundary management and digital wellbeing.MethodsTwenty-two doctors participated in face-to-face workshops which included group discussion of challenges experienced and strategies to enhance self-care and wellbeing. A pre-post-test mixed-methods evaluation was undertaken. Questionnaire measures were the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale and the boundary control subscale of the Work-Life Indicator (i.e., the degree of perception of control of the boundaries between work and personal life). Paired t-tests examined whether there were statistically significant differences. Eleven doctors also participated in post-intervention semi-structured interviews. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsThe intervention was well-received, with all trainees finding the workshop useful and saying they would recommend it to others. At baseline most participants had scores indicative of burnout on both the disengagement (82%) and exhaustion (82%) subscales of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. One month post-intervention, participants had a statistically significant reduction in burnout (both disengagement and exhaustion) and improvement in boundary control. Wellbeing scores also improved, but differences were not statistically significant. Qualitative analysis indicated participants had welcomed a safe space to discuss stressors and many had implemented digital wellbeing strategies to manage their smartphone technology, and increased self-care such as mindfulness practice and walking in green space.ConclusionsThe intervention reduced burnout and improved boundary control. We suggest that having protected time for doctors to share personal experiences, adopt digital wellbeing and self-care strategies are effective tools to support doctors’ wellbeing and should be investigated further.

How to (actually) save time while working remotely

The pandemic has given many of us the opportunity to ditch the commute and work from home long-term, offering huge potential time savings. But to truly reap the benefits of remote work during the current crisis and beyond, we need to think proactively about how we restructure our workday in this new normal. The authors suggest six concrete, research-backed actions you can take today to create clearer work-life boundaries and optimize how you spend your time.

The Space Between Role Identities: How Individuals Navigate Boundary Crossings

The papers in this symposium take a fresh look at the concept of boundaries between role identities and at how individuals navigate those boundaries while maintaining a coherent sense of self. It brings together four papers that investigate the sensemaking processes, the identity work strategies, and the boundary management tactics surrounding transitions across roles, cultures, and occupations. The first two papers focus on macro-role transitions, i.e., transitions between sequentially held roles. The first presentation focuses on what happens when individuals who cross cultural boundaries for work or education hold on to the self they left behind. The second presentation explores how hobby job holders, individuals who have turned previously held hobbies into jobs, create a sense of self that spans across temporal and work-life boundaries. The final two papers focus on micro-role transitions, i.e., transitions between simultaneously held roles. The third paper studies how YouTubers, whose job involves the use of social media to market products online, deal with their work-life boundaries in a context where self-disclosure is encouraged and where their private self is at the core of the work. The fourth presentation proposes a theoretical model of the boundary management tactics of multiple job holders. Together, the four papers in this symposium add to our understanding of the subjective experience of boundary crossings in the modern workplace. Boundary Crossing and Cognitive Processing: How the Self Left at Home Influences Expatriates Presenter: Mailys George; IESE Business School Presenter: Karoline Strauss; ESSEC Business School Presenter: Kevin W. Rockmann; George Mason U. Crafting a Thread that Binds: Identity Threading and Boundary-Spanning Identities Presenter: Zhuo Lin; U. of Cincinnati Presenter: Elaine Cahalan Hollensbe; U. of Cincinnati Intertwined Private and Public Selves Among YouTubers: Privacy Management in Self-Commodifying Work Presenter: Marie Lachapelle; HEC Montreal Presenter: Sarah Bourdeau; UQAM U. of Quebec in Montreal, Canada Presenter: Judith A Clair; Boston College A Typology of Boundary Management Tactics of Multiple Jobholders Presenter: Emily D. Campion; Old Dominion U. Presenter: Brianna Barker Caza; U. of North Carolina at Greensboro

Interrogating silent privileges across the work–life boundaries and careers of high-intensity knowledge professionals

PurposePrivilege is often silent, invisible and not made explicit, and silence is a key question for theorizing on organizations. This paper examines interrelations between privilege and silence for relatively privileged professionals in high-intensity knowledge businesses (KIBs).Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on 112 interviews in two rounds of interviews using the collaborative interactive action research method. The analysis focuses on processes of recruitment, careers and negotiation of boundaries between work and nonwork in these KIBs. The authors study how relative privilege within social inequalities connects with silences in multiple ways, and how the invisibility of privilege operates at different levels: individual identities and interpersonal actions of privilege (micro), as organizational level phenomena (meso) or as societally constructed (macro).FindingsAt each level, privilege is reproduced in part through silence. The authors also examine how processes connecting silence, privilege and social inequalities operate differently in relation to both disadvantage and the disadvantaged, and privilege and the privileged.Originality/valueThis study is relevant for organization studies, especially in the kinds of “multi-privileged” contexts where inequalities, disadvantages and subordination may remain hidden and silenced, and, thus, are continuously reproduced.

Midwives’ views of caseload midwifery – comparing the caseload and non-caseload midwives’ opinions. A cross-sectional survey of Australian midwives.

BackgroundMidwife-led continuity of care has substantial benefits for women and infants and positive outcomes for midwives, yet access to these models remains limited. Caseload midwifery is associated with professional satisfaction and lower burnout, but also impacts on work-life boundaries. Few studies have explored caseload midwifery from the perspective of midwives working in caseload models compared to those in standard care models, understanding this is critical to sustainability and upscaling. AimTo compare views of caseload midwifery – those working in caseload models and those in standard care models in hospitals with and without caseload. MethodsA national cross-sectional survey of midwives working in Australian public hospitals providing birthing services. FindingsResponses were received from 542/3850 (14%) midwives from 111 hospitals – 20% worked in caseload, 39% worked in hospitals with caseload but did not work in the model, and 41% worked in hospitals without caseload. Regardless of exposure, midwives expressed support for caseload models, and for increased access to all women regardless of risk. Fifty percent of midwives not working in caseload expressed willingness to work in the model in the future. Flexibility, autonomy and building relationships were positive influencing factors, with on-call work the most common reason midwives did not want to work in caseload. ConclusionsThere was widespread support for and willingness to work in caseload. The findings suggest that the workforce could support increasing access to caseload models at existing and new caseload sites. Exposure to the model provides insight into understanding how the model works, which can positively or negatively influence midwives’ views.

Experiences of work-related stress and coping among palliative care staff in South Africa: a qualitative study

Palliative care staff are exposed to a plethora of work-related stressors that negatively affect their psychological well-being and work engagement. Using qualitative interviews, this study sought to explore the experiences of work-related stress and coping among a multidisciplinary group of 12 palliative care staff employed by a non-governmental hospice in South Africa. Data were analysed using the principles of thematic analysis. Four domains of stressors were implicated in the experience of work-related stress: stressors accruing from the nature of work and were specific to palliative care; stressors relating to working in the community; those deriving from certain encounters with patients and families; and organisational stressors. Broader structural factors pertinent to the socio-political and economic context in South Africa and the perception of palliative care were interwoven with the experience of work-related stress. Receiving social support from co-workers, professionals, and family and friends; accepting limits; setting work–life boundaries; relying on personal resources and reconstructing the hospice in positive ways were coping strategies deployed by staff to manage stress. Arguably much of the experience of work-related stress and coping among palliative care staff in South Africa is similar to that reported in resource-rich contexts. However, the particularities of the broader socio-political and economic environment and its subsequent impact on palliative care organisations appear to augment and expand work-related stress for these practitioners. Deployment of intra-individual and interpersonal coping resources could be supplemented with efforts to address structural factors contributing to the subjective experience of stress.

The design and development of a hybrid off-job crafting intervention to enhance needs satisfaction, well-being and performance: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundEmployees dealing with job demands such as high workload and permeable work-life boundaries could benefit from bottom-up well-being strategies such as off-job crafting. We have developed a hybrid off-job crafting intervention to promote off-job crafting, a proactive pursuit to adjust one’s off-job time activities to satisfy one’s psychological needs. This hybrid intervention contains both on-site (two trainings) and online elements (smartphone app) to enhance employees’ well-being and performance within different life domains.MethodsThe study is designed as a randomized controlled trial with an intervention group and a waitlist control group. The study population will be Finnish knowledge workers. The intervention program focuses on six psychological needs (detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation) proposed by the DRAMMA model. The intervention will consist of the following components: 1) an on-site off-job crafting training, 2) an individual off-job crafting plan for the four-week intervention period, 3) Everydaily smartphone app usage, and 4) a training session for reflection. The study outcomes are assessed with online questionnaires once at baseline, weekly during the intervention period and twice after the intervention (two-week and six-week follow-up). Moreover, during the second training session, participants will participate in a process evaluation to shed light on the mechanisms that can affect the effectiveness of the intervention.DiscussionWe expect that the intervention will stimulate off-job crafting behaviors, which may in turn increase well-being and performance in both non-work and work domains during and after the intervention (compared to baseline and to the control group). The intervention may provide employees with additional resources to deal with various stressors in life. Furthermore, this off-job crafting intervention could also offer performance benefits for the employers such as increased organizational citizenship behaviors among employees.Trial registrationThe Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): NL8219, December 9, 2019. Registered retrospectively. https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/8219

Primary Care Physicians’ Experiences With and Strategies for Managing Electronic Messages

The increasing use of electronic communications has enhanced access to physicians for patients and clinical staff. Primary care physicians (PCPs) have anecdotally identified electronic inbox management as a new source of work-related stress. To describe PCPs' experiences managing their electronic inboxes and to characterize the array of management strategies developed by individual physicians and practice groups. This qualitative study was conducted in 8 medical centers of a large group practice with more than 4 million patients in diverse settings and a mature electronic health record. The group encourages patients to use portal secure messaging to enhance access to their physicians and the care experience. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 24 internists and family medicine physicians identified via snowball sampling. Interviews were conducted July through November 2018. Data analysis was conducted between November 2018 and April 2019. Audio recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis to identify major themes and subthemes. The 24 participants (12 women [50.0%]; mean [SD] age, 45.5 [6.5] years), including 9 department chiefs and 15 PCPs, had a mean (SD) of 16.8 (7.8) years since medical school graduation. Participants described substantial changes in medical practice due to electronic communication, including perceived patient expectations to receive rapid responses to portal secure messages. They described portal secure messaging as useful for building relationships with patients, but also reported that electronic message management has created new stressors, including erosion of work-life boundaries and anxiety associated with unlimited inbox volume. Individual PCPs used a diverse array of strategies, including multitasking during and outside work and delegating to medical assistants. Chiefs described group-level strategies, including reserving clinic time for inbox management, coverage systems for vacation and sick days, physician-to-physician training, and interdisciplinary teams to share messaging work. Individual physicians and local practice groups have developed a wide array of strategies for electronic inbox management. The volume of electronic messages and PCPs' perceptions that patients expect rapid responses have created new stressors in primary care practice. Medical groups and health systems can support PCPs by facilitating knowledge transfer among physicians about inbox management strategies and further developing team structures for inbox coverage.