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The paper considers the impact of work‐life balance policies on the work and family practices of professional, dual‐earner parents with dependent children, by assessing the extent to which “well‐balanced families” have been resultantly facilitated. It poses two research questions: the first centres on how far work‐life balance policies have better enabled working parents to manage their commitments to employers and children, whilst the second focuses on how far parental and employer responses to work‐life balance policies may be gendered. The ultimate aim is to (re)‐articulate the importance of gender in the work‐life balance agenda.

The paper draws upon historical and conceptual research on work and family practices. It invokes gender as a lens through which notions of the “well‐balanced family” are considered.

It is argued that work‐life balance policies have not led to well‐balanced, or “gender‐neutral”, work and family practices. This is for two reasons, both relating to gender. First, the take up of work‐life balance policies is gendered, with more mothers than fathers working flexibly. This is partly because organizational expectations fail to acknowledge social change around the paternal parenting role. Second, work‐life balance policies focus mainly on the issues of paid work and childcare, failing to take account of domestic labour, the main burden of which continues to be carried by mothers.

Deeply ingrained social assumptions about the gendered division of labour within heterosexual couples limit the impact of work‐life balance policies on work family practices.

The paper moves forward the debate on work‐life balance through taking an interdisciplinary approach to an issue which has often been addressed previously from discipline‐specific approaches such as health, psychology or policy.

The purpose of this paper is to compare public health discourses on the importance of motherhood with organizational attitudes towards childbearing. It shows how pregnancy and the nurturing of infant children are valorized within public health discourses, which treat pregnancy and new maternity as a miraculous “project”, encouraging mothers to position maternity as central to their lives. By contrast, the paper shows how employers treat pregnancy and new motherhood as inconvenient and messy: as monstrous, at work.

The paper draws upon a database of qualitative netnographic (or internet-based) research. It analyses netnographic interactions between pregnant and newly maternal women. These virtual data are afforded the same validity as face-to-face research.

The paper demonstrates how maternal responsibilities for nurturing pregnancy and infant children, and the bio-medical properties of the maternal body, are central to public health discourses. By contrast, the maternal body is treated within organizations as alien, or monstrous.

The paper compares and contrasts public health valorizations of motherhood, with organizational tendencies to treat pregnancy/newly maternal bodies as monstrous. It highlights dichotomies faced by employed mothers. A continuing chasm between the social organization of maternity, and the attitudes of employers towards children and maternal bodies, is identified.

This research attempts to make sense of the experiences of two academic women who become mothers.

This paper is an autoethnography. Applying the autoethnographic method allows us to discuss cultural phenomena through personal reflections and experiences. Our autoethnographic reflections illustrate our struggles and attempts of resistance within discursive spaces where motherhood and our identity as academics intersect.

Our personal experiences combined with theoretical elaborations illuminate how the role of the mother continues to be dominated by such gendered discursive practices that conflict with the work role. Once women become mothers, they are othered through societal and organizational practices because they constitute a visible deviation from the masculine norm in the organizational setting, academia included.

This paper explores how contemporary motherhood discourse(s)within academia and the wider society present competing truth claims, embedded in neoliberal and postfeminist cultural sensibility. Our autoethnographic reflections show our struggles and attempts of resistance within such discursive spaces.

Over the course of time, more and more women have been joining the labor force, achieving meaningful roles and managerial positions. The purpose of this paper is to examine contemporary meaning of work (MOW) among men and women in different organizational statuses and the impact of other demographic factors on the MOW dimensions.

Out of 1,201 participants that filled out the MOW questioner, 908 were employed in organizations as middle managers (118 men and 67 women) or junior managers (120 men and 97 women) and workers (208 men and 298 women).

No differences were found between men and women middle managers regarding MOW dimensions. It was found that the higher the organizational status, the higher the work centrality and intrinsic orientation and the lower the economic orientation, among both men and women. Regression analysis reveals that demographic variables have a low impact on the MOW dimensions and hardly explain the differences among men and women.

The understanding of contemporary MOW similarities and differences among men and women according to organizational status and the impact of varied demographic variables on those differences can influence the way organizations consider men’s and women’s (both managers and workers) needs in their working life, with implications for their satisfaction and productivity.

While there are various studies about gender differences regarding work values and the MOW, not a single study focusing on the differences in the MOW between managers and workers according to gender was found.

The purpose of this paper is to examine life domains centrality (work, family, leisure, community and religion) among workers, junior managers and middle managers, both men and women and the impact of demographic factors on those life domains.

The “Meaning of Work” questionnaire was conducted on 1,201 participants of whom 928, 453 men and 475 women, were employed in organizations in middle managerial, junior managerial and worker positions.

The findings indicate that work centrality increases while religion centrality decreases with higher organizational status among men and women. The centrality of family is higher among women than among men in the three organizational levels. However, in the new millennium, for the first time in Israel, no traditional gender differences were found in work centrality among employees in the three organizational levels.

Human resource professionals have to take into consideration the increasing work centrality among working women at all organizational levels and focus on decreasing work-family/life conflict, especially among women managers. This can be achieved by implementing flexible hours, working from home, work-life balance programs, and management by objectives systems.

This study, which compares middle managers, junior managers, and workers according to gender, reveals how they balance the five life domains as well as the strategies women managers use to cope with work/non-work conflict.

Dual-careers are an increasingly common typology among professionals yet very few studies have considered how two potentially competing career trajectories are managed in relation to the broader aspects of life, such as family and personal life. This article addresses the gap through an exploration of the strategies adopted by dual-career professional couples as they seek to navigate these challenges whilst satisfying individual and shared goals and aspirations.

Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were carried out with 18 couples (dyads) from a range of professional occupations. Interviews were conducted individually, and then responses analysed and compared for key themes.

Rather than focusing on how couples manage work–life balance on a day-today basis this study shows how couples incorporate a more strategic approach to dual-careers so that both careers are able to progress, albeit within situational constraints.

To satisfy personal, business and economic performance goals, organisations and governments will need to find more creative ways to support employees as they seek to navigate careers while balancing the work and nonwork needs of themselves and their partner. The challenges faced by dual-career couples have implications for human resource managers as they seek to attract and retained talent within their organisations.

Demographic and social changes at the household level will ultimately require changes at an organisational and broader societal level to meet the work and family needs of this growing cohort.

Rather than focusing on how couples manage work-life balance on a day-today basis this study shows how couples incorporate a more strategic approach to dual-careers so that both careers are able to progress, albeit within situational constraints.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear view of current dynamics and research diversification of extant literature in the field of work-life balance (WLB). This paper provides a systematic and critical analysis of WLB literature using bibliometric analysis.

Scopus database has been used for carrying out this review that is based on 945 research papers published from 1998 to 2020. The prominence of the research is assessed by studying the publication trend, sample statistics, theoretical foundation, the highly cited research articles and journals, most commonly used keywords, research themes of top four recognized clusters, sub-themes within each cluster and thematic overview of WLB corpus formed on the premise of bibliographic coupling. Additionally, content analysis of recently published papers revealed emerging research patterns and potential gaps.

Major findings indicate that the research area consists of four established and emerging research themes based on clusters formed as (1) flexible work arrangements, (2) gender differences in WLB, (3) work–life interface and its related concepts, and (4) WLB policies and practices. Emerging themes identified through content analysis of recent articles include gender discrepancy, the impact of different forms of contextual (situational) factors and organizational culture.

This research paper is the first of its kind on the subject of WLB as it provides multifariousness of study fields within the WLB corpus by using varied bibliographic mapping approaches. It also suggests viable avenues for future research.

The growing demands of work and life have shifted the concept of work-life balance to work-life integration (WLI). The success of integration depends upon the flexibility to perform the duties. This paper aims to explore the factors that affect WLI and the role of flexible work arrangements (FWAs) in the process of WLI.

Systematic literature review was used to explore the concept of WLI and FWAs. A bibliometric analysis was carried out with Bibexcel and VoSviewer.

This paper explained the organizational and personal factors that create the demand for WLI. The FWAs, perceived flexibility, technology and self-efficacy have important roles in WLI. The result of WLI can be enrichment or strain, depends upon how effectively the work-life domains are integrated.

This paper explores the work-life from both personal and organizational views. The findings of this paper will be useful to design the organizational policies and work arrangements that match the requirements of employees and organizations. This paper helps to develop the future research agenda of investigating the relations of WLI to performance, organizational policies and personal factors.

The purpose of this paper is to use the kaleidoscope career model as a lens through which to explore the career choices and decisions of young professional couples and the strategies that they use to facilitate successful dual careers while attempting to balance their work and non-work lives.

Data were gathered through face-to-face interviews with 18 couples. Couples were interviewed separately to explore how individual career values and choices shape decisions in partnership. Template analysis was used to identify career patterns as defined by the kaleidoscope career model.

Gender-based patterns suggested by the kaleidoscope career model appear to be giving way to different patterns based on individual career aspirations, earning capacity and motivation within a dual career (as opposed to simply dual income) household. For some young professionals challenge and balance are equally important and so unlike the original interpretation of the KCM their careers reflect dual priorities not challenge followed by balance as their careers evolve.

The sample size is small and participants were recruited through purposeful sampling which may have resulted in a more homogeneous cohort than would have been achieved through random sampling.

Changing demographic profiles and emerging social norms are changing the way Gen Y approach work and careers. Organisations and professional bodies need to respond to these changes through implementation of appropriate HR policies within supportive organisational cultures if they are to attract and retain young professionals.

This research is important because there is clearly a gap between changes at a societal level and the way in which organisations are responding to those changes. The paper provides insights into how public policy and organisational practices can be designed and implemented to meet the needs and expectations of Gen Y professionals.

This study provides an insight into the way Gen Y professionals are navigating dual careers as opposed to dual incomes. It builds on and expands the kaleidoscope career model by showing that Gen Y professionals are less constrained by gender stereotypes than previous generations in their quest for challenge and balance and that some couples are determined to have both challenge and balance, not either/or.