- Title
- Towards a third level of analysis in the work-life balance debate: Incorporating a 'society' perspective
- Creator
- Zacharias, Nadine
- Date
- 2006
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/33482
- Identifier
- vital:980
- Identifier
- ISSN:1447-9524
- Abstract
- The concept of ‘work-life balance’ has been researched from three main but largely separate perspectives: Business, individual and society. Much research has attempted to link ‘work-life balance’ initiatives to ‘bottom line’ performance and to make a ‘business case’ for their introduction. Studies that have focused on employees using ‘work-life balance’ policies have shown that the issues around a satisfactory combination of work and private life spheres are still mainly perceived as an individual (female) concern. It is only recently that the issues have been regarded as a phenomenon of broader social significance because the negative consequences of the increased inability of finding a ‘balance’ are becoming more and more obvious in Western societies. In this paper, I argue that the discussion around ‘work-life balance’ has to be more inclusive and needs to integrate the three perspectives to take the debate to a new level. The underlying theme is that of values, attitudes and beliefs that are held in organisations, individuals and societies and of the ways in which their interplay predicts the ability to achieve a personal ‘work-life balance’. It is argued that those values, attitudes and beliefs are innately gendered. By adding a ‘society’ perspective to the equation, in the form of a critical ‘gender lens’, it is possible to detect deeply held and widely shared assumptions within national cultures that create gendered social structures which currently hinder the reconciliation of work and private life spheres.; C1
- Publisher
- Melbourne, Australia Common Ground
- Relation
- The international journal of knowledge, culture & change management Vol. 5, no. 8 (2006), p. 195-201
- Rights
- Open Access
- Rights
- Copyright Common Ground
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- 1503 Business and Management; Work/life balance; Gender; Organisational culture
- Full Text
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