Work–life balance

About: Work–life balance is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2252 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36240 citations. The topic is also known as: Work Life balance & work-life balance.

Failing to retain a new generation of doctors: qualitative insights from a high-income country.

Abstract: The failure of high-income countries, such as Ireland, to achieve a self-sufficient medical workforce has global implications, particularly for low-income, source countries. In the past decade, Ireland has doubled the number of doctors it trains annually, but because of its failure to retain doctors, it remains heavily reliant on internationally trained doctors to staff its health system. To halve its dependence on internationally trained doctors by 2030, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, Ireland must become more adept at retaining doctors. This paper presents findings from in-depth interviews conducted with 50 early career doctors between May and July 2015. The paper explores the generational component of Ireland’s failure to retain doctors and makes recommendations for retention policy and practice. Interviews revealed that a new generation of doctors differ from previous generations in several distinct ways. Their early experiences of training and practice have been in an over-stretched, under-staffed health system and this shapes their decision to remain in Ireland, or to leave. Perhaps as a result of the distinct challenges they have faced in an austerity-constrained health system and their awareness of the working conditions available globally, they challenge the traditional view of medicine as a vocation that should be prioritised before family and other commitments. A new generation of doctors have career options that are also strongly shaped by globalisation and by the opportunities presented by emigration. Understanding the medical workforce from a generational perspective requires that the health system address the issues of concern to a new generation of doctors, in terms of working conditions and training structures and also in terms of their desire for a more acceptable balance between work and life. This will be an important step towards future-proofing the medical workforce and is essential to achieving medical workforce self-sufficiency.

Work-Life Balance, Employee Job Performance and Satisfaction Among Doctors and Nurses in Malaysia

Abstract: In this era, the concepts of human resource management (HRM) practices have evolved to the implementation of work-life balance (WLB) practices, such as: flexible working hours and supportive supervision. WLB practices have shown a great influence on employee attraction, retention, motivation and development. This study examines the relationship between WLB practices on employee job performance as well as the mediating effect of job satisfaction in the relationship between work-life balance practices and employee job performance among doctors and nurses in East Malaysia. The study surveys 491 doctors and nurses in the East Malaysia states of Sabah and Sarawak in 2016-2017. Four hypotheses were tested with validated measures of WLB practices (flexible working hours and supportive supervision), job satisfaction and job performance. Findings revealed that flexible working hours and supportive supervision has a significant and positive impact to job performance. Job satisfaction positively mediates the relationship between flexible working hours and supportive supervision towards job performance. An effective WLB practices will improve employees’ job satisfaction which eventually increase their job performance and productivity. This study’s findings aim to assist the Malaysian healthcare industry in improving doctors’ and nurses’ attraction, retention and motivation.

"Dear Employer, Let Me Introduce Myself"--Flow, Satisfaction with Work-Life Balance and Millennials' Creativity.

Abstract: With creativity being recognised as a key driver of organizational success, organizations emphasize the need for their employees to be creative and to work long hours. This article takes a step toward understanding the factors contributing to the creativity of millennials, a generation pursuing meaningful work and cherishing a work–life balance. In Study 1 (n = 238), the relationships between creativity, flow, satisfaction with work–life balance and job crafting were explored; in Study 2 (n = 120) the focus was on examining flow as the mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and creativity. In experimental Study 3 (n = 90), the findings from Study 2 were replicated. Overall, the results of the three studies established flow as the mediating variable and demonstrated the beneficial role of satisfaction with the work–life balance and job crafting in the process leading to creativity.

Work-life balance and job satisfaction among teachers

Abstract: . With the increase in female employment rates and the consequent weakening of the traditional model of family roles division (man seen as breadwinner, responsible to provide economic resources to care for the family, and woman devoted to children and house care), attention to problems associated with the need to reconcile different roles has grown considerably. As a matter of fact, work-life balance has eventually become an essential necessity for almost all categories of workers, including those employed in teaching positions, in which the female gender is presently fairly dominant. This article presents the results of an exploratory study conducted on 286 teachers in the province of Vicenza (Italy). It aims to investigate several theoretical constructs associated with work-life balance, and to analyze their relationship with job satisfaction. The research was performed using a questionnaire, which consisted of different scales in taken and adapted from the relevant literature. Particular attention was paid to socio-demographic variables, in order to see whether the perception of work-life balance varies according to them.

Work–life ‘balance’ and gendered (im)mobilities of knowledge and learning in high-tech regional economies

Abstract: Over the past three decades, economic geographers have explored how the spatial co-location of firms in regional industrial agglomerations helps foster learning, innovation and economic competitiveness. While recent work highlights the crucial role of labour mobility in promoting inter-firm ‘knowledge spillovers’, it pays little attention to how gendered responsibilities of care and personal-life interests beyond the workplace shape workers’ (non)participation in the relational networks and communities of practice widely theorized as enabling learning and innovation. This article presents new data from two regional economies: Dublin, Ireland, and Cambridge, UK. It documents the role of ‘work–life balance’ provision across IT employers in shaping the cross-firm mobility of workers and the tacit knowledge, skills and competencies which they embody. The article disrupts the powerful premise that ‘cross-firm labour mobility is always and everywhere good’ which informs much of the regional learning literature. It also contributes to emerging debates around ‘holistic’ regional development.