Beyond work-family conflict: work-life balance supports for employees with differing family structures

Work-life balance can be defined in a variety of ways. The most prevalent model asserts that when an individual faces competing demands amongst roles it leads to conflict between roles. Research has focused on work-family conflict. The focus on ‘family’ has meant that research has largely focused on employees with children. A lack of UK based research has examined work-life balance experiences of those from a range of family structures. This includes perceptions of supports for work-life balance. Flexible working is one of the main supports. In the UK the right to request flexible working policy was extended in 2014 from parents and carers to all employees, so examining perceptions of fairness in relation to employees with differing family structures is particularly pertinent in light of this. Therefore, this research aimed to examine perceptions of supports for work-life balance, in particular the extension to the right to request flexible working, from the perspective of Human Resources (HR) and line managers and employees. It also explored the work-life balance experiences of employees with differing family structures, including work-personal life conflict, enrichment and boundary management. In study 1, HR managers and line managers were interviewed. They claimed they were already going beyond the right to request legislation prior to 2014 and that their workplaces were supportive. They could see benefits to the change in legislation, such as it being fairer to all employees. They also saw some barriers, such as the potential for value judgments to be made when considering requests, with employees without children possibly seen as having less legitimate reasons. In study 2, employees were interviewed. Differences in work-life balance experiences and the use of sources of support from work and outside of work were reported across employees with differing family structures. However, the vast majority recounted difficulties with work-personal life conflict and boundary management and reported guilt and self-blame for this, and few experiences of work-personal life enrichment were reported. While they felt the extension of the right to request was fair, contradictory responses suggested parents may be perceived as having a greater need. In study 3, findings from a quantitative survey showed minimal differences between employees with and without children. Work demands was a key predictor of both work-personal life conflict and personal life-work conflict. Resources, such as support and fairness perceptions were not predictors of reduced conflict. However, manager support and fairness perceptions (in terms of the availability of work-life balance supports) predicted work-personal life enrichment and being male predicted personal life-work enrichment. The results contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of work-life balance that includes the experiences of single people who live alone, and couples without children, as well as those with children. The findings have implications for managers to ensure fairness in their processes and to aid in establishing a healthy workplace culture that minimises work demands and work-personal life conflict. The implications for employees are to consider boundary management approaches which may help reduce work-personal life conflict. Future research should include an even more inclusive and diverse sample.