Blurring boundaries: work-life balance and unbounded work in academia. The role of flexibility, organisational support and gender

ABSTRACT

The paper explores whether work-life balance (WLB) is affected by the unbounded work context and how organisational support, work flexibility and gender affect this relationship. It is a quantitative study, involving a survey of academics based in three UK institutions, using OLS regressions. There is a significant negative relationship between the perception of the unbounded nature of work and WLB among academics, irrespective of their gender. While flexible work and organisational support are positively associated with WLB, they have limited effect in an unbounded work context. This study makes original contributions for practitioners and academics. First, it provides empirical evidence of the relationship between the unboundedness of work and WLB, and finds no significant gender differences in WLB within an unbounded work context. Second, it helps to understand how flexible work and an organisational support culture are insufficient to eliminate the negative effect of unbounded work. Although the research involves a relatively small sample of UK academics provides insights into WLB in an unbounded work context. As became evident during the coronavirus pandemic, the boundaries between work and non-work domains in contemporary work settings are more and more blurred. Work will therefore become increasingly unbounded, potentially undermining WLB and causing tension between growing work demands and the necessities of family and personal lives.

KEYWORDS:

• work-life balance
• unbounded work
• flexibility
• organisational support
• gender
• border theory

Disclosure statement

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for her research

Additional information

Funding

Susana Pasamar's work was supported by Plan Propio Universidad Pablo de Olavide. Project: ‘Conciliación de vida profesional y vida personal y aspiraciones de carrera’, and the European Regional development fund (ERDF) and by the Department of Economy, Knowledge, Firms and University of the Junta de Andalucía, in the framework of the operative program ERDF Andalucía 2014–2020 Research project UPO-1380797. Specific objective 1.2.3. «Promotion and generation of frontier knowledge and knowledge oriented to the challenges of society, development of emerging technologies») within the framework of the reference research project UPO-1380797. ERDF co-financing percentage 80%.