Introduction to the Symposium on Work-Life Balance

As editors, we have sought to use our role to shape the discussion on the science of teaching and learning within public administration. While we have seen the conversation advance, we have also become acutely aware of the challenge of work-life balance in the academy. Not only have we seen our friends and colleagues grapple with the balance, often losing out to the pressures of work, but we have also experienced challenges in finding balance in our own lives. Yet, the consequence of poor balance is clear: faculty and doctoral student may experience burnout or poor mental health and they may choose a non-academic career (Bodkin & Fleming, 2019). One thing is certain when work-life balance is not obtained, we all lose.

The challenge that surrounds work-life balance is something that we must all confront, but it is also something that is rarely discussed within academia. Several recent studies have explored challenges in balance for public sector employees (see Audenaert et al., 2019; Steen & Schott, 2019; Steijn & van der Voet, 2019), but the connection of this literature to the eccentricities of the academy is timid at best. As editors, our capacity to influence research in the field gave us a rare opportunity to shape the conversation and provide a venue for dialogue around balance that had previously been forced into secret.

To be clear, the challenge of work-life balance is not something specific to public administration scholars. It is pervasive throughout all fields and institutions of higher education. When launching our call for the issue, we intentionally made the call open, welcoming the contributions of scholars from any field. We also asked that, as best as possible, the pieces focus on balance as it pertains to all academia rather than just public administration. This openness allowed for a dialogue that can be used to help address problems in physics just as much as public administration.

To open the symposium, we invited two editorials to reflect on the issue of work-life balance from their unique vantage point. In the first editorial, Schafer et al. (2020) reflect on the conversations they have had for the Academics of PA podcast over the past two years. By learning the personal histories of many of the top scholars in public administration, they have found successes and failures at obtaining balance, while learning that their own lives were had less balanced than they previously assumed. The second editorial is from O’Leary and Hilton (2020). In their piece, O’Leary and Hilton discuss the challenge for academia to pay attention to the cultures and policies that may improve, or hinder, work-life balance.

We are excited to be able to publish six new pieces of research that relate to work-life balance in an academic context. In the first piece of the symposium, Azevedo et al. (2020) examine the work-life balance challenges that junior faculty face. Using a survey of junior faculty across all NASPAA-accredited MPA programs, the authors demonstrate how work-load, stress, and the presence of work-life balance policies contribute to a junior faculty’s satisfaction with their work-life balance. Of particular importance is the role that universities and departments can play in improving the balance of junior faculty by adopting supportive policies and managing the administrative duties that are assigned to (or imposed upon) junior faculty.

In public administration, one of the challenges to the work-life balance of faculty is the public service motivation that we all have. Our embedded desire to improve the public organizations and the quality of life of those around us pushes us to ignore our balance. Pautz and Vogel (2020) explore this challenge by connecting the public service motivation literature with the conversations of faculty motivation and work-life balance in the discipline. Using the results of a survey distributed to faculty in the field, they find support that public administration faculty do have a high level of public service motivation and that the pursuit of this motivation has resulted in stress, fatigue, and burnout amongst faculty members.

Next, Yusuf et al. (2020) example the issue of work-life balance as it pertains to graduate students. The pursuit of a graduate degree may be rewarding, but it is not without its challenges. Between spending time away from family and friends, spending considerable time studying and researching, stress due to limited finances, and concerns about job prospects after graduation, the mental toll that graduate school places on students can be exorbitant. Using a sample of graduate students from a wide range of academic disciplines, program structures, and modalities, Yusuf, Saitglania, and Chapman show that the lack of balance is a key stressor for our students. It is also a contributing factor to their general well-being and success in their studies.

The next article by Salle and Lewis (2020) conduct a series of interviews of commuting couples to understand how the challenge of the academic job market has impacted their professional and personal lives. While couples whether one or both of the partners are academics may hope to gain employment at or near the same university, a declining academic job market and an overproduction of doctoral students often leave couples traveling significant distances or engaging in long-periods of separation for the academic careers. While the separation led some participants to seek support from others to fulfill their responsibilities while they were away, many also reported that the separation helped them to appreciate their partners more when they are home.

Larson et al. (2020), continue the discussion on work-life balance by reflecting on their own experiences during the pursuit of tenure track positions and how balance (or lack thereof) has crept into their personal lives and the early stages of their careers. Using an auto-ethnographic approach, they present their own stories in a raw truthfulness that is seldom in career reflections within the academy. In discussing the challenges they faced as new faculty and the effect of those challenges on work-life balance, they introduce an often unspoken problem: the two-body problem. Whether both members of a couple are in academic careers or one is unable to move to the location of one of the few universities that are hiring, the stress and strain that the problem places on households can be crippling. Ultimately, Larson, Miller, and Drury are forced to confront the question of whether work-life balance is even possible.

The last research article in the work-life balance piece is by Jones (2020) that explores a pedagogical strategy to improve balance. A key challenge to balance for many academics is the time and dedication needed for grading in their courses. To overcome this challenge, Jones introduces the concept of specification grading, a form of standards-based grading that uses a pass/fail evaluation of whether the submission meets pre-defined requirements. By adopting the strategy, faculty can align their assignments with NASPAA competencies and simplify their workload.

We are also excited to provide two book reviews in this issue. In the first review, Connors (2020) discusses The Psychology of Working Life, which investigates the imbalance between productivity and personal health and happiness. Using a historical approach to understanding work-life balance, the text explores the research on working life and how it has changed and improved over time. Of particular importance is Connors’ note that the book concludes that both organizations and individuals must be aware of both how work is organized and the importance of recovery to sustain long-term performance. The final piece in the symposium is Schwoerer’s (2020) review of The Adjunct Underclass: How America’s Colleges Betrayed Their Faculty, Their Students, and Their Mission. In the review, Schwoerer discusses how the book provides a searing critique of higher education. Although universities have become reliant upon adjuncts to teach within their programs, the treatment that adjuncts receive creates inequity within the higher education system that challenges the ability of adjuncts to advance their careers, conduct research, and be effective in the classroom while earning little pay and receiving no benefits.