Juliette Summers

Lacking balance? Work-life employment practices in the modern economy

The UK has operated a lightly regulated approach to help employees balance their work and domestic obligations, an approach which employers have welcomed and which they and Government consider to be successful. On the basis of empirical studies this paper challenges these assumptions and outcomes. Apart from definitional difficulties, seven major problems associated with current UK practice over work‐life balance are identified. The first problem concerns unevenness of adoption across different sectors and organisations. The second is a lack of formalisation of policies at organisational level, with largely untrained line mangers having discretion over policy application. Third, there is restricted employee voice over the introduction and implementation of policies. Fourth, policies are introduced primarily to meet business needs, rather than those of employees. Fifth, there is no evidence of reductions in working hours. Sixth, tangible and intangible work intrusions into domestic life have been identified. Finally, domestic responsibilities are still conducted primarily by women irrespective of their employment status. The researchers conclude that many employees continue to face difficulty in reconciling their work and domestic responsibilities.

Work and life: can employee representation influence balance?

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to assess the influence of different forms of organisational representation on the provision of work‐life balance employment policies.Design/methodology/approach – The article uses on‐site semi‐structured interviews with employees, HR and line managers and trade union representatives in four case studies as well as survey responses from a total of 17 institutions in the financial services sector.Findings – Employees do influence work‐life balance issues in the financial services sector, and work‐life balance initiatives had greater breadth, codification and quality where independent unions were recognised. In all cases however, the extent of departure from minimal statutory levels of provision was not great.Research limitations/implications – The nature of the study and its focus on Scotland may limit the generalisability of the findings into other sectors or regions.Practical implications – In light of the evolving work‐life balance legislative framework, this art...

A Lexicon of Conflict under Concertive Control Conditions

While much of the literature on teamworking has become focused on employer-driven design of work teams, this article casts a critical eye on employee-driven workgroups through the examination of a selfselected and autonomous employee group. The evidence from this case study suggests that groupworking can result in a quest for homogenization, and in strong informal controls on members’ behaviours, where these controls operate through covert confiict expressions, mediated by the work environment. The evidence to emerge indicates that some of the suggested positive impacts on employees of groupworking may be simply surface constructs, while covert, suppressed confiicts persist. The unique contribution of this study is the modelling of a lexicon of confiict under concertive control conditions and the integration of social identity theory into a groupwork framework.

Is workplace democracy associated with wider pro-democracy affect? A structural equation model:

Using structural equation modelling, this article examines the hypothesis that employees can learn about democracy through employee participation in workplace decision-making, thus resulting in more positive attitudes toward democracy in the wider political arena. The research finds that workplace democracy is strongly positively associated with increased interest in politics and wider pro-democracy affect. This result holds true even when controlling for reverse causality and the confounding influence of trade union membership. The article suggests that work can have an important effect on wider governance at the level of the community and the state.