IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v25y2011i2p257-273.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In search of the perfect manager? Work-life balance and managerial work

Author

Listed:
  • Jackie Ford

    (Bradford University, UKÂ Â j.m.ford@bradford.ac.uk)

  • David Collinson

    (Lancaster University, UKÂ)

Abstract

Work-life balance debates continue to proliferate but give relatively little critical attention to managerial workers. This article draws on research into the experiences of managers in a local government organization revealing an intricate, multifaceted and heterogeneous picture of fragmentation, conflicting demands, pressures and anxieties. The study highlights the importance of paid work for public sector managers; the concomitant difficulties in controlling working hours for those in managerial roles and the extent to which shifts in work orientation occur during managers’ careers. Research findings suggest that in practice work-life balance initiatives may only serve to increase managerial anxieties and pressures, the very opposite outcome to that intended. These themes do not feature in many work-life balance debates, which tend to assume the perfect manager who is able and willing to create a symmetrical balance between different spheres of life.

Suggested Citation

  • Jackie Ford & David Collinson, 2011. "In search of the perfect manager? Work-life balance and managerial work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 25(2), pages 257-273, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:25:y:2011:i:2:p:257-273
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017011398895
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017011398895
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017011398895?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shirley Dex & Sue Bond, 2005. "Measuring work-life balance and its covariates," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 19(3), pages 627-637, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gwen Daverth & Catherine Cassell & Paula Hyde, 2016. "The Subjectivity of Fairness: Managerial Discretion and Work–Life Balance," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 89-107, March.
    2. Jürgen Mühlbacher & Tom Siebenaler, 2018. "Ready for Changes? The Influence of General Self-Efficacy and Resistance to Change on Managers' Future Competence Requirements," European Journal of Business Science and Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics, vol. 4(2), pages 126-142.
    3. Suvi Heikkinen & Anna‐Maija Lämsä, 2017. "Narratives of Spousal Support for the Careers of Men in Managerial Posts," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 171-193, March.
    4. Daniel Wheatley & Zhongmin Wu, 2014. "Dual careers, time-use and satisfaction levels: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 443-464, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agnes Santha, 2019. "Work-Family Balance in the Active Age Ethnic Hungarian Population in Romania," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-14, February.
    2. He Lu Calvin Ong & Senthu Jeyaraj, 2014. "Work–Life Interventions," SAGE Open, , vol. 4(3), pages 21582440145, July.
    3. Dr. Najia Shaikh & Prof. Dr. Javed Ahmed Chandio, 2024. "Work-Life Balance Policies and Organizational Outcomes: A Qualitative Investigation," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 475-481.
    4. Florian Pichler, 2009. "Determinants of Work-life Balance: Shortcomings in the Contemporary Measurement of WLB in Large-scale Surveys," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 92(3), pages 449-469, July.
    5. Nadia Steiber, 2009. "Reported Levels of Time-based and Strain-based Conflict Between Work and Family Roles in Europe: A Multilevel Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 469-488, September.
    6. Dirk Konietzka & Michaela Kreyenfeld, 2010. "The growing educational divide in mothers’ employment: an investigation based on the German micro-censuses 1976-2004," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(2), pages 260-278, June.
    7. Darcy, Colette & McCarthy, Alma & Hill, Jimmy & Grady, Geraldine, 2012. "Work–life balance: One size fits all? An exploratory analysis of the differential effects of career stage," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 111-120.
    8. Turker Tugsal, 2017. "Work-Life Balance and Social Support as Predictors of Burnout: An Exploratory Analysis," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(3), pages 117-138, March.
    9. Anna Skórska, 2021. "Work-life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic," Proceedings of Economics and Finance Conferences 12513355, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    10. Kairi Kasearu, 2009. "The Effect of Union Type on Work-Life Conflict in Five European Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 93(3), pages 549-567, September.
    11. Bellmann, Lutz & Hübler, Olaf, 2020. "Job Satisfaction and Work-Life Balance: Differences between Homework and Work at the Workplace of the Company," IZA Discussion Papers 13504, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Tanja van der Lippe, 2007. "Dutch workers and time pressure: household and workplace characteristics," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 21(4), pages 693-711, December.
    13. Michele Samuele Borgia & Francesca Di Virgilio & Maura La Torre & Muhammad Adnan Khan, 2022. "Relationship between Work-Life Balance and Job Performance Moderated by Knowledge Risks: Are Bank Employees Ready?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:25:y:2011:i:2:p:257-273. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.