Role negotiation and systems-level work-life balance

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2016-0308
Date04 March 2019
Pages570-594
Published date04 March 2019
AuthorKirsten M. Robertson,Brenda A. Lautsch,David R. Hannah
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM
Role negotiation and
systems-level work-life balance
Kirsten M. Robertson
School of Business, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, Canada, and
Brenda A. Lautsch and David R. Hannah
Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes underlying a systems perspective on
worklife balance (WLB), with a particular focus on the tensions and role negotiations that arise within and
across work and non-work roles.
Design/methodology/approach The authors employed a qualitative methodology, conducting
42 interviews with lawyers at large law firms, which is a context notorious for long work hours.
Findings While a cornerstone of a systems view is that balance is social in nature, and that negotiations
occur among stakeholders over role expectations, the process through which this happens has remained
unexamined both theoretically and empirically. The authors learned that negotiating around work and
non-work role expectations are often contested, complex and fluid. The authors contribute to the literature by
elaborating on how these negotiations happen in the legal profession, describing factors that inhibit or
facilitate role negotiation and exploring how interdependencies within work systems and across work and
non-work systems shape these negotiation processes.
Originality/value The findings offer a more nuanced conceptualization of the system-level perspective on
WLB, and in particular an enriched explanation of work and non-work role negotiation. The authors
encourage employers who are interested in promoting WLB to ensure that their employees feel empowered to
negotiate their roles, particularly with others in their work systems.
Keywords Qualitative, Qualitative research, Worklife balance (WLB), Role negotiation,
Systems-based perspective
Paper type Research paper
Worklife balance (WLB) remains an elusive goal for many individuals (Kossek et al., 2011).
Demographic and technological shifts, including rising dual-earner couples and single
parents in the workforce, increasing caregiving responsibilities associated with an aging
workforce (Greenhaus and Kossek, 2014; Greenhaus and ten Brummelhuis, 2013) and
communication technologies that enable 24/7 work demands, create challenges for
individuals who strive to excel and thrive both at work and in their personal relationships
(Kossek and Lautsch, 2012). Although there has been an explosionof research on balance
recently (Ferguson et al., 2012), significant questions remain about its nature, antecedents
and implications; fundamentally, even the meaning of the term WLB remains a matter
of debate among scholars (Kalliath and Brough, 2008). The earliest and still most
common approaches to balance have defined it as the absence of worklife conflict or the
presence of enrichment (e.g. Aryee et al., 2005; Brough and Kalliath, 2009; Bulger et al., 2007;
Lu et al., 2009), but recently the notion of globalapproaches to balance, which consider
overall appraisals of the relationship between work and family (Wayne et al., 2017, p. 168),
have been gaining traction.
One influentialglobal approach to balance is Grzywaczand Carlsons (2007) syste ms-level
perspective where balance is defined as the accomplishment of role-related expectations
that are negotiated and shared between an individual and his or her role-related partners
in the work and family domains(p. 458). In a recent review and test of balance
conceptualizations, Wayne et al. (2017) identify this systems perspective as one of four key
perspectives on balance and call for future research to examine the processes underlying it.
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 2, 2019
pp. 570-594
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-11-2016-0308
Received 28 November 2016
Revised 15 September 2017
29 April 2018
6July2018
Accepted 23 August 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
570
PR
48,2
In this paper, we answer that call and explore a systems perspective on balance from a
viewpoint grounded in the everyday lived experiences of individuals, using in-depth
qualitative data gathered through interviews.
Our qualitative exploration of systems-level balance offers several contributions. While a
cornerstone of a systems view is that balance is social in nature, and that negotiations occur
among stakeholders over role expectations, the process through which these negotiations
happen has remained unexamined both theoretically and empirically. We propose to open
the black boxof negotiation in systems-level balance, drawing on theories of role
negotiation to add new depth to our understanding. Our results build on the insight that role
negotiation is part of the ongoing struggle to achieve balance (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007)
by identifying and elaborating on critical aspects of the role negotiation process. We
describe the forms of negotiation through which individuals attempt to resolve tensions
between work and non-work role expectations and explain how contextual factors can
inhibit and facilitate these negotiations. These factors together influence the extent to which
role negotiation allows individuals (and perhaps colleagues and family members) to
successfully resolve tension over role expectations. The final theme in our findings concerns
how systems-level balance should consider these other individuals beyond the job
incumbent. We highlight interdependencies among role partners at home and work that are
not fully recognized in current perspectives on systems-level balance. Thus, our paper
enriches the current understanding of the role negotiation process and systems-level
balance. We now present a brief summary of the literature that informed our research.
A systems perspective on WLB
The systems perspective proposes that balance should be conceptualized as a social rather
than a psychological construct (e.g. Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). Exactly what this means,
however, remains unclear. In Grzywacz and Carlsons (2007) original writings, they
maintained that balance has meaning outside the individual(p. 458) and focuses on
accomplishing role-related expectations that are negotiated and shared(p. 459). This has
been interpreted in recent empirical work as indicating that WLB would exist only when
expectations of relevant others are met(Krisor et al., 2015, p. 649). Thus, in order for an
individual to achieve balance a process of negotiation around role requirements must occur,
leading to agreements around role-related expectations.
Role negotiation, also called role redefinition (Hall, 1972) or role bargains (Goode, 1960),
occurs when two or more persons consciously interact with the express purpose of altering
the othersexpectations about how a role should be enacted and evaluated(Miller et al.,
1996, p. 296). It therefore takes as its starting point the expectations others have of ones
role, and involves attempting to reconcile them with the expectations one has for oneself.
This may occur through discussions with role senders to reach agreement on new role
expectations (e.g. gaining a clients agreement to alter a work deadline), or through
reallocation of role tasks to another (e.g. delegating to a subordinate or hiring a nanny for
childcare) (Hall, 1972; Matsui et al., 1995). An assumption implicit in the systems perspective
of WLB is that all parties in the negotiation around role expectations accept, embrace, and
benefit from the dealsstruck regarding the contours of the role. Carlson et al. (2009)
address this assumption when they maintain that systems balance does not exist if it is
at the expense of another (e.g. a working wife who picks up the slack at home as her
husband climbs the corporate ladder)(p. 1463).
The systems perspective is an example of what Wayne et al. (2017) describe as global
balance approaches because it involves an integrative assessment of the work-family
interface. Global balance approaches take two forms in their conceptualization, either
focusing on balance satisfaction (an individualsattitude toward resource allocation
across work and family roles) or balance effectiveness (an individualsinterdependent
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Systems-level
work-life
balance

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