Abstract：Purpose – The purpose of this article is to initiate critical reflection on the assumptions and evidence
underpinning the work-life balance debate.
Design/methodology/approach – The article reviews a range of international literature focused on
and related to the work-life balance debate and issues.
Findings – In the work-life balance debate, over-work is perceived as the problem. Nevertheless,
beyond working time and the provision of flexible working practices to enable child care, there is little
in the debate abut the need to change work per se. The debate also narrowly perceives “life”, equating
it with women’s care work, hence the emphasis again of family-friendly polices.
Research limitations/implications – The article suggests that reconceptualisation is required in
analyses of both work-life balance and the relationship between work and life.
Practical implications – The article implies that current work-life balance policies are myopic in
terms of addressing the needs and aspirations of employees.
Originality/value – The article offers a synthesis of evidence that is wider than that typical in
current analyses of work and life.
Introduction
The articulation of work and life, cast as work-life balance, has become a key feature of
much current government, practitioner and academic debate. The main message of this
debate is the need for “good work-life balance”. However, the debate and subsequent
policy are too often based on assumptions about work and life derived from blunt
readings of empirical data or misconceptions about employee attitudes to work and
life. What is required therefore is analysis that explores the back-story to work-life
balance debate as well as the operation of work-life balance policies. Compiling critical
reflections on many aspects of the work-life balance debate, this special issue of
Employee Relations hopes to initiate such analysis.
All of the articles in this special issue are drawn from a stream on the work-life
boundary at the 24th Annual International  Process Conference hosted by the
University of London in 2006. This stream resulted from our dissatisfaction with much
current debate about work-life balance. Our individual and collective research over the
years has revealed that only some workers experience work and life as separate and
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm
Introduction
325
Employee Relations
Vol. 29 No. 4, 2007
pp. 325-333
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/01425450710839452留学生论文代写网代写留学生论文,英国硕士论文,澳洲论文,留学生论文代写网代写留学生论文,英国硕士论文,澳洲论文,