A Qualitative Study Exploring Male and Female Experiences of Work-Life Balance in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Stephanie Ingrid Bettina Forst, 馮芬妮
• Other Authors: Dr. David C McConville
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/kh586y

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 人力資源管理全英語碩士學位學程 === 106 === Over the past decade, Work-Life Balance (WLB) has gained increasing importance in today’s workforce in Taiwan, mainly due to changes in the society and in the labor market. Those changes are, for instance, the new family formation of dual-career couples, the arising presence of women in the workforce and the increasing demands of individuals to pursue higher quality of life. This study aimed to contribute to the current literature by conducting research of WLB through a qualitative study in Taiwan, a country that is considered being a collectivistic society. This study was conducted using in-depth interviews with 20 Taiwanese employees, 12 women and 8 men aged between 26 and 43 years, with different marital status and different types of occupations. The commonalities and differences in the view of achieving WLB, which was assessed by work roles, family/personal roles, and personal experiences and management of transitioning between work and family roles, were explored between Taiwanese women and men. The findings provide valuable insights into the different experiences of achieving WLB among Taiwanese women and men. The majority of the respondents prefer to segment their work and family/personal life, but only half of the respondents are able to enact their preferred strategy of segmentation. Notably, more women compared to men were able to draw a clear boundary between work and family/personal life using primarily communicative and temporal boundary management strategies. A link between segmenting professional and personal life and the achievement of WLB was noted. Lastly, factors that prevented a number of participants from achieving WLB included the maintenance of harmony as well as strong commitment and loyalty towards the organization which subsequently, lead to higher levels of acceptance of long working hours.