Seeing the Forest and the Trees: A Scoping Review of Empirical Research on Work-Life Balance

Ka Po Wong (), Pei-Lee Teh and Alan Hoi Shou Chan
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Ka Po Wong: Centre for Smart Health, School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Pei-Lee Teh: School of Business, Gerontechnology Laboratory, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway 47500, Malaysia
Alan Hoi Shou Chan: Department of Advanced Design and Systems Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: Work–life balance (WLB), which has become a central issue in workers’ everyday lives, is a global issue with a growing body of investigation into its meaning and the construction of suitable measurement scales, but varying meanings for WLB have been observed in studies. Due to these discrepancies, review or summary work is needed to identify the trends and development of WLB among workers, including (a) the commonly used WLB scales, (b) the antecedents and outcomes related to WLB and (c) the frequency of the emergence of these antecedents and outcomes. This review aims to provide an overview of empirical studies investigating the antecedents and outcomes of WLB. A total of 99 published articles from 77 journals over the period of 2006–2020 were extracted. The research methods, analysis methods, countries investigated, pivot of WLB scales used, and thematic topics and research gaps were identified. The trends of WLB, including the establishment of standard working hours, the availability of working from home, the effects of technologies on achieving WLB and the benefits of WLB for subjective wellbeing, are discussed. The research insights will provide the research directions for constructing WLB scales and investigating issues that significantly affect the WLB of employees.

Keywords: work–life balance; empirical research; scoping review; standard working hours; subjective wellbeing; working from home; technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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