Research Handbook on Work-Life Balance and Employee Health

Edited by

Associate Professor Connie Zheng, Centre for Workplace Excellence,

UniSA Business, University of South Australia, Adelaide

Email: connie.zheng@unisa.edu.au

PURPOSE

Work-life balance (aka most of time “work-life conflict”, or work-family conflict, acronyms as WLB/WLC or WFB/WFC subsequently) have a critical effect on employee health.  Yet research on WLB/WLC and employee health tend to be separate into two domains that are examined with various contributors in different fields (e.g., management, sociology, health sciences, psychology, environmental health, and political sciences). It’s nonetheless understood that occupational (employee) health is influenced by and intertwined with work-life intricacies. Often these aspects of research focused on how WLC leads to burnout, mental health, sleep deprivation, and other health-related consequences. The accumulative work has been swelling especially in recent years when the boundary of work and life has become even more blurring because of lengthy COVID-19 lockdown and increasing adoption and use of flexible work arrangement by employers and employees alike post-COVID time.

This research handbook will include selective articles that are illustrative of the complex nature of this research area and to provide a bird view of overarching issues to address work-life balance and employee health for those unfamiliar with this important intersective topics, whilst also highlighting possible research agenda and emerging ideas for future endeavour in the field.

OUTLINE

Commissioned by Edward Elgar Publishing, the proposed Research Handbook on Work-life Balance and Employee Health is organized with 6 themes as outlined below. I am soliciting 2-3 chapters to be included in each theme. Each chapter should be written with no more than 10,000 words long (incl. all tables, figures and references). Please forward your relevant manuscript (s) that would fit one or more of the following themes for consideration to be included in this research handbook.

1)     Advancing research methods for investigating work-life balance and employee health

2)     Cultural influences on work-life balance and employee health

3)     Country context on work-life balance and employee health

4)     Institutional factors contributing to work-life balance and employee health

5)     Industry differences on work-life balance and employee health

6)     Best practices on work-life balance and employee health

SUBMISSION & PUBLICATION DATES

Manuscript submission due date:  31 July 2023

Review outcome:  31 October 2023

Revision due:  31 December 2023

Publication date:  31 July 2024

For further information, please contact Dr. Connie Zheng via email: Connie.Zheng@unisa.edu.au