Abstract
In this paper, we use qualitative research data to explore the phenomenon of the boundaryless work-life interface during the COVID-19 pandemic as perceived by working parents. We define a boundaryless work-life interface as the weak or virtually absent boundary between work and life domains. We look closer at the relations between space, time, emotions, roles and the boundaryless work-life interface among working parents. The first two subsections introduce the linkages between the boundaryless work-life interface, focusing primarily on time and space in what we call ‘collapsed role boundaries’. The second subsection examines the issues related to mental and emotional tensions the perceived boundarylesness has caused during the pandemic. The paper’s final subsection provides a summary with interpretations and conclusions.
Funding
The research project was funded by the COVID-19 program of the Rector of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.
References
Allen, T. D., Cho, E., & Meier, L. L. (2014). Work–Family Boundary Dynamics. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 99–121. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091330
Andrade, C., & Fernandes, J. L. (2021). Role boundary management during Covid-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis of focus group data with working-student mothers. Revista Psicologia, 1(5), 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17575/psicologia.v35i1.1694
Ashforth, B. E., Kreiner, G. E., & Fugate, M. (2000). All in a Day’s Work: Boundaries and Micro Role Transitions. The Academy of Management Review, 25(3), 472–491. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2000.3363315
Berger, P. L., Luckmann, T., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: a treatise in the sociology of knowledge (1st ed.). Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.
Bick, A., Blandin, A., & Mertens, K. (2020). Work from Home Before and after the Covid-19 Outbreak (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 3650114). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network: https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3650114 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3786142
Chen, A., & Karahanna, E. (2014). Boundaryless Technology: Understanding the Effects of Technology-Mediated Interruptions across the Boundaries between Work and Personal Life. AIS Transactions on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(2), 16–36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17705/1thci.00059
Clark, S. C. (2000). Work/Family Border Theory: A New Theory of Work/Family Balance. Human Relations, 53(6), 747–770. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726700536001
Cohen, L., & Mallon, M. (1999). The Transition from Organisational Employment to Portfolio Working: Perceptions of `Boundarylessness’. Work, Employment and Society, 13(2), 329–352. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950017099000215
Collins, C., Landivar, L. C., Ruppanner, L., & Scarborough, W. J. (2021). COVID-19 and the gender gap in work hours. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(S1), 101–112. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12506
Contreras, F., Baykal, E., & Abid, G. (2020). E-Leadership and Teleworking in Times of COVID-19 and Beyond: What We Know and Where Do We Go. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 3484. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.590271
Cruz, D., & Meisenbach, R. (2018). Expanding role boundary management theory: How volunteering highlights contextually shifting strategies and collapsing work–life role boundaries. Human Relations, 71(2), 182–205. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726717718917
Deakin, H., & Wakefield, K. (2014). Skype interviewing: reflections of two PhD researchers. Qualitative Research, 14(5), 603–616. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794113488126
Desrochers, S., Hilton, J. M., & Larwood, L. (2005). Preliminary Validation of the Work-Family Integration-Blurring Scale. Journal of Family Issues, 26(4), 442–466. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X04272438
Ezzedeen, S. R., & Zikic, J. (2017). Finding Balance Amid Boundarylessness: An Interpretive Study of Entrepreneurial Work–Life Balance and Boundary Management. Journal of Family Issues, 38(11), 1546–1576. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X15600731
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(2), 219–245. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363
Fonner, K. L., & Stache, L. C. (2012). All in a day’s work, at home: teleworkers’ management of micro role transitions and the work–home boundary. New Technology, Work and Employment, 27(3), 242–257. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-005X.2012.00290.x
Glavin, P., & Schieman, S. (2012). Work–Family Role Blurring and Work–Family Conflict: The Moderating Influence of Job Resources and Job Demands. Work and Occupations, 39(1), 71–98. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888411406295
Hall, D. T., & Richter, J. (1988). Balancing Work Life and Home Life: What Can Organizations Do to Help? Academy of Management Perspectives, 2(3), 213–223. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1988.4277258
Hennekam, S., & Shymko, Y. (2020). Coping with the COVID-19 crisis: force majeure and gender performativity. Gender, Work & Organization, 27(5), 788–803. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12479
Hjálmsdóttir, A., & Bjarnadóttir, V. S. (2021). “I have turned into a foreman here at home”: Families and work–life balance in times of COVID-19 in a gender equality paradise. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(1), 268–283. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12552
Kelliher, C., & Anderson, D. (2010). Doing more with less? Flexible working practices and the intensification of work. Human Relations, 63(1), 83–106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709349199
Kerman, K., Korunka, C., & Tement, S. (2021). Work and home boundary violations during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of segmentation preferences and unfinished tasks. Applied Psychology, 71(3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12335
Kreiner, G. E., Hollensbe, E. C., & Sheep, M. L. (2009). Balancing Borders and Bridges: Negotiating the Work-Home Interface via Boundary Work Tactics. Academy of Management Journal, 52(4), 704–730. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.43669916
Kubacka, M., Luczys, P., Modrzyk, A., & Stamm, A. (2021). Pandemic rage: Everyday frustrations in times of the COVID-19 crisis. Current Sociology, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921211050116
Kvale, S. (2021). Doing Interviews. London.
McGill, B. S. (2014). Navigating New Norms of Involved Fatherhood: Employment, Fathering Attitudes, and Father Involvement. Journal of Family Issues, 35(8), 1089–1106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X14522247
Moen, P. (2011). From ‘work–family’ to the ‘gendered life course’ and ‘fit’: five challenges to the field. Community, Work & Family, 14(1), 81–96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2010.532661
Myers, K. R., Tham, W. Y., Yin, Y., Cohodes, N., Thursby, J. G., Thursby, M. C., … Wang, D. (2020). Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(9), 880–883. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0921-y
Nippert-Eng, C. (1996). Calendars and keys: The classification of “home” and “work”. Sociological Forum, 11(3), 563–582. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02408393
Petts, R. J., Carlson, D. L., & Pepin, J. R. (2021). A gendered pandemic: Childcare, homeschooling, and parents’ employment during COVID-19. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(S2), 515–534. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12614
Rapoport, R., & Rapoport, R. N. (2016). Dual-Career Families. The Social Engagement of Social Science, a Tavistock Anthology, Volume 1 (pp. 351–372). University of Pennsylvania Press.
Vieten, L., Wöhrmann, A. M., & Michel, A. (2021). Boundaryless working hours and recovery in Germany. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-021-01748-1
Zerubavel, E. (1996). Lumping and splitting: Notes on social classification. Sociological Forum, 11(3), 421–433. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02408386
Zheng, Y., & Walsham, G. (2021). Inequality of what? An intersectional approach to digital inequality under Covid-19. Information and Organization, 31(1). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2021.100341
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Małgorzata Kubacka, Dorota Mroczkowska, Monika Frąckowiak-Sochańska
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Manuscript authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions for any copyrighted materials included within manuscripts. The authors must provide permission letters, when appropriate, to the Society Register Editors.
In addition, all published papers in Society Register are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported License.
1.1 The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person. The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
1.2. The Publisher warrants that is the owner of the PRESSto platform for open access journals, hereinafter referred to as the PRESSto Platform.
2. The Author grants the Publisher non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern CC BY-NC 4.0 as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons.
3. The Author grants the Publisher permission to reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
4. The Author grants the Publisher permission to send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases.
5. The Author represents that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Publisher is entitled and obliged to:
5.1. allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made, based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Creative Commons sub-license or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons;
5.2. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.3. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
6. Because of the royalty-free provision of services of the Author (resulting from the scope of obligations stipulated in the present Agreement), the Author shall not be entitled to any author’s fee due and payable on the part of the Publisher (no fee or royalty is payable by the Publisher to the Author).
7.1. In the case of third party claims or actions for indemnity against the Publisher owing to any infractions related to any form of infringement of intellectual property rights protection, including copyright infringements, the Author is obliged to take all possible measures necessary to protect against these claims and, when as a result of legal action, the Publisher, or any third party licensed by the Publisher to use the Work, will have to abandon using the Work in its entirety or in part or, following a court ruling in a legal challenge, to pay damages to a third party, whatever the legal basis
7.2. The Author will immediately inform the Publisher about any damage claims related to intellectual property infringements, including the author’s proprietary rights pertaining to a copyrighted work, filed against the Author. of liability, the Author is obliged to redress the damage resulting from claims made by third party, including costs and expenditures incurred in the process.
7.3. To all matters not settled herein provisions of the Polish Civil Code and the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act shall apply.