See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/356266113

Work–life balance: a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis

Article  in  International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy · November 2021

DOI: 10.1108/IJSSP-06-2021-0145

CITATIONS READS

6 6,815

2 authors:

Kumari Rashmi Aakanksha Kataria

Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur
5 PUBLICATIONS   18 CITATIONS    22 PUBLICATIONS   255 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Do high-performance HR practices augment OCBs? The role of psychological climate and work engagement View project

work life balance View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Kumari Rashmi on 01 December 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0144-333X.htm

Work–life balance: a systematic Work–life

balance
literature review and
bibliometric analysis
Kumari Rashmi and Aakanksha Kataria
Department of Management Studies, Malaviya National Institute of Technology,
Jaipur, India Received 7 June 2021
Revised 25 August 2021
25 October 2021
Accepted 26 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear view of current dynamics and research
diversification of extant literature in the field of work-life balance (WLB). This paper provides a systematic and
critical analysis of WLB literature using bibliometric analysis.
Design/methodology/approach – Scopus database has been used for carrying out this review that is based
on 945 research papers published from 1998 to 2020. The prominence of the research is assessed by studying
the publication trend, sample statistics, theoretical foundation, the highly cited research articles and journals,
most commonly used keywords, research themes of top four recognized clusters, sub-themes within each
cluster and thematic overview of WLB corpus formed on the premise of bibliographic coupling. Additionally,
content analysis of recently published papers revealed emerging research patterns and potential gaps.
Findings – Major findings indicate that the research area consists of four established and emerging research
themes based on clusters formed as (1) flexible work arrangements, (2) gender differences in WLB, (3) work–life
interface and its related concepts, and (4) WLB policies and practices. Emerging themes identified through
content analysis of recent articles include gender discrepancy, the impact of different forms of contextual
(situational) factors and organizational culture.
Originality/value – This research paper is the first of its kind on the subject of WLB as it provides
multifariousness of study fields within the WLB corpus by using varied bibliographic mapping approaches. It
also suggests viable avenues for future research.
Keywords Work–life balance, Systematic literature review, VOS viewer, Bibliometric analysis, Scopus
Paper type Literature review

1. Introduction
Work is an integral part of one’s professional identity, but balancing it with the non-work activities
can be difficult. The maintenance of balance between one’s work and varied facets of life has
become a source of growing public concern in recent years, as more employees recognize the need
for what is now commonly known as “work–life balance.” The discourse on work–life balance
(WLB) commenced in the 1990s (Lewis et al., 2007), and since then, it has witnessed profound
changes in terms of social, demographic and workplace advancements. These advancements have
been made in response to (1) profound changes in the labor market, (2) modification of gender roles,
(3) more contribution of women in the labor force, (4) augmented prevalence of dual-earner couples,
(5) single parents in the workforce, (6) longer working hours, (7) 24/7 communication technology
obscuring the lines between work and non-work, and (8) increasing desire for the quality of life
(Karkoulian et al., 2016; Rashmi and Kataria, 2021; Shabir and Gani, 2020).
With all these changes co-occurring simultaneously, the responsibilities of individuals
toward their work and personal life have increased manifold resulting in an upsurge in work–
life “imbalance.” Consequently, for individuals in modern society, the notion of WLB has
become an important issue (Akanji et al., 2020b; Le et al., 2020). They are now more concerned
International Journal of Sociology
The authors express their sincere thanks to the editor of IJSSP, Professor Colin Williams, and the three and Social Policy
anonymous reviewers for extending their timely support, and insightful suggestions to strengthen the © Emerald Publishing Limited
0144-333X
content of the article. DOI 10.1108/IJSSP-06-2021-0145
IJSSP about balancing paid work with family and personal responsibilities to attain a holistic sense
of well-being, such as family satisfaction, psychological health and overall life satisfaction (Le
et al., 2020). Similarly, in the last few years, the WLB phenomenon has become a source of
concern for various organizations. WLB policies (WLBPs) and practices are being aligned
and integrated with broader and strategic business goals. Organizations often look for
multiple ways to increase positive perceptions of employees regarding their WLB.
Furthermore, they also strive to offer a healthy work environment to enable their
employees to achieve varied work-related outcomes such as job performance, organizational
commitment, job satisfaction etc. (Haar et al., 2018; Sirgy and Lee, 2017; Williams et al., 2016).
More importantly, the unprecedented crisis of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
pandemic has dramatically affected the notion of WLB for millions of individuals in
manifolds. The abrupt shifts in the nature of work and operational activities by organizations
have inexorably affected the WLB of employees (Palumbo, 2020; Utoft, 2020). The exposures
to the COVID-19 crisis have put considerable physical, mental and emotional stress on
employees. At the same time, they have been forced to work-from-home and adopt
telecommuting practices that have alerted their work–life obligations (Bhumika, 2020).
Employees in varied professions are dealing with unparalleled workloads in this challenging
environment. Their roles and responsibilities have increased multifariously; they have to
juggle their paid work roles and perform household, eldercare and childcare responsibilities.
Certainly, one of the most pressing issues of current times on a global scale being witnessed is
balancing work and personal life obligations (Bhumika, 2020; Corbera et al., 2020).
Hence, WLB has become a dynamic phenomenon affecting an individual’s perception
about work and non-work activities to assess compatibility between both, which can promote
growth in accordance with their present life priorities. Most often, studies have confined the
notion of WLB with the mere absence of conflict between work and family (Au et al., 2020;
Robertson et al., 2019), but in a broader sense, it is a separate and unique construct. WLB
reflects the perceptions of striking a balance between employees’ work and personal life,
including sensitivities about social life and leisure time (Casper et al., 2018; Chan et al., 2020;
Weale et al., 2020). Generally, WLB is a contested term that holds varied meanings for
different individuals (Lewis and Beauregard, 2018). The concept was initially conceptualized
as work–family conflict (WFC) and defined as “a form of inter-role conflict in which the role
pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect”
(Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985, p. 77). Later, it was further refined and elaborated as
“Satisfaction and good functioning at work and home with a minimum of role conflict.” (Clark,
2000, p. 349). Usually, various researchers have used this term to refer to the discord between
work and family roles performed by individuals (Gutek et al., 1991; Netemeyer et al., 1996).
Further, in their paper, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) argued that work–family interface
cannot always be negative and that work and family duties can be Allies rather than
adversaries. Therefore, they introduced the concept of work–family enrichment (WFE) and
defined it “as the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other
role” (Greenhaus and Powell, 2006, p. 73). Empirical WFC and WFE studies in the extant
literature have provided strong support for negative and positive outcomes (Gareis et al.,
2009; Mauno et al., 2011). In seminal work (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007), conceptualized WFB
as “accomplishment of role-related expectations that are negotiated and shared between an
individual and his or her role-related partners in the work and family domains” (Grzywacz
and Carlson, 2007, p. 458). This conceptualization of WFB also possessed several issues, such
as ignoring those who are single and solely pointing toward family by not considering other
essential aspects such as education, personal values, community and leisure.
The researchers cannot ignore the importance of striking a balance between work and
non-work obligations. WLB captures people’s experiences in a greater range of personal
obligations, making it more representative of real-life situations in which people are typically
active, i.e. in many non-work activities in addition to the family. It has been defined as “an Work–life
individual’s perceptions of how well his or her life roles are balanced” (Haar et al., 2014, p. 362). balance
The phrase “work-family balance” has been replaced by the term “work-life balance”
(Adisa et al., 2017), as life in this context refers to everything that takes place outside of work
(Bello and Tanko, 2020; Brough et al., 2014; Casper et al., 2018; Haar et al., 2018). The current
study seeks to comprehend “work-life balance” in a way that goes beyond the conventional
“conflict” and “enrichment” focus and instead advances the field of research. Scholars have
called for additional research into the aspects that influence an individual’s work–life
experiences in the work and non-work domains (Akanji et al., 2020a; Tetteh and Attiogbe,
2019). WLB is a social construct that tends to highlight a broader approach, such as
redressing underlying issues related to gender equity and family-friendly policy usage, which
individuals face in their quest for gaining economic independence and self-worth. As a result,
the more inclusive phrase “work-life”, as opposed to “work-family”, has gained ubiquitous
acceptance, paving the way for the widespread adoption of this terminology (Akanji et al.,
2020a, b; Au et al., 2020).
Ample research has already been conducted in the corpus of WLB to cover different
definitions, varied core concepts, measures and factors. However, the literature in this area is
dispersed due to the lack of knowledge structure and therefore requires integration to
synthesize better the existing research leading to further advancements. This research study
tries to abridge the extant research studies on WLB and provide a detailed view of the same
through systematic literature review (SLR) and various bibliographic mapping approaches.
Table 1 gives a snapshot of different review studies conducted over a decade in this area and
how this study adds to the existing knowledge. The literature review by Gatrell et al. (2012)
and Agarwal and Lenka (2015) focused on the specific direction of parenthood and WLB, and
WLB of women entrepreneurs, respectively, while structured literature review of Munn and
Chaudhuri (2016) was directed toward WLB of dual-earner couples in India and the United
States. Further, a meta-analysis review of meaning and measurement of WLB was carried out
by Casper et al. (2018), a review of conceptualization of work–life constructs by Bansal and
Agarwal (2020), and a SLR on WLB in Asia by Le et al. (2020). A literature review on WLBPs
perspective was presented by Chaudhuri et al. (2020).
Existing reviews in WLB did not consider bibliometric analysis to provide a
comprehensive overview of the research in the area. This study is based on a science
mapping approach that conducted a thematic analysis of the existing WLB corpus to provide
a clear picture of the diverse themes and sub-themes developed over a period through
significant scholarly works. This study is unique in the sense that it aims to map the evolution
of the existing research patterns, identify the current research dynamics and assess the
emerging research paradigms in the field.
This research paper is the first of its kind on WLB as it applies SLR-cum bibliometric
analysis to provide a comprehensive and detailed analytical overview to canvass the research
area holistically, intending to aid researchers, policymakers and practitioners. The main
objective of our review article is to provide the current status of research on WLB, with the
subsequent questions describing the study’s scope:
RQ1. What are the latest publication trends based on the number of years, affiliated
countries, journals, authors and type of economy (descriptive analysis)?
RQ2. What are the most commonly used research methods, statistical techniques and
theories to study the WLB corpus?
RQ3. Which popular and influential research studies are based on publication citation
analysis (global and local citation) and journal citation analysis? What are the
prevalent keywords used by authors in this field?
 IJSSP

Table 1.

the current
research study
research studies and
A comparison of prior
Munn and
Gatrell et al. Agarwal and Chaudhuri Sirgy and Lee Casper et al. Bansal and Chaudhuri et al.
Criteria (2012) Lenka (2015) (2016) (2017) (2018) Agarwal (2020) Le et al. (2020) (2020) Our study

Timeframe 2009–2011 1988–2014 1991–2015 Not given 2016 2018 Not given 2007–2017 1998 to 2020
Total no. of 194 Not given 24 Not given 290 48 66 27 945
articles for
review
Focus WLB and WLB of women WLB of dual- WLB Meaning and Conceptualization WLB in Asia WLBPs and WLB
parenthood entrepreneurs earner couples measurement of work–life organizational
in India and the of WLB constructs outcomes
United States
Research Comparative Literature Structured Integrative Meta-analytic A review Systematic Literature 1. Systematic
method review review literature review review literature review literature
review review review
2. Bibliometric
analysis
3. Thematic
analysis
Key Six key areas A conceptual The paper An integrative Provided an Summarizes A conceptual From 2013, 1. Publication
findings are identified framework for determines the framework of overview of existing framework of there has been trend analysis
by the WLB of women work-life WLB conceptual conceptualizations work–life a significant 2. Research
authors entrepreneurs difficulties of and of work–life interface studies increase in methods,
dual-earner operational dimensions. in Asia WLB research statistical
couples and definitions of Provides an Theories among Indian techniques and
organizational WLB. overview of varied undertaken by firms. WLBPs theories used to
practices in the Measured the terminologies and research studies have benefited study the WLB
US and India effect sizes for measurements that in Asia a variety of corpus
conflict, have been Measurement of sectors such as 3. Citation
enrichment employed in work– work–life information analysis
and balance, life interface constructs in technology and 4. Bibliographic
proposed a literature Asia business coupling
definition of process analysis, and
WLB outsourcing thematic
analysis

(continued )
 Munn and
Gatrell et al. Agarwal and Chaudhuri Sirgy and Lee Casper et al. Bansal and Chaudhuri et al.
Criteria (2012) Lenka (2015) (2016) (2017) (2018) Agarwal (2020) Le et al. (2020) (2020) Our study

Future A three-factor A comparative Researchers Future Researchers The study proposes In the context of Future Identified 12
work framework examination of should researchers could could carry a framework for Asia, researchers can potential
activities for future WLB concerns examine the explore the out future research and researchers undertake research
research- among men impact of WLB interrelationship longitudinal provides a should work cross-sectional questions,
expand and women practices and among personal designs to theoretical base for toward research to categorized in
definitions of entrepreneurs. family and investigate the carrying out work– methodological investigate the three groups to
WLB beyond A comparison conditions of organizational stability of life research development, influence of be addressed
work-family, study of dual-earner predictors WLB and its multilevel WLBPs on by future
include working couples affecting WLB facets. research and varied researchers as
marginalized women Explore the expansion of the organizational 1. Gender
groups and executives and association WLB notion results. Specific discrepancy
embrace entrepreneurs between WLB industry-wide 2. Impact
themes such can also be and various comparative different forms
as class, done outcomes studies can be of contextual
gender and conducted (situational)
enrichment factors
3.
Organizational
culture
balance
Work–life

Table 1.
IJSSP RQ4. What are the popular themes and sub-themes in WLB research?
RQ5. What are the leading trends and the future work activities in the area of WLB?
Publication pattern analysis based on the number of years, affiliated countries, journals,
authors and type of economy has been carried out to get an insight into the historical evolution
of research that will aid academic researchers in gaining a better grasp of the current state of
research in WLB domain. The popularly used research methods, statistical techniques and
theories used to study the WLB corpus are preliminary attempt to draw back the developments
in WLB and identify the intellectual structure to provide a detailed overview of notable research
works of the last two decades. Citation analysis has been employed to map the number of
citations that articles have gained from other articles. Our review examined the citation
network of 945 research papers using the VOS Viewer tool to determine the most relevant
articles in this field. Additionally, keyword analysis has been incorporated as it is considered an
excellent indicator of article content, indicating the author’s self-assessment of the concepts and
related terms. Further, research question 4 of this review has been answered by identifying
meaningful cluster themes derived through thematic analysis. Lastly, content investigation of
research papers published in recent years, i.e. in 2018, 2019 and 2020 has been done to identify
the emerging research patterns and future work activities.
This research study adds value to the field of the work–life interface in the following ways:
(1) Bibliometric analysis was not considered in previous WLB reviews to offer a
comprehensive synopsis of the research area. (2) This research is based on a thematic
analysis of the WLB corpus using a science mapping approach to provide a holistic
understanding of the fundamentals of WLB. We believe that as the field of work–life interface
matures, researchers have come up with a variety of themes, and it’s necessary to identify
varied themes and sub-themes. (3) This study also endeavors to offer future work directions
based on content analysis of papers published in recent years.
The rest of the sections of this paper are organized as follows. The second segment
presents the methodology section expanding on the search criteria, screening process and the
research methods applied. The subsequent section delineates analysis and results such as
descriptive analysis of the selected research articles, prominent methods of research, analysis
techniques and theories, the citation and bibliographic coupling analysis. It also represents an
exhaustive thematic overview of the WLB corpus formed on the premise of bibliographic
coupling. The fourth segment deals with a detailed discussion, while the last part focuses on
the recent developments in the field to provide insights for future work activities in the WLB
area with concluding remarks.

2. Research methodology
SLR follows a methodological process in a replicable, transparent and scientific manner
(Zupic, 2015). Our research study uses SLR based on bibliometric analysis to explicitly
understand the current research flow on the aspect of WLB and provide a comprehensive
outline of WLB with avenues for future research activities. First, SLR has been adopted to
systematically search, sort and find articles for conducting critical analysis and objective
assessment of the literature. This involved determination and identification of the
appropriate search keywords, search engine, identification and extraction of relevant
research studies based on the inclusion and extraction criteria. Second, research papers
selected for this study were used to conduct bibliometric analysis, which has been extensively
incorporated to the research area of management by other researchers (Kataria et al., 2020).
Bibliometric analysis is a quantitative method that is useful to study intellectual
information and get a complete synopsis of the research area (Garfield, 1979). In this method,
bibliographic mapping approaches have helped find the leading and prominent research
articles, countries, authors and existing research realms of topic under study (Li et al., 2017). Work–life
This type of analysis provides a complete retrospection by enabling us to get insights into balance
highly globally and locally cited articles, top contributing countries, most important
keywords, clusters based on common research themes and thematic analysis of clusters
based on bibliometric coupling. Henceforth, with the application of multiple bibliometric
techniques, researchers can synthesize varied outputs to determine ongoing research trends,
identify research gaps and set future directions of work in this area.
VOS viewer software has been incorporated to construct, visualize and analyze
bibliometric networks. These networks can be built with the help of citation, bibliographic
coupling or co-citation to investigate publication patterns, knowledge base and an article’s
impact. Moreover, in order to map recent developments in the area of WLB, the authors have
separately examined and studied ABDC category papers published in recent years from 2018
to 2020. The Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) provides a ranking of journal
quality. This was particularly done to provide a broad overview of current research patterns
among the sub-areas related to WLB. Figure 1 illustrates the steps of research methodology
and tools of analysis undertaken to attain the above-mentioned objectives of this study.

2.1 Search string

Previous research papers in this field were explored and scrutinized to determine the
appropriate keywords. The keyword-search term identified and selected in this paper included
“work-life balance”, instead of any other related keywords. WLB is an emerging concept that
researchers use to de-gender debates about the work–life imbalance and emphasize a broader
and more inclusive approach (Akanji et al., 2020a, b; Au et al., 2020). From the existing literature
studies, we identified that this term is entirely different from other closely associated terms such
as WFC, WFE and WFB. Moreover, the term “WLB” is inclusive and includes a broader range
of non-work areas such as education, leisure, community services, personal values and religious
activities apart from family obligations (Haar et al., 2018; Rashmi et al., 2021; Shabir and Gani,
2020). The concept of WLB has also been considered more gender-neutral by employers and
policymakers, while employees think it to be more inclusive regardless of their family
circumstances (Guest, 2002; Lyness and Judiesch, 2014).
A similar line of research study by McMilan et al. (2011) and Carlson et al. (2006) suggests
that conflict, enrichment, enhancement, facilitation and integration are distinct terms that
describe different forms of the work–life interface. Therefore, we can infer that WLB is a
holistic concept that encloses person’s varied meaningful roles, and its attainment is mainly
dependent on the accomplishment of values, goals and ambitions of private life in light of
their societal environment (Kossek et al., 2014; Rashmi and Kataria, 2021). Hence, we
exclusively focused on only one search term, “work-life balance”.

2.2 Search criteria limits

With the help of the “Scopus” database, literary resources for this study were searched on
January 28, 2021, focusing on the defined search criteria. We used this database because it is
considered as one of the most effective databases dealing with academic research documents
worldwide and provides more than 78 million documents with nearly 1.7 billion cited
references, though this figure changes based on regular updates. It offers a wide range of
peer-reviewed journals in various research areas, including social sciences (Valenzuela-
Fernandez et al., 2019).
After searching the literary documents based on the defined criteria in the Scopus
database, 5,706 documents were showed up as a result initially. We then de-limited the search
results by combining inclusion and exclusion criteria (see Table 1), which yielded 2,465
documents. In the next stage, articles were carefully scrutinized for relevance based on title,
abstract and keywords. Irrelevant and duplicate documents were discarded, resulting in
IJSSP Step 1: Document Extracted 5,706 documents from Scopus database using
Search Procedure keyword search

Step 2: Document Screened and selected 945 documents based on the

Screening & Selection relevance of the current research topic

Step 3: Descriptive This analysis was carried out to illustrate publication

Analysis trend-year, and country-wise, leading journals, productive
authors, and type of economy

This analysis reveals various methods of research, and

Step 4: Sample
statistical techniques along with different theories used
Statistics and
by researchers as a theoretical base in their studies
Theoretical Basis
Analysis

Tables show the top 15 research papers on the basis of

Step 4: Citation total global and total local citations. Another table
Analysis represents 15 leading journals based on total citation
and citation/article

Step 5: Bibliographic Data clustering was done to identify the clusters. This
Coupling Analysis resulted in the creation of four major clusters of the
documents

Figure 1. Thematic analysis was carried out to identify the thematic

Structural outline
representing research
methodology steps and
tools of analysis
Step 6: Thematic
knowledge structure along with underlying common
Analysis and Content
themes of the top four clusters. Additional, latest papers
Analysis
content analysis was done to know the emerging trends of
research and avenues for future study

1,530 research articles. In the last stage of screening, as per the context of our study, only full-
text articles were selected which addressed the objectives of the current research and,
therefore, were filtered based on reading articles more extensively. Subsequently, this search
process resulted in a final corpus of 945 documents that come within the scope of our study.
Table 2 provides a glimpse of the search process criterion.

3. Analysis and results

This section begins with a descriptive analysis of the selected research articles, the sample
statistics, theoretical foundation, keyword analysis, citation and bibliographic analysis. The
thematic investigation of the WLB corpus has also been done to provide a detailed, analytical
and objective examination of the coherent body of knowledge.
Date Database Search string
Work–life
balance
28-01-2021 Scopus “Work–life balance” (within title, abstract
and keywords)
Result 5,706 papers
Filter: (Inclusion Document type: Article, review Excluded: Conference proceedings, book,
and exclusion Fields: Social sciences, business and editorials, non-English journals, non-peer
criterion) management, psychology reviewed journals and doctoral theses
Source type: Journal
Language: English
Result 2,465 papers
Filter The articles were scrutinized and screened Excluded: Duplicates were removed,
based on title, abstract and keywords irrelevant articles on the basis of title,
abstract and keywords were eliminated
Result 1,530
Filter Only those full-text peer-reviewed articles Excluded: All those articles which were out
which focused on the context of the current of the scope of focus of WLB were discarded
research study were filtered based on reading Table 2.
articles more extensively Search process
Result 945 criterion

3.1 Descriptive analysis

To find out the continuing patterns of the publication in the selected research area, we carried out
a descriptive investigation of 945 papers. The first research question was answered by analyzing
the publication trends based on years, countries, journals, authors and type of economy.
3.1.1 Publication pattern-in terms of years. The graph below depicts the historical
evolution of research into this topic, representing an increase in the count of research papers
published from 1998 to 2020. This visualization trend confirms the growing curiosity among
research scholars owing to the dearth of WLB literature as highlighted by various
researchers (see Haar et al., 2014). The literature related to work–life has been filled with a
plethora of studies examining the conflict perspective. In contrast, less attention has been
paid to the balance concept (see Casper et al., 2018). In recent years, researchers have been
showing considerable efforts to advance the concept of balance. Figure 2 provides a
chronological depiction of the year-wise progression of publications.
The above graph demonstrates that there has been a significant spurt in the number of
publications in the year 2007 as compared to previous years. In particular, studies have
gained momentum from the year 2012 onwards, i.e. that there have been more than 45 articles
published per year from the year 2012. The year 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 shows the
highest number of publications, i.e. 75 or additional papers published every year. Before 2015,
the average count of articles published every year ranged between 27 and 28.
3.1.2 Country-wise publication trend. Table 3 depicts that the top 10 countries add 684
articles out of 945 articles, thus contributing 72.38% to the total published articles on this
topic. The top 5 leading countries are the United States (181), followed by the United Kingdom
(170), Australia (81), India (77) and Spain (43).
In our review, we have noticed that most of the pioneering research studies come from the
United States as the discourse on WLB originally originated in this country, a highly
industrialized country that resulted in a phenomenal increase in the involvement of women
with families in the labor force (Lewis et al., 2007). Gradually, the ongoing debate spread in the
other Western urbanized nations such as the United Kingdom, Australia and other parts of
Europe. Hence, for observation, in this research, the researchers have relied more on research
samples from the United States (19.15%), the United Kingdom (17.98%) and Australia
(8.57%). Around 1991, the Indian economy was liberalized, providing greater exposure to
global competition, opportunities for economic growth and the employment of more women.
IJSSP

Figure 2.
Annual number of
research articles
published in the field of
work–life balance

S. No Countries No. of articles

1 United States 181

2 United Kingdom 170
3 Australia 81
4 India 77
5 Spain 43
6 Canada 36
7 Germany 29
Table 3. 8 Malaysia 23
Top 10 publishing 9 Netherlands 23
countries 10 New Zealand 21

Increased participation of women compelled the organization to implement work–life

strategies to resolve conflict, gender inequality and diversity issues (Munn and Chaudhuri,
2016) which paved the way for unremitting research in this developing Asian country.
3.1.3 Journal-wise publication trend. Of the 945 research articles that have been selected for
this research study, 435 scientific journals have published. In 1998–2020, the contribution of the
top 10 journals was 43.68% in the total research published (see Table 4). The publishing activity
by various journals in this dataset deduces a wide range of journals covering diverse areas such
as human resource management, managerial and occupational psychology, social sciences,
sociology, organizational behavior, industrial relations, business research, humanities,
technology and sustainability. It indicates the relevance of the topic to a variety of subject areas.
3.1.4 Author influence analysis. Author influence analysis is also known as publishing
activity by authors that have been measured by analyzing the top contributing authors
through the VOS viewer. As per the selected dataset, 1905 authors have made contributions
to the research area of WLB, which indicates that a large number of authors have made a
small number of contributions to this field.
Helen Lingard is the highest contributor in the WLB area with eleven articles that have
been cited 228 times. The author laid the foundation for research primarily focused on
alternative working arrangements among workers in the Australian construction industry.
The list of the top 15 influential and productive authors who have added to this field of study Work–life
is illustrated in Table 5. It can be noted that Suzan Lewis published eight articles but gained balance
maximum citations of 685.
3.1.5 Articles classification based on economy. In this study, we have carried out
segregation of research papers as per the economy. Nevertheless, we observed that research
on WLB in the developing economies (such as Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Bangladesh) are
substantially less in number than the developed economies (such as the United States, the
United Kingdom and Australia), indicating a contextual void that could lead to more research
from underexplored economies by the future researchers. From the dataset of 945 studies, we
noticed that 79% were conducted in developed countries while 21% were conducted in
developing economies (see Figure 3).
WLB, as a research area, is majorly prevalent in urbanized economies as this concept
originated in the Western context. As a result, a large chunk of research studies has been
carried out in Anglo-Saxon countries (Chang et al., 2010). In economically developed
countries, some seminal research studies laid the path for ground-breaking research due to
early industrialization and technological breakthrough. Demographic shifts in the workforce
coupled with organizational developments, economic and social advancements facilitated

No. of ABDC
S. No Name of the journal articles Publisher ranking

1 International Journal of Human Resource Management 40 Taylor & Francis Online A

2 Gender, Work and Organization 27 John Wiley & Sons, Inc A
3 Personnel Review 24 Emerald Group Publishing A
4 Community, Work and Family 22 Taylor & Francis Online C
5 Work, Employment and Society 20 Sage Publications A
6 Employee Relations 16 Emerald Group Publishing B
7 Journal of Managerial Psychology 14 Emerald Group Publishing B Table 4.
8 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 9 Emerald Group Publishing B Top 10 publishing
9 Gender in Management 9 Emerald Group Publishing C journals on work–life
10 Human Relations 9 Sage Publications A* balance

Number of Total
S. No Author’s name Country Affiliation publications citations

1 Helen Lingard Australia RMIT University 11 228

2 Laura den Dulk Netherlands Erasmus University Rotterdam 9 367
3 Paula Brough Australia Griffith University 9 386
4 Suzan Lewis United Kingdom Middlesex University Business School 8 685
5 Thomas Kalliath Australia Australian National University 8 283
6 David Cegarra-Leiva Spain University of Murcia 7 119
7 Lisa Bradley Australia Queensland University of Technology 7 188
8 Chima Mordi United Kingdom Brunel University 6 32
9 Keith Townsend Australia Griffith University 6 118
10 Kerry Brown Australia Queensland University of Technology 6 188
11 Rupashree Baral India Indian Institute of Technology, 7 203
Mumbai
12 Susana Pasamar Spain Pablo de Olavide University 6 53
13 Valerie Francis Australia The University of Melbourne 6 117 Table 5.
14 Vasumathi Arumugam India VIT University 6 6 Top 15 publishing
15 Diane-Gabrielle Canada University of Quebec 5 21 authors in the field of
Tremblay work–life balance
IJSSP Articles based on type of economy

21%

Developed
Developing

Figure 3. 79%
Segregation of research
articles based on type
of economy

researchers to perform a plethora of research studies in developed economies. But much

research is yet required by upcoming researchers in less industrialized developing economies
that are culturally diverse, have an inegalitarian society, collectivistic tradition and exhibit
converging labor trends.

3.2 Sample statistics and theoretical foundation

In this section, we explored the sample statistics in terms of various methods of research and
the statistical techniques incorporated. We also identified the different theories used by
researchers as a theoretical base in their studies.
3.2.1 Research methods. Various research methods have been used to investigate extant
literature in the area of WLB. To analyze the different techniques of research incorporated in
the study undertaken (Brozovic, 2018), we categorized and coded the 945 research articles
into different study approaches through manual calculation as bibliometric databases like
Scopus do not capture such information. Of the 945 articles, 823 were empirical research
studies, while the remaining 122 were conceptual studies, which denote more inclination and
preference of researchers toward conducting empirical research. Empirical studies are based
on evidence that draws conclusions depending on observation, experimentation and analysis.
Conceptual studies are related to the advancement of a concept, theory, framing of a
conceptual model and articles of literature review.
Figure 4 depicts the percentage of varied study methods used in WLB area. Further
bifurcation of 823 empirical studies revealed that 463 employed quantitative methods, 293
were based on qualitative methods (see Figure 5), and the rest 67 used a mixed-method
approach (quantitative and qualitative). Interestingly, bulk of the empirical researches were
based on the survey, with 81% using primary data (see Figure 6), while 17% used secondary
data from other national surveys. Specifically, the quest for qualitative methods included
interviews (semi-structured and in-depth), focus group discussion, open-ended
questionnaires and the diary method.
3.2.2 Statistical techniques. We have also categorized the quantitative articles (n 5 463)
based on statistical techniques (see Figure 7) to provide in-depth insight into the most popular
and trending analysis tools. Regression analysis, followed by structural equation modeling
(SEM), was the most commonly employed quantitative technique. SEM is a multi-level
statistical technique for examining structural associations. This method investigates the
structural link between observable variables and underlying constructs and has often been
used in social sciences and psychological research (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). Other
quantitative techniques used by researchers included ANOVA, t-test, chi-square test and
descriptive analysis. Thematic analysis, narrative analysis, case study, content analysis and
grounded theory approaches were used as qualitative techniques. Importantly, findings from Work–life
the analysis suggest that existing research in the WLB corpus has used more sophisticated balance
statistical tools to produce more consistent and impactful results.
3.2.3 Theoretical basis. This section revealed that a variety of theoretical bases had been
used by researchers in the emerging field of WLB to explore how employees and organizations
in today’s dynamic work environment reconcile varied facets of life. The following figure
indicates that the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory has often been applied to provide a
theoretical perspective for comprehending work–life literature. This theory also emphasizes
that employees attempt to acquire, utilize and conserve resources that support them in the
fulfillment of things that are valuable for them, such as balance (Haar et al., 2018). Resources
have been categorized as personal characteristics, objects, energies and conditions.

Articles based on study methods

13%
Empirical
87% Conceptual Figure 4.
Segregation of research
articles based on study
methods

Empirical Studies

8%
Quantitative
36%
56% Qualitative
Mixed
Figure 5.
Segregation of research
articles based on
empirical studies

Quantitative Studies
2%

17% Survey Questionnaire

Secondary data from

other surveys Figure 6.
81% Segregation of research
Data from experiments articles based on
quantitative studies
IJSSP

Figure 7.
Segregation of research
articles based on
quantitative statistical
techniques

Our review further reveals that the other prominent and important theories used are institutional
theory, boundary/border theory, social exchange theory, role theory, organizational support
theory and self-determination theory (SDT). As the evaluations of all the mentioned theories (see
Figure 8) are difficult to accumulate in this study, we urge future researchers to investigate the
application of various theories used. More studies should be conducted to determine the
significance of theories to study varied contexts in this research field.

3.3 Citation analysis

Research question 3 was addressed through citation analysis which reveals the relative
significance and reputation of an article based on the frequency of that specific article being
cited by other articles (Ding et al., 2001). Citation analysis is a method of determining the
number of citations an article gains from other articles (Kataria et al., 2020). The added value
of analyzing the number of citations is to establish intellectual linkages i.e. uncover patterns
of scientific collaboration, map scholarly discipline landscapes, measure the impact of
research outcomes and track knowledge transfer across domains (Baker et al., 2020; Ding
et al., 2001).
3.3.1 Publication citation analysis. Table 6 reveals the top 15 highly cited research papers,
including their global citations and local citations. A global citation can be defined as the
number of times a research article in the database has been cited by other research studies,
including research from other disciplines. On the other hand, local citation represents the
attractiveness and popularity of a research paper in the group of 945 research documents
(Baker et al., 2020). Citation network analysis in the present research study suggests that 755
research papers have cited different research studies in the group of 945 research documents.
Citations per year have also been presented in Table 5 to indicate the influence of articles in
the field of WLB. The highest number of total global citations has been gained by Greenhaus
et al. (2003) from the entire Scopus database, and also the highest numbers of total local
citations have been garnered by Greenhaus et al. (2003) in our dataset 945 articles. This
research paper has often been cited by scholars to convince readers that the article not only
carries relevant information about the so-far advancements made but also strongly supports
their arguments for their research work.
3.3.2 Journal citation analysis. Table 7 represents the list of the top 15 journals’ total
citations along with the average citation per article, demonstrating the contribution of the
journals in specific research domains. This signifies the robustness of the results and
influence of the scientific journals in the research field undertaken. In this journal citation
 Theories used in Work-Life Balance research Work–life
Conservation of resources (COR) theory 36 balance
Institutional theory 26
Boundary/ border theory 26
Social exchange theory 25
Role theory 15
Spillover theory 11
Self-determination theory (SDT) 9
Organizational support theory 9
Job demands–resources (JD-R) theory 8
Social support theory 5
Social cognitive theory 4
Preference theory 4
Ecological system theory 4
Role Strain Theory 3
Role balance Theory 3
Person-environment fit theory 3
Organizational justice theory 3
Feminist theory 3
Enrichment theory 3
Structuration theory 2
Stakeholder theory 2
Social role theory 2
Signaling theory 2
Role identity theory 2
Human capital theory 2
Control theory 2
Theory of psychological wellbeing 1
Theory of planned behavior 1
Theory of cumulative advantage and disadvantage 1
Social systems theory 1
Social constructionist theory 1
Simondon’s theory of individuation 1
Sensemaking theory 1
Self-regulation of behavior theory 1
Self-discrepancy theory 1
Scarcity theory 1
Role stress theory 1
Resource drain’ theory 1
Resource dependence theory 1
Psychological contract theory 1
Production regime theory 1
Needs theory 1
McClelland’s motivational needs theory 1
Maslow’s hierarchy theory 1
Life course theory 1
Industrial relations systems theory 1
Impression Management Theory 1
Ideal worker norm theory 1
Huppatz’s theory 1
Human development theory 1
Gender–role congruence theory 1
Entrainment theory 1
Enhancing productivity theory 1
Emotional labor theory 1
Emotional contagion theory 1
Employer branding theory 1
Durkheim’s (1933) theory: The division of labor 1
Culture sensitive theory 1
Crossover theory 1
Coping Theory 1 Figure 8.
Conflict Theory 1 Theories used in work–
Cognitive appraisal theory 1
life balance research
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36

analysis, “Gender, Work and Organization” journal has the highest total citations while
“Human Relations” journal has the most citations per article on average even after making
small contributions in terms of the number of the articles to this field.
IJSSP S. Year of
No Authors Title publication TGC TGC/Yr TLC TLC/Yr

1 Greenhaus, J.H., The relation between work–family 2003 485 28.53 104 6.12
Collins, K.M., balance and quality of life
Shaw, J.D.
2 Beauregard, T.A., Making the link between work–life 2009 272 24.73 71 6.45
Henry, L.C. balance practices and organizational
performance
3 White, M., Hill, S., High-performance management 2003 263 15.47 38 2.24
Mcgovern, P., practices, working hours and work–
Mills, C., Smeaton, D life balance
4 Kelliher, C., Doing more with less? Flexible 2010 237 23.7 20 2
Anderson, D working practices and the
intensification of work
5 Tausig, M., Unbinding time: Alternate work 2001 229 12.05 46 2.42
Fenwick, R schedules and work–life balance
6 Mcdowell, l Work, workfare, work/life balance 2004 225 12.5 10 0.56
and an ethic of care
7 Crompton, R., Work-life “balance” in Europe 2006 221 15.79 29 2.07
Lyonette, C
8 Lewis, S., The constraints of a “work–life 2007 219 16.85 54 4.15
Gambles, R., balance” approach: An international
Rapoport, R perspective
9 Guest, D.E Perspectives on the study of work– 2002 214 11.26 76 4
life balance
10 Hill, E., Miller, B., Influences of the virtual office on 1998 212 9.64 24 1.09
Weiner, S., Colihan, J aspects of work and work/life
balance
11 Smithson, J., Discourses of work-life balance: 2005 211 14.07 43 2.87
Stokoe, E Negotiating “genderblind” terms in
organizations
12 Hill, E.J., Ferris, M., Does it matter where you work? A 2003 205 12.06 26 1.53
Martinson, V comparison of how three work
venues (traditional office, virtual
office and home office) influence
aspects of work and personal/family
life
13 Perrons, D The new economy and the work–life 2003 169 9.94 24 1.41
balance: Conceptual explorations
and a case study of new media
14 Emslie C., Hunt K “Live to work” or “work to live”? A 2009 154 14 33 3
qualitative study of gender and
work–life balance among men and
women in mid-life
15 Sullivan C., Lewis S Home-based telework, gender, and 2001 147 7.74 29 1.53
Table 6. the synchronization of work and
Top 15 research family: Perspectives of teleworkers
articles Total Global and their co-residents
and Total Local Note(s): TGC, Total Global Citations; TLC, Total Local Citations; TGC/Yr, Average Global Citations; TLC/Yr,
Citation Average Local Citations

3.3.3 Keyword analysis. The rationale for using keyword analysis is that it sufficiently
represents keywords used by the author’s that demonstrates an article’s content (Baker et al.,
2020). It is a unique indicator of the co-occurrence of the author’s keywords, representing the
research themes while highlighting the research trends in the field of the study undertaken
(Ding et al., 2001). It also represents the author’s self-assessment of the concepts and related
terms. We have identified the most commonly used keywords from our data set of 945
 No. of Total
Work–life
S. No Name of the journal articles citations Citation/Article balance
1 Gender, Work and Organization 27 1,466 54.30
2 International Journal of Human Resource Management 40 1,245 31.13
3 Work, Employment and Society 20 673 33.65
4 Human Relations 9 538 59.78
5 Journal of Managerial Psychology 14 491 35.07
6 Human Resource Management Journal 7 402 57.43
7 Employee Relations 16 356 22.25
8 Community, Work and Family 22 348 15.82
9 Women in Management Review 7 316 45.14
10 Personnel Review 24 307 12.79
11 Journal of Management and Organization 8 233 29.13
12 Social Indicators Research 9 195 21.67
13 New Technology, Work and Employment 7 165 23.57 Table 7.
14 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 9 64 7.12 Top 15 journals
15 Gender in Management 9 53 5.89 citation analysis

research articles through the VOS viewer-based application. Figure 9 illustrates the visual
representation of the author’s keyword co-occurrence networks.
From the figure mentioned above and Table 8, we can interpret that work–life balance has
been used most frequently that “work-life balance has been used most frequently (not
surprising) with 594 occurrences. This indicates that for the past two decades, balancing
work and varied aspects of life have been a major center of attention for many management
academics and practitioners (Sirgy and Lee, 2017). WLB is a major social issue that has
provoked a huge corpus of academic investigation. The other two prominent keywords that
occurred with WLB are ‘gender’ (97 occurrences) and ‘work-family conflict’ (60 occurrences).”
A noteworthy result is that the term WLB and gender has often been used together to
underline gender equality/inequality, gender biases and gender-wage gaps to demonstrate

Figure 9.
Author keyword co-
occurrence network
IJSSP S. No Keyword Occurrence

1 Work–life balance 594

2 Gender 97
3 Work–family conflict 60
4 Job satisfaction 59
5 Work–life conflict 32
6 Women 31
7 Stress 30
8 Flexibility 27
9 Work–family balance 25
10 Australia 22
11 Quality of life 20
12 Family 18
Table 8. 13 Well-being 16
Top 15 keywords 14 Work–family enrichment 16
based on their 15 Organizational culture 15
occurrence Note(s): Occurrences based on author keyword occurrences

how gender is intertwined with WLB (Lyness and Judiesch, 2014; Rehman and Roomi, 2012).
Therefore, it has emerged as a prominent research theme. The imbalance between work and
non-work has also been examined by researchers using a conflict perspective that
emphasizes the fact that as these realms pull individuals in opposite directions, there exists
incompatibility (Abendroth and Dulk, 2011).

3.4 Bibliographic coupling analysis

The concept of bibliographic coupling analysis was proposed by Kessler (1963), who viewed
the grouping of large numbers of documents based on a rigorously defined criterion of
coupling known as data clustering. It is considered a useful approach for identifying varied
aspects of prevailing themes on a research topic. Bibliographic coupling takes place when
two papers refer to the same third work, which implies a probability that two documents deal
with the same topic (Yuan et al., 2015).
A similar intellectual content pattern is exhibited by documents based on the
bibliographic coupling. Therefore, this method of coupling has been used to explore the
intellectual structure of the WLB corpus. Based on common references and their link
strength, ten interconnected clusters appeared in the visualized bibliometric network with
898 clustered articles (95%) out of a total of 945 articles for analysis. The remaining 47 articles
were not included as they did not share a common reference with others within this dataset.
3.4.1 Thematic overview of the WLB corpus. To explore the diversification of research
topics within these formed clusters, thematic analysis of the top 4 clusters, which account for
97% of the total clustered articles, has been discussed in detail. For analyzing the themes,
research articles with global citations greater than 40 were considered, resulting in a final
corpus of 125 articles as depicted in Table 9. A similar criterion was applied by Baker et al.
(2020) to know the central themes of the top clusters based on highly cited papers as it has
become a preferred practice for carrying out bibliometric analysis.
3.4.1.1 Cluster 1: flexible work arrangements (FWA). The analytical investigation of this
cluster suggests that it is the largest cluster consisting of 364 articles which accounts for 41% of
the total clustered articles. Cluster 1 emerged in 1998, has the highest number of citations
(9,728), and, from 2007, the number of articles significantly expanded. This cluster articles have
a specific focus on the key aspect of the impact of flexible working arrangements (FWA) on
employees’ WLB (Kelliher and Anderson, 2010; Lewis et al., 2007; Tausig and Fenwick, 2001;
White et al., 2003). This cluster also consists of the highest number of articles, i.e. 67, based on Work–life
our criteria of research articles with global citations greater than 40. Among these 67 articles, balance
the highest number of articles comes from the United Kingdom (39). From the United States (10),
from Australia (3), Ireland (3) and Netherlands (3), and rest from others (9). The articles from
different countries in this cluster came from developed countries and emphasized the purpose
and benefits of implementing FWA such as teleworking, part-time, alternative work schedules,
compressed working time, schedule control and flexible hour’s system (Golden, 2008; Gregory
et al., 2013; Lewis and Humbert, 2010; Loretto and Vickerstaff, 2015; Russell et al., 2009).
Alternative work arrangements facilitate employees to lead a healthy and balanced
lifestyle, reducing the spillover and providing employees more scope to adapt their work and
non-work demands. However, the effects of such alternative work arrangements are
relatively small compared to the impact of long working hours (Russell et al., 2009; White
et al., 2003). As stated earlier, Kelliher and Anderson (2010) added that introducing varied
forms of flexible working practices would yield different outcomes. For instance, it was a tool
for some organizations to attract and retain highly qualified employees and enhance their
coping behavior. In contrast, others needed to stay competitive in the labor market rather
than as a perk for employees. In their paper, Smithson and Stokoe (2005) stated that when
employees have more responsibilities in the family, they use flexible working practices as a
necessity rather than viewing it as an extra benefit.
Further, in their study, Hill et al. (1998) found that teleworking practices offered by the
organization provided employees greater flexibility in terms of timing and place for carrying
out their official work. Both organizations and employees could get benefitted from these
arrangements. On the one hand, it could facilitate organizations to enhance their productivity;
on the other hand, employees could juggle work and family spheres (Hill et al., 2003).
Alternative work arrangements do not question firmly held beliefs about how work should be
done, the characteristics of ideal workers, or the inevitability of long and unquestioned work
hours. Instead, these are often used as a rhetorical instrument to promote the adoption of
procedures that are in effect double-edged (Lewis et al., 2007).
In this cluster, three cross-national studies focused on the analysis of the FWA, suggesting
that alternative work arrangements are influenced by the cultural centrality of work and
national circumstances in which they are embedded (Dulk et al., 2013; Hobson et al., 2011;
Tomlinson, 2007). Some articles in this cluster also discussed varied perspectives regarding
FWA and WLB (Chandra, 2012; Eikhof et al., 2007; Fleetwood, 2007). For instance, in their
paper, Chandra (2012) analyzed that multinational companies in western countries
emphasized flexible working practices and gave more preference to the aspect of WLB. On
the other hand, Indian companies relied more on providing benefits to employees and focused
on assistance agendas such as educational, cultural and recreational aspects. In view of
Eikhof et al. (2007) and Fleetwood (2007), WLB necessitates a reconsideration of the
workplace, work experience and a more holistic view of life. Indeed, FWA is sought to
enhance the WLB of employees, though the critical concern is how to foster FWA into
practice in terms of employee well-being and organizational performance.

Cluster no Total no. of articles Articles sorted for thematic analysis (TGC > 40)

Cluster 1 364 67
Cluster 2 197 15
Cluster 3 182 27
Cluster 4 126 16 Table 9.
Total 869 125 Classification of
Note(s): TGC, Total Global Citation clusters
IJSSP 3.4.1.2 Cluster 2: gender differences in work–life balance. Cluster 2 research articles
predominantly discuss the impact of gender on the WLB of employees and the level of
difficulties women face in juggling between their work and non-work domain. This cluster
encompasses the fewest articles, 15 in total, with the most articles from Australia (4) and then
from the United States (3). Further, New Zealand and Ireland contributed equally, i.e. two,
while other countries accounted for three articles. Research papers from these countries were
centered around gender egalitarianism, gender bias, gender roles, women entrepreneurs,
gender–wage gaps and work culture (Deery and Jago, 2009; Gropel and Khul, 2009; Haar et al.,
2014; Lyness and Judiesch, 2014; Rehman and Roomi, 2012). The studies in this cluster
emphasize that although there is a significant amount of increase in the contribution of
women in the employment over time, they still face several hassles in managing their work
and home roles due to work overload, non-involvement of the husband in household chores,
childcare responsibilities, gender biases in organizations, gender–wage gaps, and the social
and cultural norms of patriarchal societies which suggest that women have all the
responsibilities of performing domestic roles (Rehman and Roomi, 2012; Shockley et al., 2017).
It can be inferred that individuals often associate men and women with specific roles,
resulting in gender stereotypes that make them experience gender differences in attaining
balance in various aspects of life.
In their paper, Haar et al. (2014) and Lyness and Judiesch (2014) argued that countries with
high gender egalitarianism often experience increased WLB as both men and women
participate in work and non-work roles considered to be socially acceptable. The research
study further emphasized that traditional gender norms are less followed in cultures with
substantial gender egalitarianism than in cultures with low gender egalitarianism. Gender
egalitarianism reveals the existence of “beliefs about whether members’ biological sex should
determine the roles that they play in their homes, business organizations, and communities”
(House et al., 2004, p. 347). The other sub-themes explored in this cluster include gender
discrepancy, gender equality and gender identity issues. However, these articles are recent
and will be discussed in detail in the content analysis section of recent articles.
3.4.1.3 Cluster 3: work–life interface and its related concepts. The first paper published in
cluster 3 was in 2001, with the second-highest number of citations (3,707). The top-cited article
among all clusters is by Greenhaus et al. (2003), with 485 citations belonging to this cluster. In
this article, the authors have described WFB as “the extent to which an individual is equally
engaged in—and equally satisfied with—his or her work role and family role” (Greenhaus
et al., 2003, p. 513). The article presented a broader perspective on WFB by distinguishing it
from other related concepts of the work–family interface, such as conflict, enrichment and
integration. This cluster comprised a total set of 27 articles, and the majority of the research
papers came from the United States (11). From the Netherlands came four papers, while
Australia and Canada contributed equally, i.e. three papers. The articles from the rest of the
countries were about six. This cluster articles focused on varied perspectives such as WFB,
work–family/life conflict, WFE, work–family facilitation and work–home spillover, work–life
balance. Extant literature in this field has been more skewed toward negative experiences of
conflict due to intrusion among work and family roles which is bidirectional and has been
commonly cited as WFC and family-to-work conflict (FWC). The other recent concepts, such
as enrichment and facilitation, stress the fact that work can benefit family life and vice versa
(Abendroth and Dulk, 2011; Baral and Bhargava, 2010; Grawitch et al., 2010).
Recently, research on WLB focused on three key areas: work, family and personal life. The
personal life adds a third dimension that relates to an individual’s activities outside the family
domain, such as community, sport, leisure and other activities. On similar lines, Haar (2013)
defined WLB as “an individual is able to adequately manage the multiple roles in their life,
including work, family and other major responsibilities” (Haar, 2013, p. 3308). After
performing deep scrutiny of articles in this cluster, it was found that although the term
“WLB” has been widely employed within this research field, there is not yet any well-accepted Work–life
definition of this term (Abendroth and Dulk, 2011; Greenhaus et al., 2003; Haar, 2013). balance
Therefore, it can be inferred that the definition of this construct has not remained consistent,
and henceforth the assessment of balance remains a problematic concern (Brough et al., 2014;
Chang et al., 2010; Sirgy and Lee, 2017).
Some research articles of this cluster emphasize that WLB is an emerging theme in the
field of human resource management, with a plethora of interventions and programs aimed at
assisting employees in balancing the competing demands of multiple aspects of life (Cahill
et al., 2015). There are three prominent reasons for WLB gaining so much importance and
preference as an emerging theme. First, 24/7 communication technology has obscured the
boundary between one’s work and personal life; therefore, long working hours coupled with
higher work demands have raised serious interest among researchers in understanding how
employees can reconcile their work with other aspects of life. Second, the increased
participation of married women with children in the workforce has raised concerns regarding
how families manage their work and family responsibilities. Last, there is a constant shift in
workplace perceptions, with younger generations giving more preference to WLB over other
aspects such as advancing their career (Cahill et al., 2015; Fischlmayr and Kollinger, 2010).
Overall, the majority of articles in this cluster emphasized varied concepts of work–life
interface such as conflict, enrichment, segmentation, spillover, integration and balance.
3.4.1.4 Cluster 4: work–life balance policies and practices. This cluster has 126 articles;
with the first one published in the year 2001 and has the third-highest number of citations
(2,359). It has been analyzed that the articles belonging to this cluster shed light on how
companies have executed WLBPs and practices to offer employees flexibility, help them in
taking care of dependents, and manage their employment-related and family-personal needs,
apart from enhancing organizational effectiveness (Beauregard and Henry, 2009; Casper
et al., 2007; McCarthy et al., 2010). Nowadays, organizations acknowledge the benefits of
implementing WLBPs, but underuse of these policies remains a common problem. Not all
employees can take advantage of WLBPs even when these are helpful. In this cluster for
conducting thematic analysis based on our criteria of global citation greater than 40, we had
16 articles for thematic analysis. The countries that contributed an equal number of articles
included the United Kingdom (2), New Zealand (2) and Ireland (2). India, Netherlands and
Spain contributed one paper each. A range of family-friendly policies and practices
documented by researchers in their research papers included flexible working options (such
as flextime, compressed workweek, work from home/telework, job sharing and part-time),
organizational support for dependent care (such as health and medical facilities), child care
assistance measures (such as onsite childcare/cr
eches, kindergarten and childcare allowance),
leave policy (such as leave for maternity/paternity, adoption, casual, compassionate,
education, sabbaticals and training), informational services like eldercare assistance and
support for miscellaneous activities such as laundry services (Beauregard and Henry, 2009;
Chung, 2020; Cieri et al., 2005; Darcy et al., 2012; Lai-ching and Kam-wah, 2012; McDonald
et al., 2005; Smith and Gardner, 2007). The work culture of a country, to a larger extent,
determines the company’s provision for WLBPs (Chung, 2020).
The detailed examination of research articles in this cluster suggests that there lies a gap
between the availability and usage of multiple WLBPs by employees, in particular, due to
lack of organizational support for the uptake of these policies by employees, the gendered
nature of policy usage and perception of negative career consequences by employees (Dulk
and Ruijter, 2008; McDonald et al., 2005). Further, Chung (2020) argues that the individual-
level determinants of WLB policy specifically include FWA, as such arrangements are
viewed as a component of high-performance strategy, employed not only to suit the needs of
employees but also to improve the company’s performance outcomes. Research studies by
Brough et al. (2008) and Zheng et al. (2015) suggest that providing WLBPs not only helps
IJSSP employees to enhance their well-being but also facilitates greater fertility along with
increased labor employment. In France and Nordic nations, the study of Jaumotte (2003) and
Prioux and Mandelbaum (2005) found a link between female force participation and increased
fertility rates with WLB initiatives. Though the author, Brough et al. (2008), in their study,
have raised concerns that the provision of WLBPs alone is insufficient to completely address
social implications, for instance, low fertility rates as rising unemployment and falling
earnings may create changes in fertility rates. Overall, the intellectual sketch of this cluster
represents that the articles in this cluster are related to WLBPs, practices, initiatives,
strategies and measures, suggesting a close relationship between articles.
3.4.2 Evolution of the top 4 clusters. Figure 10 represents the progress of the top 4 clusters
from the year 1998–2020. The cluster growth reveals the research paradigms in this area from
the initial years till now. Cluster 1 on flexible work arrangements is the largest cluster that
retains its dominance indicating that various organizations over the years have adopted and
emphasized the relevance of alternative work arrangements such as teleworking, part-time,
compressed work hours and compressed work schedules. Cluster 2 emerged late in
comparisons with other clusters, i.e. in the year 2004. Cluster 3 focused on the work–life
interface and its core concepts, representing a uniform growth pattern over the years. The
last cluster, i.e. cluster 4 on the theme of WLBPs and practices, has evolved in 2001 and has
the third-highest number of citations (2,359). Table 10 provides an overview of these top four
classified clusters representing the cluster central theme representative of research
paradigms, while the significant sub-topics explored within each theme shape and
influence the research perspective.

4. Discussion
Herein, we present an analytical view by summarizing the study’s findings to provide
knowledge gained from the extant research in the area of WLB. The dataset consisted of 945
final documents, which we analyzed with the help of various bibliometric techniques.

40

35

30

25
Cluster-1
20 Cluster-2
Cluster-3
15
Cluster-4

10

5
Figure 10.
Evolution of the four 0
2003

2013
1998
2001
2002

2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

WLB clusters
Cluster
no Cluster theme Major topics explored TP TCA Top cited article title Year TC Authors

1 Flexible work
High performance management practices, 364 9,728 “High-performance management 2003 263 White M., Hill S.,
arrangements
alternative work arrangements/schedules, practices, working hours and McGovern P., Mills
flexibility, virtual office/telework, working work–life balance” C., Smeaton D
hours and telecommuting
2 Gender differences Gender egalitarianism, gender bias, 197 2,122 “Outcomes of work–life balance on 2014 139 Haar J.M., Russo M.,
in work-life balance gender roles, women entrepreneurs, job satisfaction, life satisfaction Su~
ne A., Ollier-
gender equality, gender identity issues, and mental health: a Study across Malaterre A
gender–wage gaps and work culture seven cultures”
3 Work–life interface Work–family balance, work–family/life 182 3,707 “The relation between work-family 2003 485 Greenhaus J.H.,
and its related conflict, work–family enrichment, work– balance and quality of life” Collins K.M., Shaw
concepts family facilitation and work–home J.D
spillover, and work–life balance
4 Work–life balance WLB strategies and practices, 126 2,359 “Making the link between work– 2009 272 Beauregard T.A.,
policies and organizational interventions, family- life balance practices and Henry L.C
practices friendly policies, WLB initiatives, organizational performance”
organizational work–life balance support
measures
Note(s): TP, Total Publications; TCA, Total Citation of all Articles; TC, Total Citation
balance

Overview of the top 5

Work–life

classified clusters
Table 10.
IJSSP Bibliometric analysis, in particular, examines bibliometric data from a vast corpus of
literature to uncover various significant themes and thematic trends, resulting in a detailed
summary of the literature under consideration. The descriptive statistics (RQ1) elucidate the
patterns of research publication on WLB. We noticed that the majority of this field’s research
has only gained significant traction in the current decade, perhaps partly driven by the dearth
of research on the balance concept. Earlier studies in work–life interface literature explored
the conflict and interference between work and non-work areas accounting for negative
consequences, thereby ignoring the positive aspects. With technological advancements
diminishing the boundary between work and home and intensifying work demands, scholars
have called to investigate and explore policies and interventions that could help the
employees maintain better balance in various areas of life. Our inquisitive analysis of data
revealed that 77% of these WLB research papers were published since 2011, and 121 articles
from a total set of 945 in 2020 alone. Therefore, we can infer that despite its emergence from
the year 1998, this research topic has gained momentum in recent years only. Different
research directions have been explored by examining new concepts, addressing traditional
issues, and investigating quantitative and qualitative techniques.
Regarding the geographical distribution of research papers, the United States is the
absolute leader in this area as early industrialization took place here. Since then, discourse on
WLB has also become popular in developed countries. Though the discussion on this topic
has gained acceptance in developed countries, there exists a gap in terms of research in this
area from the lens of developing countries, which can be filled through fruitful studies. For
sample statistics, most of the literature consists of empirical studies that have adopted a
quantitative method (RQ2). Our analytical synopsis of the research area suggests that future
researchers can focus on more comprehensive reviews as such reviews complement more to
the studies of this genre. The count of research documents having global citations greater
than a hundred is thirty-five, which suggests that the topic of WLB is of global importance
and has significant implications for employees, families and organizations (RQ3). The
majority of the highly cited WLB research studies emphasized the concurring concepts such
as WLB practices, alternative work schedules and the gendered nature of organizational
practices.
Further, bibliographic coupling analysis was utilized to find out the intellectual content
pattern exhibited by the documents (RQ4). The formation of meaningful clusters was used to
know the diversification of research areas. The prevalent themes of the top four clusters were
explored with the help of thematic analysis. Cluster 1 on FWA displayed uniform
performance throughout the journey, suggesting sustained implications of these
arrangements in employees’ work and non-work areas. Following that, cluster 2 on gender
differences in WLB emphasized key areas such as gender–wage gaps, gender egalitarianism,
gender biases, patriarchy and gender equality. In contrast, articles in cluster 3 used different
core concepts such as WLB, WFC, WFE and WFB to re-conceptualize the framework
surrounding the work–life interface. The last cluster highlighted researchers’ efforts to
examine a range of WLB initiatives and interventions offered by organizations to improve
employee attitudes, behaviors and organizational performance. Lastly, we can infer that the
four meaningful clusters obtained fairly revealed the major research areas in the field. This
research study goes two steps beyond a literature review process by providing
comprehensive coverage of the area, thematic analysis of papers that occurred in clusters,
a discussion of recent research trends and recommendations for future research.

5. Emerging research patterns and future work activities

In this section, we have carried out a separate content investigation of research papers
published in recent years, i.e. in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Only ABDC-ranked papers of the last
three years have been selected for further content analysis (Goyal and Kumar, 2021), which Work–life
comprised a total set of 155 articles. There are two prominent reasons for carrying out recent balance
articles content analysis based on such criteria. First, research gaps and new research trends
are set by recent research papers, and therefore it becomes essential to carry out such an
investigation. Second, these recent papers have received less citation and are not discussed in
the thematic analysis section, as we adopted a selection measure of global citation greater
than 40. Additionally, as there has been an outgrowth in WLB research in recent years, these
studies provide a strong base for future research directions.

5.1 Gender discrepancy

Gender disparity has remained one of the hot topics in the area of WLB, with the involvement
of women in the workforce (Adisa et al., 2019; Croft et al., 2018; Hagqvist et al., 2020; Lamolla
and Gonzalez Ramos, 2018; Ren and Caudle, 2020). But, notably, the increase in the number of
women in the workforce was not followed by an increase in the count of men working in the
domestic and family spheres, which still forces women to do household chores additionally.
The gender-based work roles performed by women in today’s industrialized economies are
the clearest reflection of the reality of the female working population (Belwal et al., 2020;
Rincon and Martinez, 2020). Women in both professional and non-professionals work roles do
housework, and they rarely have free or leisure time for themselves. Gender inequality has
arisen due to the uneven division of family roles between men and women (Adisa et al., 2019;
Ren and Caudle, 2020; Thun, 2020). Moreover, this unequal allocation of housework between
both genders leads to a perception that women’s work is less significant than men’s, which
has been linked to occupational segregation and wage disparities (Rincon and
Martinez, 2020).
Recent studies conducted on analyzing the effect of pandemic on the WLB of employees
have also emphasized that such crises have exaggerated the already existing gender
inequalities (Bhumika, 2020). Women have been under tremendous pressure as they were
forced to work-from-home amid this unusual situation. They even reported devoting less time
to work and more time to fulfill family and domestic obligations than men (Palumbo, 2020).
Indeed, they struggled to adjust their work–life arrangements. Women took on more mental
effort than usual as they tried to keep everybody calm, safe and protected while dealing with
severe emotional labor. They were burdened by the division of household responsibilities
while juggling their responsibilities of childcare, eldercare and paid work which caused them
stress (Utoft, 2020).
Further, other research articles have emphasized that women employees in organizations
often report an adverse work environment that prevents them from progressing in their
careers, known as the “glass ceiling.” This concept of an organization-based glass ceiling also
expounds on the existence of the gender-wage disparity (Akanji et al., 2020a; Stoilova et al.,
2020). The major factors impeding the progression and advancement of women employees in
organizations include the stress to prioritize multiple tasks, the lack of FWA, the absence of
career opportunities and manifold family commitments. Care obligations, such as sharing
roles and responsibilities with a spouse in a dual-earner family or providing care to elderly
parents, tend to have a significant impact on women’s career choices (Belwal et al., 2020; Ren
and Caudle, 2020). The factors responsible for bringing changes in their career choices and
decision to “opt-out” or remain in the workforce had received very little attention in the extant
literature (Lim and Rasdi, 2019). As a result, research evidence is scarce when it comes to
addressing those factors that persuade women’s choice to leave the workplace, whether it is a
voluntary opt-out, such as experiencing motherhood, or a pushed-out factor, such as
organizational or social strain. In this respect, the research study of Lim and Rasdi (2019)
examined several “pushed-out” factors such as occupational inflexibility, work overload,
institutionalized patriarchy and long working hours, which have a greater impact on women
IJSSP professionals leaving the workplace than “opt-out” factors, which concentrate on biological
and psychological “pulls” that entice women back into traditional motherhood roles. As the
career patterns and choices of women are influenced by family and work-related factors such
as gendered structures, social norms and dynamics of organizations, capturing the dynamics
of their professions has been difficult (Gewinner, 2019).
While significant research has been carried out on gender disparity with WLB in Western
and developed economies, such types of studies in developing economies continue to be in
their nascent stage (Akanji et al., 2020a; Belwal et al., 2020; Nwagbara, 2020). In the majority of
the developing countries, employment relations are still structured around gender roles and
social norms, resulting in disproportionate subordination of women as men are associated
with being the breadwinners while women are often assumed to be the home caregivers
(Akanji et al., 2020a; Belwal et al., 2020; Masood and Nisar, 2020; Shabir and Gani, 2020). Such
a condition perpetuates a high workload and stress, making women especially vulnerable to
work–life issues. Specifically, our publication trend based on the type of economy section also
suggests that most research studies in this area cater to developed countries (e.g. the United
States and the United Kingdom), which specify that there exit potential prospects to enrich
the WLB corpus through the lens of developing countries (e.g. Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and
Bangladesh), and the same has been backed by the studies mentioned above of researchers. In
this aspect, the following research questions are proposed that can be answered by future
researchers:
RQ1. What are the WLB obstacles and stressors experienced by women in varied
professions in developing countries?
RQ2. What are the coping strategies used by women in developing countries to deal with
work–life issues?
RQ3. How organizations in developing countries could address WLB challenges faced by
women professionals?
As it is evident from the research studies that present literature is more concentrated toward
the gendered perspective revolving around working women, and mothers, married workers
and dual-earner couples, there is a research gap that requires the attention of future
researchers, i.e. single professionals who do not have children – a workgroup that has
traditionally been overlooked in WLB research (Akanji et al., 2020b; Wilkinson et al., 2018). A
balance between work and the rest of life is equally vital for them, as it is for employees who
are married and have children. Single professionals have other essential aspects of life such as
education, community service, recreation, friends, health and well-being, which require their
attention. Unmarried professionals’ work–life stress is compounded by long working hours
and erratic closing times, reflecting specific time constraints, which raises questions about
the fairness of WLBPs that prioritize the interests of those with family responsibilities.
Therefore, we propose another research question here:
RQ4. In what ways do single professionals manage their work–life issues and view their
organization’s WLBPs in terms of fairness?
RQ5. How do single professionals’ attitudes and behaviors at work change due to their
perceptions of the fairness of WLBPs?
Besides gender, another pertinent social status such as education is a promising area of
discussion among future researchers. The research study by Stoilova et al. (2020) points out that
attainment of higher education promotes a more egalitarian distribution of household work
between men and women. Men with higher education are more likely to consider WLB as an
essential criterion while selecting a job, whereas women with lower education are less likely to
consider this balance. In a nutshell, we can infer that education should be more closely Work–life
considered in the revolution of gender-sensitive norms and that more holistic policy balance
interventions should be designed to overcome the plethora of obstacles that employees from
developing countries and ethnic backgrounds encounter while balancing their work and other
essential areas of life. An additional research question proposed to be addressed in this
direction is:
RQ6. What effect does education have on men and women’s WLB?
RQ7. What simultaneous effect of education level, gender and ethnicity on WLB of
employees?

5.2 Impact of different forms of contextual (situational) factors

Research in the area of the work–life interface has predominantly been focused on the conflict
perspective (Geraldes et al., 2018; O’Neill and Follmer, 2020; Talukder, 2019). It has been well
acknowledged and established by researchers that employees who encounter conflict
between work and non-work demands more often experience detrimental individual
outcomes such as poor physical and psychological health, negative impact on marital life and
job-related consequences such as absenteeism, turnover, job dissatisfaction and burnout
(Baral and Sampath, 2019; Ferri et al., 2018; Selvarajan et al., 2019). A plethora of literature on
interference perspective have examined various antecedents contributing to WFC and FWC,
such as work overload, hours worked, family demands, family pressures, neuroticism and
low self-efficacy (Baral, 2019; Chan et al., 2020; Cheng et al., 2019; Weale et al., 2020).
Another context that has paved the way for the current research in this domain is the role
of situational factors such as supervisor and organizational support, family support, spouse
support, job autonomy and workplace support in assisting employees in dealing with conflict
and attaining balance (Baral, 2019; Chan et al., 2020; Haar and Brougham, 2020; Haar et al.,
2018; Kalliath et al., 2020; Talukder et al., 2018). Organizational support (workplace,
supervisor and co-worker support) has been identified as an important contributing factor
influencing employees’ behaviors, attitudes, and expectations and shaping their capability to
attain balance (Baral and Sampath, 2019; Ferri et al., 2018; Talukder, 2019). Support is offered
to reinforce job motivation and commitment as well as to assist employees in better managing
their resources and reducing conflict between professional and personal obligations.
Moreover, employees’ perceptions of workplace support reflect their belief that their
organization appreciates their contribution and hard work and is apprehensive about their
well-being. Furthermore, such support seeks to encourage the proper scheduling of tasks,
allowing employees to find solutions tailored to their specific needs (Chan et al., 2020; O’Neill
and Follmer, 2020; Selvarajan et al., 2019).
Job autonomy, another contextual factor, has been defined by researchers as an
employee’s ability to make decisions about how they do their work without being overly
monitored (Zheng et al., 2019). Current work–life research studies have identified job
autonomy as a valuable resource that can assist employees in achieving their desired level of
WLB. For example, employees who have better control over their work can manage their time
well and can efficiently complete their professional and personal commitments (Cheng et al.,
2019; Haar and Brougham, 2020; Weale et al., 2020). Meanwhile, support from family and
partners have also emerged as admissible areas in this domain. Family may provide an
employee both instrumental and emotional support, which are notably similar to workplace
support. Hence, it can be stated that employees who receive generous support from family
and spouses are indeed capable of solving their varied problems and balancing their work
with other aspects of life (Baral, 2019; Durodolu and Mamudu, 2020; Ferri et al., 2018).
An in-depth investigation of articles that have been published in recent years suggests
that there are only a handful of research studies from the developed economies that have
IJSSP examined the relative importance of situational predictors in minimizing conflict and
providing balance, while such research studies from developing economies are sporadic
(Baral, 2019) and require further inquiry as the family, cultural and societal contexts of
developing economies are distinct from the Western economies. Therefore, we propose a
context-based research question:
RQ8. How can situational factors facilitate employees to attain a healthy WLB?
Moreover, additional groundwork is required by future researchers to know the predictive
strength of psychological capital (resources) in enhancing the WLB of employees (Haar and
Brougham, 2020), as, so far, such an investigation has not been anticipated. Psychological
capital such as self-efficacy, optimism and resiliency could help employees cope with
conflicting demands (Baral, 2019). In this direction, more studies on psychological capital are
required to gauge the self-regulatory behaviors that employees employ to accomplish WLB
(Gravador and Teng-Calleja, 2018). Hence, an additional research question that has been put
forth is:
RQ9. What is the effect of psychological capital on the WLB of employees?

5.3 Organizational culture

In the last few years, there have been momentous changes in the composition of the workforce
and also how jobs are performed in organizations. Employees are certainly feeling the effect
of dynamic shifts of employment – such as shifting from normal, routine, and time-bound
jobs to more nuanced, challenging workplaces amid COVID-19 – on their WLB. Insights from
our keyword analysis also infer that “organizational culture” is an emerging keyword and
theme that researchers are exploring, as this particular keyword plays a pivotal role in
influencing the WLB of employees at present (Anand and Vohra, 2020; Brown et al., 2020;
Shabir and Gani, 2020).
The expectations of employees from their organizations have changed from being merely a
provider to offering a culture that meets employees’ evolving needs. Employees working in
multinational organizations demand more than just fair pay, benefits and bonus from their
organizations. They expect that their organizations should provide them with a culture
whereby they sense more rewarding work experiences and opportunities to develop and grow
professionally and personally. They also wish their organizations to assist them in achieving a
better balance between their work and non-work domains (Anand and Vohra, 2020). An
organization’s culture is considered supportive when the management considers the non-work
life aspects of their employees and provides suitable measures that help them achieve a better
WLB. In this process, various organizations may have the necessary policies in place on paper,
but their implementation is perhaps limited, which means that organizations may have the
necessary institutional support (such as policies and strategies). Still, they may be lacking the
required cultural support (such as a positive and enabling work climate), which encourages the
adoption of such practices (Feeney and Stritch, 2019; Rashmi and Singh, 2020; Sanchez-Vidal
et al., 2019; Weale et al., 2020). Recent studies (see Anand and Vohra, 2020; Brown et al., 2020)
highlight that employees are apprehensive about taking advantage of WLBPs as it could
adversely damage their professional career if there is not a supportive organizational culture.
Family-friendly initiatives are more likely to be implemented and taken up by employees when
an organization’s culture is invested in providing balance to its employees by alleviating
conflict between their work and non-work demands (Oyewobi et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2019; Yu,
2018). If an organization’s culture still supports traditional functioning, WLBPs would be
difficult to implement in such organizations.
Negative perceptions about organizational culture can cause a greater amount of work–
life imbalance, job dissatisfaction and high turnover intentions among employees. In
addition, employees’ beliefs and experiences at workplace are greatly determined by their Work–life
perception of how supportive an organization’s culture is (Shah and Barker, 2020). Despite the balance
constant emphasis by the researchers for more scrutiny on the role of supportive
organizational culture in influencing work and non-work demands, there are only a few
research papers that have explored the need for supportive organizational culture by
employees (Anand and Vohra, 2020; Han and McLean, 2020; Ferri et al., 2018). The way
employees and organizations address the issues of WLB is influenced by cultural differences.
Employees’ family needs, responsibilities and personal circumstances are backed by a
supportive organizational culture that encourages flexibility and responsiveness. On the
other hand, unsupportive and intolerant organizational culture intensifies employees’
inability to balance the competing demands of life, which often results in conflict (O’Neill and
Follmer, 2020). In this direction, we propose the following research question that future
studies should disentangle:
RQ10. What repercussions does supportive organizational culture have on
employees’ WLB?
Supervisors display a crucial role in developing the culture of an organization. To provide a
supportive work culture to employees, management should provide guidelines to supervisors
to be understanding, sympathetic and sensitive toward the work and non-work issues of
employees and ensure WLBPs are provided (Brown et al., 2020; Talukder, 2019). Though, it is
critical to distinguish between employees’ perception of their superiors’ family-
supportiveness and the amount of family-supportiveness offered by their organizations.
Hence, we propose a research question:
RQ11. In what ways employees’ perception of their superiors’ family-supportiveness is
different from family-supportiveness offered by their organizations?
Further, even though societal culture has obtained far less notice in work–life interface
research as compared to organizational culture (Brown et al., 2020), some scholars claim that
organizational norms, beliefs and measures, as well as individual actions inside
organizations, are influenced by societal culture (Beauregard et al., 2018). For instance,
employees could find it more convoluted to take benefit of WLBPs if they do not match with
society’s culture. The model of value dimensions proposed by Hofstede (2001) has been used
in literature to measure cultures of different societies (Ollier-Malaterre and Foucreault, 2017).
However, simultaneous examination of societal and organizational culture in WLB literature
is scarce; hence, to fill this gap, more research works are required to be performed by future
researchers to investigate:
RQ12. What facets of organizational and societal culture do employees in developed and
developing economies believe to affect their use of WLBPs?

6. Conclusion and limitations

As a whole, our review paper hopes to provide valuable insights into WLB through a
systematic literature-review-cum-bibliometric analysis. First, this paper taps the
retrospective developments of the field by employing publication trends. Second, the study
provided a brief account of the sample statistics and the theoretical foundation used in the
extant literature. Third, the citation analysis provided an outline of the chosen area of
research by laying out the structure of the research fields using different indicators. Highly
cited top research articles and journals were reported to measure the attractiveness and
significance of articles and journals in this field as well as to provide a map of the knowledge
domain to the early researchers. Fourth, an intellectual structure in this field has been
IJSSP explored through bibliographic coupling analysis. Further, thematic analysis was also
performed to extract varied research themes of clusters and sub-themes within the known
clusters. Lastly, the emerging research patterns and future work activities were examined
through the content investigation of the latest articles.
Although the study consisted of 945 peer-reviewed articles extracted from the Scopus
database, this study, like other studies, also have some limitations. As mentioned earlier, our
study has used the Scopus database, an eminently dynamic database that gets updated on a
regular basis. As a result, there is the scope that the findings of this review paper might get
altered by the time it is published. In this review, we have not developed a conceptual
framework; therefore, future researchers can design a comprehensive framework to provide a
better perspective on WLB. This paper has used only VOS viewer software for performing
bibliometric analysis; other software such as Gephi 0.9.2 can also be used to perform page
rank, modularity and network visualization. Despite the limitations mentioned above, this
piece of research work could serve as a basic groundwork for understanding research in the
area of WLB, its current stage and the thematic flow of knowledge.

References
Abendroth, A.K. and Den Dulk, L. (2011), “Support for the work-life balance in Europe: the impact of
state, workplace and family support on work-life balance satisfaction”, Work, Employment and
Society, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 234-256, doi: 10.1177/0950017011398892.
Adisa, T.A., Osabutey, E.L. and Gbadamosi, G. (2017), “The implications of work-family balance
among dual-earner couples: the case of medical practitioners in Nigeria”, Career Development
International, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 351-371, doi: 10.1108/CDI-09-2016-0154.
Adisa, T., Abdulraheem, I. and Isiaka, S.B. (2019), “Patriarchal hegemony: investigating the impact of
patriarchy on women’s work-life balance”, Gender in Management: An International Journal,
Vol. 34 No. 1, pp. 19-33, doi: 10.1108/GM-07-2018-0095.
Agarwal, S. and Lenka, U. (2015), “Study on work-life balance of women entrepreneurs–review and
research agenda”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 47 No. 7, pp. 356-362, doi: 10.1108/
ICT-01-2015-0006.
Akanji, B., Mordi, C. and Ajonbadi, H.A. (2020a), “The experiences of work-life balance, stress, and
coping lifestyles of female professionals: insights from a developing country”, Employee
Relations: The International Journal, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 999-1015, doi: 10.1108/ER-01-2019-0089.
Akanji, B., Mordi, C., Simpson, R., Adisa, T.A. and Oruh, E.S. (2020b), “Time biases: exploring the
work–life balance of single Nigerian managers and professionals”, Journal of Managerial
Psychology, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 57-70, doi: 10.1108/jmp-12-2018-0537.
Anand, A. and Vohra, V. (2020), “Alleviating employee work-family conflict: role of organizations”,
International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 313-332, doi: 10.1108/IJOA-06-
2019-1792.
Anderson, J.C. and Gerbing, D.W. (1988), “Structural equation modeling in practice: a review and
recommended two-step approach”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 103 No. 3, pp. 411-423, doi: 10.
1037/0033-2909.103.3.411.
Au, W.C., Ayudhya, U.C.N., Tan, Y.S. and Ahmed, P.K. (2020), “The work-life experiences of an
invisible workforce”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, Vol. 39 No. 5,
pp. 567-583, doi: 10.1108/EDI-02-2019-0059.
Baker, H.K., Pandey, N., Kumar, S. and Haldar, A. (2020), “A bibliometric analysis of board diversity:
current status, development, and future research directions”, Journal of Business Research,
Vol. 108, pp. 232-246, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.11.025.
Bansal, N. and Agarwal, U.A. (2020), “Examining the relationships among work–life constructs: a
review”, Business Perspectives and Research, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 257-271, doi: 10.1177/
2278533719887456.
Baral, R. (2019), “Comparing the situation and person-based predictors of work–family conflict among Work–life
married working professionals in India”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International
Journal, Vol. 39 No. 5, pp. 479-495, doi: 10.1108/EDI-01-2019-0040. balance
Baral, R. and Bhargava, S. (2010), “Work-family enrichment as a mediator between organizational
interventions for work-life balance and job outcomes”, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 25
No. 3, pp. 274-300, doi: 10.1108/02683941011023749.
Baral, R. and Sampath, P. (2019), “Exploring the moderating effect of susceptibility to emotional
contagion in the crossover of work–family conflict in supervisor–subordinate dyads in India”,
Personnel Review, Vol. 48 No. 5, pp. 1336-1356, doi: 10.1108/PR-05-2017-0139.
Beauregard, T.A. and Henry, L.C. (2009), “Making the link between work-life balance practices and
organizational performance”, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 9-22,
doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.09.001.
Beauregard, T.A., Basile, K.A. and Thompson, C.A. (2018), “Organizational culture in the context of
national culture”, in Johnson, R., Shen, W. and Shockley, K. (Eds), The Cambridge Handbook of
the Global Work-Family Interface, Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology. Cambridge University
Press, pp. 555-569.
Bello, Z. and Tanko, G.I. (2020), “Review of work-life balance theories”, Global Academy of Training
and Research (GATR) Enterprise, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 217-227, doi: 10.35609/gjbssr.2020.8.4(3).
Belwal, S., Belwal, R. and Al-Hashemi, S.E. (2020), “Family friendly policies and the Omani Labour
law”, Employee Relations: The International Journal, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 315-348, doi: 10.1108/ER-
09-2018-0245.
Bhumika (2020), “Challenges for work-life balance during COVID-19 induced nationwide lockdown:
exploring gender difference in emotional exhaustion in the Indian setting”, Gender in
Management, Vol. 35 Nos 7/8, pp. 705-718, doi: 10.1108/GM-06-2020-0163.
Brough, P., Holt, J., Bauld, R., Biggs, A. and Ryan, C. (2008), “The ability of work—life balance policies
to influence key social/organisational issues”, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 46
No. 3, pp. 261-274, doi: 10.1177/1038411108095758.
Brough, P., Timms, C., O’Driscoll, M.P., Kalliath, T., Siu, O.L., Sit, C. and Lo, D. (2014), “Work–life
balance: a longitudinal evaluation of a new measure across Australia and New Zealand
workers”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 25 No. 19,
pp. 2724-2744, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2014.899262.
Brown, H., Kim, J.S. and Faerman, S.R. (2020), “The influence of societal and organizational culture on
the use of work-life balance programs: a comparative analysis of the United States and the
Republic of Korea”, The Social Science Journal, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 62-76, doi: 10.1016/j.soscij.2019.
03.008.
Brozovic, D. (2018), “Strategic flexibility: a review of the literature”, International Journal of
Management Reviews, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 3-31, doi: 10.1111/ijmr.12111.
Cahill, K.E., McNamara, T.K., Pitt-Catsouphes, M. and Valcour, M. (2015), “Linking shifts in the
national economy with changes in job satisfaction, employee engagement and work–life
balance”, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Vol. 56, pp. 40-54, doi: 10.1016/j.
socec.2015.03.002.
Carlson, D.S., Kacmar, K.M., Wayne, J.H. and Grzywacz, J.G. (2006), “Measuring the positive side of the
work–family interface: development and validation of a work–family enrichment scale”, Journal
of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 68, pp. 131-164, doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2005.02.002.
Casper, W.J., Weltman, D. and Kwesiga, E. (2007), “Beyond family-friendly: the construct and
measurement of singles-friendly work culture”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 70 No. 3,
pp. 478-501, doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2007.01.001.
Casper, W.J., Vaziri, H., Wayne, J.H., DeHauw, S. and Greenhaus, J. (2018), “The jingle-jangle of work–
nonwork balance: a comprehensive and meta-analytic review of its meaning and measurement”,
Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 103 No. 2, pp. 182-214, doi: 10.1037/apl0000259.
IJSSP Chan, A.P.C., Chiang, Y.H., Wong, F.K.W., Liang, S. and Abidoye, F.A. (2020), “Work–life balance for
construction manual workers”, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 146
No. 5, pp. 1-10, doi: 10.1061/%28ASCE%29CO.1943-7862.0001800.
Chandra, V. (2012), “Work–life balance: eastern and western perspectives”, The International Journal of
Human Resource Management, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 1040-1056, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2012.651339.
Chang, A., McDonald, P. and Burton, P. (2010), “Methodological choices in work-life balance research
1987 to 2006: a critical review”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
Vol. 21 No. 13, pp. 2381-2413, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2010.516592.
Chaudhuri, S., Arora, R. and Roy, P. (2020), “Work–Life balance policies and organisational outcomes–
a review of literature from the Indian context”, Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 52
No. 3, pp. 155-170, doi: 10.1108/ICT-01-2019-0003.
Cheng, Z., Nielsen, I. and Cutler, H. (2019), “Perceived job quality, work-life interference and intention to
stay”, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 17-35, doi: 10.1108/IJM-08-2017-0208.
Chung, H. (2020), “Company-level family policies: who has access to it and what are some of its
outcomes?”, The Palgrave Handbook of Family Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 535-573.
Clark, S.C. (2000), “Work/family border theory: a new theory of work/family balance”, Human
Relations, Vol. 53 No. 6, pp. 747-770, doi: 10.1177/0018726700536001.
Corbera, E., Anguelovski, I., Honey-Roses, J. and Ruiz-Mallen, I. (2020), “Academia in the time of
COVID-19: towards an ethics of care”, Planning Theory and Practice, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 191-199,
doi: 10.1080/14649357.2020.1757891.
Croft, A., Schmader, T. and Block, K. (2018), “Life in the balance: are women’s possible selves
constrained by men’s domestic involvement?”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 45
No. 5, pp. 808-823, doi: 10.1177/0146167218797294.
Crompton, R. and Lyonette, C. (2006), “Work-life ‘balance’ in Europe”, Acta Sociologica, Vol. 49 No. 4,
pp. 379-393, doi: 10.1177/0001699306071680.
Darcy, C., McCarthy, A., Hill, J. and Grady, G. (2012), “Work–life balance: one size fits all? An
exploratory analysis of the differential effects of career stage”, European Management Journal,
Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 111-120, doi: 10.1016/j.emj.2011.11.001.
De Cieri, H., Holmes, B., Abbott, J. and Pettit, T. (2005), “Achievements and challenges for work/life
balance strategies in Australian organizations”, The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 90-103, doi: 10.1080/0958519042000295966.
Deery, M. and Jago, L. (2009), “A framework for work-life balance practices: addressing the needs of
the tourism industry”, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 97-108, doi: 10.1057/
thr.2009.4.
Den Dulk, L. and De Ruijter, J. (2008), “Managing work-life policies: disruption versus dependency
arguments. Explaining managerial attitudes towards employee utilization of work-life policies”,
The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 19 No. 7, pp. 1222-1236, doi: 10.
1080/09585190802109986.
Den Dulk, L., Groeneveld, S., Ollier-Malaterre, A. and Valcour, M. (2013), “National context in work-life
research: a multi-level cross-national analysis of the adoption of workplace work-life
arrangements in Europe”, European Management Journal, Vol. 31 No. 5, pp. 478-494, doi: 10.
1016/j.emj.2013.04.010.
Ding, Y., Chowdhury, G.G. and Foo, S. (2001), “Bibliometric cartography of information retrieval
research by using co-word analysis”, Information Processing and Management, Vol. 37 No. 6,
pp. 817-842, doi: 10.1016/S0306-4573(00)00051-0.
Durodolu, O.O. and Mamudu, P.A. (2020), “Work–life balance of librarians at the Kenneth Dike library
in Nigeria”, Library Management, Vol. 41 Nos 2/3, pp. 79-90, doi: 10.1108/LM-06-2019-0035.
Eikhof, D.R. (2007), “Introduction: what work? What life? What balance?”, Employee Relations, Vol. 29
No. 4, pp. 325-333, doi: 10.1108/er.2007.01929daa.001.
Emslie, C. and Hunt, K. (2009), “‘Live to work’ or ‘work to live’? A qualitative study of gender and Work–life
work–life balance among men and women in mid-life”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 16
No. 1, pp. 151-172, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00434.x. balance
Feeney, M.K. and Stritch, J.M. (2019), “Family-friendly policies, gender, and work–life balance in the
public sector”, Review of Public Personnel Administration, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 422-448, doi: 10.
1177/0734371X17733789.
Ferri, L.M., Pedrini, M. and Riva, E. (2018), “The impact of different supports on work-family conflict”,
Employee Relations, Vol. 40 No. 5, pp. 903-920, doi: 10.1108/ER-09-2017-0211.
Fischlmayr, I.C. and Kollinger, I. (2010), “Work-life balance–a neglected issue among Austrian female
expatriates”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 21 No. 4,
pp. 455-487, doi: 10.1080/09585191003611978.
Fleetwood, S. (2007), “Why work–life balance now?”, The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 387-400, doi: 10.1080/09585190601167441.
Gareis, K.C., Barnett, R.C., Ertel, K.A. and Berkman, L.F. (2009), “Work-family enrichment and conflict:
additive effects, buffering, or balance?”, Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 71 No. 3,
pp. 696-707, doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00627.x.
Garfield, E. (1979), “Is citation analysis a legitimate evaluation tool?”, Scientometrics, Vol. 1 No. 4,
pp. 359-375, doi: 10.1007/BF02019306.
Gatrell, C.J., Burnett, S.B., Cooper, C.L. and Sparrow, P. (2012), “Work–life balance and parenthood: a
comparative review of definitions, equity and enrichment”, International Journal of
Management Reviews, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 300-316, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2012.00341.x.
Geraldes, D., Madeira, E., Carvalho, V.S. and Chambel, M.J. (2018), “Work-personal life conflict and
burnout in contact centers: the moderating role of affective commitment”, Personnel Review,
Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 400-416, doi: 10.1108/PR-11-2017-0352.
Gewinner, I. (2019), “Work–life balance for native and migrant scholars in German academia:
meanings and practices”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, Vol. 39
No. 5, pp. 497-512, doi: 10.1108/EDI-02-2019-0060.
Golden, L. (2008), “Limited access: disparities in flexible work schedules and work-at-home”, Journal of
Family and Economic Issues, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 86-109, doi: 10.1007/s10834-007-9090-7.
Goyal, K. and Kumar, S. (2021), “Financial literacy: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis”,
International Journal of Consumer Studies, Vol. 45 No. 1, pp. 80-105, doi: 10.1111/ijcs.12605.
Gravador, L.N. and Teng-Calleja, M. (2018), “Work-life balance crafting behaviors: an empirical
study”, Personnel Review, Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 786-804, doi: 10.1108/PR-05-2016-0112.
Grawitch, M.J., Barber, L.K. and Justice, L. (2010), “Rethinking the work–life interface: it’s not about
balance, it’s about resource allocation”, Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, Vol. 2 No. 2,
pp. 127-159, doi: 10.1111/j.1758-0854.2009.01023.x.
Greenhaus, J.H. and Beutell, N.J. (1985), “Sources of conflict between work and family roles”, Academy
of Management Review, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 76-88, doi: 10.2307/258214.
Greenhaus, J.H. and Powell, G.N. (2006), “When work and family are allies: a theory of work-family
enrichment”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 72-92, doi: 10.5465/amr.1985.
4277352.
Greenhaus, J.H., Collins, K.M. and Shaw, J.D. (2003), “The relation between work–family balance and
quality of life”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 63 No. 3, pp. 510-531, doi: 10.1016/S0001-
8791(02)00042-8.
Gregory, A., Milner, S. and Windebank, J. (2013), “Work-life balance in times of economic crisis and
austerity”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 33 Nos 9/10, pp. 528-541,
doi: 10.1108/IJSSP-05-2013-0061.
Gr€opel, P. and Kuhl, J. (2009), “Work–life balance and subjective well-being: the mediating role of need
fulfillment”, British Journal of Psychology, Vol. 100 No. 2, pp. 365-375, doi: 10.1348/000712608X337797.
IJSSP Grzywacz, J.G. and Carlson, D.S. (2007), “Conceptualizing work—family balance: implications for
practice and research”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 455-471,
doi: 10.1177/1523422307305487.
Guest, D.E. (2002), “Perspectives on the study of work-life balance”, Social Science Information, Vol. 41
No. 2, pp. 255-279, doi: 10.1177/0539018402041002005.
Gutek, B.A., Searle, S. and Klepa, L. (1991), “Rational versus gender role explanations for work-family
conflict”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 76 No. 4, pp. 560-568, doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.76.4.560.
Haar, J.M. (2013), “Testing a new measure of work–life balance: a study of parent and non-parent
employees from New Zealand”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
Vol. 24 No. 17, pp. 3305-3324, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2013.775175.
Haar, J. and Brougham, D. (2020), “Work antecedents and consequences of work-life balance: a two
sample study within New Zealand”, The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, pp. 1-24, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2020.1751238.
Haar, J.M., Russo, M., Su~ne, A. and Ollier-Malaterre, A. (2014), “Outcomes of work–life balance on job
satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: a study across seven cultures”, Journal of
Vocational Behavior, Vol. 85 No. 3, pp. 361-373, doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2014.08.010.
Haar, J.M., Sune, A., Russo, M. and Ollier-Malaterre, A. (2018), “A cross-national study on the
antecedents of work–life balance from the fit and balance perspective”, Social Indicators
Research, Vol. 142 No. 1, pp. 261-282, doi: 10.1007/s11205-018-1875-6.
Hagqvist, E., Vinberg, S., Tritter, J.Q., Wall, E. and Landstad, B.J. (2020), “The same, only different:
doing management in the intersection between work and private life for men and women in
small-scale enterprises”, Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 262-280, doi: 10.1177/
0950017019871244.
Han, S.J. and McLean, G.N. (2020), “Effects of family-supportive supervisor behaviors and
organizational climate on employees”, European Journal of Training and Development,
Vol. 44 Nos 6/7, pp. 659-674, doi: 10.1108/EJTD-12-2019-0195.
Hill, E.J., Miller, B.C., Weiner, S.P. and Colihan, J. (1998), “Influences of the virtual office on aspects of
work and work/life balance”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 51 No. 3, pp. 667-683, doi: 10.1111/j.
1744-6570.1998.tb00256.x.
Hill, E.J., Ferris, M. and M€artinson, V. (2003), “Does it matter where you work? A comparison of how
three work venues (traditional office, virtual office, and home office) influence aspects of work
and personal/family life”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 63 No. 2, pp. 220-241, doi: 10.
1016/S0001-8791(03)00042-3.
Hobson, B., Fahlen, S. and Takacs, J. (2011), “Agency and capabilities to achieve a work–life balance: a
comparison of Sweden and Hungary”, Social Politics, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 168-198, doi: 10.1093/sp/
jxr007.
Hofstede, G. (2001), Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and
Organizations across Nations, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
House, R.J., Hanges, P.J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P.W. and Gupta, V. (Eds) (2004), Culture, Leadership,
and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Jaumotte, F. (2003), “Female labour force participation: past trends and main determinants in OECD
countries”, OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 376, OECD Publishing, pp. 1-67,
doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2344556.
Kalliath, P., Kalliath, T., Chan, X.W. and Chan, C. (2020), “Enhancing job satisfaction through work–
family enrichment and perceived supervisor support: the case of Australian social workers”,
Personnel Review, Vol. 49 No. 9, pp. 2055-2072, doi: 10.1108/PR-06-2018-0219.
Karkoulian, S., Srour, J. and Sinan, T. (2016), “A gender perspective on work-life balance, perceived
stress, and locus of control”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 69 No. 11, pp. 4918-4923, doi: 10.
1016/j.jbusres.2016.04.053.
Kataria, A., Kumar, S. and Pandey, N. (2020), “Twenty-five years of the gender, work and Work–life
organization: a bibliometric analysis”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 28 No. 1, doi: 10.
1111/gwao.12530. balance
Kelliher, C. and Anderson, D. (2010), “Doing more with less? Flexible working practices and the
intensification of work”, Human Relations, Vol. 63 No. 1, pp. 83-106, doi: 10.1177/
0018726709349199.
Kessler, M.M. (1963), “Bibliographic coupling between scientific papers”, American Documentation,
Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 10-25, doi: 10.1002/asi.5090140103.
Kossek, E.E., Valcour, M. and Lirio, P. (2014), “Organizational strategies for promoting work–life
balance and wellbeing”, Work and Wellbeing, Vol. 3, pp. 295-318, doi: 10.1002/9781118539415.
wbwell030.
Lai-Ching, L. and Kam-Wah, C. (2012), “A family-friendly policy for Hong Kong: lessons from three
international experiences”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 32 Nos 1/2,
pp. 82-95, doi: 10.1108/01443331211201789.
Lamolla, L. and Gonzalez Ramos, A.M. (2020), “Tick-tock sounds different for women working in IT
areas”, Community, Work and Family, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 125-140, doi: 10.1080/13668803.2018.
1483321.
Le, H., Newman, A., Menzies, J., Zheng, C. and Fermelis, J. (2020), “Work–life balance in Asia: a
systematic review”, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 1053-4822, doi: 10.
1016/j.hrmr.2020.100766.
Lewis, S. and Humbert, A.L. (2010), “Work-life balance, flexible working policies and the gendered
organization”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, Vol. 29 No. 3,
pp. 239-254, doi: 10.1108/02610151011028840.
Lewis, S. and Beauregard, T.A. (2018), “The meanings of work-life balance: a cultural perspective”, in
Shockley, K., Shen, W. and Johnson, R. (Eds), The Cambridge Handbook of the Global Work-
Family Interface. Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
pp. 720-732.
Lewis, S., Gambles, R. and Rapoport, R. (2007), “The constraints of a ‘work–life balance’ approach: an
international perspective”, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 18
No. 3, pp. 360-373, doi: 10.1080/09585190601165577.
Li, C., Wu, K. and Wu, J. (2017), “A bibliometric analysis of research on haze during 2000-2016”,
Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Vol. 24 No. 32, pp. 24733-24742, doi: 10.1007/
s11356-017-0440-1.
Lim, W.L. and Rasdi, R.M. (2019), “Opt-out” or pushed out? Factors influencing married women
professionals’ decision in leaving the workforce”, European Journal of Training and
Development, Vol. 43 No. 9, pp. 785-800, doi: 10.1108/EJTD-04-2019-0063.
Loretto, W. and Vickerstaff, S. (2015), “Gender, age and flexible working in later life”, Work,
Employment and Society, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 233-249, doi: 10.1177/0950017014545267.
Lyness, K.S. and Judiesch, M.K. (2014), “Gender egalitarianism and work–life balance for managers:
multisource perspectives in 36 countries”, Applied Psychology, Vol. 63 No. 1, pp. 96-129, doi: 10.
1111/apps.12011.
Masood, A. and Nisar, M.A. (2020), “Crushed between two stones: competing institutional logics in the
implementation of maternity leave policies in Pakistan”, Gender, Work and Organization,
Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 1103-1126, doi: 10.1111/gwao.12448.
Mauno, S., Kinnunen, U. and Rantanen, M. (2011), “Work-family conflict and enrichment and
perceived health: does type of family matter?”, Family Science, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 1-12, doi: 10.
1080/19424620.2011.585908.
McCarthy, A., Darcy, C. and Grady, G. (2010), “Work-life balance policy and practice: understanding
line manager attitudes and behaviors”, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 2,
pp. 158-167, doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.12.001.
IJSSP McDonald, P., Brown, K. and Bradley, L. (2005), “Explanations for the provision-utilisation gap in
work-life policy”, Women in Management Review, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 37-55, doi: 10.1108/
09649420510579568.
McDowell, L. (2004), “Work, workfare, work/life balance and an ethic of care”, Progress in Human
Geography, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 145-163, doi: 10.1191/0309132504ph478oa.
McMillan, H.S., Morris, M.L. and Atchley, E.K. (2011), “Constructs of the work/life interface: a
synthesis of the literature and introduction of the concept of work/life harmony”, Human
Resource Development Review, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 6-25, doi: 10.1177/1534484310384958.
Munn, S.L. and Chaudhuri, S. (2016), “Work–life balance: a cross-cultural review of dual-earner
couples in India and the United States”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 18
No. 1, pp. 54-68, doi: 10.1177/1523422315616342.
Netemeyer, R.G., Boles, J.S. and McMurrian, R. (1996), “Development and validation of work–family
conflict and family–work conflict scales”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 81 No. 4,
pp. 400-410, doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.81.4.400.
Nwagbara, U. (2020), “Institutionalised patriarchy and work-life balance (WLB) challenges for female
medical doctors: the case of Nigeria”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal,
Vol. 40 No. 3, pp. 355-369, doi: 10.1108/EDI-11-2019-0273.
Ollier-Malaterre, A. and Foucreault, A. (2017), “Cross-national work-life research: cultural and
structural impacts for individuals and organizations”, Journal of Management, Vol. 43 No. 1,
pp. 111-136, doi: 10.1177/0149206316655873.
Oyewobi, L.O., Oke, A.E., Adeneye, T.D. and Jimoh, R.A. (2019), “Influence of organizational
commitment on work–life balance and organizational performance of female construction
professionals”, Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 26 No. 10,
pp. 2243-3226, doi: 10.1108/ECAM-07-2018-0277.
O’Neill, J.W. and Follmer, K. (2020), “A multilevel review of hospitality industry work–family conflict
research and a strategy for future research”, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research,
Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 3-44, doi: 10.1177/1096348019864653.
Palumbo, R. (2020), “Let me go to the office! an investigation into the side effects of working from
home on work-life balance”, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 33 Nos 6/7,
pp. 771-790, doi: 10.1108/IJPSM-06-2020-0150.
Perrons, D. (2003), “The new economy and the work–life balance: Conceptual explorations and a case
study of new media”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 65-93, doi: 10.1111/
1468-0432.00004.
Prioux, F. and Mandelbaum, J. (2005), “Recent demographic developments in France”, Population, Vol. 60
No. 4, pp. 371-414, available at: https://www.cairn-int.info/journal-population-2005-4-page-371.htm.
Rashmi, K. and Kataria, A. (2021), “The mediating role of work-life balance on the relationship between
job resources and job satisfaction: perspectives from Indian nursing professionals”, International
Journal of Organizational Analysis, pp. 1934-8835, doi: 10.1108/IJOA-04-2021-2722, In press.
Rashmi, K. and Singh, R. (2020), “Building competitive advantage through engagement of employees:
a conceptual model”, The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Organizational Studies,
Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 1-11, doi: 10.18848/2324-7649/CGP/v15i01/1-11.
Rashmi, K., Kataria, A. and Singh, R. (2021), “Work-life balance: a review and future research agenda”,
Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 8-25, doi: 10.17010/pijom/2021/
v14i2/157690.
Rehman, S. and Roomi, M.A. (2012), “Gender and work-life balance: a phenomenological study of
women entrepreneurs in Pakistan”, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,
Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 209-228, doi: 10.1108/14626001211223865.
Ren, X. and Caudle, D.J. (2020), “Balancing academia and family life: the gendered strains and
struggles between the UK and China compared”, Gender in Management: An International
Journal, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 141-165, doi: 10.1108/GM-06-2019-0093.
Rincon, G.B. and Martınez, Y.M. (2020), “Work/family life by 2040: between a gig economy and Work–life
traditional roles”, Futures, Vol. 119 No. 102544, pp. 1-9, doi: 10.1016/j.futures.2020.102544.
balance
Robertson, K.M., Lautsch, B.A. and Hannah, D.R. (2019), “Role negotiation and systems-level work-life
balance”, Personnel Review, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 570-594, doi: 10.1108/PR-11-2016-0308.
Russell, H., O’Connell, P.J. and McGinnity, F. (2009), “The impact of flexible working arrangements on
work–life conflict and work pressure in Ireland”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 16 No. 1,
pp. 73-97, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00431.x.
Sanchez-Vidal, M.E., Cegarra-Leiva, D. and Cross, C. (2019), “Gender differences in inter-role conflict in
Spain”, Employee Relations: The International Journal, Vol. 42 No. 2, pp. 437-452, doi: 10.1108/
ER-02-2019-0120.
Selvarajan, T.T., Singh, B., Cloninger, P.A. and Misra, K. (2019), “Work–family conflict and counterproductive
work behaviors: moderating role of regulatory focus and mediating role of affect”, Organization
Management Journal, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 42-54, doi: 10.1080/15416518.2019.1574547.
Shabir, S. and Gani, A. (2020), “Impact of work–life balance on organizational commitment of women
health-care workers”, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 28 No. 4,
pp. 917-939, doi: 10.1108/ijoa-07-2019-1820.
Shah, D. and Barker, M. (2020), “Work-life interface: experiences of Indian IT women repatriates”, The
International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp. 1-34, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2020.
1737173.
Shockley, K.M., Shen, W., DeNunzio, M.M., Arvan, M.L. and Knudsen, E.A. (2017), “Disentangling the
relationship between gender and work–family conflict: an integration of theoretical
perspectives using meta-analytic methods”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 102 No. 12,
pp. 1601-1635, doi: 10.1037/apl0000246.
Sirgy, M.J. and Lee, D.J. (2017), “Work-life balance: an integrative review”, Applied Research in Quality
of Life, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 229-254, doi: 10.1007/s11482-017-9509-8.
Smith, J. and Gardner, D. (2007), “Factors affecting employee use of work-life balance initiatives”, New
Zealand Journal of Psychology, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 3-12, doi: 10179/6161.
Smith, E.F., Gilmer, D.O. and Stockdale, M.S. (2019), “The importance of culture and support for
workplace flexibility: an ecological framework for understanding flexibility support structures”,
Business Horizons, Vol. 62 No. 5, pp. 557-566, doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2019.04.002.
Smithson, J. and Stokoe, E.H. (2005), “Discourses of work–life balance: negotiating ‘genderblind’ terms
in organizations”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 147-168, doi: 10.1111/j.
1468-0432.2005.00267.x.
Stoilova, R., Ilieva-Trichkova, P. and Bieri, F. (2020), “Work–life balance in Europe: institutional
contexts and individual factors”, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 40
Nos 3/4, pp. 366-381, doi: 10.1108/IJSSP-08-2019-0152.
Sullivan, C. and Lewis, S. (2001), “Home-based telework, gender, and the synchronization of work and
family: perspectives of teleworkers and their co-residents”, Gender, Work and Organization,
Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 123-145, doi: 10.1111/1468-0432.00125.
Talukder, A.M.H. (2019), “Supervisor support and organizational commitment: the role of work–
family conflict, job satisfaction, and work–life balance”, Journal of Employment Counseling,
Vol. 56 No. 3, pp. 98-116, doi: 10.1002/joec.12125.
Talukder, A.K.M., Vickers, M. and Khan, A. (2018), “Supervisor support and work-life balance:
impacts on job performance in the Australian financial sector”, Personnel Review, Vol. 47 No. 3,
pp. 727-744, doi: 10.1108/PR-12-2016-0314.
Tausig, M. and Fenwick, R. (2001), “Unbinding time: alternate work schedules and work-life balance”, Journal
of Family and Economic Issues, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 101-119, doi: 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2004.tb00130.x.
Tetteh, E.N. and Attiogbe, E.J.K. (2019), “Work–life balance among working university students in
Ghana”, Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 2042-3896, doi: 10.
1108/HESWBL-08-2018-0079.
IJSSP Thun, C. (2020), “Excellent and gender equal? Academic motherhood and ‘gender blindness’ in
Norwegian academia”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 166-180, doi: 10.1111/
gwao.12368.
Tomlinson, J. (2007), “Employment regulation, welfare and gender regimes: a comparative analysis of
women’s working-time patterns and work–life balance in the UK and the US”, The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 401-415, doi: 10.1080/
09585190601167466.
Utoft, E.H. (2020), “All the single ladies’ as the ideal academic during times of COVID-19?”, Gender,
Work and Organization, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 778-787, doi: 10.1111/gwao.12478.
Valenzuela-Fernandez, L., Merigo, J.M., Lichtenthal, J.D. and Nicolas, C. (2019), “A bibliometric
analysis of the first 25 years of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing”, Journal of
Business-To-Business Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 75-94, doi: 10.1080/1051712X.2019.1565142.
Weale, V., Oakman, J. and Wells, Y. (2020), “Can organisational work–life policies improve work–life
interaction? A scoping review”, Australian Psychologist, Vol. 55 No. 5, pp. 425-439, doi: 10.1111/
ap.12469.
White, M., Hill, S., McGovern, P., Mills, C. and Smeaton, D. (2003), “‘High-performance’ management
practices, working hours and work–life balance”, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 41
No. 2, pp. 175-195, doi: 10.1111/1467-8543.00268.
Wilkinson, K., Tomlinson, J. and Gardiner, J. (2018), “The perceived fairness of work–life balance
policies: a UK case study of solo-living managers and professionals without children”, Human
Resource Management Journal, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 325-339, doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12181.
Williams, J.C., Berdahl, J.L. and Vandello, J.A. (2016), “Beyond work-life integration”, Annual Review of
Psychology, Vol. 67, pp. 515-539, doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033710.
Yu, H.H. (2018), “Work-life balance: an exploratory analysis of family-friendly policies for reducing
turnover intentions among women in US federal law enforcement”, International Journal of
Public Administration, Vol. 42 No. 4, pp. 345-357, doi: 10.1080/01900692.2018.1463541.
Yuan, Y., Gretzel, U. and Tseng, Y. (2015), “Revealing the nature of contemporary tourism research:
extracting common subject areas through bibliographic coupling”, International Journal of
Tourism Research, Vol. 17 No. 5, pp. 417-431, doi: 10.1002/jtr.2004.
Zheng, C., Molineux, J., Mirshekary, S. and Scarparo, S. (2015), “Developing individual and
organisational work-life balance strategies to improve employee health and wellbeing”,
Employee Relations, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 354-379, doi: 10.1108/ER-10-2013-0142.
Zheng, Y., Wu, C.H. and Graham, L. (2019), “Work-to-non-work spillover: the impact of public service
motivation and meaningfulness on outcomes in work and personal life domains”, Public
Management Review, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 578-601, doi: 10.1080/14719037.2019.1601242.
Zupic, I. (2015), “Bibliometric methods in management and organization”, Organizational Research
Methods, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 429-472, doi: 10.1177/10944281145626.

Corresponding author
Kumari Rashmi can be contacted at: kr.rashmi9@gmail.com

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

View publication stats