2004/11/01 by Jane Sturges, David Guest
Business, Management and Accounting · Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Employment and Welfare Studies #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Work-Family Balance Challenges
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1748-8583.2004.tb00130.x
openalex publication_date 2004/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
This article reports the findings of research that explored relationships between work/life balance, work/non‐work conflict, hours worked and organisational commitment among a sample of graduates in the early years of their career. It concludes that, although graduates seek work/life balance, their concern for career success draws them into a situation where they work increasingly long hours and experience an increasingly unsatisfactory relationship between home and work. The article discusses the causes and potential consequences of this predicament and in particular how work/non‐work conflict is linked to hours worked, the state of the psychological contract and organisational commitment. It highlights the role of organisations' policy and practice in helping to manage the relationship between work and non‐work and the development of organisational commitment through support for younger employees' lives out‐of‐work and effective management of aspects of the psychological contract.