Busyness around the Business : a cross-national comparative research of the work-life balance of self-employed workers

Workers increasingly struggle to combine work and other responsibilities. Self-employment might be a strategy to achieve greater autonomy and work-life balance in comparison to wage employment. However, autonomy does not always offset the responsibilities and uncertainties that come with self-employment. This PhD dissertation shows that different types of self-employed have different work-life balance experiences. It explains how these experiences are influenced by work and business characteristics and how they are shaped by the policy, economic and cultural context

Work–Family Conflict Among Employees and the Self-Employed Across Europe

This article examines the level of work–family conflict of self-employed persons, a changing but neglected group in work–life research, compared to employees in Europe. Differences between the two groups are explained by looking at job demands and resources. The inclusion of work–family state support makes it possible to examine differences between countries. Multilevel analysis has been applied to data from the European Social Survey (ESS 2010). The results show that job demands and resources operate differently for employees and the self-employed. The relationship between employment type and WFC is mediated mainly by job demands such as working hours, working at short notice, job insecurity and supervisory work. The results also reveal variation across countries that cannot be explained by state support, signalling the need for a more complete understanding of WFC from a cross-national perspective

Financial hardship and well-being: a cross-national comparison among the European self-employed

Based on data from the 2004 and 2010 European Social Survey, this multidisciplinary and cross-national comparative study investigates the relationship between financial hardship and subjective well-being among 9,755 self-employed individuals from 31 European countries. It also aims to identify potential mitigating factors in this relationship on both the individual and the country level. Multilevel regression analyses reveal a strong relationship between financial hardship and impaired well-being, explaining about 36% of variance in well-being between conditions (countries and time periods) and 8% of variance between individuals. In other words, economic conditions matter significantly. Additionally, education and social trust act as important buffering factors for individuals, and the relationship between financial hardship and impaired well-being is somewhat weaker for self-employed persons living in countries with a more supportive social policy in the form of unemployment allowance. Entrepreneurs can hence mitigate the consequences of financial hardship by protecting social resources, and policymakers can be advised to invest in education and social security

De werk-privé balans van zelfstandig ondernemers

Het doel van dit artikel is om een overzicht te geven van wat we tot nu toe weten over de ervaren werk-privébalans van verschillende typen zelfstandig ondernemers in verschillende landen. De bevindingen in dit artikel zijn grotendeels gebaseerd op een proefschrift met zes afzonderlijke, recent gepubliceerde studies die allemaal een landenvergelijkend-onderzoek-ontwerp hebben. Deze zes studies bestaan uit een literatuurstudie, een overzichtsstudie van de overheidssteun in Europese landen voor de werk-privébalans van ondernemers, een drietal kwantitatieve, empirische studies op basis van de European Social Survey (2004 en 2010) en de Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2013) en een kwalitatieve-interview-studie (2016) onder vijftig zelfstandige professionals in drie landen (Nederland, Spanje en Zweden) (Annink, 2017). De bevindingen laten zien dat het van belang is om de heterogeniteit van zelfstandig ondernemers in ogenschouw te nemen. Kenmerken van het werk en het bedrijf beïnvloeden de ervaren werk-privébalans. In het bijzonder noodgedwongen ondernemerschap en veel contact met klanten beïnvloeden de balans negatief. Ook het beleid, de economische situatie en culturele aspecten in een land hebben invloed op de ervaren werkprivébalans van zelfstandig ondernemers

Facilitating Children's Club-Organized Sports Participation: Person-Environment Misfits Experienced by Parents from Low-Income Families

Despite the many benefits of club-organized sports participation for children, studies have shown that sports participation is lower among children from low-income families than among children from middle- or high-income families. Adopting a socioecological perspective, the main aim of our study was to identify and describe experiences of person-environment (PE) misfits in relation to parental facilitation of children's sports participation. We conducted 24 interviews with parents from low-income families. PE misfits were found in multiple behaviors related to the facilitation of children's sports participation: financing sports participation; planning and investing time; transporting children; acquiring, processing, and providing information; and arranging support. Across these PE misfits, influential attributes were found on the individual level (e.g., skills) as well as within the social, policy, physical, and information environment. In response to PE misfits experienced, parents deployed multiple strategies to reduce these PE misfits, aimed at enhancing either themselves (e.g., increasing financial capacities) or their environments (e.g., arranging social support). These results provide an insight into experienced PE misfits that took the form of multiple specific behaviors which parents found difficult while facilitating their children's sports participation. Furthermore, the results provide insight into the environmental and individual attributes that were involved in these PE misfits, and into how parents modified themselves or their environments in order to make their environments more supportive. The study contributes to future research on individual and environmental influences on parental facilitation of their children's sports participation, as well as on the development of multilevel interventions aimed at increasing sports participation among children from low-income families

From social support to capabilities for the work-life balance of independent professionals

This qualitative study aims to explain how social support enables independent professionals to achieve work–life balance. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 50 independent professionals in the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden. The interview data were analyzed from a capability approach, from which work–life balance is understood in terms of capabilities. The most important sources of social support for independent professionals appeared to be their partner, family, as well as work and nonwork-related friends who were able to provide emotional and instrumental support. However, the extent to which social support can be converted into capabilities is influenced by individual (gender and cohabitation), institutional (the ease of doing business and formal childcare), and societal factors (financial hardship and familialism). The cross-national comparison shows that the institutional and societal context may hinder or reinforce social support for work–life balance, resulting in different experiences across countries