Boundary management preferences from a gender and cross-cultural perspective

Although work is increasingly globalized and mediated by technology, little research has accu- mulated on the role of culture in shaping individuals' preferences regarding the segmentation or integration of their work and family roles. This study examines the relationships between gender egalitarianism (the extent a culture has a fluid understanding of gender roles and promotes gender equality), gender, and boundary management preferences across 27 countries/territories. Based on a sample of 9362 employees, we found that the pattern of the relationship between gender egalitarianism and boundary management depends on the direction of segmentation preferences. Individuals from more gender egalitarian societies reported lower preferences to segment family-from-work (i.e., protect the work role from the family role); however, gender egalitarianism was not directly associated with preferences to segment work-from-family. Moreover, gender was associated with both boundary management directions such that women preferred to segment family-from-work and work-from-family more so than did men. As theo- rized, we found gender egalitarianism moderated the relationship between gender and segmen- tation preferences such that women's desire to protect family from work was stronger in lower (vs. higher) gender egalitarianism cultures. Contrary to expectations, women reported a greater preference to protect work from family than men regardless of gender egalitarianism. Implica- tions for boundary management theory and the cross-national work-family literature are discussed

Humane Orientation, Work–Family Conflict, and Positive Spillover Across Cultures

Although cross-national work–family research has made great strides in recent decades, knowledge accumulation on the impact of culture on the work–family interface has been hampered by a limited geographical and cultural scope that has excluded countries where cultural expectations regarding work, family, and support may differ. We advance this literature by investigating work–family relationships in a broad range of cultures, including understudied regions of the world (i.e., Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia). We focus on humane orientation (HO), an overlooked cultural dimension that is however central to the study of social support and higher in those regions. We explore its moderating effect on relationships between work and family social support, work–family conflict, and work–family positive spillover. Building on the congruence and compensation perspectives of fit theory, we test alternative hypotheses on a sample of 10,307 participants from 30 countries/territories. We find HO has mostly a compensatory role in the relationships between workplace support and work-to-family conflict. Specifically, supervisor and coworker supports were most strongly and negatively related to conflict in cultures in which support is most needed (i.e., lower HO cultures). Regarding positive spillover, HO has mostly an amplifying role. Coworker (but not supervisor) support was most strongly and positively related to work-to-family positive spillover in higher HO cultures, where providing social support at work is consistent with the societal practice of providing support to one another. Likewise, instrumental (but not emotional) family support was most strongly and positively related to family-to-work positive spillover in higher HO cultures

Work-life boundary management styles of women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia: “Choice” or imposition?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the work-life boundary management experiences and challenges women entrepreneurs face in combining their work-life responsibilities. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews were conducted with 31 women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia using a grounded theory approach to investigate how they manage the boundaries between their work-life roles, the challenges they face and how these challenges affect their boundary management experiences. Findings Integration, as a work-life boundary management strategy, is imposed on women as a result of normative expectations on women to shoulder care and household responsibilities, as well as to fulfill societal roles and obligations. In addition, challenges related to managing employees at home and at work frequently require women to combine work and life roles, forcing them to integrate even more. Practical implications The findings of this study underline the need to recognize the work-life interface challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and to develop programs and hands-on training to help them adopt work-life boundary management tactics. In addition, it is hoped that the findings will inform policies and women entrepreneurship development programs designed by the government, development partners and other stakeholders. Originality/value This paper contributes to the work-family literature by highlighting the contextual and environmental factors imposing work-family boundary management styles on women entrepreneurs in the Sub-Saharan country of Ethiopia

Women in Ethiopia:Creating value through entrepreneurship

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The omnipresent community in the work-life experiences of women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia

The study investigates the community roles of women entrepreneurs in a traditional and developing country context—Ethiopia, where various social and/or community expectations on women are present. The study also tried to explore the interface between the various community roles of the women with their other life and work responsibilities. In depth interview was conducted with 20 women entrepreneurs in the capital Addis Ababa. Our analyses show that community holds a strong and omnipresent presence in the work-life experiences of the women entrepreneurs, constituting various roles such as the need to attending social events such as funerals (and resulting social engagements such as subsequent visits to comfort the bereaved), visiting the ill, fulfilling roles at community associations such as iddirs and so forth as social obligations that they cannot easily avoid. To a large extent, this makes such community roles as expectations to be fulfilled by the women rather than responsibilities chosen by the women to participate in. The study also shows the time-bound nature of most of these roles, create a challenge for the women in their effort to combine their work and home responsibilities as they interfere with their pre-planned activities. This interference is found to be bidirectional as work and family responsibilities also pose challenge and force the women to avoid participating in some of the social roles as well as fail meeting certain community expectations

Longing to grow my business: The work-life interface of women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia

This paper examines the work-life challenges women entrepreneurs face and the consequences of such challenges on the management and growth of women’s enterprises in Ethiopia. Using a grounded theory approach, in-depth interviews with 31 women entrepreneurs operating in various sectors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia were analyzed. The key finding of the study showed that women’s work-life role and the expectation to take the primary (sometimes the sole) responsibility to care and domestic responsibilities hampers their ability to grow and expand their businesses. Some of the women interviewed were found postponing their business growth decisions as a result of their care responsibilities at home. The challenge of growing their business was found to be acute for those women with pre-school children and with less familial and/or societal support to help shoulder care and other work-family responsibilities. However, we also found examples of women’s continued motivation as a resilience factor in making their business a success. Furthermore, the notion of business success is perceived to be much richer than economic business success. The study provides theoretical and practical insights to the field of (women) entrepreneurship and the work-family literature by exploring the relationship between the work family roles and business growth in a less researched Sub-Saharan African country. Theoretically, the study contributes in providing partial explanation for the consistently reported but less explained phenomena of why women-headed enterprises remain small in size and less performing than men-owned business. It also questions looking at women’s entrepreneurships solely from their economic contribution to a country. It shows that their businesses operate at the intersection of gender, sex, family, culture, religion, institutions, and that they could be supported to contribute to family-community wellbeing as well as economic developmen