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    Work-life balance in the police: the development of a self-management competency framework

    McDowall, Almuth and Lindsay, A. (2014) Work-life balance in the police: the development of a self-management competency framework. Journal of Business and Psychology 29 (3), pp. 387-411. ISSN 0889-3268.

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    Abstract

    Purpose Addressing a gap in the current work–life balance (WLB) literature regarding individual-focused approaches to inform interventions, we elicited behaviors used to self-manage WLB to draw up a competency-based WLB framework for relevant learnable knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs; Hoffmann, Eur J Ind Train 23:275–285, 1999) and mapping this against extant WLB frameworks. Design/Methodology/Approach Our participants were from a major UK police force, which faces particular challenges to the work–life interface through job demands and organizational cutbacks, covering a range of operational job roles, including uniformed officers and civilian staff. We took a mixed methods approach starting with semi-structured interviews to elicit 134 distinct behaviors (n = 20) and used a subsequent card sort task (n = 10) to group these into categories into 12 behavioral themes; and finally undertook an online survey (n = 356) for an initial validation. Findings Item and content analysis reduced the behaviors to 58, which we analyzed further. A framework of eight competencies fits the data best; covering a range of strategies, including Boundary Management, Managing Flexibility, and Managing Expectations. Implications The WLB self-management KSAs elicited consist of a range of solution-focused behaviors and strategies, which could inform future WLB-focused interventions, showing how individuals may negotiate borders effectively in a specific environment. Originality/Value A competence-based approach to WLB self-management is new, and may extend existing frameworks such as Border Theory, highlighting a proactive and solution-focused element of effective behaviors.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9321-x
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): work-life balance, self-management, competencies, framework
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Depositing User: Almuth McDowall
    Date Deposited: 13 Nov 2015 09:33
    Last Modified: 07 Aug 2023 16:10
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/13428

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