2021-Mengyi Xu
Work-life boundary management in the hybrid working context: a case study of the Higher Education
Dr Mengyi Xu, Cranfield University - Work-life boundary management in the hybrid working context: a case study of the Higher Education
Project summary: This project will examine employees’ experiences of managing their work-life boundaries and the consequent managerial implications of hybrid working in the Higher Education (HE) sector. COVID-19 has accelerated existing trends towards the greater digitalisation and virtualisation of how HE institutions are operated, and the knowledge work is done. Hybrid working, comprising a mixture of office-based working and remote working, is now a firmly established option for many employers. While it is understood that the resulting blurring of work and home domains poses threats to staff wellbeing, health and longer-term productivity, the problem has consistently been framed as individual responsibility (e.g. Kossek, 2016) with the result that less attention has been paid to what employers can and should also do to support staff under such a ‘new normal’. The proposed project will contribute to work-life and boundary theories and will inform both policy and management thinking around work-life/wellbeing management in the post-COVID- 19 recovery.