Failures of Flexibility

How Perceived Control Motivates the Individualization of Work-Life Conflict

Bibliographic Data

ID3328974
AuthorsAlison T Wynn (0000-0001-7518-9985, corresponding author), A H Rao (0000-0003-0674-4206, Alison T. Wynn is the Diversity & Inclusion Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University. Aliya Hamid Rao is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University)
Year2020
Volume73
Issue1
Pages61-90
Publication date2020-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIndustrial and Labor Relations Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0019-7939 • E-ISSN: 2162-271X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0019793919848426
OpenAlexW2943724373
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited44

Firms have increasingly used flexibility policies to facilitate work-life balance, yet existing research shows that employees are stigmatized for using these seemingly beneficial policies. In this article, the authors identify perceived control, that is, the sense of control employees feel they have over managing their work-life conflicts, as a key factor in their avoidance of flexibility policies. Through 50 in-depth interviews with management consultants from five firms, the authors find that employees frame managing their work-life conflicts as a test of their professional skills, emphasize their "natural" suitability for the consulting industry, use choice rhetoric to reframe oppressive work demands as personal choices, and accentuate their ability to exit the consulting industry if they are unable to manage their work-life balance independently. Empirically, this study provides a fuller explanation for the pervasive avoidance of flexibility policies and expands on prior explanations that focus on flexibility stigma

Balance (ability) · Business · Cognitive reframing · Control (management) · Economics · Flexibility (engineering) · Management · Political science · Public relations · Work (physics) · Work–life balance · Engineering · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Marketing · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges · Workaholism, burnout, and well-being

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