The Factors Contributing to Work/Life Conflicts and Enrichment Among Finnish Global Careerists

Abstract

It has been argued (see, e.g., Haslberger and Brewster 2008; Lazarova, Westman, and Sheffer 2010; Mäkelä, Känsälä, and Suutari 2011; Mäkelä and Suutari 2011) that expatriates have difficulties balancing work with the rest of their lives. Our understanding of the issues and factors contributing to the work/non-work balance is limited. To increase our understanding of these issues, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with Finnish global careerists, each of whom had spent most of their working lives outside their home country. The results of the study indicate that, besides facing conflicts, global careerists benefit from the interface of their work and non-work life. Several work-domain, non-work domain, and individual factors were identified. We argue that the literature regarding the work/life balance needs to take into account context-related factors and to put more emphasis on the perspective of enrichment.