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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1512536
This article is part of the Research Topic Leadership, Learning, Well-being, and Justice in Educational Organizations View all 7 articles

Blurred Boundaries: Exploring the influence of Work-Life and Life-Work Conflicts on University Teachers' Health, Work Results, and Willingness to Teleworking

Provisionally accepted
Filipa Sobral Filipa Sobral 1*Eva Dias-Oliveira Eva Dias-Oliveira 2Catarina Morais Catarina Morais 1Julia Hodgson Julia Hodgson 3
  • 1 Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Research Centre for Human Development, Portugal, Porto, Portugal
  • 2 Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Católica Porto Business School, CEGE and LEAD.Lab, Portugal, Porto, Portugal
  • 3 University of Liverpool Management School, Liverpool, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    COVID-19 lockdowns forced organizations to rapidly shift from face-to-face interactions to online platforms, leading to unforeseen challenges. This study retrospectively examines the extreme conditions of teleworking, which blurred the boundaries between home and workspaces, providing a unique opportunity to assess perceptions of work-life and lifework conflicts and their consequences. Data were collected from university teachers through an anonymous online survey (N = 383). A path analysis using IBM SPSS AMOS software assessed the relationship between work-life and life-work conflicts, burnout, performance, and willingness to continue teleworking. Results suggest work-life and life-work conflicts produce different spillovers. Both conflicts significantly contributed to burnout, but only lifework conflict significantly related to perceived performance, and this relationship was negative. Burnout was negatively associated with perceived performance but had no significant relationship with willingness to continue teleworking after lockdowns. Conversely, the relationship between perceived performance and willingness to continue teleworking was significantly positive. These findings emphasize the interplay between work-life and lifework conflicts and their effects on workers' perceptions. Organizations should consider these dynamics when designing remote work policies to mitigate burnout and enhance employee performance and satisfaction. It is crucial for leadership to take responsibility for prioritizing the well-being of workers and their working conditions, as their actions significantly influence work design, individual and team goals, and the overall organizational climate.

    Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking, Work-life and Life-work Conflict, burnout, performance, University Teachers Inglês (Reino Unido) Formatou: Inglês (Reino Unido)

    Received: 16 Oct 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sobral, Dias-Oliveira, Morais and Hodgson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Filipa Sobral, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Research Centre for Human Development, Portugal, Porto, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.