Understanding the liminal situation of lone‐parent and blended families—A review and agenda for work–family research

Schaefer, Anneke ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3967-1667, Radcliffe, Laura and Gatrell, Caroline (2024) Understanding the liminal situation of lone‐parent and blended families—A review and agenda for work–family research. International Journal of Management Reviews. ISSN 1460-8545

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Abstract

Taking a transdisciplinary approach to work-family research, this review offers new perspectives regarding different family forms in the context of employment. Focusing specifically on lone-parents and blended families, we demonstrate how management research on the work-family interface has been previously constrained by utilizing ‘traditional’ definitions of family’, i.e. assuming intact couple relationships. Reviewing the situation of lone-parents and blended families, we show how the work-family experience among these demographics differs from that of ‘traditional’ or ‘nuclear’ families. Our findings demonstrate how blended and lone-parent families struggle to fit in with conventional work-family policies that are founded on theoretical understandings based on traditional family forms. We show how blended and lone-parent families experience four particular challenges in relation to balancing work and family including: 1. Complex residential arrangements and relationships with coparents, 2. Managing (limited) resources, 3. Navigating stigma, and 4. Narrow cultural scripts defining family roles. Taking Cross-domain identity transition theory as a means of illuminating our findings, we question the traditional, theoretical and practice-based ideas that form the core of current work-family theory. We demonstrate how non-traditional families find themselves in ‘liminal’ work-family space because parental, occupational and household identities are more fluid than among ‘traditional’ families. Our findings indicate the urgent need to re-think and extend current work-family theories. We thereby contribute a strategic platform for new directions in work-family research, arguing that management scholars and policy makers should conceptualize differently research on employed parents and their dependent families.