Work-life experiences in rapidly changing national contexts: Structural misalignment, comparisons and choice overload as explanatory mechanisms

Work-life research thus far theorized national context as static. We develop a model and a set of testable propositions about the impact of rapid changes in national context on individuals’ work-life conflict, satisfaction with work-life balance and work-life enrichment, using the theoretical logics of three mechanisms: structural misalignment, social and temporal comparisons, and choice overload. In so doing, we make several theoretical contributions. We show that in order to truly understand individuals’ work-life experiences one needs to consider national context as a dynamic rather than a static influence; we provide a framework for systematic empirical testing of the impact of changes in national context on work-life experiences; and we uncover three mechanisms through which this impact takes place. We also shed light on countries in transition, a set of countries that are understudied in work-life research. We discuss implications of our proposed framework for future research.