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Fit for self-employment? An extended Person–Environment Fit approach to understand the work–life interface of self-employed workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2016

Ward de Jager
Affiliation:
Radboud University, Institute for Management Research (IMR), The Netherlands
Clare Kelliher
Affiliation:
Cranfield School of Management, United Kingdom
Pascale Peters
Affiliation:
Radboud University, Institute for Management Research (IMR), The Netherlands
Rob Blomme*
Affiliation:
Nyenrode Business Universiteit and Open Universiteit, The Netherlands
Yuka Sakamoto
Affiliation:
Naruto University of Education, Japan
*
Centre for Leadership and Management Development, Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands Corresponding author: r.blomme@nyenrode.nl

Abstract

The recent growth in self-employment has sparked scholarly interest in why individuals choose and remain in self-employment. Yet, relatively little is known about how self-employed workers enact their daily lives and what this means for their work–life interface. Self-employment is often presented as a means to enhance life choice and as enabling work and nonwork activities to be combined more satisfactorily. However, extant evidence on how self-employment is experienced is mixed, with some studies reporting long and irregular working hours and high levels of stress. Furthermore, the way in which self-employment is experienced may be influenced by national context – economic, institutional and cultural factors. In this paper, we develop a multi-level model which extends existing work on the Person–Environment Fit by incorporating factors relevant to self-employment. The model assists us to understand how contextual factors create both opportunities and tensions which impact the work–life interface of self-employed workers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2016 

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