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This article proposes a new conceptual framework for analysing diversity and opportunity in the cultural and creative industries as outcomes of specific decisions. It suggests the following three analytical foci: (1) the points at which decisions influence an individual's opportunities for workforce participation and advancement; (2) individual workers as objects of decisions, in particular with respect to (a) an individual's likelihood of being considered in a particular decision process in the first place and (b) what individuals present for decision makers to decide upon; and (3) the decision makers and the context of their decision making. Using this conceptual framework, this article reviews and synthesises existing evidence from academic and industry research to ascertain what is currently understood about the factors that influence decisions about workforce participation, promotion and admission into higher education, and which research gaps remain. By focusing on decisions, this article transcends current analysis of diversity and opportunity in the cultural and creative industries, which is largely concerned with how social and economic capital intersects with work and employment practices to shape workers' opportunities. The article argues that a decision-making focus enables an important shift of perspective for understanding diversity and opportunity in the cultural and creative industries and how they might be improved.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to uncover the hidden gender consequences of three current trends in the workplace, the increase in knowledge work, information and communication technology (ICT) and work‐life balance policies.Design/methodology/approachThe paper synthesizes and analyses existing empirical evidence from research on knowledge work, work‐life balance and boundary, women's work and careers.FindingsKnowledge work, ICT and work‐life balance policies are found to increase the temporal and geographical flexibility of work. Such enhanced flexibility should facilitate women's participation and advancement in work and therefore gender equality. However, all three trends also have hidden gender consequences that significantly prevent women from participating and advancing.Research limitations/implicationsResearch needs to explicitly integrate evidence from across research areas and disciplines to appreciate the complexity and contentiousness of current workplace developments from a gender perspective.Practical implicationsA public debate is needed that better communicates and challenges the complexity of gender issues in the twenty‐first century workplace, in order to raise critical awareness amongst individual workers, as well as practitioners and policy makers, and to lead to better informed decision making.Originality/valueA gender‐focused analysis and synthesis of evidence across the research areas included in this paper is currently lacking. The paper thus makes a novel contribution to the academic debate on gender equality in the workplace and provides an improved basis for better informed discussions between academics, policy makers and practitioners about how to achieve gender equality in today's world of work.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of why social inequalities and discrimination remain in the creative industries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper synthesizes existing academic and industry research and data, with a particular focus on the creative media industries.FindingsThe paper reveals that existing understanding of the lack of diversity in the creative industries' workforce is conceptually limited. Better understanding is enabled through an approach centred on the creative industries' model of production. This approach explains why disadvantage and discrimination are systemic, not transitory.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that current policy assumptions about the creative industries are misguided and need to be reconsidered. The findings also indicate how future research of the creative industries ought to be framed.Originality/valueThe paper provides a novel synthesis of existing research and data to explain how the creative industries' model of production translates into particular features of work and employment, which then translate into social inequalities that entrench discrimination based on sex, race and class.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the workers and managers of an Anglo‐German MNC, focusing on how each group attempts to maintain an acceptable work‐life balance.Design/methodology/approachThe article is based on a two‐year‐long ethnographic study, including in‐depth interviews, participant‐observation and archival research.FindingsAlthough the bulk of the company's work‐life balance initiatives focus on the managers, and the managers display greater loyalty to the company, the workers are better able to achieve work‐life balance. Neither group displays a more positive attitude to their work; however, the managers focus more on achieving status and the workers on personal satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings challenge assertions that "flexible" working practices are good for work‐life balance, that managers are better able to maintain a good work‐life balance than workers, and that the development of an appropriate work‐life balance policy assists in ensuring company loyalty and positive attitudes to work.Practical implicationsThis article suggests that flexible working may contribute to poor work‐life balance, and that success may be less an issue of developing work‐life balance policies and more of encouraging a healthy attitude towards work.Originality/valueThis article focuses on the occupationally stratified aspects of work‐life balance, comparing managers and workers within an organisation.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to consider why work‐life balance has become a major issue, and the likely outcomes of the widespread dissatisfaction with current work schedules.Design/methodology/approachThe article reviews international evidence on hours of work and time use, and the academic literature on employees' attitudes towards their hours of work, and perceptions and complaints about work‐life imbalances.FindingsWorking time has not lengthened and complaints about time pressure are unrelated to hours actually worked. The sources of the widespread dissatisfaction with current work schedules will lie in a combination of other trends – increased labour market participation by women, work intensification, the spread of feelings of job insecurity, more work being done at odd hours, the spread of new information and communication technologies, free time increasing more slowly than spending power and aspirations, and relatively long hours becoming most common among employees (and the self‐employed) in higher status jobs. An outcome is unlikely to be a general downward trend in hours worked on account of the substantial opportunity costs that would often be incurred by employees, and because some (mainly middle class) employees have access to a number of effective coping strategies.Research limitations/implicationsNearly all the evidence considered (and available) is from Western countries.Practical implicationsRegulation of working time with the aim of delivering more acceptable work‐life balances needs to deliver flexibility (at employees' discretion) rather than any standard solution.Originality/valueThe article offers a synthesis of evidence from sources that are rarely drawn together – mainly labour market research, and leisure studies.

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to critically explore media representations of opting-out and how these present particular professional identities as appropriate career choices for women. Through an examination of a UK women's magazine the paper looks at how opting-out in favour of work based on traditionally female housewifery skills and attributes is communicated and justified in the texts.Design/methodology/approach– The paper adopts a social identity approach to a qualitative content analysis of 17 consecutive monthly magazine features.Findings– While the magazine frames women's career choices as unlimited, identity is presented as gendered, biologically fixed and therefore inescapable. The magazine presents opting out as an appropriate route for women based on a "female identity" grounded in traditional female attributes of caring, hosting, baking, etc. However, this leaves women's work open to potentially negative interpretations of these traditional female attributes. The texts appeal to a post-feminist discourse and imply that problems experienced by women in public sphere careers are partly the outcome of the feminism of the 1960s and 1970s.Research limitations/implications– Future research should study how readers interpret the texts.Originality/value– The paper demonstrates the explanatory potential of using of a social identity approach in the analysis of media texts.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to assess the influence of different forms of organisational representation on the provision of work‐life balance employment policies.Design/methodology/approachThe article uses on‐site semi‐structured interviews with employees, HR and line managers and trade union representatives in four case studies as well as survey responses from a total of 17 institutions in the financial services sector.FindingsEmployees do influence work‐life balance issues in the financial services sector, and work‐life balance initiatives had greater breadth, codification and quality where independent unions were recognised. In all cases however, the extent of departure from minimal statutory levels of provision was not great.Research limitations/implicationsThe nature of the study and its focus on Scotland may limit the generalisability of the findings into other sectors or regions.Practical implicationsIn light of the evolving work‐life balance legislative framework, this article should be of practical interest to trade unions, practitioners and academics. It demonstrates that organisations and unions need to retain and develop a focus on work‐life balance applications.Originality/valueThe article indicates the prevalence of management control of the work‐life balance agenda and management's discretion in the operation of work‐life issues. Employees and their representatives accepted this control, and their private individualised responsibility for balancing work and life, without challenge. These results inform current understanding of how work‐life balance legislation, based on a voluntarist agenda, translates into practice.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to explore the concept of availability, both empirically and theoretically, in the context of three Swedish organisations, and identifies the structural influences on availability patterns for work and family.Design/methodology/approachThe article is based on quantitative case studies using employer records and an employee questionnaire in three organisations. Multivariate descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression are used to illustrate and analyse patterns of availability for work and family.FindingsThe descriptive data demonstrate the influence of the organisational context and type of production process, as well as gender, on availability patterns. Patterns of work availability appeared to differ across the organisations to a greater extent than patterns of family availability, which were highly gendered. The logistic regression results indicated that: occupation was a significant influence on both temporal and spatial availability patterns across the organisations; gender was the most significant influence on time spent on household work and part‐time working for parents with young children; age of employees and age of employees' children were the most significant factors influencing the use of time off work for family.Research limitations/implicationsAnalysis limited to case studies. More extensive quantitative research would be needed to make empirical generalisations. Qualitative research would be needed to establish whether and how employees are able to make use of different availability patterns to improve their work‐life balance.Originality/valueThe concept of availability is a new way of trying to capture and analyse tensions in people's everyday lives as they try to manage multiple demands.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to assess the ability of formal equal employment opportunity (EEO) programmes and workplace agreement making to facilitate work and family balance for women workers in Australia.Design/methodology/approachThis article uses documentary analysis and semi‐structured interviews in six Australian organisations that are required to develop formal EEO programmes.FindingsFormal EEO programmes and agreement making are limited in their ability to promote work and family‐friendly arrangements at the workplace. Informal arrangements and managerial discretion are important in realising work and care balance.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is Australian based, and the case studies were confined to six organisations, which restricts the findings.Practical implicationsLeave and work arrangements need to be required within agreements and EEO programmes. Most programmes gravitate towards minimum requirements, hence, it is important to ensure that these minimum requirements provide for work and care reconciliation. Programmes beyond the workplace, such as funded childcare, are important in this context.Originality/valueThe article highlights that formal mechanisms cannot achieve work and care reconciliation for women workers if they are built upon very limited minimum requirements, are voluntary and are dependent upon a bargaining process at the workplace.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to assess whether tele‐nursing in Scotland (NHS24), when compared with traditional face‐to‐face nursing, facilitates greater employee control over working time and therefore a potentially better work‐life balance.Design/methodology/approachThe article draws on evidence from two independent research projects; a survey of 64 ward nurses and midwives, which involved face‐to‐face interviews; and a field study of tele‐nursing in a large site in Scotland, using interviews and observations of 15 nurse advisors or tele‐nurses.FindingsThree elements of work organisation are central in shaping nurses' working hours and their control over the balance between their work and their home life: the management of working hours; the degree of mutual dependency of nurses within teams; and the nature of patient care.Research limitations/implicationsThe two pieces of research reported offer a strong basis for comparative study. However, the two projects were designed independently, though research questions overlapped and one researcher conducted the field work in both settings; there is an imbalance in the number of interviews conducted in each setting; and the nurse advisor interviewees are of the same clinical grade, whereas a variety of grades and clinical areas are represented among the hospital nurse interviewees.Originality/valueThis is the first study of work‐life balance amongst tele‐nurses. The research demonstrates that call centre work has rationalised, depersonalised and yet enabled more "control" by nurses over their work‐life balance, while paradoxically offering less autonomy in their task environment. In conventional work settings professional values make it difficult for nurses to disengage from the workplace.