Mengyi Xu

• Ph.D. in Human Resource Management
• Assistant Professor in Human Resource Management at University of Birmingham

This chapter provides an overview of work–life balance concerned with the relationship between individuals’ working and non-working lives. It first introduces and discusses the complexity of work–life balance as a concept and then examines how national, organisational, and temporal contexts may shape how it is understood and enacted. In addition, t...

This chapter focuses on exploring challenges encountered by the neglected group of employees who live alone and do not have children, particularly in relation to work-life balance (WLB). We first question the conventional WLB discourse-predominately surrounded by addressing work-family conflicts. We next discuss how this formulates debates about th...

This video collection collaborated with and produced by Sage #researchmethods. I discussed my practical research experience on work-life boundary management for employees in higher education funded by the British Academy of Management including diary-interview research design, participation recruitment, ethical considerations, data collection and a...

Hybrid working is a form of ‘future of work’ that combines a part-remote and part-office schedule. While we do not have a clear definition for this relatively new term, it has been gradually discussed by the media and become familiar to the public in the era of the post-COVID-19 pandemic. The experience of forced homeworking during COVID-19...

Part-time working is a form of flexible working arrangement that carries fewer working days or hours than a standard full-time job. Part-time working also includes term-time working and job sharing, and can be combined with some other types of work such as part-time parental leave, phased retirement, working from home, and so on. In regions and cou...

The formation of information security behavioural intention (ISBI) can be complex and dynamic in different contexts. This paper aims to examine and compare different users' ISBI formalisation mechanisms when dealing with their personal affairs (non-work users) and organisational affairs (work users). Drawing on two principles of Conservation of Res...

We show the relevance of strategic human resource management (SHRM) to addressing the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has posed to the workplace in the context of Mainland China. In particular , we discuss the insights of prevalent areas of SHRM for navigating the pandemic at the organizational and individual levels. We explore the contextual fact...

The working world as we see it today has evolved far from where it started. Naturally, it is hard to discuss this evolution without bringing up the COVID-19 pandemic that started in early 2020. What began as a limited concern has now spread worldwide and brought major disruptions to businesses globally, limiting mobility and the in-person pre...

The impact of internet use on quality of life (QoL) has become an increasing focus of academic research. This paper aims to explore the internal influencing mechanisms of internet use (i.e., leisure-oriented internet use (LIU); work-oriented internet use (WIU)) on QoL, with a focus on the multiple mediating effects of risk perception and internet a...

Work-Life Balance (WLB) has become a prevalent mission of Human Resource Management in the last few decades. Informal support from line managers and co-workers was found particularly important during the implementation of WLB in well-regulated labour markets. This paper examines the role of informal support to attain work-life balance in China wher...

Underpinned by work-life/family and HRM literature, this research seeks to gain a robust understanding of the work-life balance (WLB) discourse in the Chinese context. While work-life issues in newly industrializing economies are gaining increasing salience, the perception and experience of Chinese employees’ WLB remain under-researched and vague....

This paper takes the Thermodynamics course of the Department of Engineering in Lancaster University as an example, expounds the typical teaching model of engineering subject in Britain from the aspects of course development, teaching form, course practice and performance assessment. Combined with the current situa- tion of higher education in engin...

Many existing studies focus on the effect of external influence mechanisms (e.g., deterrence) impacting information security policy compliance (ISPC). This study explores the formation of ISPC from an autonomous motivation perspective, based on social exchange theory and self-determination theory. Data were gathered by conducting a survey of 261 em...

This paper provides critical insight into the development and effectiveness of approaches to work-life management within Chinese organisations. Work-life issues are gaining increasing salience as rapid industrial transformation and work intensification impact on Chinese employees’ work-life balance. Despite increased interests in examining Chinese...

This paper explores the relationships between work-life conflict, work engagement and turnover intention among China’s one-child generation employees. It also examines the role of work engagement in mediating the impact of work-life conflict on turnover intention, and how workplace supervisors’ support can moderate the relationship between work-lif...

Drawn by Budd and Mumford’s (2006) theoretical framework, this paper examines the effect of work-life balance (WLB) policy and practices in the under-researched Chinese workplace. While work-life issues are gaining increasing salience as rapid industrial transformation and work intensification impact on Chinese employees’ WLB, the development and e...

Work-life balance (WLB) issues have received considerable attention in the fields of academia, politics, business and public discourse in western countries. Recently, work-life issues in developing and newly industrializing economies are gaining increasing salience. However, the understanding on WLB in emerging countries (e.g. China) remains limite...

This study examined the issues of work-family conflict, work engagement, and turnover intention for an emerging workplace nucleus, Chinese only-child generation employees. Under the influence of restrict only-child policy (1980-2015), the unique generation is better-educated than the previous generation and play an important role in the current lab...

Work-life balance includes the balances among people’s working life, family life and personal leisure. In the last three decades, human resource management and employment relations research in the field of work-life balance have received considerable attention in the field of academia, politics, business and public discourse in western countries. W...