Peer Learning Communities Effectiveness on Work-Life Balance

Lauren Gould* and Leslie Tower

Women's Resource Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation Category: Human Engagement (Poster Presentation #143)

Student’s Major: Social Work

This study focuses on how a peer learning community may affect the work/life balance of new faculty in higher education. Greenblatt (2002) defines work/life Balance as satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home with a minimum role conflict. Studies have shown many higher education faculty struggle to manage work and personal life (Pasque, 2011). Studies have also shown positive outcomes associated with successful socialization including increased job satisfaction, organizational attachment, higher job performance, organizational citizenship, productivity, retention, achieving tenure (Fleming, Goldman, Correli, & Taylor, 2016). We created a community of new faculty who went monthly on Zoom. Before each meeting, we asked participants to participate in a 2-item eJournaling survey. Item 1 used a 7 item scale to ask the participants how much they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “I am able to balance my personal/family life with my work demands.“ Item 2 asked the participants to explain their answer to the first question. We used grounded theory to examine participants’ ability to manage work and personal life and what was having positive and/or negative effects on their work life balance, over time. Some of the participants reported improvement in their ability to manage work and personal life. We also found that COVID-19, working from home and lack of boundaries have all had negative effects on work life balance. We conclude that peer learning communities may positively impact work life balance in higher education faculty.

Funding:

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course