Escalating stress and pressures, along with organisational change in universities has led to the increased importance of research in to the impact of perceived job stress, work-life balance and work-life conflict amongst academics. Yet, very few studies have examined academics' ability to balance work and personal life, and overcome work-life conflict. Drawing on Spillover theory (Zedeck, 1992), our study hypothesised that high levels of perceived job pressure stress and job threat stress would predict increased levels of work-life conflict, and decreased levels of work-life balance. Due to the well-documented relationship between stress and health, the influence of job stress on wellbeing was also investigated in this sample of academics (N =139). Perceived job stress (threat and pressure-type stressors) was associated with poorer work-life balance, and increased conflict between academics' work and personal lives. Perceived job threat-type stress made a stronger contribution and was a significant predictor of work-life balance and work-life conflict scores, than perceived job pressure-type stress. Perceived job threattype stress among academics was also a significant predictor and associated with poorer wellbeing and increased ill-being, but perceived job pressure-type stress was not related to academics' wellbeing or ill-being.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how highly skilled migrants to Australia integrate into the workplace, focussing on the factors that foster or hinder that integration.
Design/methodology/approach
An inductive method using an interpretive methodological approach was employed. In-depth interview data were analysed thematically.
Findings
Informal workplace practices, such as informal peer mentoring and having an “empathetic” supervisor, also assisted with integration, as did migrant self-help strategies. Factors hindering integration included structural barriers outside the organisation and workplace factors such as racism, cultural barriers and individual factors that centred on the migrants themselves.
Research limitations/implications
While the exploratory qualitative enquiry sheds light on issues of concern regarding workplace integration of skilled migrants, further studies with diverse migrant groups would be required to understand if the findings could be replicated. An industry or sector-wise migrant study would shed more light on the issues.
Practical implications
Fostering and hindering factors identified through the lens of four workplace integration theories can inform workplace integration strategies and related policy formulation.
Originality/value
Informed by four theories of integration, the findings shed light on the everyday workplace experiences of linguistically competent, self-initiated, highly skilled migrants from diverse ethnic/cultural backgrounds in Australian workplaces in a range of industries. While previous research has identified problems experienced by migrants at work, this paper explores factors fostering and hindering workplace integration through the lens of the lived experiences of skilled migrant workers.
Australia has been aggressively pursuing skilled migrants to sustain its population and foster economic growth. However, many skilled migrants experience a downward career move upon migration to Australia. Based on a survey of recent skilled migrants, this study investigates how individual (age, years of settlement, qualifications), national/societal (citizenship and settlement), and organization‐level (climate of inclusion) factors influence their career success. Overall, we found that: (1) age at migration matters more than length of settlement in predicting skilled migrant career success; (2) citizenship uptake and living in a neighbourhood with a greater number of families from the same country of origin facilitate post‐migration career success; and (3) perceptions of one's social/informal networks in the workplace – a dimension of perceived organizational climate of inclusion – also have a positive impact on migrant career outcomes.
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