Double-edged informality in the work-life balance management: evidence from Chinese State-owned Enterprise employees

While Chinese employees' work-life balance has become tensioning with the rapid industrial transformation and work intensification, managing work-life balance has neither had widespread academic attention nor formal practice as the Western developed economies. This paper provides critical insights into the development and effectiveness of approaches to work-life management within Chinese organisations. Drawing on JD-R theory and informality debates, we conduct a case study approach and mixed methods (312 surveys, 23 interviews and documentary research) to gain an understanding of the work-life balance discourse within Chinese State-owned Enterprises. Findings indicate, there are formal and predominately informal approaches relevant to Chinese employees’ work-life balance. Similar to the West developed economies, there are gulfs that exist between the existence and effectiveness of work-life management. Whereas, work-life management may be less effective or even counterproductive in the Chinese context where the formal work-life regulation and enforcement are scarce and the Guanxi-based managerial informality is dominated.