The importance of personality and personal beliefs for understanding work-life balance in higher education

Internationally, within academia there is a need to address unsustainable work patterns that negatively impact healthy and productive work environments. Previous research has focused on systemic pressures, such as academic precarity, and demographics, such as gender, for understanding unhealthy work-life balance. This paper examines personality and personal beliefs which may also explain different approaches to, and experiences of, academic work. We undertook a content analysis, and a thematic analysis of qualitative data collected in 2023 at an institution of higher education in the UK. These data comprised perspectives about work-life balance provided within 55 online interviews and 2 forms of written feedback. ‘Saying no’ to work-related tasks and ‘personal beliefs’ were facilitators of work-life balance. Not ‘saying no’ was an inhibitor of work-life balance and so was anxiousness. Personal pressure and compulsivity were identified as both facilitators and inhibitors of work-life balance. Our findings contribute new insights to the study of higher education and add to existing knowledge about systemic pressures and how work-life balance can differ based on demographics. We call for an improved understanding of individual academics and structural opportunities for designing sustainable workloads and healthy approaches to work-life balance in higher education.