Mellan idealitet och professionalitet : Gränssättningens balansakt för chefer i ideell sektor

Sammanfattning: The main purpose of this study was to examine managers' capabilities to support the boundaries between work-life and private-life in the non-profit sector. The theoretical framework of the study is centered on work/family border theory where we focused on managers' dual role of border-crosser and border-keeper and explained this using new institutional theory as an analytical lens together with previous research on the special nature of the nonprofits, as well as policies for border control and the balance between autonomy and control. To understand the boundaries between the two domains, four focus groups were interviewed, consisting of three to four individuals. The participants were managers of various organizations within the nonprofit sector. According to boundary theory, employees become central participants when the organization helps them internalize the culture of the domain, develop knowledge in their jobs, when they connect with those who already have central membership, and when they are given responsibilities with which they can personally identify. The central membership is then assumed to provide tools for them to be able to increase the balance between work and private life on their own. The result of the study has shown that there are two factors that the managers believe affect the boundary between work and private life in addition to the actual time, namely performance boundaries and role boundaries. Based on what the focus groups convey, there is a notion of an ideal in the nonprofit sector where the job is to some extent expected to be seen as something more than a job that reinforces the boundless tendencies between working life and private life.