A morphological analyses of the literature on employee work-life balance

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature relating to work-life balance (WLB), develop a morphological analysis (MA) framework and identify research gaps to recommend future research opportunity. The MA framework has been constructed on the basis of a review of 201 papers published in 96 journals over a period of three decades from 1991 to 2019. Further, a three-stage methodology has been utilized. Stage I features a five-stage systematic review protocol for recognition and scrutiny of relevant papers for review; Stage 2 exhibits a detailed framework for categorization of the reviewed papers in terms of their fundamental, methodological, chronological and sector-wise orientations. Stage 3 exhibits the development of the MA framework based on the themes identified from the reviewed papers and uncover the research gaps. The MA framework was therefore developed on the basis of five dimensions, linking 27 focused themes and the results have showcased 219 distinct research opportunities for further research. This study claims its novelty by utilising MA framework to review WLB literature, which is first of its kind.