Work-Leisure Blending: An Integrative Conceptual Review and Framework to Guide Future Research

Since the industrial revolution, work and leisure have largely been considered opposing domains. A growing number of organizations, however, enable and/or promote blending leisure activities into the workplace. Similarly, several conceptualizations across different disciplines examine how work and leisure can coexist. These different conceptualizations have yielded a rich but fragmented theoretical account of work-leisure blending. To address this problem, we provide a comprehensive theoretical integration of multiple literature streams where research has explored work-leisure blending. Further, we develop a tripartite dimensional framework designed to elucidate the central dimensions of work-leisure blending (i.e., segmentation-integration, unstructured-structured, and independent-interactive) undergirding this phenomenon. Using this framework as a theoretical foundation, we then discuss important contextual considerations and future research directions related to work-leisure blending.