Managers' life balance. Case studies

This research is aimed to study managers' professional as well as personal activities in the theoretical perspective of the Activity System. We focused on managers' population because of the specificity of their relationship to time at work, and the uncertain boundaries they establish between professional and personal life. This leads to a complex relationship between life's boundaries. The triangulation of three methods (self-observations, interviews based on those self-observations, Activity System Inventories) gives access to useful and complementary data, and allows us to carry out four thorough case studies (three women are 38, 46 and 51 years old, one man is 38 years old). The results emphasize the multiple determinants which coexist in each individual, the different. ways to manage one's life activities, and finally additional prospects on further studies. (C) 2008 Societe franqaise de psychologie. Publie par Elsevier Masson SAS. Tons droits reserves.