Between promise and practice

: work-life balance policy decoupling in consulting

Abstract

To attract top talent, organizations such as consulting promote work-life balance (WLB) policies. Yet, despite public commitments, ongoing reports about employee dissatisfaction suggest a gap between effort and outcome. This study investigates how WLB policies align, or fail to align, with the lived experiences of consultants and examines how organizations can prevent both policy-practice and means-ends decoupling. The study adopts an inductive approach, relying on a qualitative methodology, using Gioia methodology for data analysis. The database has gathered qualitative interviews with consultants and HR personnel to explore the ethical and organizational dynamics at play. Findings reveal that WLB remains more exception than norm, with weak policy design facilitating decoupling. The findings indicate low awareness of WLB policies, limited usage, and, even when used, a failure to achieve the intended outcomes. The study discusses internalized “client-first” as a form of decoupling and the prevention of such as a key lever for organizations. It contributes to the literature on WLB within business ethics scholarship, by uncovering how internalized professional norms and organizational inaction jointly contribute to the ethical failure of WLB policy implementation. This study contributes to decoupling literature by adding a novel empirical application in the consulting sector and in the context of WLB policies, offering insights into previously neglected prevention mechanisms, and uncovering internalized beliefs as a sign of decoupling. Practically, the study identifies top-down communication and role-modelling by managers as suitable prevention measures to challenge the client-first norm, thereby helping to ensure WLB policies move beyond symbolic compliance.

Date of Award	11 Jul 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Rosa Fioravante (Supervisor)