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This chapter focuses on exploring challenges encountered by the neglected group of employees who live alone and do not have children, particularly in relation to work-life balance (WLB). We first question the conventional WLB discourse – predominately surrounded by addressing work-family conflicts. We next discuss how this formulates debates about the equality and fairness of HR policies affecting various groups of employees, with solo-living individuals being excluded. In addition to previously documented work-life issues, we articulate difficulties related to the pursuit of independence, freedom, balancing, and healthy work-life experiences for and specific to solo-living women academics. We conclude that our insights on “vulnerability” may lead to feminist approach being incorporated into work-life policy development in order to better engage underrepresented groups of employees, accommodate the needs of “others” and promote collective flourishing.

In this introductory chapter, we establish the basis for the theme of this volume, “Emotions and Disruption.” We discuss how the initial idea for the theme arose during the height of COVID-19. At this time, and as widely reported in the press (e.g., see Grensing-Pophal, 2020), a myriad of workplace disruptions occurred impacting employees' moods and emotions and their subsequent well-being and performance. We open by discussing some key work on emotions research during change and disturbance, followed by a synopsis of each of the chapters in this volume, including discussion of their key contributions. This includes an overview of how some of these chapters were first presented as conference papers at the Twelfth International Conference on Emotions and Worklife (EMONET XII), an event that took place for the first time online in response to the turbulence and travel disruptions created by the pandemic.

In this chapter we give an outline of the organization of this book and discuss its four major parts. We then relate each chapter to the relevant part and consider its key contributions in terms of what we have learnt about emotions when applying the lens of disruption.

We conclude that the chapters provide a range of insights and practical solutions for dealing with emotions during different types of disruption that should be helpful to practitioners and academics.

The chapters investigate underresearched topics and thus make new and important contributions. While many topics addressed in the chapters are still in their initial stages, they clearly have the potential to make a significant impact on people's work lives.

This study employs the concept of emotional ambivalence, in an exploration of the complex emotions experienced by organizational members during organizational change.

The study entailed 37 in-depth interviews conducted in two English housing associations. The interview transcripts, as well as organizational documents and research fieldnotes were subject to thematic and narrative analysis.

The emotions experienced by organizational members during organizational change are inherently ambivalent.

Results show that engaging with organizational members who experience ambivalent emotions in response to change offers an important resource which can be utilized by change managers.

This chapter reviews some of the learnings and solutions suggested by the chapter authors regarding the role of emotions during disruption and offers ideas for future research. The aim is to offer a positive conclusion to the problems (and opportunities) of disruption.

The learnings are arranged under four headings: (1) The heightened salience and complexity of emotions and emotional processes during disruption; (2) The upside of disruption if emotions are managed effectively: performance and other outcomes; (3) The importance of working relationships for emotions during disruption; and (4) The critical role of leader emotional competencies and responses during disruption.

The challenges posed by various forms of disruption, and the emotions they engender, can lead to positive outcomes if managed appropriately.

The contributions in this book highlight a broad range of important but under researched topics regarding various forms of organizational disruption, emotions, and emotional processes. Chapter authors also offer many solutions for dealing with the challenges associated with these issues that might prove helpful in today's organizations.

The affect-related processes and outcomes examined in the chapters presented in this book have an impact on employee well-being and performance. As such, managing emotions appropriately and effectively is important for society.

The chapters in this book provide a variety of original perspectives and solutions on the role of emotions during the modern era of endemic disruption.

In this chapter, we outline the background to the present volume, including the history of the Emonet group and the origins of the book series. We argue that the volume subtitle “A coat of many colors” reflects the diversity of approaches to studying emotion in organizational settings. We then provide a summary of the 11 contributor chapters in the volume, which illustrates the wide range of emotion-related topics covered in the volume.

This chapter provides an overview of the chapters in the volume, and gives a brief summary of each chapter, explaining how each fits into the overall theme of the volume and listing the key contribution of each chapter.

The introduction concludes with a summary of main findings of the chapters, and how they shape the future of the field, concluding that, since emotion-related topics nowadays are so integrated into the mainstream literature in organizational behavior and organization theory, maybe there is no longer a need to address emotions as a stand-alone topic.

The chapters in this volume address a wide range of emotion-related topics in the fields of organizational behavior and organization theory and point to the future of research in this field.

Purpose: This introduction sets the stage for the book theme, “Emotions and Negativity,” by reviewing the early work on negative emotions and by discussing the impact of the COVID pandemic on people’s moods and emotions. It discusses how most of the chapters in this book were first presented as conference papers at the Twelfth International Conference on Emotions and Worklife (“Emonet XII”). It then highlights the key contributions from each of the chapters. Study Design/Methodology/Approach: This gives an overview of the organizational structure of the book and explains the four major parts of the book. It then relates each chapter to the theme of each part and discusses the key contributions of each chapter. Findings: The introduction concludes by observing that the chapters offer a variety of practical solutions to negative emotions that should be of use to both practitioners and academicians. Originality/Value: The chapters investigate underresearched topics, and thus make original and important new contributions. Although underresearched, the topics they explore have a major impact on people’s lives. Thus, these chapters add considerable value to the field.

The present study aims to conduct a critical review of an existing set of practices within the Maltese public sector.

This study is based on interpretivism (people-centred approach) embedded in a pragmatic research paradigm (the use of mixed methods).

Misconceptions about the role and practice of executive coaching in Malta relates to the similar roles ascribed to mentoring, supervision, therapy, consultation, coaching, audit and watchdog under the misnomer of “coaching”.

The main contribution of this research is to the community of professional practitioners as well as to the Maltese central government to improve managerial effectiveness in the Maltese public sector with several endorsed policy-level recommendations presented in the study.

The results suggest a restructuring of a well-defined, structures, systems and dynamics within the Maltese public administration, the ability by senior management including senior public officers (SPOs) to recognise high-potential talents, the need to expand leadership capacity, the establishment of a professional coaching body and a national coaching network framework.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the role and impact of executive coaching in the Maltese public sector using quantitative and qualitative empirical data.