Self-Employment as A Phenomenon that Changes The Perception of Work-Life Balance and Work Motivation

Abstract

Work-life balance and work motivation have become more questionable due to the changes in today's work conditions. It is seen that the efforts of people to get satisfied both at work and in life equally increase. However, there is also certain evidence that this effort is put into practice differently. In this respect, this study is important in terms of revealing how people's perceptions of work-life balance and work motivation differ in Turkey when they are doing paid-work or self-employed. To this end, the phenomenological method, one of the qualitative research methods, was used to reveal the experiences of individuals who had quitted their paid job for different reasons and started their own business. A total of 10 people who had started their own businesses, living in the same city but operating in different sectors, and volunteered to participate in this study were found and data thus were collected via in-depth interview technique. The data obtained by deciphering the recorded interviews with the consent of the participants were transferred to the MAXQDA 2022 package program, and descriptive and contextual analysis was made. As a result of the analyses, it was found that, despite the degree of higher responsibility, perceived work-life balance and work motivation perceptions were more positive when working in their own businesses, compared to when working in a paid job. It has also been established that participants who could set up a work-life balance in their.