03-18-2026
For more than three decades, Ellen Ernst Kossek has pioneered scholarship reshaping how organizations think about work-life balance. In this year’s Kanter Lecture, Kossek shared recent research on a dilemma that has been understudied: whether organization-wide supervisor training on work-life flexibility improves employee satisfaction and organizational functionality. She specifically tackles the question: What happens when we intentionally train supervisors to support employees’ work-life needs, rather than leaving flexibility to ad hoc favors and “nice bosses”?
In many workplaces, tensions collide. Employees in frontline or inflexible roles have little control over when or where they work and are especially vulnerable to burnout, yet organizations often assume nothing can be done beyond praising their dedication. At the same time, professionals with high flexibility often feel unable to use it, fearing stigma or lack of supervisor support, and end up exhausted despite having options on paper. Kossek calls this the dilemma of control and work-life flexibility: flexibility exists for some but is unusable, while others who most need it have none.
Drawing on a large, randomized intervention in a public university, Kossek’s work shows how targeted supervisor training can reduce emotional exhaustion for “flexibility have-nots” and enhance family engagement for those with greater control — transforming flexibility from a private negotiation into a shared cultural norm.
From emotional support to role modeling, watch and learn how Kossek’s findings can improve employee well-being and performance:
