The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2 - 76

Pressley R. Rankin, IV * Needham Yancey Gulley

someone near the full integrator end of the
continuum can attempt to establish boundaries to allow for personal time. This is why the
different dimensions were developed from
the themes in the study; it seemed that participants could vary some in the areas where
they try to establish boundaries. Yet Nick also
demonstrates how permeable the boundaries
created by full integrators can be. When discussing frustrations, he said,
Tonight is Tuesday, and, as I just said, bowling
is my nonnegotiable. But guess what, I'm not
going to bowling tonight because it is room
selection day on campus and, on Friday, three
business days ago, we found out that, hey,
you all have to staff the central office to be
there to help students.
Nick's story illustrates how even when an integrator attempted to construct firm boundaries,
work did win out.
Lack of privacy while on campus can lead
to work invading personal time. As Sally (5)
said, "You can't ignore them [students or staff ]
if they say hi to you or, like, multiple times I'm
stopped at night and asked questions about
things whether they'd be housing or not." Nick
and Sally illustrate how, for some participants,
ownership of time took the place of ownership
of space. While they could not control what was
happening in their physical environment, at
least not very well, they could make strides to
better manage their time in ways that created
boundaries between work and their personal
lives. Even so, this strategy of relegating certain
times to certain functions did not always manifest itself in separating work from personal
time. For residence life staff, time is not always
their own even when they are off duty.

IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERSHIP
AND PRACTICE
This study demonstrates that while work satisfaction may not be wholly based on how many
integrative coping strategies a participant used,
implementing more strategies meant that
most participants could stay in their positions
without succumbing to frustration generated
by a work environment that is ever present and
constantly stresses the boundaries between
work and home life.

. . . for some participants,
ownership of time took the place
of ownership of space . While
they could not control what
was happening in their physical
environment, at least not very well,
they could make strides to better
manage their time in ways that
created boundaries between work
and their personal lives .

The Integration Continuum for Residence
Life Professionals can be useful in helping
residence life staff understand their personal
tendencies around issues of work/life balance.
Likewise, it can be helpful to the supervisors
of live-in residence life staff as they attempt to
mentor employees. Using the continuum to

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 2

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