Work-home boundary limits: a study of evangelical pastors’ daily lives

Abstract The aim of this research is to analyse the mutual influence in the process of negotiating work-home boundaries and personal and social identity or, in other words, to study the method of adapting and managing domestic and professional conflicts which interfere with the harmony of evangelical pastors’ work and personal lives. We conducted a qualitative study in order to achieve the proposed aims, involving an interpretative approach with the pastors of a specific ecclesiastical institution: The Assemblies of God in Brazil. A total of 20 interviews were held, and, following coding procedures, boundary-work tactics, whose taxonomy falls within physical, behavioural, temporal and communicative dimensions, were found. The results revealed that the sharp distinction seen was that the subjects were more likely to mingle interactions in work-home boundaries. The boundary-negotiation tactics were shown to be multi-functional, as they have dual function techniques, used both to segment and integrate the work-home boundary.