Work-life balance can be defined as creating and maintaining supportive and healthy work environments, which will enable employees to have balance between work and personal responsibilities and thus strengthen employee productivity. Numerous studies have been conducted on work-life balance. According to a major Canadian study conducted by Lowe in 2005, 1 in 4 employees experience high levels of conflict between work and family, based on work-family interference and caregiver strain. If work overload is included, then close to 60 percent of employees surveyed experience work-family conflict.
Of all the job factors that influence work-life conflict, the amount of time spent at work is the strongest and most consistent measurement. The higher levels of work-family conflict reported by managers or professionals often are a function of their longer work hours. Other reasons include: job security, support from one’s supervisor, support from co-workers, work demands or overload, work-role conflict, work-role ambiguity, job dissatisfaction, and extensive use of communication technology that blurs the boundaries between home and work. Today’s workers have many challenging responsibilities such as work, children, housework, volunteering, spouse and elderly parent care and this places stress on individuals, families and the communities in which they reside. Work-life conflict is a serious problem that impacts workers, their employers and communities.
It seems that this problem is increasing over time due to high female labour force participation rates, increasing numbers of single parent families, the majority of the dual-earner family and emerging trends such as elder care. It is further inflated by globalization, an aging population, and h...
... middle of paper ...
... managers, helps to increased work-life balance. Work-life balance programs have been established to have a positive impact on employees in terms of recruitment, retention, commitment and satisfaction, absenteeism, productivity and accident rates.
Companies that have implemented work-life balance programs recognize that employee welfare rebuilds the foundation of the business. Parameters are required to ensure that programs are having the desired effect on both employees and the company. Six parameters that can be used to evaluate work life balance programs are: degree of management buy-in and training, how programs are communicated to employees, corporate culture, management controls, human resources policies and employee control. Finally, self-management is important; people need to control their own behaviour and minimize expectations regarding work-life balance.
Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,
at some point all employees will eventually need time off from work to deal with either a serious personal illness or other family obligations. “Many European nations took to the idea of making balancing family and work easier for employees but the movement did not gain momentum in the United States until the late 60s and 70s when working women were no longer the minority” (AAUW). There was a general shift in the nature of the common everyday american household and a two income household was slowly but surely becoming the new reality of american life.
Through life, one must make choices in their personal and professional lives in order to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Through the plays Bull, Waste, Little Eyolf, The Homecoming, and the musical Kinky Boots, it is evident that creating a distinction between one’s personal and one’s professional life is essential to living a healthy life. When one’s personal life and professional life overlap completely, trouble ensues.
Work and family signify two important components in the lives of most people. Interestingly, work and family roles can produce significant impact on life satisfaction [Kossek, E. & Ozeki,C. 1998). In fact, managing the intersection between work and family is one of the critical issues for both management practitioners and academics [Rothbard, Nancy.P & Dumas, Tracy L, 2006). Presently, research in the work-family area has shifted to the enhancement hypothesis, researchers are beginning to explore ways in which work and family domains enhance or enrich each other. As mentioned earlier, researchers have used various terms to explore this concept including; work-family enrichment, positive work-family spillover, work-family enhancement,
Northam, S. (2009). Conflict in the workplace: Part 1. American Journal of Nursing, 109(6), 70-73. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000352483.09112.b4.
Today, approximately 70 percent of companies have some form of a wellness program while 90 to 95 percent of large corporations offer programs that look at employee well being (Carlson, 2014). A Workplace Wellness Program is shown to reduce sick time, workers compensation, disability and health care
The benefits of flexible work arrangements, however, far outweigh these potential pitfalls. As more organizations begin to perceive these initiatives as strategic management tools, flexibility will move beyond its origin as an accommodation to working mothers. Simply put, companies intent on succeeding in the marketplace will be compelled to implement flexible work patterns. Such organizations will find that their potential for increased profitability is significantly affected by how skilfully they can integrate a variety of work-time and work-site options to create a climate of equitable flexibility for all employees.
Work-Life Balance: Personal and Organizational Perspectives on Balance and Flexibility, HRM 6920 – Fall 2014
From single mothers and fathers to working Husband and wives who work long hour and spend along hour away from their family are effected by work and family conflict. Parent is unable to assist with homework, school project, and community issue to do work and family conflict. What is work and family conflict? It is when an individual is working to the point where their personal lives and family member are affected by their absences. The work and family conflict causes multiple problems in both the home and on the job. Many individual affected by the work and family conflict on the job for an example the employee come be frustrated on the job because they have a family emergency that they cannot handle. They boss or employer may become restless do to the missed time from work to handle family situation, doctor appointment, or school matter. The conflict could come from the family member for example the child or children could misbehavior in class do to the lack of attention in the home. The other spouse could feel neglected do the missed hour of quality time from the work mate. Work and family conflict can affected all parts involved whether it is the employer, co-workers, spouse, children, or even friends. The main idea will be to gather some background information and literature to see how they contribute to work and family conflict. Also discover some action to take and steps to detail with this issue.
Human resources will need to place emphasis on employee wellness my initiating programs that “include work-life balance processes, stress management, and therapy programs, and facilitating an open dialogue about mental health and illness to remove much of the stigma that plagues the conversation and ailments (Guppta, 2016).” By utilizing flexible work schedule options, demanding jobs with high-stress levels are possible because employees’ free time does not have to be sacrificed.
If they have high level work pressure might be high which can be resulted in work family conflict because of work pressure, and if they have low level of employment the situation might be reversed. Their results suggested that “having sufficient job control can help protect employees from the stress and strain produced by work-related demands” (DiRenzo, Greenhaus, & Weer, 2011). With increased control over work schedules, duties and decisions employees may be better able to expertise and boat their jobs to minimize the possibilities of work family
Employers may get higher levels of productivity and job satisfaction. Employees may feel that they are trusted by management which improves the quality of employee relations. Small companies after different forms of flexible work schedules to employees to help them achieve balance in their lives and reduce stress. Now adays some organizations practice’s flexibility within the organization. In recent years a variety of factors- such as increasing economic volatility, competitiveness, new technology, and more recently, intensifying shortage of skills- have lead many organizations’ actively seek more efficient and effective ways ( Brewster et al). These organization practices different flexibilities like functional flexibility, numerical flexibility, work-time flexibility, financial flexibility, organization flexibility (Brewster et al, P102-106). According to Peers (2013) flexible working hours is arguable the way forward businesses to increase productivity and attract and retain the best talent and win for employees and employers. Increased competitive intensity requires organizations to do more profoundly. It also requires them to become more flexible. This is partly In order to increase efficiency and productivity, but developing a capacity for flexible also allows them to respond more quickly to changed and changing circumstance contemporary Issues in Human Resource Management (2011), Stephen Tylor, Printed in Maltaby Gutembers
There have always been various problems on how employees balance family life and work life. This is a problem that many employees from different organizations face. The challenge here is that they are not able to balance both lives. This in most cases leads to neglect of one life and giving too much attention to the other. This has been a major problem to many employees. They have always complained of how difficult it can be when a person tries to balance both lives (Philipsen & Bostic, 2010). This has been a big issue that should be tackled with a lot of concern. There has always been a need for people to be able to live comfortably with their families and to have a good working life in the work area. People should be taught on how to balance family life and work and to be able to give equal attention to both lives. This can be made possible by training and enlightening people on how these two can be achieved. There is need for all employees to learn how they ensure that they give equal attention to their family life and work life.
Work-life balance practices are thoughtful organizational changes in programs or organizational culture that are intended to reduce work-life conflict and permit employees to be more effective at work as well as in other roles. The evolution from viewing work-life balance practices only as a means of providing individual employees with care giving responsibilities to identifying their contribution to organizational performance and employee engagement is an important paradigm shift which is still very much ‘in process.’
In Today’s world, the composition and how work is done has massively changed and is still continuing to change. Work is now more complex, more team base, depends greatly on technological and social skills and lastly more mobile and does not depend on geography. Companies are also opting for ways to help their employees perform their duties effectively so that huge profits are realized in the long term .The changes in the workplaces include Reduction in the structure of the hierarchy ,breakdown in the organization boundaries , improved and better management tactics and perspectives and lastly better workplace condition and health to the employees. (Frank Ackerman, Neva R. Goodwin, Laurie Dougherty, Kevin Gallagher, 2001)