Work–life balance

About: Work–life balance is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2252 publications have been published within this topic receiving 36240 citations. The topic is also known as: Work Life balance & work-life balance.

Exploring the hidden social consequences of working in construction with q methodology: developing a study for Australia and the UK

Abstract: Construction work is unhealthy and bad for worker wellbeing. The industry structure results in insecure contracts, transient work, long working hours, stressful workplaces and poor occupational health, all of which contribute to poor worker wellbeing, influence their social determinants of health, and impact society in the broadest terms, workers often unable to fully participate due to poor work-life balance. Industry has become more aware of this in recent times, yet interventions continue to focus on readily identifiable symptoms and easy solutions, such as smoking cessation programmes, rather than underlying and more systemic causes. A study which will mobilise Q Methodology is proposed, to reveal how construction workers experience industry demandsin the widest possible sense. By exploring subjective evaluations, the organisational and industry characteristics that impact most significantly on workers' health and wellbeing are revealed as well as their influences on workers' wider social contexts. This paper presents the proposed research design alongside the development of the Q-Sample, the data set to be evaluated by the participants, for discussion, evaluation and feedback, before it is mobilised in the field as part of a future research project to be undertaken in Australia and the UK.

Organizational Strategic Approach towards Work Life Balance of Women in India

Abstract: With the increase in education and awareness relating to women empowerment there is aconsiderable increase in the number of working women in different sectors. Ever-changingdynamic environment and economic conditions has pressurized the organizations to perform orperish. This in turn has created an unseen pressure on the employees. Career and personal lifeare the two aspects considered important by employees, the success of which requires majorattention. The major challenge for women is to balance the demands and the requirements ofcareer and family. The various aspects like socio demographic conditions, work stress, impact ofwork on personal life negatively affects the personal life and career advancement creating a glassceiling for women employees. It is seen that in the absence of proper work-life balance policiesand practice result in work-life conflict. This can be seen in the form ofincreasedabsenteeism,high attrition, low recognition and job satisfaction. There are initiatives taken by theorganizations and the government but the question is if the initiatives taken are adequate and areactually benefitting the women employees. This paper reviews the work-life balance initiativesadopted by employers in different organizations. An attempt is also made to find the challengesundergone by the organizations in providing such measures to the women employees. Thesources referred for this purpose includes various published research papers on internet sites,magazines, doctoral thesis, newspapers etc.

The spanish and latin american contribution to the study of work life balance: keys for intervention

Abstract: e are currently in a global economic crisis that “threatens to derail the economic development achieved in many countries and to erode the faith of the people in the open International trading system” (Lamy, 2003, part 4). In this context, the question is how to generate competitive advantages that have an impact on organizational effectiveness without jeopardizing the quality of life for employees. Thus several authors in this country point to the importance of developing policies of occupational health and safety (Montero, Araque, & Rey, 2009), and within these, family-friendly policies that promote the worklife balance (WLB) of employees (Leon & Chinchilla, 2010; Urcelay, 2005). The employability survey WorldatWork of 2009 indicated that 67% of management directives in response to the decrease in turnover resulting from the crisis, planned to implement development plans for the engagement and retention of employees, compared to 33% that planned to carry out a process of downsizing. Nanderam (2010) argues that business leaders believe that, while technological improvements in organizations increase their productivity in the short term, the key factor in long term business success is the contribution of employees (Chambers, Foulon, Handfield-Jones, Hankin, & Michaels, 1998; Harter & Schmidt, 2008; Woodruffe, 2006). In this context, there has been a growing interest in the study of WLB in recent years, in both its theoretical and interventional aspects. The demographic changes resulting from the incorporation of women into the work context (Carlier, Llorente, & Grau, 2012) and technological advances (cell phones, email, etc.) have meant that job demands interfere in personal life (Pichler, 2009), hence the development of a new organizational approach concerned with promoting the reconciliation of work and non-work areas (Martinez, 2006a, 2006b). The aim of this paper is to show the main scientific contributions in the field of WLB. To this end, first, a conceptual definition of the term is presented. Next, we analyze the interest in the study of WLB over the last eight years, with particular focus on the Spanish and Latin American contributions. We end by presenting our research work in relation to this issue, considering its implications for professional practice. In particular, we pay special attention to the role of supervisor (van Daalen, Willemsen, & Sanders, 2006), given that leadership is considered one of the factors that most contribute to employees’ perceptions about their jobs (Bass, Jung, Avolio, & Berson, 2003). THE SPANISH AND LATIN AMERICAN CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF WORK LIFE BALANCE: KEYS FOR INTERVENTION

The Effect of Front-Line Manager's Perception of the Work-Life Balance Practice on Leadership Behaviors

Abstract: In this research, we determine whether managers hold a "positive assessment" or a "negative assessment" of the practice of allowing reduced hours for regular employees involved in parenting and caregiving. The factors that influence the two types of assessment and how the two types of assessment influence managers' leadership behavior were studied. It was confirmed that the reasons that managers see as being behind the introduction of the practice of reduced hours for parenting and caregiving had a considerable influence on both types of assessment. The length of the period during which reduced hours are allowed and the working hours of employees working reduced hours also had an influence on the assessment. "Positive assessment" and "negative assessment" influenced the leadership behaviors of "consideration," "performance emphasis," and "response to conflict." Based on these results, we examined the issues involved in the management of the practice of reduced hours for parenting and caregiving, and methods for addressing those issues.

Employees' Perception of Work Life Balance Practices: A Study in an IT Company, Bhubaneswar

Abstract: Information Technology (IT) sector plays a significant role in the growth of Indian economy and is also one of the largest employers. However, IT sector faces many challenges such as tough competition, economic uncertainty and dynamic business environment. Therefore, to overcome such challenges and for sustainable development, the companies are concerned about their productivity. To enhance the productivity, organisations should effectively manage its resources, particularly human resource for effective achievement of targets by the employees. When targets are tough, it ultimately makes them difficult to balance their personal and professional lives. This often becomes a big bottleneck in the achievement of targets by the employees. Organisations also realised the worth of employees and are concerned about their problems. Therefore, today IT sector implements many employee oriented practices. Though many researchers have studied various work-life balance practices that different companies have adopted for their employees, still most of the literature have taken the demographic variables gender, in their study. However, there is scope to include other demographical aspects such as experience and age. Hence the purpose of the study is to find out the differences of age wise and experience wise opinion of the employees in an IT company of Bhubaneswar regarding the practices adopted to balance the work-life conflict. The study revealed no significant differences among the employees of various experience categories towards the work-life balance practices, though, in age-wise responses of the employees, there exists a significant difference towards the practices on the variables, namely, fun at work and support to career.