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.

Perceptions of work-family balance: How effective are family-friendly policies?

Abstract: The increase in the proportion of mothers with young children returning to paid employment has generated considerable interest in how women juggle the demands of the workplace with the demands of family. Making workplaces more family-friendly has potential benefits for both employees and employers, but research findings are mixed about the take-up rate of such benefits and the outcomes for improving work-family balance. In this paper, we analyse data collected from 1688 women employed in the service sector in Queensland. We examine whether women's perceptions of work-family balance are affected by access to and use of a range of family-friendly work entitlements including part-time employment, subsidized child care, various types of leave, control over rosters and variations in weekly employment hours. Our findings indicate that negative perceptions of work-family balance are linked to long work hours, having to work extra hours and unpredictable work hours. This suggests that what women need most is control over the length and scheduling of their working hours.

Supplemental Work at Home among Finnish Wage Earners: Involuntary Overtime or Taking the Advantage of Flexibility?

Abstract: It is suggested, that the new flexible work practices are enhanced to meet the work-family demandsand therefore benefit especially women. In the article the focus is on informal flexibilitytaking place at home, for which field studies of the role of gender are rare. Against the assumptions,paid work at home is mostly informal, supplementary overtime by nature. In this article, I explorewhy employees undertake work in their private sphere during their free time and whether gendermakes a difference there. I carry out both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The qualitativedata consists of 21 interviews with white-collar employees and the quantitative data from theFinnish Quality of Work Life survey 2008 for which there are almost 4400 respondents. The methodsinclude content analysis, descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis.According to both the qualitative and quantitative data, job characteristics play the most importantrole for all who work at home; employees with higher education, or supervisory tasks, inparallel with having an autonomous and inspiring job predict both tele- and supplemental work.Importantly, gender plays only a minor role in the puzzles of choosing when and where to work.The social relations at the workplace, including the atmosphere and the support of superiors andthe work community, are only weakly related to work at home. At the same time, supplementalwork is associated with great time pressure and involuntary overtime.

Employee-Friendly Companies and Work-Life Balance: Is There an Impact on Financial Performance and Risk Level?

Abstract: Companies and individuals are increasingly concerned about employee-friendly work environments and work-life balance. Past research shows that employee-friendly work environments and particularly work-life balance contribute to employee satisfaction. The present study addresses two important related research questions. First, while employee-friendly companies may have greater worker satisfaction, do employee-friendly companies have superior financial performance? Second, do employee-friendly companies have lower levels of risk? Results of our analysis indicate that employee-friendly companies, compared to other companies, do indeed have better financial performance and lower risk levels. This is an important finding, as it affirms corporate efforts to offer employee-friendly work environments, including facilitating work-life balance for employees. Such efforts pay off, not only with worker satisfaction, as demonstrated in prior studies, but also as shown in this study, with improved company financial performance and risk level.

Remote work and work-life balance: Lessons learned from the covid-19 pandemic and suggestions for HRD practitioners

Abstract: ABSTRACT Popular representations of remote work often depict it as a flexible, technologically feasible, and family-friendly work arrangement. Have the images of remote working as a desirable work arrangement been challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic? What have we learned from the widespread involuntary remote work imposed on many employees during this time? To answer these questions, we analysed 40 recent empirical studies that examined work-life balance while working from home during the pandemic. Our analysis was informed by the person-environment fit theory and complemented by literature reviews on remote work conducted prior to the pandemic. We found four themes representing misfits between desirable expectations and the undesirable realities of remote work: (1) flextime vs. work intensity, (2) flexplace vs. space limitation, (3) technologically-feasible work arrangementvs. technostress and isolation, and (4) family-friendly work arrangement vs. housework and care intensity. We highlight the important role HRD practitioners can play in assisting employees to achieve a fit between their expectations and experiences of remote work.

The mediating role of organizational embeddedness on the relationship between quality of work life and turnover: Perspectives from healthcare professionals

Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of organizational embeddedness in the relationship between quality of work life (QWL) and turnover under a foundation of conservation of resources theory. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 422 healthcare professionals through a questionnaire survey, and analyzed by means of a confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that organizational embeddedness has a negative impact on employees’ intention to leave, and on actual turnover. For QWL perception, career opportunities, work life balance, and job characteristics are positive and significant predictors of organizational embeddedness. In addition, organizational embeddedness plays an intermediary role that mediates the relationship between the three components of QWL mentioned earlier and turnover intention, and also between the factor of career opportunities and actual turnover. Research limitations/implications The current research took place within two healthcare organizations. Replicating the study in a variety of business sectors or professions with a larger sample of subjects would be useful for the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications Organizations may improve their retention of employees by offering intrinsic resources that can be obtained from the social contexts of the individual through human resource management system, e.g., growth opportunities, a healthy and caring work life quality. Such motivational resources then develop a sense of obligation toward their places of employment, which influences their intention to stay or leave. Originality/value This study examines the mediating role of organizational embeddedness between employees’ perception of their work life quality and their desire and behavior to withdraw, which is an area of inquiry that has not been fully investigated in the literature.