Work life balance leader and trainer joe robinson, seen on cnn and today, has brought together some of the key studies on work life balance to give you insights to help in your planning for an initiative or workshop for your organization. It is the state of equilibrium in which demands of personal life, professional life, and family life are equal. Work life balance definition, importance, steps, benefits. A healthy worklife balance assumes great significance for working women particularly in the current context in which both, the family and the workplace have posed several challenges and problems for women. Work life balance and implications of spill over theory. If you do not make the conscious decision to achieve balance, it is likely that you will fail along the way. These include compensation, spillover and the border theory. Worklifebalance named two key everyday concepts that will help us come up with a positive and clearer definition of worklife balance. Imagine that your life is represented by a stove with four burners on it.
Work life practices and organizational performance 3 making the link between work life balance practices and organizational performance despite the popularity of work life conflict as a topic of academic and practitioner debate, and the mounting prevalence of work life balance practices a. Your two best friends, jenny and gina, are fighting. Working individuals often find themselves juggling between their work and social lives, aiming for the everelusive work life balance. Worklife balance is the harmonious and holistic integration of work and nonwork of work and private life. Some of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs havent come close to figuring it out. The impact of working women on work life balance perspectives abstract this thesis describes the impact of women entering the workforce after 1970 on work life balance issues. Pdf work life balance and employee productivity ahmed.
Organisational and human resource responses maria peate sorensen abstract worklife balance may not be of organisational importance as other areas in the current economic recession with a labour market abundant in skills. Balancing your work and life is something that most individuals strive to accomplish. The effects of job satisfaction and worklife balance on. Investigating the relationship between worklifebalance.
One way to think about worklife balance is with a concept known as the four burners theory. Despite the worldwide quest for worklife balance, very few have found an acceptable definition of the concept. There are various aspects of ones personal life that can. The state of work life balance in 2019 according to data. Work life balance and the management of social work environment. All these theories provide insights into the relationship between work and family domains. Work life balance within the workplace why do we need them. These changes affect the demands that people place themselves and their work. Compensation theory refers to the efforts intended at countering. Work life balance, stress, family life, quality of work life introduction to work life balance. Every person plays different roles and also goes through various stages of life. Despite the worldwide quest for work life balance, very few have found an acceptable definition of the concept.
The study started by looking at various events or issues that affects the performance of employee most especially in zenith bank nigeria. Lets ask mark zuckerberg, elon musk, and sara blakely. The most overlooked of the work life balance supporting disciplines, leisure management acknowledges the importance of rest and relaxation that one cant shortchange leisure, and that time off is a vital component of the human experience. All these theories depict a similar connotation of balance, i. Or if one has a wonderful family life, shehe is able to bring these positive emotions to work. This imbalance of work life relationships can negatively impact job performance naithani, 2010. Although the conflict perspective has dominated research on the work family interface to date, there is also a longstanding recognition that multiple role occupancy, such as performing multiple roles in both the work and family domains, can be beneficial to psychological wellbeing. Work life balance of employees information and library. This study focused on work life balance and employee performance in the nigerian banking industry. Clarke, et al 2004, 121 to understand work life balance, it is important to be aware of the different. Join the conversation below and let us know if youre a lone wolf or a team player. A good work life balance between work and family domain is a growing concern today.
I would frame the challenge as an internal one based on, and consistent with, welfare economics. According to a 2017 gallup poll on the state of the american workplace, approximately 53 percent of employees stated that a job role that allows them to have better work life balance and personal wellbeing is very important to them. According to the theory, people are daily bordercrossers between the domains of work and family. The nature of the challengeor the spillovers theory can be viewed in two ways. Even though there was no empirical evidence to suggest the same.
Work life balance elephant theory center for work life. Each burner symbolizes one major quadrant of your life. The intersection of work and life research is fundamentally challenged by a lack of commonly established basic language and key constructs. Nevertheless it is possible to discern a number of distinct strands. Worklife balance, wlb, wlb theories, concepts in wlb. Further research is required to find out the relation between work life balance and performance of individuals and the organizations. There are many aspects of ones personal life that can intersect with work including family, leisure, and health. The six components of worklife balance hr exchange network.
Over the last three decades, comprehensive research has been conducted to better. The role of worklife balance practices in order to. The term work life balance is recent in origin, as it was first used in uk and. Work life balance is the lack of opposition between work and other life roles. You probably make most of your phone calls to, or spend most of your time with, a limited amount of the people you have numbers for and know. I have learned through my experience that it is very important to make an effort to provide the yourself opportunity for balance. Work life balance elephant theory farnaz hedayati march 31, 2014. Drivers of worklifebalance as it likewise addresses those readers who do not possess a detailed knowledge of this field and thus are more acquainted with the popular term. Worklife balance programs to improve employee performance.
Challenges and solutions 3 2003 shrmresearch quarterly the meaning of worklife balance has chameleon characteristics. Is there a relationship between work life balance and employees motivation in the. Here is a rundown of statistics that show the reality of work life balance. The present research paper is theoretical and descriptive in nature and describes the various work life balance wlb factors, theories. Nov 12, 2016 misconceptions about work life balance work life balance does not mean that both blend as one. This theory focuses on identifying the factors that create work and family conflict, and tries to find ways to manage these two spheres and the border between them, in order to reach a balance between work related roles and family related roles clark, 2000. The most overlooked of the worklife balance supporting disciplines, leisure management acknowledges the importance of rest and relaxation that one cant shortchange leisure, and that time off is a vital component of the human experience.
This course focuses on the context in which work life balance has grown, comparing the key theories of work life conflict, work life integration and. You have probably heard that families today are struggling and more stressed than ever. The role of worklife balance practices in order to improve. In essence, work and family life balance encompasses the use of deliberate measures by an employer to enable workers to achieve professional commitments while enjoying the opportunity to attend to. Work life interface is the intersection of work and personal life. With the millennial generation of workers projected to take up 75% of the workforce by 2025, many leaders think its time to redefine what work life balance looks like. In a july 2008 article, the authors found a positive relationship between work life balance and career advancement potential based on self, peer and supervisor ratings among 9,627 managers from 33 countries. Balance in work and family life is an emerging challenge for both. Work life balance encourages employees to divide their time on the basis on priorities and maintain a balance by devoting time to family, health, vacations etc along with making a career, business travel etc. Worklife balance introduction how many times have we heard stories of or seen on television about children waiting patiently for their daddies to arrive on time so that the birthday cake can. The four burners theory presents an alternative solution to work life balance.
This article was originally published in february 2016. People talk about worklife balance as if achieving it is the precious key to happiness. Work life balance consists of, but it is not limited to, flexible work arrangements that allow employees to carry out other life programs and practices. Extending and refining a new theory aims we tested a modi. The two fundamental theories in work life balance are boundary theory and border theory that researchers have used to study these role conflicts.
Meeting the demands of an increasingly complex world means. Curiously, too much of the same leisure activity, however enjoyable, can lead to. A student can access vast resources of information to complete assignments and a mother can see and talk to a daughter that is thousands of miles away. You will generally feel everything is doable and you dont have any excessive stress.
Achieving work family life balance is a long and often daunting process. According to stimpson and filer 2011, work life balance is a topic discussed more frequently in the literature concerning faculty than graduate students in higher education p. Work life balance, wlb, wlb theories, concepts in wlb. Mar 31, 2014 work life balance elephant theory farnaz hedayati march 31, 2014. An alternative conceptualization of worklife balance different definitions of worklife balance each have a value perspective that determines what factors will be seen as relevant to achieving balance reiter 2007.
Several theories have been proposed to enlighten the concept of work lifebalance wlb. Flexible work schedules and an eye to worklife balance are good for business. Work life balance is a term used to describe the balance between an individuals personal life and professional life. Overview of worklife balance discourse and its relevance. This report updates that report with insights from the most recent research on the economics of flexible workplace policies and practices. Many authors attempt to define work life balance policy or work life balance arrangements. According to the rk selection theory, rselected animals have high multitudes of offspring and allow them to fend for themselves, but kselected species have fewer offspring and play a bigger role in helping offspring thrive. May 09, 2017 can you think of any other benefits of teamwork in the workplace. The role theory has been considered as the most common perspective for explaining the nature of work family relationship which.
Many of us today are struggling to balance fulltime jobs with fulltime responsibilities at home. Work family examination has long been guided by the role stress theory, wherein. I have argued that women entering the workforce after 1970 held a different perspective from their. In subsequent sections of this article, we discuss the concept and measurement of work family balance, propose relations between work family balance and quality of life, and report the results of a study designed to examine these relations.
Work life balance is a method which helps employees of an organization to balance their personal and professional lives. The council of economic advisers first published work life balance and the economics of workplace flexibility in march 2010. But after looking at the data from 185 million hours of working time, i think its safe to agree that the line between work and everything else has become increasingly blurred. The term worklife balance is recent in origin, as it was first used in uk and us in the late 1970s and 1980s, respectively. Heres a proven definition that will positively impact your everyday value and balance starting today. Impact of working hours on worklife balance sarah holly, alwine mohnen abstract to examine the influence of working hours on employees satisfaction, this article uses a large, representative set of panel data from german households gsoep.
The academic body of knowledge regarding work life scholarship relies. The role of workfamily enrichment in worklife balance. The central idea of work life balance is based upon nippertengs 1996 framework of boundary theory, which proposed that individuals manage boundaries between work and personal life through. The relation between workfamily balance and quality of life. What is work life balance means something different to everyone. It is an issue that is important both to the organizations and to employees. Work family balance is merely one of the many aspects of having what we call a worklife balance. The extent to which individuals participation in one life domain e. And you have probably heard the need for better work life balance. Flexibility contributes to employees worklife balance and the aim of this research is to. The 8020 ratio applies to both your work day and your life outside work.
Work life balance of employees a study on selected public and private sector undertakings synopsis of the thesis submitted for the award of the degree of doctor of philosophy in the faculty of commerce and management studies andhra university, visakhapatnam by mrs. The importance of worklife balance technology has improved peoples lives in many different ways. A healthy work life balance assumes great significance for working women. If youve recently boarded the worklife balance train and dont like where its heading, you shouldnt be afraid to jump off. When your staff enjoy their work and find it rewarding thereby improving the life side of the work life balance, they are more inclined to work. The right work life balance is even variable for a given person, changing depending on things like the age of ones children or parents, or a new health problem. It means different things to different groups, and the meaning often depends on the context of the conversation and the speakers viewpoint. People can live longer, healthier lives because of technological advancements. It starts by exploring why worklife balance has become an important topic for research and policy in some countries and after outlining traditional perspectives examines the concept of balance and its implications for the study of the relation between work and the rest of life. The following are working definitions of terms used. Do you prefer working alone or collaborating with others.
When your staff enjoy their work and find it rewarding thereby improving the life side of the worklife balance, they are more inclined to work harder and more efficiently. Facilitation theory this is in fact an offshoot of enrichment theory. Making the link between worklife balance practices and. You probably wear 20% of your wardrobe 80% of the time. One of the biggest employer benefits of worklife balance is improved workplace morale and staff retention.
Perspectives on the study of worklife balance david e. Further, a detailed analysis of proven and anticipated benefits of worklife. To date, research directed at the worklife balance wlb has focused. But as a business owner or seniorlevel manager, is this problem really something that should be of your concern. How are worklife balance wlb and personal wellbeing experienced within the elderly care, home care and maternity care ehm sectors and how are they affected by organizational operations, and how can organizational policies and practices be improved to reach a better balance between. You feel like you are caught in the middle and have to choose between two. It is an important concept in the world of business as it helps to. How, and to what extent do fulltime doctoral students strive to obtain a school work life balance. For some, the term balance suggests that work is not integral to life, and implies a simple tradeoff between the two spheres. Instead of striving for worklife balance, you may want to consider simply striving for a good life.
Clarke, et al 2004, 121 to understand work life balance, it. Worklife balance is a term commonly used to describe the balance that a working individual needs between time allocated for work and other aspects of life. The council of economic advisers first published worklife balance and the economics of workplace flexibility in march 2010. Balance in your life means you are well rested, you dont feel the need for coffee or stimulants to keep you going and you are able to focus on your own.
The increased interest in work life balance remains influenced by concerns that work life imbalance could lead to health issues, low productivity, and consequences for. A study last june by the white house council of economic advisors showed a significant positive relationship between worklife balance practices and total factor productivity and recommended that wider adoption of such policies and practices may well benefit more firms and workers, and the u. According to donald super, its vital that there is a good balance between work and private life. Instead of worklife balance, try focusing on boundaries.
This may be the first assumption one would make once they read what paul krassner said about work life balance referring to work and play having very little separation. As a term in its own right work life balance is rarely defined for reasons that will become clearer as the discussion progresses. The results show that high working hours and overtime in general do not lead to. One way to think about work life balance is with a concept known as the four burners theory. Work life balance elephant theory, logic based discussion. In how dualcareer couples make it work, based on her study of more than 100. While this approach proves effective for many, its not a science. Retention and attraction strategies are an important means for attracting and retaining skilled employees particularly in areas where there is a high staff turnover, difficulties in recruiting and retaining skilled staff, a. The theory addresses how domain integration and segmentation, border creation and management, bordercrosser participation, and relationships between bordercrossers and others at work and home influence workfamily balance. However, these theories have not been integrated into a comprehensive theory that can serve as a guide to research on workfamily issues.