Work life balance definitions1/6/2024 ![]() These arrangements may be in addition to statutory entitlements and are generally granted to the employee to accommodate their needs outside of the workplace. Work Life Balance is defined as a means of flexible working or flexible leave available to employees. In other words, the women partner may have experienced work-family conflict this had an impact on exhaustion and health which in turn had a negative impact on her marital satisfaction but despite this work spill over, the study detected no marital spill over from the satisfaction of one partner to the other. However this affected each partner independently and did not spill over into the marital satisfaction of the other partner. Work-family conflict and time pressure had a stronger effect than other stressors such as leader relations and job insecurity. Using structural equation modelling, they found that most of the stressors spilled over into marital satisfaction via job exhaustion and its impact on psychosomatic health. ![]() One of the stressors was work-family conflict. ![]() Such studies usually take into account the demands and rewards in both the workplace and the home.Ī typical example can be found in the work of Mauno and Kinnunen (1999) who report a Finnish study of 215 dual earning couples in which they explored the impact of a range of work stressors on marital satisfaction. Similarly, there is extensive research on dual career families. For example- there is a large body of research on women’s careers that explores the consequences of various types of family commitment. More sophisticated research typically starts from a particular model of the family. In his review of the subject area, O’Driscoll (1996) identifies research on work and life satisfaction, on well-being, mental health and physical health and on individual performance in organizations. An initial definition might take the form of “sufficient time to meet commitments at both home and work”. In the face of these challenges, we need to find ways of operationalising and measuring work- life balance. ![]() An important part of the policy debate has concerned the importance of family-friendly policies while leaving unclearly specified what is meant by the family. In simple terms, “work” is normally conceived of in this context as including paid employment while “life” includes activities outside work. On the other hand, it is partly the blurring of the distinctions and the borders between them that has stimulated interest in the topic. Ideally, we should define work and life carefully. In much of the debate about work-life balance, there is a loose use of language. However balance also has a physical and psychological meaning as “stability of body or mind” so that suicide is sometimes officially recorded as taking one’s life “while the balance of the mind was disturbed”. If we use the scales, then balance occurs when there is “an equal distribution of weight or amount” but this presents problems for work-life balance since both sides may be very heavy or very light.įurthermore, the type of work-life balance sought by many may not imply equal weight on both sides. As a noun, a balance is a set of scales, a weighing apparatus it is also the regulating gear in clocks. In the English language “balance” is a complex word with a variety of meanings. It is also notable that debates about work-life balance often occur without any clear and consistent definition of what we mean by work-life balance. We need to learn more in particular about the consequences of imbalance on family and community and on changing values among younger workers. Much of the general analysis about the causes and consequences of work-life imbalance is speculative and based on limited convincing evidence. While steps to redress these concerns transcend work and employment, it is nevertheless argued that the demands of work contribute to a reduced participation in non-work activities resulting in an imbalance. The consequences include increases in juvenile crime, more drug abuse, a reduction in care of the community and in community participation and less willingness to take responsibility for care of elderly relatives and for the disadvantaged. In addition, the pressures and demands of work reflected both in longer hours, more exhaustion and the growth of evening and weekend work leave less scope for “quality” family time. There are various explanations for this associated with affluence, the growth of single parent families, the privatization of family life and the lack of local resources and facilities. In the community, there is growing concern that the quality of home and community life is deteriorating.
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