Work Life Balance Hrm
Work life balance
What are the benefits and barriers associated with the achievement of a work – life balance for employees and employers?
This essay explores the importance of the achievement of a work-life balance and the issues which can be faced when initiatives to achieve such a balance are implemented.
One issue surrounding the concept is that ‘work life balance’ is often loosely defined as simply referring to the balance between an individuals time spent at work and on home life. In fact employees are usually monitored on various factors including their attention whilst at work. ‘Central to definitions of work-life balance then is the notion that the modern employment relationship is a negotiation to establish the boundaries around the attention and presence required,’ creating the need for employees to consciously incorporate practices into their lives to integrate the work and non-work aspects. Work-life balance can be defined as ‘a reconciliation of paid employment and life.’ (Redman and Wilkinson 2006)
It has suggested by McKee and colleagues that a series of historical shifts has shaped, to some degree, the debate about work-life balance. Broadly speaking they suggested these were the absence of fathers from home through war, imprisonment or long working shifts, the entry of large numbers of women into the workforce; the changing composition and structure of the family; expanding male unemployment; the increase in singe working parents; the intensification of working hours; an ageing population and the growing number of cared for groups; and the growth of equal opportunities. (McKee and colleagues) It is accepted that the feminisation of the work force increases the need for family friendly policies, however studies are said largely to have narrowly focused on the experiences of women with the double burden of employment and domestic and child care tasks, at the expense of a broader concept (Ransom, 2007). It also must be noted that the
What are the benefits and barriers associated with the achievement of a work – life balance for employees and employers?
This essay explores the importance of the achievement of a work-life balance and the issues which can be faced when initiatives to achieve such a balance are implemented.
One issue surrounding the concept is that ‘work life balance’ is often loosely defined as simply referring to the balance between an individuals time spent at work and on home life. In fact employees are usually monitored on various factors including their attention whilst at work. ‘Central to definitions of work-life balance then is the notion that the modern employment relationship is a negotiation to establish the boundaries around the attention and presence required,’ creating the need for employees to consciously incorporate practices into their lives to integrate the work and non-work aspects. Work-life balance can be defined as ‘a reconciliation of paid employment and life.’ (Redman and Wilkinson 2006)
It has suggested by McKee and colleagues that a series of historical shifts has shaped, to some degree, the debate about work-life balance. Broadly speaking they suggested these were the absence of fathers from home through war, imprisonment or long working shifts, the entry of large numbers of women into the workforce; the changing composition and structure of the family; expanding male unemployment; the increase in singe working parents; the intensification of working hours; an ageing population and the growing number of cared for groups; and the growth of equal opportunities. (McKee and colleagues) It is accepted that the feminisation of the work force increases the need for family friendly policies, however studies are said largely to have narrowly focused on the experiences of women with the double burden of employment and domestic and child care tasks, at the expense of a broader concept (Ransom, 2007). It also must be noted that the
Bibliography: • Wood, S. (1999). Family Friendly management: testing the various perspectives. National Institute for Economic Research, No. 168, April 2/99, 99-116. • Bloisi, W. (2003). Management and Organisational Behaviour. McGraw-Hill. • Sparrow, P.R and Cooper, C.L. (2003). The employment relationship: key challenges for HR. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. • Cooper, C.L. and Williams, S. (1994). Creating healthy work organisations. Chichester: Wiley • Judge, T.A. Boudreau, J.W and Bretz, R.D. (1994) Job and life attitudes of male executives. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 767-782 • Barling, J. (1994). Work and family; in search of more effective workplace interventions. In C.L. Cooper and D.M. Rousseau (Eds.), Trends on organisational behaviour, Volume 1. Chichester; J Wiley.