Model of Work Life Balance Explaining Relationship Constructs

International Journal of Application or Innovation in Engineering & Management (IJAIEM)
Web Site: www.ijaiem.org Email: editor@ijaiem.org, editorijaiem@gmail.com Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2014 ISSN 2319 - 4847
Model of Work Life Balance Explaining Relationship Constructs

Prof. Manju Raisinghani1, Dr. Ranjit Goswami2
1
Assistant Professor TIMS, Adipur Kahchh 2 Dean IMT- Nagpur, Nagpur
Abstract
This paper reviews the literature review in the domain of work life balance. Work life balance is the core of HRDs major functions Grzywacz and Carlson , (2008) it can be a powerful leverage point for promoting individual and organizational effectiveness. The current work force scenario is marked by the fast pace of change, intense pressure, constant deadlines, changing demographics, increased use of technology and the work from home concept. Also with the increase in the proportion of dual earner families and the kind of life style finance people are having work life conflicts are inevitable. The paper tries to review few antecedents of work life conflict and its consequences on both organization and individual perspective. The paper proposes a conceptual model to be tested empirically. The proposed model focuses on the relationship between two domains work and family and their influence on work to family interference and family to work interference. The model also tries to correlate various constructs of work life conflict to the organizational outcomes and individual outcomes. Key words: Work Life Balance, Antecedents, Consequences, Work life Conflict
Introduction:
Faced with numerous and contemporary challenges Indian banking sector today is facing few challenges of employee motivation and job satisfaction with the high breed of commitment required and several Job opportunities and attrition rate. Retaining talent is another issue faced by financial sector. Into all these HR Policies, nowhere is the mention of issue relating to occupational stress, flexible working hours, work life integration, or work family conflicts. (Ranjana Kumar, CMD, India Bank 2003). Research suggests the long working hours are negatively associated with to family participation and positively related to work related outcomes (Osmond & Hicks, 1979). This gives an indication that when more time is spent at work is necessarily time that cannot be spent at family, leisure or other activities. Irregularity of work hours have also been identified as one of the variables affective in the quality of work life and conflicts arising out of it (white & Keith, 1990) and the non standard work schedules, tour plan specifically among married employees with children have negative relation of work life conflict, that is work interfering more to life and family to work (lingard & Francis, 2002). However, many private enterprises have taken up work-life balance as a human resource (HR) issue, as they see business benefits to implementing flexible working Greenhaus et al., (2003) Work-life balance is advocated as an inclusive policy, aimed at all workers, in order to achieve a more harmonious balance between their work responsibilities and their private responsibilities and personal interests. The main consideration thus far has been to aid working parents in their childcare needs and responsibilities, but more recently other employee needs have been considered, such as eldercare responsibilities, education and training opportunities, and the need for personal time in order to combat negative stress experienced in the workplace. Work-life balance policies can be realized through flexible working practices, open work place environments and supportive workplace culture Carlson & Frone (2003). Such open and inclusive workplace environments and cultures are necessary for implementing changes for a number of reasons. One that open culture and flexible environment promotes positivity in employees towards their work and organization. Second work culture determines the extent to which flexible working hours and flexible working arrangements are applicable to employees. Legislative measures to improve worklife balance will only work if a supportive workplace environment promotes them. The literature demonstrates that structural change is needed to alter working routines and norms, such as the long hours, child care, peer support, flexible work arrangements etc. and management styles and practices are very crucial to bring in a balance between work and life issues (Frone 2003).
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The impact of womens employment on expectations and assumptions about men and women roles and their relationship has always been the base for Work life balance issues in the organizational context (Ramu 1987). Women in India have always worked in the informal economy, especially in the rural areas, the formal labour participation of women have now increased since decades (Raju & Bagchi, 1988). Women from middle and upper middle class background also began to enter paid work for the first time during this period, with motivation ranging from economic to self-fulfillment (Rami, 1976). The change observed was partly due to the availability of domestic servants in middle class families and the availability of members of extended families more frequent during that phase of time. Also to some extent the availability of joint families led by dual income earners to some extent cushioned the Work-Family conflicts and tensions (Sekaran. 1992). Subsequently the pragmatic change was shifts in the family structures and growing challenges in the care of elderly. Extended families, which had traditionally provided substantial support for child care and house hold cores had now given way to nuclear families in more affluent cities (Sekaran 1984). Also migration of families had become a trend due to opening up of the economy; families went in search of paid work outside their regions. A more significant force for change was the opening of the economy in 1991. This brought more exposure to global competitiveness and opportunities to develop economically. The spread of multinationals and the emergence of India as an IT outsourcing destination brought material gains, rising wages, better employment prospects and consumer choices for a growing minority. However, it was noted that the increasingly demanding workloads and long working hours make it more difficult for those working in the new economy to harmonize paid work with other parts of life. In over 6 decades of independence financial sector has gone through various challenges and evolution due to competitions, market forces and regulatory requirements. Until 1990, Indian banking industry had gone through distinct phases from evolutionary phase (1950) to reformatory phase (1990). After 1991 government took some measure steps in reforming the Indian Financial sector in regulating interest rates and functioning of commercial banks. Some of the achievements so done were in financial markets, regulators, non-finance companies, capital markets insurances etc. With the on-going developments in the financial sectors Global markets offered a numerous opportunities to the Banking Sector. Due to the dynamic nature of the financial markets and the changes in the economic reforms a need for the new and improvised services in the banking sector had become crucial for its existence. The powerful customers and the emerging competition had generated high expectations from service industry. The new rules of competition and the advancement in technological changes have revolutionized the Indian financial and banking sector. The new rules of the competition in such sector today are prompt delivery like ATMs, Tele-banking remote access, Internet Banking etc. Given the above challenges, the survival of Banks was one of the Major Concerns. (R.M.Nayak (MD & CEO, Lord Krishna Bank) Before pre-liberalization era the scenario of Indian Financial market was completely different as government of India administered the functioning of Financial Sector. To face the Competition and to gain the competitive edge Financial Sector today has gone more towards developing unique services and has also gone more customer centric. It is Believe that competitive edge can be achieved creating positive work culture innovative HR practice, organization citizenship behavior, mutual goal congruence etc. which in turn will yield better performance and productivity in the organization. Hudson (2008) in one of his speeches highlighted few major HRM issues or Critical Challenges like right sizing talent acquisition, HR development, comparable salary structure etc. Similar such were expressed by Ranjana Kumar( CMD, India Bank) in September 2003 about the changing business environment issues discussed by him were, changing needs of customer, flat organization structure, development of bch skills technical skills, business awareness etc. Faced with numerous and contemporary challenges Indian banking sector today is facing few challenges of employee motivation and job satisfaction with the high breed of commitment required and several Job opportunities and attrition rate. The study is undertaken to provide a greater understanding of the work life balance issues faced by financial professionals in private sector. The ability to communicate and share information 24/7 has become a need of an hour, the work day has expanded so much into our personal lives that it is important to develop a better balance between the two (Mariotti, 1998). As mentioned above due to the volatile nature of our financial sector people working in that sector face
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tremendous amount of stress, heavy targets and high work load. This leads to comprises between their family life and work life. In particular the relationship between job and family characteristics, work to family interference and family to work interferences were investigated. In addition the study also takes into consideration various moderating variables like Gender, Perceived Organizational Support, Work life benefits by organization, No of Children and no of dependents, income tec.
Literature Review: Work Life Balance:

Work life balance (acronym WLB) is the separation between work life and personal life of an employee in the organization. It is the boundary that one creates between the professional life, career advancement, personal life or any other segment that makes up the life of an individual. Apart from the career life these segments include family, personal growth, fitness and health, community relations and friendship. Finding the balance between career and personal life has always been a challenge for working people. Some widely used definitions of work-family issues or work-family balance, found in the literature, are listed below: Work-family conflict is defined as a form of role conflict characterized by the incongruence between responsibilities of the home and workplace which are mutually incompatible. (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985) WLB is defined as satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home with a minimum of role conflict" (Clark, 2000) WLB is defined as the absence of unacceptable level of conflicts between work and non-work demands. (Greenbatt, 2002) Work life balance as the extent to which an individual is equally engaged in and equally satisfied with his or her work role and family role (Greenhaus et al, 2003, ) Work life balance is the extent to which an individuals effectiveness and satisfaction in work and family roles are compatible with the individuals life priorities. (Greenhans and Allen, 2006) Workfamily balance is defined as accomplishment of role related expectations that are negotiated and shared between an individual and his or her role-related partners in the work and family domains (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). WLB for any person is having the right combination of participation in paid work (defined by hours and working conditions) and other aspects of lives. This combination will change as people move through life and have changing responsibilities and commitments in their work and personal lives. Frone, Russell, & Cooper, (1992). With these definitions it can be understood that any imbalance that is formed either creates more pressure or psychological involvement or satisfaction towards one role as compared to other role. The origin of the research work life balance can be seen from the seminal work of rapport and rapport (1969), the research are been that both work and family needs time and energy. Work is an important source of income, financial stability and status. Where tow partners come join hands together and earn and support and raise their children together. As work and family has no direct relationship with each other so conflicts is inevitable to arise. Khan wolf, Quinn, snoek and Rosenthal, 1964) from their seminal studies associated work life balance with role theory, that is conflicting expectations associated with different roles which the male and female has to play in their day to day life. Kanter (1977) was able to continue the research of khan (1964) proving that work and family are not independent of each other rather have an interlink which consequently brings in conflicts between the two. With the pioneering work of pleck (1977) there was a general consensus formed that work and family affect each other either in a positive or negative way. And there are various extraneous variables like time, task, attitudes, stress emotions, and behaviors which have an influence over work life imbalance. Another influential theory after Pleck (1977) was the theory of spill over (Piotrkowski , 1979), based on asymmetric permeable boundaries between the work and family life domains. The spill over theory basically talked about two type of factors job related factors and work related factors. There was a relationship established between the two domains of job related factors and work related factors like the influence of spill over theory over job context more for women then for men, whereas the converse would be true for job related factors. Further the spill over theory also invited various research
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scholars to identify few more factors that influence the work family dependency like compensation, benefits, and bonuses (Champoux, 1978). Greenhaus & Beutell ( 1985) further segregated few more factors like time, task, attitudes, stress emotions, and behavioral spill over work and family. They tried to maintain either positive or negative relation between the tow domains. (1988) found out that interface between work and family is asymmetric and work tends to influence more on family than family on work. A distinction was made between work family interface (family interfering work) and (work interfering family) greenhouse & Brutell (1988). Several scholars during that time concluded that interference between work and family and the conflict arising out of it are conceptually and empirically distinct from each other. (Wiley, 1987). As explained previously the field was dominated more by role theory which was derived from seminal studies of khan, Wolfe (1964). According to Cohen & wills (1985) role theory and its conflicting expectations form the tow domains have detrimental affects on the well being of male and females both. This further led to the stressors strain mode (Cohen & wills (1985), Krasek & Theorell, 1990) with work family conflicts as stressors. Many theoretical models were then published detailing the stressors that cause conflicts among work and family domain ( Bedeian, Bruke & Moffet, 1988). Kelly & Voydanoff, 1985) offered a general integrative framework of work family interface. Factors which were taken into considerations were social support, time commitment, overload (both at work and at family) as antecedents, and work family conflict and family work conflicts and core variables, and distress, dissatisfaction and performance as outcomes. This mismatch between the two set of roles that is work role responsibility and family role responsibility leads to work life imbalance ( Greenhaus et al. , 2003). The general aim of such working time policies is to strike a balance between employment and domestic commitments that is equitable and beneficial to both employer and employee. Greenhaus et al, (2003) conceptualized mainly three components of work life balance. Firstly they took time as a base and observed that if equal amount of time is devoted to work and family there happens to be a balance between two. Secondly psychological involvement balance has to be there in two roles of work and family and thirdly satisfaction balance which strives to keep balance between job satisfaction and family life satisfaction. Work-life balance is the term used in the literature to refer to policies that strive to achieve a greater complimentary and balance between work and home responsibilities. These policies apply to all workers, not just working parents, alone females or working parents with children and dependents particularly in judging their own ability to combine both work and family life. Some of the terms used in the literature on work-life balance which were then commonly used by various organizations are given below: WLB: Work-life Balance also referred to as family friendly work arrangements (FFWA), and, in international literature, as alternative work arrangements (AWA). V-Time: this is voluntary overtime to meet production needs; extra hours are 'banked' and taken as time off or as extra pay. It differs from flextime where starting and finishing times are staggered, and can mean reduced or increased weekly working hours over a period of time. Zero hours contract: this is a flexible contract that does not specify the amount of time a worker will spend per year on their employment, leaving it open to meet demand. E-working: the term used to describe flexible working that can be done from any location using technologies such as laptops, wireless internet connection and mobile phones. Teleworking: this is where the location is flexible by using technologies to complete work - this allows work to be done from home; also known as e-working. Term-time working: this is when a parent is allowed to work only during school term times, with all school holidays off. Payment can be calculated either by usual payment, with no payment during holidays, or salaries can be spread out across the year.
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Other forms of flexible working conditions include: Part-time working, Job sharing, Flextime, Shift working, Compressed hours, Home working, and Career breaks. (Source: Employment Act 2002, U.K., which came into force in April 2003)
Work Life Conflict:

The assumption, that involvement in one role (i.e. job) necessarily precludes attention of another (i.e. family). Such interference between role commitments leads to WLC. (Frone,2003) In other words individuals perceive that they have more flexibility in terms of engaging in family commitments and responsibilities than they do for work commitments. (Carlson and Frone , 2003). There are basically two interfaces to work life conflict: Work to family interference (WIF) Family to work interference (FWI) Working time of an individual is dictated by the persons employment contract or the organization commitments whereas family time is purely discretion of the individuals. The clash of time in these two aspects creates an imbalance in two directions i.e. work family interference (WFI) tends to dominate the family work interference (FWI). Work home interference generally operates in tow directions. First, work demands more time and energy hindering activities at the family end. For example attending an early morning meeting or marketing tours arranged by the organization leads individual to compromise on home related activities. Researchers call this as work interference with home. Second, responsibilities at home interfere with performance at work. For example worrying about sick dependents, spouse or partners responsibility many a times diverts an individuals attention towards work related responsibilities leading to family interfering work. ( Duxbury, Higgins, & Lee, 1994, MacEwen & Barling 1994). Studies distinguishing between the two directions of interference have presupposed a positive, reciprocal relationship between work interference with home and home interference with work, based on the assumption that if work-related problems and obligations begin to interfere with the fulfillment of responsibilities at home, these unfulfilled home responsibilities may then begin to interfere with ones day-to-day functioning at work, and vice versa (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1992). Combining both directions of work-family interference and family to work interference into one construct renders it difficult to ascertain whether given antecedents are predicting work interference with home or the vice-versa. (Erdwins, Buffardi, Casper, & OBrien, 2001; Hill, Hawkins, Ferris, & Weitzman, 2001; Parasuraman & Simmers, 2001; Saltzstein, Ting, & Saltzstein, 2001; Tausig & Fenwick, 2001).
Conceptual Framework:
Carlson and Frone (2003) discussed about the psychological involvement of the person in the organization as well as on the family front. A high degree of psychological involvement with context to role of an individual i.e. job role and family role would prioritize the individual to be somewhat mentally preoccupied with their performance in that role, such imbalance in performance will have significant implications on work to family and family to work interference. Conceptually, it seems evident that psychological involvement would have significant implications for levels of work to family and family to work interference. Carlson and Frone (2003) found that both psychological involvement and behavioral (time) involvement were significant related to WIF but the reverse did not apply with FIW or family involvement into work. Clearly more research and dynamic interplay in relationship of time and family was required to draw conclusions. Therefore, Frone (2003) summarized the findings from US based survey and noted that family boundaries may be more permeable than job boundaries and hence the levels of work to family (WFI) interference are reported higher or more intense than those of family to work interference (FWI). Various other researches in US and other western countries have confirmed these findings. So finally Frone (2003) mainly concluded two main antecedents to Work Family Balance. Work related and family related conditions in which individual work. Of the Work Related Variables were Job demands, Working hours, Role responsibility, Organization citizenship behavior, Work load, irregular working hours etc. Family Related Variables were Family responsibility, Parental responsibility, Role of spouse and other family dependents responsibility, Leisure time and other activities with family . Personal Variables included Gender, age , marital status, no of children etc. as the most important predictor of
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WFC . (Pleck, 1977, Gutek et al, 1991) observed that because of different role responsibilities of men and women they exhibit different inter role conflict. For example men exhibit greater interference from work to family (WFI) and women reporting more interference from family to work (FWI). Gutek et al. (1991) proved that women reported more interference in family than men despite spending about same number of hours in paid work as men do. Williams & Alliger (1994) and Losocoo (1997) found that women spend more hours in family work thatn men and reported same level of family interference. Even the spoil over theory found out that both FWI and WFI were stronger for women than men. Several international studies have been conducted on antecedents of WFC. One of the prominent research programs was developed by Samuel Aryer and his colleagues in Hong Kong (1999) they examined within Job and within family conflicts along with job involvement as predictors of WFI & FWI. Also the results obtained from the study were similar to Frone, Russell and Cooper ( 1999) in US. In another study by Aryer, Luke et all (1999) work over load and parental over load were considered as predictor of WFI and FWI in the city of Hong Kong. They observed that WFI was significantly higher than FWI as especially males reported higher levels of WFI than females experiencing FWI. A key issue discussed in the study was impact of role stressors on both WFI and FWI. Where in the moderating variable was considered as gender. As more work load leads to more WFC in case of males and more parental work load leads to mare WFC among females, Aryer, Luke et al (1999) also explored social support as potential moderator of relationship between WFI and FWI. The results of Frone and Carlson, (2003) about the psychological involvement with WFC were inconsistence with the conceptual framework. That is some research have confirmed positive relationship between the domains others have obtained either very less or no association between the two variables. However looking to the different jobs and equality of men and women many results have found no gender differences as even with (FWI or WFI) (Grzwac and Marks, 2000). Studies done by (Guay , 2001) in French Canadian Sample describe no gender difference same was in Yant et al (2001) in China reported not much significant difference between FWI and WFI with men or women. Other dispositional antecedents of WFC in particular are personality factors. Bernas&Maor (2000), Grzywacz& Marks, 2000) illustrated that huge levels of hardiness, extraversion and self-esteem are linked with reduced WFC. Similarly Brruck& Allen (2003), examined relationship of Type A behavior disposition, Big 5 Personality variables with both work and family interference and family to work interference. Evidences from other US and other European countries consistently demonstrated that work demands, work related stressors and stain are predictors to Work to family interference whereas family responsibility and family stressors ( conflict within the family ) contribute more towards family to work interference ( Frone 2003,). Other influencing variables /moderators which have influence of either WFI or FWI were social support (in both domains): support in the organization by supervisor/peers lead to more WFI and support from the society /relatives leads to FWI. Frone (2003) also concluded antecedents of WFI preside primarily in Job Domains and antecedents of FWI lie mainly in Family domains. From the US based study Grzywacz and Marks (2000) found out that social support at work and from ones spouse were negatively related to WFC. Low levels of support at work were strongly correlated with negative spill over from work to family interference especially for women. Greenhaus and beutelll (1985) initially identified various kinds of job demands affecting work life balance or work life conflict among men and women. Basically researchers divided job demands into time-based and behavior based. i.e. the amount of ones time that is spend on work place and the time devoted for family activities. Similarly the kind of job responsibility the individual is possessing in the organization. Parsuram, Godshalk and Beutell (1996) suggested that time commitments at work place are more importantly associated with WLC because time is a limited source. Further Frone et al. (1997) proved that along with time based conflict also behavior (strain-based conflict) is equally the predictor of work life balance for individuals in the organization. Such role related or strain based predictors also lead to dissatisfaction or affect organizational performance (Greenhaus & Beutell 1999). Work schedule flexibility has been found to be negatively associated with work life balance / work family conflict. The financial industry is a demanding work environment wherein employees are supposed to work of long hours. Higher the flexibility lower is the work family conflict Victoria, Lingard and Sublet (1996). In other words, higher the work schedule flexibility, higher is the work life balance. Loscocoo (1997) examined how people with considerable control over their
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working hours construct and experience their work to family connections. In a study in New South Wales reported work hours to be significant predictors of quality in the marital relationship (Aldous, Osmond & Hicks, 1979). Working hours have consistently been linked to difficulties in balancing work and family life resulting in more the number of hours and less the work schedule flexibility leads to work family conflict. Role responsibility has been found to be negatively associated with work life balance or work life conflict. Higher the responsibility of employee, the more tasks and roles one has to perform. In other words, higher the works load, higher the imbalance between the work and family life (Loseocoo 1997). Hill et al (2001) examined the perceived role stress on jobs and flexibility of timings on work family balance issues. It was found that employees with job flexibility in timings and high work load work longer hours and lead to work life conflict issues. Parents reported more work life conflicts than other individuals in the organization (Pleck et al. 1980). He tried to examine the impact of long excessive hours at work, less job flexibility, no support from organization or psychologically demanding work were associated with experiencing work life conflicts which in turn was also related to low job satisfaction and low commitment with life in general. Aryee (1992) examined the impact of few such variables which have influence on family domains. The family related variables were parental responsibility, demands from household chores, lack of spouse support and number of dependants at the family. As against the work related variables were task variety, job autonomy, role responsibility, working hours flexible work schedules. Irregularity of work hours and non standard work schedules have also been identified as the most important variables affecting dual earner couples with children specific (white & Keith , 1992) and (Lingard & Francis, 2002) Tausig and Fenwick (2001) report that married couples without children reported higher levels of work life balance and the presence of children whether in single or two parent households or dual earner is relatively low on work life balance issues. For an individual who is not subject to high levels of family role expectations, being mentally preoccupied with a job assignment while at home may generate only a small amount of work interference with home. For an individual who is pressurized by friends or family to prioritize family over work, however, the experience of work interfering with family may be more intense. Parental demands are believed to be greatest for people with infants and preschool aged children and less for those with school aged children and even lowest for with adult children who have left home (Parsuraman & Simmers, 2001). Continuing further with the research (Parsuraman & Simmers, 2001) investigated the relationship between parental responsibilities and time commitments to family and at work. They reported the pattern that those with both the spouse working and more role responsibility with children of infant category face with work life balance issues and have more conflicts in managing the two domains. Lingard (2004) examined whether or not an individual complies with family role expectations, the pressure upon him/her over the job responsibilities would focus attention on both domains. Wherein elements of work domain may interrupt family more prominent or it can be vice-versa. An impending explanation for this relationship is that conforming to family role expectations may result in role overload, generating time pressures and strain which can spill over into the work domain, creating home interference with work. Organizational and support from co-workers and supervisors have always been an influential variable for the study of work life balance issues. Previous studies demonstrated that, in order for employees to have better work life balance it is equally important that they get supportive work environment Thompson et al, 1999, Allen, 2001;, ODriscoll et al., 2003). Further Frances, 2003) revealed that employees who reported their organizations to be supportive of their family commitments, they are satisfied with their job and face less work life conflicts. In contrast, unsupportive work environments, stressful job, long working hours, negative supervisors support leads to negative commitment on job and work life conflicts issues in organizations. In the work life literature review some studies has confirmed that the presence of social support reduces the negative consequences of work related stressors and work family conflict (Thomas & Ganster, 1995; Goff, Mount & Jamison, 1990). It is anticipated that, when supervisors or co-workers support is high, job satisfaction and employee commitment is also very high. This leads to a better work life balance for employees. The extent to which favorable or unfavorable treatments perceived by the employees concerning the extent to which the organization values their contribution and cares about their well being is termed as Perceived Organization support
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Wiesenberger et al. (1986). Casper et al. (2002) explored that employees who work in supportive or organizations are like to experience less amount of stress and more organizational commitment. This in turn leads to less work life conflicts and greater affective commitment towards the organization. Supervisors play a particularly important role in the work arrangements and controlling access over employees (Walkins 1995). Having a supportive supervisor has been reported to reduce the negative impact of Work family Conflict (Thomas & Ganster 1995). It has been examined that if the supervisor is supportive it leads to low level of stress, low psychological strain and reduced work life conflicts (ODrisoll et. al). Also Barham Gotllieb, & Kelloway (2001) reported that when the supervisor is supportive it also leads to flexi work arrangements, gender favors, reduced employee working hours and low amount of work responsibilities. Those with high levels of supervisor support reported less conflicts and less psychological strain than those with unsupportive supervisor support. In most of the studies, job satisfaction has been directly linked with work life conflict. (Boles, Howards & Donrio, 2001). It has been observed that when there is high amount has been observed that when work life conflict increases it creates the negative impact on job satisfaction and the employee tends to loose interest in working in the organization. Bruke, Allen and Spector (2002) framed the relationship between work life conflicts and job satisfaction. The relationship was formed by using two interfaces that is work to family and family to work and any discrepancy leads to job dissatisfaction. When employees are not satisfied with their job and are not able to balance between the two domains of work and family they tend to withdraw from their work related activities Greenhaus, Parsuraman and Collins (2001). Further Greenhaus et al. discussed about the level of stress that the employee possess in the organization leads to work life conflict which then lead to quitting of the job. Batt and Valcour (2003) reported work interference with family to be significantly and positively related to turnover intentions, and employee perceptions of control over managing work and family to be significantly negatively related to turnover intentions. Turnover intentions are the direct outcome of work life conflict or WFI or FWI Boyar et al. (2003). The above literature review on work life balance or work life conflict tries to associate work and family variables which are interlinked with each other. It tires to examine various sources of conflict and its effect on organizational outcomes and individual level outcomes. Below are four models explaining the relationship between variables studied which would then further be examined empirically.
Figure 1 Relationship between Variables (Work Domain and Family Domain) on WFI/FWI Figure.1 illustrates the relationships between work domain variables and family domain variables with its impact on WFI and FWI. Also the model is able to explain the different ways in which work life practices and outcomes are conceptualized and measured in the literature. The model tries to explain the relationship of work to family interference and family to work interference with work life conflicts for an individual in the organization. However two things become very clear after reviewing the literature on work life balance practices. One, that there is some association between work domain variables and family domain variables on WFI and FWI. Also, the effect of moderating variables can also be seen in the framework. Two, regardless of effects on work life conflict, work life balance practices are often associated with improved organizational outcomes and individual outcomes. The model correlates to the concept of work life conflict and outcomes both at individual level and organizational level.
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Figure 2 Relationships between Variables (Work Domain and Family Domain) with Moderating Variables and WFI/FWI Fig: 2 Model of proposed relationship between work Domain Variables and Family Domain Variables and their association with Moderating variables then explaining the effect on Work to Family Interference or Family to Work Interference.
Figure 3 Relationship between WFI/FWI to Work Life conflict and its outcomes
Fig: 3 Model of proposed relationship between WFI / FWI to work life conflict and thereafter explaining the outcomes at individual and organizational level.
Figure 4 Relationship between WFI/FWI to Work Life conflict and its outcomes Fig: 4 Consolidated Model explaining the relationship of Individuals work life conflict and its outcomes affecting the organization.
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Web Site: www.ijaiem.org Email: editor@ijaiem.org, editorijaiem@gmail.com Volume 3, Issue 2, February 2014 ISSN 2319 - 4847 Conclusion:
Literature on work life balance or work life conflict tires to identify various factors associated with WFI and FWI. It tries to examine various sources of conflicts that an employee possesses in the organization. The focus is mainly on various roles that an individual has to perform in his personal life as well as professional life. The literature review reveals that most of the studies done in the past were based on empirical research which tried to identify relationship between work life conflict and its outcomes like job satisfaction, organizational commitment , work to family interface and family to work interface. Other variables like gender, age, marital status, no of dependents, employee role, job responsibility, parental status etc were widely studied. The results show that all these have either negative or positive relation with work life balance or work life conflict. Different views of work life balance have been suggested by various research scholars in literature review. Despite the popularity of work life conflict as a topic of research interest, work life practices in the organization still have a long way to travel to develop a compressive map of the antecedents and consequences of work life balance (Kersley et al. , 2005; US Bureau of labour 2007) Among the various theoretical models that help us to understand various relationship constructs like job satisfaction, long working hours, stressful job, competing demands of work and family with work life conflict or work life imbalance. In terms of organizational level, HR policies and practices represent organizational efforts to provide employees with supportive work place environment, increase the commitment and citizenship behavior of employee towards the work place. Over the past two decades the outcomes of work life practices has been discussed by various researchers in various disciplines (e.g. Johnson & Provan, 1995; Whitehouse & Zetlin, 1999), family studies (e.g. Hill, Hawkins, Ferris & Weitzman, 2001; Raabe, 1996), gender studies (e.g. Nelson, Quick, Hitt, & Moesel, 1990). The literature review tries to examine the relationship between work life balance practices and organizational effectiveness. The paper tires to find out from literature review various variables and constructs which affect the work life balance policies in the organization.
References:
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