Work Life Balance
The effective management of employees’ work-life balance requires organisations to recognise and account for the array of non-work roles that impact their working-lives. Despite the literary attention given to the ‘work-life balance’ in recent years, however, contemporary authors still note the concept’s inadequacy both in terms of its definition and administration. In order to explore the boundaries of contemporary ‘work-life balance’, this paper adopts an Organisational Role Theory (ORT) perspective. The paper suggests that in order to manage these discrete impacts effectively, human resource managers should consider employing a Work-Life Balance Impact Audit as part of their job evaluation and performance management processes.
Work-Life Imbalance: Why is the WLB Concept Still an Issue?
Despite their best intentions, there remains considerable contention about the effectiveness of organisational WLB policies in delivering flexibility and reducing stress and job-dissatisfaction in the modern workplace (Eates, 2004; Kirrane & Buckley, 2004). Researchers have identified two empirical shortcomings within the WLB literature that have served to undermine its theoretical and practical usefulness. The first relates to the WLB literature’s almost exclusive focus on the work-family interface at the expense of other important life-balance issues. Buzzanell et al, (2005) notes that the WLB literature typically portrays role conflicts for white, married, professional and managerial women, with little reference to the many other demographics represented in the modern organisation. Shorthose (2004) and Wise and Bond (2003) go so far as to state that the WLB discipline is essentially flawed, as it is ‘one-dimensional’, assumes a unitary HR perspective, and that its underlying management has been one of maintaining the status-quo rather than the adoption of competitive and future-oriented HR policy.
The second relates to the literature’s inability to clearly
Work-Life Imbalance: Why is the WLB Concept Still an Issue?
Despite their best intentions, there remains considerable contention about the effectiveness of organisational WLB policies in delivering flexibility and reducing stress and job-dissatisfaction in the modern workplace (Eates, 2004; Kirrane & Buckley, 2004). Researchers have identified two empirical shortcomings within the WLB literature that have served to undermine its theoretical and practical usefulness. The first relates to the WLB literature’s almost exclusive focus on the work-family interface at the expense of other important life-balance issues. Buzzanell et al, (2005) notes that the WLB literature typically portrays role conflicts for white, married, professional and managerial women, with little reference to the many other demographics represented in the modern organisation. Shorthose (2004) and Wise and Bond (2003) go so far as to state that the WLB discipline is essentially flawed, as it is ‘one-dimensional’, assumes a unitary HR perspective, and that its underlying management has been one of maintaining the status-quo rather than the adoption of competitive and future-oriented HR policy.
The second relates to the literature’s inability to clearly