Human Resource Policies and Employees Work Life - Coursework Example

Human resource policies and employee’s work-life Name Institution Date Course Do human resource policies designed to improve employee’s work-life balance confer benefits to the organisation?  Work-life balance has been centre of discussion for several researchers (Greenhaus, Collins & Shaw, 2003). Researchers have found that individuals who managed to realize more family time compared with the time they spend on the job experienced a higher quality of life than individuals who balanced work and family time. Individuals with work-life balance also reported a higher quality of life than those who spent more time on work than they did with family. These findings have also been observed to contribute to employee involvement and job satisfaction (Greenhaus, Collins & Shaw, 2003). Increasing concern has been whether or not these practices would result to any benefits for the employers. While organizations continue to enforce policies aimed at increasing work-life balance among employees, discussions have been raised as to whether or not these policies result to any positive outcomes for the organizations. Researchers have revealed findings that indicate that work-life balance is closely associated with positive employee responses that give organizations competitive advantage. This has been demonstrated by reduced work-life conflict, increased job satisfaction and employee commitment and motivation. As Perry-Smith & Blum (2000) points out, human resource management has been described as a means to achieve competitive advantage. Work-life balance has been one of the main efforts used by organizations to gain this advantage by ensuring that individual employees enjoy greater satisfaction with the job that they do and become more committed and motivated; as a result, organizations have managed to realize great labour performances and increased productivity. Organizations have increasingly considered such policies due to the increased interdependence between work and family roles. This is because of the rising representation of single parents and dual-earner partners within the workforce, declining discrimination of roles based on gender, and a shift on employee values (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). In a study to investigate the various factors that affect the work-life balance of married women, Delina & Raya (2013) stated that women were experiencing increased pressure in the workplace while they continue to take up roles that were previously dominated by men and still struggle to engage actively in their personal and family roles. These multiple roles have resulted to great stress among these women and hence the greater need for arrangements that would assist them achieve a balance between the roles. Mathew & Panchanatham (2011), in a study about work-life balance among entrepreneur women in India, also mention that given the traditional roles performed by women within the households and family and the current demands of the roles women actively take up, the absence of work-life balance is likely to raise several issues. According to Beauregard & Henry (2009), competing demands between home and work have gained more relevance for employees in the past few years as a result of changes in demographic and the workplace that have been realized as a result of, among several other factors, increasing numbers of women in the workforce, longer working hours, an ageing population and more sophisticated technologies for communication that have enabled continued contact with the workplace. As a result of these changes and the conflicts that have been generated among several roles occupied by employees, organizations have faced increased pressure to put in place work practices aimed at facilitating the efforts of the employees to fulfill both their work-related and personal roles. Researchers suggest that increased work-life balance among employees results to considerable benefits for organizations (Hammer et al, 2005). Beauregard & Henry (2009) argue that work-life balance helps organizations reduce work-life conflict among employees. Such conflicts and interferences between responsibilities at work and outside work have the several negative outcomes. As far as job attitudes are concerned, individuals with high levels of work-to-life and life-to-work conflict show reduced levels of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. These may lead to reduced work effort, low performance, and increased absenteeism and turnover. Individuals may also experience increased stress and burnout, cognitive challenges like keeping awake, reduced alertness and lack of concentration as well as low levels of general health and energy (Anderson et al (2002). In response, employers have provided, among others, on-site childcare so that young mothers may feel relaxed and confident knowing that her child is in safe hands, as well as paid maternity leave which has helped mothers go through the pregnancy and childbirth more comfortably so that they can recover faster and come back to work (Kim, 2014). Such policies and efforts have helped employees achieve increased work-life balance which has deepened their role engagement, and therefore, improvement of the performance of the organization Job satisfaction has been closely related to work-life balance. Organizations have tried to achieve work-life balance among employees by establishing policies that support flexibility of work and worker schedules and this has been associated with increased commitment and reduced turnover intentions while voluntary reduced hours have been associated with increased job satisfaction, commitment and loyalty. Other studies have revealed that when organizations provide childcare centres, referral services as well as other practices that support family-life, then higher employee commitment levels is realized (Beauregard & Henry, 2009). While investigating the effect of human resources policies treated as a bundle on the performance of the organization, Perry-Smith & Blum (2000) found out that organizations are increasingly providing their employees with dependent care services, information and referral services and flexible scheduling programs, and that these actions can provide intangible benefits to organizations. Organizational actions, such as offering bundles of work-life policies, communicate to the employees and cause them to make conclusions about the organization. According to Perry-Smith & Blum (2009), since these work-life bundles contribute to the relief of non-work concerns of the employees, although this benefit is not mandatory within organizations, the employees are likely to feel that they are given special treatment. Provision of these benefits to employees will also symbolize that the organization cares about the wellbeing of the employees and represent a value system. As a result, employees will respond favourably to the organization. They are likely to reciprocate by putting extra contribution and developing a close concern for the success of the organization. They will therefore become more committed to the organization and more readily embrace its goals. Such response has been supported by the social exchange theory where individuals are expected to respond to the perceived favours by the organization. As Lambert (2000) states, the presence of work practices that are designed to provide assistance to the employees in the management of their responsibilities outside work will increase the perceptions of organizational support, especially when these practices are perceived as useful. Given the current demands of the business environment, organizations are constantly aware of the need to maintain competitive advantage by retaining and motivating employees. Work-life balance has been a major factor for consideration for many organizations as they seek to remain competitive. To respond to the effects of economic uncertainty, increased business competition and organizational restructuring, organizations demand increased commitment and performance from their employees which has resulted to the need for longer working hours and prioritization of work over personal life. The lack of work-life balance in these circumstances has been related to reduced physical and psychological. Intrusion of demands of the workplace into the personal life of employees has been associated with heightened stress and emotional exhaustion among employees. These may directly result to job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, job turnover and withdrawal behaviours. These results are not desirable in any organization and will lead to poor performance, low productivity and loss of competitive advantage. Provision of work-life balance for the employees is therefore critical especially now that employees are highly conscious of these practices (Hughes & Bozionelos, 2007). Bird (2006), on his work on successful implementation of work-life practices, discusses senior executive concerns with regard work-life balance and notes that growth and profit effect, full engagement and customer services, competitive advantage for talent and health-care cost management are some of the reasons why organizations must consider work-life balance practices. According to this author organizations will enjoy these benefits if effective policies will be developed to address employees’ concerns and worries through work-life balance interventions. Researchers have, however, found negative links between work-life balance and well being of organizations. Researcher findings have suggested that work-life balance has been associated with increased costs and expenses for the organization while it stretches its facilities to accommodate other non-work activities (Hughes & Bozionelos, 2007). Work has also been associated with increased sick leave costs as well as absence due to faked illnesses. These negative effects, however, would not out weight the benefits already discussed above. Organizations are concerned with the performance of the employees who continue to exert more pressure on their employers for more balanced work-life experiences. Since employee motivation, job satisfaction, employee retention and commitment are critical factors for human resource managers today, work-life balance remains an important factor for consideration and a strong source for organizational competitiveness as organizations continue to realize the importance of employees in the performance and productivity of firms. List of References Bird, J, 2006, Work-life balance: doing it right and avoiding the pitfalls, Employment Relations Today, 33(3) Kim, HK, 2014, Worklife Balance and Employees’ Performance: The Mediating Role of Affective Commitment. Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal, 6(1): 37 – 51 Lambert, SJ, 2000, Added benefits: The link between work-life benefits and organizational citizenship behavior, Academy of Management Journal, 43(5): 801−815 Mathew, RV, & Panchanatham, N, 2011, An exploratory study on the work-life balance of women entrepreneurs in south India, Asian Academy of Management Journal, 16(2): 77-105 Hammer, LB, Neal, MB, Newson, JT, Brockwood, KJ, & Colton, CL, 2005, A longitudinal study of the effects of dual-earner couples’ utilization of family-friendly workplace supports on work and family outcomes, Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4): 799-810 Delina, G, & Raya, RP, 2013, A study on Work-Life Balance in Working Women, IRACST – International Journal of Commerce, Business and Management (IJCBM), 2(5): 274 – 282. Perry-Smith, JE, & Blum, TC, 2000, Work-Family Human Resource Bundles and Perceived Organizational Performance, The Academy of Management Journal, 43(6): 1107-1117 Greenhaus JH, & Powell, GN, 2006, When work and family are allies: A theory of work-family enrichment, Academy of Management Review, 31(1): 72 – 92 Beauregard, TA, & Henry, LC, 2009, Making the link between work-life balance practices and organizational performance, Human resource management review 19: 9-22. Greenhaus, JH, Collins, KM, & Shaw, JD, 2003, The relationship between work-family balance and quality of life, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 63: 510 – 531 Anderson, SE, Coffey, BS, & Byerly, RT, 2002, Formal organizational initiatives and informal workplace practices: Links to work-life conflict and job-related outcomes, Journal of Management, 28(6): 787−810 Hughes, J, & Bozionelos, N, 2007, Work-life balance as source of job dissatisfaction and withdrawal attitudes: An exploratory study on the views of male workers, Personnel Review 36(1): 145-154 Read More