Work-Life Balance Initiatives Practices - Coursework Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Do Employee Work-Life Balance Initiatives Improve Employee Retention and Organizational Performance? Introduction Life contains a few elements which contribute to people’s enjoyment and fulfillment. Such elements include health, family, career, wealth, religion, social responsibility among others. It is crucial to strike a balance in order to ensure that individuals live happily and contented. Through the holistic and harmonious non-work and work integration, people are able to attain their potential in all pursuits of their lives. Majority of the working people in various parts of the world have challenges related to work and family life integration. In many cases, workers who try to strike this balance fail to fulfill the demands that come from the workplace and other commitments in life. After failing in their bid, these individuals may opt to quit their work or work with less motivation. Sometimes, the workers get stressed and hopeless feelings (Subhasree &Misra 63). This causes reduced production and high labor turnover in the organization. The mediating effect on these areas of life highly depends on the organizational culture. An organization may have a supportive or a non-supportive culture with regards to policies connected to work-life integration and facilitation. A supportive culture brings together talent retention and work-life initiatives. The participation of young people and women as part of the workforce upsurges the importance of work-life balance. In today’s workplace, there are changing demands in labor that include odd working hours, modern technology and business globalization that affect individual’s life. Even in families, there are several adjustments that workers struggle with and are related to both family values and their personal lives (Subhasree &Misra 63). Definitions Osterman explains work-balance initiatives as practices that facilitate people to administer the conflict existing within their work and family lives (681). He describes these practices as structural and procedural initiatives found in various workstations and institutions. Estes and Michael explains that work-life steadiness practice is the employer’s backing for work flexibility, dependent care and work leaves (2). This flexibility may include working from home, sharing of job, having family and personal leave among others. Generally the term refers to satisfactory matching of the various roles in an individual’s life (Clarke, Koch & Hill 132). On the other hand, work-life imbalance is a situation in which one role’s pressure leaves no room to meet the demand of other role(s) (Greenhaus & Beutell 511). There are other terms related to work-life balance and their definitions sometimes overlap. Work-family conflict refers to the strain within family and work responsibilities. Family-friendly benefits are the paybacks that employees get to take care of their family and personal commitments while at the same time doing well in their work. Wok-life programs offer options to employees in dealing with personal and work responsibilities. Besides, work-family culture is the level of recognition that an organization gives to staff’s family obligations. This culture promotes cooperation between the administration and workers thus meeting their work and personal needs (Lockwood 2). Greenhaus et al highlights that work-family balance is the level of individual’s contentment and engagement in work besides family roles (513). They further described the three dimensions that work-family steadiness has and consist of time balance, satisfaction balance and involvement balance. These three refer to time devoted equally, equal expressed satisfaction and equal psychological effort respectively. Similarly, Byrnes renewed interest on the concept of balanced wheel of life (53). He points out that the most important pursuits of life are family, finances, work, hobbies, spiritual, social, self and health. According to Byrne, these pursuits are valuable to every individual, and that everybody tries to make a balance amongst these pursuits. The scholar viewed these elements as equally valuable in a person’s life a notion which other authors refute. The balanced wheel of life forms the easiest way to comprehend the work-life balance concept. Studies supporting the contention that WLB initiatives improve employee retention and organizational performance. There were varying conclusions to various studies that different researchers undertook in the past. Workers who experience decreased satisfaction in their work and non- work roles and high level of stress caused by work-life conflict are likely to perform poorly. Such workers are also not committed to the organization and adopt a habit of absenteeism or quit the organization (Grant-Vallone & Ensher 7). There is a nexus between a person’s sense of control and depression with the work’s nature for instance, supervision, routinization and complexity (Kohn & Schooler 1264). According to other studies, people who experience work and personal lives interference have a high probability to develop poor physical health and psychological problems (Boles & Barry 45; Boles, Howard & Donofrio 382). Work and social roles balance perception lead an individual to a satisfying life. A few studies have found out that work-balance determines the overall quality of life and a person’s wellbeing (Fisher 196; Greenhaus, Collins & Shaw 522). Life and job reduced satisfaction in individuals relates to the absence of this balance. Other imbalance effects include reduced quality of life and wellbeing and poor mental health (Grant Vallone & Donaldson 11; Beatty 242; Grzywacz & Bass 253). Ameen highlights that many Asian employees do not have a clue of the existence of work- life balance (1). Most of the workers in Asia face long hours of work in various organizations. While the majority of these organizations are profitable, the author contends that it is for a short period as opposed to long-term sustenance. The author explains that poor work-life balance is a cause for many organizational losses such as low morale, reduced performance, production errors, and absenteeism among others. Ameen is absolutely sure that poor work-life balance impacts negatively on the productivity and work quality in organizations. Sound work-life balance has a positive effect on businesses as workers feel energetic and stress free to work well. The initiatives are beneficial to the organization as employees feel happy when they spend ample time their families and on other non-work roles and activities (Ameen 1). Abercromby readdresses the fact that modern personnel management practices are a boost to work-life balance (1). These come in the form of supportive supervisors, and flexibility of work place and time. In turn, this balance is integral in improving an organization’s position in terms of productivity, recruitment, turnover, job dissatisfaction, accident rates among others. The author testifies that organizations practicing work-life programs know that workers well-being is essential to the business excellence. Interestingly, Abercromby stresses on the parameters necessary for aspired effect to take place. Among these parameters include program communication, management extent, organization culture, personnel policy, worker and management regulation (Abercromby 1). Through intensive research, Subhasree and Misra discovered that there exists strong positive correlation between support mechanisms and work-life balance initiatives with improved employee retention (67). In that research, organization culture especially supportive management had a high value in Work-life balance. This indicates that organization culture is a crucial aspect in planning and execution of work-life policy thus promoting staff retention. They concluded that a supportive culture plays a mediating role in work-life initiatives’ and brings a positive impact on organization’s performance. It is essential for improvement in personnel management practices with a supportive organization culture in order to improve employee retention. In addition, work-life balance featuring flexibility in work life and work time is a good move to improve workers’ productivity (Subhasree and Misra 68). Conclusion Many researchers are of the view that work-life initiatives improve performance and employee retention in an organization. They also contend that the majority of employers feel that the balance between professional and personal life is essential. However, the problem arises in integrating these initiatives with the organization culture. The management should put in place a supportive organization culture before implementing work-life initiatives in an organization. Failure to this, the programs may not be effective on the employees. Many workers fear that taking part in work-life balance initiatives may harm their career development. For employees to accept the work-life initiatives, the management should effectively communicate their returns and procedures. Managerial staff, on the other hand, should know that effective work-life initiatives are a retention tool. Organizations that practice flexible working options with regards to working hours, working from different locations ensure that employees love their jobs. Elements on whose work-life programs have a positive effect on include, reduced employee turnover, effective recruitment, productivity, absenteeism, error rate among others. When a worker feels more satisfied in his private life, he responds well to his professional life. The most common effective work-life initiatives consist of working time, working location and personal care as their components. More organizations should realize that work-life balance programs are beneficial in the long run although they seem detrimental in the short term. Work-life evaluation should think of all appropriate parameters for its accuracy. These include employee training and communication, employee and management control, organization supportive culture, and the primary human resource policies. One more aspect is that individuals should control themselves in terms of behavior and expectations since it contributes a lot to their work-life balance. Works Cited Beatty, C. A. “The Stress of Managerial and Professional Women: Is the Price too High?” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 17. 1996. 233–251. Print. Boles, J. S., Howard, W. G., & Donofrio, H. H. “An investigation into the Inter-relationships of Work-family Conflict, Family-work Conflict and Work Satisfaction.” Journal of Managerial Issues, 13(3). 2001. 376-390. Print. Boles, J.S. and Barry J. B. "On the Front Lines: Stress, Conflict, and the Customer Service Provider." Journal of Business Research 37 (1) 1996. 41-50. Print. Byrne, U. (2005). “Work-life balance: Why are we talking about it at all?” Business Information Review. 22.1. 2005.53-59. Print. Clarke, M., Koch, L., & Hill, E. “The work–family interface: Differentiating Balance and Fit.” Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal. 33(2), 121-40. Print. 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"Work/Life Balance Challenges and Solutions." 2003. 1-5. . Osterman, P. “Work/family programs and the employment relationship.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 40. 1995. 681-700. Print. Subhasree, Karl and K Misra. "Nexus between Work Life Balance Practices and Employee Retention – The Mediating Effect of a Supportive Culture." Academy of Management Studies, 9. 11 .2013. 63-69. Print. Read More