Review: Big Rocks: Balancing Life and Work - Book Report/Review Example

? Big Rocks: Balancing Life and Work Affiliation: Introduction 200 Introduction and Book Review The total household income ofmost American and European families depends on the work each member of that family does and the type of compensation they acquire from their works. While most people have invested in different business platforms, the majority of people around the world are employed by corporations and individuals who provide the work they should earn their livelihoods from. With regards to the amount of compensation people acquire from the firm, research shows that people continue to move from their places of work to seek better places to work. According to Russell’s (2005) writings in his book Big Rocks: Balancing Life and Work; it is obvious that the work place constitutes one of the biggest time allocations and people have forgotten the meaning of having life at work and having a life at home with family. The Big Rocks is a reflection on the life of the lead character Jack Bradford who is a married man with two children. The story of Jack is a reflection of how work at various workplaces has consumed all his time as the corporations he has worked for take time as a function of measuring performance. In this case, Jack moves from one company to the next with the hopes of landing a better job where he can be able to balance his life at work with the life at home. After some time of having hardships of coping with the pressure at his workplace, Jack is invited for a speech upon which his perspective on how working should be like is changed with regards to what is perceived as important and a priority. The ‘Big Rocks’ in the book reflects the number of priorities that dominate a person’s life and the number of priorities that many people take as the most important in their lives. In this case, most people take work as the only priority they have and that undermines the role of work and life with regards to family and other issues. While ‘Big Rocks’ are considered to be spouse, children/family, personal health, and education among others, working has been the priority of many people within the American context. On the other hand, the organizations are tuned in the same way as they believe the amount of work that guarantee’s good and acceptable performance within the corporate setting is a result of working long hours. In this case, Big Rocks presents a relevant question of how much one should concentrate with work and how this commitment at work does allow time for family or the other set of ‘Rocks’. Discussion The association of the workplace and the actual need of employees to stay at the same working place has been a function of several variables that relate to rewarding, treatment, management strategies, growth and development of individuals, the relationships between management and subordinates, and the promotional strategies that are being used to promote good performance and individual development. While the factors that influence personal growth are functions of good performance and acceptance of corporate policy, it has been identified by Wanberg & Banas (2000) that factors such as stress are associated with turnover results at the work place. In this case, it is also identified that employees that take up organizational changes are more likely to achieve satisfaction at the workplace as related to those that believe traditional models of operations befit a company. In this case, the fact that employees are affected by organizational changes, specific changes have way greater effects to employees than the actual policy restrictions subjected to the employees. For example, a policy that requires all employees to have certain levels of education, driving licenses, self-sponsored health care plans, personal phones, and other requirements does not affect the personal lives of new entrants but may have a specific problem with current employees who are not used to such changes. In this case, having to deal with changes within the organization may cause stress to employees, who in return may start to leave the workplace to seek other jobs. In addition, while the policies and organizational changes may not affect the employee at a personal level, factors such as compensation and performance contracts have been identified as factors affecting satisfaction – many companies believe that the more an employee works, the higher his/her performance and the better his chances of promotion. It is observed in the American job sector that employees first to arrive and last to leave from the workplace are mostly considered for promotions. Concepts and theories that connect the amount of work done and the performance of an employee with respect to time spend on the job do not clearly tell how a certain amount of work done in a 40 minutes relates to the same amount of work done in five hours with regards to measuring performance of any employee. In this case, if the workload is measured in terms of sales made and the duration taken in completing the amount of work, it is irrelevant for an organization to measure performance with the amount of time taken at the work place. For the association of time spent at work and the performance at work, personal lives are affected negatively and therefore, stress-related resignations are common place in organizations that factor performance as a result of time spend at work. With consideration to Lee and Mitchell (1994), the unfolding model is a function of shocks, violations of image, job search, Job satisfaction, and scripts. A shock is a specific event that initiates the psychological analyses involving quitting. On the other hand, a script is a manifested plan on one’s to-do list for leaving the workplace either to seek another job or to just be out of the current workplace. Image violation according to Lee and Mitchell (1994) do occur when the goals and ambitions, values, and strategies of an individual are interrupted at the work place in a way that the individual cannot attain his/her development plans such as promotions and career growth within the organization. A deficit in job satisfaction occurs when an individual’s stay within the same company brings him/her to the conclusion that his financial, intellectual, and emotional benefits cannot be realized within the organization as individually desired. In addition, the search component of the unfolding model presents the possibility of searching for alternatives or evaluation for alternatives. For example, one example of a search is the consideration of Jack’s, the lead character of Big Rocks, and evaluation of alternatives of whether to leave the current job for option 1 or option 2. According to Holton, Mitchell, Lee, and Inderrieden (2005), job dissatisfaction causes less turnover rates as compared to shocks or precipitating events. To test this claim, the research on turnover related to shocks showed that out of 1200 ‘leavers’ (nurses, bookkeepers, transnational bank personnel, merchandising bank workforces, penitentiary sentinels, Alumnus Administration Charge Test takers coming from an assortment of experiences) registered shocks at a level of 60% and 40% reported other variables. On other independent but similarly structured tests regarding the unfolding model, Donnelly and Quinn (2006) involves public accountants whose turn out on the tests was 86%. Results from these tests shows that most job leaves associated their leaving with economic considerations. On the other hand, the stayers indicated that economic consequences had a lot to do with their staying. In this case, it can be indicated that those who left figured that they had had enough of economic constraints and left to seek greener pastures. On the other hand, the stayers are a function of job satisfaction of lack of alternatives. This means that the number of employees who choose to remain at the work place with regards to economic considerations are either unable to consider the search component of the unfolding model or they are satisfied with the economic gains they get from the workplace. However, with regards to work-life balance, it does not mean that economic satisfaction is translated to overall job satisfaction. Application Big Rocks: Balancing Life and Work is a book whose author is dedicated to analyze how the workplace can be hectic with regards to satisfaction with career perspectives and family life. However, as indicated through the use of the unfolding model, there is more to work than just satisfaction. Family life represents the component of a working individual classified as life and besides the lack of balance between work and life; family can be a major contributing factor to the dissatisfaction at work. Employees take on jobs that they assume to be satisfactory of their needs but their expenses start to pile up with regards to the organization of their lives. In this perspective, the author of the Big Rocks, somewhat assumes this factor and leads on the argument that Jack was a victim of corporate injustice. However, from the two perspectives of Jack being unsatisfied at work due to long working hours and overwhelming workloads versus the piling responsibilities at work, it is clear that work-life balance can be a function of either with regards to responsibilities and means of meeting them. However, this means that the Big Rocks approach is not practical as factors associated with the unfolding model are not included in the contexts of the book. This analysis does not mean that all factors leading to job resignations are functions of the unfolding model’s components but the association of Jack’s situation and his interaction with family does not relate to his achievements and goals as a career person. Conclusion and Recommendation Work-life balance has been a problem to the lead character of the Big Rocks book as piling workloads push Jack to quit one job after the other. The book presents an interesting feature into the life of a family man with work as a ‘Big Rock’ rather than a portion of his life – family, education, ambition, work, and development. On the other hand, the book presents the opportunity to analyze other factors that may lead to unbalanced life regarding life and work. It is clear that, from the unfolding model, there is more to job satisfaction and most people are psychologically attuned to quit their jobs as various conditions affect their take on their current jobs. However, the book does not meet all the expected considerations of a contemporary employee as responsibilities push people to work more hours – some of these involve the family and a utilitarian decision is eminent. For readers and employees who do not balance their work and life, it is recommendable for them to read this book. However, for employees with no definite understanding as to why they work for long hours, a pen and a book can help break down their activities and responsibilities. Reference Donnelly, D., & Quinn, J. (2006). An extension of Lee and Mitchell’s unfolding model of voluntary turnover. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 59–77. Holtom, B., Mitchell, T., Lee, T., & Inderrieden, E. (2005). Shocks as causes of turnover: What they are and how organizations can manage them. Human Resource Management, 44, 337–352. Lee, T., & Mitchell, R. (1994). An alternative approach: The unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover. Academy of Management Review, 19, 51–89. Russell, Gary. (2005). Big Rocks: Balancing Life and Work. Levittown, New York: Lifestyle Publishing. Wanberg, C., & Banas, J. (2000). Predictors and Outcomes of Openness to Changes In A Reorganizing Workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 132–142. Read More