Work Life Balance - Essay Example

?Running Head: WORK LIFE BALANCE Ethnographic Study of an Organisation: Work Life Balance Ethnographic Study of an Organisation: Work Life Balance Introduction In the last few years, a growing number of employees surveyed indicated that they are facing difficulties with work-life balance or that they don't have a healthy balance life between their personal and work (Felstead & Jewson, 1999; Bunting, 2004; Alesina, Glaeser, & Sacerdote, 2005). But struggling with balance means struggling with what? In a literal sense, work-life balance is a metaphor through which work is understood in terms of life. However, what constitutes a balance between work and rest of life to one individual may not be the same for another. As employers and policy makers are pressured to respond to the work-life challenges that today’s workforce is facing, it will become more and more important to understand what these individuals are looking for in terms of work-life balance. Consequently, this ethnographic study explores and documents how employees make sense of the term work-life balance. Description of the Study A major driver that has led to the increased interest in work-life balance is the changing face of the Workforce (Kemske, 2008). There are a number of significant demographics changes taking place in the workforce today, changes that will also continue well into the future. Those organisations that understand how today’s workforce is changing will be better able to adapt. Furthermore, those organisations will become the leaders in attracting, hiring, and maintaining good employees (Alesina, Glaeser, & Sacerdote, 2005). Although this is a relatively overlooked phenomenon in business arena, evidence will come from current research and case study example that demonstrate new ideas in practice and show the benefits of what is already being achieved. This ethnographic study will give a voice to employees who are struggling to balance their work and personal lives, but it is only a beginning. This paper will explore the work-life balance construct through ethnographic research in order to understand how employees make sense of their work in the broader context of their lives. The data will be obtained through observation and the interviews from participants; all of the participants are full time employees of STARBUCKS coffee house located in Bradford. Literature Review Exploring the Work-life Relationship The meaning of work-life balance is elusive. In one sense, it describes “the relationship between the institutional and cultural times and spaces of work and non-work“ (Felstead, 2002: p. 56). In another sense, it describes a state of equilibrium, in which the demands of both a person's job and personal life are equal. Although the focus is different, what these descriptions have in common is that they highlight the importance of the relationship between work and life. In particular, the first description focuses primarily on the relationship between work and non-work time and space, whereas the second focuses on the relationship between the demands associated with work and life. Of course, if we consider examples of such demands, we may also find ourselves back to the notion of time and space. What this raises is the importance of understanding how people describe the relationship they are seeking between work and life. In order for employers and policy makers to put strategies in place to promote a healthy work-life relationship there needs to be an understanding of what that means to employees. It may be that a continuum of work-life relationships exists throughout various stages of an individual's life and/or career. Furthermore, it might not matter what people call it, but rather how well they are able to articulate the relationship between work and life that works for them, and whether or not they are capable of managing that relationship. The type of balance sought by many individuals may not imply equal emphasis in both areas. Furthermore, it is important to recognise that individuals may establish very different notions of balance in order to correspond with the relationship they seek between work and life at varying stages in their career and life. In other words, how people make sense ofthe work-life balance construct is, to some extent, dependent on their work-life relationship. Research identified that usually five approaches have been used to measure the association between work, and life outside of work (Zedeck and Mosier, 1990; O'Driscoll, 1996). These include: segmentation, spillover, compensation, instrumental and conflict approaches. The segmentation model appears to be offered as more of a theoretical possibility as opposed to a model with empirical support. However, at the same time, this model seems to be most aligned with the either-or paradox associated with the work-life balance metaphor. Some of the main questions and problems that have been addressed by researchers to date have focused in particular on the conflict model, especially in terms of work-family and family-work conflict (Boles, Howard, & Donofrio. 2001; Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000; Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1993). The issue of inter ­domain conflict between work and family domains has become a major issue in the past decade in large part because of the increase of women entering the workforce, resulting in more dual-earner households, and the increase of single parent households (Boles et al., 2001). Research on the spillover model has also been reported, particularly emphasising how there is “considerable conflict generated in. families as work experiences spillover into family life and vice-versa” (Williams & Alliger, 1994 cited in Boles et al. 2001: p. 377). Spillover theory posits that experiences in the domains of work and family reciprocally influence one another. Early spillover theorists Payton-Miyazaki and Brayfield (1976) assert that thoughts and feelings arising out of one role can have an additive effect in another role. While initial research demonstrated correlations between work and family roles, it was unknown from what direction the spillover originated (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999). Further, research demonstrates that positive spillover has been associated with resource enhancement and work-family balance (Grzywacz, Almeida, & McDonald, 2002), while negative outcomes associated with spillover include withdrawal from family interaction, increased marital conflict, less awareness about the child's experiences, decreases in job and life satisfaction, and increased absenteeism and likelihood of leaving work (Torka and Schyns, 2007; Hill, Hawkins, Ferris, & Weitzman, 2001). In two additional studies, job spillover, whether positive or negative, was shown to have a direct impact on family life (Judge & Ilies, 2004; Sumer & Knight, 2001). While research on these five models has specifically focused on the work-family relationship, it has provided new evidence and ideas that help us understand the choices that individuals and employers make about two of life's central domains. Furthermore, these studies have been crucial to understanding the tensions experienced at the nexus of work and other life roles, such as family and have uncovered a number of insights in terms of to the relationship between work and family. However, this research is not inclusive of the wide range of lifestyles that now encompass the workforce- including those for whom family plays a less dominant role in life outside of work. Furthermore, what these models don't address is what constitutes a balance between work and life. Another area of research that has helped increase understanding of the work-life relationship is the analysis of the boundary, or lack of between work and the rest of life. Another area of the literature that is important to explore in the context of defining work-life balance is the psychology of individual differences. As Guest (2001) points out, psychological theory concerned with aspects of personality can enhance our understanding of perceptions of balance and how it varies across individuals. A recent study found that employees who work longer hours, or more days than they prefer, for reasons other than personal motivation, feel excessively overworked (Galinsky, Kim, & Bond, 2001). When people feel overworked, they make more mistakes, feel angry toward their employers, resent their coworkers who don't work as hard as they do, lose sleep, and feel less successful with spouse or partner, children, and friends. Since people who voluntarily decide to work longer hours or more days do not feel overworked, they are less likely to report these negative personal and organisational outcomes (Lobel, 2003). Findings This paper explored the work-life balance construct through ethnographic research in order to understand how employees make sense of their work in the broader context of their lives. The data were obtained through observation and the interviews from participants; all of the participants were full time employees of STARBUCKS coffee house located in Bradford. Making Sense of Work in the Broader Context of Life As evidenced by the participants in this study, life in our time-strapped and chaotic world has become a juggling act for many exempt employees both at work and at home, and the meaning of work-life balance is different for everyone. For some it may mean more work, for others less, and yet for others it just means working differently. For some individuals, dichotomising work and life is sufficient to make sense of this construct, while for others, including myself, the balance needs to be much broader. The right balance is a very personal thing and will change for each individual at different times of their lives. And for many, work-life balance is not about saying that work is wrong, or bad, but simply that work shouldn't crowd out the other things that matter to people including spouse, family/kids, parents, friends, home, pets/animals, travel, entertainment, civic/community participation, school, music, spirituality, fitness/health, and time for oneself. Based on the stories told by the participants in this study, the complexity of making sense of this construct extends much beyond simply calculating and appropriating time and space (physical). It also encompasses the subjectivity of having enough energy to achieve a complete, fulfilling, and satisfying life in all its possible forms and permutations. Many individual differences came into play in terms of how the participants defined balance and struggled to maintain it. As I journeyed through the lives and struggles of the participants, one of the most important differences was how individuals make sense of their work in the broader context of their lives, or, more specifically, what relationship they are seeking between their work and the rest of their life. I have categorised the responses of the participants into three different conceptualisations of the work-life relationship that fit together along a continuum of work-life relationships. These include; work and life are separate and distinct; work and life are both separate and connected; and work and life can not be separated (interconnectedness). In the past, the only acceptable relationship has been to keep work and life separate and distinct. In modern organisations; time demands have been established; communicated, used, and reinforced to reflect and shape the norms of the workplace. The traditional or ideal worker; as prescribed by time expectations, is the worker who works full time, is available to work long hours, does not experience career interruptions, and places work over all other personal concerns including family, spirituality, community, and so on. (Smith, 2002; Williams, 2000). In this way, the ideal worker is necessarily unencumbered by non-employment responsibilities, which reflects and reinforces a paradigm in which work and non-work occupy distinctly separate domains. However, for many of the employees in the Starbucks, work and life are not separate and distinct domains. This description of the ideal worker doesn't honour our desire for balance. In the same way that time is the traditional way to structure and control work, it is also one of the most critical issues in the ability to bring balance to one's life. Furthermore, the employees in the Starbucks believed that having balance was extremely important and contributed to being more successful as a person in all domains of life. This belief corresponds to the literature that suggests a balanced life can provide multiple sources of satisfaction (Noor, 1994; Ganster & Schaubroeck, 1991). Therefore, this study highlights a need to challenge and transform traditional working norms and the definition of the ideal worker to encompass a much broader range of acceptable work-life relationships that incorporate the capacity to balance work among other components of life. Furthermore, the participants described several organisational and personal factors that can have either a positive or negative influence on their ability to achieve/manage work-life balance. These factors include: management support, culture, resources, benefits, technology, personality, demographics and motivation. Another interesting aspect of the findings from this study is that work-life balance constitutes something different for everyone. Everyone needs to feel that they are individuals with individual circumstances. In addition, flexibility is required to support changes in work-life needs as individuals' priorities and circumstances change over the course of their life and career. One observation that I made from the participants experiences in this study, was that a key factor in terms of how well balance is accomplished has a lot to do with an individual's clarity in terms of the meaning of this construct and how purposeful their actions are in an attempt to achieve it. I noticed that individuals who were better able to conceptualise the meaning of work-life balance also reported feeling more in control of managing work-life balance. In cases where the meaning was fuzzier, the individual's ability to manage their own balance didn't appear to be as deliberate as those who were clearer, although they still were aware when the balance was missing. In this regard, it is also important to mention that work- life balance is something that is generally noticed in its absence and therefore, it is my belief that the interest in this topic has risen in response to an outcry from many individuals who don't have work-life balance. Conclusion Many organisations are already investing in work practices that support work-life balance, and the findings from this study can be used to further promote and develop these approaches. The views, ideas, and knowledge put forth by the Starbuck employees in this study have highlighted the importance of individual differences and the practical implications for how this term is used in organisations and what efforts should taken to support employees' efforts to achieve balance. The participants described several organisational and personal factors. It can help organisations focus their efforts on those factors that are most influential in an employee's ability to achieve/manage work-life balance. These factors also indicate a need to emphasise the interdependence between the responsibility of the organisation and the individual for work-life balance. From an organisational perspective, leaders need to understand the importance of flexibility and the business need for the new kind of work environment that acknowledges the link between meeting employees’ personal and professional needs. In particular, organisations that want to promote employees' work-life balance need to shift their focus to achieving objectives and reward results, not hours. People who successfully balance their work and life priorities should be rewarded and promoted. Those who work long hours and expect others to do the same should not. Bunting (2004) argues that as long as the amount of time spent at work is seen as a prime indicator of commitment and productivity, the emphasis on long hours will remain. And this, particularly when rigidly prescribed, is a key element in the inability of many individuals to meet conflicting responsibilities and achieve the balance they desire. Until there is a shift away from the focus on hours as the key measure of worker contribution, loyalty, and productivity, organisations will fail to tap the full value of their human resources, and individuals will continue to struggle to achieve the balance they so desperately seek (Smith, 2002). In this way, managers are key to a flexible, supportive culture. Especially in the context of work-life balance, it is important for managers to take a collaborative approach to understanding work-life balance and creating a culture that promotes and supports the individual differences that determine balance. Furthermore, managing work and personal lives requires innovative management approaches to see the link between meeting employees' personal needs and business objectives. Overall, the capacity of an organisation to respond to and learn from the changing needs of its workforce reflects its capacity to identify inefficiencies in its work practices and to adapt to and respond to changes in the market. In addition to the organisation's responsibility, employees need to accept a paradigm of interdependence and also take more responsibility for their own work-life balance. In conclusion, when employees and employers combine their efforts to achieve the greatest success, the achievement of work-life balance is a win-win for everyone and the benefits will be gained across the board. References Alesina, A. , Glaeser, E. , & Sacerdote, B. (2005). Work and leisure in the U.S. and Europe: Why so different? (Discussion Paper No. 2068). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Institute of Economic Research. 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