WORK LIFE BALANCE AND LIFE SATISFACTION: A STUDY OF SELECT ORGANIZATIONS

SYNOPSIS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SESSION 2011-12

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

SUBMITTED BY MS. AMANJOT SACHDEVA UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF DR. AJAY KUMAR SINGH & DR GAURI SHANKAR

WORK LIFE BALANCE AND LIFE SATISFACTION: A STUDY OF SELECT ORGANIZATIONS

Introduction Work-Life Balance is one of the core issues in HRM which is central in promoting individual and organizational effectiveness. Work-life Balance is a broad concept including proper prioritizing between "work" on one hand and "life" on the other. Many other terms that are used to refer to Work Life Balance include work-family Balance, work-family conflict, work-family integration, and family friendly policies. Over the past twenty-five years, there has been a substantial increase in work which is felt to be due, in part by information technology and by an intense, competitive work environment, fast pace of change, intense pressure, constant deadlines. Long-term loyalty top to the organization and a sense of corporate community have been eroded by a performance culture that expects more and more from their employees yet offers little security in return.

The current context of globalization and the changing nature of work have provided the impetus for this topic. Today the employees want it all. It is not restricted to one domain of work or life but rather a rich synthesis of the two. The employees want the companies to devise flexible, innovative options that give high-performing employees more choice and control so that they can manage the competing demands of work and family.

Women are forming a considerable chunk of the workforce, dual career couples are on the rise, the increase in average income and rise in living standards have individuals striving for better work atmosphere, improved family and personal life.

The concept is not restricted to men and women with families or elder/child care responsibilities but also covers people who are single but still need to resolve work and life issues. Ransome, (2007) introduced what he called "total responsibility burden" which includes "recreational labor". This acknowledges the fact that individuals need to express and satisfy their need for enjoyment and leisure. Outside formal, paid employment, there is unpaid work, like caring responsibilities, house work, cooking, cleaning, etc. and leisure time is just a fantasy. Competitive and customer pressures have forced companies to rationalize and restructure, and as a consequence less people have to do more work, (Poelmans et al., 2008). Work Life Balance should not only mean a balance between work and family but between work and the rest of life activities. The Concept is relevant to younger professionals without family responsibilities too. It is an all encompassing issue that is pertinent for anyone requiring personal space. Seen this way, this concept has relevance to a larger audience.

There are other issues to be defined vis--vis Work Life Balance. First is that when do we perceive work life imbalance? If work is central to our life and family intrudes, an individual might feel an imbalance or on the contrary if family is central and work impinges on the time or attention to be devoted to his family, an individual may feel affected. Another issue is Does each individual not define his or her own optimum

Balance. It is a subjective issue. A person can perfectly experience 'work-family Balance', even though work 'weighs more' than family, and in a consistent way in the course of a whole lifetime. Each person experiences balance in a different way, (Poelmans et al., 2008). Thus, it becomes that particular individual's own perception or experience of a balance.

Another critical question is whether work life balance is for the individual to achieve and maintain or is it the responsibility of the employer? This is because life balance is contingent on a no. of factors particular to an individual. An individuals value system, personality, socialization, attitudes, beliefs, expectations, motivation etc. can go a long way in affecting his or her perceptions of Work Life Balance. On the other hand if we have to see organizations focusing on employee satisfaction and productivity, it becomes a responsibility for the employer to see to it that wholesome practices favoring maintaining of a satisfactory relationship between the worker and workplace are encouraged . So employers need to follow certain retention and attraction strategies to retain employees which can include provisions with regard to flexible work schedules, compressed work weeks, work sharing, telecommuting, provision of day care and elder care centers, part time work, enhanced job mobility, flexible leave arrangements, satisfaction surveys, training and development support, health & safety programs and other support facilities. .

Work Life Balance and Stress Work-life Balance is, literally, balancing the demands, the amount of time and effort, given to work and the workplace, and that given to the individuals domestic, personal, family, and social life. A vital factor in achieving an appropriate Work Life Balance is ensuring that the work element does not dominate, and that it is not causing damage to the individual through the effects of negative stress. It is most unusual to find people with a Work-Life Balance that is dominated negatively by their life outside the workplace i.e. family/outside interests intrudes less. It is almost always the workplace activity that dominates and often does so negatively.

The increased awareness of the importance of managing stress and Work Life Balance effectively has given rise to approaches such as time management, managing stress, managing personal development, and related approaches such as coaching and mentoring. The tools and techniques within these approaches are valuable in helping individuals to manage stress and Work Life Balance more successfully.

Gender differences across industry and Work Life Balance Work life imbalance may strike anyone but it tends to be more conspicuous in some industries than others and it may be more prevalent in some groups than others. In a study that was done about Work Life Balance among women IT professionals, a common perception is that women drop out of the work force once they get married. But the study showed that marital status does not lead to women dropping out but they moved within the industry. So it is not marital status but parental status that affects Work Life Balance. When

children come into the picture, the Work Life Balance is affected. Dependent care also directly impacts Work-Life Balance.

It is usually believed that organizations, which have policies on Work-Life Balance, would tend to have more Work-Life Balance. But it was found that only multi-national organizations had extremely progressive Work-Life Balance. Therefore it was hypothesized that women in multi-national corporations had a higher Work-Life Balance than those in Indian organizations.

ICICI Bank Ltd is an example for having the largest number of women employees in the banking sector in India. They have a number of options and opportunities which allow for their women employees a more harmonious work culture vis. a vis. the family. Selfesteem - positively contributes to Work Life Balance. Doctors don't really have a Work Life Balance. A large part of them have a very low time Balance but a very high satisfaction balance and their self-esteem is very high. A study on gynecologists showed that their satisfaction balance was really high because of the satisfaction of creating a new life, which was compensation enough for any kind of time imbalance.

In medicine, specialties with shorter and more predictable hours tend to be dominated by females. Women now make up 41 percent of new M.D.s nationwide, but less than 30 percent of physicians under the age of 35 practicing emergency medicine or general surgery. Meanwhile in other women friendly occupations, 70 percent of gynecologists and nearly 60 percent of dermatologists in that same age bracket are women.

Review of Literature Review of Literature constitutes an important section in any research study, which provides a critical overview of various dimensions of any subject, which have been explored over different frames and it helps us to understand the research methodology, research findings and to identify the gaps that exists in the literature, which motivates for the further research in this area. The following discussion is an attempt to provide an overview regarding different aspects of Work Life Balance that have been critically examined both in national as well as in international context.

In speaking of a concept of Work Life Balance there seems to be an assumption that the scale of balance is tilting more towards the work i.e. work predominates and hence the increasing need for a balance with life. Earlier research has found Work Life Balance to be positively related to both organizational and individual outcomes. Giving the employees flexibility, information, and financial assistance can improve the organization's financial performance and raise Employee Satisfaction and Labor Productivity, (Konrad & Mangel, 2000), Employee-organizational commitment and attachment, and organizational citizenship behavior, (Lambert, 2000).

Work Life Balance is also expected to have a positive impact on employee engagement. Employee engagement is essential to obtain high performance. Engaging employees-especially by giving them participation, freedom, and trust is the most comprehensive response to achieve self-realization and self-actualization.

Babazono et al.(2005) in a study on the influences of Work place stress on Mental Health used the Work Requirement Degree Control Model which is one of the well regarded workplace stress theories and found that significant items relating to problematic mental health for factory work were too much competition(high degree of work requirement), cannot keep up with new technology(lack of control) and for R&D or office Work too much trouble at work ( high degree of work requirement ) and feel Pressed for time( loss of control).

Marchand & Blanc (2010) in a study among employees in Canada found that it was not Occupation but Social Support at Work which decreased the Psychological distress experienced by the employees. Enterprises thus have a role to play and pay special attention to how colleagues and supervisors act to help workers complete tasks.

Madsen et al. (2005) in a study suggest that high work-family conflict is related to lower levels of desirable work and non-work factors (e.g., organizational commitment, health); however, they did not study the direction of these relationships. For example, work-family conflict can lead to lower organizational commitment, while health problems and management/leadership concerns can be responsible for increased work-family conflict. In addition, these results also support the spillover theory that states that negative spillover from one role to another occurs when the problems, conflicts, or energy in one role has strained and preoccupied an individual, making it difficult to effectively and positively

participate in another, and positive spillover is just the opposite. The research suggests that work-to-family and family-to-work conflict are related to organizational commitment.

This study also suggests the mental health and physical health are related to organizational commitment. In the case of mental health, it appears that all three organizational commitment components are contributors to this relationship (loyalty, involvement, and identification). However, the strongest relationship appears to be with work involvement. An employee's health, both physical and mental is an indicator of the level of involvement an employee may have at work. Physical health is also related to organizational commitment, but not because of loyalty. An employee's physical health is related to the level of involvement he or she can have at work. An employees' pride and identification with a company may decrease if he or she does not feel physically well. Overall when employees feel good, they are more loyal, involved, and committed to their organizations. Assisting employees in improving their health can increase overall organizational commitment.

Beham & Sonja (2010) in a study found that perceived organizational time expectations, psychological job demands and job insecurity were found to be negatively related to employee satisfaction with Work life Balance and these were affected by work to family conflict. Social support at work and job control revealed positive relationships with satisfaction with Work life Balance but contrary to predictions this association remained even after controlling for work to family conflict.

Hammer et al. (2008) in their study Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Measure of Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (FSSB) developed and validated a measure of FSSB which is a multidimensional construct with four subordinate dimensions viz. emotional support, instrumental support, role modeling behaviors , and creative workfamily management.. They found FSSB to be positively linked with work family conflict, work family positive spillover, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions.

Umehara et al. (2007) in their study Association of Work related Factors with Psychological Job Stressors and Psychosomatic Symptoms among Japanese Pediatricians found that longer working hours per week was significantly associated with job demand, greater job control and more psychosomatic symptoms whereas more workdays with no overtime was significantly associated with lower job demand, greater job control and fewer psychosomatic symptoms. So according to them controlling these factors could be important for reducing the job stressors among the pediatricians.

Cieri et al. (2002) identified the following Work Life Balance strategies which employers offer viz. part time work, study leave, flexible start and finish times, work from home on adhoc basis, job share, rostered days off, paid parental leave, flexi time, use flex or rostered days as half days, telecommuting, 48/52 working year, career break, compressed work week. They also investigated as to how much percent of the employees avail these options and identified the barriers to implementation and maintenance of Work Life Balance strategies.

10

Ahola et al. (2008) in their study Burnout in relation to Age in the Adult Working Population in a nationally representative sample of adult population in Finland found that age was differently related to symptoms of burnout. Burnout was related to age among women. It was positive in the late work years, and non-existent in outside most active family years. Burnout prevalence was found more among the younger workers whereas in aging women, the burnout prevalence was highest among the older workers. Among men the association was positive in middle age and non- existent otherwise. The level of education, type of employment, work in service sector, working hours, and marital status did not have a profound effect on these associations.

Lawton & Tulkin (2010) in their study on Work-family Balance, Family Structure and Family-friendly Employer programs investigated the relationship between employer policies and family structure on conflicts between work and family. They explored the importance of Work Family Balance policies regarding flexibility, telecommuting, adjusting ones schedule, and ability to be absent from work for family needs. These policies were examined considering family structure, that is, for employees with and without children, and for married and non-married employees. The results indicated that the presence of children in the household was the most important family structure factor, regardless of marital status, such that having children increased the likelihood of workfamily conflict. Of the three family-friendly policies, enabling employees to leave work for family needs and events is the most important for increasing work-family Balance.

11

An organization called Managing Work life Balance International has undertaken a range of extensive research projects for both public and private sector organizations in Australia. It has highlighted new trends and interesting findings in the areas of Work/life Balance, flexible work arrangements, diversity management etc.

Full-time workers are finding it increasingly difficult to achieve Work/life Balance and many especially women would like to reduce their hours or go part time. The findings are the result of a survey of 2,803 workers by the University of South Australia's Centre for Work + Life conducted in preparing the Australian Work and Life Index 2010.

According to the survey, a quarter of women and one-fifth of men working full-time are unhappy with their Work/life Balance, the no. of such people that has increased over the past three years. The percentage of employees who claim that work often or always interferes with activities outside work has increased from 19.8% in 2007 to 24.2 % in 2010.

Women are finding it difficult to work longer hours and meet their personal commitments, with 60.8 % saying they often or always feel pressed for time compared to 47.2% of male respondents. Mothers, in particular, are scrambling to do everything they want to do: 69.4 % reported that they were almost always pressed for time, compared to 58 % of the fathers.

12

Three fourths of part-time workers were satisfied with their Work/life Balance: over 10 percentage point more than full-time employees. Significantly, the decline in working hours some employees experienced during the global financial crisis has not produced an improved Balance, with the centre's work/life index, a composite measure of work/life interference, with 0 denoting very low interference and 100 very high

interference, remaining steady on about 43 over the past three years."Work-life index scores have stayed fairly steady over the period with no sign of a fall associated with the 2009 decline in aggregate hours: in fact there was a slight increase in the Work-Life index in that year, suggestive of worse Work-Life outcomes in the downturn, despite lower hours," the report says. The 10 per cent of women working long full-time hours (48+) reported the worst work/life index score 57.1 of all employees.

Work Life Balance in IT sector Despite a high disposable income and the glamour of consumerism, employees in the information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services sector face problems of Work Life Balance.

Ata et al. (2008) in a cross-sectional survey of regularly employed information technology (IT) Engineers with preschool children in Japan examined the gender difference in WFC, relationship of WFC with outcomes, and predictors of WFC by gender. Data from 78 male and 102 female respondents were analyzed. There was no significant gender difference in total level of WFC. However, the level of work interference with family (WIF) was significantly higher in males than in females and the level of family interference with work

13

(FIW) was significantly higher in females. Regarding outcomes, WIF was significantly related to depression and fatigue in both genders.

The IT professionals tend to have long work hours the spillover effect of which is detrimental to their personal lives and the distinction between work and life becomes more 'blurred' than for more traditional occupations. Despite this general perception of the WorkLife boundary, their results have indicated that intrusion of work into private life for this group of workers still has a substantial impact on work-related attitudes. Work-life variables affect their trust in the organization which plays a mediating role in these variables' relationship to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Their results suggest that in this industry, where employees are relatively individualistic in orientation, highly marketable and unlikely to show attachment to a single organization, mutual gains for employee and employer can be attained by an accommodating approach to non-work commitments which may lead to greater organizational attachment. The main reason for many IT professionals having a lopsided Work-Life Balance is the long working hours which leaves them with little time for themselves or their families which affects their mental and physical health. The long working hours and work overload is typical of the IT industry. Though most IT firms have a five-day week, the expectations and workload is going up. The Companies in an unsure economy are reluctant to hire and the workload on the existing staff goes up.

14

There are also long intervals between projects when many software professionals are sent to training sessions to keep them occupied which de-motivates them as they feel that they are not competent enough or that their potential is not adequately used. The skewed Work-Life Balance affects health and family life and causes mental and physical health problems and also affects interpersonal relationships.

Tourism & Hospitality Sector and Work Life Balance Todays travel and hotel professionals are markedly different from what they were five years ago, in terms of their career growth aspirations, and their willingness to make the personal adjustments that the hotel industry career so often demands. Owing to the industrys unique characteristics, the task of finding and holding onto good people is becoming increasingly difficult and challenging.

There are also various tough challenges in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector in India. The working hours can be odd and irregular, including night duties and working on weekends and holidays. And also these jobs may also involve extensive travel to different destinations calling for long hours / days away from family.

The recent study by Pocock et al. (2007), entitled Work, Life and Time: The Australian Work and Life Index, argues that longer hours worked are consistently associated with worse worklife outcomes on all our worklife measures. The findings suggest that there is an unhealthy acceptance of long working hours, especially in the service industries of

15

hospitality and tourism. There is little flexibility in the way that such workers conduct their social/family lives leading to employees leaving the industry, not just the organization, further exacerbating the labor shortages in the industry.

The research by Cullen & McLaughlin (2006) offers a different perspective on the Work Life Balance issue. Cullen & McLaughlin discuss the notion of presenteeism defined as an overwhelming need to put in more hours or, at the very least, appear to be working very long hours. They argue that there are three rationales that reinforce presenteeism as a managerial value in hotels. Firstly, the hotel managers believe that they have a duty to provide emotional support to their staff and need to be available to provide counseling to the staff. Secondly, the hotel managers see themselves as the face of the hotel and need to be continually present. Finally, it is the very nature of the industry, the constancy and complexity of running a hotel that is open at all times, that makes it necessary that managers be available for longer hours. All of this presenteeism impacts negatively on Work Life Balance and life satisfaction.

Research by Doherty (2004) in examining Work Life Balance for women in the hospitality industry found that it were the very long hours and the lack of flexibility that deterred women from seeking senior levels. Doherty found that a male model of a career based on commitment in the form of long hours persists. She argues that the long hours culture is counterproductive and that initiatives such as Barclay's Technology Services Go Home on Time Days and campaigns to work smarter, not harder, were initiatives to emulate in the hospitality industry.

16

As a consequence of the work demands in the Hospitality industry, there is a high use of alcohol culture. Factors such as the hospitality industry's unstable working hours, low emotional support and the number and type of customer interactions encourage drinking both on duty and after work.

It is the work by Karatepe & Uludag (2007) on worklife conflict, exhaustion and motivation in the hotel industry however, that is critical to the development of a framework on Work Life Balance in the tourism and hospitality industries. These authors found that frontline employees in the hotel industry who had difficulty in spending time with their family and/or social commitments as a result of their job-related responsibilities were more susceptible to elevated levels of emotional exhaustion. The study also found that the increased emotional exhaustion experienced by the frontline hotel employees due to a no. of problems faced including irregular work schedules, long working hours and heavy workloads increased their intentions to leave the organization.

Strategies to address Work Life Balance Issues There is a substantial amount of literature providing strategies for addressing Work Life Balance issues. Many of these focus on flexibility in terms of time at work and scheduling of workloads. Many Company-based strategies to alleviate the impact of worklife conflict have been introduced in organizations which vary from paid special leave to care for dependents, telecommuting, flexi time, taking time off for study etc..

17

Cieri et al. (2005) found that the most frequently used strategies to improve the Work Life Balance included part-time work, study leave, flexible starting and finishing times, working at home on an ad hoc basis and job sharing.

The Cieri et al. (2007) study also examined the barriers to the use of these options and found that insufficient involvement of and communication with senior management was one of the most consistently cited barriers along with the ineffective implementation of the strategies and the lack of communication with staff.

Work Life Balance and Life Satisfaction It is a common research finding is that job satisfaction is correlated with life satisfaction, (Rain, 1991). This correlation is reciprocal, meaning people who are satisfied with life tend to be satisfied with their job and people who are satisfied with their job tend to be satisfied with life. However, some research has found that job satisfaction is not significantly related to life satisfaction when other variables such as non-work satisfaction and core selfevaluations are taken into account, (Rode, 2004). In the other hand, life satisfaction was defined as an individuals global assessment of his or her life in positive terms, (Diener et al., 1999). Life satisfaction is also defined as an overall assessment of feelings and attitudes about ones life at a particular point in time ranging from negative to positive. Subjective life satisfaction is a measure of an individual's perceived level of wellbeing and happiness. It is frequently assessed in surveys, by asking individuals how satisfied they are with their own lives.

18

Documented findings identify a wide range of institutional, economic and ecological determinants of life satisfaction. However, while a wide variety of variables has been suggested as determinants of life satisfaction the impact of tensions between work and family on life satisfaction has not been widely tested. The few studies in this direction were conducted by Greenhaus et al. (2003), Saraceno et al. (2005) and Wallace et al. (2007). Saraceno et al. (2005) used the 2003 EQLS (European quality of Life Survey) data to verify whether the variables they found crucial for defining the work-family balance such as gender and household status as well as the country of residence are related to individuals' satisfaction with family life. They found no clear relationship and concluded that although individuals with young children perceive the greatest difficulties in combing paid employment and childrearing, these difficulties do not result in any clear differences in satisfaction with one's own family life, Saraceno et al. (2005). Wallace et al. (2007) went further and using the same dataset tested the impact of the perception of work-family balance on life satisfaction, finding only minor negative effects.

Greenhaus et al. (2003) examined the relation between workfamily balance and quality of life among professionals employed in public accounting. Three components of work family balance were assessed; time balance (equal time devoted to work and family), involvement balance (equal involvement in work and family), and satisfaction balance (equal satisfaction with work and family). For individuals who invested substantial time in their combined work and family roles, those who spent more time on family than work experienced a higher quality of life than balanced individuals who, in turn, experienced a higher quality of life than those who spent more time on work than family.

19

Matysiak et al. (2010) in their study investigated the relationship between work-family tensions and life satisfaction and found that the employed are more satisfied with life than the non-employed as long as the work-family tensions they experience are not too strong. The feeling of an excessive workload due to professional or family obligations leads to a substantial reduction in life satisfaction. Women who experience work-family conflict tend to be less satisfied with life than housewives. They measured tensions between family and work with a subjective assessment of time-based and strain-based conflict. They tested whether the experience of work-family tensions measured by these indicators lowers the satisfaction with life and whether certain structural and institutional settings (family policy, labor market structures) and gender norms mediate the relationship between life satisfaction and work-family balance.

They found that Strain-based conflict is much lower in the Nordic countries, Benelux and France and German speaking countries while it is very large in Central and Eastern European countries, Bulgaria and Romania and the candidate countries. Strain-based conflict is slightly higher for women except in the new Member States where 32% of men and 29% of women experience pressure at work and at home against 52% and 54% in the EU as a whole. As women are more overloaded and stressed than their partners, they have a tendency to believe that their work hinders them from performing their parental role.

Work-family life balance depends greatly on the number and age of children in the household. Time balance decreases with the number of children; it is particularly low for

20

working women with 3 children and more. Strain-based conflict also rises with the number of children.

So far as the impact of work-family balance on life satisfaction in the EU is concerned they found that family obligations do not only result in lower life satisfaction but, on the contrary, couples with children who can rely on family support are happier than the childless or non-partnered or those lacking financial, moral or health aid from their family nor friends. The only exception is the single parents who are even less satisfied with life than the non-partnered persons, living alone or with parents. They also found that employed Europeans enjoy higher life satisfaction than the non-employed.

Need for the Study The concept of Work Life Balance has many ramifications for Human Resource Professionals and Management. Having a right balance between work and family is important. There is a no. of factors which affect Work Life Balance. It is necessary that these factors and their effect are identified. It is also imperative for the Employers to address work life issues through understanding what employees want and proactively initiate strategies and programs to address Work life Conflicts & Imbalances. Besides Work Life balance is just one of the numerous factors that affect Life Satisfaction as a whole. There have been very few studies done in this regard. Through this study the effect of Work Life Balance on an overall Personal and Professional well being of an individual Viz. Life Satisfaction will also be studied. This research study aims to study some of the multifarious implications of Work Life Balance but from a sectoral perspective, so the

21

research will cover select organizations in the IT and Tourism & Hospitality Sectors, these sectors being one of the most susceptible to work life conflicts because of the spillover effects of a no. of organizational and personal variables.

Objectives of the Study Based upon the observations and findings about Work Life Balance in literature in general and in the industries viz. IT and Tourism & Hospitality in particular, the research seeks to investigate the following in the identified sectors: 1. To understand the affect of individual personality Traits on Work Life Balance. HO1: Individuals Personality traits have no significant affect on Work Life Balance. HA1: Work Life Balance is influenced by Individuals Personality traits.

2. To study the types of Employer Strategies for employees to achieve Work Life Balance and their efficacy. The employees preference for and use of these strategies will be researched. It is considered that different types of Employer strategies to achieve Work life Balance tend to have more positive outcomes. HO2: Availability of different types of Employer Strategies to address work life issues has no significant influence on the perceived Work Life Balance. HA2: Perceived Work Life Balance changes with availability of different types of Employer strategies to address Work Life Issues.

22

3. To study Work Life Balance with respect to demographic variables like Age, Gender and Marital Status. It is sought to know whether young people, Females and Married individuals will tend to have a lower Work Life balance. HO3a: An individuals age has no affect on an individuals Work Life Balance. HA3a: Age has a bearing on an individuals Work Life Balance.

HO3b: Females do not differ significantly from Males with respect to Work Life Balance. HA3b: Females differ from males with respect to Work Life Balance.

HO3c: Married employees do not differ significantly from unmarried employees with respect to Work Life Balance. HA3c: Marital status has an influence on Work Life Balance.

4. To know the affect of Family Structure on Work Life Balance. It is to be seen whether: a) Families with Children tend to have a lower Work Life Balance than those without Children. b) Whether Nuclear/ joint family structure affects Work Life Balance. HO4a: The no. of children in the family does not impact Work Life Balance. HA4a: No. of children influences Work Life Balance.

HO4b: Family Structure (nuclear/joint) does not affect Work life Balance. HA4b: Work Life Balance is affected by the Family Structure.

23

5. To understand the affect of level of Management and Income on the Work Life Balance. It is to be seen whether a higher level of Management and greater Income increases the perceived Work Life Balance. HO5a: There is no significant difference between the Top, Middle and Lower level Management with regard to Work Life balance. HA5a: Level of Management affects Work Life Balance.

HO5b: Income of the employee does not affect his Work Life Balance. HA5b: Income affects Work Life Balance.

6. To study the impact of Work Life Balance on Life satisfaction. Lower work life balance is considered to be directly related to lower Life Satisfaction. HO6: Work Life Balance has no significant affect on Life Satisfaction. HA6: Work Life Balance affects Life Satisfaction.

7. To determine which of the two industries investigated has the lowest life Satisfaction overall. HO7: The IT and Tourism & Hospitality industry do not differ with respect to Life Satisfaction. HA7: IT industry differs from Tourism & Hospitality industry with regard to Life Satisfaction.

24

Research Methodology Work life Imbalance may strike anyone but it tends to be more conspicuous in some industries than in others. High workload and stress-related jobs are said to be those of IT Professionals, Tourism and Hospitality Professionals, Air traffic controllers, Medical Professionals, Law and Order enforcement agencies like Police, Army etc. And the stress is because of the unexpectedness in the job. For policemen don't know when a law and order problem will arise. Air traffic controllers are expected to maintain the same level of discrimination for the entire eight-hour shift. Doctors and Nurses are very much affected by the stress of their environment and unusual hours of work and Banking is no longer the 9.00 A.M to 5.00 P.M job it used to be.

Though the sectors experiencing constraints on Work Life Balance are many, this study will however be restricted amongst the employees in IT and Tourism & Hospitality industry. The study will initially use two focus groups consisting of 12-15 employees from each industry to gain initial insights into the perceptions , opinions and attitudes of the employees towards the issue of Work Life Balance, so that these can be further elaborated and exhaustively studied and incorporated into a self administered questionnaire . The Sample unit will be employees working in select organizations in the IT and Tourism & Hospitality Industry. These will be selected using a Non Probability Judgmental sampling technique with a view to take representative samples from both large and small organizations as large organizations will tend to have some Work Life Balance programs/measures to address Life Balance issues as compared to small organizations. Stratified sampling will be used to stratify the respondents in top, middle and lower

25

management within which random samples elements will be taken according to quotas assigned for each level of management. A self administered questionnaire will be distributed amongst a sample of around 100 employees in each industry i.e. IT and Tourism & Hospitality covering various demographic categories like Age, Gender, Marital Status and Income etc. across different levels of Management . Hypothesis will be framed for some of the outlined objectives and these shall be tested using specific tests of hypothesis like ANOVA, Chi Square etc. Other research techniques like factor analysis etc will be used to analyze and summarize the factors affecting Work Life Balance viz. employer strategies/initiatives, positive and negatives outcomes related to Work Life Balance and Life Satisfaction. Different types of rating Scales will be used to get responses from the respondents to compute overall Scores on different Variables.

Tentative Chapter Scheme

26

Chapter 1: Introduction. Objectives and Rationale for the Study Scope and Limitations of the study Chapter 2: Review of Literature. Chapter 3: Profile of the Selected Organizations. Chapter 4: Data and Research Methodology. Chapter 5: Findings and Analysis. Chapter 6: Summary and Conclusions. Bibliography Appendices

Bibliography Ahola, K., Honkonen, T., Virtaven, M., Aromaa, A., and Lonnovest, J. (2008). Burn-out in relation to age in the adult working population. Journal of Occupational Health, 50: 362-365.

27

Ata, I., Ishikido, N., and Urashima, S. (2008). Gender differences in work family conflicts among Japanese information technology Engineers with preschool children. Journal of Occupational Health, 50: 317-327. Babazono, A., Mino, Y., Nagano, J., Tsuda, T., and Araki, T. (2005). A prospective study on the influences of work life stress on mental health. Journal of Occupational Health, 47: 490495. Beham, B., and Drobnic, S. (2010). Satisfaction with work family balances among German office workers. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(6): 669-689. Cieri, H., and Abbott, J. (2008). Influences on provision of work life benefits: management and employee perspectives, Journal of Management and Organization, 14(3): 303-322. Cieri, H., Bardoel, A., and Mayson, S. (2008). Bridging the research practice gap; developing a measurement framework for work life initiatives. Journal of Management and Organization, 14(3): 239-258. Cullen, J., and McLaughlin, A. (2006). What drives the persistence of presenteeism as a managerial value in hotels? Observations noted during an Irish work-life balance research project. Hospitality Management, 25: 510-16. Diener, E., Suh, M., Lucas, E., and Smith, H. (1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125 (2): 276-302. Doherty, L. (2004). Work Life Balance initiatives: implications for women. Employee Relations, 26(4): 433-452. Greenhaus, J., Collins, K., and Shaw, J. (2003). The relation between work family balance and quality of life. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 3: 510531.

28

Hammer, L., Kossek, E., Yragui, N., Bodner, T., and Hanson, G. (2008). Development and validation of a multidimensional measure of family supportive supervisor behaviors. Journal of Management, 35(4): 837-856. Kaliath, T., and Brough, P. (2008). Work life balance: a review of the meaning of balance construct. Journal of Management & Organization, 14(3): 323-327. Karatepe, O., and Uludag, O., (2007). Conflict, exhaustion, and motivation: a study of frontline employees in Northern Cyprus Hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 26 (3): 645-65. Konrad, A., and Mangel, R. (2000). The impact of work life programs on firms productivity. Strategic Management Journal, 1(12):1225-1237. Kossek, E., Susan, L., and Leslie, H. (2010). Work life initiatives and organizational change, overcoming mixed messages to move from margin to mainstream. Human Relations, 64: 3-19. Kossek, E., and Lambert, S. (Eds.) (2005). Work and Life Integration-Organizational Cultural and Individual Perspectives. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Lambert, S. (2000). Added benefits: the link between work life benefits and organizational citizenship behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 43: 801-815. Lawton, L., and Tulkin, D. (2010). Work family balance, family structure and family friendly employee programs. Annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Dallas, Texas. April 15, 2010. Madsen, S., John, C., and Miller, D. (2005). Work family conflict and health: a study of workplace, psychological and behavioral correlates. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 6:225-247 29

Marchand, A., and Blanc, M. (2010). The contribution of work and non work factors to the onset of psychological distress: an eight year prospective study of a representative sample of employees in Canada. Journal of Occupational Health, 52: 176-185. Matysiak, A., Pailh, A., Solaz, A., and Vignoli, D. (2010). An improvement in work-family balance increases life satisfaction. Abstract proposal for the European Population Conference, Vienna, 1-4 Pocock, B., Skinner, N., and Pisaniello, S. (2010). The Australian Work and Life Index 2010, Centre for Work+Life, University of South Australia. Poelmans, S., Kalliath, T., and Brough, P. (2008). Achieving work life balance: current theoretical and practice issues. Journal of Management and Organization, 14(3): 227-238. Rain, J., Lane, I., and Steiner, D. (1991). A current look at the job Satisfaction/life satisfaction relationship: review and future considerations. Human Relations 44 (3): 287-307. Ransome, P. (2007). Conceptualizing boundaries between life and work. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(3): 374-386. Rode, J. (2004). Job satisfaction and life satisfaction revisited: A longitudinal test of an integrated model. Human Relations, 57(9): 1205-1230. Saraceno, C., Olagnero, M., and Torrioni, P. (2005). First European Quality of Life Survey: Families, Work and Social Networks, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.

30

Shankar, T., and Bhatnagar, J. (2010). Work life balance, employee engagement, emotional consonance/dissonance and turnover Intention. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, 45(5):74-87. Umehara, K., Ohya, Y., Kavakami, N., Tsutsumi, A., and Fujimara, M. (2007). Association of work related factors with psychosocial job stressors and psychosomatic symptoms among Japanese Pediatricians. Journal of Occupational Health, 49: 467-481. Wallace, C., Pichler, F., and Hayes, B. (2007). First European Quality of Life Survey: Quality of Work and Subjective Life Satisfaction in Europe, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg.

31

32