Work Life Balance free essay sample

Managing work life balance Introduction This essay is going to examine managing work life balance and how organizations are going to manage it in contemporary human resource management with relevant organizational examples. Moreover, we will look at the current issues and the problems of work life balance. Work life balance (WLB) is a term which refers to the concept that employees split their time between work and the other aspects of personal lives. It used to maintain a balance between work and leisure activity such as family life. It measured the amount of time on the work compare with the time on spending with family or other leisure activities. It is difficult to measure the efficiency and the balance between work and life. Based on the assumptions of diversity management which aim to provide a positive workplace environment and accept the individual differences from different background, gender, race etc in order to maintain equality in the workplace. Therefore, it is important that organizations introduce flexible working arrangement in terms of providing positive working environment to employees (Caleb Rosado, PH. D, 2006). Theoretical Review Due to the recent change of WLB, people shifted the focus on the balance on work and family roles as well as the outside work. Work life balance is important to employees because it represents peoples psychological well being and satisfaction between work and life (J. Rantanen U. Kinnunen, 2011). WLB can be traced back to previous studies of women having multiple roles throughout their lives as women are representing as mothers, wives and paid worker where they might experience overload work and cause them stressful which suggest it needs appropriate working arrangements in order to increase their job satisfaction (Barnett and Marshall,1993). The integrated concept of WLB is aiming to manage employees effectively while they are suffering from multiple roles conflict in lives and work and attempt to minimized job dissatisfaction and stress levels. However, as most of the organizations are seeking to provide a positive workplace to the employees, they provide several policies for the employees in order to increase the flexibility such as telecommuting opportunities for workers who want to spent more time at home to look after young children or offer flexible work schedules, also, some organizations provide an on-site fitness programs, therefore, it increases employees motivation because they are working in a positive workplace environment (  Heidi Cardenas) . In general, it suggested that UK has a flexible workforce labor with family life to maintain the balance between work and life. This lead to a higher employment and growth in the contemporary diversity management (Nick Bloom, Tobias Kretschmer, 2009). Current issue According to the current work life balance issues in diversity management, it suggested it become an very popular issue to debate over the world and more people and management are paying attention to it, where it increases the conscious of people aware of this problem. Managing WLB has been increased in the last 2 decades (De Bruin Dupuis, 2004), which is a recent change from previous management style. In addition, a lot of private enterprises also aware the problem of work life balance as their human resource management. This has become an major issue in todays management since nowadays employers tend to use fewer employees to cope with difficulties and problems as they want to reduce the costs, therefore the jobs are more complicated and it increased their workforce so it becomes more difficult for employees to maintain a balance within work and life, such as home management, child care etc (Douglas T. Hall) as well as the levels of pressure and working time. Secondly, the demographic changes rapidly so it affects the labor such as gender, age, religion, workplaces etc (Dr Mark Wickham, Miss Melissa Parker Simon Fishwick). Due to the increasing number of working mothers, it usually applied to women that they need to maintain a balance between working hours and career break arrangements such as maternity leave. It stated that there is an enormous increase of working mothers in contemporary world, which suggested that 66. % of mothers are working compare with only 23% of mothers are working full time in 1996 (Guardian), so organizations are required to offer suitable flexible working arrangements for mothers. Therefore, it increases the awareness that organizations has to introduce flexible working arrangement to due with this issue in terms of being ethical and equality. In some circumstances, it suggested that rather than following by a tradition that women should look after child ren, it offers paternity leave for fathers as well in order to encourage fathers to active their role in the family (Gill Kirton Anne-marie Greene, 2005). According to the diversity management, it might be seen as inequality of men and women employees as women tend to have longer career break arrangement due to the maternity leave, employers might recruit new employees to replace them and this might damage for women future career prospects (Gill Kirton Anne-marie Greene, 2005). But on the other hand, according to the current issues, it argued that the gender equality of work life balance has changed in the 20 century. It suggested that there are significant increase of men are contributing to childcare rather than following by the tradition that women should stay at home and look after the children (Maron, 2009). By looking at the current issue, it can be seen that it is difficult to manage work and family life as employees (men and women) need to take a parental role of looking after children as well. Therefore, the government set some regulations to protect them. For instance, they promoted the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. The Family and Medical Leave Act 1993 has created an huge impact towards the organizations. The organization has to provide at least 12 weeks leave in a year for their birth, individuals or family illness. This act enable employees to look after the sick children or elderly etc (Judith  M. Nixon). Case Study There are few case studies with real organizational examples which suggested the management of work life balance in the contemporary organizations. Also, t covers different aspects of the practice in work life balance and stated the current diversify management style in different countries. One of the case study is Motorola which is a company founded in 1928 U. S. It delivers network communications and internet to individuals, companies and homes. Motorola operates in a global environment where their competitive advantage is to operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Due to this competitive advantage, Motorola has to offer flexible working time to employees. It becomes a very important issue to Motorola for employees having an equal time split and balancing between work and life time as diversity management aims to support employees with equal opportunity and forecasting a happy working environment. It suggested that there is change in Motorola from the past where full time workers work seven 12-hour shift in two week period and 2 full time workers share the job together and split their working hours equally. One of the employee called Mary McDonald who is a single parent with two children applied the job and she claimed that job sharing and working hours are very flexible, therefore this works very well with her family life while she is looking after two children. Motorola provides her a flexible working arrangements and work-life balance, therefore it increases her motivation and satisfaction at work by providing positive workplace environment according to the aim of diversity management (Gill Maxwell, 2008). In addition, Motorola stated that most of the job sharing workers are women where most of them are unable to work as a full time workers according to their family life and commitments. However, Motorola offers an alternative opportunities for women who wants to maintain a balance between work and family life. This arrangement has created an advantage for women especially when women return work after their maternity leave which is easier for them to catch up their work and they have enough time to look after children which reduce the levels of stress at their work. Motorolas flexible working arrangements has introduced new work life balance initiatives in contemporary organizations. Another case study is about IKEA which is a well-know home furnishing retailer which sells home furniture with a low prices. It is a global company with more than 150 stores distributed all over the world. The human resources policies relies at the heart of the IKEAs strategy as they believe the success of an organizations depends on the commitment of the employees, therefore IKEA emphasis heavily on the equality and working arrangements to the employees (Gill Maxwell, 2008). According to the IKEAs management style, it focuses heavily on the family life, leisure activities and healthy environment. This recognizes the importance of work life balance. For instance, IKEA offers a coffee breaks to workers for interaction in a positive environment. More importantly, IKEA provides flexible career break arrangements such as marriage leave, parental leave, childcare leave or moving house leave etc. This enable workers to deal with their own or family problems. Furthermore, IKEA introduced health promotion to employees which allow employees to have a healthy working time. IKEA offers foot care and massage for them during their working time. It provides physical health care to employees as the managers of IKEA thought workers are very tired of often working with their foot. This is a totally new work life balance initiatives in organizations where they offer flexible hours of work and arrangements but also physical health care. Therefore, employees are motivated and pleasant for working in the positive working environment. As I mentioned above, organizations offer fitness and health programs to workers while they are stressed at work. This has created a positive impact on workers and the organization and reinforced the importance of work life balance programs as more people aware with this issue. It is important to note that diversity managers are required to provide a range of work life balance programs to employees in order to foster a pleasant working environment (wisegeek). After discussing the real organizational examples, it shows that WLB creates a positive impact on organizations and performance as well as becoming more effective of managing employees flexibility (Nick Bloom, Tobias Kretschmer, 2009). This has enlightened and developed the practice of diversity management where it can be seen that organizations are continuing developing the issue of work life balance in terms of being ethical and equality. Organizations are getting more familiar with the practice of work life balance but there are still some problems should be highlighted in the current diversity management. Problems Many organizations perceived work life balance could be seen as a competitive advantage as providing flexible working arrangement can enhance individuals performance which affects the whole company because employees are motivated and feel being valued in the organization such as IKEA offer foot massage for employees and it can be seen as an competitive advantage. But, it could be argued that what is meant by good practices of work life balance in organizations as it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of the appropriate work life balance to employees. On the other hand, gender has been considered a major issue of work life balance, many people still believe on the assumptions of women are the identity as housewives and women careers would directly affect the commitments and performance at work. This is the major issue that organizations need to take into account in developing diversity management. Organizations could provide more working opportunities to women and prove that even though they stop working during their pregnancy it doesnt affect much to the organizations as nowadays women are working harder compare to the past. For instance, Motorola offers job sharing which benefits and support women even they are pregnant. In addition, providing flexible work arrangement or job sharing could easily lead to conflicts because people could easily mixed up their schedules and responsibilities with the others. This might create a conflict and inconvenience to organizations. Therefore, organizations should take into account that they should provide a clear working arrangement between workers. Recommendations After highlighted the problems of work life balance and based on the organizational examples I have suggested, I recommend that manager should be more diversified in order to deal with different problems because managing flexibility may cause a lot of conflicts or misunderstanding, therefore, managers should allocated a clear working schedules or responsibilities to employees so workers understand what they are doing and it will increase the working efficiency. Providing a good communication to employees may ensure the job sharing responsibilities and break schemes. In the case of Motorola, offering a split time worker between workers, the managers should set out a clear schedule for the workers in terms of splitting time and responsibilities equally to avoid any conflicts. Also, managers should provide support to employees while employees are having maternity or sick leave etc, such as providing a paid sick leave because employees tend to fear of being discriminated or dismissal when they report their illness, therefore, a diversity manager should provide a paid sick leave to support them and ensure they wont be discriminated (Xenia Scheil-Adlung Lydia Sander, 2010). In addition, managers should provide more support to woman during their maternity leave such as telecommuting to ensure they can catch up their work easily when they back to work in terms of equity. Conclusions In conclusion, after discussing the assumptions and current issues of work life balance as well as the problems highlighted, it suggested that it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of work life balance. It all depends on the nature of the job due to the job difficulties and the levels of stress from the work itself. Also, it relies on the employees itself of managing a balance between work and family life and their own experiences where organizations have no control over. From an organizational view, to manage work life balance effectively at the workplace, they can promote a message to employees the importance of work and life and prevent any conflicts between work and non-wok interaction if they want to build up a good employees relations with the organization (J. Rantanen U. Kinnunen, 2011). Organizations are still seeking to develop the diversity management, therefore, it is important to provide a positive workplace environment for employees as well as the equality. However, living in a diversified culture, every organizations should assist employees to maintain a good balance of work and family life but it requires the co-operation between managers and employees in order to provide a positive workplace environment by making use of the existing policies.