Abstract
During the second half of the 20th century, with work demands increasingly encroaching on family and personal time at a faster pace, employers acknowledged the need of work-life balance programmes to facilitate employees maintain a healthy balance between the conflicting demands of their work and personal life. Availability of work-life balance facilities to employees witnessed a phenomenal growth between the late eighties of the 20th century and early years of the 21st century. This growth has been abruptly interrupted by the current economic downturn. Increasing numbers of organisations, in the name of cost cutting, have either curtailed work-life balance facilities or are contemplating to do the same. This paper analyses the emergence of work-life balance discourse, from the days of early communal living till the present day theories, and presents a macro level model of work-life balance. Further, a detailed analysis of proven and anticipated benefits of work-life balance is presented to justify the need of work-life balance initiatives at organisational level during the present economic downturn.
Highlights
Composition of work and family life spheres has significantly changed over a period of time
In the current economic scenario, organisations are hard pressed for higher productivity and can face the recessionary challenges better if their employees are more engaged with work and workplace
Work-life balance of an employee is as important for the employing organisation as it is for individual employee
Summary
Composition of work and family life spheres has significantly changed over a period of time. Today’s working male and female face a broad set of daily challenges which many times create imbalance between their working life and personal/family life. Lack of work-life balance influences working individual’s performance at workplace as well as in personal life. In the current economic scenario, organisations are hard pressed for higher productivity and can face the recessionary challenges better if their employees are more engaged with work and workplace. Organisations, more than ever, need employees with improved work-life balance. An employee with better work-life balance will contribute more meaningfully towards the organisational growth and success. Following section of the paper presents a detailed analysis of the changing composition of work and family life spheres. In the later section of this paper, a detailed analysis of different work-life balance theories and benefits of work-life balance initiatives is presented in this paper to justify further promotion of work-life balance programmes at organisational level
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