Balancing Work And Family Outline

Work-life balance has been a popular topic for employees across all age and occupations for years, representing a rising concern of contemporary human resource management and labor policies. This topic has attracted the attention from the millennium generation, who is stepping into the market and beginning to grow a career. Therefore considering the increasing demand, well-designed workforce planning with diverse scheduling options offered to employees appears to be extra credits for most companies. This research paper aims to communicate the positive effects of four-day workweek, and providing support for why employers should adopt this schedule for employees and themselves through 1) introducing background and history of four-day workweek as a work schedule option and 2) demonstrating benefits of four-day workweek from both employer and employees’ perspectives.

Thirty-eight percent of Americans report some tension between their work and home lives. Today’s highly publicized work/life balance conflicts are multiple, and their nature differs significantly depending on the jobs individuals have and on their family situations. Tensions between work and family life clearly have implications for the well-being of individuals and their children and ramifications for society in general. Yet because the personal needs, desires, motivations, and economic circumstances of Americans are so varied, there appears to be no single way to resolve these tensions, no universal best practices with regard to work/life balance. For example,

“A seminal study of 527 U.S. companies, published in the Academy of Management Journal in 2000, suggests that “organizations with more extensive work-family policies have higher perceived firm-level performance” among their industry peers. These findings accorded with a 2003 study conducted by Michelle Arthur at the University of New Mexico. Examining 130 announcements of family-friendly policies in The Wall Street Journal, Arthur found thst the announcements along significantly improved share prices. In 2011, a study on flexibility in the workplace by Ellen Galinsky, Kelly Sakai, and Tyler Wigton of the Families

Strategies that can be done to support the families are first, “employment training programs that are geared to traditionally higher paying jobs, second, offering employment training programs for jobs that gain higher wages, such as employment in office administration, health services, trades, etc. should be explored” (R.A. Malatest & Associates LTD, 2006. p. 56). In addition, employment and training programs should be increased to better meet the needs of families. Lastly, flexibility in working schedule “organizations should provide formal supports such as family-oriented policies and benefits (e.g. parental leave, ability to take time off and make it up later, flex-time, job sharing, sick child care, and flexible work arrangements), which give employees autonomy over their hours and their absence from work. Second, the organization can supply a number of informal supports such as a family-friendly organizational culture (e.g. flexibility around hours and location of work) and supportive managers, which may help employees, deal with work–life conflict” (Higgings, Dusbury, & Lyons, 2008. p. 31). If these strategies are being implemented, it will help single parent balance their work place and family domain and reduce the risk of unhealthy living among lone-parent families. In addition, it will increase the level of commitment they utilize for the organization and their families in a healthy

In the textbook, Family Life Now, the author, Kelly J. Welch, discusses the ten strategies for family and work balance. Obviously, sometimes the stressors in life and the struggles that work brings can definitely effect people and inhibit a relationship from being successful. According to a 2001 study examining “47 married couples who appear to successfully manage both spheres” (Welch, 409), the 10 major strategies to balance family and work are as follows: “Value Family, Strive for Partnership, Derive Meaning from Work, Maintain Work Boundaries, Be Focused and Productive at Work, Prioritize Family Fun, Take Pride in Dual Earning, Live Simply, Learn to Say “No”, and Value Time” (Welch, 410). Out of these ten strategies, I would like to focus on the seven that I think are the most beneficial and necessary to have in a balanced relationship.

The term ‘family-friendly’ in the context of employment refers to the extent to which individuals feel able to balance their work and family roles and fulfil their duties to spouses, other family members and those to whom the individual has caring responsibilities (Grandey, 2001).

Companies whose organizational design supports its employees’ work-life balance may be more financially successful than those that does otherwise. Many employees consider work-life balance more important than the monetary reward. Employees with a balanced personal and professional life demonstrate a better job performance than those who feel “pressured” in either their personal or professional life. In ideal situations, employer demands and employee’s ideal work situation rarely meet the middle ground, those who do, perceive that they are in control.. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the Healthcare Clinic’s organizational design based on the employees’ work-life balance.

Article talked about how demanding the workload of an athletic administrator is a heavy one and how it is important to learn how to manage time to have a healthy professional and personal balance life. The Article gave ten suggestions on how to balance both. Identifying proprieties, but it has nothing to do work or family, but more with the individual self. The article said that getting enough sleep, food and exercises are vital ingredients in life. Avoiding long days, making a clear and definitive limit on when to say it is time to go home. Establishing an off day, the article gave an example of having Sunday declared family day and to make it clear to staff and parents that you would not be answering any work calls or emails and remind everyone

The preconceived notion that all families and relationships follow traditional roles when it comes to a work and family balance is foolish. Traditional gender roles in a relationship have been women spending the most time at home doing housework and raising kids, while men solely focused on a 9 to 5 job. Times are changing and society is becoming more and more accepting of non-traditional families and relationships. When finding a balance between work and family, gender plays a huge role. Sometimes when looking at specific instances and relationships, it can provide insight that cannot be gained from statistics and charts. The couple I choose to analyze has been together for 20 years, both work the same job, and have 3 kids. They grew

In dealing with OWLB and the LT given this author must first explain the literature and its significance on the OWLB. “In the Taking the Measure of Work,” by Fields (2002), this short excerpt from the book details one of the most profound insights when dealing with the OWLB. “For example, work experienced as demanding or not rewarding may increase the chances of work-family strain, whereas work this more rewarding may reduce the

Family friendly workplaces serve an employee’s needs by allowing them to better balance work and family, and fulfill the needs of the employer by increasing employee satisfaction and productivity, and reducing turnover. The movement towards creating a more family-centered work environment began taking hold in the early 1990’s, and in the 20+ years since, many employers have successfully implemented programs to achieve it. The best and brightest

There are three ways in which participation in multiple roles—often referred to as role accumulation—can produce positive outcomes for individuals. First, work experiences and family experiences can have additive effects on well-being. Research has consistently demonstrated that role accumulation can have beneficial effects on physical and psychological well-being, especially when the roles are of high quality. In addition, satisfaction with work and satisfaction with family have been found to have additive effects on an individual’s happiness, life satisfaction, and perceived quality of life. Such research suggests that individuals who participate in—and are satisfied with—work and family roles experience greater well-being than those who participate in only one of the roles or who are dissatisfied with one or more of their roles. Second, participation in both work and family roles can buffer individuals from distress in one of the roles. For example, research has shown that the relationship between family stressors and impaired well-being is weaker for individuals who have more satisfying, high-quality work experiences. In a similar vein, the relationship between work stress and impaired well-being is attenuated for individuals who have a more satisfying, high-quality family life. These moderator effects suggest that a diverse portfolio of social roles buffers an individual

Supervisor attitudes about employee work/life issues are critical to the success of any work-family initiative and play an integral part of two of the four components of family-friendly workplaces: workplace culture and climate and workplace relationships (see Sloan Work and Family Encyclopedia entries Family-Friendly Workplace and Work-Family Culture). In fact, one might say that supervisor attitudes are hurdles that must be cleared in order for an organization to achieve any level of “family-friendly”.

Work-life balance entails a proper prioritizing between "work" ( primarily career and aspirations ) and "lifestyle" ( pertaining to leisure, health, family and personal development ) activities. Of late, the organizations have come to realize the importance of work-life balance to improve productivity. The research by Kenexa Research Institute (2007) showed that the companies genuinely inclined towards efforts to support work-life balance in an organization indicated much lesser turnover, greater pride in the brand of the organization and the willingness to give the extra bit to work. It also indicated greater job satisfaction and recommendations to peers about

The term work/life Balance has evolved around the idea of balancing work, life and family responsibilities in 1986 in USA. The concepts of work/life balance, work/family balance, work/life conflict, work/family conflict have gained prominence in the recent years due to the changes in the society and the workplace. The role of male as breadwinner is no longer relevant as more and more women are coming out to work and support the family in the best possible way(Charlesworth et al, Rajadhyaksha and Bhatnagar, 2000). With workplaces becoming more gender balanced (Bardeol et al, 2000), the ‘degendered’ workplace, ‘equally cohabited by men and women’ (Zetlin and Whitehouse, 1998), is exploring Work/life Balance and Work/life Conflict as conditions equally applicable to both men and women.