Introduction Work-Life Balance is an area of interest to both researchers and organizations who strive to understand the various facets of work, life and work-life. For an individual and society today, balance is of paramount interest affected by the personality aspects, family aspects, support scenario, organizational culture and the existence of policies and their usage at the organizational level. The changing aspirations of individuals with time, across economies have made this a global issue . In India, the rapid urbanization in major cities and the manner in which individuals are embracing a 24*7 work environment, makes it crucial to understand Work-Life balance in a holistic and contextual manner. The efforts of the government and the organization along with the individual drive determines how the scales tilt in this strive for Work-Life balance. Literature Review The gamut of literature shows that Work-Life balance has been studied across countries and industries. Work-Life balance as an issue has been explored from both an organizational and individual perspective. The impact of demographic aspects like gender, age, education, marital status, family type, children and care taking responsibility have been delineated, along with personality aspects like leadership and motivation. Support has been delved into, both at family level and at organizational level; coupled with the impact of mentoring and networking. Researchers have worked towards understanding policies at the organizational level that help an individual attain Work-Life balance, along with individual philosophy and family culture. Work-Life balance attained by an individual is exhibited in their behavior towards their team and organization; the loyalty and commitment exhibited by them. It is evident in the satisfaction they experience and their positive attitude towards work. The positive impact on their families is also evident, in terms of the time they are able to spend with their family. While the literature looks at various aspects, the view is an isolated one and there is a need for a holistic and multi-construct understanding of Work-Life Balance. Research Objectives and Methodology The ensuing gaps from literature lead to the objectives of the study. The specific objectives of the study are: 1 To evolve and validate a multi-construct model of Work-Life Balance (WLB) in the Indian Context 2 To identify and relate organizational, individual and family factors affecting WLB. 3 To critically analyze the role of gender, organizational policies, self efficacy and organization type in understanding work-life issues 4. To suggest ways and means of mitigating WLB in the Indian context. The various variables in the study were identified and the information framework was put in place. The preliminary study and the pilot study helped to finalise the questionnaire for the main study. The questionnaire comprised of two sections: Part B: My Perceptions of My Home and Work. Random sampling, coupled with the snowballing technique was the sampling technique adopted. The questionnaires were mostly administered in a face to face format; and in some cases, it was done over email as the respondents found that more convenient. The total sample of the study was 426 respondents 248 from public organizations, 118 from private organizations and 60 from entrepreneurial organizations. The data thus collected was subjected to statistical analyses. Major Findings First part of the analysis was carried out to establish the validity and the reliability of the questionnaire. This was done through factor analysis and by calculating the Cronbach's alpha. The factors analysis shows that the explanatory factors that emerge significant are aspects of culture, leadership and support; along with motivation towards family and work; including aspects of mentoring and networking. The mediating factors that emerge important revolve around aspects of Work-Life issues and impact of conflict; awareness and benefit of organizational policies; the perception of policy usage and individual thought. The output factors that emerge with high scores are the team and organizational engagement, impact of organizational support on work and family; the perception of work, the satisfaction with job and career and the citizenship behaviour exhibited. To understand how different the groups, categorised by age, education, children, marital status, gender, family type, care taking responsibility and the organization type public, private and entrepreneurial, are on the factors; manova and t test was carried out. The groups emerge significantly different in terms of their understanding of organizational culture and involvement in networking. The way they view organizational support and the role of mentoring, how they view family support and responsibilities at home. How confident individuals feel about handling challenges and how satisfied they felt with their jobs and career, also differ between the groups. The next step in analysis involved understanding the experience of Work-Life balance and the individual impact of the explanatory, mediating and interaction factors on the various output factors of team and organizational engagement, the positive impact of policies on family, the perception of work, the job and career satisfaction experienced and the citizenship proactive behavior exhibited by the individual. Apriori models based on literature were developed and regression analysis was carried out. Many of the models emerged insignificant showing that Work as a phenomena cannot be understood through isolated factors. For this, a full model was developed with explanatory, mediating and interaction factors (explanatory*mediating) and their causal impact on the output factors was studied. It was seen that the model for team and organizational engagement emerged the strongest with the factors explaining 69% of the model. The results of the full model showed that different factors had major impacts on different output aspects. It was seen that organizational culture, self efficacy and family values and the motivation towards work, interacting with the existence and awareness of policies have the greatest impact on team and organizational engagement. The support seniors/boss, perceived stress and networking interacting with the usage effect of organizational policies have the greatest impact on organizational policy positive impact on family. Organizational culture, perceived stress and networking interacting with the existence and awareness of organizational factors have the greatest impact on work perception. Job and career satisfaction is impacted the most by the motivation towards work, organizational policy existence, awareness and benefit and organization focus leadership interacting with the usage effect of policies. Finally, it is seen that networking, perceived stress and support from seniors and boss interacting with perceived stress have the greatest impact on citizenship proactive behavior. We thus see that Work Life balance is a multi-dimensional phenomena and its' comprehensive understanding is attained through multiple constructs. Conclusion This study provides a holistic understanding of Work Life Balance and is understood by looking at aspects of organizational culture, leadership, motivation, networking, mentoring, and support factors at both the organizational and the family level. The mediating role of organizational policies their existence, awareness and benefit and the usage effects on an individual; along with the role of self efficacy and family values and individuals' perception of stress becomes important. The experience of Work Life balance is understood through various behaviors exhibited team and organizational engagement shown by the individual, the positive impact of policies on family, the perception of work, the job and career satisfaction experienced and the citizenship proactive behavior exhibited by the individual. The comparison across groups and organization types public, private and entrepreneurial, show the importance of individual thought in mitigating Work Life issues. This study makes contributions at the theoretical level by developing and validating a multi-construct model for WLB. The study highlights the importance of organizational culture, organizational policies and the role of mentoring and networking that the organizations and managers need to delve into. This study entails scope in terms of extension of the model across organizations and cities in India and the development of a WLB measurement scale.

Studien syftade till att undersöka hur arbetstagare hanterar balansen mellan arbetsliv och privatliv samt hur deras gränsdragning sker. Med arbetstagare genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visade att den gränsdragning som fungerade bäst är att ha tydlig gräns mellan arbetsliv och privatliv. Flextid i form av att styra sin arbetstid och stöd från arbetsgivare och familj var faktorer som bidrog mest till att arbetstagarna kunde nå balans. Faktorer som hindrade balansen mest var arbetsbelastning, tillgänglighet utanför arbetstid och tid. Resultatet analyserades sedan utifrån en modell om work-life balance och en teori om gränsdragning. Därefter följer en diskussion kring resultatet utifrån studiens bakgrund, teori, tidigare forskning och egna slutsatser. I slutsatsen belystes vikten av att organisationer och arbetstagare behöver bli medvetna om vad de kan göra för att skapa förutsättningar för god balans, för att arbetstagarna ska kunna utvecklas.

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Research indicates that supportive supervision, particularly work-family specific supervision, is key to reducing employees' work-family conflict (Allen, 2001; Eby et al., 2005; Thomas & Ganster, 1995). However, little research has examined the factors that contribute to supervisors' willingness or ability to provide this support. This study examined how supervisor job stress and perceptions of work-family climate influenced employee ratings of Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (FSSB) using previously-collected data from a mid-western grocery chain. It was hypothesized that supervisor job stressors would impact FSSB, supervisor perception of work-family climate would impact FSSB, and the interaction of stressors and climate would impact FSSB. None of the hypotheses were supported. Potential explanations and directions for future research are discussed.

A quantitative study on the work phones effects on a group of individuals in Swedens work life balance

Work-life balance is a concept that has attracted attention for several years. It is relevant as people attempt to apportion time to different demands they face from both work and life. The multiplicity of demands that individuals have can increase this challenge as people strive to incorporate many more activities into lives. The focus of current literature regarding work-life balance tends to focus on how employees can be provided with opportunities by their organisations for achieving this elusive balance. Research has been conducted into various strategies that organisations have implemented to facilitate their employees’ lifestyle options. Furthermore, studies have examined the role of organisational initiatives and staff retention. However, many of the organisations providing these opportunities for employees have substantial resources, thereby enabling the provision of these initiatives. Previous empirical research has examined work-life balance in depth. However, there are aspects that call for further attention. In particular, the management of this concept within small business requires further research. Australia has a large number of small businesses, which comprise a large proportion of the labour force and contribute significantly the national economy. The broad category of small business includes different business models, and two of these models are the independent and the franchised business. The success of these models has been demonstrated by their rapid growth in the Australian economy. As one of the reasons most commonly cited for entering into a small business is to regain the control over one’s life and work-life balance, the purpose of this research is to investigate work-life balance from the perspective of small business owners. Examination of different research issues considering the perception of work-life balance, the impact of control, of owning a small business, and the choice of business model on work-life balance is undertaken. The research considers how small business owners perceive the concept of work-life balance, and whether it is regarded as important to them. This research seeks to understand how work-life balance is viewed differently for small business owners. The concept of control requires examination to clarify how control and work-life balance relate to each other. Due to the popularity of franchising in the small business sector, a comparison of the concept of work-life balance by both franchised and independent small business owners is warranted...

<p>Det här är en undersökning om holländares val att flytta till Värmland och att starta eget företag sett utifrån ett work-life balance perspektiv. De teorier som har använts är främst work-life balance teorin men även teorier som behandlar flexibilitet, arbete och att starta eget företag återfinns. Inom work-life balance går jag igenom hur olika typer av förändringar i samhället har påverkat och påverkar balansen mellan arbete och fritid. Det tas även upp olika typer av beslut och gensvar som individen kan ta och göra för att motverka obalansen, men dessa individuella beslut är på något sätt relaterade till andra, som till exempel, kommunens gensvar.</p><p>Jag har använt mig av kvalitativ metod där jag intervjuat nio respondenter i min undersökning. I analys och resultat kapitlet redogör jag för mina upptäckter utifrån den analys jag gjort av mina respondenters berättelser och kopplar det till de teorier jag använt mig av. I analysen återfinns tid och rum som huvudbegrepp men dessa två begrepp är relaterade till arbete, stress, fritid och familj. Det visar sig att deras val att flytta kan förklaras och förstås utifrån ett work-life balance perspektiv men inte bara på grund av tiden som faktor. Rummets betydelse var något nytt som framkom och var av stor vikt för mina respondenters syn på sitt nya liv här. </p>

Det här är en undersökning om holländares val att flytta till Värmland och att starta eget företag sett utifrån ett work-life balance perspektiv. De teorier som har använts är främst work-life balance teorin men även teorier som behandlar flexibilitet, arbete och att starta eget företag återfinns. Inom work-life balance går jag igenom hur olika typer av förändringar i samhället har påverkat och påverkar balansen mellan arbete och fritid. Det tas även upp olika typer av beslut och gensvar som individen kan ta och göra för att motverka obalansen, men dessa individuella beslut är på något sätt relaterade till andra, som till exempel, kommunens gensvar. Jag har använt mig av kvalitativ metod där jag intervjuat nio respondenter i min undersökning. I analys och resultat kapitlet redogör jag för mina upptäckter utifrån den analys jag gjort av mina respondenters berättelser och kopplar det till de teorier jag använt mig av. I analysen återfinns tid och rum som huvudbegrepp men dessa två begrepp är relaterade till arbete, stress, fritid och familj. Det visar sig att deras val att flytta kan förklaras och förstås utifrån ett work-life balance perspektiv men inte bara på grund av tiden som faktor. Rummets betydelse var något nytt som framkom och var av stor vikt för mina respondenters syn på sitt nya liv här.

The sport industry is a popular and competitive career field with employees drawn to work in a dynamic, yet often untraditional work environment. The challenge of achieving work-life balance has received considerable study in sport, as employees often find a conflict in balancing their job and other life responsibilities, such as family (work-family conflict) and outside activities. This study introduces a new area of potential conflict (work-extracurricular conflict), the outside activities that may be neglected due to a job, which may impact employees. This area may be especially pertinent to a younger segment of the industry which has not been studied, graduate assistants who work in athletic departments while continuing their education. The purpose of this exploratory study was to assess work-life balance in graduate assistants (GAs) and their supervisors by comparing their levels of work-family conflict, work-extracurricular conflict, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Secondly, the study introduced the work-extracurricular conflict construct. Data were collected from GAs and supervisors (N = 47) working in five Division I university athletic departments. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA revealed significant differences between GAs’ and supervisors’ job satisfaction, while determining they did not differ on work-family conflict, work-extracurricular conflict and life satisfaction levels. They reported moderate levels of family and extracurricular conflict. Sport managers can utilize this information to better understand the work-life balance of GAs and establish dialogue on ways to improve GAs experience in hopes of keeping these sport professionals in the industry long-term.