In this contribution, we investigate the relationships between paid and unpaid work in the lifeworlds of employed informal carers against the background of the Austrian long-term care regime. We pursue a twofold argument: On the one hand, we emphasize that combining paid and unpaid work currently poses serious difficulties for employed family carers in their everyday lives and impacts their current and future financial and social security. On the other hand, we argue that the relationships between employment and informal care are in fact not well understood by the common concepts of "reconciliation" or "work-life balance". These concepts are not able to explain the complexities of employed carers' lived realities and fail to adequately address the fundamental contradiction in the idea of a "reconciliation" of paid and unpaid work.

The current socio-economic climate has induced stress on organisations and employees, since they are expected to double their efforts with limited resources. Organisational culture poses a challenge to employees, especially in a high-pressure environment. A highly competitive environment demands organisations that have the ability to change constantly to ensure sustainability. This has resulted in employees feeling that organisational culture has changed to that of sales culture with disregard for people resulting in a lack of work-life balance (WLB). This study intends to contribute to developing a framework of how organisational culture could support work-life balance. When negative in nature, organisational culture can impact negatively on organisational performance and quality of work-life causing best workers to leave. The problem identified by this study is a poor organisational culture in banking that may discourage work-life balance practices. When an organisations’ primary focus is on sales and less on people, this leads to work-life imbalances. A comprehensive questionnaire was developed for this study to establish the perception of employees towards organisational culture and work-life as an aspect of employee wellness. The total sample was forty-four (44) respondents who are from business and private banking space of the four major banks. The results showed that the type of organisational culture that is prevalent in business and private banking is a combination of market and hierarchy culture. Job satisfaction is also positively correlated to organisational culture. Management must ensure that the workforce is satisfied in order to create a positive culture. A positive organisational culture has a positive influence on employees, attaining the desired work-life balance in business and private banking space.

Orientation: Skills retention is a critical strategic priority for every organisation. Currently, with the global war on talent, organisations are faced with a mammoth challenge on how to retain critical talent. Manager support and work-life balance enhance talent retention strategies. Research purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine if manager support and work-life balance can determine the employee’s intention to stay or leave the organisation. Motivation of the study: Organisations are battling to find factors that contribute to retention of employees. Despite the fact that Human Resource (HR) practitioners are the ones taking care of retention strategies, the needs and factors that cause employees to stay or leave the organisation must be investigated. Research design and methodology: A quantitative research design with a correlation analysis was chosen for this study. Non-probability purposive sampling was used with n = 172. A structured questionnaire was then used to collect data, and an analysis was made on the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Main findings: The findings indicate that manager support and work-life balance are predictors of intention to quit, with a 42% variance. The lack of manager support and work-life balance has an impact on the intention to quit. The higher the manager support is perceived, the less the intention to quit – the same holds true for work-life balance. Practical/managerial implication: The research identified factors that can predict the intention to quit and highlighted insight such as manager support and work-life balance as key issues to consider in increasing retention. Manager support and work-life balance play a pivotal role in employee retention. Furthermore, the research identified HR practitioners as key contributors who take care of these factors in the organisation, yet who also need to be taken care of. The organisation should develop retention strategies, which include HR practitioners as employees who take care of other employees in the organisation. Contribution and value add: The research investigated a unique group that is known to provide retention strategies and that advises line managers on HR processes. Focusing attention on HR practitioners as a matter of study will contribute to organisational retention strategies on what causes them to stay with the organisation. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Human Resource Management / Unrestricted

Studiens utgångspunkt var ett intresse för work-life balance (WLB) och vilka förutsättningar behövs för att nå en balans mellan privat- och arbetsliv. Enligt forskning har antal arbetstimmar en direkt inverkan på individens WLB. Egenföretagare arbetar i genomsnitt fler timmar per vecka än anställda men studier visar att de paradoxalt har högre arbetstillfredsställelse än anställda. Denna studie utgår ifrån tidigare forskning gällande WLB hos egenföretagare. Tidigare forskning beskriver att några av de viktigaste faktorerna för att kunna uppnå WLB är att kontrollera upplägget av sin tid, att vara flexibel i sitt arbete, att själv ha kontrollen samt att nå en jämn fördelning av tiden mellan privat- och arbetsliv. Krav som studien ställde på respondenterna var att de aktivt har valt eget företag som organisationsform efter att tidigare varit heltidsanställda i minst tre år, ha detta som primära inkomstkälla samt inga anställda i företaget. Intresset för studien lades på vilka WLB-faktorer som motiverar till att starta eget samt vilka WLB-faktorer egenföretagare når. Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en fallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att WLB-faktorerna som motiverar individer till att starta eget företag är att få kontroll över sin framtid, beslutsfattande, sina arbetsvillkor och sin tid samt flexibilitet, personlig och karriärmässig utveckling, potential till att tjäna mer pengar och att ett tillfälle gavs. Resultatet visar vidare att den enda WLB-faktorn egenföretagare når är kontroll.

The South African construction industry plays an important role in the economy and overall development of the country, with respect to its total fiscal contribution and the total number of people who are employed. In addition, it is a major contributor to infrastructure development. However, the human resource base within this industry is confronted with a plethora of challenges that are inherent to the construction industry. These manifest themselves in stressful working conditions and long working hours, labour intensive jobs, reduced job security due to job losses and short-term projects, and the feeble health and safety (H&S) standards. Together with a variety of socio-economic and political issues, these challenges form a perceived and broad organisational culture of this industry, which impacts on the industry‟s productivity. As construction management efforts in the development of the human resources base increase, the industry recognises that work-life balance is an important and critical issue in the 21st century. Construction management is a discipline that embodies two interdependent dimensions; the management of the business of construction and the management of projects. Of the latter, the key principles thereof are, as part of a management strategy, planning, organizing, leading, controlling and coordinating projects. To achieve these strategic components, an effective human resource base is required. Work-life balance is therefore a management issue and organizational culture sets a backdrop from which it can be understood. This study focused on the status of the organisational culture of the production establishments that form part of the construction industry and the manner in which it manifests on the work-life balance of the workers. Furthermore, the correlation between work-life balance and individual work performance was examined. An exploratory research approach was adopted and the research technique followed an interview protocol. The main findings demonstrate that the South African construction industry is predominantly a clan culture with minor characteristics of the hierarchy, adhocracy and market cultures. Furthermore, work-life balance is difficult to attain and it influences individual work performance. The main conclusion is that organizational culture in construction firms is imbalanced. Thus, the main recommendation is that the industry adopts a balanced organizational culture and modern human resource practices.

Work design and content is changing. Accompanying this change has been an increasing demand by workers for policy makers to factor the issue of managing workers’ work and life. Work–life balance as a concept has attracted attention for several years as a result of individuals attempting to juggle multiple demands from both work and outside the workplace. The number of multiple demands on individuals usually vary from one person to the other and can increase or decrease at different stages of the person’s life. Essentially, this study reviewed work–life balance literature as espoused from the UK and US schools of thought. The purpose of this research is to explore the extent to which work–life balance policies and practices are a reality for employees and managers in the Nigerian banking sector; to investigate the adoption and use of policies/practices in Nigerian banks and finally to examine the barriers to and reasons for their muted adoption and utilisation of work–life balance policies and practices in Nigerian banks. This research is exploratory in nature and it adopted a mixed-method research technique which allowed for in-depth information from the respondents. The methodological approach used in this study is a qualitative dominant mixed method. A mixed-method approach was used in this study following the traditions of McCarthy, Darcy and Grady (2010); Kalliath and Brough (2008); Halford, (2006) and Beauregard and Henry (2009) to ensure the validity and reliability of the study and also to offer different insights in order to make the final result of the research more robust. A questionnaire and semi structured interview technique was utilised. The study was based on 20 of the 24 banks in the Nigerian banking sector. The total sample size was three hundred and sixty nine (369), of which two hundred and fifteen (215) questionnaires were completed and one hundred and thirty four (134) semi-structured interviews conducted for the bankers while (20) semi structured interviews were conducted for the trade union officials. In order to ensure that the cross-section of relevant respondents was as representative as possible, interviewees were divided into three categories: employees, managers and trade union officials. SPSS was used to analysis the quantitative data, while qualitative data was analysed using NVivo software through the coding of the large quantity of data collected. The themes that emerged from the analysis were used to discuss the research issues in the light of prior research findings from various empirical researches. The quantitative contribution of the study revealed that age was not significant to the bankers as regards issues relating to work life balance. The qualitative findings on the other hand revealed that there is diversity in terms of how both managerial and non-managerial employees understood and experienced WLB initiatives in the Nigerian banking sector. In addition, the study showed that cultural sensitivity affects how WLB is appreciated and utilised. The research also contributes to the spill-over theory by adding age, gender, implementation and benefits of work–life balance. This research has contributed to the body of knowledge on work–life balance issues in the Nigerian banking industry. This study also contributes to the existing literature on connotations of work–life balance by utilising a mixed method approach to explore and explain the different notions of work–life balance and usage of work–life balance initiatives.

Work-life balance is often a discussed topic in most industrialized countries. Many employees are dissatisfied with working hours, high labor intensity and stress at work. A large number of employees would prefer flexible working hours, part-time, which would lead to better opportunities for reconciling work and family life. Individuals are trying to find a balance between professional and personal interests, some are even forced to decide whether to give priority to family and private life. Thesis deals with different work-life balance policies and programs, problems of gender differences and equal opportunities. It examines how the Czech Republic is able to juggle family and work life. It focuses on the status of women in the labour market, including historical context, the individual programs and policies that promote the harmonization of personal and professional sphere. The practical part analyzed the situation in selected countries and the paper is also engaged in various international companies in which I used structured interviews with HR representatives and other staff examined the possibility of work-life balance and the differences between the situation in the Czech affiliates and the mother country.

This Master's Thesis deals with the balance between an entrepreneurship and a personal life. Its main goal is to identify which factors have or don't have an impact on the balance between an entrepreneurship and a personal life. As a part of the theoretical section I defined components of balanced life, the consequences of imbalances and recommendations how to get a life into a balance. Additionally, there are described important parts of entrepreneurship. For my methodological section I established the list of standards how to choose a suitable entrepreneurs for my research as well as research methods (incl. personal interviews with every single entrepreneur) and data evaluation system. This methodological section justifies and determines the way in which the balance is measured. In my practical section I examined a sample of 40 entrepreneurs (majored in restaurant business). During the research I tried to find a statistical significance among groups of entrepreneurs. The research results leads to the conclusion that the balance between an entrepreneurship and a personal life depends on qualitative rather than on quantitative features.

The Master's Thesis on "Analysis of the conditions of use of programs for disadvantaged workers at Česká spořitelna, a.s." deals with harmonizing personal and professional life and support of disadvantaged groups of workers in Česká spořitelna (Czech Savings Bank). The aim is to analyze the level of Česká spořitelna staff's awareness of programs aimed at supporting disadvantaged groups of workers. To find out how they are informed of such programs existence, how they perceive the programs, what their opinions are on the programs and how they use the wide variety of activities and support in their daily lives. The theoretical part defines basic terms and characterizes selected programs. The empirical part takes up resolving the actual research, which is carried via questionnaires and individual interviews. A subsequent analysis of the research outcomes is essential in order to draw conclusions and propose appropriate recommendations in the field of diversity management and work-life balance in Česká spořitelna.

The thesis discusses the problems of reconciling work and family life, focusing on the provision of services in a children's group under Act no. 247/2014 Coll. The theoretical part defines basic concepts relevant to work-life balance and briefly summarizes the options of preschool children care in the Czech Republic. The first part also elaborates the legal formalities of so called children's group. The practical part aims to assess the current situation of a specific children's group, reveals its strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats and on their basis formulates recommendations for its future successful operation. When processing this paper, literature review, description, questionnaire, depth interview and a final analysis and synthesis of knowledge utilized for formulating future proposals are used.