International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) 118

ISSN : 2581-9925, Volume 01, No. 02, April - June, 2019, pp.118-128

WORK LIFE BALANCE OF EMPLOYEES:

THEORETICAL CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Neelima Gokhroo
Dr. Bhawani Shankar Sharma

ABSTRACT

Work-life balance aims at ensuring that the employees of an organization are able to divide their
personal and professional life in a harmonious manner. The management of an organization needs to
understand that developing and implementing policies under work-life balance, is a necessity in today’s
scenario in order to increase productivity, enhancing education standards as well as talent retention. In
today’s world, most of the organizations have started introducing various policies in order to create a
conducive working environment by the means of flexible working hours and job sharing responsibilities,
which further leads to better work culture, effectiveness and organizational productivity.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Keywords: Worklife Balance, Emotional Intelligence, Workalcohalic, Conflict, Attitude.
____________________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION
An employee is also a human resource, which is basically a competitive advantage for
any organization, as they are required to fulfil their objectives, mission and vision
(Chenoweth, 2014). Apart from being an employee, an individual is also the life of a family,
completing various roles on day to day basis, carrying out husbandly/wifely duties and
possesses interests and hobbies outside work (Acas, 2015; Kaur, 2013).
Women employees have their own challenges to deal with, both in personal and
professional arena, as they have to juggle between different roles in personal domain where
concept of responsibility sharing does not exist with their spouses and family members. Other
factors like timings, gender biasness, promotion barriers and other day-to-day professional life
issues keep testing them to maintain their work life balance.


Research Scholar, Department of Business Administration, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan,
India.

Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur,
Rajasthan, India.
Neelima Gokhroo & Dr. Bhawani Shankar Sharma: Work Life Balance of Employees: Theoretical..... 119

Factors affecting work life balance of female employees

Personal domain factors Professional domain factor
General factors
Marital status, Number of Peer support, Leave policy, Performance appraisal,
dependents, Type of family Promotion, Job security, Type of leadership, Size of
structure, Gender, Life stage, organization, Placement pressure, Publicity pressure,
Qualification, Personality trait, Remuneration policy, Faculty development
Experience, Self-expectations, opportunities, Career growth, Training, Communication,
Psychological factors Managerial Support, Faculty participation in decision
making ,Organizational culture, Working conditions,
Technical know- how, Working hours, Weekly load of
Teaching, Nature of employment: Permanent/
Temporary, Working hours, Domain of Teaching
Specific factors
Family support, Spouse Gender bias, Conveyance facility, Moral and ethical
support, Social norms, Attitude issues, Child care policy
of relatives
WORK-LIFE BALANCE – CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The concept of Work-life Balance i.e. WLB, backs the efforts of the employees to divide
their time and energy between work, family and the other aspects of their lives. In recent
years, WLB has occupied a significant role in the higher education sector – research and
academia, enabling employees or faculties to pay attention towards personal, societal and
professional aspects of their lives as well. Organisations in general have realised that the there
is a need to plan and promote work life balance policies for increasing both qualitative and
quantitative productivity. The steps taken by organisations to do so include – job sharing,
flexible working hours, family events at work etc. This has been done so, to bridge the gaps
between professional, personal and social lives of the faculties with an aim to improve
organizational work culture and effectiveness.
Coser (1974) had said that, “Work–life balance is the maintenance of a balance
between responsibilities at work and at home. Work and family have increasingly become
antagonist spheres, equally greedy of energy and time and responsible for work–family
conflict.”
Japan, is considered as one of the most hard working country and the culture of the
country is work oriented. But this has led serious issue for the majority of the citizens, as their
lives are revolving only around their professional life. Japan as on date has the highest
working hours amounting to 80 hours overtime in a month which goes unpaid to the
employees. Issues persistent in the country are – low birth rate, lonely lifestyle of the citizens,
overburdened with work and sleeplessness epidemic. Hence, the country is trying its best to
adopt work-life balance policies in order to improve the situation of its citizens (The Guardian
– 2019).
120 International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) - April - June, 2019

Quality of work life as proposed by Tapomoy Deb (2016), as a solution to address the
work-life imbalance issues, follow the objectives - to attract and retain talent, to prevent stress
and burnout, to increase job satisfaction, quality and productivity through higher job
satisfaction and to balance personal/family and work related demands on an individual
employee for maintaining optimum levels of personal effectiveness. It is further proposed, that
if the quality of life could be improved further, it shall benefit and uplift the employees, the
organization and the society collectively.

INTER ROLE CONFLICT

Work Life Balance is conflicted because of the inter-role conflicts- [Link]-Family
Conflict and [Link]-Work Conflict. Work-Family Conflict can be defined as the inter-
role conflict where few responsibilities under work and family domains are not
compatible and have a negative influence over employee at work front, e.g. low job
satisfaction, negative attitude, being late for work, repetitive mistakes, resistance to
change. Whereas, Family-Work Conflict concludes where family and work responsibilities
are not compatible, which negatively impacts the home front, e.g. conflict within the
family, lower life satisfaction.
Gerson, Katherine (2011) cited that young men have been demanding balance between
paid work and personal attachments without being browbeaten at work, whereas compared to
women, traditional stereotypes are starting to lessen in regard with responsibilities for child
care. Even though, employers now are offering various work-life balance opportunities to help
their employees, it is turning out to be a catch 22 situation for women employees. The reason
behind it is, that even though the option is available, it is seen as occupational dead end as
they do not want to be marginalized. Galinsky and Stein (1990) have described that main
problem being faced by employed women include looking after children, and elders, long
work hours, transfers and job demands etc.
With building pressures from organisations, it becomes difficult for a woman to
maintain work life balance and they end up living the lives of a workaholic (Yanchus, et.
al, 2016).The term “workaholic” refers to an individual becoming completely devoted
towards his work which can eventually become a matter of risk towards their health,
personal happiness, interpersonal relationships and social functioning in general (Brady,
et. al. 2008).
Neelima Gokhroo & Dr. Bhawani Shankar Sharma: Work Life Balance of Employees: Theoretical..... 121

In current job market scenario, organizational diversity being at its peak, labour
markets have been actively involving women, dual career couples, single parents and more
workers are involved in sharing responsibilities of others as well as workers beyond their
traditional retirement age (Subramaniam, et. al, 2012, Kaur, 2013). For an organization to be
diverse, it is required to plan and prepare multiple roles and multiple demands from an
individual to achieve the satisfaction by devising strategies and understanding other’s roles
from every aspect. With growing technologies, the organizations are also attempting to
provide various opportunities for their employees to engage in work as per their ease of time
and place, as the employer and employee are able to access each other easily.
As per Guein, 2015, technology has also been helpful in creating a workplace for
employees virtually keeping all modes of communication open at all times and maintain
connectivity through various channels etc. Though this helps an employer to access their
employees anywhere at any given time, the act is considered unlawful as it hinders the
privacy of an individual and invades his/her personal space. By achieving a balance in
personal and professional life, an employee can enhance his performance and productivity at
work. An organization that cares for their employees, works towards devising strategies,
policies, guidelines or certain code of conduct within the organisation, in order to ensure
employee sustainability and productivity (Raisinghanil and Goswami, 2014). Taking an
example of Price Waterhouse Cooper in regard with their work-life balance policies, they have
been successful in increasing the job satisfaction levels among their employees by 30% . It is
because of the happiness factor of employees at the work place, they have been able to create a
happier space at home as their emotional quotient is directly or indirectly related to their
satisfaction levels at their work space. Any organisation which is committed towards
providing a balanced working condition to its employees enables them to achieve work life
balance as well as business needs.
122 International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) - April - June, 2019

DETERMINANTS AND FACTORS OF WLB

The key determinants that contribute towards work life balance are – individual,
organisational and societal factors.
Individual Factors Organisational Factors Societal Factors
Personality The work arrangement Return on Investment
Well-being Work Life Policies & Programs Demography
Emotional intelligence Segregation of Duties Achieving Work Life Balance
Job Demand-Resources Model
Role Related Factors
Career Management

THE INDIVIDUAL FACTOR

Poulose & Sudarsan (2014) had proposed three categories under individual factors
personality, well-being and emotional intelligence.
PERSONALITY
Human Resource professionals use Big Five Model of personality to determine the
talent acquisition and placement, under which an individual’s personality traits are assessed
in order to sum up their overall personality. As per a survey conducted by Kaur in 2013, it was
found that correlation between work life balance and factor like satisfaction in life, openness
dimension, extrovert behaviour, had a positive relationship. Similar result was processed by
Priyadharshini & Wesley (2015), after surveying 205 IT employees wherein personality factors
significantly affect the work life programs and in predicting work life conflict. But it is to be
noted that neurotic dimension has no co-relation with work life balance. The dimensions taken
into account under personality traits are:
 Openness: open minded, ready for new things or new experiences, intelligence,
imaginative, creative on and have wide variety of interest.
 Conscientiousness: reliable and prompt, goal oriented, neat and orderliness, high
responsibility factor and hardworking.
 Extroversion: very energetic, possess specific plan on their duty, easy -going, get
motivated from the surrounding environment and enthusiastic.
 Agreeableness: friendly and compassionate, easy to cooperate, forgiving, kind and
trustworthy
 Neuroticism: more inclined towards negative emotions, moody, tensed and always
worried.
EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING
It is directly related to an employee’s physical, psychological and emotional well-
being. As per World Health Organisation (WHO), an employee’s well-being is correlated with
his/her mental health which they in their own capacity have the power to cope up with the
normal stresses of life in order to work productively and contribute to their respective
communities (MacLeod & Clarke, 2017).
Any conflict in work-life balance affects an individual’s health significantly, as it leads
to stress and poor mental as well as physical health, which further leads to low morale,
emotional exhaustion, less physical activity, higher levels of stress, sadness, fatigue,
depression and eventually leading towards drug and alcohol abuse (Delecta, 2011). It is
Neelima Gokhroo & Dr. Bhawani Shankar Sharma: Work Life Balance of Employees: Theoretical..... 123

argued by Cooper (2014), that high psychological well-being leads to positive outcomes in an
individual such as commitment, high morale and better health which further leads to an
improved organisational performance and productivity.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
As defined by Robbins & Judge (2012),“Emotional intelligence is an ability of an
individual to recognize feelings and understanding behaviour in adapting to his surrounding
situations involving emotions, enabling him/her to think, respond and react accordingly.”
Through emotional intelligence, one is able to measure self-awareness, self-management,
maintain interpersonal relationships and recognize emotions. It enables an individual to under
people and manages emotional cues as well as uses it to make a decision and act accordingly.
As per a study conducted by Kumar & Rajaram (2012), correlation between emotional
intelligence and work life balance was found among employees of an educational institution.
With a difference between teaching and non-teaching staff, 60% of the teachers (professional
level) were more competent in balancing their needs as well as responsibilities in regard with
corporate responsibilities, learning process, research work guiding, project exam management,
student counselling etc and also towards their social obligations as well as duties towards their
family and work environment during working hours.
THE ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS
There are various factors within an organisation which affect the work life balance as
the demands of the organisation keeps changing as per the changing needs of its external as
well as internal environment. External environment demands such as political, economic,
social, technological, legal forces contribute towards intense pressure and organizational
restructuring (Luthan & Doh, 2012). With such changes, it becomes important for an
organisation to align their employees to these changes and continue the process of working
towards achieving the goals and targets of the organization. The various work life conflicts
correlate with organizational and individual outcomes (Raisinghanil and Goswami, 2014). If
the outcomes are adverse and not in favour of the organization, it leads to absenteeism,
increased managerial stress, low productivity and reduced job satisfaction.
THE WORK ARRANGEMENT
By providing flexible working hours, an organisation enables employees to have their
own time and the liberty to work as per their ease. Even though flexible work arrangement
provides an alternative to the traditional 9-5 working hours, employees try to skew in various
roles even in the flexible hours in order to maintain work-life balance.
WORK LIFE POLICIES AND PROGRAM
In order to maintain and sustain competitive advantage of an organisation, it is vital
that the organization is willing to hear the needs of their employees and adhere to the need for
quality work-life balance. Hence, it becomes important for an organization to strategize and
implement work life policies and programs for their employees, for their own benefit in the
long run (Azlinzuraini et al, 2014). In implementing work life balance policies, an organization
should raise questions like:
124 International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) - April - June, 2019

 Is the organisation ready for work-life initiatives?

 Is the culture shift required?
 Will it benefit the organisation and its employees?
 Will it be cost effective for the organisation?
 Will the environment be able to sustain the changes?
It has been revealed through various studies that work-life benefit programs have
brought in greater commitment, less attrition and less work-family conflicts. And it has also
seen a positive shift in working attitudes of employees and perceived managerial support.
SEGREGATION OF DUTIES
According to Gramling (2010), segregation of duties is the basic key for internal
control and the most difficult task to accomplish in an organisation. Segregation and
delegation of duties, in nutshell controls the entire work-force of an organisation and that also
lets their employees know their role and importance in their environment. Clear demarcation
of responsibilities and duties provides employees with a sense of belongingness and holds
them accountable for the responsibilities adhered to them.
JOB DEMAND-RESOURCES MODEL
The model is used to determine employee burnout and employee engagement as it
describes the assumptions of every occupation in regard with employee well-being. The model
classifies the work environment into two categories – Job Demand and Job Resources. Job
Demand affect the employee’s mental and physical health which take place due to the
struggling effort to meet job demands and skills towards achieving organisational goals. Job
Resources, on the other hand relates to individual motivation clubbed with functional
management through social support and performance feedback. Job resources are also related
to aspects like job security, role clarity, working environment and combating negative effects
of job demands. With higher job demand and lower job resources, it is bound to result in job
strain, demotivated employees, burnout and other negative aspects affecting the employees
mentally, physically and spiritually.
Neelima Gokhroo & Dr. Bhawani Shankar Sharma: Work Life Balance of Employees: Theoretical..... 125

Imbalance in job demand and job resource will significantly affect the work
engagement of an employee which will further result in burnout, whereas high job demands
and high job resources shall have lesser consequences in terms of burnout stages as well as
create positive work outcomes. Even with jobs high in demand and low in necessary job
resources, shall result in burnout. Hence, it is vital for a balance to be maintained between job
demand and job resource (Yanchus, 2013).
ROLE RELATED FACTORS
Role overload and role ambiguity predict employee’s strain over-time but not role
conflicts. Role overload exists when expectations towards job roles are greater than the
individual’s capabilities and motivation to perform the given task. Role ambiguity is related to
an individual’s lack of clarity, authority, knowledge towards their task and inappropriate role
expectation and demand from the same creates role conflict. Job demands will encourage an
employee, to put an effort in order to take a challenging task as long it is within his/her
capabilities and that can lead to increase in productivity. In case the situation is reversed, it
will leave the employee under stress/strain which occurs mainly because of fatigue and
incompetency that results from pressure to comply with the set of demands.
CAREER MANAGEMENT
Married women at professional level decide to slow down their career movement,
even if an organisation provides the work life practise as their concerns shift after child-birth,
and constant worry of the infant healthcare or childcare bothers them (Subramaniam et al,
2015).Employee engagement through rewards system, career growth prospects, promotions,
increments and other benefits provide a systematic career management to the employees.
THE SOCIETAL FACTOR
An organizational environment is referred to as the societal factor in work life balance,
which usually compatible with the culture of the country of functioning of the organisation.
Every region has a different take on work life balance practices i.e. work life balance practices
between United States and European Union will vary, as their cultural differences shall focus
on different requirements and agendas to achieve.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Every policy or a strategy devised by an organisation is done keeping return on
investment in mind, be it financially or as an environmental benefit for the organisation. Work
life balance practice is done as an investment towards their employees, in order to maintain
their heightened productivity levels by showing that company cares. It is a basic method to
reduce attrition rate and increase job engagement of the employees (Joshi, et. al, 2002).
DEMOGRAPHY
According to Dike (2013) ,labour force in today’s market is diverse and diversity of
employees needs to be managed accordingly by the organization. The workforce diversity
with diverse demands especially on achieving satisfactory work-life roles, organizations need
to be more passionate in regard with implementation of the quality of work life balance
programs.
126 International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) - April - June, 2019

Lavanya & Thangavel, (2014) in their report discussed that older employees used
many dependent policies such as childcare, elder care, paid maternity leave and pension
policies. Many researchers and surveyors have mentioned that married women are more in
need of work life balance programs as compared to men, due to their dual responsibility both
at home and work. It was also discussed that women tend to take spontaneous leaves in order
to fulfil their family demands and needs, hence work life balance programs for them should be
initiated more in order to retain women employees.
ACHIEVING WORK LIFE BALANCE
Time management skills are the key to managing and achieving a balance among all
spheres as every individual has 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, which needs to be allocated
profusely for all the activities – basic need to exercise, sleep, social events, work demands,
family demands and personal pursuits. Hence effective time management can help reduce
stress and bring balance to life in and out of the office. Organizations can help employees by
providing training modules for time management, delegation and help them prioritise their
needs, wants and commitments accordingly.

SHIFTS IN ROLES OF WOMEN IN WORK FORCE

 Phase I: Early years of communal living. Entire family engaged in work for
subsistence.
 Phase II: Pre industrialisation period. Partial segregation of workplace and family life.
 Phase III: Industrial revolution in mid 1800s. Strengthening of segregation of
workplace and family life. Men started to dominate workforce.
 Phase IV: Between late 18th and early 19th century. Separation of work and family
strengthened due to division of labour.
 Phase V: Between early 19th century and 1950. Human strength dependent
technology abetted male domination at workplace.
Neelima Gokhroo & Dr. Bhawani Shankar Sharma: Work Life Balance of Employees: Theoretical..... 127

 Phase VI: Between 1950s and early 1980s. Gender division reversed due to technology.
Introduction of work-life balance facilities.
 Phase VII: Between 1980s and 2008. More women and mothers in global workforce.
Significant growth in work-life balance facilities.
 Phase VIII: Recession - 2008 onwards. Increase in work-family related challenges and
reduction in work-life balance facilities.
FACTORS AFFECTING WORK LIFE BALANCE OF FEMALES
 Demographic profile and biographic profile
 Perception towards hours of work, work logistics and lifestyle choices
 Professional satisfaction and willingness to continue in the present assignment
 Organizational support
 Chance for correction of errors while performing of tasks
 Expectation of facilities at work place and enhancement of skills
 Superior interaction at work
 Facing biological hazards while performing tasks
 Impact of stress on self
 Understanding emotions, role of empathy while performing tasks
 Perception towards different components for WLB policies
CONSEQUENCES OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE
Considering that work life balance holds a pivotal role in any individual as well as
organisation’s periphery, it does possess certain consequences if not managed well. Poor work
life balance is often demonstrated within a range of physical and psychological strains i.e.
depression, anxiety, low self-confidence, insomnia, mental imbalance, burnout, low
productivity, low morale, fatigue, hypertension, high-blood pressure and even increase
relationship fall-out. Another consequence of poor work life balance is that work-family
conflict increases emotional exhaustion and lowers satisfaction levels at job front (Karatepe
and Tekinkus, 2006).
128 International Journal of Education, Modern Management, Applied Science & Social Science (IJEMMASSS) - April - June, 2019

Organisations also face toxic consequences both directly and indirectly due to poor
work life balance among employees. In terms of direct consequences – issues like poor
productivity, accidents at work place increase, lower involvement of employees at work come
into play. Whereas indirect consequences like apathetic attitude towards work, conflicts at
work, poor interpersonal relations and so on come into play which spoil the overall working
environment of the organisation.
Lack of work life balance adversely affects the family domain as well; as it results in
violence, dissatisfaction at home front, child abuse, marital discord, increase divorce rates, low
birth rates, disharmony within the family and neglecting the elderly. All of these lead to
societal malfunctioning and disharmony, hence it becomes important to address the issues of
work life balance in order to maintain balance through all spheres of the environment.
CONCLUSION
The Indian scenario has been altering rapidly due to globalisation, disproportionate
competitiveness and organisational work culture. The work life balance among men and
women working in several organisational organisations have been trying to intensify their
work life balance, which is of great significance on their efficiency, productivity as well as
well-being. Organisations have been effectively focusing on these issues and trying their best
to implement various work life balance policies, in order to provide healthier working
environment for workers in their organisations. Institutions have realised the need for
providing a balanced life to their workforce by understanding that they are not bounded by
the financial security provided by their jobs but with their need of managing various roles
outside the work environment which demands their time and attention at all times. The
productive management of human assets is a challenging task for any organisation as the
current working scenario has changed into a global village and every country is undergoing
changes rapidly. Work life balance has emerged as an apex agenda for various organisations
and employers have become conscious about the need for the same.
REFERENCES
 Bird. J (2006), “Work Life Balance Doing it Right & Avoiding the Pitfalls”,
Employment Relations Today, Vol. 33 No.3.
 Kudachimath B & Rotti A, (2014) “Work Life Balance: Emerging Challenge to HR
Professionals”, International Journal of Multifaceted and Multilingual Studies, Vol. I ,
Issue II.
 Newth.D, (2011), “Stress and Work/Life Balance : Insight for Managers”,
[Link] pp- 31-33.
 Singh .S (2014), “Measuring Work life balance in India”, International Journal of advance
Research in Computer Science and Management Studies, Vol. 2 Issue.5, pp 35-45.
 Visser . F & Williams .L (2006), “Work life Balance: Rhetoric Versus Reality?”,
