Description:
The concept of ‘work-life balance’ has been researched from three main but largely separate perspectives: Business, individual and society. Much research has attempted to link ‘work-life balance’ initiatives to ‘bottom line’ performance and to make a ‘business case’ for their introduction. Studies that have focused on employees using ‘work-life balance’ policies have shown that the issues around a satisfactory combination of work and private life spheres are still mainly perceived as an individual (female) concern. It is only recently that the issues have been regarded as a phenomenon of broader social significance because the negative consequences of the increased inability of finding a ‘balance’ are becoming more and more obvious in Western societies. In this paper, I argue that the discussion around ‘work-life balance’ has to be more inclusive and needs to integrate the three perspectives to take the debate to a new level. The underlying theme is that of values, attitudes and beliefs that are held in organisations, individuals and societies and of the ways in which their interplay predicts the ability to achieve a personal ‘work-life balance’. It is argued that those values, attitudes and beliefs are innately gendered. By adding a ‘society’ perspective to the equation, in the form of a critical ‘gender lens’, it is possible to detect deeply held and widely shared assumptions within national cultures that create gendered social structures which currently hinder the reconciliation of work and private life spheres.
Description:
The concept of ‘work-life balance’ has been researched from three main but largely separate perspectives: Business, individual and society. Much research has attempted to link ‘work-life balance’ initiatives to ‘bottom line’ performance and to make a ‘business case’ for their introduction. Studies that have focused on employees using ‘work-life balance’ policies have shown that the issues around a satisfactory combination of work and private life spheres are still mainly perceived as an individual (female) concern. It is only recently that the issues have been regarded as a phenomenon of broader social significance because the negative consequences of the increased inability of finding a ‘balance’ are becoming more and more obvious in Western societies. In this paper, I argue that the discussion around ‘work-life balance’ has to be more inclusive and needs to integrate the three perspectives to take the debate to a new level. The underlying theme is that of values, attitudes and beliefs that are held in organisations, individuals and societies and of the ways in which their interplay predicts the ability to achieve a personal ‘work-life balance’. It is argued that those values, attitudes and beliefs are innately gendered. By adding a ‘society’ perspective to the equation, in the form of a critical ‘gender lens’, it is possible to detect deeply held and widely shared assumptions within national cultures that create gendered social structures which currently hinder the reconciliation of work and private life spheres.
Description:
It has been suggested that work-life balance policies are good weather policies, which have been implemented in times of a favourable economic environment and/or high demand for labour but may be withdrawn once those conditions deteriorate. This paper outlines three critical limitations of the management-oriented work-life balance literature. I argue that organisational approaches alone cannot bring about more balanced work-life conditions and that the scope of the current discussion needs to be systematically broadened to incorporate insights provided by research in other disciplines.
Description:
The work-life balance policies provide improved flexibility and control over work hours for employees through part-time works, reduced work hours, averaging hours, job sharing, and tele working. The reshaping of interface between public and private lives has formed the basis for the dominance of capitalism over other economical systems and the survival and reinforcement of patriarchy as a dominant social system. The focus of studies is based on the employees who take advantage of work-life policies and the supervisors who grant those provisions to the employees. The studies state that the managers provide work-life policies to female employees in non-managerial positions for child-rearing purposes. The supervisor clarifies that care for dependants is the only valid reasons to challenge the priority of paid over private life when applying for work-life policies. The work-life balance policies for organized workplace is achieved by redefining the work-place interface.
Description:
Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]
Description:
Work/life balance researchers have documented the low take-up rates of corporate work/life balance policies at the same time as there are reports of persistent work/life pressures. This research aims to provide more comprehensive explanations of the phenomenon of low policy take-up than those currently available in the work/life balance literature which focus on organisational and individual factors. The research project is based on a critical review of the work/life balance literature which focuses on organisational solutions and starts from the assumption that the organisational approach to researching and addressing work/life conflicts is inherently limited, mainly because it does not theorise gender as a social structure and does not take into consideration the social and political context in which work/life arrangements are negotiated but focuses, instead, on individual employees and organisations. I integrated my critical review of the organisational work/life balance literature with concepts in the feminist literature, most importantly the gendered public/private divide, to create an explicit ‘gender lens’ which guides the interpretations of my findings. I applied this gender lens to Habermas’ model of societal evolution to operationalise it as an analytical tool for this research. From this theoretical basis, I designed a comparative research project, using Australia and Sweden as country case studies, which compares the approaches to work/life balance in the two countries. The focus of the analysis is on parental leave as one important example of work/life balance policies. The data for this research includes the parental leave legislation, public documents released by governments and associated bodies as well as national surveys on the take-up of parental leave provisions in both countries. This material is analysed in the light of the conceptual framework. [...]