WORK LIFE BALANCE AS AN INFLUENTIAL FACTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCE INTERVENTIONS

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1 WORK LIFE BALANCE AS AN INFLUENTIAL FACTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCE INTERVENTIONS Dr. Sampath Nagi Assistant Professor, School of Management Studies, Marudupandiyar College, Thanjavur , Tamil Nadu, South India. Abstract: Work life balance is a term which is very challenging in this current competitive environment. Organisations are facing a tough time to motivate and retain talents. Organisations which has given importance towards their employees and framing employees centric policies were able to survive in this highly competitive corporate set up. The boom of IT industry has given space for lot for HR Intervention policies for achieving work life balance for the employees. Key Words: Work life Balance, Human Resource Interventions, work conflict, family conflict, workfamily conflict, family-work conflict. 1. Introduction Work life balance is the most reputed term in the present corporate scenario. Balancing both personal and professional life is a major challenge for employees in any industry, irrespective of the gender and age. In this highly competitive world, employees are working hard and show their utmost talents to achieve success and attain a commendable position. HR department plays a major role for employee motivation, improving employees productivity, retention etc. Implementing proper Human Resource Interventions, in an organization takes an organization to the next level of employee motivation, retention, job satisfaction and family satisfaction, and reduces both work conflict and family conflict. In present organizational culture, work life balance acts an influential factor for implementing proper HR intervention policies in the organizations. 1.1 Work Life Balance as an Influential factor for HR Interventions Work life balance means ability of a person to balance his / her personal and professional life, that is ability to balance work life and family life without any conflict. Work life balance has gained importance in the recent past, especially with the boom of IT industry, changing employee perception, changing role of men and women and skill shortages. It is important for any organization to know about the factors that cause the work - family conflict of the employees, which might be work involving in the family life conflict or family involving in the work life conflict. Implementing effective HR intervention policies would help a great extent to understand and revive the employees issues there by helping them to build work life balance. 1.2 Work Life Balance Vs Human Resource Interventions in Information Technology Sector Work life balance has become important for organizations to consider (Tenbrunsel et al.). It is believed that when a management strategy relieves the interference from one domain, the demands of the second domain may be better met and prove to be less disruptive to the first domain (Kirchmeyer and Cohen, 1999). Page No:2054

2 It is with this philosophy and against the changing demographic trends as seen in the changing participation rates for working women and working mothers, the rise in the dual-career couples, the increase in the single-parent families (Goodstein, 1994;, Morgan and Milliken, 1992; Osterman, 1995), organizations have crafted many policies and practices to address the changing needs and demands of employees and help them achieve better work-life balance. Such interventions are typically defined as family-friendly policies or work-life benefits and programs. Notwithstanding the methodological limitations, it can be suggested that employers and HR managers should consider work-life balance as a strategic concern. However implementing HR Interventions for work-life balance without making a normative change in the philosophy and belief of the company is not going to reap positive results (S. Baral and Bhargava, 2011). According to a major Canadian study conducted by Lowe (2005), 1 in 4 employees experience high levels of conflict between work and family, based on work-to-family interference and care-giver strain. As more and more women are joining the IT workforce they have to confront problems like long working hours, lack of job security, lack of supervisor, co-workers, and social support, work demands or overload, work-role conflict, work-role ambiguity, job dissatisfaction. All these factors and extensive use of communication technology have contributed to high level of work-family conflict among the workforce in Information Technology industry. 2. Aim and Need of the study The aim of the study is to find out the Impact of HR interventions on work life balance in the IT industry. The predominant area of research on work and family domain is how work interferes with family and family interferes with work. Rosemary Batt and Monique Valcour (2001), has studied, Human Resource Practices as Predictors of Work-Family Outcomes and Employee Turnover They have covered dual earner white collar employees of US. One logical interpretation of their findings is that while the use of technologies at home (faxes, , home computers, pagers) does afford people greater control in managing work and family demands, it is also disruptive of family life. This finding of the mixed blessings of technology is similar to what researchers have found with respect to telecommuting, which provides flexibility but also allows work to invade family space (Hill et al., 1998). An organization where HR strategies are well aligned with employee needs, and are channeled through effective communication systems, the resultant increase in employee commitment levels, influences improved performance related behavior and reduced labor turnover. 3. Objectives of the study Based on a thorough study of previous literature related to Work Life balance and Human Resource Interventions, the research gap has been identified and Work Life balance and Human Resource Interventions model has been developed with the following objectives and hypotheses. 1. To explore the direction of the relationships between the different types of conflict (work-home interference and home work interference) 2. To measure the effect of each of the selected dimensions of work family conflict and family work conflict on work family conflict and family work conflict respectively. 3. To study the significant difference existing between the perception of women respondents with respect to the selected dimensions of Work demand, Family demand, Work Family Conflict, Family Work Conflict, Job satisfaction, Family Satisfaction, Life Satisfaction. 5. To measure the effect of each of the selected dimensions and its effect on job satisfaction, family satisfaction and life satisfaction. Page No:2055

3 4. Review of Literature Sarah Michelle Hutnek (2016), has studied The Impact of Cultural differences On Human resources policies of Multinational companies. The focus of this study was on the application of Hofstede s theory to two prominent international companies General Electric and Royal Dutch Shell Plc., as well as the impact on their human resources policies due to these international cultural variations. The study revealed that Shell and GE represent just two examples of multinational corporations and the challenges they faced with corporate and national cultural differences. The role Human Resources has played in solving these challenges was critical in developing the image of the organizations as they are today. With the increasing importance of corporate social responsibility and sustainability efforts, these solutions have been focused on the firm and its effective interaction in the global arena. Profitability, as a result, has steadily increased as more and more consumers place a value on responsibly operating organizations. These two companies illustrate what is happening on a much larger scale. As companies seek to improve cultural awareness and operate on a much more ethical and responsible level in every nation they operate in, the international gap is slowly being bridged. It is now much easier for companies to operate in nations much different than the base country. Lakshmi Narayanan and Savarimuthu (2015) have studied, Work-Family Conflict, Family-Work Conflict as Predictors of Work-Life Balance among Women Employees Working in IT industries. The results from the study was it was observed that the work interfered with family more than family interfered with work which has been supported by various studies conducted in this area earlier. There can be many knock on effects for organizations in many areas as a result of employees experiencing work-family conflict. Work family conflict has been found to be associated with decreased employee job satisfaction increased staff turnover and International Conference on Technology and Business Management March 23-25, absenteeism, lower performance and increased job stress levels and intention to leave the organization. Furthermore, it was found that high job involvement, job demands, lack of career opportunities were some of the sources of dissatisfaction which led to high levels of work-family conflict which in turn has contributed to work-life imbalance among women working in IT industries. The IT companies has to address the issue of work family in a more holistic manner, examining both the immediate and long term consequences for employees as well as the organization else women employees who are currently working with the organization might transmit a negative image of the company to their acquaintances and to potential applicants hence the organizations must become fully aware of the issues of work-life balance of women employees and act upon it. An empirical investigation on work-life balance among working mothers: emerging HRM interventions is a study by SahanaMaiya and Bagail (2014).The study covers the Private and public sector covering a sample size of 110. The findings are Work-life balance is a subject which is concerned to almost all the executives in the organization.hr profession s concern for better workplace is to address the worklife balance issues and create a great place to work. The study reveals that in the age group of 25 to 30, employees of both Private and Public sectors enjoy their work and are happy working with/under their managers. This means they are influenced by the motivational factors. On the other side employees are not benefitted by the workshops on work-life balance, they do not get sufficient time to get updated with latest trends in their job. This means organizational support factors affects their work-life balance. Public sector lags behind in terms of providing training or conducting workshop on work-life balance and career advancement programs when compared to Private sector. Page No:2056

4 At the age group of 31 to 35, employees of both Private and Public sectors are affected by the balancing factors, psychological factors and personal factors. While taking up part time job which is part of career advancement factors does influence their work life balance. In the age group of 36 to 40, employees of both sectors are not much affected by the psychological factors and they enjoy their work. But they are affected by career advancement factors. Women above 40 years of age in both sectors are not much affected by personal, balancing and motivational factors but are greatly affected by career advancement and organizational support factors. KarunaJadhav and S.N. Tiwari (2012/13), has done A study Pertaining To HR Interventions For Citizen s Services And Satisfaction With Respect To The Solid Waste Management Department Of Pune Municipal Corporation(PMC) The purpose of this research study is to determine the use of HR Interventions for citizen s services and satisfactions. This research states that there is a perfect correlation between the PMC and HR Interventions. PMC employees are successfully implementing the HR Interventions in order to satisfy the Citizens. Rather PMC Officials frame and implemented the policy through which they are inviting and making citizens involved in spreading Health awareness. In today s highly competitive business environment, management of the organizations on the hunt to improve quality and performance while also lowering costs. To achieve that often means getting more productivity out of each employee. As employees work harder than ever to achieve organization goals, reward systems assume a bigger role in encouraging desired work habits and behaviors. 5. Research Methodology The process of systematically solving a research problem is said to be research methodology. It is a science of studying how research work is done scientifically and the various steps that are generally adopted by a researcher in studying the research problem. The methodology used for the study includes the research design, construction of questionnaire, WFC model, sample design and appropriate tools and techniques used for the analysis. Page No:2057

5 5.1 Analysis Correlations between the Variables of Work Life Balance and Human Resource Interventions H 0: There is no correlation between the variables of work life balance and Human resource interventions Variables WLB PC Goal Setting Sig PC Performance Appraisal Sig PC Reward & Recognition Sig Career Planning & Development Coaching and Counselling Activities Managing Work Force Diversity Employee Wellness Human Resource Interventions PC Sig PC Sig PC Sig PC Sig PC.147 ** Sig..000 **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). PC - Pearson Correlation Positive Correlation - The independent variable work life balance has positive correlation with the dependent variable human resource interventions (0.147). No Correlation - The independent variable work life balance has no correlation with the dependent variables like goal setting, performance appraisal, reward and recognition, career planning and development, coaching and counselling activities, managing work force diversity and employee wellness. Page No:2058

6 6. Conclusion The study shows that there is no significant correlation between variables of work life balance and HR interventions. But the HR Intervention policies of an organization definitely matters for the employees growth and achieving work life balance and work life balance definitely acts as in influential factor in implementing good HR Intervention policies in the organizations. Good HR Intervention policies, definitely motivates the employees and acts as a catalyst for the employees to manage both work and family life. Achieving work life balance among employees to manage both work and family life, might not be possible if there is no proper HR Intervention policies in an organization. So the HR department also plays a major role in bringing work life balance among the employees. The Organizations which takes care of the employees with proper employee motivating policies, will definitely achieve success. 7. References [1] Rosemary Batt and P. Monique Valcour Cornell University ILR School DigitalCommons@ILR 2. Spring [2] S.Lakshmi Narayanan and A.Savarimuthu, International Conference on Technology and Business Management. [3] SahanaMaiya and Dr. M.M. Bagali, Research paper IJBARR Impact factor: ISSN: Chronicle of the Neville Wadia Institute of Management Studies and Research. Page No:2059