WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Literature Review on Work-Life Balance

Review on Work-Life Balance

Introduction

There are two general perspectives on what work-family balance is, both of which are rooted in role theory. The traditional view comes from theory on inter-role conflict and defines work-family balance as an absence of conflict between work and family roles. Role conflict occurs when the demands of the two roles are incompatible, such that participation in one role makes it difficult or impossible to fulfill the obligations of the other role (Williams, 2000, 99).

The view of work-family balance being the absence of work-family conflict recently was augmented to include the extent to which one role (work or family) provides skills and experiences that are helpful in carrying out the demands of the other role. This is referred to as facilitation, enrichment, enhancement, or positive spillover. According to this perspective, work-family balance exists when there is low work-family conflict and high work-family facilitation (Rapoport, 2002, 76). Imbalance, then, is characterised by high conflict and low facilitation. Both conflict and facilitation can occur in two directions: when work role demands interfere with or enhance family role demands (work to-family conflict/facilitation) and when family role demands interfere with or enhance work role demands (family-to-work conflict/facilitation). (Marks, 2006, 41)

Discussion

Research using this formulation of work-life balance is sparse but has indicated that when people spend a large amount of their total time and total psychological investment in their work and family roles, and when they are imbalanced in favour of the family role, people experience the least stress and work-to-family conflict and, in turn, the highest quality of life (Jacobs, 2004, 63). Those who are imbalanced in favour of the work role experience the most stress and work-to-family conflict and, in turn, the lowest quality of life. Those who are balanced fall in between. Similar results were found with respect to satisfaction with life roles. The least work-to-family conflict and stress and, in turn, the highest quality of life were found for those with greater family than work role satisfaction, followed by those who were equally satisfied with their roles, then by those who were more satisfied by their work roles (Hochschild, 2001, 47).

When people invest little time, involvement, or satisfaction in their work and family roles, balance does not predict quality of life. Specifically, individuals who are generally disengaged and dissatisfied with both their work and family roles tend to report a low quality of life, regardless of the degree of role balance or imbalance they have achieved. This supports the idea that negative balance may not be desirable. Overall, this research indicates that imbalances favoring work over family roles tend to result in lower quality of life because they create greater work-to-family conflict and more stress (Halpern, 2005, 51).

Such results call into question the assumption that has been made in most work-family research that balance is desirable. From an individual outcome point of view, this may not be the case. Research is needed that investigates how the three components of work-life balance are ...