CHAPTER FIVE: WORK-LIFE BALANCE (WLB)
5.3 Work-life balance defined
In examining WLB, there are initial difficulties associated with the meaning of balance (Greenhaus et al., 2003; Guest, 2002). According to Greenhaus et al. (2003), the majority of the reviews of the connectedness between work and family overlook work-family balance without defining the notion. They suggest that realistic study on WLB could add value to the understanding of work-home interface if the concept is developed further. Additionally, an examination of balance in work and domestic responsibilities often neglects to differentiate
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balance from numerous other theories found in work-family writings (Sumer & Knight, 2001;
Thompson et al., 1999). This study explores the definition of WLB by many scholars based on different perspectives.
Greenhaus et al. (2003) report that balance cannot be considered to represent an instrument connecting family to work since it cannot explain in what way what a person does or is involved with in one sphere of life causes what they do or get involved with in another sphere of life (Edward & Rothbard, 2000). Rather WLB is an indication of a person’s coordination of various life roles, as well as other occurrences between work and life (Marks & MacDermid, 1996).
According to Mead (1964)), human beings are capacitated to view the world as whole (Schwalbe, 1991). For instance, people do not see a dog as a pair of legs with a tail and so forth, but as a whole dog. Overlooking many other activities and role companions in order to embrace a desirable role identity may be the outcome of the arrangement of a person’s self. Otherwise, it can create a better route to the gathering of roles and personalities which may give rise to various consequences on wellness (Marks et al., 1996). The process of consistently reviewing one’s role system could lead to role balance. Role balance can be said to be either positive or negative.
Marks and MacDermid (1996, p. 421) define positive and negative role balance as:
Positive role balance is the tendency to become fully engaged in the performance of every role in one’s total role system, to approach every typical role and role partner with an attitude of alertness and care. Put differently, it is the practice of that even handed alertness known sometimes as mindfulness. Negative role balance is the tendency to become fully disengaged in the performance of every role.
This definition of positive role balance seeks to justify total involvement and commitment to each role performed as role balance. From this perspective, it seems that a person who gives casual care, and is inattentive as well as approaches roles in their role system with simplicity, may not be said to have role balance. Continuing, Marks and MacDermid theorised that role balance creates ease in role performance, while absence of balance creates role tension generally. The researcher asks the question about the means of measuring mindfulness and the challenges that a person may face in trying to be mindful (totally engaged) in performing roles, bearing in mind the fleeting nature of the mind.
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In the context of the above, Greenhaus et al. (2003) report that the opinion that people arrange their functions in order of priority prevails among scholars. But Marks and MacDermid (1996), citing Mead (1964), differed from the popular opinion that people arrange what they do according to what is priority, and propose that people have the ability to and ought to show corresponding affirmative responsibility in every function and responsibilities thrust upon them in life. This implies therefore that affirmative responsibility is required to differentiate role balance from knowing how to prepare and maintain a priority or ‘to-do’ list. Most people develop to-do lists to avoid conflicts in their role performance. This might have led to definitions such as that of Clark (2000, p. 751) that balance is:
satisfaction and good functioning at work and home with a minimum of role conflict. She suggests that absence of role conflict coupled with fulfilment and efficiency implies WLB, thus ascribing such satisfaction and efficiency to the ability to draw boundaries between work and family and manage those borders towards achieving the desired balance. The definition does not take into consideration employees’ responses to such emergencies that may arise at work and at home. For instance, the sickness of a spouse, child, parent, absentee colleague whose job responsibility (schedule) falls on another employee, and transfers. But Parasuraman (1999) considered the foregoing in the definition that reflected that the demands and stresses of the family role sometimes require taking time off from work for such matters as caring for a sick child at home, or taking care of one’s spouse or parent after surgery, child birth, or to care for a terminally ill parent.
Reflectively, it is not every time that an individual experiences the situation described by Parasuraman (1999) in his definition. For instance, the events following the need to care for a sick child or a spouse may not suggest a perpetual state of balance or imbalance when they happen. Taking time off to attend to family and/or personal emergencies may trigger imbalance. Since these situations are exigencies, they may be handled better by individuals who already have WLB. If sufficient time is made available for an individual to perform these life roles, does this guarantee the achievement of WLB? The present study seeks to answer these questions in helping individuals define, reclaim and/or maintain WLB even in the face of stressors and exigencies. The study explores the connection between WLB and SOC (SOC is discussed in detail in Chapter four).
The scholars Parasuraman (1996) and Clark (2000) based their definitions on time and role performance suggesting that time has to be taken off one role to perform another role. This
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researcher puts forth the argument that WLB is not just about time management and allocation of priorities, but a deliberate effort to meaningfully accomplish roles, achieve targets, improve on oneself, relate with community and be satisfied with the two domains of work and life on a continuous basis.
To view WLB from a role perspective is to narrowly examine the concept. This is because, a person in the midst of performing a role whether at work or at home, performs the given role in an environment that is subject to factors extraneous and some internal to him/her. The role concept neither takes into cognisance the resources available for the individual at work and at home such as WLBS (programmes) provided to aid the individual employee to cope with the stressors associated with work and family, nor the presence or absence of family support and their efficacy in enabling the achievement of balance. Although the concept of role balance is strictly based on role and self-efficiency and overlooks issues such as satisfaction with the role or time involved at playing roles, the present study draws inferences from positive role balance in the examination of how involved a person is in the performance of work and family roles.
According to Grzywacz and Carlson (2007), Marks and MacDermid (1996) role balance was suggested as a management tool and not a characterisation of a working adults’ work-life issues. It is noteworthy also that the role balance concept does not prescribe ways to manage equality (Greenhaus & Powell, 2003) between work and family roles. That the role balance concept does not make any prescriptions with respect to equality (sharing resources equally between work and family domain) as conceptualised by (Greenhaus & Powell, 2003) is noteworthy. This could be partially because queries around the value of activities associated with work and family cannot be accurately answered (Grzywacz & Carlson, 2007).
Greenhaus and Allen (2011) proposed a new definition of work-family balance based on the fit perspective as a total assessment to determine the degree that a person’s efficiency and fulfilment with work and life (family) aligns with the price that the person places on life within a given period of time. In addition, they suggested that people appraise their efficiency in individual roles alongside measures that they have built in themselves to gauge accomplishment, weigh the fulfilment they get from performing every role, and at the same time ascertain if the achieved efficiency and fulfilment aligns to the importance which they assign to the role performed. This definition takes into cognisance the person in the midst of work and life and the value that he/she assigns to life’s overall roles played in the work and family domain. The definition seems to have taken root in the role perspective of WLB because
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the authors suggested that although life values are varied, they would like to adopt the role priority idea which highlighted roles (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000).
The authors chose three role hierarchies to buttress their convictions namely: people who are focused on careers, people who are focused on family and people who are focused on both family and career. They reported that those individuals who focus more on careers or family assign the midst of their lives as well as ascribe the source of their identification to the role that takes pre-eminence in their rating. Those whose focus are on family and career rate both roles equally and deduce their self-efficacy from whatever encounters and achievements they make in the two spheres. They therefore view WLB from the perspective that career/family oriented individuals experience balance when they are at the point where they feel very efficient and satisfied with both functions.
It implies that career/family focused people will feel a sense of balance when they achieve efficiency and fulfilment in that domain of life to which they have given their highest preference (priority). They surmised that a person has achieved balance if he/she is very efficient and fulfilled in the role(s) that he/she attaches high importance and preference to (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011).
This researcher sees this definition by Greenhaus et al. (2011), which views balance from the premise of focus and assessment of role performance by an individual, to be posing an empirical question. If balance is an outcome which a person attains when he/she is effective and satisfied with performing a role, are there no possibilities that the need to stay away from a dysfunctional relationship/work can make an individual place his/her satisfaction upon accomplishments at work/family? Previously, Greenhaus et al. (2011) had suggested that there are in-built parameters that individuals have in themselves that appraises their role performance. What if this in-built mechanism is founded on dysfunctional elements in his/her environment at work and/or at home; how would balance be assessed if they achieve efficiency and satisfaction based on the in-built mechanism? For instance, a person who failed dismally in a marital or work relationship respectively may decide to prioritise his/her career/or family above the other and go on to achieve effectiveness and satisfaction in the same. Another question is: how does this ‘in-built mechanism’ aid the individual in the face of work and family stressors? This is the reason why the present study is undertaking to investigate the SOC (a dispositional mechanism that buffers stress) of an individual and the link that it has to WLB.
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In addition, Greenhaus et al. (2011) noted four dimensions in their definitions and suggested primarily that equal efficiency or fulfilment at performing work and family roles is not a prerequisite to balance; rather, equal prioritization of both functions is a necessity. Second point of note is that they viewed involvement in roles as a contributory element to the achievement of WLB rather than an outcome. Thirdly, they suggested, citing Friedman and Lobel (2003), that results will be said to have yielded a proven feeling of balance if they align personal convictions about values instead of those values that are prescribed by forceful societal customs and requirements. Fourthly, they went on to suggest that a person has to be on the verge of the level of experience acceptable to them personally with respect to efficiency and fulfilment when they are performing a role of lesser importance for it to be said that they have achieved balance.
This definition of balance hinges on the interface between efficiency and fulfilment with the two life domains of work and family. It excluded other aspects of life like personal development, friendship, and support and community interaction that could impact on the achievement of balance. Though the definition considers work and family salience, it does not take into account, the stressors present in each domain and the resources available to confront the stressors available at work and at home. This researcher will adopt satisfaction with work and family situations as outcomes of balance in the study.
According to Lyness and Judiesch (2008), Kirchmeyer (2000, p. 81) suggested a definition for WLB as achieving satisfying experiences in all life domains and to do so requires personal resources such as energy, time, and commitment to be well distributed across domains. This definition highlights satisfaction and involvement as key components of WLB while the availability of personal resources to ensure that WLB could be achieved if they (energy, time and commitment) are well distributed. The present study sees the phrase well distributed as a bone of contention needing clarity in the definition as well as lending credence to the study’s argument that WLB is not a point on a continuum or assigned weight (of energy, time and commitment) on the measuring scale distributed among life domains. This study postulates that WLB is rather a journey which an individual undertakes to arrive at a place where he/she feels satisfied that he/she has distributed his/her personal resources reasonably well among his/her work and family needs/roles; and does so consistently over a substantial period of time.
However, Crooker, Smith, and Tabak (2002, p. 389) proposed definition for the concept is:
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Work-life balance is the stability characterised by the balancing of an individual’s life complexity and dynamism with environmental and personal resources such as family, community, employer, profession, geography, information, economics, personality, or values.
Stability in this definition is paramount to a key that opens the discussion of the WLB concept in another dimension which seeks to establish constancy in the achievement of WLB. Crooker et al. (2002) suggest that resources available in the individual’s internal and external environments aid the individual to achieve balance. These resources may have been acquired from upbringing and nurturing. This is in line with Hofstede (2010) position that people possess in themselves deep-rooted mannerisms that inform behaviour due to the upbringing that they received. This researcher therefore assumes that these patterns of acquired behaviour can give stability to the achievement of balance or imbalance in work-life domains. Although stability is seen by Crooker et al. (2002) as the meaning of WLB, this researcher views stability as constancy in the achievement of satisfaction and efficiency in the work and family domains as a result of the resources available to the individual at the workplace (WLBS) and from childhood through adolescence.
The comprehensive review of the literature on the definition of WLB indeed confirmed that a globally acceptable definition has yet to be formulated for the concept. This has further created the need to provide a definition that should provide clearer understanding on what, why, how and when balance is achieved. It is in this context that this study explores the connection between WLB and SOC from behavioural and cognitive perspectives, using WLBS and work and family stressors as independent variables. It seeks to give answers to those questions raised in the review of literature on the one hand, and those raised by assessing the influence of WLBS on stressors, SOC and achievement of WLB. This researcher proposed a definition for the WLB construct from the review of the literature.
5.3.1 Present study definition of work-life balance
The researcher through the review of literature proposes a definition of WLB. The scholars (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011; Voydanoff, 2005; Crooker et al., 2002) have defined WLB from the satisfaction and efficiency, involvement and stability perspectives respectively. It could not be seen that they took into consideration, other variables that could affect the achievement of satisfaction, involvement and stability. Generally, it is assumed that the individual involved in the middle of work and family dynamics is influenced by personality differences (individual differences), cultural orientation, SOC, gender, education, national and personal experiences
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as well as social support. But this study examines the influence of work and family stressors and the strategies implemented to assist employees in achieving WLB in a workplace on SOC and the achievement of WLB.
In this context, the researcher suggests that WLB be defined as;
An outcome of the effective use of work-life balance strategies available at the workplace to address work and family stressors and enhance and/or improve an individual’s SOC in order to effectively manage work and family stressors, resulting in satisfaction with work and family situations.
In addition, this study views WLB as a destination that anyone who undertakes the journey by consistently taking consolidated steps will arrive at despite work and family stressors so long as he/she is backed up by workplace strategies. This implies that WLB is a journey that an individual takes walking on ‘two feet’ (work and life), by taking one step (work) at a time, and not forgetting to take the other step (family), which results in arriving at the desired destination (satisfaction). Consistency in the journey leads to stability which the researcher views as the constancy of ease experienced in performing the roles (Marks & MacDermid, 1996) required by work and family. This is in line with Marks’ (1977, 1979) postulation that when individuals assign a group of equally optimistic dedication to their usual roles, it will result in beneficial outcomes of wellness and Marks and MacDermid (1996) suggestion that individuals who habitually give total commitment to whatever they do experience the disappearance of role management challenges upon the achievement of a stable rhyme. They surmise that this category of people may experience as others, emergencies and disruptions in their routines but these exigencies do not become protracted. It is said that “people do what they think”, therefore, the decision to assign energy and time and be involved with work and/or life could be a result of thoughts taken in that dimension. This researcher suggests that once an individual cultivates the habit of ‘journeying towards balance’, he/she will arrive at the destination where he/she achieves satisfaction with work and home situations. This is based on an observation by Hofstede et al (2010) and Clark (2000) that the fundamental linkage between work and family organisations is the person and not emotion, as well as Crooker et al.’s (2002) definition of the concept of WLB notion that, naturally, continuity is embedded in the way of life. This implies also that even if the individual takes a break from the ‘journey’, he/she can commence again and go on to arrive at the desired destination - WLB. Therefore, based on the definition, an individual can define, reclaim, achieve and maintain WLB. The elements of WLB are presented for further clarification of the construct.