Transcript CIPD MANAGING DIVERSITY LECTURE

The Psychology of Individual
& Organisational Health
Work-Life Balance
Dr Baljit Kaur Rana
28/11/11
Faculty of Social Sciences, Division of Psychology, D320
[email protected]
Lecture Outline
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Definitions of Work-Life Balance (WLB)
Nature of the Problem
WLB Business Case & Diversity
Factsheets: stress, time, equality, WLB perceptions,
productivity, right to request leave and flexible
working
Investors in People (IiP) – culture, strategy, action,
effectiveness
HCIMA Checklist
Challenging Organisational Culture & Introducing
Change
Theories/Models
What on Earth…
…is ‘Work-Life Balance’?
Work-Life Balance is
having
over
you
work.
You have the right to a fulfilled life
of
work…
Work-life balance benefits…
…the individual…
business…
and society.
Definitions (cont.)
 “WLB is the ability to balance the demands
of working at Sears, and the demands of
one’s personal life, and having success and
satisfaction with both. In addition, there
needs to be an understanding that the
balance changes driven by personal ad hoc
circumstances and life stages, and by
changes in one’s job or career” (Sears)
The obligatory ‘definition’
It’s about having some
control and choice over
how, when and where we
work so we can achieve a
relationship between paid
work and the rest of our
lives that we’re happy
with.
Work Life Balance
How it changes the norm
The Norm:
– Long hours
– Family comes second
– Male dominated world of work
– 9 to 5 working pattern
WLB Change Agent
– Flexible work and hours
– Childcare
– Contented life style
Nature of the Problem
 Why the big debate?
Achieving work-life balance means
different things to different people.
Nature of the Problem
 The option to work from home
 The option to work flexible hours
 The ability to finish work at a set
time
 The ability to work reduced hours
 The option to take unpaid
parental leave
 The option to take a career break
 Childcare support within the
organisation
Nature of the Problem
 Why the big debate?
Improving work-life balance is seen as a
possible solution to some of the current
problems faced by industry.
Nature of the Problem
 Social Changes vs Work Expectations
“Eight hours for work, eight hours for play,
eight hours for what we will.”
Nature of the Problem
 Why the big debate?
Businesses need to retain their
operational effectiveness.
Nature of the Problem
 Why the big debate?
Social issues such as equality are
interwoven with WLB arguments.
The Issues
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Time
Stress
Perceptions
Equality
Productivity
Diversity
From the point of
view of the…
•Employee
•Employer
The WLB Business Case &
Diversity
The UK has a diverse
population.
Businesses with a diverse
workforce are likely to
attract a wider customer
base.
The WLB Business Case &
Diversity
The UK has a diverse
population.
Businesses with a diverse
workforce can provide a
more tailored service to
meet individual needs.
The WLB Business Case &
Diversity
The UK has a diverse
population.
Businesses with a diverse
workforce can provide the
greater flexibility
demanded by customers.
Support for diversity
Better staff morale and
performance
Reduced absenteeism and
staff turnover
Case Study:
•Improved customer
satisfaction
•Better-motivated
workforce
•More willing to
contribute to business
success
•Jobs
•Pay
•Job satisfaction
•Profit
•Value for money
•Expansion
•Quality
•growth
•happiness
Employee meets
needs of the
customer
Employee meets
needs of the
employer and viceversa
Employer meets the
needs of the
customer
Case Study:
•Increased sales to
disabled people
•Increased overall
customer satisfaction
•Enhanced brand
•Improved staff retention
& productivity
Investors in People WLB Model
 Helps shape and structure
an organisation’s WLB
solutions
 Helps tie in current actions
into an overall strategy
 Includes measures to
check the effect of the
solutions being introduced
 Helps you to build flexibility
into solutions so there can
be a culture of choice
 Encourages creative
thinking
Investors in People WLB Model
 Based on four basic
principles:
– Culture
– Strategy
– Action
– Effectiveness
How is each of these
relevant?
Investors in People WLB Model
 Culture – the culture of the
organisation creates an
environment in which work-life
balance is recognised and valued
 Strategy – The work-life
balance strategy is central to the
organisation’s aims and objectives
 Action – The organisation has
successful work-life balance
solutions
 Effectiveness – The
organisation can show that its worklife balance strategy is delivering
positive results.
IIP WLB Model - Culture
 Indicators under the
cultural banner
include:
– Work-life balance is
central to the
organisation’s value
and how it works
– Managers take
responsibility for the
success of the work-life
balance strategy
IIP WLB Model - Strategy
 Indicators under the
strategic banner
include:
– The work-life balance
strategy is developed to
help the organisation
achieve its aims and
objectives.
– The organisation takes
account of all relevant
parties when developing
and communicating its
work-life balance strategy.
IIP WLB Model - Action
 Indicators under the ‘action’
banner include:
– Work-life balance
solutions are developed
and put into practice
according to the needs of
the organisation
– Work-life balance
solutions take account of
the needs of the individual
– Work-life balance
solutions are effectively
put into practice.
IIP WLB Model - Effectiveness
 Indicators under the
‘effectiveness’
banner include:
– The work-life balance
strategy and solutions
improve the
performance of the
organisation.
– The organisation
continually improves its
approach to work-life
balance.
HCIMA (Hotel Catering & International
Management Association) WLB Checklist
 Approach
– Investigating the need
– Commitment from the
top
– Developing policies
– Involve and
communicate
HCIMA WLB Checklist
 Individual Working
Patterns
– Flexi-time / Staggered
hours / Time off in lieu
– Compressed hours
– Annualised hours
– Part-time
– Job sharing
– Term time working
– Temping / casual work
HCIMA WLB Checklist
 Team Planning and
Working
– Shift working
– Shift swapping
– Self rostering
 Place
– Working from home
HCIMA WLB Checklist
 Breaks from work
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Maternity leave
Parental leave
Time off for dependents
Paternity leave
Adoption leave
Bereavement/compassionate leave
Career break
Sabbatical
Public/community service leave
Leave for religious festivals
Volunteering
Leave to support personal achievement
HCIMA WLB Checklist
 Flexible benefits
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Workplace creche / daycare centre
Childcare or eldercare vouchers
Use of company facilities (gyms etc)
Accommodation and staff dining
Pensions and health insurance
Re-location packages
Awards
Training and development
 Employee Support
– Counselling (stress, work issues, domestic issues,
health, finance, drug and alcohol problems)
– Childcare information
The Work-Life Balance
 The successful employer, private or public, has to deliver
on all these. This means
 involving staff in decisions about change
 making sure their needs and aspirations are considered
 winning their commitment to new ways of working
 One of the most essential ingredients in the organisation of
work is time:
 when we work
 for how long
 how we balance working time with time outside of work.
The Work-Life Balance (cont.)
 These are difficult issues which we have to resolve in the
UK:
 British workers work the longest hours in Europe
 stress is the greatest cause of absence from work
 many organisations have not introduced family-friendly
working, despite encouragement from government and
positive reports from organisations which have.
 Family-friendly concerns are not the only consideration –
finding the time for learning, or taking part in community
life, are equally powerful motivators for balancing life at
work with life outside
The Work-Life Balance
 1 in 5 of all workers would like their life to be more
balanced than is how but just don’t know how to manage it
and twice as many workers would rather work shorter
hours than win the lottery!
 33% of 4000 job seekers would prefer to work flexible
hours than receive an extra £1000 a year (DTI Poll)
 Can a definitive picture be drawn of what a well balanced
life looks like?
 Is it more than policies and quality management?
 Is it more to do with individual personalities and attitudes –
the role of work in our lives?
The Work-Life Balance
 Why is it the case that men still get more balance than
women and are much more likely to have outside interests
(sport, committees, charity work) and are much more likely
to put work before their personal lives?
 And women are much more likely to use their spare time
for domestic work and childcare and are more likely to take
their stress home with them?
 Job satisfaction and supportive work environment that
acknowledges life outside work leads to lower stress and
happier workplace
 Business case reasons for helping to become better
balanced can’t be realised by concessions (e.g. flexible
working) on own
The Work-Life Balance
 Management Today ‘Worklife Survey (1988) – for
many work high source of satisfaction (84%
admitted making important personal sacrifices in
pursuit of career)
 Second Management Today Survey (2001) –
achieving proper balance seen as entitlement and
reflects changing contract between organisations
and individuals
 But workload pressure increased and number of
managers feel been forced to put work before
family life is slightly up
The Work-Life Balance
 No one standard WLB policy that will suit
every business – no such thing as WLB but
different work-life balances with different
parts of the jigsaw taking greater importance
at different times in working lives
 More secure organisation and less
competitive environment, more latitude
manager has to encourage employees to
lead balanced lives
Challenging Organisational
Culture
 What is organisational ‘culture’?
 It is the set of policies, vales, beliefs and attitudes
shared by the organisation’s members.
 Values are fundamental principles that people
have regarding what is right or wrong, important or
unimportant and so on.
 An attitude is a persistent inclination to feel and
behave in a certain way towards a person or
object.
 More intuitive? “How are things done around
here?”
Challenging Organisational
Culture
 Can culture be changed?
 Culture is the accumulation of the past, yet
the organisation needs to move forward.
 Change happens naturally over long time
periods.
 The introduction of a WLB policy may
require an organisation to make strategic
and operational changes relatively quickly.
Challenging Organisational
Culture
 What sort of organisations cope with
change more easily?
 What is the answer to the question: How
can we change people’s attitudes to WLB?
 A good idea is to appoint ‘change agents’.
What sort of people would be suitable?
 What is the main cause of resistance to
change?
Introducing Change
 When introducing change, ensure that..
– Employees see the reason for change
– Employees understand why change is important –
how it will help them and the business
– The people who need to be committed to the change
to make it happen are recognised
– A coalition of support is built for the change
– The support of key individuals in the organisation is
enlisted
– The link between the change and other HR systems
(staffing, training etc) is understood.
Introducing Change
 When introducing change, ensure that..
– A means of measuring the success of the change is
identified
– Plans are made to monitor progress in the implementation
of the change
– Plans are made to keep attention focussed on the change
– The likely need to adapt the change over time is
recognised and plans can readily be made and
implemented for such adaptations.
 Change processes, structures and systems first of all. This
will force changes in behaviour which, in turn, will change
attitudes.
 People that embrace challenges and opportunities.
 If people feel they will be worse off than before. This happens
with poorly managed change
Combining work and family life
theories
 Sources of stress for dual-career couples – impact
on well-being and occupational achievement
greater for women
 Dilemmas (Cooper & Lewis, 1994):
 Work overload as reflection of long hours and
‘workaholic syndrome’
 Schedule incompatibility and inflexibility
 Spillover of stress/satisfaction from work into
family life, or vice versa
 Role conflict and identity
Combining work and family life
theories
 Effects on relationships
 Equity, time and energy – expectations of
spouse and perceptions of equality
(housework, childcare, decision making)
 Theoretical models of work-family interface
– role of gender
 Job demands model = how work can and
does affect individual’s family life (Rushing &
Schwabe, 1995)
Combining work and family life
theories
 Multiple roles/task overload perspective – 3
models:
 Spillover theory (Bolger et al, 1995) = work and
family experiences (time, behaviour, attitudes,
personality) similar – family influences work
(stress = negative conflict) or satisfaction (positive
enhancement) and vice versa
 Crossover (Barling, 1994) = one spouses role
experiences at work/home can affect attitudes,
role performance and emotions of other (e.g.
parent-child interactions) – work demands intrude
on family more easily for men
Combining work and family life
theories
 Compensation theory (Zedeck, 1992) =
what’s provided by one setting makes up for
what is missing in other
 Segmentation theory = work and family
spheres distinct so can be successful in one
domain without affecting other (reverse to
spillover) – more typical of men
Combining work and family life
theories
 Nature of conflicts between both domains
and roles:
 Time based conflict (Frone et al, 1997)
 Strain-based conflict
 Behaviour based conflict
Figure 1: The Quality Model for Work-Life Balance
POLICIES
PROCESSES
PEOPLE
OUTCOMES
Time Flexibility
Work organisation
Role Models
For Individuals
Location Flexibility
Technology
Inform/Educate/
Consult/Empower
For the
Organisation
Benefits and
Support
HR Systems
Training
For society/the
community
Measurement
BENCHMARKING
AUDIT
FEEDBACK
REVIEW
Implementation
PLANS
RESOURCES
BEHAVIOUR
SUSTAINABILITY
© Clutterbuck Associates 2003
Source:
ww.barrymapp.co.uk/coaching/balance.html
References
 DTI (2002), ‘Flexible working. The business case’; London:
DTI Publication
 Joshi, S et al (2002) ‘Work-Life Balance.A case of social
responsibility or competitive advantage’
(www.worklifebalance.com)
 Kandola, R; Fullerton, J (1998) ‘Diversity in Action.
Managing the Mosaic’; London: CIPD.
 Redman, T; Wilkinson, A (2009), ‘Contemporary Human
Resource Management. Text and cases’; (3rd edition) FT
Prentice Hall.
 Rice, M (2002), ‘Balancing acts’; Management Today, Sept
2002, 52-57.
 Torrington, D; Hall, L; Taylor, S (2008), ‘Human Resource
Management’ (7th edition) FT Prentice Hall.