3-Human Res - IJHRMR - A STUDY - Rajalakshmi - Unpaid 3

International Journal of Human Resource Management and Research (IJHRMR) ISSN 2249-6874 Vol. 2 Issue 3 Sep 2012 21-28 Š TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

A STUDY ON MANAGING WORKLIFE BALANCE OF FACULTIES 1 1

C.SWARNALATHA & 2S.RAJALAKSHMI

Prof & Head, Department of Management Studies, Anna University of Technology Madurai Madurai, Tamilnadu, India

JRF-Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Anna University of Technology Madurai Madurai, Tamilnadu, India

ABSTRACT A study was undertaken to know how effectively the faculties of engineering and management departments were managing their work life balance. A sample of 100 faculties was considered for the study and the data collected were processed through tools such as percentage analysis, chi square and correlation. From analysis it was found that there was positive relationship between the family expectation and work life balance. The influence of the various demographic variables on work life balance was also studied. The impact of work life balance on the satisfactory level was analyzed in this research .The study also reveal some interesting results regarding work life balance.

KEY WORDS: work life balance, management, job satisfaction, family expectation INTRODUCTION Over the past twenty five years, there was a substantial increase and change in the role of work due to the changing economic condition and social demands .Employees are forced to work harder to withstand the competitive work environment. The introduction of performance culture expects more and more from the employees yet offer little security in returns. This creates a feeling of less return for high risk among the employees. Now-a-days many Indians are also experiencing burnout due to over work and increased stress. The rise in the work place violence, an increase in the level of absenteeism, employee turnover rate .The above all clearly evidences an unhealthy work life balance.

WORK LIFE BALANCE The first common theme in the literature proposes that the major shift towards globalisation in the 1980s dramatically changed the nature of work. This shift created a highly competitive economic environment, which forced businesses in the many Western countries that embraced The Drivers of Work-life Balance (Sparks, Faragher & Cooper, 2001) Work/Life Balance is a state of equilibrium in which the demands of both a person’s job and personal life are equal.( Work-life balance. (2002).)Worklife balance gained important in the resent past especially in the developing country. Earlier during the period of 1960s and 1970s the issue of work-life balance has been raised by the working woman in UK.

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During the mid 1980s, the issue was also taken into consideration by the US government. Later in 1990s WLB is considered as a main human resource management issue in other parts of the world as well (Bird, 2006). This ideal began to erode throughout the developed world from the 1970s as increasing numbers of women entered and remained in the work-force for longer periods. This was primarily driven by a number of changes, particularly the formulation of equal opportunities legislation that provided greater opportunities for women in education and training (Callister, 2002; Liddicoat, 1999; MacInnes, 2006). However, over time a broader work-life balance debate emerged regarding the desirability of ensuring greater balance between work and one’s private life for all employees irrespective of family status (Dex & Scheibl, 1999; Hyman, Baldry, Scholarious & Bunzel, 2003; Liddicoat, 1999). The issue of work-life balance, a term coined in 1986 in America (Lockwood, 2003), became topical in the early 1990s because of Juliet Schor’s (1991) highly influential book (956 citations in Google Scholar at October, 2007), The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, which documents how the nature of contemporary employment has created such excessive demands on people that there has been a real decline in leisure (White et al., 2003; Guest, 2002; MacInnes, 2006; Rapoport, Bailyn, Lewis & Gambles, 2005). Consequently, WLB initiatives were posited as a means of helping all employees reconcile the demands of work with their private lives, regardless of family status. Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s seminal book (1977), Work and Family in the United States: A Critical Review and Agenda for Research and Policy brought the issue of work/life balance to the forefront of research and organizations. The question of work-life ‘balance’ is attracting increasing attention at both the national and international level. This is largely a consequence of the increase in the employment of women, particularly mothers. A work/life balance survey conducted in 2002 by TrueCareers states that 70% of more than 1,500 respondents said they don’t have a healthy balance between their personal and work lives. As researcher Ezzedeen explains, “modern work has become knowledge based, fluid, and intellectual; overworked people think about work all of the time. For many people, work has become cognitively intrusive.” To understand work/life balance, Professor Swiercz and Doctoral Candidate Ezzedeen of The George Washington university developed and tested a cognitive approach, the “Cognitive Intrusion of Work.” In simple terms, this means that work/life balance is not just about finding “physical time” to do all that needs to be done. Instead, and more importantly, it is about the “cognitive space” necessary to process, organize, and r respond to the thinking demands of life within a complex society.

In Fact, work/life conflict has

increased in the past decade. Today, a significant proportion of our workforce, both professional and non-professional, has trouble balancing the roles of employee, spouse, parent and caregiver to ageing relatives Interference between work and non-work responsibilities has a number of negative outcomes that have been well established in the literature. In terms of job attitudes, employees reporting high levels of both work-to-life and life-to-work conflict tend to exhibit lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Burke & Greenglass, 1999; Kossek & Ozeki, 1998).A meta-analysis by Baltes, Briggs, Huff, Wright, and Neuman (1999) found that flexible work schedules had positive effects

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A Study on Managing Worklife Balance of Faculties

on both job satisfaction and satisfaction with work schedule. In a study of the ‘virtual office’, Callentine’s (1995) participants attributed an increase in job satisfaction to increased flexibility in the location and timing of their work. Teleworkers in Quaid and Lagerberg’s 1992 study (cited in Standen, Daniels & Lamond, 1999) also reported higher levels of job satisfaction. Work-life balance has important consequences for employee attitudes towards their organisations as well as for the lives of employees.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.

To know whether the work life balance/ imbalance have impact on the satisfactory level faculties.

2.

To find the relationship between the family expectation and work life balance of faculties.

3.

To analyze the influence of demographic variable (age, marital status) on work life balance of the faculties

METHODOLOGY The descriptive research design was adopted for the study. Descriptive research study is concerned with describing the characteristics of a particular individual or a group.

The convenient sampling method was used as a sampling procedure. The sample size is 100.The engineering colleges in three districts in south Tamilnadu such as Madurai, Dindigul and sivagangai were covered under this study. The teaching faculties for under graduation have been considered as the sample for this study. Structured questioner has been used as tool for data collection.

TOOLS FOR ANALYSIS The data, after collection, has to be processed and analyzed in accordance with the outline laid down for the purpose at the time of developing the research plan. This is essential for a scientific study for ensuring that we have all relevant data for making contemplated comparisons and analysis. The tools used for this research are 1. Percentage analysis 2.Chi square analysis 3.correltion analysis.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION Table 1 Calculated Value

Tabulated Value

Deg. Of freedom

Result

14.75

9.488

4

Reject null hypothesis

Null hypothesis: There is no relationship between the work life balance/ imbalance and the satisfactory level.

Alternative hypothesis: There is a relationship between the work life balance/ imbalance and the satisfactory level.

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C. Swarnalatha & S. Rajalakshmi

From the above table it is found that the work life balance/imbalance have an impact on the satisfactory level of the faculty.

Table 2 Calculated Value

Tabulated Value

Deg. Of freedom

6.58

7.815

3

Result Accept null hypothesis

Null hypothesis: There is no relationship between the age and work life balance.

Alternative hypothesis: There is a relationship between the age and work life balance.

From the above table it is found that the age of the faculties does not influence their work life balance.

Table 3 Calculated Value

Tabulated Value

Deg. Of freedom

Result

12.56

3.841

1

Reject null hypothesis

Null hypothesis: There is no relationship between the marital status and work life balance.

Alternative hypothesis: There is a relationship between the marital status and work life balance.

From the above table it is found that the marital status of the faculty influence their work life balance.

Table 4

Variables

Correlation coefficient

Expectations from the family vs work life balance

0.869

From the above table it is inferred that there is a strong positive relationship between the expectation from the family and work life balance.

Fig 1: Percentage of respondent based on Gender

Fig 2: Percentage of respondent based on their age

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A Study on Managing Worklife Balance of Faculties

Fig 3: Percentage of respondent based on their marital status

Fig 5: Pecentage of respondent based on their position

Fig 4: Percentage of respondent based on their work experience

Fig 6: Distribution of respondent based on the satisfactory level.

Fig 7: Distribution of respondent based on Their Balance and imbalance of work & life

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C. Swarnalatha & S. Rajalakshmi

Fig 8: Distribution of respondent based on the time spend with their dependence

A Study on Managing Worklife Balance of Faculties

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FINDINGS 1.

The work life balance/imbalance of the faculty have an impact on their satisfactory level .

2.

The age of the faculties does not influence their work life balance.

3.

The marital status of the faculty influence their work life balance.It was found that female married faculties were maintaining a poor work life balance.

4.

There is a strong positive relationship between the expectation from the family and work life balance. As the expectation was high in home faculties were in the confused state for the allotment of time.

5.

It was found that 44% of the total population have a balanced work life and 55% of faculties have an imbalanced work life.

6.

39 % of the faculties spends 2-3 hrs with their dependence. 18% of the faculty spends more than 4 hrs with their dependence.

CONCLUSIONS It is really hard to compartmentalise one's life.. Work-lifebalance does not mean an equal balance. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of the various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. Life is and should be more fluid than that. Unlike earlier days college teachers are facing many demands in their work, family life and personal life. In work they are expected to teach, meet with students, serve on committees, participation in the departmental meetings, conducting student developmental program, career counseling to students, doing research, etc.

Apart from this they have to face more demands outside the workplace. They may have spouse or partner, children, parents, extended family members, friends who require various degree of care. In personal they need to take rest, entertainment, personal care, self developmental activity, achievement orientation, spiritual development etc. In order to withstand the competition and to meet the expectation they are forced to cope with all those demands. There is a need for a right balance between the work, family life and personal life to attain the set target

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