Chapter 5 Families: It Is (Not Always) Difficult Once You Have a Family: Work, Life, and Balance

2021 ◽  
pp. 131-156
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Akizumi Tsutsumi

Background: Work style reform in Japan is under way in response to a predicted shortfall in the workforce owing to the country’s low birth rate and high longevity, health problems due to excessive working hours, and the need for diversification of employment. A legal limit for physicians’ overtime work will be introduced in 2024. Objectives: This study examines the work–life balance among Japan’s doctors in the context of ongoing work style reform. Methodology: The study applied included selective reviews of demographic shifts, legislation against long working hours, and trends in doctors’ participation in the labor force. Results: Japan’s doctors work long hours, which creates a conflict between their working and private lives. The proportion of female doctors in Japan is the lowest among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Employment trends among women doctors by age group show an M-curve: many quit their jobs upon marriage or childbirth. Gender role stereotyping has led male Japanese doctors to devote themselves entirely to their professions and working excessively long hours: they leave all family work to their female partners. This stereotyping obliges female doctors to undertake household chores in addition to their career tasks, which makes it difficult for them to re-enter their careers. Because of the harsh working conditions (including long working hours), there has been a decline in newly graduated doctors in some medical specialties. Conclusions: For sustainable, effective health care in Japan, it is necessary to improve the work conditions for Japan’s doctors towards achieving work–life harmony.


2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poppy L. Liossis ◽  
Ian M. Shochet ◽  
Prudence M. Millear ◽  
Herbert Biggs

AbstractThe Promoting Adult Resilience (PAR) program is a strengths-based resilience building program that integrates Interpersonal and CBT perspectives. The second, successful pilot of the PAR program in the human-service departments of a local government organisation used a 7-week format. At posttest, PAR participants reported greater self-efficacy, more family satisfaction, greater work–life fit and balance and less negative family–work spillover than the comparison group. At the 6-month follow up, these gains were maintained, although to a lesser degree, with work–life balance being considerably strengthened, and negative spillover in both directions reduced. Participants also reported greater optimism, greater work satisfaction, less stress and promisingly for human service workers, exhaustion was reduced and work vigour was increased. This is important for human service professions as exhaustion, a component of burnout, is associated with higher employee turnover and poorer employee outcomes. Participants reported that they could easily incorporate the new skills into their lives and at follow up, they continued to use the skills to manage the demands of their work and family lives.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arzu Taşdelen-Karçkay ◽  
Orkide Bakalım

The first purpose of this study was to develop a scale of work–life balance for Turkish working women and men. The second purpose was to investigate the mediating effect of work–life balance between work–family conflict, family–work conflict, and life satisfaction. In Study 1 ( N = 274), a work–life balance scale was developed and initial validity evidence was presented. In Study 2 ( N = 356), confirmatory factor analyses supported the scale’s unidimensionality. Cronbach’s alpha and the composite reliability for internal consistency were .92. All studies indicated that the Work–Life Balance Scale was valid and reliable for a Turkish employee sample. Structural equation modeling supported indirect effects of work–family conflict and family–work conflict on life satisfaction via work–life balance. Multi-group analysis showed that the structural paths of the full model did not differ by gender.


Author(s):  
Dr. Zainab Bello ◽  
Dr. Garba Ibrahim Tanko

In the studies of various disciplines, theories are the bedrock that holds the frameworks. Some studies variables or framework are derived and underpinned by theories that have given credibility to the outcome of these studies. In the discipline of human resource management, work life balance (WLB) is an aspect that involves employees who are the key assets of any establishments. This is because general quality of employee's life in its relation to their working life is of utmost importance in the achievement of organizational goals (Guest, 2002). Keywords: Work-life Balance; WLB Concepts; Review; Work-Life Balance Theories; Family-work


Author(s):  
Sonali Bhattacharya ◽  
Netra Neelam ◽  
K. Rajagopal

With a changing demography and social structure, the work life balance (WLB) is a major concern felt by employees of most organizations. This study has attempted to have relook at the constructs of work-life balance from the perspectives of banking and information technology employees with various household structures. The present study develops a multidimensional work-life balance scale to measure existing levels of work-life balance. The scale considers work-life balance as a multidimensional second order construct comprising workplace inclusion, family support, employee benefit, time management, coworker relationship, and supervisor-subordinate relationship. The study reveals not only indicators of organizational family work culture, but also personal characteristics such as time management and familial support determine work-life balance. However, no significant difference was perceived in the work life balance was found between employees with different family structures and between the two sectors considered under the study. Also, there was no significant difference in perception of work life- balance between knowledge workers from IT and banking sectors.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Anushree Karani ◽  
Revati Deshpande ◽  
Mitesh Jayswal ◽  
Rasananda Panda

BACKGROUND: This paper explored the factors that constitute work-life balance, i.e. work-family conflict, family-work conflict, job satisfaction, family satisfaction, life satisfaction, work autonomy, work overload and its impact on psychological distress. OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to understand the relationship between work-life balance and psychological distress. METHODS: Current study has adopted a quantitative approach, and cross-sectional research design has been used with snowball sampling technique. The sample size consists of 400 employees from the banking sector. SmartPLS3.1 has been used for structural equation modeling to give empirical findings from the responses collected. RESULTS: The current study has checked the direct relationship between work-life balance (WLB) factors and psychological distress. Out of seven variables, psychological distress was explained by three variables, namely; family satisfaction, family-work conflict and work overload. CONCLUSION: The study contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the impact factors of work-life balance on psychological distress among banking Sector employees. It also provides empirical evidence to the HR managers in formulating effective HR policy to sustain employees and make their personal and professional lives better.


Author(s):  
Aditi Singh, Et. al.

Work life balance has always been challenging to achieve for every individual working in different sector especially for women as it is not easy to do day to day chores at home and office work together while working from home. This paper intent to discover the mental and physical exhaustion and difficulties and challenges encountered by employees during pandemic and small solutions or advices for it. The existing problem has pushed the employees to increase their limits to fight in such situation. And have made them capable of managing both job and home under one roof leading more towards work life integration than work life balance. Employees who have accepted the changes and embraced it and have upgraded themselves with the digitalization are able to meet all the demands relating to time, home, family, work, health and responsibilities.


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