WORK-LIFE BALANCE: A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ON GOOGLE AND A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRACTICES FOLLOWED IN NORWAY AND INDIA
The concept of work life balance emerged during the Industrial Revolution. In those days Industrialists agreed upon labour union’s demand of ‘One day off’. Later on, this is converted into ‘two day off’ which is followed in all the western countries. Grady et al (2008) stated that the term’ work-life balance’ is more comprehensive and includes “family, community, recreation and personal time.” The objectives of the research are to study the impact of practices followed in Norway and India on work-life balance, to gain insight on Google company’s work-life balance practices, to identify and suggest vital work-life balance practices that can be applied in Indian context. The research is descriptive in nature. The data has been collected mainly from secondary sources – research papers, annual report of companies (employee engagement) and articles. The tools used for achieving objectives and analysing are comparison method, case study analysis and survey method. The comparative and case study analysis shows that the education system, job security, income inequality are some of the factors which hinder the work-life balance in India. Flexi hours, time for creativity, family participation in workplace boost the enthusiasm and morale of the employees. The research is based on secondary sources. The primary data would more effectively convey the problems faced in work life balance. The work-life balance practices followed by only one company is taken into the study due to time constraint. The comparative analysis of work-life balance practices of big films would give better insight and would help in deriving dynamic solution. The sector centred, institution centred or gender centred study will give broader overview of the work-life balance. The search acts a base for comparative analysis.