Work life Balance and Positive Outcomes for Organizations and Employees

In the contemporary business world, employee performance is a fundamental determinant in the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. For this reason, organizations come up with various ways of motivating their workforce so as to ensure there is a high employee performance. Work life balance is a largely significant observable fact that is of considerable concern to different employees in an organization. In delineation, work life balance is expediting and fast-tracking between one's work, which encompasses career and aspiration and one's lifestyle, which encompasses health, leisure and family. This goes beyond emphasizing on the work role and personal life of individuals. It also influences the social, mental, financial and psychological welfare of the individual (Obiageli et al., 2015). This essay will assess the statement as to whether work life balance has a positive outcome for the organization and also for the employees.

One of the positive outcomes of work life balance as outlined by Tymon et al. (2011) is profession growth. Personnel can enhance their supposed career accomplishment by attaining poise between long-term and short-term objectives, enhancing their capability, and communicating explicitly with their managers. In the contemporary, working individuals pursue the twofold goal of maintaining a successful career and at the same time being involved in the lives of their offspring. Being able to have a balance between their two sets of lives, employees become more satisfied and content with their jobs. In addition, this diminishes the level of stress and extent of turnover and as a result prolonging their careers.

Another positive outcome for work life balance for employees is the increase in motivation. It is a necessity to have efficacious motivation of personnel in the organizational setting. Work life balance has the positive outcome for employees through job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is the magnitude with which individuals revel in their jobs where some individuals enjoy work and consider it to be a significant part of life. In accordance to Konrad and Mangel (2000), job satisfaction can be augmented by executing work life balance approaches by decreasing conflict between work and family. Basically, job satisfaction amongst employees generates confidence, loyalty and in the end, enhances the quality productivity from the employees. This indicates that having a work setting that encourages work life balance enables work force to attain their full potential and increase their job satisfaction (Konrad and Mangel, 2000).

According to Arif and Farooqi (2014), work life balance gives rise to employee satisfaction and the impacts of acknowledgement for the employee involvement are mirrored in their satisfaction. Work undertaking and work life have a positive correlation. Compensation is associated with facilitating factors of work life balance, which result in employee satisfaction. Employee benefits are significantly correlated to work life balance as more appealing employee benefits programs give rise to employee satisfaction. Personnel have a greater level of satisfaction with respect to their work and family when they revel in the benefits of work life balance programs being offered by the organization. In addition, Arif and Farroqi (2014) point out that work life balance have dissimilar impacts on both male and female employees. On one hand, male personnel attain greater job satisfaction with all the three measures for instance job, work life balance program and establishment. On the other hand, female employees have a significant correlation solely with employer satisfaction.

Work life balance has a more significant impact for employees that have greater compensation in comparison to those that have lower compensation. Organizations may emphasis and prioritize on product productivity at all times and this leads to increased stress for employees. This increased level of stress influences on both their personal life and work life. The positive outcome of work life balance is that it provides a balanced association between personal and work life. Research studies indicate that there is a direct association between job satisfaction and productivity. Work life balance has a greater influence on achieving employee job satisfaction in comparison to financial rewards and benefits (Ueda 2012; Arif and Farooqi, 2014).

Yamamoto and Matsuura (2014) indicate that work life balance conceivably has a positive outcome for an organization by enhancing organizational performance. In particular, work life balance decreases work turnover and absenteeism and also augments recruiting efficacy. Distinctively, for organizations that largely invest in specific competencies for the organization for their personnel or those that incur significant hiring outlays, work life balance is more cost effective. This is for the reason that they generate cost savings on the modification cost of hiring and make proceeds on the organization's human investment as work life balance decreases turnover and non-attendance (Yamamoto and Matsuura, 2014).

There is also the positive outcome of work life balance in the decline of employee turnover and absenteeism. One of the major problems facing organizations in the present day is hiring and sustaining highly competent staff. It necessitates taking a strategic way to the appealing, selection, development and preservation of employees, so as to meet the needs of the work force, organization and society as a whole. Research studies point out that a disparity between organizational management and employees causes an increase in employee turnover. Workplace tractability facilitates to augment general employee flexibility and empowerment to have work life balance, which diminishes employee turnover. Similarly, having employees who are satisfied owing to their work life balance may be efficacious for the reason that there is a less probability for absenteeism and as a result impact the bottom line. This is largely because the lack of work life balance gives rise to stress associated non-attendance, poor retention levels, low creativity, abysmal customer service and unprincipled personnel behavior (Comfort et al., 2003; Singh, 2013).

Work life balance has the positive outcome of organizational commitment for organizations. According to Bashir and Ramay (2008), work life balance leads to reduced stress, which enhances both individual and organizational performance. Personnel become more committed towards the organization, and it in turn increases the level of productivity. Policies of work life balance together with career prospects have a correlation with organizational commitment. The research study by the authors indicate that organizations can benefit from work life balance to diminish any existing work life conflict and at the same time instigate commitment within the organization. What is more, when the levels of stress are decreased, personnel become more enthusiastic and motivated with respect to their work (Bashir and Ramay, 2008).

According to Bloom et al. (2007), there is a positive outcome for organizations with respect to work life balance in terms of generating a competitive work setting. Organizations face a great deal of challenge and difficulty in being competitive and at the same time managing employee careers. However, owing to work life balance, organizations are able to not only become appealing to workforces of high quality but also be able to retain them. Work life balance is positively correlated with competition and efficiency, which also enhances management practices (Singh, 2013).

Work life is largely the lack of conflict between family and productive realms. So as to better address work life balance, it is imperative to distinguish and shed light on the different roles to perform, in addition to the various resources that are on the employees' disposal. A suitable and fitting balance between work life and personal life plays a distinctive and vital role in attaining personal and professional objectives. What is more, the execution of work life balance programs enables employees to undertake their duties in a more effective manner, while facilitating the preservation of important and valuable employees for the organization, enhancing return on investments in human capital (Benito-Osorio et al., 2015).

In general, work life balance practices have a positive impact on organizational performance when they make an enhancement for efficacy and employee productivity, and when revenues generated are higher compared to the costs incurred in undertaking their execution (Meyer et al., 2001). In accordance to Perry-Smith and Blum (2010), there is a positive correlation between work life balance and organizational performance. In particular, their research study indicates that the positive correlation between work life balance practices and organizational performance was greater and more significant for high tenure organization. In turn, the authors concluded that work life balance has a lower influence on organizations that have been recently established. Perry-Smith and Blum (2010) further indicate that the size of the organization does not have an impact on the positive outcome of work life balance and the performance of the organization. Moreover, organizations that partake in attaining better work life balance practices attain greater growth in revenue (Perry-Smith and Blum, 2010; Benito-Osorio et al., 2015).

Benito-Osorio et al. (2015) indicate that another positive outcome for organizations is that work life balance improves the brand image of the organization, achieving a better working setting, offering an image of avant-gardism and indicating commitment to corporate social responsibility. In addition, it gives rise to diminished absenteeism, enhances level of productivity and enhanced management of human resources. It is imperative to note that Yamamoto and Matsuura (2014) attained constant outcomes by finding that the impacts of work life balance practices were differently reliant on organizational characteristics, so that organizations with better outcomes make comprehensive work life practices. As a result, the correlation between the work life balance practices and organizational productivity can be a false positive, taking into account that they insist that work life balance practices by itself do not enhance the level of productivity of the organization.

The delineation of work life balance takes into account three significant aspects. These encompass the necessity for employees to attain an adequate balance between work and family lives, a necessity for your employer to help their employees by providing programs and offer flexibility to the employees (Arif and Farooqi, 2014). As discussed above, work life has various positive outcomes and benefits to employees and to the organization as well. Positive outcomes for the organization include increased level of productivity, which increased organizational output and effectiveness. Another positive outcome includes commitment from the employees and workforce and also augmented team work. This enables the organization to progress further and have a better performance. On the other hand, employees have the positive outcome of having more poise and balance in their everyday life and work. Another positive outcome for personnel is that it reduces stress for personnel and increases employee satisfaction (Arif and Farooqi, 2014).

References

Arif, B., & Farooqi, Y. A. (2014). Impact of Work Life Balance on Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Among University Teachers: A Case Study of University of Gujrat, Pakistan. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Sciences and Engineering, 5(9).

Bashir, S., & Ramay, M. I. (2008). Determinants of organizational commitment: a study of information technology professionals in Pakistan. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management, 9(2), 226.

Benito-Osorio, D., Munoz-Aguado, L., & Villar, C. (2015). The Impact of Family and Work-Life Balance Policies on the Performance of Spanish Listed Companies. Management 17(4), 214-236.

Bloom, N., Kretschmer, T., & Reenen, John V. (2007). Work-Life Balance, Management Practices and Productivity. Advanced Institute of Management Research Working Paper Series 56.

Konrad, A.M., Mangel, R. (2000). The Impact of Work-Life Programs on Firm Productivity. Strategic Management Journal, 21:1225-1237.

Meyer, C., Mukerjee, S., & Sestero, A. (2001). Work-Family Benefits: Which Ones Maximize Profits? Journal of Managerial Issues, 1, 28-44.

Obiageli, O. L., Uzochukwu, O. C., & Ngozi, C. D. (2015). WORK LIFE BALANCE AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN SELECTED COMMERCIAL BANKS IN LAGOS STATE. European Journal of Research and Reflection in Management Sciences Vol, 3(4).

Perry-Smith, J., & Blum, T. (2010). Work-Family Human Resource Bundles and Perceived Organizational Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 43 (6), 1107-1117.

Singh, S. (2013). work-life balance: A literature review. Global Journal of Commerce & Management Perspective, 2(3), 84-91.

Ueda, Y. (2012). The relationship between work-life balance programs and employee satisfaction: Gender differences in the moderating effect of annual income. Journal of Business Administration Research, 1(1), 65.

Yamamoto, I., & Matsuura, T. (2014). Effect of Work -- Life Balance Practices on Firm Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Firm-Level Panel Data. The BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 14(4), 1677-1708. Comment by babyliza: Yamamoto 2000 and 2012 not referenced.