What is meant by work/life integration in organizational behavior?

Work life balance is a method which helps employees of an organization to balance their personal and professional lives. Work life balance encourages employees to divide their time on the basis on priorities and maintain a balance by devoting time to family, health, vacations etc. along with making a career, business travel etc.

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

Importance of work life balance
5 Steps to improve work life balance
1. Creating a work leisure plan
2. Leaving out activities that waste time and energy
3. Outsourcing and Delegating work
4. Set enough time for relaxation
5. Prioritizing work
Benefits of work life balance
Work life Balance Examples
Why Work/Life Integration Instead of Work/Life Balance?
Authorship/Referencing - About the Author(s)

It is an important concept in the world of business as it helps to motivate the employees and increases their loyalty towards the company.

Importance of work life balance

Working on a job for a company and making a career can be an extremely time consuming duty for any employee. Employees are busy at their offices throughout the day and sometimes even on weekends. This gives them very little time to interact with their family. Because of high pressure of work, often family members get neglected. Also, stressful jobs cause the health of employees to deteriorate. This is where work life balance come into the picture. Work life balance concept allows an employee to maintain a fine balance in the time he or she gives to work as well as to personal matters. By having a good balance, people can have a quality of work life.

This helps to increase productivity at workplace as the employee is relaxed about his personal commitments. It also allows the employee to give quality time with family to spend vacations, leisure time, work on his/her health etc. Hence work life balance is extremely important for employees and increases their motivation to work for the company.

The below image depicts a work life balance scenario, where an employee has to balance his/her life between personal (family, friends & self) and professional (job, career) commitments.

5 Steps to improve work life balance

There are specific guidelines to how an individual can maintain a proper work life balance, some of which are:

1. Creating a work leisure plan

Where an individual has to schedule his tasks, and divide time appropriately so that he has allocated appropriate time to his work and his career development goals and at the same time allotted time for leisure and personal development. Employees also use a compressed work week plan to build a balance.

2. Leaving out activities that waste time and energy

Individual should judiciously avoid wasteful activities which demand large time and energy and in return not produce output for either the work life or the leisure life.

Effective time management can help an employee be less stressed.

3. Outsourcing and Delegating work

Delegate or outsource time consuming work to other individuals. It serves two purposes, first the work gets done and the other is person can focus on other things which may align more with skills and knowledge and may be less stressful.

It also helps grooming the other employees.

4. Set enough time for relaxation

Relaxation provides better work life balance, and tends to improve productivity on the professional or the work front along with providing ample scope to develop the life part of the balance.

5. Prioritizing work

Often employees do not give priority to work and end up doing a lot of work at the last minute. Better planning can help employees save unnecessary time delays, which can be utilized by employees for personal work.

Benefits of work life balance

There are several advantages of work life balance. Some of them are listed below:

1. Work life balance increases the motivation of employees and helps them perform better at job

2. It helps people to relieve their stress as they can spend leisure time with their near and dear ones

3. Companies can maximise productivity from an employee who is rejuvenated and refreshed as compared to a over worked employee

4. Healthy lifestyles can be maintained by having a work life balance. This includes a good diet, regular exercises etc.

5. Employees who are highly motivated can help the business grow as they are more attached to their job and careers

Work life Balance Examples

These days many companies and people prioritize work life balance. Some of the examples through which this is happening is Work from Home, flexible work timings, sufficient leaves for vacation and family care. Also sabbatical leaves are offered these days.

Another example is offering people option to move in a different career path which aligns more with the skills and aspirations.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Work Life Balance along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

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UC Berkeley and Berkeley Haas have a number of programs to assist employees integrate different components of their life in a way that 1) fits their needs and 2) provides them control over managing the boundaries of work and personal life.

Why Work/Life Integration Instead of Work/Life Balance?

We use the term Work/Life Integration instead of Work/Life Balance because the latter evokes a binary opposition between work and life. In fact, the traditional image of a scale associated with work/life balance creates a sense of competition between the two elements. Work/Life Integration instead is an approach that creates more synergies between all areas that define “life”: work, home/family, community, personal well-being, and health.

Technological tools have created new ways for us to collaborate and work virtually, bringing with them tailored alternatives for work schedule flexibility. Wellness programs and volunteer opportunities promoted by Berkeley Haas as well as support for child and elder care at UC Berkeley are just a few examples of programs that facilitate in the workplace the integration between work and personal life.

Work and personal life were once considered to be two separate priorities. But with the changing times due to globalization and ever-increasing work pressures, maintaining work-life balance has attracted the attention of the organizations and employees as well. The employees who devote a crucial period of time of their entire day at work or sometimes work for extended hours, are faced with the challenge of balancing their personal lives with the demands of their profession.

The origin of the term Work-Life Balance took place in early 80's, because of a sharp rise in the number of working women professionals having children in tender age-groups dependent on them. The demand for maintaining a work-life balance has risen unprecedentedly among the employees and the management has also acknowledged its importance in the current scenario. In future, work life balance will be one of the hot topics of debate in the boardrooms and is going to be a major area of concern for the management and HR professionals which they will be faced with.

Work-Life balance refers to an effective management or striking a balance between the work which is remunerated and the personal or social responsibilities which an individual is expected to perform. Work life can influence organizational productivity and also the well being of the employees in different ways. Given below are some of the areas in terms of opportunities and concerns on which work life issues can have an impact:

Impact on the Profitability and Growth: Excessive pressure of achieving the profitability and growth targets builds stress, hampers the overall productivity of the employees and disturbs their work-life balance. A well planned and implemented work-life balance strategy may greatly ease the work pressure both on the job and perceived work pressures, which in turn will favourably propel employee productivity and contribute towards a positive return on investment.

Employee Engagement at work and Quality of customer service: An imbalance in the work and life front will adversely affect the complete engagement of the employees at work and hamper the quality of services delivered to the customers. On the other hand, the quality of service will be reliable and consistent, if the employees perceive that their efforts or their presence is valued by the management and also that the organization is committed to ensuring both personal and professional success of their employees.

Talent Acquisition strategy and the Challenges related to it: Increase in the composition of the baby boomers and relatively a young pool of working professionals, have increased their expectations for a favourable work life culture. They expect that apart from their work responsibilities they need to attend to the personal/social responsibilities of their life. In the present scenario, issues with work-life balance is considered to be the prime reasons for a high rate of employee turnover which definitely is an imposed cost on the organization. Research reveals that, Johnson & Johnson was able to achieve a reduction in the rate of absenteeism by almost 50% by introducing flexi-work options and employee welfare policies.

Rising cost of Health Care & Medications: Due to a rise in the level of work pressure and never ending expectations, a major percentage of the employees are faced with lifestyle related diseases and major health problems. This has become a serious issue of concern for the organizations because of the mounting cost of health care and drastic reduction in the ratio of employee productivity. Such concerns have compelled the management to pay importance to work-life balance priorities and creating a healthier workplace by implementing several developmental initiatives.

Work-life initiatives is not a choice but an imperative for the management in the present scenario. It is because, the employees look forward to the support and concern of the management towards their work-life related issues. HR today, holds the extra responsibility of implementing a gamut of initiatives for making their organization an attractive place to work for the employees.

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Authorship/Referencing - About the Author(s)

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