Work-Life Balance Scale*
A study regarding the six aspects of work-life balance scale

Presented By:
Tazeen Hamid
Umer Qasim

Presented To:
Miss Saba Rana

Final Research Project
Human Resource Management
Work-Life Balance Scale*
Introduction
Work-life (W-L) Balance Scale is meant to diagnose the level and areas of W-L balance in an organization, as perceived by its employees. It should be responded by their employees at various levels in different departments/sections. (Pareek, 2002) Creating a balance between one’s personal life and one’s professional life is now considered to be the very tool in achieving a prosperous multidimensional life. Organizations worldwide are trying hard to create a balance for their employees, which in turn would create a healthy and satisfied workforce that would allow any organization to grow successfully. The study presented here discusses work-life balance of fifty individuals (twenty five Working Males and twenty five Working Females) with respect to the following six aspects namely: 1. Social Needs 2. Personal Needs 3. Time Management 4. Team Work 5. Compensation and Benefits 6. Work The ability to combine work, family commitments and personal life is important for the wellbeing of all household members. It is also important for society as a whole, as it ensures that people have sufficient time, to socialize and participate in the life of the community. This chapter presents a selection of indicators that describe the distribution of people’s time between paid work, time with family, commuting, leisure and personal care. The balance of work and non-work activities has changed considerably in recent decades, with overall gains in leisure and reductions in hours worked. However, these trends conceal the increased complexity of people’s lives, with both men and women taking on a wider variety of tasks in the workplace and at home. The distribution of tasks within the family is still influenced by gender roles: men are more likely to work longer hours of paid work, while women spend longer hours in unpaid domestic work. While gender imbalances are shaped by culture, policy makers can help to address the issue by encouraging supportive and flexible working practices, thereby making it easier for parents to strike a better balance between work and home life (OECD, 2011).

Literature Review
To have a better understanding of Work-Life Balance, we will be reviewing multiple research articles and case studies, which in turn would provide us with a clear understanding of this subject. We have divided these articles under the six aspects of our research, which are as follows:
Team Work
Article 1
(Dunn, 2010) I'M HERE today not to give you the normal PR spin about how strategic the HR function can be, but instead to call BS on the biggest lies in HR. It's not that HR people want to lie. It's just that we've created our own prison: the urban myths that have developed over the last 20 years as the HR function has matured.
We've spawned narratives that make the HR function seem like a cross between Mother Teresa and Stuart Smalley, while the team members — aka employees — we serve actually need more tough love. They need that little thing called the truth, effectively washed down with a bit of leadership, personality and, at times, humor.
I know that you're one of the good HR pros who doesn't subscribe to the lies. But humor me as I move through the list, and we'll see whether you're part of the problem when we wrap this up.
Lie No. 1: We're responsible for the work/ life balance of team members.
The truth: Employees are responsible for their own work/life balance, and if they want more money, promotions and fame, they're going to have to work harder than those around them. If you happen to be a team member reading this, the reality is that the business world is chaotic, and everyone's winging it, to a certain extent. Most companies try to staff at levels relative to the work at hand, but it's still going to feel like a free-for-all at times.
Lie No. 2: It's the company's desire to provide strong benefits to all team members.
The truth: If we had the guts, we'd tell employees: We're not Mom. Up until now, we've only provided benefits because it's an expectation we've had to meet in order to compete in the talent game (and we'll see what happens to competitive aspects of benefits offerings once the health care reform law fully kicks in). We have little to no control over insurance costs incurred, and due to our collective unwillingness to penalize smokers and employees who are gold members at Krispy Kreme, we never will. Employees have to take the cost increases we give them as a result, and if we ever get brave enough to try to change the behavior of the outliers, we'll find we're too late, due to a legislative environment that protects those making unhealthy choices. Wow, that was depressing to write (Dunn, 2010).
The writer in the above mentioned article provides a viewpoint of his own, regarding that of the image that employees have for their HR department, the writer believe that every employee is directly responsible for the level of Work-Life balance in his/her life, not the HR department. It is up to the employees whether to have an easy or a hard life. Secondly the writer also mocks about the benefits that organizations provide to team members, the so called benefits that are provided to the employees are based upon biased judgments. And only those are offered with privileges who are worthy in the eyes of the Management.
Article 2
(HILL, 1998) The literature seems to agree that telework tends to negatively influence teamwork. Callentine (1995) reported that about 90% of her virtual office sample responded that communications with co-teleworkers were less effective than they had been in the traditional office environment. In a qualitative study, Weiner and Hill (1995) found the virtual office negatively influenced communication and peer interaction with co-teleworkers and telemanagers. Ramsower (1985) found that full-time telecommuters engaged in less upward, downward, and horizontal work communications with co-workers and supervisors (HILL, 1998).
(HILL, 1998) Millions of employees now use portable electronic tools to do their jobs from a virtual office” with extensive flexibility in the timing and location of work. However, little scholarly research exists about the effects of this burgeoning work form. This study of IBM employees explored influences of the virtual office on aspects of work and work-life balance as reported by virtual office teleworkers (n = 157) and an equivalent group of traditional office workers (n = 89). Qualitative analyses revealed the perception of greater productivity, higher morale, increased flexibility and longer work hours due to telework, as well as an equivocal influence on work/life balance and a negative influence on teamwork. Using a quasi-experimental design, quantitative multivariate analyses supported the qualitative findings related to productivity, flexibility and work-life balance. However, multivariate analyses failed to support the qualitative findings for morale, teamwork and work hours. This study highlights the need for a multi-method approach, including both qualitative and quantitative elements, when studying telework (HILL, 1998).

In this article, the author cites different sources to support the idea that employees of virtual offices have less communication with their peers in terms of upward, downward and horizontal work communication, which in turn compromises the team work.

Compensation and Benefits
Article 1 (Robillard, 2008) Traditionally, total rewards have been defined as the financial component of the employment relationship--in essence, compensation and benefits. But this definition provides limited opportunities to create differentiation in today's labor markets. To provide a competitive advantage and to support more employee diversity, total rewards demands a broader definition--one that embraces compensation, benefits, employee development and work/life balance (Robillard, 2008).
In this article the author discusses possible ways to and means through which organizations can enhance their Compensation and Benefits programs so that employees feel free to choose according to their liking and needs, and suggest that by doing so employees will have a better work-life balance.
Article 2
(Carlson, 2005) Having a work-life benefits program isn't enough; you must be sure that executives and managers are walking the talk. Women and workers younger than 35 years old cite work-life balance as the most important component to their overall job satisfaction, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, meanwhile men consider work-life balance the fourth most important component to their overall job satisfaction (Carlson, 2005).

In the research article above the writer with the help of over 200 corporate studies, conducted over a period of 13 years, states that having a policy of creating Work-Life balance in a firm is not enough, as it does not create balance on its own. It is imperative to have a system in place to create a Work-Life Balance.

Social
Article 1
(SIU, et al., 2011) In line with the positive psychology movement (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000), work-family interaction research has included concepts of positive spillover (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008; Brough, O’Driscoll, Kalliath, Cooper & Poelmans, 2009; Grzywacz & Marks, 2000). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) suggested that work-family enrichment best captured the mechanism of the positive work-family interface. Work-family enrichment has been defined as “the extent to which experiences n one role improve the quality of life in the other role” (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006, p.73), which can occur in two directions: work-to-family enrichment (WFE) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE) (Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, & Grzywacz, 2006). Furthermore, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) have developed a theoretical model of work-family enrichment process, with a focus on two paths to promote work-family enrichment: an instrumental path and an affective path. The instrumental path conceptualizes the process that a resource can be transferred directly from Role A to promote high performance in Role B, while the affective path conceptualizes the process that a resource generated in Role A can first promote positive affect within Role A, and then the positive affect can spillover to Role B and promotes high performance in Role B. There is empirical evidence showing that resources generated in the family role can improve work role performance through an instrumental (i.e., direct) path (e.g., Graves, Ohlott, & Ruderman, 2007; Weer, Greenhaus, & Linnehan, 2010), and vice versa (e.g., Hunter, Perry, Carlson, & Smith, 2010). However, the original work-family enrichment model proposed by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) has not yet been fully empirically tested. Greenhaus and Powell commented that most studies testing a model of work-family enrichment did not include mediating variables such as positive affect (Rothbard, 2001). They also recommended testing each stage of the model by adopting a longitudinal design that collects data at several points in time. The main purpose of the present study was to specifically test the two processes, with informal support supervisor support and family support) as antecedents, leading to work-family enrichment, and test the mediating role of affect (job satisfaction and family satisfaction) as exemplified in the affect path of the work-family enrichment model proposed by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) by a three-wave study that was conducted in China (SIU, et al., 2011).
In this article the study suggest that when people experience things in any given role, it has a direct effect on them in other roles that they play in their lives. Here the study suggests that when people are happy in their professional lives, they are also happy in their personal live and vice versa.
Personal Needs and Work
Article 1

(Ilies, Wilson, & Wagner, 2009) As we explained in the introduction, a recent stream of research has shown that daily job satisfaction influences employee’s reports of home affect and marital satisfaction (Heller & Watson, 2005; Judge & Ilies, 2004). Our study extends these previous contributions by showing that daily job satisfaction influences not only what employees experience in their family roles but also what their spouses or significant others observe. Given the importance of affect for employees’ social behavior in their family roles (Ilies et al., 2007; Repetti, 1989), showing that daily job satisfaction influences spousal/significant other assessments of employee home affect should be a first step toward developing a more comprehensive model that specifies not only how employees’ work lives influence their own family lives, but also how employees’ work lives influence the lives of their spouses/significant others and other family members (Ilies, Wilson, & Wagner, 2009) In the research article it is found that personal relationships of employees are directly affected by the daily job satisfaction. Spousal relationships are shown to have been directly influenced by the level of job satisfaction and praising, which they receive.

Article 2

(ten Brummelhuis & Tanja, 2010) Today’s workforce encompasses a wide variety of employees with specific needs and resources when it comes to balancing work and life roles. Our study explores whether various types of work-life balance support measures improve employee helping behavior and performance among single employees, employees with a partner, and employees with a partner and children. Using a sample of 482 employees at 28 organizations, the results showed that the organization’s work family culture improved work performance among parents but reduced performance among singles. Singles’ work outcomes improved, however, when they had access to flexible work arrangements, whereas couples benefited from their supervisor’s social support. The results stress the importance of the employee’s household structure when considering appropriate support for balancing work and life roles (ten Brummelhuis & Tanja, 2010). In this article, the results found show that an organization cannot adopt only a single policy for everyone regarding that of work-life balance, as it is shown by the results that policies which are beneficial for employees with a partner, are not very helpful for the employees who are single. Time Management
Article 1

(Roberts, 2008) This article seeks to critique and develop the concept of ‘work–life balance’ by exploring some temporal themes that have emerged from a study of employees who have successfully customized their working patterns in a concerted attempt to improve their work–life balance. Despite its apparent acceptability as convenient shorthand in popular and academic discourse, the term ‘work–life balance’ can be critiqued as overly simplistic and unnecessarily dichotomous creating an artificial separation between ‘work’ and ‘life’. The study reported here was designed to focus on the qualitative experiences of employees who pursued and achieved an individualized working pattern and to examine their approach to the interplay between the various spheres of their lives. Two temporal themes emerged from this study of employees characterized as ‘successful customizers’ which illustrate some of the limitations of the binary work–life approach: the nature of temporal customization and the desire for ‘me time’. The aim of this article is to present some of the empirical data and to explore some tentative conclusions about the implications for the concept of work–life balance. The argument presented here is that focusing entirely on the quantitative dimensions of work is a simplistic way of understanding the nature and quality of work–life balance. The experiences of participants in this study have demonstrated that an improved ‘work–life balance’ is more about a mind-set that refuses to be dominated by a work temporality and is determined to create ‘me time’ rather than, for example, simply choosing a four day week or a part-time job (Roberts, 2008). In this article the researcher is of the idea that when time is measured only in terms of quantity and not in terms of quality it gives a very vague picture of the whole story. By conducting a research on people who had the liberty of adjusting their work time, the researcher has been able to conclude that Work-Life balance is affected greatly by the time, which is spent in what meaning. That is when employees felt freely in their minds about their jobs.

Article 2

(Joyce, Pabayo, & Critchley, 2010) Flexible working arrangements, such as flextime and teleworking, are becoming more common in industrialized countries but the impacts of such flexibility on employee health and wellbeing are largely unknown. This review examined the health and wellbeing effects of flexible working arrangements which favor the worker as well as those dictated by the employer (for example, fixed-term contracts or mandatory overtime).

Ten controlled before and after studies were found which evaluated the effects of six different types of flexible working arrangement on employee health and wellbeing: self-scheduling (n = 4); flextime (n = 1); overtime (n = 1); gradual retirement (n = 2); involuntary part-time (n = 1) and fixed-term contract (n = 1).

Self-scheduling of shift interventions and employee controlled partial/early retirement were found to improve health (including systolic blood pressure and heart rate; tiredness; mental health, sleep duration, sleep quality and alertness; and self-rated health status) and/or wellbeing (co-workers' social support and sense of community) and no ill health effects were observed.

The studies of overtime working, flextime and fixed-term contracts found no significant effects on physical, mental or general health or on any of the wellbeing outcomes examined. Importantly, however, the study on overtime failed to provide detailed information on either the amount or duration of overtime worked, so it is therefore difficult to draw any conclusions regarding the effects of overtime on workers' health and wellbeing.

Overall, these findings seem to indicate that flexibility in working patterns which gives the worker more choice or control is likely to have positive effects on health and wellbeing. However, given the small number of studies included in the review and their methodological limitations, caution should be applied to this conclusion. Well-designed studies are therefore needed to further explain the relationship between flexible working and health and wellbeing (Joyce, Pabayo, & Critchley, 2010).
In this article it is concluded that flexible timings have a positive effect on the employees who actually have this option to their expense. With positive effects their well being and health is improved, but the sample size is not very large to generalize these findings.

Work
Article 1

(Coget, Feb 2011) Consequently, neither of the technophobes’ fears about the Internet with regard to home/work boundaries appears to have materialized in this study. Most respondents kept their boundaries firm: using the Internet mostly for work purposes at work and almost entirely for personal purposes at home. Beyond measuring the frequency of Internet use and time spent on it at work and at home, the study also asked respondents about the extent to which they felt that the Internet helped or hurt their ability to balance work and home life. While 51% of employees reported no change, 41% reported that it helped, and only 8% reported that the Internet proved to be an impediment to work/home balance. Finally, the study also measured the extent to which employees felt that their work duties spilled over to their family activities and vice versa. Surprisingly, Wacjman and her colleagues found that using the Internet at home for work purposes actually decreased the extent to which work spilled over into home responsibilities (Coget, Feb 2011). In this research article it is found that people actually found the use of internet, from their homes, for work purposes to be very favorable, as it has allowed them flexibility, and more options.

Methodology
Our methodology was simple yet it derived precise and up to date results of our topic Work-Life balance. What we did was we did our primary as well as secondary research but most of the work was done through the primary research. We divided our sample into two halves; 50% of them being females and 50% of them being males. We tried to choose our respondents from the two institutions Lse and Lums, where Male and Female teaching staff was given the questionnaires. These organizations are well known for their Hr departments and were taken as our main sampling frames. This was done so that accurate results could be found regarding the differences that gender, culture, time, organizational culture, and nature of people can have on the work-life balance of people.
Then different articles were also read and analyzed on the six elements: 1. Work 2. Social Needs 3. Personal Needs 4. Team Work 5. Time Management 6. Compensation and Benefits
On analyzing both the graphical and the non graphical information was analyzed.

Analysis
Our analysis began after we completed our survey through a questionnaire, data was transferred from the questionnaires to the excel sheets, and the process of its interpretation; then started.
We will be doing our analysis under the following three types: 1. The Working Male Sample Group 2. The Working Female Group 3. The Combined Sample Group
We will be using Charts and other figures to help facilitate ourselves in understanding this study, as we deem it appropriate.

Table and Figure
The W-L Index
Working Males

Graph W-L Index

Working Females

Graph W-L Index

Combined Sample

Graph W-L Index

Social Needs
Working Males Sample

Working Females Sample

Analysis
Males
* So nearly always 50% Working Males were found to have satisfied their social needs, after we bracketed the fairly true and very true responses into one. * The Index also supports this claim by standing at 54 in social needs of male
Females
* The females stand a little behind in terms of social needs than their Male Counterparts, they stood at 50 in W-L Index, with respect to social needs * The pie charts presented also support the results. * Females scored highest in the Party Enjoyment, in which 68% said that they had no difficulty in enjoying parties

Personal Needs
Working Males Sample

Working Females Sample

Analysis
Males
* Overall the Working Males were able to better satisfy their personal need * They stood at 58 W-L index personal Needs * They were able to find much more time for themselves than their female counterparts * They scored lowest in giving time for the studies of their children
Females
* The Working Females Stood at a second all time low in W-L index at 38 * They scored low, in having time for exercise and family time. * There is a huge difference between the indexes of male and females in this respect.

Time Management
Working Males Sample

Working Females Sample

Analysis
Males
* Overall the Working Males were better able to manage their time * They stood at 54 W-L index * They were able to handle time way better than females
Females
* The Working Females Stood at all time low in W-L index at 29 * They scored very low, in traveling time to the organization and adjusting their work time. * There is a huge difference between the indexes of male and females in this respect, with the difference standing at 25

Team Work
Working Male Sample

Working Female Sample

Analysis
Males
* The working males scored a decent 58 in team work * But lost to their female counterparts for the first time out of two occasions * Males preferred to work alone in general
Females
* Females scored the highest mark in this win with 71 at the W-L index * The one of the two aspect in which they have outgunned their male counterparts * Females preferred to work in teams

Compensation and Benefits
Working Male Sample

Working Female Sample

Analysis
Males
* W-L Index standing at 67 * A very good score * But for the first time Equal to that of their female counterparts
Females
* Also standing at 67 in W-L Index * This shows the overall sample considered their benefits to be satisfactory enough * The only factor they believed required changes was that of compensation for overtime. Both male and female.

Work
Working Male Sample

Working Female Sample

Analysis
Males
* Males scored a 63 on the index * Less than the females * Males believed they were not left with good amount of energy after their work
Females
* Females Once again beat their male counter parts with a 67 index * Beating their male counterparts for the second time * Females also believed they were not left with good amount of energy after their work

Conclusion
Starting with the conclusion we found that generally the overall results were relatively low on the W-L Balance scale. The Highest Combined Sample Index was 67 out of 100, for the Compensation & Benefits, whereas the Lowest Combined Sample Index was 38 out of 100 for Time Management. With Male Respondents reporting the higher values than the Female Respondents, at majority of occasions. The Male Population appears to have better work-life balance in respect to Social Needs, Personal Needs, Time Management, Compensation & Benefits and Work. The only aspect Females seems to have a better work-life balance is with Team Work. Our target which was mainly the Teaching faculty at Lse and Lums, generally showed negative indicators regarding aspects which are Time Management, Personal Needs, Social Needs and Work. Time Management Showed the worst values, with Personal Needs coming in at second, then Social Needs and in the end, the aspect of Work. The Other two aspects which showed moderately better values were Team Work and Compensation & Benefits. All of these results not only show what the employees generally feel about their work-life balance, but this also provides a mirror image regarding what the organization are actually taking their employees as. This Study concludes that there exists a certain gap between the People and their Organization in understanding their Needs, and efforts should be made in order to lessen this gap.

Questionnaire
WORK-LIFE BALANCE SCALE
Name: ____________________ Date: ____________________
Organization: ____________________ Role: ____________________
Read each and rate in the space at its left to indicate how much true it is in your experience. Use the following key for your ratings: Write 0 if it is not true. Write 1 if it is a little true. Write 2 if it is somewhat true. Write 3 if it is fairly true. Write 4 if it is definitely true.

No. Response Items
1 _______ I do not find it difficult to take leave at the time of social emergencies.
2 _______ I do exercises and take care of my health.
3 _______ I work for extra hours to get my work done.
4 _______ I meet the expectations of my colleagues and workmates.
5 _______ I comfortably fulfill the basic requirements of my family.
6 _______ I feel pressure while working when given a deadline.
7 _______ I do not find enough time to spend with my family and friends.
8 _______ I get stuck in a meeting on the day of parent-teacher meet in my child’s school.
9 _______ I meet prescribed deadlines and schedules, without affecting my home life.
10 _______ I experience work pressure while doing a group task.
11 _______ I do not have access to Internet and telephone for my family emergencies.
12 _______ I am left with good energy level at the end of the day.
13 _______ I am able to participate in community activities and attend to religious commitments.
14 _______ I help my children in preparing for their exams.
15 _______ I often take additional work to home.
16 _______ I share the work with my colleagues whenever needed.
17 _______ I get opportunity to enjoy holidays with my family.
18 _______ I cannot manage more than one project at a time.
19 _______ I find difficult to attend and enjoy parties.
20 _______ I do not get time for my sick partner/ child/ parents.
21 _______ I can adjust my working schedule to attend my life priorities.
22 _______ I enjoy doing my job alone, rather than with my team.
23 _______ I enjoy the privileges I am offered by the organization.
24 _______ I love to do the kind of work I do, without any stress.
25 _______ I do not get time to invite my friends for a party at home.
26 _______ I get time to attend to my financial obligations, like checking my bank account, insurance, income tax.
27 _______ I am not comfortable with the travelling time to the organization.
28 _______ I prefer doing all assigned jobs in a team.
29 _______ I have difficulty in getting the expenses reimbursed.
30 _______ I am not clear about the objectives of my job.
31 _______ I put in efforts for social advancement of the poor and the needy.
32 _______ I am not able to attend to my household requirements.
33 _______ I do not do over-time to complete my work.
34 _______ I have difficulty in meeting the expectations of my supervisor and seniors.
35 _______ I do not get compensated for my extra efforts in the organization.
36 _______ I enjoy doing my job.

References
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Dunn, K. (2010, May). The top 5 lies in HR. Business Source Premier .
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Ilies, R., Wilson, K. S., & Wagner, D. T. (2009). THE SPILLOVER OF DAILY JOB SATISFACTION ONTO. Academy of Management Journal , 87-102.
Joyce, K., Pabayo, R., & Critchley, J. A. (2010). Flexible working conditions and their effects on employee health and wellbeing. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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