Work-Life Balance

• Work/life balance


  The extent to which an individual is equally engaged in and equally satisfied with – his or her work and family role
• Definitions of work/life balance terms

  • Work/family
  • Work/family conflict
  • Work/life balance from employer viewpoint
  • Work/life balance from individual viewpoint
  • Family friendly benefits
  • Work/life program
  • Work/life initiatives
  • Work/family culture
• Theories and concepts in work/life balance

  • Role strain/stress
  • Role conflict
  • Conflict hypothesis
  • Role balance
  • Positive role balance
  • Negative role balance
  • Segmentation model
  • Spillover model
  • Compensation model
  • Instrumental model
  • Conflict model
  • Border theory
• Work/life balance dimensions


  • Time balance
  • Involvement balance
  • Satisfaction balance
• Well-being


  A state of happiness, being pleased and content, low degrees of anguish, generally positive physical and cognitive health and attitude, or good quality of life
• Stress


  Physiological and psychological responses to excessive and usually unpleasant stimulation and to threatening events in the environment
• Stress-related physical problems


  • High blood pressure
  • Ulcers
  • Colitis
  • Heart disease
  • Arthritis
  • Skin diseases
  • Allergies
  • Headaches
  • Neck and lower back pain
  • Increase in infectious diseases
• Occupational health psychology


  The field of study dealing with the health effects of job stress and other aspects of well-being
• Objectives of occupational health

  • Maintenance and promotion of workers' health and working capacity
  • Improvement of working environment and work to become conducive to safety and health
  • Development of work organizations and working cultures in a direction which supports health and safety at work and in doing so also promotes a positive social climate and smooth operation and may enhance productivity of the undertakings
• Environmental influences on mental health

  • Opportunity for control
  • Opportunity for skill use
  • Externally generated goals
  • Environmental variety
  • Environmental clarity
  • Affective well-being
  • Competence
  • Autonomy
  • Aspiration
  • Integrated functioning
• Mental health


  Our cognitive, and/or emotional wellbeing - it is all about how we think, feel and behave
• Work stress/job stress


  The harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker
• Types of stress


  • Eustress (positive stress)
  • Distress (negative stress)
• Characteristics of eustress


  • Motivates, focuses energy
  • Is short-term
  • Is perceived as within our coping abilities
  • Feels exciting
  • Improves performance
• Characteristics of distress


  • Causes anxiety or concern
  • Can be short- or long-term
  • Is perceived as outside of our coping abilities
  • Feels unpleasant
  • Decreases performance
  • Can lead to mental and physical problems
• Physiological effects of stress include adrenaline release, blood pressure rise, heart rate increase, and extra sugar discharge into the bloodstream
• Males and females respond differently to stress: males have a fight-or-flight response while females have a tend-and-befriend response
• High job satisfaction


  Fewer harmful effects of stress
• High levels of job dissatisfaction

  Considerable stress-related effects
• Challenge-related stress


  Includes time pressure and high levels of responsibility, leads to fulfillment and achievement
• Hindrance-related stress


  Includes excessive job demands and constraints, leads to frustration and low satisfaction
• Top executives seem to handle stress better than middle managers, having 40% fewer heart attacks
• Factors that help cope with stress

  • High job satisfaction
  • Control over working conditions
  • Social support
  • High levels of skills and abilities
  • Good general physical health
• Type A personality


  Characterized by high competitive drive and a constant sense of time urgency, associated with heart disease, anger, hostility, time urgency, competitiveness, and depression
• Type B personality


  More relaxed, rarely have heart attacks before age 70, and experience less stress
• Hardiness


  A personality variable based on the idea of control that may explain individual differences in vulnerability to stress, characterized by control, commitment, and challenge
• Locus of control (LOC)


  Belief about how much influence individuals have on the forces and events that shape their lives, high internal LOC correlates with less stress
• Self-efficacy


  Our belief in our ability to accomplish a specific task, our sense of how adequate, efficient, and competent we feel about coping with life's demands
• Self-esteem


  How we feel about ourselves, organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) is a personality dimension relating to our assessment of our adequacy and worth with regard to our place in the employing organization
• Negative affectivity (NA)


  A "Big 5" personality dimension characterized by a generalized life and job dissatisfaction and by a focus on negative aspects of events, closely related to neuroticism
• Self-efficacy


  Our belief in our ability to accomplish a specific task
• Self-efficacy (individual-focused)


  Our sense of how adequate, efficient, and competent we feel about coping with life's demands
• Self-efficacy (collective)


  Group-focused sense of self-efficacy
• High levels of self-efficacy


  Feel more control and are more stress resistant
• Self-esteem


  How we feel about ourselves
• Organization-based self-esteem (OBSE)


  A personality dimension relating to our assessment of our adequacy and worth with regard to our place in the employing organization
• High OBSE


  See themselves as important, effective and worthwhile
• Low OBSE


  More affected by stress and are more passive in coping with it
• Negative affectivity (NA)


  A "Big 5" personality dimension characterized by a generalized life and job dissatisfaction and by a focus on negative aspects of events; Closely related to neuroticism
• People high in NA


  Likely to experience distress and dissatisfaction in all areas of life