SOC 402 Final Paper Balancing Family and Work Life

Balancing Family and Work Life Outline

Leticia Cordero

Instructor:  Gina Rollings

SOC402: Contemporary Social Problems & the Workplace (BIE1510B)

March 23, 2015

Introduction

Balancing work and family life in the fast-paced 21st Century can be a herculean task for people on the move and on an upward career trend. While technology has made it possible to engage in social activities through virtual channels, such as social media on the internet, the human element is lost in the use of technology for family and other social activities. Although the monetary benefits of working long hours are apparent, balancing work and family life is important for both organizations and individuals. Such balancing can lead to feelings of well-being for employees, which consequently will lead to more productivity within organizations. Smart organizations therefore tend to engage in practices that create the potential for employees to have a family life as well as a work life.

Thesis Statement

Therefore, organizational practices and policies, specifically those targeting the female employees, are independent determinants of how well employees are able to balance their work and family life.

Body Paragraph #1

Supporting Evidence

Research on balancing work and family life presents descriptions of a good job, which would create the most suitable conditions for the employee to balance their work and family life. Rafnsdóttir and Heijstra (2013), state that flexibility and autonomy are important features of an organization that provides a suitable climate for employees to balance their work and family life. In a flexible organization, the employee determines when he will work and has the autonomy to organize his work schedule without the constraints of a fixed work schedule. In addition, organizations that include telecommuting, which is working at home through the internet or telephone, generally have better performance outcomes because of the reduced stress because of the autonomy and flexibility allowed by the organization Rafnsdóttir and Heijstra (2013).

Supporting Evidence

Other researchers, Burgess and Waterhouse (2010) point out that organizational policies and practices that offer informal or unofficial working hours generally tend to have better work-life balance outcomes for employees. In a study cited by the researchers on call centers, call centers that offer informal working hours are better able to help their employees balance their work and family life. However, the unofficial working hours should provide opportunities for socialization rather than cause “the detrimental effects of unsociable hours’ (Burgess and Waterhouse, 2010).

Explanation

From the research evaluated, it appears that organizational practices relating to time or working hours have a significant and independent impact on the ability of employees to balance their work and family life.

So What?

Time, which is part of an organization’s work culture, and when it is allotted to the employees is a crucial element of the work and family life balance issue that deserves consideration.

Body Paragraph #2

Supporting Evidence

Haddock, Zimmerman and Ziemba (2006) propose that workplace culture can influence the work and family life balance of employees depending on feelings of control engendered by the organization through its policies and practices. Their findings are similar to the concepts of autonomy and flexibility discussed by Rafnsdóttir and Heijstra (2013). An organizational work culture that supports employee work and family life balancing can attract more commitment from employees. About 48% of commitment by married women to organizations accounted for by the workplace culture (Haddock, Zimmerman and Ziemba, 2006). However, the roles the organizations assign to employees influence employee work and family life balance when time is variable.

Supporting Evidence

According to Marks and McDermid (1996) mothers with more balanced roles reported higher levels of well-being and balance in their work and family life even when they worked for longer hours than those who worked for shorter hours. For those mothers who worked for shorter hours but had unbalanced roles in the organization, there was unbalanced work and family lives and lower levels of well-being.

Explanation

The research therefore shows that overall organization work culture, rather than specific aspects of an organization such as working hours, has an independent influence on an employee’s ability to manage their work and family life.

So What?

Another aspect worth investigating is the role of gender on balancing since the research on balancing work on family life shows that organizational policies and practices related to time have different influences on men and women.

Body Paragraph #3

Supporting Evidence

Do men and women experience different balancing capacities when working within the same organization and all other factors kept constant? The research is mostly conclusive that demands on working women are higher in the workplace than men. Robinson and Godbey (1997) conducted research on gender difference in balancing and found that men spent 39.7 hours per week doing work while women spent 30.8 hours. On the other hand, women spent about 25 hours on caring for family while men spent about 14 hours. This means that women have more demands on family life than men.

Supporting Evidence

Burgess and Waterhouse (2010) also cite that there is a gender imbalance on demands on the female in terms of caring for the family and going to paid work.

Explanation

Organization practices and policies that recognize this imbalance create better opportunities for women to balance their work and family life.

So What?

Gender roles therefore influence the balancing of family and work life but they are not independent variables. This is because organizational practices and policies influence gender balancing of work and family life, making these variables independent on the other two variables considered, which are time and gender.

Conclusion

Rephrase Thesis Statement

The research therefore shows that organizational policies and practice have an independent influence on the ability of employees to balance their work and family life.

Specific to Broad

When the most important variables are considered, such as gender and time as done in the essay, organizational practice and policies still have an overarching influence on balancing.

References

Burgess, J. and Waterhouse, J. (2010). Balancing Work, Family and Life: Introduction to the

Special Edition A Quiet Revolution. Australian Bulletin of Labor, 36(2), 130-132.

Haddock, S., Zimmerman, T. and Ziemba, S. (2006). Practices of Dual Earner Couples

Successfully Balancing Work and Family. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 27(2),

207-234.

Marks, S. R., and MacDermid, S. M. (1996). Multiple roles and the self: A theory of role

balance. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 417-432.

Rafnsdóttir, L. and Heijstra, T. (2013). Balancing Work–family Life in Academia: The Power of

Time. Gender, Work and Organization, 20(3), 283-296.

Robinson, J. P., and Godbey, G. (1997). Time for life. University Park: The Pennsylvania State

University Press