A Perspective on Work-Life Balance and Its Determinants

Abstract

With a changing demography and social structure, the work life balance (WLB) is a major concern felt by employees of most organizations. This study has attempted to have relook at the constructs of work-life balance from the perspectives of banking and information technology employees with various household structures. The present study develops a multidimensional work-life balance scale to measure existing levels of work-life balance. The scale considers work-life balance as a multidimensional second order construct comprising workplace inclusion, family support, employee benefit, time management, coworker relationship, and supervisor-subordinate relationship. The study reveals not only indicators of organizational family work culture, but also personal characteristics such as time management and familial support determine work-life balance. However, no significant difference was perceived in the work life balance was found between employees with different family structures and between the two sectors considered under the study. Also, there was no significant difference in perception of work life- balance between knowledge workers from IT and banking sectors.