Life Balance Ethical Dilemma - Essay Example

Work – Life Balance Ethical Dilemma Today most of the people have 50- and even 60-hour workweek and as the result they spend less time at home with their families. Such situation fostered the emergence of ethical questions: do the employers respect the need of their employees to balance work and life? Is the value of work and material things overemphasized? How is family influenced by the long weekends? Of course, people need to and want to go home early enough to devote their time to the family members and they would prefer leaving all work-related issues at workplace. As one of the CEOs has noted, people working for him need to have phones even in the bathrooms. Traditionally, business ethics is focused on the morality of action. Therefore, overwork and work-related stress caused by the lack of opportunity to spend enough time with family is the ethical problem which needs to be addressed. Situation Mary in the mother of two small children and is the manager of the large department of the growing company. One day she faces the following situation: her children are sick, but she has to give the major presentation to 200 people who have traveled hundreds of miles to hear it. What should be done? The one may answer that Mary should rather take care of the children. While, most of the people would agree that the job will suffer if Marry blows this off. For most working men and women this situation is the reality, even in those companies which pay enough benefits for maternity leave and have other policies of flexible employment. Over the last 20 years, the hours people spend at workplace has raised steadily. According to the statistics, more than 40 percent of American employees feel that their workload in excessive. Moreover, the average working week (40 hours) does not provide sufficient income for the families. Another factor why people overwork is downsizing and the fear to lose the job. Downsizing has created the surplus in workload as well as increased insecurity – employees feel they need to do extra job or they will lose their place in the company. Such situations are morally questionable about the ethical right of employers asking the employees to do the extra job. Despite of the causes or motivators why people spend more and more time at work, finding the work-life balance has become the major ethical dilemma not only for working mothers, but also for the working husbands and fathers. Changes and Dilemma Resolution The ethical dilemma of work-life balance has been addressed by many organizations. In particular, the federal government of United States has introduced the flexible working hours and child care in 1996 (Deckman 1996). In 1996, the number of working mothers increased and organizations were forced to find the new ways to provide them with the opportunity to balance work and non-work priorities. The following changes were introduced into employment practices: flexible work schedules, on-site child care, flexible leave policies and other benefits. These were the first significant initiatives aimed at enabling employees to meet their family responsibilities. The special attention should be devoted to the flexible work schedules which were supposed to relief working parents from work-life balance ethical strain. First, the flextime means the system of work scheduling when the working day is split into two time periods: core time and flexible time. Employees are obligated to be at work during the core time and are accountable for the total number of hours scheduled to work (Deckman 1996). Unfortunately, there are very few studies available concerning the flexible scheduling benefits and even less studies addressing the impact of flextime on employee’s family life. Employers might think that flextime is the solution for all employees in helping to balance work and life; nevertheless, the research indicates that there is only insignificant difference between the stress of parents who do and do not use the flexible working hours. For example, working mothers need more family-related benefits. Thus, the flextime provides the modest contribution to solving work/family problems even though it might be of value to employees for the reasons other than child care (Deckman 1996). The above changes took place in the American federal government, while in other countries, the benefits of flextime seem to be more significant. In particular, in 2003, British employers received approximately 900,000 requests to work flexibly and granted almost 800,000 of them (Smith 2004). The motivation to seek flexible working hours is based on the need to take care of the small children. Notably, there is the tendency that flextime is requested more by working fathers. Moreover, while the maternity leave in extended to 26 weeks for all young mothers, the young fathers are given the right to take some paid time off as well! (Smith 2004). British employers belief that this change in very important and beneficial for young parents and provides them the opportunity to spend more time with the family and, as the result, avoid work-life balance dilemma. The Need for Changes If the work-life balance dilemma remains unresolved, employees will spend less time with the family, feel stressed and might even eventually quit the job because of inner strain associated with inability to balance properly the working hours and family relations. In the current unstable business environment, the successful resolution of the work-life balance dilemma can be achieved only through attention from both employers and employees. Inability to find this balance leads to the overwork, burnout and the loss of ownership of one’s life (Piazza 2007). Employers have the expectation to reach their employees 24 hours 7 days per week and as the global organizational structure becomes the norm, people have less opportunities to separate life and work. Piazza has provided the nine characteristics of the modern business environment: 1) reduced job predictability and stability which contributes to the workplace stress, 2) 24/7 connectivity creates the sense of urgency and expected immediate response, 3) dependence of workers upon and being identified with digital technology, 4) the feeling of being overwhelmed with information which inhibits employees from being able to locate required information, 5) simultaneous participation in more than one meeting which lessens the attention and concentration on the specifics, 6) the perception that work is the primary life task causes employees to choose between career and private life, between work responsibilities and family duties, 7) the encroachment of work into personal life which leads to the loss of individual’s control over life and working schedule, 8) the lack of clear separation between work and life results in the inability to take sick days when needed (2007). The above characteristics of the modern business environment indicate that it is much harder to find the balance between work and life today, and the inability to separate family and work responsibilities leads to the inner distress. Capella has further investigated the ethical issues and noted that from cognitive perspective, work-family conflict is positively related to the number of hours worked per week, as well as the number of hours worked/commuted per week (2001). Work-family conflict has also been associated with the amount of overtime as well as the presence and irregularity of the shift-work. There is the need to change workplace policies because the time spent on activities within one role (work) generally cannot be devoted to the activities within another role (family). In other words, time pressures are associated with the membership role when it is impossible to comply with the rising expectation with the membership role and when the time pressures lead to preoccupation of the role even when an individual is physically attempting to meet the demands of another role (Capella 2001). Recommendation As it was already noted, flexible working hours do not reduce help individuals to find the better balance between family and work. In addition, the current business environment forces employees to choose between career and family responsibilities. There is the urgent need to the find the effective way of resolving this ethical dilemma. Companies should find the way to manage employees effectively without exploiting them and not impairing their personal life (Piazza 2007). First, the changes need to start within the organization culture. Organizational culture is the social ecology which sets not only the company’s practices but also the tome of how the workplace is viewed by the employees. While striving to reach strategic objectives, managers to work in the manner that fosters employees well being. The appropriate work-life balance should be the fundamental concern. In particular, employers should understand that employees have live outside of work and that fulfilling the personal lives is critical to high performance (Piazza 2007). Promotion of time off and recreation is one of the ways to show this understanding. Employees, at the same time, need to believe that they always have the choice and should thoroughly set the priorities based upon their desires to devote more time either to work or to family. Human Resource Management department as the advocate of organization and employees, plays vital role is helping employees to overcome work-life balance ethical dilemma. In particular, the vision of the employee as the spouse, as the parent and as the person with the interests outside of work with the need for leisure time should be integrated with the involvement of HR (Piazza 2007). Employees should be aided in development of the schedules which allow them to take extended vacation and not work when they ill. Personal Opinion The vast majority of people need to work in order to provide for the well being of the family, to buy food and cloth, to go for vacation and to be the integrated member of society. At the same time, every person wants to have family, to have enough time to devote to recreational activities and to relax after the busy working day is over. Nevertheless, as the modern business practices require, not every employee is able to find the balance between his work-related responsibilities and family duties. As the result, the ethic dilemma is created when employees need to set priorities and devote their time either to work or to family. Alternatively, the companies need to develop the policies which meet the needs of employees and recognize them as the social individuals who have life outside of workplace. Finding the proper work-life balance in ethical manner is an achievable task if the company and the employee work together to find the solution. Every company should, in the first place, take care of the needs of its employees, and make sure that its ethical code is in line with the expectations of the employees. Word Count: 1768 References Capella, L., Greene, W. & Walls, G. (2001). Toward a Source Stressors Model of Conflict between Work and Family. Review of Business, 22 (1), 86+. Deckman, M. & Ezra, M. (1996). Balancing Work and Family Responsibilities: Flextime and Child Care in the Federal Government. Public Administration Review, 56 (2), 174-176. Piazza, C. (2007, January 23). 24/7 Workplace Connectivity: A Hidden Ethical Dilemma. Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University. Smith, J. (2004, July 2). Perspective: Balancing Business and Family Needs; Jacqui Smith, MP for Redditch and Industry and Equality Minister, Was in Worcester Yesterday Hosting a Round-Table Discussion with Employers and Parents about Balancing Work and Family Priorities. Here She Outlines How She Believes New Employment Laws Are Making a Difference. The Birmingham Post, p. 10. Read More