Work-Life Balance and Employee Relations - Dentsu Inc - Case Study Example

Work-Life Balance and Employee Relations: Case Study Analysis By: Professor: Class: University: City: State: Date of submission: Work-Life Balance and Employee Relations: Case Study Analysis Introduction Employee exploitation is becoming a common practice in most businesses; as a result, they work long hours without adequate resting, which greatly impact their health and general organizational performance in the long-term (Adenso-Diaz & Laguna, 2009, 358). Various business sectors are becoming highly competitive with employees in positions of delivering the desired competitive advantage. Due to such competitions, there have been significant changes in the workplace hours and deterioration in the employee relations leading to emergence of various risks and health hazards on the employees. With the changes, the traditional employment contract changed through the corporate downsizing and increment in the part-time and the temporary employees (Ho & Syddansk Universitet, 2006, 152). Moreover, there have been increments in the number of women coming into the labour force leading to the intensification of the conflict between work and family in their lives. As a result, many organizations have been focusing on improving their human resource policies and practices with an aim of addressing work/life balance to assist the employees cope with their time-pressured lives (Armstrong, 2009, 107). Additionally, the human resource practices have been increasing their efforts of recruiting, retaining, and motivating the valued employees within the highly competitive market. There have been several definitions of work life balances and employee relations. Work life balance strategies are the mechanisms used by the human resources in enhancing the autonomy of the employees through the process of coordination and integration of the work and various non-work aspects of their lives (Fry & Cohen, 2008, 272). The aim of this essay is to analyze the case of a young woman who worked within an advertising company, Dentsu Inc. and died due to overwork after it was found that she logged in 105 hours of the monthly overtime (Asahi Shimbun, 2016). For effective analysis, the essay will focus on various human resource theories and link them with different practices: work life balance and employee relations. Karoshi Statistics in Japan In an annual report released by the Japanese government, the study revealed that 23% of 1,743 businesses surveyed had their employees working 80 hours overtime in each month a criteria beyond which the death of the worker could be linked to overwork (North & Morioka, 2016, 148). Moreover, some businesses, 12%, had their employees working 100 hours overtime in a month. In terms of industries, 44% of businesses information and communication have their employees beyond normal hours, 40% in the research and technology services, and 38% in trucking and postal businesses (The office of the KAROSHI Hotline National Network, 2001). In 2015, the country experienced 96 deaths of workers due to illnesses of the heart and brain because of overworking under the labour accident compensation scheme. Moreover, 93 workers have tried and committed suicides due to mental problems from overwork. In the 1993, the International Labour Organization – World Labour Report revealed that most Japanese workers were suffering from working long hours and even karoshi (Kanai, 2008, 212); however, years down the line, the government has not been able to handle the situation which contributed to the death of a woman worker at Dentsu Inc. However, it is important to consider real working conditions based on service overtime work, which is the unpaid overtime-work, gender and company size gaps, weaknesses of the trade unions, and inadequate regulations from the government (Hudgins & Gevrek, 2016, 152). According to the Japanese Labour Ministry, compensation claims for karoshi increased to hit a record of 1456 in 2015 with most cases associated with health care, shipping and construction, and social services industries (as cited in The Japan Times, 2016). Figure 1: Number of suicides from Poor Work-life Balance in Japan Human capital and human performance There has been growing evidence demonstrating the positive connection between the development of the human capital and organizational performance (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2011, 152; Wei, Yili & Tian, 2013, 102). The focus on the human capital within the organization reflects the view that the market value depends less on the intangible resources but the intangible ones especially the human resources (Premeaux, Adkins & Mossholder, 2007, 750). Therefore, it is important that businesses focus on appropriate methods of ensuring effective and efficient development of the employees. However, the methods used need to focus on physical, mental, and psychological development of the employees such ensuring proper work life balance and existence of effective employee relations (Kanai, 2008, 211). Recruiting and retaining the best performing employees only forms part of the equation. As a result, many employees have been working beyond the stipulated time without communicating with their human resource management and supervisors on some of the risks that they experience. Poor organizational communication lays the foundation of the risks associated with poor work life balance (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2011, 174). In Dentsu Inc., the woman employee failed to communicate her poor work life balance to the human resources leading to death. In a bid to ensure effective human capital and capital, it is important that the human resource management leverage on the skills and capability of the employees through encouraging the organizational and individual learning. Furthermore, the organization needs to ensure the existence of support environment, which allows creation, sharing, and application of knowledge to prevent various risks and hazards associated with poor work life balance and employee relations (Iwasaki, Takahashi & Nakata, 2006, 539). Throughout the years, there have been issues on the factors contributing to the desired competitive advantage with the emphasis shifting from the external positioning within the industry and the relative balance of the competitive factors towards acknowledging the significant role played by the human resources to ensure sustainable effectiveness. To some extent, the employees have sacrificing their time for organizational recognition; however, such practices mainly contribute to the poor health resulting into poor performances and death. The research undertaken by Penrose (1959) laid the foundation for the resource-based view of the firm (RBV). The concept of RBV establishes the significance of business to build valuable set of the resources and integrating them together in a unique and dynamic manner in developing the success of the business (Beauregard & Henry, 2009, 16). According to the RBV strategy, the competitive advantage is dependent on the natural resources, economies of scale, and technology but not only on the human resources as some human resource practices stress.(as cited in Nolan, 2009, 182) These factors lead to poor work life balance of the workers and employee relations. In the real sense, human capital is an invisible asset that the organizations need to utilize adequately to achieve the desired competitive advantage. In such cases, the significance of human capital and the manner in which HR processes manages them becomes apparent. Employee satisfaction with the long hours and impacts on both employees and employers Studies in developed countries such as the United Kingdom reveal dissatisfaction with the long working hours and preferences for shorter hours, which is considered to increase the number of working hours (Premeaux, Adkins & Mossholder, 2007, 713). However, it is important to note that such patterns conceal significant differences. Overall, women are likely to be dissatisfied with their job. The case is ironical in the case of Dentsu Inc. that the woman died due to long hours of working conditions. The reverse is true for the men. Nonetheless, the rate of satisfaction associated with the aspects of promotion increases the more people work especially among the women (Adenso-Diaz & Laguna, 2009, 560). The studies also reveal that women are likely to want to reduce their working hours especially those working for long hours. In Japan, US, and UK studies reveal that manual workers working for long hour are able to boost significantly their overtime working never exhibit satisfaction with long hours but are normally resistant to reduction in the number of working hours (Wang & Verma, 2012, 422). It is important to note that long working hours have significant impacts on the employees and employers. Based on the existing evidence, establishing conclusively whether working for long hours is beneficial or detrimental is not easy. However, the existing evidence suggests that reduction in the long hours might be the factors associated with increased employment and productivity (North & Morioka, 2016, 147; Guest, 2009, 262). Integration of the long hours working and sleep disruption contributes significantly to deterioration in task performance due to the detrimental effects of overworking on the rates of error, pace of the work, and social behaviour of the employees (Wang & Verma, 2012, 423). Generally, there is no conclusive evidence that long working hours leads to low levels of organizational performance. There is little robust statistical evidence on the effects of the long working hours on the turnover, absence, and motivation of the employees. Women are likely to be disadvantage by the long working hours than men. Several researches reveal that business entities with systemic long hours of working, the careers of the women are restricted with few links supporting such claims (Tiwari, & Saxena, 2012). Work life Balances and Employee Relations Work life balance practices are organizational deliberate changes designed with an aim of reducing work-life conflict to ensure that the employees are more effective at work and their roles. In the recent years, there have been transitions from the perception of viewing the work life balance as a method of accommodating the individual workers with care giving responsibilities in recognition of their efforts and contribution to business performance (Thoms, 2005, 151). The competing and multi-faced demands associated with both the work and home responsibilities have been able to assume the relevance of the workers over the years considering the increased changes in the demographic and work life practices. These factors include increment in women in the workforce (dual-career couples, growth in the reluctance to accept the longer hours culture, and transformation in structures of the family, and advancement in technology (Thoms, 2005, 152). While responding to changes and conflicts generated among the various roles that employees occupy, there have been increasing pressure on the organization to redesign their different practices which intend to facilitate the efforts of the employees to fulfil their commitments: personal and organizational. Within the field of human resource management, the manner of achieving work life balances and improving such practices is important and has been able to receive significant attention from the popular media, academic researchers, employers, and employees (Wei, Yili & Tian, 2013, 107). It is critical to understand that work life balance does not mean devotion of an equal amount of time to the paid work and non-paid responsibilities; in the wider, work life balance is the satisfactory level of the involvement or “fit” between the multiple roles with the life of the people (Thoms, 2005, 107). However, the definition and explanations associated with work life balance tend to vary as some of the human resource practices associated work life balances with the equilibrium between the duration of work and effort that employees devote to work and personal activities with an aim of maintaining the overall sense of the harmony in life. Research indicates that employees who have control over their working environment tend to suffer less from the ill health associated with stress with clear implications associated with the work life balance. In human resource management, work life balance and employee relations is a meaningful achievement and enjoyment in the lives of the employees; therefore, to achieve better work life balance, it is important that each employee work smarter to ensure they undertake their works in less time (Alcover, Martínez-Iñigo & Chambel, 2012, 110). Based on Dentsu Inc.’s case, the major way the human resource practice within the company is facilitating work life balance for the workers through ensuring effective work life practices, which are associated with flexibility in the work, and reducing the durations of work (Guest, 2009, 261). Although many companies have extensive work life balance programs, there have not yet been changes in the organizational cultures that support the employees and managers in need of the work life options (Pankaj Tiwari, & Karunesh Saxena, 2012). More and more professionals seek greater degree of balance between life and work. One of the ways of achieving such is through nurturing personal relationship with the employees through effective relations. Research indicates that employees with effective and strong relationship tend to live longer, have reduced stress levels, and high passion for their work (Kanai, 2008, 211; Davies & Liang, 2011, 124). Having quality employee relationships is the most important factors for enriching the lives of employees (Iwasaki, Takahashi & Nakata, 2006, 538). A balanced and happy life often translates into high level of productive professional life. In addition, a strong friendship within the workplace often contributes to higher productivity, better performance, and lowering attrition levels. To certain extent, workplace is an inevitably social place in which the employees are likely to excel if they are connected to the other people at different levels: personal and professional. There is need for employee motivation to recharge outside of the office and ensure that they take time for things that they enjoy. If the employees are allowed to share such endeavours with their peers within the workplace, then they are likely to foster important workplace relationship. Work life balance policies and HRM Within the competitive labour market, the organizations tend to improve their ability of attracting the best recruits through offering the flexible policies and highly competitive remuneration packages. According to Dex and Scheibl’s strategic model, if the critical mass of the businesses offer work life balance policies, it might be difficult for the other organizations to hold out and fail to offer the work life balance programs (as cited in Wang & Verma, 2012, 415). One of the roles of the human resources management is recruitment. Therefore, they have to communicate information on the job and the organization; as a result, they play significant role in the recruitment process. The source of the information provided on the job and organization influence the perceived person-job fit, the subsequent attraction, and the voluntary and avoidable turnover. However, the assumption behind such concept is that the accurate and the realistic information on the job enable those applicants to check and evaluate the extent of their congruence between the knowledge, abilities, and skills and the requirements of the job (Davies & Liang, 2011, 214). Nonetheless, some of the studies use Social Identity Theory to study the manner in which work life balance policies attract the future employees. Since work life balance policies could be structure around the career paths especially the flexibility, the organizations could differ based on the career paths available to the employees. The influence on the organizational work life practices might be compromised through the practices associated with achievement of the intended aims. However, even if some of the employees are fully aware of the policies implemented within the organizations, most of them show reluctance of using such practices especially those experiencing challenges. Considering the flexibility of the working hours, researchers speculate that it could increase the productivity of the organization since the workers could choose to work during their peak hours in terms of their personal productivity (Beauregard & Henry, 2009, 15). There is a close connection between work life balance and job related attitudes, increment in the interest of the employee, and engagement in quality management practices. A supportive organizational culture tends to facilitate the peer and supervisor through enabling career progression with experiencing presenteeism and working long hours. Through work home friendly approaches, these organizations enable the employees to use of the work home practises. Karoshi and related theories Currently, there is a huge pool of human resources seeking for employment opportunities; as a result, there is consideration for psychological contract, which reflects the deal package between the employer and the employee regarding the perception of the two parties of the mutual obligation towards one another (Wei, Yili, & Tian, 2013, 109). In Dentsu Inc., it seems that there was no psychological contract that lead to the death of the women who worked for unsustainably long hours. The organization and employee failed to set the promises and the expectation, which they need to exchange in their employment relationships. Psychological contract differs from the formal employment contracts considering their tacit and implicitly as they are invisible assumed, and unspoken. Human resource management play important roles in ensuring that when individuals become employed within the organization, they understand the policies and their working rights to prevent various psychological risks within the organization (Bellou, 2009, 815). When recruited within the organization, most employees do not realize that they are forming the contract with the organization; therefore, psychological contract theory cites that it is important that the employees understand their roles and working terms within the organization. However, to some extent, the organization might have breached the contract leading to long hours of working. As human resources management, it is important to understand the manner in which psychological contract breach affect the workers which might assist the organization to prepare whenever such scenarios occur (Cuyper & Witte, 2006, 400). The battle for survival in various organizations has led to liquidation, amalgamation, acquisition, and mergers. Moreover, the employees have been on the receiving ends for such practices. To remain competitive and relevant within the market, some human resource practices have resorted to full exploitation of the employees using some undesired practices such as long working hours (Ho & Syddansk Universitet, 2006, 132). With challenges associated with finding new job opportunities, the employees in most cases have no choices but to remain organizational workers. As a result, there have been significant research on best practice and best fit theory as a strategic tool of achieving the organizational objectives. The strategy has been the means of survival for many organizations of achieving the set goals through the best fit in meeting the desired needs at various levels. Focusing on the Dentsu Inc.’s case, it is evident that the organization failed to apply the theory. Long working hours might be an appropriate strategy but not through the women which it considered best fit. Women are exposed to several psychological problems at home that working for long hours is to call for inefficiencies and serious health hazards as witnessed in Dentsu Inc. case (Beham, Etherington & Rodrigues, 2011, 122). Many researchers have seen human resource management as achieving organizational goals through predetermination of the guidelines of gaining the edge over the other: best practice or high performance work practice. Based on the soft and hard HRM theory, it seems that Dentsu Inc. uses Hard HR Management, which views the employees as resources and organizational assets of achieving the desired objectives; as a result, it does not distinguish them from the machinery and building. Within the hard HR practice, there is minimal communication from top down, minimum wage, and little empowerment; thus, the employees go extra mile sacrificing their time to receive recognition from the management. However, these have great impact on their health and work concentration. Based on the timescale, the hard HR practices use short-term policy in which the employees are hired and fired as appropriate. The motivational techniques used are pay with limited delegation and team working which makes it difficult for the employees to communicate their status. Recommendations The best HR practices need to integrate the needs of the employees and ensure that they understand the role. In most cases, to improve organizational efficiency and work output among the employees, the management need to consider soft HRM practices, which takes the long-term view of the employees and considers them efficient in the achievement of the long-term corporate objectives (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2011, 105). Moreover, to reduce the chances of hazard occurrence, it is important to consult on regular basis with the employees, giving the employees control over their working life through delegation, empowerment, and adequate training and development. Empowered employees effectively understand their roles to the organization, which prevent breach of the psychological contracts. To reflect the long-term objective of developing the workforce, the organization needs to promote the employees where possible. Furthermore, it is significant that the HRM department make the executive and organizational leader aware on the significant role played by the organizational culture in the implementation of effective work life balance and employee relations. In turn, the management could show commitment to effective work life balance through adequate allocation of resources and security since they need to commit they need to commit their efforts as it encourages participation and foster the spirit of risk taking to effective achievement of organizational needs (Fry & Cohen, 2008, 270). Conclusion Based on the analysis of the Dentsu Inc., the management uses hard HRM practices, which does not consider the needs of the employees. The practices view the employees as organizational assets and do not distinguish them from the machinery and buildings. The woman at the company died since there were no appropriate measures of managing work life balance within the organization or the management breached the psychological contract. Work life balance strategies are the mechanisms used by the human resources in enhancing the autonomy of the employees through the process of coordination and integration of the work and various non-work aspects of their lives. The influence on the organizational work life practices might be compromised through the practices associated with achievement of the intended aims. However, even if some of the employees are fully aware of the policies implemented within the organizations, most of them show reluctance of using such practices especially those experiencing economic turn trams. To reduce the chances of hazard occurrence, it is important to consult on regular basis with the employees, giving the employees control over their working life through delegation, empowerment, and adequate training and development. More and more professionals seek greater degree of balance between life and work. One of the ways of achieving such is through nurturing personal relationship with the employees through effective relations. A balanced and happy life often translates into high level of productive professional life. In addition, a strong friendship within the workplace often contributes to higher productivity, better performance, and lowering attrition levels. If the employees are allowed to share such endeavours with their peers within the workplace, then they are likely to foster important workplace relationship. References Adenso-Diaz, B., & Laguna, M. (2009). A Technique To Minimize Overtime In The Capacitated Mrp Problem. 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