The Demand for the Performance of Work within Organizations - Essay Example

In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand for performance of work within organizations. The growth may be ascribed to various factors such as technology, global competition, and changes within different organizations and economies (Howard, 2009). Consequently, the balance of life between work and non-work roles has ended up being a major concern in family and social environments. Individuals are more persuaded towards working for longer hours to develop personal careers (Cunningham, 1982). The productivity and performance of an employee in work is negatively impacted by stress from work or conflict within the family.

It is argued that many employers have adopted work procedures that are flexible in order to solve challenges that face employees in work and non-work life (Kim et al., 2017). This paper presents a critical evaluation of the relationship between work and non-work life. In the first place, the paper presents a clear understanding of issues related to work and non-work life. Next, the paper evaluates the cost and benefits of spillover in relation to work and non-work issues. The following part presents a critical evaluation of the threefold typology: extension, opposition and neutrality in relation to work and non-work issues. In addition, issues related to work load, relationship between leisure and work, and the impact of technology will be presented with critical evaluation and evidence based on different scholars. Further, the paper analyzes the role of women in relation to work-life balance and provides a conclusion.

Issues in work are termed as the number of hours of service that one has been contracted by an organization including irregular and unpaid tasks that enables one to create a living out of an economic and social setting (Grzywacz, Almeida, & McDonald, 2002). On the other hand, non-work issues can be defined as home and family life that offers one time for leisure to achieve pleasure and is not included in work obligations of an individual. Among the issues involved in work include daily obligations of an organization, workload paid, productivity, work relationships, leisure, and performance as well as other issues (Grzywacz, Almeida, & McDonald, 2002). Besides this, issues involved in non-work include responsibilities out of paid work such as parenting, social groupings, political parties, and charities among others. It is argued that work domains are influenced more by non-work domains as compared to how work domain influence non-work (Ong & Jeyaraj, 2014). Depending on the kind of interaction that exists between work and non-work, the influence of work issues to non-work issues can either be positive or negative. Being engaged in different roles of work in a particular day may persistently interfere with non-work roles.

Policies that organizations design to reduce stress among employees can improve the level of job satisfaction as well as satisfaction of life with family and friends, which leads to an improvement in the wellbeing of life (Abendroth & Dulk, 2011). Work and non-work issues are related in that they are in a single domain that is affected by the other domain. Based on the kind of interference, the relationship between issues related to work and non-work may differ in their nature (Bakker, Demerouti, & Dollard, 2008). It is argued that issues related to work impact negatively to family issues more as compared to how family issues impact work.

It is clear that work and non-work issues have a relationship that is interactive in nature (Reilly, Sirgy, & Gorman, 2012). It is discovered that an effect of action on a single issue on work has a direct impact on issues related to non-work. Therefore, the kind of interaction is the basis of the relationship between work and non-work. A conflict of role arises when a negative interference exists between work and non-work issues. A disparity between work demand and resources available affects employees; similarly, employees are affected by the negative interference that exists in work and non-work domain (Kim et al., 2017). On the contrary, if the resources available go beyond the need to complete the work then employees are facilitated in their work. Obligations of the family and responsibilities at work compete for attention and time (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). On the other hand, it is argued that the level and nature of the relationship between the selections of coping strategies, behavior, and situational evaluations can also incorporated in terms of work and non-work relation as well as coping strategy. It is important to understand spillover and cost benefits since if the costs surpasses the benefits, then it may not be achievable. It is argued that benefits of spillover leads into satisfaction of employees, dedication, facilitation, and integrity.

According to Wilson (2010), non-work issues affect work issues more as compared to how work issues influence non-work issues. It is evident that work and non-work have a relationship that is interactive in their context. Therefore, the relationship between work and non-work issues is dependent on the nature of the interaction. Responsibilities of work and obligations of a family strive for attention and time.

The relationship between work and non-work can be addressed under three sections; spillover/extension, compensation/opposition and neutrality (Grzywacz, Almeida, & McDonald, 2002). Spillover can be termed as a condition where the experience of a particular role impacts the experiences in another responsibility, making them similar. Edwards and Rothbard (2005) argue that generalization of the experiences is as a result of similarities between concepts in the two experiences. Spillover can either be positive, that is transfers satisfaction or it can be negative, that is, it can transfer fatigue (Staines, 1980).

On the other hand, compensation can be termed as efforts anticipated to solve negative experiences on a particular domain by improving positive efforts towards a different domain (Staines, 1980). The approach of opposition describes the relationship between work and leisure to be opposite to each other. Lastly, neutrality relationship has no causal relationship exist between work and non-work.

Many factors influence family and work life. Among them include the type of job one does, the social, economic and cultural environment, and the kind of companies that they work for (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Currently, there is an upcoming trend in the participation of members of a family as well as spouses in work environment, which has resulted into people creating a conflict over roles. The absence of balance in work life has increased the level of divorce within family members. The rise in number of women involved in paid work has increased the likelihood of imbalances within a family (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). The role of women in a dual career family is made more complex when having a child going to school. According to research findings, it is argued that majority of women who are in dual career face challenges in balancing their responsibilities (Beauregard & Henry, 2009).

Gender is another factor that influences work and non-work relations. Women and men react and perceive work and non-work life in different ways (Lambert, 1990). Women are always assigned to responsibilities in the family while men are ascribed to the role of breadwinner according to gender norms. The wide integration of women into the labor market has increased their responsibilities. Women are now expected to handle both family and professional responsibilities (Lambert, 1990). Thus, men find it easier to reconcile between work and non-work life as compared to women. In addition, organizational culture has a significant effect on the outcomes of the organization and employees (Beauregard & Henry, 2009). Currently, organizations are trying to include a culture of trust through providing employees with flexible hours. However, men view flexible working hours as a way to improving their commitment to the organization while women view it a way to improve the balance between work and non-work life (Beauregard & Henry, 2009). It is therefore evident that the culture of flexible working hours favors women more than men due to their responsibilities.

The performance of an employee is a major concern among most of the employers in today’s world of employment (Rothbard, Phillips, & Dumas, 2005). Thus, most of the employers are implementing programs to support leisure in order to offer employees what they need. It is argued that majority of the employers currently consider hiring employees as hiring a family. The stress due to workload, tension and pains need to be recovered employees. Workload is described as job assignments that have severe intensity (Moen, Kelly, & Huang, 2008). Normally, it brings mental stresses among employees working in different organizations. Some of the indicators stress that result from workload may include sluggishness, absenteeism and inattention among others. Besides this, workload is viewed in different perspectives; some employees handle it in the best way while others misuse it. Stress levels among employees are also affected by changes in workload.

Employees are given an opportunity to learn and prosper through workload and the experience they gather. It is argued that employees who have the ability to deal with different duties enjoy their workload (Heymann, Earle, & Hayes, 2007). It is evident that the application of technology in workplace environment has brought both advantages and disadvantages when it comes to the balance between work and family life (Moen, Kelly, & Huang, 2008). Many challenges have emerged in work and quality of life with the advent of technology. For instance, it is claimed that the availability of phones in an organization has affected the physical meeting of members doing a particular task.

The balance between work and family can be seen as a level at which an individual has the ability to balance at the same time the behavioral and emotional requirements of work and non-work. It is argued that the balance between work life and family life is being affected by the rise of families with dual careers, poor management of workload, high stress in the job, rise in the cost of maintenance and lack of job security (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000). On the other hand, the relationship between people is being weakened by technology. It is argued by Cohen (1995) that the rise of robots has rendered many people jobless. Individuals with fewer skills in the current technology are facing challenges as outsourcing jobs is taking over with the growth of technology.

Besides this, technology has brought a big impact in the relationship between work and non-work. It has simplified as well as complicated issues in work and non-work beyond the understanding of a human being (Haeger & Lingham, 2014). Thus, to attain balance in work, one has to create a trade-off between work and non-work that can speed up the performance and wellbeing of an employee. On the other hand, technology has made it easy to combine work and non-work life and made the distinction between the two issues unclear.

The rise of technological adoption, it has now been easier to mix issues related to work and non-work life. Research findings show that the difference between work and non-work relationships are being distorted. Family life is influenced negatively by discontent in the job.

In conclusion, there is a correlation between issues in work and non-work in a manner that both the positive and negative impacts of the issues cause similar impacts in the same ways. The paper has critical evaluated the relationship between work and non-work life. From the discussion, it is clear that work and non-work issues have an interactive relationship. The relationship between work and non-work was addressed under spill over/extension, compensation/opposition and neutrality. The cost and benefits of spillover in relation to work and non-work issues have also been evaluated. Issues related to work load, relationship between leisure and work, and the impact of technology has been presented with critical evaluation and evidence based on different scholars. The adoption of technology has affected the relationship between work and non-work issues. In addition, the paper has analyzed the role of women in relation to work-life balance. Women are taking up more roles in work force, which has created an imbalance between their roles at home and at work.