Work-Life Balance in the Context of Human Service Organizations - Coursework Example

Work-Life Balance in Relation to the Demands of Practice in Human Service Organizations Introduction Work-life balance is a concept that has been widely explored by many organizations in different environments. Evidence shows that the notion of work-life balance still attracts conflicting views from many people working either in Human Resource Management or as lower level employees. The bottom line is that not everybody agrees with the assertion that it is possible to achieve such a balance, some people find it impossible to balance their work and personal lives while others can be able to manage. It has also been suggested that the possibility of attaining work-life balance largely depends on the type of work engaged in, terms of work, and other factors that define the working environment. Similarly, the nature of private life also plays part in the possibility of achieving work-life balance. This paper aims to evaluate work-life balance in relation to the demands that practice in human service organizations places on a worker. The paper tries to find out whether such balance can be attained in human service jobs, the extent to which it can be attained and the role of various different factors in the attainment of work-life balance. The underlying assumption is that while work-life balance is desirable particularly in human service work for various reasons, it may not be always attainable because of a number of factors. The discussion in this paper is based on the writer’s experience as a social worker with a youth group that supports the rehabilitation of youths affected by drug abuse and advocates against drug abuse among young people. This kind of social work represents a unique kind of experience, working environment and challenges that are quite different from working in a business or public organization. The reflection of work in human service provides an opportunity to evaluate the meaning of work-life balance in this kind of situation. Work-Life Balance Work-life balance has come up in recent years as an important aspect of organizational management and it is drawing a lot of attention from government, human resource managers, scholars and employee representatives globally. Although as pointed out different people have different perceptions of what work-life balance entails, efforts have been made to come up with an appropriate theoretical definition of the concept that cuts across all notions of work-life balance. Life is all about balancing various different aspects of human survival and wellbeing, everybody seeks a balance in their lives and in extension all adults seek work-life balance because we work to sustain our lives (Beauregard, 2006). Most people express their frustration for lacking enough time or ability to manage their working commitments while fully attending to personal responsibilities. This is because balancing between competing demands of life and work is mostly tiring and stressful. Most times the process leads to lower productivity at work, low attention to important family issues, absenteeism from work or family functions and fatigue. It is difficult to give work-life balance one definition because the concept means different things to different groups of people and largely depends on the context of the person’s situation. According to McCartney (2002) there a number of definitions for work-life balance some of which overlap while others are completely different from the rest. First, work-life balance is closely related to work-family balance and the two are generally interchanged in some contexts. Work-family balance is a term that was more frequently in application some years ago than it is in use today. The current trend has moved more towards work-life balance because family was a bit wide and amorphous. However, it refers to the give and take relationship between work and family responsibilities. Work-life balance on the other hand is usually defined both from the perspective of employers and from the perspective of employees. From the latter’s perspective work-life balance refers to the dilemma that comes with management of work obligations and personal or family responsibilities (Landauer, 2007). On the other hand from the employers point of view, work-life balance refers to the challenge associated with creating a supportive work environment or culture that can enable employees focus on their work while on duty (Lambert, 2000). There are other terms relating to work-life balance that are important in the general understanding of what the concept is all about. Work-life programs relates to organizational environment, particularly Human Resource Management. It is a term that defines programs developed by employers to offer employees the kind of support needed to address their work responsibilities and personal responsibilities successfully. On the other hand, work-life initiatives are policies and procedures that have been put in place by organizations so as to enable employees go about their jobs while maintaining the flexibility to deal with personal or family issues at the same time (McCartney, 2002). In summary, work-life balance simply refers to the state of equilibrium whereby the demands of a person’s job and those of their personal life balance out equally. This term has taken time to evolve to the current understanding after about three decades. The term itself was first introduced as a theoretical concept in 1986 although it can be assumed that it had been in use for many years before that just as a daily description of work/life situations. This is evident from the fact that work-life programs were in existence as far back as in the 1930s. Some companies came up with programmes during that time aimed at increasing employee morale and productivity which largely focused on shift adjustments to favour workers (Hyman and Summers, 2004). Work Demands in Human Service Organizations Human service organizations have their own special work demands that come with social work. Work in human service is quite different from most other fields of occupation mostly because of the unique working environment but also because of a number of other factors associated with social work. Human service work greatly depends on human relations, especially between the worker and the clients being served. The relationship between the well-being of the social worker and the people being served is very important for the work-life balance of the worker. The quality of the relationship between a worker in the field and the clients he or she serves is largely influenced by the morale and job satisfaction of the former. Evidence from various human service studies indicates that job satisfaction in this kind of work depends on factors such as the nature of the task, the organizational culture of the workplace, and how the worker relates with the clients (Wayne et al., 2004). Basically, most of human service work is about transformation of the lives of the people being served. Human service organizations therefore have a number of distinct characteristics. The first characteristic is that the kind of work engaged in is mostly usually moral; it is aimed at upholding moral values among the people and building a good society based on desirable behaviour. The organizations also function in a broader institutional environment which reinforces their legitimacy and gives them the right to work on people. The third factor characterizing human service organizations and work is that many times the workers have to contend with internal and external elements which pursue selfish goals including the goal to control the organization for personal benefit. Most important for the context of work-life relationship is that human service relies on relationships between workers and clients to achieve desired service outcomes, these kinds of relations involve conscious use of emotions by both parties and can be emotionally and psychologically draining to the worker. Working in human relations organizations in the field and dealing with youth against drug addiction is an example of work that needs a lot of moral courage and ability to face all kinds of challenges. Working with affected youths on a daily basis requires a lot of mental strength as emotions such as impatience and anger can set in on a regular basis because of the unpredictable nature of the clients. For example when working with a patient undergoing rehabilitation and the patient seems to be winning the war against addiction through long counselling sessions, monitoring and a whole range of activities, the worker undergoes a lot of pain and disappointment if the youth gets back into drug use. Such things may tend to affect the psychological stability of a worker and affect their work-life balance in an indirect way. Human service work also requires high levels of sacrifice and dedication because many times the job may not allow the worker to keep strict times. There are times when one may need to stay late at work or may not get an opportunity to multitask and accomplish small personal chores like making a phone call. These kinds of situations really make it so challenging to have a balance between personal life and work. Another unique situation characterizing human service work as an intern is that in this case you have frequently changing roles in the organization and therefore you are expected to keep on adjusting, this workplace adjustment sometimes requires considerable adjustment in personal life too. Similarly, internships, and in general social work, involve low pay or volunteering with small stipends. This implies that with the current high cost of living, a lot of adjustment is required in personal life to fit in with the low income. This also presents a challenge when it comes to work-life balance. Relationship between Work-Life Balance Strategies and Quality of Service Work-life balance strategies can be placed into two categories, organizational strategies and personal strategies. In organizational settings work-life balance strategies include all strategies aimed at better equipping employees to attain a work-life balance and therefore increase their productivity (Kodz et al., 2002). These strategies include policies improving flexibility in work arrangements, family leaves, parental leaves and other similar considerations. On the other hand personal strategies for work-life balance are any of the many steps that can be taken by a worker to try and balance their work obligations and personal life. It is considered more effective when both organizational and personal work-life balance strategies are employed because both parties stand to benefit from the outcomes. Generally, work-life balance strategies are aimed at reducing work-life conflicts which negatively affect a worker and reduce productivity. Work-life conflicts are defined as conflicts whereby pressures from work responsibilities and pressures from personal life obligations are mutually incompatible thus making participation in one role difficult because of involvement in the other role (Kodz et al., 2002). In human services work, just like in any other kind of work, employees face a lot of work-life conflicts. It is important for the organizations involved to identify the right strategies that can help workers cope with work-related pressure so as to afford them the opportunity to address their personal life issues. Not many human service organizations have the right programs tailored towards specifically improving the work-life balance of their workers (Rogier and Padgett, 2004). The nature of most human service organizations is such that most of the workers are considered to be people who give themselves out for the service of humanity; as a result the personal needs of these workers are forgotten. Most human service workers are left to organize themselves and expected to go an extra mile in accomplishing their responsibilities. However, this leaves them with a lot to do in their jobs and little time or opportunity to adequately address personal issues. Similarly, workers in human service are supposed to have personal strategies to balance between their work and life. While a good amount of workers have been able to achieve this, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that many are not able to do accomplish the same. The ability to attain work-life balance in human service work is heavily linked to the type of work and work environment that the employees face. Those facing difficult schedules and very involving work, for example working with children or the sick usually face greater difficulty to attain that balance (Anderson et al., 2002). This is also attributed to the psychological situations related to their jobs. On the other hand a significant amount of workers in this field are able to balance between work-and life quite well although surveys have revealed that such balance is never perfect (Landauer, 2007). These are mainly workers who are not involved in very demanding work. In human services work, the quality of service is very important as it makes the whole difference between making impact in the lives of the clients or not. One of the factors that influence the quality of service is work-life balance because this impacts on the life of the service provider directly or indirectly. When work life and personal life is not balanced this may cause stress on the worker. Some factors that lead to stress at the workplace also make it difficult for the worker to attain a desirable personal life because the effect is more psychological than physical. Some issues that cause stress among human services workers include poor attitude from the clients, excessive work demands, poor interpersonal relationships at organizational level, discriminatory practices and so on (Wayne et al., 2004). For example a human service worker that puts on a brave smile at work and yet faces incidences of discrimination from the clients on the basis of gender, skin colour or any other aspect may end up getting stressed after work. This would make it quite challenging to achieve a wholesome personal life. Reduction of Work-Life Conflict The conflict between work and personal responsibilities leads to various negative outcomes on the life and work of the affected employee. It has been established in literature that employees reporting high levels of work-life conflict exhibit low levels of job satisfaction, low work morale and high numbers of job mistakes. Similarly such workers also exhibit high levels of family conflict and poor social life (Premeaux et al., 2007). At work, this conflict may manifest itself as frequent absenteeism from work, inability to meet deadlines, poor performance and poor inter-personal relationships at work. On the part of personal life, the worker may experience great difficulty accomplishing personal tasks, getting to appointment, going out, getting home early and many other family related responsibilities. Such imbalance between work and life is greatest when the worker has got a family because it leads to stress which can then affect the family directly. Most organizations, government bodies and private firms propose that work-life conflicts can be reduced or entirely avoided through implementation of programs that will assist workers manage their work and life responsibilities successfully (Carless and Wintle, 2007). All these organizations realize that better work-life balance can enable workers to be more productive at the workplace when their private lives are in order. One of the strategies that can assist employees to achieve work-life balance is assisting them to schedule their time well so as to balance competing demands between work and personal life. In many human service organizations, just like in many private organizations, nowadays during employment prospective employees are asked to state the time and days of the week which they find more comfortable working. Workers already in employment or service are allowed to make work arrangements like switching shifts, taking short leaves, extending leaves, getting day offs and others so as to help them accomplish personal responsibilities. Some human service organizations emphasize the well being of the workers as the first step towards providing good service to the public. They therefore take care of employee personal lives by according them required space and time to take care of personal issued when needed. Some organizations have programs such as day care nurseries for mothers with young children and counselling consultancy services for workers under stress (Lambert, 2000). All these are strategies aimed at helping workers to attain work-life balance and therefore be more productive in their work. It must however be pointed out that the notion that organizational strategies can help manage or eliminate work-life conflicts has been disputed by a number of studies. For example, research by Premeaux et al. (2007) indicates that work-life practices have no effects on the work-life conflict levels of the workers. The main argument that emanates from these studies is that provision of work-life balance support programs by organizations does not necessarily lead to the reduction of work-life conflict among the workers. This is quite evident in human service work whereby although many organizations implement programs that are supposed to help workers, particularly in stressful jobs, be able to find a better balance between their life and jobs, it is evident that the levels of work-life conflict remain high. The main explanation for this has been given as the inability of such large scale programs to meet the unique needs of each and every employee. It is argued that work-life conflicts are bound to be around for a long time because of the complicated nature of personal human life. It is therefore pointed out that the person better placed to find work-life balance for workers are they themselves. The organization is therefore supposed just to provide a platform where the workers can get ample opportunities to meet personal responsibilities (Hyman and Summers, 2004). Organizational Support Irrespective of some research findings to the contrary, many studies indicate that organizational support still remains the greatest factor in improving the work-life balance of workers. Many organizations with work-life balance practices have reported positive results in the work attitudes of their employees. For example the availability of organizational resources and availability of flexible working schedules have been attributed to improved job satisfaction among employees. Job satisfaction has also been seen to improve among workers with such resources, for example mothers with access to day care facilities at the workplace for their children (Anderson et al., 2002). It has also been argued that job satisfaction as a result of good working conditions makes it easier for workers to achieve work-life balance. This is mainly attributed psychological relaxation which makes it easier for workers to pursue personal issues without feeling job pressure. Some employees have indicated that provision of flexible working schedules has been very helpful to them in terms of their ability to have greater control over their personal time and therefore better manage private obligations (Wang and Walumbwa, 2007). It has also been established that organizational support to workers in helping them achieve work-life balance may be of greater benefit to the organization than it is estimated. This is mainly because when workers are treated well by the organization and helped to attain a good balance between their work and personal life then they feel obliged to give back to the organization through better performance (Carless and Wintle, 2007). This may however mask the real effect of these incentives to workers because the obligation to perform well for the organization may improve overall performance while some workers have not necessarily been able to attain the work-life balance for which the program is designed. In human service organizations, many strategies are in implementation to help workers cope with their work-life challenges. Although not all organizations implement such strategies, many recognize the need to support their workers to attain balance between work and life. Human service work is a type of occupation that touches on the lives of other people and the experiences involved can touch directly or indirectly on the life of the worker. For this reason some human service organizations take an extra step to ensure that their workers have the necessary support to be able to get balance in their lives. This stems from the realization that without this kind of stability workers cannot affect the lives of those they serve positively. However, not all workers are able to attain this balance even with organizational support. Barriers to Work-Life balance The inability to attain work-life balance has been associated with a number of factors. The first factor is organizational culture that puts emphasis on rewards for overtime work. This kind of culture is in direct contravention of any organizational support for work-life balance because most workers are highly motivated by the need for greater income in face of trough economical times (McCartney, 2002). Another barrier to work-life balance is unsupportive work environment. There are many organizations where the environment does not support emphasis with personal issues with the main emphasis being work and productivity; this makes workers to dedicate most of their time and effort on work thus abdicating personal obligations for the sake of work. Another serious factor that acts as a barrier to work-life balance is that there is a serious lack of worker education about the need for a work-life balance and strategies that can help to achieve it. As a result many workers, particularly younger ones on internship and entry level jobs lack the skills to be able to balance between their work and personal life. Conclusion Human service organizations carry out work that is quite unique in nature compared to other organizations, this is because their services tough directly on the wellbeing of humanity. Work for these organizations many times comes with pressure to the people working in this sector, this mostly happens when the work involved is very demanding physically or emotionally. The unique demands of human service work particularly on the time and psychological resources of the worker make it very difficult to attain the desired work-life balance. As a result many people engaged in human services lack work-life balance. However, many organizations now have strategic programs and practices aimed at improving the work-life balance of their workers. To a significant extent these programs have assisted workers develop a better balance but it is also evident that may other workers are still unable to achieve work-life balance even with that kind of support because of a number of barriers. Bibliography Anderson, S. E., Coffey, B. S., & Byerly, R. T., 2002. Formal organizational initiatives and informal workplace practices: Links to work-life conflict and job-related outcomes. Journal of Management, 28(6), p.787-810. Beauregard, T. A., 2006. Predicting interference between work and home: A comparison of dispositional and situational antecedents. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21(3), p.244-264. Carless, S. A., & Wintle, J., 2007. Applicant attraction: The role of recruiter function, work-life balance policies and career salience. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 15(4), p.394-404. Hyman, J., and Summers, J., 2004. Lacking balance? Work-life employment practices in the modern economy. 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