Review of literature:

Work-life balance has been developed in response to demographic, economic and cultural
changes. The purpose of this paper is to establish whether work-life balance initiatives and
practices can be considered as strategic human resource management decisions that can translate
into improved individual and organizational performance. The results of a number of studies
reviewed in this paper show the outcomes and the benefits of implementing work life balance
practices not only for employees themselves, but also for their families, organizations and
society. Despite the fact that work-life conflict has significant business costs associated with
lack of engagement, absenteeism, turnover rates, low productivity and creativity or poor
retention levels, there are some factors of organizational work-life culture that may compromise
availability and use of these practices. Quality of work life is necessary for an organization to
attract and to retain skilled and talented employees. In order to survive in the competitive market
because of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization and to minimize the attrition rate of
employees the QWL initiatives are very important. QWL involves wide variety of components
that are influenced on the performance of employees. The barriers to implementation of the
work-life balance were identified. Work-life balance and its variables affecting and supporting
to balance both work and life, job would generate more satisfaction but in some cases it also
creates anxiety, frustration and disappointment. WLB is a major issue for employees and the
organizations deal with this issue by implementing WLB practices. Most of the studies have
been done on Work life conflicts and WLB practices. However, most of the researchers have
given emphasis on working Hours, work load, job satisfaction, workplace issues including
managing change, overlap of work and other dimensions of life, stress and burnout, ill-health,
marital conflicts, productivity, etc. The reviews collected for this research are summarized as
follows. The literature review on Work-life Balance has been framed up in view of its gained
popularity with the major aim to have prosperity of society and the realization of fulfilling lives
for its employees by supporting the growth of every employee and the further development of
the companies. The literature identifies its effect on various quality life conditions Job
Satisfaction, Work Stress, Career Growth, Turnover, Absenteeism, Appreciation and
competitive environment in context with Work-life Balance and its practices/policies. In this
paper, an Endeavour has been made to provide an overview of various aspects of Work-Life
Balance through the review of existing literature.
The sources referred include various journals, books, doctoral thesis, working papers, reports,
magazines, internet sites, newspapers etc and has been reflected as references at the end. Work
life balance is one of the key factors for the employees to achieve success .Organizations have
devised various plans, policies, programs to help their employees to achieve the balance between
their work commitments and family responsibilities. The effectiveness of them depends on the
extent of usage to the employees to achieve work life balance. The present paper intended to
study the managerial level employees work life balance in Bosch Ltd, Bangalore. The factors
like overtime, travelling to work, meetings and training after the working hour’s impact the
work life balance of the employees. Quality of work life is required for an organization to attract
and to maintain to skilled and talented employees.
Literature Review:
The literature on Work-life balance with different prospective are studied and available, in
recent years, there has been an increased interest in work family interface in the human resource
management literature, especially regarding the sources and outcomes of conflict
between these two spheres. A number of studies have addressed this issue from different
perspectives. (Greenhaus and Beutell ,1985) and (Greenhaus et al. ,1989) examined the
antecedents of conflict between family and work, Goodstein (1994) and Ingram and Simons
(1995) presented an institutional perspective on organizations‘responses to work-family issues.
In addition, (Campbell, Campbell and Kennard ,1994) have studied the effects of family
responsibilities on the work commitment and job performance of women. The work-family issue
is even further expanded to address the relationship of business-marriage partners (Foley &
Powell, 1997). Rebecca Bundhun quotes in The National (2009), an Abu Dhabi National Paper‖1
that Women and men generally have a different perception of what the "life" part of the balance
involves. For women it tends to be devoting more time to family, while for men it is spending
more time pursuing personal interests.‖ She also quoted the paper of Dr Katty Mermen out, a
research fellow at the INSEAD School in Abu Dhabi with his words thatwork-life balance is not
simply about equally dividing the time spent on one's work and personal life, but establishing a
harmony that reflects an individual's priorities.

(Miller ,1978) emphasized that earlier the work life used to begin at age 16 and end at age
70 and now begins at 20 and ends at 62 for most of the working personals. However, restrained
effects of the increase in average length of life over the last 80 years may be associated with
certain changes in work- life history as more people reach the older ages with their health to
permit them to enjoy leisure and image of the retirement years. In-spite of that changing view of
marriage like relationships also affects work-life balance as many women are no longer
expecting lifelong partners, and consequently they stress the importance of acquiring skills and
qualifications as stated by researcher Lewis et al. (1999) whereas in contradiction to the above
Milkie and Peltola (1999) stressed that happier marriages are related to a greater sense of success
in balancing work and family.(Miller, 1978).
Work life balance
This research will study to revealed work pressure and stress has made the employees incapable
to look after their family requirement, even in case of emergency. Duxbury and Higgins
2001To balance these circumstances they have to remain absent from their work to discharge
their family requirements and to take care of their dependent. To avoid the loss of absenteeism of
the employee, the organizations have to support the employees by providing work-life balance
practices.(Duxbury and Higgins ,2001).
Demographic variables such as age of children, number of children, marital status and gender
affect work-life balance.Bruck, Allen and Spector 2002.Employees have to perform numerous
roles at work and at home, as a result it becomes difficult for an employee to go with both
responsibilities and face work a family conflict, proper work-life balance practices help
employees to balance their work and personal life, which in turn reduces stress, tension, conflicts
and help in attaining job satisfaction. (Bruck, Allen and Spector ,2002).
A relationship of family and friendly policies on turnover and job satisfaction.(Peggy, 2007)The
study suggested that five day work in a week, flexible time, family leave policy have direct
impact on employee’s effort in the work which in turn leads to good turnover, and even job
satisfaction was found to have a significant positive outcome on five day workweek
policy.(Peggy, 2007)
The analysis revealed that project based nature of job, regular use of complete schedule,
important trust upon knowledge and the increase speed timelines of IT implementations; IT
workers are subject to both work and family conflict. (Jake Messer smith, 2007) The employer
has to take proper steps to confront the issues, to control dissatisfaction and turnover among the
employee, which will be helpful for the effective performance of organization(Jake Messer
smith, 2007).
Work-life balance represents an issue of main fear for working men too. In this analysis the
data’s suggested that in families where child care is shared by men. This helps both men and
women to balance work-life.(Duxbury and Higgins, 2008).
Maintain work life balance in personal life:
Work family conflict is a form of role conflict, in which the demands of paid employment,
particularly those arising from the length and scheduling of working time, prevent the effective
performance of family roles as spouse, parent, or career. Work-family integration is a term used
by some in preference to the notion of work-life balance (Roper, et. al. 2002). The latter is felt
to be unsatisfactory because it implies that work and domestic life are equivalent in terms of their
import and priority for individuals (Hyman, and Prue 2003). Work- family conflict and are able
to integrate successfully their work and family demands. One of the primary reasons for having
an effective Performance Management System in an organization is that it can help reduced
emotional confrontations (Gray, and Helen 2002). Everyone should need to recognize that
emotions may run high during a performance evaluation session. Work-family conflict or
interference refers to simultaneous pressures from the work and family domains that are
mutually incompatible in some respect such that meeting the demands of one role makes it
difficult to meet the demands of the other role. Sometimes referred to as negative spill over,
work-family conflict can take different forms and can originate either in the work domain or the
family domain. Work-family conflict and consequent outcomes can be buffered by various
coping behaviours(Evans, and John, M. 2001). Work-life balance is the principle that paid
employment should be integrated with domestic life and community involvement in the interests
of personal and social well-being. The UK government and major employers have endorsed this
principle, reflecting growing concern that long hours of work may damage personal relationships
and community cohesion (Eaton, and Susan, C. 2001).
The types of conflicts they faced can be described as the conflict between demands of multiple
roles, conflict between role expectations of self and spouse and conflict created by lack of
congruence between expectation and reality of roles.Chassinet al 1985The authors stated that
self-role congruence in women leads to better mental health. They found that strains and stresses
are lower in family roles than in occupational and household roles among the married women.
These have more severe consequences for the psychological well-being of women than
occupational strains and stresses. Strains predicted distress through role-specific stress, with
strains deriving from contribution of role-specific stress.(Chassinet al ,1985)
Good Quality of work life:
QWL is described as the favourable working environment that supports and promotes
satisfaction by providing employees with rewards, job security, career growth opportunities, etc.
(Hackman ,1980) identified that the work environment that is able to fulfil employees’ personal
needs is considered to provide a positive interaction effect, which will lead to an excellent QWL.
(Cunningham and Eberle ,1990) emphasized that the personal needs are satisfied when rewards
from the organization, such as compensation, promotion, recognition and development meet their
expectations.
quality of work life include the task, the physical work environment, social environment within
the organization, administrative system and relationship between life on and off the job. (Chan
and Einstein ,1990) explained QWL reflects as a concern for people’s experience at work, their
relationship with other people, their work setting and their effectiveness on the job. European
Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions 2002 described that the QWL is a multi-
dimensional construct, made up of a number of interrelated factors that need careful
consideration to conceptualize and measure. It is associated with job satisfaction, job
involvement, motivation, productivity, health, safety, job security, competence development and
balance between work and non-work life.(Chan and Einstein ,1990).
Quality of work life is a process by which an organization responds to employee needs for
developing mechanisms to allow them to share fully in making the decisions that design their
lives at work. (Saraji and Dargahi, 2006) study explained QWL as a comprehensive,
department wide program designated to improve employee satisfaction, strengthening workplace
learning and helping employees had better manage, change and transition by conducting
descriptive and analytical study. QWL programs will benefit both faculty and management, by
mutually solving work-related problems, building cooperation, improving work environments,
restructuring tasks carefully and fairly managing human resource outcomes and payoffs
according to the study of (Che Rose et al. ,2006 A).
(Hosseini and Jorjatki ,2010) concluded that the career satisfaction, career achievement and
career balance are not only the significant variables to achieve good quality of work life but
quality of work life (QWL) or the quality of work system as one of the most interesting methods
creating motivation and is a major way to have job enrichment, which has its roots in staff and
managers' attitude to motivation category that is more attention to fair pay, growth opportunities
and continuing promotion improves staff’s performance which in turn increases QWL of social
insurance employees in Tehran. (Hussein and Jorjatki ,2010)