Part 4 of 5: Specific Examples that Explore “Work-Life Balance”

Today we’re continuing our special series of posts on Work-Life Balance. We hope you find the series insightful and thought-provoking.

Would you like to see work-life balance in action? Then take a look at the studies below:

Qu Xiao, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and John W. O’Neill, Pennsylvania State University, published “Work-Family Balance as a Potential Strategic Advantage: a Hotel General Manager Perspective” in the November 2010 issue of Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research.

This qualitative study is an exploratory attempt to investigate hotel general managers’(GMs) perceived work–family balance/interface issues from a strategic perspective. Based on 49 in-person, in-depth, in-office, interviews with full-service hotel GMs, the authors identify current strategic issue perceptions (SIPs) of hotel GMs and explore potential relationships between these SIPs and work–family issues in the hotel industry. Findings suggest that work–family issues, including workplace flexibility, turnover, knowledge management, and career advancement are influenced by hotel culture and the GM’s management style; and when human resources are perceived as a competitive advantage by the hotel GMs, the work–family issues are indeed related to the hotel GM’s perceived strategic issues.

E. Jeffrey Hill, Sarah Allen, Jenet Jacob, Ashley Ferrin Bair, Sacha Leah Bikhazi, Alisa Van Langeveld, Giuseppe Martinengo, Taralyn Trost Parker and Eric Walker published “Work-Family Facilitation: Expanding Theoretical Understanding Through Qualitative Exploration” in the November 2007 issue of Advances in Developing Human Resources.

The problem and the solution.Work–family scholarly research is often dominated by a conflict perspective. In this study, employees of a large multinational corporation were asked to describe the positive influences of their work life on their home life and vice versa. Participants most frequently mentioned work place flexibility, financial benefits, and the ability to keep family commitments as important components of work-to-home facilitation. Supportive family relationships, psychological benefits of home, and psychological aspects of work were most frequently identified as important components of family-to-work facilitation. Implications for human resource development professionals are discussed as well as suggestions for future work–family facilitation theory and research.

See tomorrow’s post for the final installment of our look at “work-life balance.”