Critical Analysis of Work-Life Balance Concept and Proposal of Evaluation Method
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concept of Work-Life Balance with emphasis on the definition and content of construct. Based on a review of the literature, the article highlights the diversity of approaches defining the work-life balance (WLB) as well as the lack of a single accepted definition, on which the practitioners and academics community agree. The most problematic term was found to be the term “balance”. On the basis of analysed knowledge, the definition of work-life balance is proposed. The definition of WLB is based on presumption that WLB is such a state, that work life quality allows the full potential of a private life to be realized. According to this presumption a definition of work-life balance has been proposed and a formula for the calculation of work-life balance has been formed.
References
Amundson, N. E. (2001). Three-dimensional living. Journal of Employment Counselling, 38(3), pp. 114-127.
Burton, C. (2004). What does work-life balance mean anyway? The Journal for Quality and Participation, 27(3), pp. 11-13.
Clark, S. C. (2000). Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/life balance. Human Relations, 53(6), pp. 747-770.
Greenhaus, J. H., Collins, K. M., and Shaw, J. D. (2003). The relations between work-family balance and quality of life. Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 63, pp. 510-531.
Guest, D. E. (2001). Perspectives on work-life balance. A discussion paper prepared for ENOP Symposium. Paris, pp. 29-31
Harris, L. (2012). Work Life Balance Tips to help you Define the Line Between Work and Home. PR Newswire, July 2012.
Kalliath, T., and Brough, P. (2008). Work-life balance: A review of the meaning of the balance construct. Journal of Management and Organization, 14(3), pp. 323-329.
Kirchmeyer, C. (2000). Work-life initiatives: Greed or benevolence regarding workers' time? In C.L. Cooper & D.M. Rousseau (Eds.), Trend in Organizational Behaviour, pp. 79-93. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
Lewis, S., Rapport, R., and Gambles, R. (2003). Reflections on the integration of paid work and the rest of life. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 18(7/8), pp.824-841
Reiter, N. (2007). Work Life Balance: What Do You Mean? The Ethical Ideology Underpinning Appropriate Application. The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 43(2), pp. 273-283.
Sirková, T. J., and Ali-Taha, V. (2012). Model and results of the quality of life evaluation in regional cities in Slovakia. Journal of Management and Business: Research and Practice, 4(2), pp. 31-41.
Sojka, L. (2014). Specification of the Quality of working Life Characteristics in the Slovak Economic Environment. Slovak Sociological Review, 46(3), pp. 283- 299.
Štefko, R., Lorincová, T., Tomková, A., and Gbúrová, J. (2016). Comparison of evaluation of the selected personality traits between efficient and managing marketing employees in the context of the public and the private sector. Fifth Middle East conference on global business, economics, finance and banking, Dubai, pp. 28- 35.
Voydanoff, P. (2005). Towards a conceptualization of perceived work-family fit and balance: A demands and resources approach. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67(4), pp. 822-836.
Walton, R. (1975). Criteria of quality of working life”. In Davis and Cherns, The quality of Work Life. Vol. 1. New York: Free Press.
Copyright (c) 2020 Ladislav Sojka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The authors retain rights under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to MIP=JIBM. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course MIP=JIBM, to the widest possible readership in electronic format. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.
