In the past, organizations looked at work and life as independent domains. The conflicting demands of work and personal life have always existed in the lives of employees. However, there was an unwritten rule that employees were not to let their personal life interfere with their work – life as these were two compartmentalized spheres. Employees were expected to place the organization’s interests ahead of their own. Work versus personal life was seen as a zero sum game. While organizations accepted responsibility for providing employees with a conducive and pleasant atmosphere at work, what happened to the employee outside the work domain was not the concern of the employer. In the past, personal needs were usually met with indifference reflected in reactions such as, what happens to you outside the office is your own business; what you do in the office is our business (Agarwala, 2010) Nowadays, with changing times, attitudes have changed. Globalization, technological advancements, changing work arrangements, organizational flexibility, changing family structures and competition for quality talent are trends that have forced organizations to view employees as whole persons. A growing number of organizations are now adopting programmes that help employees balance the conflicting demands arising out of their multiple roles. From viewing the employees’ work – life /work family programmes as primarily social welfare measures, organizations have advanced to integrating them as part of the overall HR strategy of the firm.

1. i
DONASIAN MBONEA
ID: 44132BHU52973
PhD in Human Resource Management
Essay on Work – Life Integration
ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
HONOLULU, HAWAII
September, 2017

2. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………………...II
1.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................1
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ONWORK – LIFE INTEGRATION .......................................2
2.1 The concept of work..........................................................................................................2
2.2 The concept of family........................................................................................................2
2.3 The concept of work – life issues....................................................................................2
2.4 Work – family conflict........................................................................................................3
2.5 Work – Life Balance..........................................................................................................3
2.6 Work – Life Integration .....................................................................................................5
3.0 ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS IMPACTING WORK –LIFE ISSUES .........................6
3.1 Globalization ......................................................................................................................6
3.2 Increasing organizational flexibility.................................................................................6
3.3 Changing family structures ..............................................................................................7
3.4 Technological change.......................................................................................................7
4.0 THE FIVE WORK LIFE BALANCE MODEL .................................................................9
5.0 IDENTIFY MAIN TYPES OF FORMAL WORK – LIFE INITIATIVES .....................10
6.0 BENEFITS OF WORK – LIFE INITIATIVES...............................................................11
7.0 IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY – FRIENDLY WORKPLACE........................................12
8.0 STRATEGIC APPROACH TO WORK – LIFE INTEGRATION................................12
9.0 CASE STUDY..................................................................................................................14
10.0 CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................................16

3. 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION
In the past, organizations looked at work and life as independent domains. The
conflicting demands of work and personal life have always existed in the lives of
employees. However, there was an unwritten rule that employees were not to let their
personal life interfere with their work – life as these were two compartmentalized
spheres. Employees were expected to place the organization’s interests ahead of their
own. Work versus personal life was seen as a zero sum game. While organizations
accepted responsibility for providing employees with a conducive and pleasant
atmosphere at work, what happened to the employee outside the work domain was not
the concern of the employer. In the past, personal needs were usually met with
indifference reflected in reactions such as, what happens to you outside the office is
your own business; what you do in the office is our business (Agarwala, 2010)
Nowadays, with changing times, attitudes have changed. Globalization, technological
advancements, changing work arrangements, organizational flexibility, changing family
structures and competition for quality talent are trends that have forced organizations to
view employees as whole persons. A growing number of organizations are now
adopting programmes that help employees balance the conflicting demands arising out
of their multiple roles. From viewing the employees’ work – life /work family programmes
as primarily social welfare measures, organizations have advanced to integrating them
as part of the overall HR strategy of the firm.
The essay explore the meaning ofvariousconcepts such as work –family conflict, work
– life balance,approaches towards work – life integration,Literature review on work – life
integration as well as reviewing one case study on the topic.

4. 2
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ONWORK – LIFE INTEGRATION
This section examined relevant literature from works that have already been done on
the topic. The literature was structured in the following form: definitions of key various
concepts such as work, family, work –life issues, work –family conflict, as well as
studies on work – life integration from other researchers.
2.1 The concept of work
Work is defined as membership in a market or employing organization that
compensates the worker for his/her contributions. The primary goal of work is to
provide extrinsic rewards to the employee.These include bonuses, paid holidays, profit
–sharing, etc. However, work may also provide intrinsic rewards, such as increased
responsibility and freedom on the job; opportunities for growth, more challenging work
(Agarwala, 2010).
2.2 The concept of family
According to Agarwala (2010), defined family as a social organization that demands
certain contributions from its members. These contributions are required for the
maintenance and well – being of the family.
2.3 The concept of work – life issues
Work – life issues or concerns refer to those aspects of an employee’s work or family
life that may have an influence on one another. For example, a working mother with
care – giving responsibilities may find it difficult to accept a promotion that entails a
transfer.
Initial interest in work – family issues was the result of two developments that occurred
during the 1970s.These developments included an increase in the number of women
entering the workforce and the growth of dual – career families where both the spouses
were working. This trend resulted in organizations being urged to acknowledge
employees’ family and other personal commitments. Work – family issues, however,
were regarded as a women’s issue and was primarily a social rather than a business concern.
The focus on work – life concerns is more recent. It is a broader concept than work –
family issues.
Work – life issues: changing emphasis – there has been a change over time in the way
work – life issues have been viewed by organizations. Organizations’ perception of work
– life issues has determined the nature of HRM practices focusing on helping
employees manage their work – life issues. Human resource professionals started
addressing work – family issues as late as in the 1980s.From viewing work – family HR
practices as a benefit provided to employees, organizations now implement family –
friendly practices primarily to recruit and retain skilled employees.

5. 3
2.4 Work – family conflict
The demand and pressures of work and family may give rise to work – family conflict on
individual.
Greenhaus and Beutell(1985) defined work – family conflict as a form of inter – role
conflict in which the role pressures from the two domains, that is, work and family, are
mutually non – compatible so that meeting demands in one domain makes it difficult to
meet demands in the other. That is, participation in the work role is made more difficult
by virtue of participation in the family and vice versa. The major concern in this most
widely used definition of work – life conflict is that role conflicts cause problems of role
participation. Hence, differences in values, social relationships and requirements
between work and family do not constitute conflict per se.
An employee may be faced with work – family conflict, for example, when he/she has a
doctor’s appointment for an ageing parent. The demands and pressures of work make it
difficult for the employee to stretch time for such activities.
Types of Work – Family Conflict: These are time – based conflicts, strain – based
conflicts and behavior – based conflicts.
Time based conflicts: these arise when time spent on role performance in one domain
precludes time spent in the other domain because of depletion of energy or stress. An
employee finding it hard to take time off from work to go for a family picnic experiences
time – based conflict.
Strain – based Conflicts: These arise when strain in one role affects an employee’s
performance in another role. This type of conflict does not connote conflicting demands.
Rather, it occurs when the demands from one domain cause tension, anxiety, fatigue, or
dissatisfaction for the employee thereby reducing his/her personal resources of energy
and physical or mental capacity. When an employee is tending to a terminally sick
spouse or parent, the mental and physical strain resulting from the experience may
hamper the employee’s performance at work.
Bahaviour - based conflicts: These occur when there is incompatibility between the
behavior patterns that are desirable in the two domains and the employee is unable to
adjust behavior when moving from one domain to another.
2.5 Work – Life Balance
Work - life balance is the term used to describe those practices at workplace that
acknowledge and aim to support the needs of employees in achieving a balance
between the demands of their family (life) and work lives. The Work Foundation, earlier
known as The Industrial Society, believes that ‘Work – life balance is about people
having a measure of control over when, where and how they work. It is achieved when

6. 4
an individual’s right to a fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and
respected as the norm, to the mutual benefit of the individual, business and society.
The concept of work – family (life) balance has emerged from the acknowledgement
that an individual’s work – life and personal /family life may exert conflicting demands on
each other. Conflict is a normal part of life and is a natural result of the conflicting
demands arising from multiple roles, such as that of a mother, daughter, daughter – in –
law, wife, friend and employee.
In order to manage the negative spillover of conflict, it is important to balance the
demands from both the domains. Work – life balance is about adjusting work patterns to
achieve overall fulfillment. A good work – life balance enables the business to thrive and
at the same time enables the employees to easily combine work with other aspirations
and responsibilities.
Work – life balance should not be understood as suggesting an equal balance or
scheduling equal number of hours for each of one’s work and personal activities. A
positive work – life balance involves achievement and enjoyment.
A good working definition of work – life balance may be meaningful daily achievement
and enjoyment in each of the four quadrants of life – work, family, friends and self.
The best work – life balance varies for an individual over time. At different stages of
career and age, different factors become important for an individual.
The right balance for an individual today will probably be different tomorrow. For
instance, the right balance for an individual when he/she is single will be different from
when he/she gets married or when he/she is nearing retirement. The right balance is
also different for different individuals. There is no one work – life balance that fits all
because all of us have different priorities and different styles of life. However, it is not
just balance that an individual desires, since the term balance connotes choosing from
the two options – work and life. What one actually seeks is work – life integration
(Agarwala, 2010: 723)
Therefore, work – life balance (WLB) is a concept that supports the efforts of employees
to split their time and energy between work and the other important aspects of their
lives. WLB is fulfillment of multiple roles while maintaining positive quality of life.

7. 5
Figure 2. 1 .Work – life balance (Source: Agarwala, 2010)
2.6 Work – Life Integration
It is important to understand that work and family are not two separate spheres, but
interdependent domains with permeable boundaries. Work – life integration is the
combination of two or more roles/domains. Individuals may move from one role to
another several times a day. These role transitions involve crossing role boundaries,
switching back and forth among one’s currently held roles. For example, on work days,
employees may play the role of a parent and spouse at home, transitioning to employee
after reaching the workplace, and transitioning back to the role of spouse and parent on
reaching home after work. Telecommuting employees may need to switch roles more
frequently.
Work – life integration can be understood in terms of two mechanisms, i.e. flexibility and
permeability. Flexibility is the ability of the boundary between two or more roles/domains
to expand or contract to accommodate the demands of one domain or another. For
instance, a female telecommuter may be called upon to play the role of a mother at any
time of the day. Hence, she would require flexibility in her work roles. Permeability
refers to the extent to which a boundary allows psychological or behavioural aspects of
one role /domain to enter and overlap one another. A call centre operator who is not
allowed to receive visitors or accept personal calls at work has an impermeable work
role boundary.

8. 6
When two or more roles, for example, that of an employee and mother, are both flexible
and permeable, then they are said to be integrated, leading to work – family (life)
integration(Agarwala, 2010: 724).
3.0 ENVIRONMENTAL TRENDS IMPACTING WORK –LIFE ISSUES
It is important to understand the range of business and environmental trends as well as
socio – economic and demographic forces that have led to the strategic importance of
work – life issues. In an environment characterized by corporate downsizing, mergers
and acquisitions, globalization, multinational alliances, and global staffing, human
resources have the potential to create value for the firm that cannot be imitated by
competitors. This recognition on the part of organizations has led to an increasing
competition for attracting and retaining quality employees.
Lobel, Googins, and Blankert (1999) identified some of the trends that have encouraged
organizations to offer a wide array of family supportive services to meet the needs of
individuals with diverse work and personal lifestyles. These trends are briefly elaborated
below;
3.1 Globalization
Many firms headquarteredinone country have a large proportion of their workforce
located all over the world. Organizations are witnessing greater cross – cultural
management and interaction. Multinational alliances between companies present a
complex set of challenges that derive from merging organizational cultures and
practices, which may vary widely around the work – life domain.
Hence, management is confronted with an increased need for understanding a
complex array of work – life issues around the world. Globalization has brought in its
mix expansion of business activity to a calendar of 24 hour days, 365 days a year.
Work –life programmes such as part – time work, flexible scheduling and other forms of
non – traditional work scheduling can become important business initiatives that meet
service demands as well as strategic considerations.
3.2 Increasing organizational flexibility
Many organizations are developing new organizational structures such as teams and
cross – organizational alliances as well as new job designs. Innovative job designs
include flexible work arrangements, such as telecommuting, job sharing, time off for
dependent care, or sabbaticals. New corporate structures and job designs need to be
linked to work – life issues since it is important to define what kind of workplace
supports diverse individual lifestyles as well as business goals. For example, at
Sasken, on completion of two years of service, employees become eligible for a
sabbatical leave of one year, during which the organization commits to pay 50% of the
employee’s current salary.

9. 7
3.3 Changing family structures
There have been rapid changes in the nature and meaning of family. Fundamental
changes have taken place in the structure of work and family roles, such as increasing
prevalence of dual career couples, more women in the workplace, and altered family
arrangements. The number of single parents has gone up along with the percentage of
workforce with dependent care responsibilities. For example, Sasken, has recognized
this change in society, offers a unique medical insurance scheme to its employees. The
scheme covers six people, which includes family, parents and even dependent parents
– in law. Companies like AT & T provide dependent care assistance to its employees
and IBM provides transportation for elderly relatives of employees and a daycare centre
near its plant at Austin, Texas, USA. With increasing competition for attracting and
retaining valued employees, the ability of an organization to address personal and
family needs becomes critical.
3.4 Technologicalchange
Rapid technological advances have created a need for employees with higher levels of
education and training as well as new sets of skills. The demand for skilled workers far
outweighs the supply, and organizations have to compete with each other to attract
skilled employees.Organizationsthat offer generous work – life benefits and attractive
working conditions are likely to have an edge in recruiting and retaining desirable
employees. Technological changes also have implications for flexible work
arrangements. For example, companies like AT & T and IBM provides all areas sales
managers with a laptop to enable them to work from home.

10. 8
Challenge
Attracting, motivating, and retaining
High performers
Figure 3.1 Environmental Trends Impacting Work – Life Issues in Organizations
(Source: Adapted from Agarwala, 2010: 717)
Globalization Increasing
Organization
al flexibility
Changing
family
structure
Technological
Change
Strategic importance of work –
life balance in organizations
 Increased employee commitment
 Greater employee loyalty
 Higher employee performance
Organizational
performance
improvement

11. 9
4.0 THE FIVE WORK LIFE BALANCE MODEL
Figure 4.1: The five work life balance model linkages (Source: Agarwala, 2010)
Segmentation Model; Segmentation this refers to the separation of work and family,
such that the two domains do not affect one another. Segmentation earlier viewed as a
natural division of work and family since the two domains were separated in time and
space and were thought to inherently serve different functions. However, more recently
work and family have been demonstrated as closely related domains. Therefore,
segmentation is now viewed as an active process whereby people maintain a boundary
between work and family. For example, when a person intentionally suppresses the
negative work feelings at home, the person is trying to separate the two domains. In
such a situation, the person will not let negative work mood to affect his/her mood and
behavior with family members or friends.
SpilloverModel;the term refers to the influence of work on family. Both work and family
spheres influence each other in either a positive or negative way; Work fatigue which
carries over to home life (negative spillover); Stimulation and satisfaction at work is
carried home. (Positive spillover). Spillover may take place for moods, values, skills and
behavior. Positive spillover takes place when the energy, happiness and satisfaction at
work spills over into positive feelings and energy at home. For example, an employee
who is praised by his / her superior at work feels good that he/she takes the family out
for dinner is experiencing positive spillover. Negative spillover from work to family is
Segmentation
Model
Spillover Model
Compensation
Model
Conflict Model
Instrumental Model

12. 10
demonstrated when the problems or conflicts at work make it difficult for the individual to
participate in family life effectively and positively.
Compensation Model;this represents the efforts to offset dissatisfaction in one domain
by seeking satisfaction in another domain. This is also referred to as competition, or
contrast. Compensation occurs when an employee decreases involvement in the
dissatisfying domain and increases involvement in the dissatisfying domain and
increases involvement in a potentially satisfying domain. For example, when an
employee is not satisfied at work, perhaps due to decreased rewards at work, the
person may intentionally devote less time, intention or importance to work and more
towards family or other personal activities in order to yield desired rewards in that
domain (Agarwala, 2010: 719)
Conflict Model; The high level of demand in both work and family spheres causes one
to experience significant overload and conflict; Could be: time based, strain based, or
behavior based. For example, a mother misses her son’s important football game due to
work obligations (time based conflict); Job burnout leading to fatigue & depression.
(Strain based conflict); Switching between pragmatic behavior to caring behavior at
home (behavior based conflict)
Instrumental Model; Activities in one sphere enable success in another; Consists of
the positive side of the work/family interface, for example, managers who acquire
negotiation skills at work can apply those skills with their children at home.
5.0 IDENTIFY MAIN TYPES OF FORMAL WORK – LIFE INITIATIVES
Formal WLI of organizations can be categorized into the following four main types of
employer support; time and place flexibility, information, financial and direct.
Time and place flexibility focus on part time work, flexible scheduling like flexitime and
telecommuting, job sharing, leaves of absence, family leave like maternity/paternity
leave, and any paid/unpaid family leave.
Information focus on resource and referral programmes for providing information about
dependent care, giving options like child and elder care provider support groups, pre –
retirement planning and supervisor training on how to effectively manage subordinates
work family integration needs.
Financial focus on flexible spending accounts in which employees set aside pre – tax
money each year into an account from which they get reimbursed, stipend vouchers for
care giving expenses, tuition reimbursements, health benefits for dependents and long
term care insurance.
Direct focus on near Site Company sponsored day care centres, sick care, dependent
care, concierge services to run errands for busy employees such as dry cleaning. It also
includes family counseling, personal financial planning, holiday and vacation care.

13. 11
6.0 BENEFITS OF WORK – LIFE INITIATIVES
With human resources being viewed as a source of competitive advantage in the new
economic era, the issue of work – life integration becomes crucial for sustaining a
happy, healthy and committed workforce. The pressures emerging from work – life
conflicts experienced by employees may affect the ability of organizations to realize the
full potential of their workforce. Organizations recognize that personal issues can impact
job performance and work – life balance is an important issue for attracting, and getting
the best out of their employees.
Providing employees with work – life programmes can result in benefits for the
organization in terms of reduced recruiting and training cost. Happy workers work well
together and are less likely to leave the organization. For example, when organizations
take initiatives to organize leisure for its employees, it promotes an image of a caring
employer.
When dependent care or other non- work problems are taken care of, employees may
respond by improved performance and productivity. For example, when a company
sends one of its employees to client sites abroad, it distributes free telephone coupons
to their family members to help them keep in touch. Measures such as these on the part
of the organization ensure that the employees can focus on performing their jobs well.
Many organizations implement family – friendly policies such as flexi – time because it
helps them recruit better talent, increase productivity and reduce absenteeism.
It is important for firms to demonstrate how work – life policies translate into benefits for
organizations by being able to attract and retain satisfied and happy workforce who are
able to perform to the best of their abilities.
The following are organizational and employee benefits of work – life initiatives; an
organization strives to recruit and retain talented employees to achieve positive
business outcomes, such as a high performance, productivity, lower employee turnover,
and absenteeism,
What organizations want: increased employee productivity, reduced absenteeism, to
attract and retain talent, to become world – class employers and to improve employee
health. Organizations benefit from work – life strategy through; financial savings,
increased productivity, lower absenteeism, improved customer service and a more
motivated and satisfied workforce.
What employees want; a good quality of life, an enjoyable work life and career
progression, training and development, good health, affordable childcare and elder
care, further education, leisure time with family, friends and for travel and hobbies as
well as more money. Employers benefit from supporting what employees want because
employees become; more motivated, more satisfied at work, more productive, more co-
operative and better at managing their time (Agarwala, 2010: 731)

14. 12
7.0 IMPORTANCE OF FAMILY – FRIENDLY WORKPLACE
The terms family – friendly workplace or family – friendly company refer to a workplace
that, to some extent acknowledges and responds to the work and personal/family
responsibilities assumed by employees. A family – friendly workplace develops and
implements policies that allow employees to simultaneously fulfill work and family
responsibilities.
Some of the importance of family – friendly workplace are as follows; organization
design and implement benefits, practices and policies that help employees to balance
their work and non – work lives by providing provisions for flexible work schedules,
dependent care supports; also organization must create workplace cultures and
climates that reflect concern for employees’ lives outside of work. For example,
representative from the company visit employees’ homes and tell them what employees
do at work. They also welcome families to the office premises to get a feel of where
their loved ones work. Sasken Company has an active sports club and also conducts
workshops for stress management, annual picnics for employees and their families.
Scheduled flexibility; Flexible schedule workplaces can be of benefit to employers for a
variety of reasons. Flexible work environments attract, motivate and retain employees,
increase employee satisfaction and maintain employee productivity. Formal flexible
work arrangements may include the following, although not all will be applicable in every
situation.
Flextime: Modification in start and end times, often with required core hours for full-time
employees;Compressed workweek: Compression of full-time job responsibilities into
fewer than five days per week (often referred to as a 4/10), or fewer than 10 days in two
weeks (often referred to as a 9/80);Telework: Full-time work conducted up to several
days a week at a site other than the primary worksite;Remote work: Full-time work
conducted at home or another site with limited presence at a regular company
facility;Part time: Reduced hours or schedule, with a corresponding reduction in job
responsibilities and pay, as well as an adjustment of benefits; andJob sharing: Two
employees on reduced schedules and workload share overlapping responsibilities of a
full-time position, with a corresponding reduction in pay and an adjustment of benefits
for each.
8.0 STRATEGIC APPROACH TO WORK – LIFE INTEGRATION
Firms today are moving from single – issue work – life programmes and policies to meet
the needs of employees with young children towards a more strategic and
comprehensive approach. Moreover, work – life practices should also be linked to
various individual employee attitude and organizational outcomes.
There are two aspects which are important for adopting a strategic approach to work –
life integration practices. These are; linkage of work – life integration practices with
strategic HRM and culture change supportive of work – life integration practices.

15. 13
Linkage of work – life integration practices with strategic HRM; Strategic HRM
literature suggests that HRM is a means for achieving competitive advantage for an
organization. HR practices that are included as part of strategic HRM by different
researchers vary to some extent, work – family practices have been noticeably excluded
by all. Work – life practices are referred to in literature as progressive or innovative but
they have been rarely considered as strategic. However, work – family practices may be
an HR approach related to competitive advantage that results from financial cost
savings, higher productivity, reduced absenteeism and increased employee
commitment. Adoption of work – life practices also requires the management to
demonstrate high levels of trust and at the same time relinquish control. Strategic HR
has proposed a bundle approach rather than focusing on single HR practices. The idea
of bundles in strategic HRM reflects the belief that groups of HR practices have
congruence and when adopted as bundles, send a coherent HRM message to
employees. The bundle approach is less focused on specific practices and more
focused on the relationship and interaction between several practices to suggest an
organizational level approach. If work – life balance practices are adopted as part of a
bundle of other HR practices that invest in attracting and retaining the high performers,
then employees will not only feel valued, they will also be motivated to stay with the
employer for a longer duration.
Culture change supportive of work – life integration practices; progressive
organizations are now recognizing the need to move beyond implementing work family
policies towards achieving more fundamental culture change, with work – life balance
as a strategic business issue. Companies like American Express and Price water house
Coopers fall in this class of progressive organizations. Therefore, organizations now
look at the employees as “whole persons” as individuals and family too. For an
organization to be supportive of work – life integration and to achieve strategic linkage,
it should recognize the role of workplace culture in creating pressure and a commitment
to achieve culture change in the desired direction. For any culture change to take place
top management support is crucial.Top management must embrace and communicate
a vision that supports work – life balance through company’s mission statement,
intranet, e-mail and newsletters. Top and middle level managers must model new
behavior such as take leave on their child’s birthday in the middle of the week there by
communicating that family events have priority over work.
Organizations must also educate managers on the value of workplace flexibility and its
compatibility with superior business results. Managers may also be held accountable for
a family – friendly culture in their performance reviews, by instituting rewards for
managers for being supportive of their subordinates’ efforts to combine work and family.
For instance, American Express Company discourages sitting late in office and working
on weekends.
Therefore, organizations must recognize the importance of a supportive workplace
culture for effective implementation of innovative work – life policies. Cultural change is
more about changing practice rather than policy and the deeper assumptions, beliefs
and values.

16. 14
9.0 CASE STUDY
Narmada Bank International
The origins of Narmada Bank International (NBI) can be traced back to early twentieth
century, when it was set up as a private bank by two partners.
Over the years, NBI expanded through a series of mergers. By 1970, NBI had made
some twenty take overs and had also expanded overseas. By the early 1990s, NBI had
offices in 30 countries.
The organization’s interest in work – life balance dates back to the late 1980s when the
organization noticed that it was losing disproportionate numbers of senior women
employees. Research revealed a number of reasons for the trend but the overriding
issues were their lack of control and flexibility in how and when to do their work. When
these findings were shared company – wide, Anita Puri, head of benefits division of HR,
was amazed to receive a more powerful response from senior men in the firm. She
explained that it was as if men were saying that, we also have the same sort of issues
but we don’t feel we can raise them as legitimate issues because we are men and it
won’t do our careers any good.
Being a major retail bank, the employees of NBI have played a vital role in its success.
From the mid-1990s, NBI conducted research and feasibility studies with the help of
experts in work – life balance area. One of the key findings showed that for both men
and women, finding the right balance between work and home was the most critical
factor in deciding whether or not to move to a different organization. Since competition
in the banking sector has increased manifold, if employers want to attract and retain
their staff, they have to offer something extra to be attractive. Work – life balance
policies can often be that extra policy details that detail that appeals to staff looking to
strike more of a balance in their lives. Top management at NBI realized that to be an
employer of choice, NBI needed to be progressive and so the bank introduced a formal
flexible working scheme, work options, in early 1999. Work options is one of the policies
aimed at creating a better work – life balance for employees. Other schemes on offer
cover career breaks, job sharing, leave (encompassing compassionate, emergency and
parental), and many other areas.
Nobel David is the head of a team of 12 people, split between two locations – Mumbai
and Delhi. Together, they make up the bank‘s group manpower planning and
information team. Every month they have to work around the bank’s reporting cycles
and working to time scales that are very tight. These time scales cannot be moved
because the clients in the organization rely on them.
A lot of the work for David’s team comes in at a moment’s notice and can involve senior
members of the team dropping everything to work on it.For instance, if PratyushVerma,
the group HR Business Director, is meeting the bank’s chief executive and he needs
something urgently, David’s team just does not have the luxury to postpone it. The team
has the responsibility to meet the information needs of the company’s HR function. It
can tell how many employees are on sick leave, how many are leaving, how many are
joining, how many are going through disciplinary and grievance procedures, and how
many are coming up to 25 years of service. In 2004, the team gave monthly updates to

17. 15
around 50 business units or customers. However, an imminent restructuring will see this
figure rise to nearer 300.
Nobel David maintains that in his team, the effort is to create a work environment where
there is cooperation and everyone looks out for each other to get the work done
because the pressures are very demanding. When the bank introduced work options,
some members of David’s team had expressed an interest in joining. In particular, they
wanted to take advantage of the option to work a compressed week. At NBI, by the end
of the year 2003, less than 3,600 employees of the total workforce of 50,000 at the bank
worked flexibly as a direct result of work options. Of these, 16% were men and 18%
were managers. Anita Puri believes that traditionally, work – life balance and in
particular flexible working policies have been seen to be to do with women only. Hence,
Puri felt quite pleased with the data that show that the flexible plan was being used by
men and managers. This was encouraging since the whole basis of work options at NBI
was to give the policy as well as the bank’s approach to work – life balance. Anita Puri,
however, was more positive about the future. She pointed out that NBI was currently
engaged in a complete review of the company’s entire work – life balance offering. This
according to her, was evidence of the organization’s continued and very real
commitment to the success of work – life balance programme. According to the CEO of
NBI, work – life balancing was a strategic responsibility at the top and there has to be
total commitment to achieving it.
The analysis:Thecasestudy highlights the organizations work life balance as well as
work – life integration and how they influence employee performance and enhance
organizational productivity.
10.0 CONCLUSION
The family and work life are both important to employees in any sector and if these two
are not maintained properly it creates stress and strain and results into various
diseases. A balanced life style boosts the sense of responsibility and ownership, build
better relationship with management, life is all about balance, too much and too little
can kill. The best way to balance life is by setting your boundaries in learning to say
enough.Achieving a good balance between work and family commitments is a growing
concern for contemporary employees and organizations. It is not surprising then that
there is increasing interest among organizational stakeholders e.g. CEOs, HR
Managers for introducing work – life balance policies in their organizations.Conflicting
demands and pressures from work and life (family) can interfere with each other since
the two domains are complementary, not conflicting priorities. Acceptance of this reality
by the organizations and new business and societal trends, have seen the growth of
family – friendly practices at workplace. Adopting a win – win approach, growing
number of organizations believe that helping employees balance and integrate their
work lives with the rest of their lives leads to positive outcomes for both the employee
and employer. Work – family practices should be viewed as part of overall HR and
business strategy that is related to a firm’s competitive advantage.Also, this essay will
help me to prepare and review our organizational policies which support work life
balances as well as work life integration.

18. 16
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