2.1 Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to review the already available literature relating to my present study.

Main purpose is to evaluate how women balance their work and family. Therefore the factors

affecting the work-life balances and problems faced by working women is evaluated with the

help of already existing literature. This chapter includes various opinions of different authors and

their research finding.

2.2. Literature Reviews related to Work Life Balance

Alam Sageer, Dr. Sameena Rafat, Ms. Puja Agarwal (2012) studied various variables that are

responsible for employee satisfaction such as Organization development, Job security, Work

task, Policies of compensation and benefit and opportunities etc. The Study concluded that an

organization should develop strategies that strengthen the work environment and increase the

employee morale and employee satisfaction to enhance employee performance and productivity,

which ultimately results in high profits, customer satisfaction as well as customer retention. And

suggested the various ways by which one can improve employee satisfaction.

Dr. R. Anitha (2011) studied that Job satisfaction is a general attitude towards one’s job, the

difference between the amount of reward workers receive and the amount they believe they

should receive. Employees will be more satisfied if they get what they expected, job satisfaction

relates to inner feelings of workers. The main aim of this study was to analyze the satisfaction

level of paper mill employees. Chi Square test and percentage analysis have been used in this

study to analyze the job satisfaction of paper mill employees in Udumalpet and Palani Taluk.

This study concluded and suggested that the organization may give importance to certain factors

such as Canteen, rest room facilities, rewards, recognition and promotion policy, so that

satisfaction of the employees may be improved further.

Ayesha Tabassum, TasnuvaRahman and Kursia Jahan (2011) studied the work life of employees

of private commercial banks in Bangladesh and found that no initiative was taken to identify

whether there is any significant difference among the male and female employees of the private

commercial banks in Bangladesh. Thus, the study aimed to make a comparative learning of the

existing QWL between the males and females of the private commercial banks through

uantitative survey on 128 male and 64 female employees. The study revealed that a significant

difference exists between male and female employees QWL and in the following factors of

QWL; adequate and fair compensation, flexible work schedule and job assignment, attention to

job design, and employee relations.

Gururaja, Umesh Maiya, Elsa Sanatombi Devi, Anice George (2013) conducted descriptive

survey among 67 nursing faculty towards their perceptions and attitude towards quality of Work-

Life. It showed that majority, 58 (86.57 %) experienced well balanced work-life, 9 (13.43 %)

expressed moderately balanced work -life and none of them rated under poor work-life balance.

Data regarding job satisfaction showed majority 35 (52.24 %) had moderate job satisfaction and

32 (47.76 %) had high job satisfaction. The correlation between work life balance and job

satisfaction showed positive correlation (r = 0.77) which can be inferred saying that high quality

of work life balance will improve job satisfaction and vice versa. This study has concluded that

the work-life balance and job satisfaction are directly linked. Satisfaction in one’s own area of

work can lead to a satisfying career.

The purpose of Jaime X. Castillo and Jamie Cano’s (2004) study was to describe the amount of

variance in faculty member’s overall level of job satisfaction explained by Herzberg, Mausner,

and Snyderman’s (1959) job motivator and hygiene factors. Additionally, the study sought to

investigate the suitability of one-item versus a multi-item measure of overall job satisfaction.

This study concluded that the faculty was generally satisfied with their jobs. However, female

faculty members were less satisfied than male faculty members. The factor “work itself” was the

most motivating aspect for faculty. The least motivating aspect was “working conditions.” The

factors “recognition,” “supervision,” and “relationships” explained the variability among faculty

members & overall level of job satisfaction. The one-item measure of overall job satisfaction

was not different from a multi-item measure of overall job satisfaction.

The purpose of study of Jamal Nazrul Islam, Haradhan Kumar Mohajan, Rajib Datta’s (2012)

was to determine that the morale and job satisfaction plays a vital role in overall performance of

the employees in the workplace? The study concluded that social status, supportive colleagues

and feeling secure about the job were the top three best reasons for working in the banks. It

suggested that pay, decision making authority, and promotional policy were the three top

priorities for improving the work environment.

The study of Khalid Latif, Muhammad Naeem Shahid, Dr. Naeem Sohail, Muhammad Shahbaz

(2011), revealed influential factors contributing to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of college

teachers of district Faisalabad, Pakistan. And they examine the level of job satisfaction of

teachers in public and private sector colleges. The results showed that there were significant

differences in job satisfaction between public and private college teachers. Public college teaches

are more satisfied with the six components (educational qualifications, nature of work, pay, job

security, promotional opportunities and family & work life balance) of job satisfaction while

private college teachers were not satisfied. This study suggested that to increase the satisfaction

level of teachers of private colleges a proper attention should be paid on salary, benefits and

promotion opportunities and like that the employers of private sector colleges will be able to

retain teachers.

The aim of the study of Lalita Kumari (2012) was to find about the employee’s perception of

their work life balance policies and practices in the public sector banks. Quota sampling method

was followed. Survey was conducted and data was analyzed on the basis of responses provided

by 350 respondents. The findings of the study emphasized that each of the WLB factors on its

own is a salient predictor of job satisfaction and there is a significant gap among the female and

male respondents with job satisfaction with respect to various factors of WLB. The positive

correlation indicates that job satisfaction is an important indicator of WLB. The result of study

may have practical significance for human resource managers of especially banks to improve

staff commitment and productivity along with designing their recruitment and retention policies.

The study of Muhammadi Sabra Nadeem, Dr. Qaisar Abbas (2009) was aimed to explore the

relationship between work life conflict and job satisfaction in Pakistan. Author found that the job

satisfaction is significantly negatively correlated with work to family interference and family to

work interference. Job satisfaction is also found to be negatively related with stress in this

research. However, the correlation of workload is positive and insignificant which shows that

workload does not affect the job satisfaction of the employees in Pakistan. Findings suggested

that job autonomy emerged, as having a strong and clear correlation with job satisfaction, more

autonomy in a job leads to higher job satisfaction among employees.

Raj Kamal, Debashish Sengupta (2008-09) studies that the success of the bank to a large extent

depends upon the coordination, synchronization and cooperation of the Bank Officers with these

two very divergent entities. Through this research study an attempt has been made not only to

ascertain the degree of overall job satisfaction prevailing among the Bank Officers but also to

elicit officer’s views on the different factors contributing to their job satisfaction, in the light of

current realities. It is concluded that with the change of satisfaction determinants, level of job

satisfaction also varies. It is also observed that as a person ages, his job satisfaction shows an

increasing trend. With age, spiritualism of the person increases, but his alternatives for change

decreases.

The aim of research of Sakthivel Rania, Kamalanabhanb & Selvarania (2011) was to analyze the

relationship between employee satisfaction and work/life balance. The construct used for this

research consists of career opportunity, recognition, work tasks, payments, benefits, superior

subordinate relationship, employee satisfaction, and work/life balance. This study makes a

contribution to join two distinct research streams, namely employee satisfaction, and work/life

balance. Findings suggest that high correlation exists between work task and employee

satisfaction with a mediator variable namely work-life balance.

K. R. Sowmya and N. Panchanatham (2011) studied that the term job satisfaction has been

conceptualized in many ways. Job satisfaction focuses on all the feelings that an individual has

about his/her job. It has been assumed by organizational behavior research that individuals who

express high satisfaction in their jobs are likely to be more productive, have higher involvement

and are less likely to resign than employees with less satisfaction. However the researcher has

studied job satisfaction of employees in new private sector and select public sector banks

specifically in the banking sector of the main metropolitan city Chennai. The researcher has done

a factor analysis using principle component method to find out the different factors that affect the

job satisfaction of banking sectors employees. The study concluded that the employees have a

significant inclination towards optimistic supervisory behavior and pleasant organizational setup

and suggested that Employees must be cared for and counseled in order to increase their

satisfaction level in the organization based on the aspects identified by the organizations.

The objective of research of V. Varatharaj, S. Vasantha (2012) was to study the work life

balance of working women in service sector. Work life balance entails attaining equilibrium

between professional work and other activities, so that it reduces friction between official and

domestic life. Work life balance enhances efficiency and thus, the productivity of an employee

increases. It enhances satisfaction, in both the professional and personal lives. This paper

attempts to indentify the various factor which helps to maintain work life balance among women

employees in service sector. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the women

Employees feel comfortable in their work place irrespective of their trivial personal and work

place irritants.

Somjee (1989) has some very strong critical comments. She has said that “in the history of

women’s studies, which is not very long, a variety of approaches have been adopted in order to

understand women’s problems and find solutions to them. such approaches range from how

women are perceived in various cultures and historical settings, given their biological functions

and what nature ‘intended’ them to do, to their decline in power and status vis-à-vis men in the

complex social evolution, to a widely shared emphasis on the need to make women equal

through the economic on the need to make women equal through the economic and legal route

which treats them as individuals rather than those having the sole responsibility for looking after

the family.”

Mitra (1997) analyses the causes and comes to some important conclusions: “Relationship

between women and professions could be perceived as one of women in full-fledged professions,

medicine, law, academics, etc and another in the semi-professions-like nursing, teaching, clerks

etc.”

Okolo (1989) studied that another obstacle is the lack of role models of executive women due to

their scarce presence in top managerial positions. Likewise, this study found out that there 18 is

no gender difference in organizational hierarchies when a woman has already gained access to

them. “The lack of impact in women can occur because executive and managerial women have

developed survival features becoming immune to the effects of men’s hierarchies. A hierarchy

composed by men solely may have an effect upon the election of a managerial board, and then its

further influence is not very strong.”

Ronald J. Burke, Mustafa Koyuncu and Lisa Fiksenbaum (2010) examined the relationship of

the perceived presence of organizational practices designed to support women’s career

advancement and their work attitudes and satisfaction and their psychological well-being. Data

were collected from 286 women in managerial and professional jobs working in a large Turkish

bank, a 72 percent response rate. Five organizational experiences were considered: negative

attitudes towards women, equal treatment, support, career barriers and male standards. Women

reporting more supportive organizational experiences and practices were more engaged in their

work, more job and career satisfied, and indicated greater levels of psychological wellbeing.”

Wentling (2003) showed that the twin roles of women cause tension and conflict due to her

social structure which is still more dominant. In her study on working women in Delhi, she has

shown that “traditional authoritarian set up of Hindu social structure continues to be the same

basically and hence women face problem of role conflict change in attitudes of men and women

according to the situation can help to overcome their problem.”

Sophia J. Ali (2011) “investigated the challenges facing women in career development. She

found that most of the women employees were dissatisfied with career development

programmers and women were discriminated against in career development opportunities. The

study recommended that organizations should strive to ensure that career development

programmers were set to enhance career development amongst women employees. Top

management should also be committed to the career development of women, and organizations

should also introduce affirmative action to urgently address career development of women.”

Skinner and Pocock (2008) investigated the relationship between work overload, work schedule

control, work hours and their fit with preferences and work-life conflict among full-time

employees (N=887). It was found that the “strongest association with work-life conflict was

demonstrated by work overload, followed by work schedule control, work hours and work hours

fit. Time-based work life policies, procedures and interventions were found necessary, but not

sufficient, for addressing work-life conflict. They called for effective management of work

overload to support a healthy work-life relationship.”

Ahmad and Aminah (2007) examined the work-family conflict experienced by 239 married

female production operators in dual-career families, the social support they received and the

coping strategies used to manage the conflict. “The women experienced more work interference

with family than family interference with work. The intensity of work interference with family

was significantly higher in the earlier life-cycle stage than in the later stage. About two thirds of

the women indicated that they intended to leave their job upon having another child, mainly due

to the rising cost of child-care services. They received the least social support from their

supervisors compared to other sources, and tended to cope with conflict using reactive role

behavior and personal role redefinition strategies.”

Gunavathy and Suganya (2007) in their study among married women employees of BPO

companies traced the causes, consequences of work-life imbalance and interventions for work

life balance. More than two-third of the respondents stated the experienced work-life imbalance

primarily on account of work interference with personal life. The causes for work-life imbalance

were classified as organizational and personal factors. The organizational factors included work

related factors, time-related factors and relationship-related factors. The personal factors

included lack of family support, marital conflicts and frequent change in sleeping patterns.

According to the study, “the three main consequences of work-life imbalance were stress and

burnout, ill-health and poor work performance. The respondents also experienced guilt of not

being able to spend time with family, anxiety about poor performance, displacement of negative

emotions on family members and on co-workers.”

Ming (2007) “examined the relationship of self-efficacy, work family conflict, social support,

gender role attitude, role model and career aspiration to top management among women in

middle management at the manufacturing line. This study intended to determine the contribution

of each factor to career aspiration. Data were collected from 109 married women in middle

management at eight private manufacturing companies located in Bangi and Nilai. This study

found that self-efficacy, social support, gender role attitude and role model were significantly

related to career aspiration (p<0.05). Specifically, self-efficacy and gender role attitude were the

most significant antecedents of career aspiration among women in middle management in

manufacturing line.”

Mathur-Helm (2006) “examined the reality of the glass-ceiling phenomenon in South Africa’s

four major retail banks. The study investigated women’s low numbers in their top management

jobs. A total of 40 women managers were interviewed for their in-depth responses, which were

content analyzed. The paper provided clarity for organizational leaders to identify growth

barriers existing in their organizations, leading their women workforce towards a glass ceiling.

The results indicated that the glass ceiling considered a myth by many was real and are nurtured

by the organizational culture, policies and strategies besides women’s own inadequacies. The

study concluded that only the most decentralized organizations, characterized by a culture that

supports women’s top positions, will help in breaking down the glass ceiling, along with

women’s own efforts to grow, develop and empower themselves through academic and career

development.”

D. Jamali, et al. (2006), “made a study to explore the salience of glass ceiling type barriers in the

Lebanese banking sector, based on the perceptions of a sample of Lebanese top and middle level

women managers. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 61 top and middle level

women managers, drawn from the context of 12 different banks in the Lebanese context. They

found that the common precepts of the glass ceiling theory were not supported in the context of

Lebanese banks with overall positive inferences and perceptions reported by Lebanese women

managers in relation to their work environment and daily work experiences. These findings were

explained by the progressive evolution of the Lebanese banking sector over the past few

decades.”

Lilly and Duffy (2006) wrote “work-family conflict occurs for men and women in the sense that

anyone with a job and family may need to cope simultaneously with the demands of both”. Job

spill over, in the case of work and family, refers to the impact that work roles could have on that

family and vice versa (Delgado and Canabal, 2006). It has been recognized that the long-hour

work culture in many organizations does not support appropriate parenting (Wood and Newton,

2006). Long hour work includes working in the banking sector of every economy. After even the

long hour daily for five days, Saturdays are now included.

Women can either act as so-called superwomen in order to cope with these competing demands

or find other ways of handling the overload at work or at home (Gordon and Whelan-Berry,

2005). Women, who felt overburdened by all of the pressures they must shoulder, run the risk of

burnout and a possible end to their corporate aspirations (Gallagher and Goland, 2000, cited by

Easton, 2007). Macdonald, Phipps, and Lethbridge (cited in Easton, 2007), using fresh data on

adult Canadian women and men found that women’s greater hours of unpaid work contributed to

women experiencing more stress than men. Success in the workplace as super mom in terms of

balancing work and family may come at a high cost in the form of stress (MacDonald et al, 2005,

cited in Easton, 2007). “This stress, if not handled carefully, could have dire effects on their

careers and even their roles and obligations to their families.”

According to Elvin-Nowak and Thomsson, (2001, cited by Easton, 2007) a woman that worked

was “exposed to the constant risk of her position as a mother and woman being questioned

particularly where she has chosen employment for her own well-being rather than being forced

to by external circumstances.” Hakim (cited in Easton, 2007) makes use of ‘preference theory’, a

new theory for ‘explaining and predicting women’s choices between market-work and family

work.’

According to Hakim, adaptive women prefer to combine employment and family work and these

women are prepared to prioritize their jobs in the same way as men with family life fitted around

their work and many of these women remain childless, even when married.

PatriceM.Buzzanell,RebeccaMeisenbach,Robyn,RemkaMeinaLiu,VenessaBowers&Ciny Conna

examines women who held in different positions includes managers, vice presidents, circulation

managers and also human experts They mainly focus on managers working experience and how

work–life concerns upon their return to paid work following maternity leaves. They found that

all participants change from good mother image into a good working mother role that fit their

lifestyles and interests. To accomplish this reframing, participants engaged in three supportive

factors of the good working mother image (a) good working mothers arrange quality child care

(b) good working mothers are (un) equal partners and (c) good working mothers feel pleasure in

their working mother role. Because of these factors enable participants to make sense of and

establish the worth of working motherhood to family members, friends, acquaintances,

organizational members, and community members and working women also provide a reason

why middle or upper-class working and stay-at-home mothers may be in conflict about work and

family choices.

(Sunita Malhotra & Sapna Sachdeva, 2005). Many women today are wearing multiple hats in

their attempts to balance both career and home/family responsibilities. Concern about family can

interfere with work to a great extent and worries about work issues can also be exhibited in the

family front.

The study by Francene Sussner Rodgers (1992) with the sample consisting of employees of 20

Fortune 500 companies; 28 percent of the men and 53 percent of the women reported that work-

family stress affected their ability to concentrate at work hence revealing that more than half the

women and almost a third of the men reported that work/family stress affected their ability to

concentrate on the job. Life at work seems so difficult for working women. Pleck’s (1977)

research suggests that family-to-work spill-over is stronger for women and the work-to-family

spill-over is stronger for men. Research suggests that female respondents in all parts of the world

are pressured for time, rarely have time to relax and feel stressed and overworked most of the

time, but women in emerging countries feel the strain even more so than women in developed

countries. Women in India (87%) are most stressed/pressured for time (Nielsen Survey, June

2011).

Several studies have explained the effect of work-life conflict on the health of working women.

ASSOCHAM’s study based on the survey of 103 corporate female employees from 72 various

companies/organizations across 11 broad sectors of the economy focused on the issues of

corporate female employees. One of their significant finding is that high psychological job

demands like long working hours, working under deadlines, without clear direction leads 75

percent of the working females suffer depression or general anxiety disorder than those women

with lowest level of psychological job demands (Nusrat Ahmad, March 2009).

A.K.M.Mominul Haque Talukder (2011) studied work life balance in service context and made

attempts to identify how employees are balancing their work life by considering variables such

as work culture, job satisfaction, employee benefits, work environment, flexible work time, work

load and discrimination. He identified that work life balance is influenced by all these variables.

Anna Beginner worked(2010) on 80 academic women working at US, UK, Australia and

Sweden and revealed that female academicians are experiencing a series of universal challenges

to work life balance despite radically different government policies and cultural attitudes towards

work. Women’s ability to cope up with the challenges varies cross culturally with the degree of

support provided by formal policies and social norms.

A.G.V.Narayanan & R.Lakshmi Narayanan(2012) worked, on 200 human resources working in

Tamilnadu IT organizations and found that work timings, excess work load, long travel, routine

meetings, work on holidays are strongly influencing work life balance of employees.

Arunima Ghosh (2006) in research on “The Relationship between the Involvement of Work

Innovations and Work-Family Balance” explored the relationships between the involvement of

work innovation and work-family balance concepts (work-family conflict and work-family

facilitation). This study revealed that the involvement of “JIT (just-in-time) system” and “six

Sigma” were positively associated with work-family conflict. Three management innovation

activities, “total quality management (TQM)”, “work team”, and “pay-for-performance system”

were negatively associated with work-family conflict. “Work team” had positive relationship

with work-family facilitation.

Alan Felstead (2007) in his research on “Opportunities to work at home in the context of work-

life balance” finds 'work-life balance' and 'family-friendly' employment is much in vogue among

politicians and business leaders. The article shows that the option to work at home is more likely

to be available in the public sector, large establishments and work environments in which

individuals are responsible for the quality of their own output. These workplaces are typically

less unionized but not especially feminized.

Brent C Miller (2004) in his research “Influences of the Virtual office aspects on work and

work/life balance” found that millions of employees now use portable electronic tools to do their

jobs from a "virtual office" with extensive flexibility in the timing and location of work. This

study highlights the need for a multi-method approach, including both qualitative and

quantitative elements, when studying tele work.

Duxbury and Higgins (2007) found that women are more likely than men to report high levels of

role overload and caregiver strain. This is because women devote more hours per week than men

to non work activities such as child care, elder care and more likely to have primary

responsibility for unpaid labor such as domestic work.

According to Fleming, (1999), interpersonal relationship that is Social Interaction in the work

environment is part of day-to-day organizational life. These social interactions are among the

peers, manager and the team members, top management with the technical resources. Mutual

interactions desire understanding and coordination. Managers can play an important role to keep

their task force motivated and devoted. As the people grow to be at supervising positions in

organizations, the need of understanding people becomes stronger. “Many managers are not

aware of how to assess emotional intelligence of theirstaff members or the job applicants,” A

Workplace where people communicate well, understand each other, empathize and work along in

strong bonds has its name in top organization lists.

Farnaz Namin-Hedayati (2007) in his research on “An exploration of the effects of emotional

intelligence on work-life balance, above and beyond personality components in working,

graduate and undergraduate students” explored the relationship between emotional intelligence

and work-life balance while holding the effect of personality constant. The relationships among

work-life balance (as indicated by work-family and family-work conflict) Personality and

emotional intelligence were measured in 100 working undergraduate and graduate students.

Results indicated that total emotional intelligence explained significant levels of the variance of

both work-family conflict and family-work conflict, even in the presence of personality.

However, the individual emotional intelligence dimensions, managing own emotions) explained

significant variances of family-work conflict only.

Jane Sturges (2004) in her research on “Working to live or living to work? Work/life balance

early in the career” reports the findings of research that explored relationships between work/life

balance, work/non-work conflict, hours worked and organisational commitment among a sample

of graduates in the early years of their career. It concludes that, although graduates seek

work/life balance, their concern for career success draws them into a situation where they work

increasingly long hours and experience an increasingly unsatisfactory relationship between home

and work.

Jennings Karlene Noel (2007) in her research on “In the balance: Work/life balance of senior

development professionals within higher education” finds that Work/life balance has become a

goal or quest for professionals of many disciplines. To achieve this often precarious and sought

after stability has been studied through various lenses and perspectives. This dissertation utilizes

a qualitative methodological framework to study the work/life balance of six senior advancement

professionals at Research Extensive public higher education institutions.

Johnson Roxanna (2008) in his research on “An analysis of equity perception related to family-

friendly work-life balance of female employees without dependents” finds companies have

initiated family-friendly work-life balance programs to improve retention, recruitment, job

satisfaction, and productivity, and to reduce absenteeism and stress of employees with

dependents. Results of this study suggest that developing work-life balance programs that are

more equitable for all employees will increase perceptions of organization justice, thereby

increasing perceptions of value to the organization for employees without dependents.

Industrial/Organizational psychologists who work for, or with, organizations and others in

leadership positions may want to more closely attend to the equity of work-life balance

programs. Ideas are provided based on suggestions participants gave for making work-life

balance programs more equal for all employees.

M Rajgopal (2007) in his research on “work to live, don’t live to work: A cross-sectional study

of the work-life balance of higher managers” finds that work-life balance is currently in vogue

among governments, organizations as well as researchers. Managers in organizations all over the

world are exposed to significant pressures in their jobs, which further influence the balance

between their work and private lives, job satisfaction and overall well-being. The key findings in

terms of the factors influencing higher managers are reported. They suggest that the individuals

are influenced by several aspects. The responsibility for personal work-life balance does not only

lie on individuals themselves, but the organizations and governments play an important role in

treating this issue as well.

Mastri Annalisa Igina (2007), in his research on “The effect of work/life balance policies on

employee retention and profitability” finds that women in the United States are

disproportionately underrepresented at the upper levels of law, medicine, and business. Some

have suggested that combining high-powered careers with family demands is exceedingly

difficult, causing women to quit work altogether or remain at the lower levels of professional

work..

Neelima Desai C(2007) in her research on “continuity and change in work–life balance choices”

explores the ways in which the work–life balance choices made by heterosexual couples differ in

different generations, how such choices are gendered, and the extent to which 'individualization'

provides an adequate conceptualization of the effects of social change on heterosexual couples.

Their findings support the contention that processes of individualization are more apparent

amongst younger than older generations and that, because of changes external to the family,

there is more negotiation and pragmatism amongst younger generations about work–life choices.

Vijay Laxmi (2008) in her research on “working spouses fine with their work life balance”

explores getting married is no more a reason for dissatisfaction in the work life. Married working

couples in India appear to manage the work-life tightrope well. The continued difficulties for

women looking to re-enter the workforce after a child break and the high unwillingness to move

cities to follow their spouses' careers are the challenges for women spouses in the Indian

workplace. There is evidence that such programs are not a significant drain on company

profitability. Since firms similar to those in this study can expect to realize gains in retention of

employees and continued profit growth, it would benefit them to adopt certain types of work/life

balance policies.

Work life and personal life are the two sides of the same coin. According to various work life

balance surveys, more than 60% of the respondent professionals surveyed said that are not able

to find a balance between their personal and professional lives. They have to make tough choices

even when their work and personal life is nowhere close to equilibrium.

Burke (2002) , observes that both women and men prefer working in organizations that support

work-life balance. Men appeared to benefit more than women .Men feel more satisfied when

they achieve more on the job even at the cost of ignoring the family. On the other hand, women

stress that work and family are both equally important and both are the sources of their

satisfaction. For them the former is more important. When work does not permit women to take

care of their family, they feel unhappy, disappointed and frustrated. They draw tight boundaries

between work and family and they do not like one crossing the others.

Rai (2009) while some employees work in the standard time some others need to be available for

work that normally starts early in the evening and continues well through the night. Sometimes

they need to even work beyond the normal eight hours. This has further intensified the work

demands on employees. Consequently, there are growing reports of stress and work imbalance.

Rupashree and Shivganesh (2010) in their study reported that supervisor support and work-

family culture are positively related to job satisfaction and affective commitment. No significant

association was found between Work-life benefits and policies and job outcome measures. Job

characteristics and supervisor support were positively related to work-to-family enrichment.

Work-to-family enrichment mediated the relationships between job characteristics and job

outcomes and between supervisor support and affective commitment.