The Key to Work-Life Balance is (Enriched) Job Design? Three-Way Interaction Effects with Formalization and Adaptive Personality Characteristics.

The COVID-19 outbreak has blurred the boundaries between work and personal life, making the concept of work-life balance (WLB) even more important. Based on a three-source (employees, family members, and supervisors) sample (n = 436) of working professionals, we investigated the importance of enriched job design for employee WLB. In addition, on the basis of the job demand-control (JD-C) model, we examined whether organizationally imposed formalization and employees' individual adaptive personality traits (proactive personality and resilience) act as boundary conditions that strengthen this positive relationship. First, we conducted a supplementary analysis to investigate further which of the enriched job design characteristics play the most important role in our three-way interaction models predicting WLB. Then we discuss implications for theory and practice.

Assessing the Effect of Work From Home on the Work-Life Balance of IT Employees

The objective of this paper is to assess the effect of work from home (WFH) on the work-life balance of IT employees. The study investigated among 200 IT employees who were in full-time employment at two popular IT parks in India - Technopark and Infopark. Regression and multidimensional scaling ALSCAL (Euclidean distance model) were used for analysing data. The authors considered the significance of gender influence on the work-life balance (WLB) and job satisfaction on work-from-home (WFH). The research found a significant positive effect of WFH on the WLB and a positive relationship of WFH employees with work and family. They found irrespective of gender the employees of WFH had equal job satisfaction. They noticed a concern among the WFH women employees, as they have had to struggle to balance their personal and professional lives. The findings of the study have enormous policy implications in the IT sector across the globe. This paper has provided an early step in the direction of policymaking of WFH initiatives in the IT sector across the globe.

Does smartphone affect work-life balance, stress and satisfaction among teachers during online education?

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of smartphone usage on school teachers’ Work-Life Balance (WLB) in the online mode of education during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic insisted teachers adopt online teaching using a smartphone, which facilitates many teachers to qualitatively manage their work and family responsibilities during the transformed work mode. The target population of the current research is private school teachers working in all levels of school education across major cities in India namely Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Validated structured questionnaires were administered and primary data was gathered from 478 respondents, who were chosen using a convenience sampling technique. The hypothetical relationships among smartphone use, WLB, personal life and job satisfaction are found to be positive, whereas work stress is found to have a significantly negative relationship with WLB, personal life and job satisfaction. Therefore, it is concluded that the pertinent use of smartphones enhances the WLB of school teachers by helping them to meet family and job demands effectively. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The Mediating Effects of Work-Life Balance (WLB) and Ease of Using WLB Programs in the Relationship between WLB Organizational Culture and Turnover Intention.

Work-life balance (WLB) is an important concern for all workers irrespective of their age, sex, education level, family structure, or occupation. This study analyzes WLB's mediating effects and the ease of using WLB programs in the relationship between WLB organizational culture of hotels and turnover intention of its culinary staff. We conducted a survey featuring 320 culinary staff members at hotels in Incheon from 10 to 30 August 2020 and performed statistical analysis using 290 responses. We find that the company's willingness for WLB, empathetic communication with colleagues, material support of colleagues for WLB, and the ease of using WLB programs in organizational culture had a positive impact on WLB. The company's willingness for WLB, boss's consideration for WLB, empathetic communication with colleagues, and material support of colleagues for WLB in organizational culture had a negative impact on turnover intention. The ease of using WLB programs had no indirect effect on the relationship between organizational culture and turnover intention. However, WLB had an indirect effect on the relationship between the four components except for the boss's consideration for WLB and turnover intention. Hotel management should create an organizational culture that supports the WLB of culinary staff.

Neurodiversity and remote work in times of crisis: lessons for HR

Purpose The rich qualitative study builds on 11 semi-structured interviews with nine neurodivergent employees and two business professionals supportive of neurodiversity to understand the lived experiences of dealing with crisis in a remote working environment. Design/methodology/approach The purpose of the reported research is to understand how neurominorities experience remote working in the times of crisis and what the implications of this are for human resource (HR) professionals. Findings Moving to remote work resulted in a lack of routine, distractions and working long hours, which can all be difficult for line managers to monitor. Further problems with communication in a virtual environment and lack of understanding by others were found to be particularly burdensome to neurodivergent individuals. On the positive note, remote working in the times of crisis allowed for avoiding sensory overwhelm and was seen as an important step in creating a healthy work-life balance (WLB). Practical implications The findings of this study point HR practitioners' attention towards building a more neurodiversity friendly post-pandemic workplace and prompt employers to offer working arrangements, which better suit employees' domestic and personal circumstances. Originality/value This study addresses the lack of research on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on neurominorities. In doing so, it answers recent calls to move away from universal HR as a route to positive employee outcomes and facilitates a more accurate reflection of organizational reality for disadvantaged members of society.