Challenges in the Boundaries between Home and Work - Coursework Example

The boundaries between ‘home’ and ‘work’ are continually being challenged and reconfigured. Critically analyse the effects of these reconfigurations from the perspective of both the organisation and the individual. Introduction The boundaries between home and work are blurring. Today, workers want more flexibility and mobility as compared to the previous years. The increase in the Web 2.0 tools at the workplaces is contributing to the erosion of boundaries between social and work life. The technological developments, web presence and the social media are considered as the major factors contributing to the blurring boundaries between work and home. Adnerson argues that difficulty in managing work-home balance is increasing divorce rate because when couple experiences difficulties in managing their roles, they start confusion over changing gender roles which create problems between them. Actually individuals have different roles which they perform in the society. In the context of an organisation, the roles of individuals at workplace and home are of special interest. Edwards, R. J. and Rothbard (2002) argue that a dramatic increase has been seen in the research devoted to study the association between work and family life and a number of linking mechanisms have been also suggested to explain the nature of the relationship between work and family roles of an individual. Organisations have adopted various mechanisms to reconfigure the work and home roles, so that employees could be better able to achieve the balance. The focus of this essay is to discuss how the boundaries between work and home roles are being challenged. What reconfigurations have been made to face the challenges posed by these boundaries? Moreover, this essay also evaluates the impact of such reconfigurations on organisations and individuals. Discussion Boundaries between work and home have become significantly important because of the changing work patterns and organisational behaviour. Greenhaus and Singh (2003) have highlighted few major links which are usually parallel to work-home boundaries. These conflicts include conflict, accommodation, enrichment, compensation and segmentation. Work-family conflict is the incompatibility between the work roles and home roles and it may be because of the pressures from either of the domain. Work-family accommodation as defined by Lambert (1990, cited in Greenhaus and Singh, 2003) is the process through which people try to reduce their participation in one role to fulfil the demands of the other role. Work-family compensation as defined by Lambert (1990) and Zedeck (1992, cited in Greenhaus and Singh, 2003) is the attempt to seek satisfaction from one role by offsetting the dissatisfaction in other role. Another mechanism that links work and home is the work-family enrichment, in which roles of individuals in one role support the role of individuals in the other role. Finally work-home segmentation separates the roles of individuals at work and home and it advocates that integrating the roles can create conflicts. Therefore, work and home roles are strongly linked with each other. Managing boundaries have become important for the companies because organisations seek to achieve maximum employee productivity and it is only possible of employees play their role more effectively and efficiently. All individuals have transitions in their roles of home, work and other places and the transitions are the boundary-crossing activities where one performs roles and enters and exists (Ashforth, Kreiner and Fugate, 2000). Ashforth, Kreiner and Fugate have considered these roles to be arrayed on a continuum which spans from high segmentation to high integration. Actually, Ashfort and his colleagues have argued that roles can be broadly categorised into two major groups. When the segmentation between roles is significant, the boundaries blur and the magnitude of change increases, thereby, making the boundary crossing more difficult. On the other hand, when the roles integration is significant, the magnitude of change is low and the boundaries between the roles are more blurred, thereby reducing the ability to maintain the roles and increasing the boundary crossing. For example, if a person works from home, then he or she can get more chance to integrate his work and home roles and the chances of blurring boundaries between work and home roles increase. Therefore, how to reconfigure these boundaries to manage them more effectively has become a challenge for the organisations. Boundary theory has significant implications to study the work-home relationship because this theory provides strong tools to clarify the relationships and expectations. The term boundary in theory boundary theory is something where something ends and another thing starts. The theory suggests that to know what is acceptable is possible only if one knows what is unacceptable. It also suggests that knowing when we will say “No” is possible when we say know when we will say “Yes”. For example, a supervisor will know to which suggestions the employees will say “No” and employees know to which recommendations of manager they will say “No” (Walker, 2000). Similarly, knowing the role boundaries of work is possible for the employees only if they know the role boundaries of home life. In other words, to achieve a clear distinction between work roles and family life roles, an individual must know the distinction between the boundaries of two roles. Various theoretical models have been designed to describe the nature of the relationship between work roles and family roles of individuals. For example, role theory, compensation theory and spillover theory explain the relationship patterns between work and family such as separate pattern, blending pattern and mutual pattern (Xu, 2009). Edwards & Rothbard (1999), Kreiner (2006) and Nippert-Eng (1996) argue that preferences of individuals may vary for the segmentation or integration of the aspects of work and home (Kreiner, Hollensbe and Sheep, 2009). Zerubavel (1991 cited in Kreiner, Hollensbe and Sheep, 2009) argues that supporters of segmentation of the roles make them significantly separate and establish a mental fence whereas; the supporters of integration prefer combining the roles of work and home and reconfigure the boundaries between the two domains. Actually finding the supports for segmentation and integration may not be much possible and most of the opinions may fall in the middle of continuum, which means that individuals may demand a mix of segmentation or integration of roles depending on the situation they face. The boundaries between work and home are blurring and it is also evident from the increasing options of working-hours flexibility, work from home etc. Today, millions of the individuals are working full or part time from their homes and the computer technology has allowed the individuals to get a remote access to the communicate with their supervisors, subordinates and co-workers (Salazar, 2001). However, working from home is not as simple as one may assume because the roles of the individual at home and office starts conflicting with each other. The blurring boundaries between work and home life create work-home conflicts. Greebhaus and Beutell (1985) have suggested that work-family conflicts arise because of three major reasons. First, when the time required for fulfilling the requirements of one role conflict with the time required to fulfil the requirements of the other role. Second, participation of one in one role makes it difficult for one to fulfil the requirements of the other role. Third, specific behaviours in one role make it difficult for the individual to perform the requirements of the other role. Researchers are very keen to study the work-home balance and significant research is being conducted in this area. It is one of the reasons because of which the boundaries between work-home are being challenged. For example, one area which attracted the attention of researchers to study the boundaries of work-home was the role of gender. It is argued that gender plays a very significant role to influence the policies of organisations related to work-home roles balance. Pleck (1977) argues that analysing the role of sex in the interrelationship of work-family is very significant typical sex role norms describe the specialisation of work and family responsibilities by gender and a new perspective for integrating roles in both the workplace and home for each sex is now increasing. In 1977 Pleck, conducted a research to study the gender differences in the permeability of work and home boundaries. He collected the data from 631 individuals out of which 278 were men and 353 were women. The research study of Pleck found three major findings. First, the conflict between work and family is more frequent as compared to the conflict between family and work. Second, the work and home boundaries are asymmetrically permeable and the home boundaries are more permeable as compared to the work boundaries. Third, gender difference has no role in the work-home boundaries and the dynamics of work and home boundaries are similar for both of the genders (Frone, Russell and Cooper, 2006). These research findings actually suggest that there is a difference between work-family conflict and family-work conflict and gender role does not have any role in work-home balance. Clark (2000) has introduced a new theory known as work-family border theory which states that individuals are daily border-crossers between the domains of work and family. The theory also highlights a significant impact of domain integration/segmentation, border-crosser participation, border creation and management and the relationships between border-crossers and other individuals both at workplaces and homes, on work/family balance. In consideration to various factors which can play their role in work-home relationship, the researchers and organisations have created different work reconfigurations. Edwards and Rothbard (2000) have developed a casual relationship between work and family constructs and they argue that personal intent influence the relationship. The boundaries between work and home create various challenges both for the individuals and organisations. The following figure shows what kind of internet activities employees conduct at workplaces and how often. The data for this research study was collected through 250 online interviews with office workers and 150 managers also participated in the interviews. The study was conducted in UK, US, Germany and Australia. The diagram shows that accessing personal email accounts, using social networking sites, online banking, personal IM and internet search for products are some major activities which employees perform that workplaces. Moreover, most of these activities are performed by employees every day or most of the days. Figure: Internet Activities of Employees Source: Loud House, 2010 This figure shows how difficult and challenging it has become for the organisations to control the personal activities of employees at workplaces. On the other hand, employees are getting the chance to fulfil their work and personal roles simultaneously. Since organisations face significant improvements by allowing an effective way to manage their work-home balance therefore, organisations are rapidly focusing on redesigning and reconfiguring the jobs. For example, Non-profit Families and Work Institutes conducted a study in 2008 and found that 23 percent of the employers permit their workers to work from their home on regular basis (Alexander, 2009). She argues that most of the home workers usually toggle between their professional and family life. Alexander has quoted a statement of Ellen Galinsky who is the president of New York-based Families and Work Institute, who says that everyone should think what type he or she is rather than assuming that what works for his or her neighbour will also work for everyone. The blurring boundaries between home and work are leading to the development of new office environment which may have various benefits for businesses and also create inevitable disadvantages. The preferences and expectations of the individuals on the work-home boundary differ which create frustrations and disappointments because when the pressures and strains of work combines with pressures of home, work-home conflict emerge (Kreiner). Since the interface between work and family can be either positive or negative therefore, understanding what are the objectives of work-family policies and programs and the objectives for intervention? Grzywacz and Marks (1999) argue that the aim is to lower the negative influence between work and family then the strategies like flex-time and job sharing are not the most effective intervention workplace programs. In this case the point-of-view of vv is similar to that of Stokols (1996) that on job pressure, supportive working environment and various kinds of family relationships are the most significant factors for intervention therefore, rather than increasing decision latitude, the programs like reducing pressure on work, increasing supportive environment and flourishing emotionally close family relationships are more effective. On the other hand, if the goal is to enhance a synergetic work-family relationship, then workplace programs with higher level of decision latitude becomes more significant. The opinion of Grzywacz and Marks suggests that specifying the role about the outcome of work-family relationship is more important before developing targeted interventions to achieve the objectives. The comparisons of statutory policies to manage work-home boundaries at international level shows that Scandinavian countries show a low level of work-life conflicts whereas, the countries like Britain and U.S. show high level of conflicts because of the long working hours and less family support (Crompton, 2006). Xiao and O’Neill (2010) conducted a qualitative research study to analyse the perspectives of employers and employees on the work-life balance. He took the interviews of 49 persons in depth, in-office and with the full-service general managers of the hotel and identified strategic issue perceptions. The aim of O’Neill was to determine how work-life issues are related with strategic issue perceptions. The findings of the research study show that culture of the organisation and management style play a very significant role in work-family issues. Clutterbuck (2003) highlight the perspective of an organisation. He argues that it should not be expected from an organisation that it should sort out the work-home problems of each and every employee however, one should expect from an organisation that it will not make things worse by putting unreasonable demands and to help them to organise their work in such a way to manage their work-home life balance. In consideration to this view, the organisations are offering different strategies to their employees so that they could better manage their work such as flex hours, work from home etc. Although the reconfigurations have made the boundaries between work roles and home roles blurred but there are various benefits which both the individuals and organisations enjoy because of such reconfigurations. Firestein has highlighted a few concerns which are increasing because of the blurring boundaries of work and family life. Firestein argues that flexible work, compressed work, increasing childcare, paid sick leaves and ability of employees to get their sick leaves for their kids , paid family leave and paid time off for a parent and teacher are some important work-family issues. Shamir and Salomon (1984) argue that the innovations in the technological industry especially the telecommunication sector have made it easier for the workers to work from home and the patterns of job have changed from employer’s premises to employees’ homes. In general, most of employees if given the work-from-home option will prefer to avail the option because they may feel more relaxed and comfortable at home. From organisational perspective, work-from-home option may enhance the productivity of the employees and can also cut the operations costs of the organisation. Organisations consider that such options can improve the work experience of employees and they may feel more rewarding, devoid of stress, fulfilling etc (Shamir and Salomon, 1984). Critically speaking, work-from-home option may also reduce the performance and productivity of the employees because they may start mixing their work and home roles thereby, losing the balance between work and family roles. Thomson (2008) conducted a research study the importance of flexibility working for an organisation and its workers. The findings of the research study show that by introducing the flexibility working, East Riding of Yorkshire has made significant improvements in its services and within a period of two year, the company has been able to change the failure of its department from failure to award-wining. The research also finds that after getting the flexibility in working hours, the employees at Vodafone are better able to find a balance between their roles at workplace and home. Burchielli, Bartram and Thanacoody (2008) have studied the work-family balance in the context of Australian economy. They have shown how changes in employment trends led to the changes in work reconfiguration. They highlight that since 1970s the ratio of women in the employment in Australia has been increased and significant growth has been observed both in full-time employment and part-time employment. In order to provide the working mothers, a better way to manage their work-home roles, childcare in Australian companies becomes an important area. The focus on childcare enhanced the integration of work and family life roles of the women however; it did provide a huge benefit to the women at individual level as they were better able to manage their homes and kids. Moreover, various kinds of leaves were arrangements were developed to meet the family demands of the working parents. Therefore, such arrangements actually help the Australian companies to adopt a more effective manner to achieve work-home balance. In order to analyse how these strategies helped the companies and individuals, I will like to quote the three reasons of work-home conflicts identified by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985). The childcare focus helped the women to manage their role both as a mother and as an employee therefore, first work-home conflict was resolved. The first conflict identified by Greenhaus and Beutell states when the time required for fulfilling the requirements of one role conflict with the time required to fulfil the requirements of the other role. Childcare reduced the time conflict thereby, reducing the chances of the first conflict. Second work-home conflict states that the participation of one in one role makes it difficult for one to fulfil the requirements of the other role. However, through increasing the childcare, companies intended to reduce the childcare pressure from the minds of working mothers thereby, making them more participative in work roles. Third work-home conflict states that specific behaviours in one role make it difficult for the individuals to perform the requirements of the other role. However, by reducing the family life pressure and through enhancing the interest of women towards their work roles, this issue was also resolved. No doubt, organisations might have faced huge childcare costs after hiring the working mothers however, the benefits which the companies have gained might have overweighed the childcare costs. The research findings of Burchielli, Bartram and Thanacoody (2008) show that senior staff members and managers face work-home issues, because they usually lack the balance between the two. The research also shows that the work-home balance strategies like flexible work hours cannot help the individuals to achieve the balance rather they increase the challenges for the employees. Moreover, the recent configurations are leading the employees to manage their work and home role boundaries at their personal costs. Therefore, the opinion of Burhielli and his co-workers suggest organisations as having greedy intentions which for their own interests exploit their workers. Conclusion The boundaries between work and home roles are blurring because of the significant development in technological at workplaces. The association between work and family life can be explained through work-home conflict, work-home accommodation, work-home enrichment, work-home compensation and work-home segmentation. Two major opinions have been analysed in work-home roles boundaries. One opinion suggests that boundaries between work roles and home roles should be clearly separate and segmented whereas, the other opinion suggests that boundaries between work and home roles should be integrated and blurry. Because of the various opinions and thoughts, the boundaries between work and home roles are being challenged. Various theoretical models and concepts also provide guidance to organisations to manage the boundaries between work and home roles. The discussion shows that companies are aware of the challenges implied in the integration of work and home roles. Both the employers and the employees are aware of the tensions of the role demands of work and home. Organisations have come up various reconfigurations to manage these boundaries. Some of these reconfigurations include flexible working hours, leave arrangements, childcare, work-from home etc. These reconfigurations have helped the organisations to improve the performance of their employees. Moreover, employees have also become better able to manage their roles in both domains. On the other hand, various disadvantages have also been identified such as increasing organisations costs rather than cost-cutting (for example, childcare costs) and lack of ability of employees to achieve the balance. Although, organisations are being considered greedy for such reconfigurations however, one thing which has been analysed in this essay is that the maximum benefits of such reconfigurations go to the workers. Today, individuals are better able to manage their roles in the two domains. Therefore, it is concluded that reconfigurations of the boundaries between work and home roles have both the positive and negative impact on organisations and individuals however, if the challenges posed by these reconfigurations are not handled properly, organisations are more exposed to the risk of decreasing performance and unethical working concerns. Bibliography Alexander, K. 2009. Setting Boundaries. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/01/work-home-office-women-leadership-balance.html [Accessed on 10 January 2010] Anderson, S., n.d. Work at Home Challenges: Establishing Rules and Boundaries to Ensure Success. [Online] Available at: http://www.score.org/om_17.html [Accessed on 10 January 2010] Ashforth, E. B. Kreiner, E. C. and Fugate, M., 2000 All in a Day’s Work: Boundaries and Micro Role Transitions. The Academy of Management Review. 25(3), 472-491 Burchielli, R., Bartram, T. and Thanacoody, R., 2008. Work Family Balance or Greedy Organisations? [Online] Available at: http://www.erudit.org/revue/ri/2008/v63/n1/018124ar.pdf [Accessed on 14 January 2010] Clark, C. S., 2000. Work/Family Border Theory: A New Theory of Work/Balance Life. Human Relations. 53(6), 747-770 Clutterbuck, D., 2003. Managing the Work Life Balance. CIPD Publishing. Britain. Crompton, R., 2006. Employment and the Family. The Reconfiguration of Work and Family Life in Contemporary Societies. Cambridge University Press. Edwards, R. J. and Rothbard, P. N. 2000. Mechanisms Linking Work and Family: Classifying the Relationship between Work and Family Constructs. The Academy of Management Review. 25 (1), 178-199 Firestein , N., n.d. Work and Family from a Union Perspective. [Online] Available at: http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/The_Network_News/1-3/TNN1-3_Firestein.pdf [Accessed on 12 January 2010] Frone, Russell and Cooper, 2006. Prevalence of Work-Family Conflict: Are Work and Family Boundaries Asymmetrically Permeable? Journal of Organisational Behaviour. 13(7), 723-729 Greebhaus , H. J. and Beutell, J. N., 1985. Sources of Conflict between Work and Family Roles. The Academy of Management Review. 10(1), 76-88 Greenhaus , H. J. and Singh, R., 2003. Work Family Linkages. [Online] Available at: http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/encyclopedia_entry.php?id=263 [Accessed on 10 January 2010] Grzywacz, G. J. and Marks, F. N. 1999. Reconceptualising the Work-Family Interface: An Ecological Perspective on the Correlates of Positive and Negative Spill over between Work and Family. [Online] Available at: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/cdewp/99-03.pdf [Accessed on 10 January 2010] Kreiner, E.G., Hollensbe, C. E. and Sheep, L. M., 2009. Balance Borders and Bridges: Negotiating the Work Home Interface Via Boundary Work Tactics. [Online] Available at: http://episcopalcredo.org/episcopal/assets/File/AMJ_Kreiner_Hollensbe_Sheep_Work_Home.pdf [Accessed on 11 January 2010] Kreiner, E. G., n.d. Wellness at Work and Home: Managing Boundaries. [Online] Available at: http://episcopalcredo.org/episcopal/assets/File/Wellness_at_Work_and_Home.pdf [Accessed on 10 January 2010] Loud House. 2010. Blurring Boundaries: The Disappearing Gap between Work and Home Life. [Online] Available at: http://www.biodata.co.za/sections/600_Products/sections/200_Clearswift/resources/050_Reports/Blurring%20boundaries.pdf [Accessed on 10 January 2010] Pleck, H. J., 1977. The Work Family Role System. Social Problems. 24(4), 417-427 Salazar, C., 2001. Building Boundaries and Negotiating Work at Home. [Online] Available at: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=500311 [Accessed on 10 January 2010] Shamir, B. and Salomon, I., 1985. Work-at-home and the Quality of Working Life. The Academy of Management Review, 10(3), 455-464 Thomson, P., 2008. The business benefits of flexible working. Strategic HR Review, 7(2), 17 - 22 Walker, A. L., 2000. Boundary Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.boundarymanagement.com/Boundary%20Theory.htm [Accessed on 12 January 2010] Xiao, Q. and O’Neill,W. J., 2009. Work-Family Balance as a Potential Strategic Advantage: A Hotel General Manager Perspective. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. 34(4), pp.415-439 Xu, L., 2009. View on Work-Family Linkage and Work-Family Conflict Model. International Journal of Business and Management. 4(12) Read More