Work and Family Harmony: Productivity AND Peace WorkLife Association Roundtable E. Jeffrey Hill, Ph.

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Work and Family HarmonyProductivity AND
PeaceWork/Life Association RoundtableE.
Jeffrey Hill, Ph.D., CFLEBYU School of Family
Lifejeff_hill_at_byu.edu29 October
2008Melbourne, Australia
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Work-Life Metaphors

• Metaphors influence our thoughts
• Balance and Juggling are dominant
  work-family metaphors
• Scarcity mentality based on time
• Assumes a Zero-Sum game
• Emphasis on conflict
• Productivity comes at the expense of individual
  peace.

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Harmony A Better Metaphor

• Harmony instead of Balance
• Person is the composer, orchestrator, and
  director of his/her own life.
• Life roles may harmonize or be dissonant (Work
  and family are pre-eminent)
• Emphasis on facilitation and flexibility as well
  as conflict
• Productivity AND peace are BOTH possible
  simultaneously

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Definition of Work-Family Harmony

• Ability to effectively integrate work
  responsibilities and family/personal aspirations
• Assumptions
• Both work and family are important
• Work should not be at the expense of a satisfying
  family/personal life and vice versa.
• Work and family can benefit one another
• Work and family harmony promotes productivity

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Global Trends Affecting Work-Family Harmony

• Global 24/7/365 economy
• Longer work hours
• Pervasive technology
• Greater gender equity
• Dual-career families
• Global epidemic of work-family conflict

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Initiatives to increase harmony and reduce
conflict

• Many work and family initiatives around the world
• Sponsored by governments, companies, and
  non-profit organizations
• Two examples
• Singapore
• IBM Corporation

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2006 Singapore National Study of Work-Life
Harmony Objectives of Study

• Develop Singapore National Study of Work-Life
  Harmony
• Develop a National Measure of Work-Life Harmony
  (Establish a scaled benchmark to measure progress
  over time in Singapore)
• Explore relationship of Work-Life Harmony to work
  and family outcomes (especially fertility)
• Provide data for research-based policy discussion

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MethodologyConceptual model includes predictors
and outcomes of work-life harmony.
WORK-LIFE HARMONY CONCEPTUAL MODEL (08-01-06)

(A) Work Characteristics
(B) Individual Characteristics
(C) Family Characteristics
(F) Work-to-Home Conflict/Facilitation
(F) Home-to-Work Conflict/Facilitation
(D) Work-to-Home Adaptive Strategies
(E) Home-to-Work Adaptive Strategies
(G) Work/Life Harmony
(H) Work Vitality
(I) Personal Vitality
(J) Family Vitality
(K) Community Vitality
Focus groups were conducted to validate the
model for Singapore

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Singapore Measure of Work-Life Harmony

• The Questions
• All in all, I am able to effectively integrate my
  work responsibilities and family/personal
  aspirations.
• How easy or difficult is it for you to integrate
  your work and your personal/family life?
• My job fits well with
• My individual personality
• My desire to be happily married
• My desired number of children
• My desire to spend time with my family/children
• My preferred pace (tempo) of life
• My desire for social interaction (e.g. time with
  friends)
• My personal aspirations

9 Item Measure Coefficient Alpha .91 Highly
Reliable
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Results Workers report a sleep deficit of 10
hours/week.
Ideal of hours of sleep per night M
8.2 Actual of hours of sleep per night M 6.8
1.4 hours deficit per night 9.8 hours deficit per
week 500 hours deficit per year

• Lack of sleep has been linked to health problems
  such as obesity, diabetes, and a lower immune
  system, as well as performance problems
  concerning judgment, response time, and
  attention.

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National Measure of Work-Life HarmonyPositive
Link Between Work-Life Harmony and Fertility

• Controlling for age, education, gender, and HH
  income, the odds of reporting fewer children than
  ideal is more than two times greater for those
  with little work-life harmony than those with
  high work-life harmony.

Poor work-life harmony is associated with having
fewer children than is believed to be ideal.
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Work-Life Harmony What Singapore workers want

• 2006 Singapore Work/Life Harmony
• Flexibility in WHERE work gets done 46
• Paid leave (marriage, maternity, paternity) 24
• Flexibility in WHEN work gets done 23
• Greater mgmt. acceptance of work-life 20
• Greater work-life education for employees 17
• Child care services 12
• 6. Part-time, job share, reduced hours 12
• 6. Sports/social activities in the workplace 12
• 6. Focus on needs of older workers 12

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Summary of Singapore Results HarmonyProductivity
AND Peace

• Business case for work-life harmony is strongly
  validated it predicts valued work, personal, and
  family vitality outcomes (Productivity AND
  Peace).
• Greater job loyalty, satisfaction, opportunity,
  performance
• Less job attrition
• Greater life satisfaction, physical health,
  mental health
• Enhanced marital and family satisfaction
• Higher fertility
• Work-life harmony is predicted by
• Personal Health, sleep, income
• Work Manager support and workplace flexibility
• Family Participation in family activities, and
  having both children and elders living in the
  home
• Employees express most interest in flexible work
  options (especially flextime) and paid leave
• National Work-life Harmony Measure can be used as
  a benchmark to measure progress over time

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IBM Global Work-Life Initiatives

• Started in the United States (1970s)
• Three US surveys (86, 91, 96)
• Three Global surveys (01, 04, 07)
• 2007 IBM Global Work and Life Issues Survey Facts
• 75 countries, 10 languages, 88 core questions,
  59k invitees
• Global Work-Life strategies

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Work-Life Harmony What IBM employees want

• 2007 IBM OVERALL
  
• Flexibility in WHERE work gets done 36
• Flexibility in WHEN work gets done 25
• Greater mgmt. acceptance of work-life 25
• Child care services
  21
• Greater work-life education for employees 21
• Part-time, job share, reduced hours 16
• Focus on needs of older workers 15

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Work-Life Harmony What IBM has implemented

• Workplace flexibility (flextime, mobile work,
  work-at-home, part-time, job sharing, leaves,
  compressed work, etc.)
• Supports for children/elders (care referral,
  near-site care, camps for children, homework
  assistance, etc.)
• Education for managers and employees
• Results increased work-life harmony facilitates
  achieving business results

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Workplace Flexibility Results Decade trend As
flexibility increases, work-life conflict
decreases, and vitality increases.
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Workplace Flexibility Results Dinnertime
enhances work, personal, and family vitality

• Long work hours associated with
• perceptions of unhealthy workplace
• greater work-family conflict
• lower perceived life success
• poorer family relationship quality
• Dinnertime mediated all these relationships
• Workplace flexibility gt Dinnertime
• Greater work, personal, and family vitality is
  achieved when employees use workplace flexibility
  to maintain regular family mealtime, even in the
  face of long work hours.

Jacob, J., Allen, S. M., Hill, E. J., Mead, N.
L. (2008). Work interference with dinnertime as a
mediator and moderator between work hours and
work and family outcomes. Family and Consumer
Sciences Research Journal.
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Workplace Flexibility Results60-Hour Dual-Earner
Week Promotes Work and Family Vitality

• Comparison of three couple work arrangements
• FT/FT Both partners work 40 hours per week
• 60 Hour Both partners work and at least one
  works part-time
• FT/NE One partner works full-time, the other is
  not employed
• 60-hour group compares favorably to the other
  groups
• Less work-to-family conflict and greater
  work-family fit means
• Greater work vitality
• Enhanced family vitality
• 1.5 jobs per family seems to work best

Hill, E. J., Mead, N. T., Dean, L. R., Hafen, D.
M., Gadd, R., Palmer, A. A., Ferris, M. (2006).
Researching the 60-hour dual-earner work week An
alternative to the opt out revolution. American
Behavioral Scientist, 49, 1184-1203.
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Workplace Flexibility Results Finding an Extra
Day per Week

• Study uses Break Point analysis Mathematical
  point in hours per week at which 50 of
  respondents report difficulty managing work-life
  demands.
• Overall Break Point
• 52 hours/week for those without workplace
  flexibility
• 60 hours/week for those with workplace
  flexibility
• Benefit of 8 hours/week (an extra day per week)
• Break Point for Women with Pre-schoolers
• 32 hours/week for those without workplace
  flexibility
• 43 hours/week for those with workplace
  flexibility
• Benefit of 11 hours/week (an extra day per week)

Hill, E. J., Hawkins, A. J., Ferris, M.,
Weitzman, M. (2001). Finding an extra day a
week The positive effect of job flexibility on
work and family life balance. Family Relations,
50(1), 49-58.
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Globally, work-at-home has increased from 5 in
01, to 10 in 04, to 15 in 07
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Results from telecommuters in Australia (2007)

• Telecommuters
• Primarily from Home 16
• At least 10 hours/week 51
• At least 5 hours/week 70
• Of the working primarily at home percent
  reporting work-at-home to be beneficial to
• Job Satisfaction 81
• Productivity 86
• Moral/motivation 74
• Loyalty/Commitment 76
• Work Overall 84
• Work-Life Balance 87
• Family Life 89

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Findings from telecommuting meta-analysis of 46
studies

• Beneficial effects
• Increased job satisfaction
• Improved performance
• Lower turnover intent
• Decreased role stress
• Lower work-family conflict
• Concern co-worker relationships when
  telecommuting more than 2.5 days/week

Gajendran, R. S., Harrison, D. A. (2007). The
good, the bad, and the unknown about
telecommuting Meta-analysis of psychological
mediators and individual consequences. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 92(6), 1524-1541.
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Research on the extent of telecommuting

• The more extensive the telecommuting the less
  work-to-family conflict.
• Schedule flexibility supercharges the benefits of
  telecommuting.
• The positive relationship between telecommuting
  and job satisfaction plateaus at two days per
  week.
• Those with a large household size experience
  greater family-to-work conflict the more they
  telecommute.

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Implications

• The metaphor of harmony is more productive than
  the metaphor of balance.
• Workplace flexibility is an important tool to
  promote harmony.
• However, one size does not fit all
• Research supports the business and personal case
  for harmony.
• Productivity AND peace are BOTH possible
  simultaneously.

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Workplace Flexibility One of the hallmarks of
good management practice

• Workplace flexibility will become one of the
  hallmarks of good management practice, in part
  because it can produce positive outcomes for
  employees as well as for workplaces.
• Source Testimony given in the United
• States Senate, 28 February, 2007)

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Work and Family HarmonyProductivity AND
PeaceTHANK YOU!E. Jeffrey Hill, Ph.D.,
CFLEBYU School of Family Lifejeff_hill_at_byu.edu