SHRM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

SHRM - Essay Example Satisfaction in the workplace translates into happiness and fulfillment in life. Work and life balance suggests a balance for life and what people do. There is to be a blending equality that includes work, family, pleasure, fulfillment, and satisfaction. Some skeptics argue that there is actually no relation between life and work. What works in the workplace has no correlation with what is happening at home. But recent surveys and experiences revealed that organizations adopting family-friendly and work-life balance policies and programmes motivate workers to be more productive. Work-life balance creates satisfaction among family-oriented workers. Work-life balance has been given much attention lately because this has convinced employers of the economic benefits for organizations. There is a feeling that satisfied workers create satisfied customers. This is linked to ‘valuing’ work and value-added supply chains. But there are a lot of workers who are dissatisfied with th eir jobs. There are arguments and counter-arguments on the effectiveness of work-life balance which can be explained later in the following sections of this paper. Background Our first concept of work can be traced from the Bible. Work is considered a burden and a form of punishment. God imposed work to punish Adam and Eve. Our present ideas and philosophies are still linked to this punishment view. This could be one of the reasons why man continues to build, innovate, and reinvent new things, technologies, robots, etc., to give ease and comfort, to avoid the ‘punishment’, and not ‘to work’ in the process. Archeological findings tell us that mankind had learned to use rudimentary tools as far back as 2.5 million years ago. The tools were used for hunting and making art. Cave hunters were specialists in making tools. Man learned to make machines to enable him to satisfy his basic need for food, and successive inventions would tell us that there are some task s that we would choose not to do if we had the choice and that there are some activities which we would much prefer others to do on our behalf. (Firth, 2002, p. 17) Technological breakthroughs are an outcome of this concept. Computers, the Internet, Information Technology, robotics and other inventions, permit man to be more dependent on machines and technology. The concept of work changed over time but the real meaning is still there. With complexity in the workplace, organizations formed, multinational corporations and now global organizations evolving, the concept of work remains – ‘it is really that tiresome to work’. But man has to work for money in order to buy food, clothing, shelter for his family, and to have a career in the process. The concept of work has evolved. This is where work-life balance was invented. Organizations continue to provide innovations to make life for the workers easier. Definitions and Concepts A definition for work-life balance th at is widely accepted is provided in the website Actnow (2009): â€Å"Work life balance is about people having a measure of control over when, where and how they work. It is achieved when 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† (Actnow, 2009). What is stressed in this definition is that the workers have a measure of cont