Work-Life Balance: A Quality-of-Life Model

Introduction 

The ultimate life purpose for each person when they near the end of the life's journey is to look back and find satisfaction in the life they have lived; on a personal, professional and family level. However, this is usually not the case for most people, as the attainment of that magical; almost mystical, equilibrium between their personal, family and professional life, is never achieved. Instead, humans tend to be drawn towards one aspect of their lives and forget the other two. The value of a balanced life is usually lost in immediate idiocrasies that blind one to the holistic purpose of life. Modern lifestyle setup today makes it much harder to attain this work-life balance as the conceptualization of what 'satisfaction' entails has been tailor-made to fulfil economic goals, rather than improve people's lives. Contrary to popular and commercialized opinion as to what and how satisfaction can be attained, contentment is derived in understanding that a balance between work, family and personal life is the ultimate goal. This balance provides an individual with the motivation needed to attain a spiritual and social understanding that gives satisfaction. A work-life balance is integral to attaining a good quality of life. However, several factors, other than time management, influence the work-life balance. 

Discussion 

Work-life balance is always conceptualized as solely a time management issue, yet the balance of the two domains have several other factors that contribute to the idea. Some of these factors include a balanced role commitment (based on individual's preference), positive overlap (adequate involvement and engagement), role competition, and satisfaction balance (equal satisfaction with work and family) (Sirgy & Lee, 2015). These factors act in unison to allow one to pursue self-interests, create a living consciousness that ensures due performance in one's responsibilities, removes the burden of expectancy, and confers contentment in one's choices and decisions. While time management can be regarded as a vital factor to work-life balance, it is the persistent endeavor to find value in every act and effort, irrespective of how long it takes. This time-bound mentality is one that is driven by a cultural expectancy that places a time clock on a person's life. One is culturally expected to have attained a particular life milestones within a specific time, failure to which, one is considered a failure. It is a mental blockage that hinders one from enjoying life's little joy and instead places a burden of trying to attain a set cultural expectancy that may be unattainable at that particular moment. It, therefore, becomes essential to gain an innate understanding as to one's immediate role, how to derive joy and satisfaction without relying on external factors, and the importance of their role to those who mean something to them. 

Many individuals can have what is perceived as an adequate work-life balance from a time management perspective and still not have a good quality of life. "Global studies reveal that 79 per cent of people who quit their jobs cite 'lack of appreciation' as their reason for leaving". (Tanner, 2018b). The understanding of what' quality of life' truly means escapes a lot of people. Many believe in commercialized 'picture-perfect' life as what quality entails when life is concerned and fail to understand that 'good quality life' is more than material acquisition. It is this general misconception that endear many to structure their life within the time management factor in trying to create satisfaction from individualized notion of what they believe best suits them. This is the reason most people who quit their job cite 'lack of appreciation' as the defining issue as the management define success within specific parameters while failing to take into account appreciation as an essential factor. Quality in life is attained through contentment that allows one to understand their immediate purpose, respect their role, honor their responsibilities, understand and appreciate their inner conflicts, and purposefully choose to be positive even when faced with difficulties. 

A new way of conceptualizing work-life balance that accounts for concrete contextual factors is the terminology work-life integration. Work-life integration accounts for an individual's goals/preferences, the overlapping of roles and satisfaction in each role as well as between roles. O.C. Tanner is a company that works with top corporations globally, such as taco bell, Bayer, etc.… to develop employee recognition and reward programs to inspire and promote job satisfaction. Founded in 1927, they have over 13.5 million users in over 150 countries and have completed vast amounts of research on the topic of job satisfaction and work-life balance. They have coined the term work-life integration (Tanner, 2018a) as it reflects the current needs of individuals in the workforce. This points out the importance of factoring in non-academic and non-professional interests when employing workers in any industries. The continued use of professional and academic qualifications as the rubric to employing and promoting staff creates work-zombies that cannot adjust to change, which hinders growth. Work-life integration is a functioning principle that allows companies and institutions to get the best out of their workforce as it creates contentment that ensures commitment, a value in the organization's goal and mission, and respect of the work itself. 

Oversimplification of the work-life balance using common phases continues to convey the message that the work-life balance is unifactorial and easy to attain. Common idioms and phrases such as "happy wife happy life" and "find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life" are an uncomplicated utilization of emotion to justify logic. It is the same trick that marketing agencies use to create interest in an item by coining phrases that resonate with the general public. This oversimplification provides the society with a general idea of what work-life balance entails and allows them to seek a balance that suits them. It is vital to understand that each person responds to different stimuli, and it would be wrong to assume that everyone will find satisfaction from a single explanation. It is, therefore, essential to find attachments that endear a majority to an understanding which encourages them to seek inner contentment without necessarily complicating the whole idea of work-life balance. Within each person, there is a desire to find a balance that allows them to be optimistic, and it is this inclination that allows for commitment, positivity and understanding in and between work and life roles. 

Work-life balance is only time-dependent and has little if any significance to the quality of life as it is an individualized construct, and some may not consider work to be an essential aspect of their life (Kautonen, Kibler, & Shaw, 2003). It is this individualized notion as to what is and is not essential in life that provides for time as an important factor to work-life. The free-spirited and religious people choose to see life from an infinite perspective that removes time from their understanding and way of living. On the other hand, the conservative population are bound by traditions and culture that ascribe them to roles that are time-bound. This gives time a significance that is justified by the culturally-set achievements that must be fulfilled for one to move from one level to another. Satisfaction is bound within this structure-based achievements, with Maslow pyramid of needs capturing this notion. 

Conclusion 

A work-life balance is integral to attaining a good quality of life. However, several factors, other than time management, influence the work-life balance. Each of these factors justifies the importance of contentment in having a fulfilling life, especially within work-related lifestyles .Time management continues to divide opinion as a vital factor to satisfaction; however, it is a factor that that only gains significance within individualized context. Work-life integration is a conceptualized notion to work-life balance and one that employs the need for integration of personal preferences within formal working roles to achieve satisfaction. The principle of work-life balance is one that should be deployed within social and formal working circles to ensure commitment and satisfaction. 

Reference 

Kautonen, T., Kibler, E. and Minniti, M. (2017). Late-career entrepreneurship, income and quality of life. Journal of Business Venturing, 32(3), pp.318-333 

Sirgy, M. and Lee, D. (2015). Work-Life Balance: A Quality-of-Life Model. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 11(4), pp.1059-1082. 

Tanner, O. (2018a). Performance Accelerated: A New Benchmark for Initiating Employee Engagement, Retention and Results. Available at: https://d1yuw6g9r4vq74.cloudfront.net/assets/Resources/White_Paper_Performance_Ac elerated.pdf [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019]. 

Tanner, O. (2018b). 2018 Global Culture Report. Available at: https://www.octanner.com/content/dam/oc-tanner/documents/white papers/2018/2018_Global_Culture_Report.pdf . [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].