Achievements and challenges for work/life balance strategies in Australian organizations

Abstract

The effective management of work/life balance (WLB) is an issue increasingly recognized as of strategic importance to organizations and of significance to employees. We argue that an organization's need to attract and retain valued employees in a highly competitive labour market is a strong motivating factor for increased organizational awareness and action with regard to implementation and management of WLB strategies. In this paper, we report the findings of three surveys conducted annually from 1997 to 2000 with organizations in Australia. We explore the range and usage of WLB strategies in Australian organizations and identify the barriers to those strategies. It is evident that, while some achievements have been made over the years, there remain substantial challenges for the uptake and management of WLB strategies.

Keywords:

• Australia
• work/life balance
• stakeholders

Notes

Helen De Cieri, Department of Management, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Room 6.04, Building N, Caulfield Campus, 900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield East, Victoria 3145, Australia. (e-mail: [email protected]). Barbara Holmes, Managing Work/Life Balance. Jacqui Abbott, Monash University. Trisha Pettit, Monash University.

1 In the HRM literature, such strategies may also be labelled policies and practices, or programmes. These labels collectively refer to initiatives that are designed, usually by HRM professionals, to influence employees' behaviour, attitudes and performance.

2 While recognizing that much of the literature has focused on work–family benefits, we adopt the broader perspective, to include work–life benefits.

3 Other important stakeholders may include stockholders, who expect a return on their investment; customers, who want a high-quality product or service; and the community, which wants the organization to contribute to activities and projects and minimize damage to the environment, is also an important stakeholder. It is beyond the scope of the present study to include all of these stakeholder groups.

4 No survey was conducted in 1999.