Work/life balance does not contribute to greater productivity
Research recently conducted by Macquarie University's Voice Project has provided results which are in direct contrast to much of the current hype about work/life balance.
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"Could managers be right and psychologists wrong?" asks Dr Peter Langford, Director of the Voice Project. "Despite great efforts of psychologists, the average manager continues to respond negatively when faced with the argument that more effective management of stress, workload and work/life balance will lead to greater productivity, morale, attraction and retention. Data that the Voice Project has compiled suggests managers may intuitively know more than psychologists would like to believe."
Voice Project
The Voice Project is a research and consulting team based in the Department of Psychology who specialise in using organisational surveys to diagnose leadership, culture and human resource management.
As part of ongoing research, the Voice Project compiled data from over 10,000 employees across more than 700 organisations. Employees completed a 102-question survey asking about their level of engagement in the workplace and their assessment of 28 characteristics of their work environment.
Survey responses
To simplify the survey data Langford and his team found that responses could be placed into seven categories:
- Purpose (belief in the vision, direction and ethics of an organisation)
- Property (quality and availability of resources, technology and processes)
- Participation (the extent to which staff feel involved, recognised and growing)
- People (motivation, talent and teamwork of co-workers)
- Peace (wellness and work/life balance)
- Progress (achieving objectives, successful change and satisfied customers)
- Passion (organisation commitment, job satisfaction and intention to stay)
Results showed that the higher an employee's work/life balance the lower that employee's level of commitment to the organisation, job satisfaction and intention to stay.
The average worker is reasonably satisfied with his or her levels of peace (70 per cent favourable), wellness (66 per cent favourable) and work/life balance (74 per cent favourable). Work/life balance ranked fifth highest in overall satisfaction, behind teamwork, diversity, results focus and role clarity.
"Our data suggest that peace, wellness and work/life balance are not at particularly low levels and are not particularly important for passion, progress and profitability," Langford says.
Flexible working hours
Additional research carried out by postgraduate students Portia Bridges and Megan O'Brien has highlighted the importance of flexible working hours. Employees are willing to work long hours in a job they love, if they have some control over where and when they work. Employees want the flexibility to leave work early to pick up the kids, and many are willing to replace lost hours by working nights or on the weekend.
"As organisations and individuals we are choosing passion and progress before peace," says Langford. "We are putting in the hard yards and enjoy doing so. If our schedule empties a little or our job isn't inspiring us to get up earlier, then we find more goals or another job. Although we may seek pockets of peace to help us momentarily recover from a particularly heavy load, we are not looking for the quiet life."
For any further information visit the website www.voiceproject.com.au or email Dr Peter Langford on peter.langford@mq.edu.au