Chapter - 1

Theoretical Framework

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CHAPTER I

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Work life balance refers to the effective management of multiple

responsibilities at work, at home, and in the other aspects of life. It is an issue that is

important both to the organizations and to employees. In the current economic scenario,

organisations are hard pressed for higher productivity and need employees with

improved work-life balance as an employee with better work-life balance will

contribute more meaningfully towards the organisational growth and success (Naithani,

2010). This issue has come to the fore due to multitude of changes in the work place, in

employee demographics and in the family sphere.

Global labour market is becoming highly competitive and companies are

outsourcing to reduce the labour costs. As a consequence, the employees feel impelled

to put in longer hours to achieve and possibly exceed the employers’ expectations in

order to secure their jobs. Thus, the ‘long hours culture’ and ‘24/7 life style’ has come

to dominate the lives of highly educated and skilled professionals and managerial

personnel. A few decades earlier, it was widely expected that new technology would

shorten the working hours and bring respite and leisure to the work force. But instead

of bringing relief and leisure, the developed technology has left the workers, especially

professionals, with little time free from paid work. In fact, technology has blurred the

line separating office from home and now the employees are expected to be available

for office work, even while at home, because of the facilities that IT networking has

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placed at our disposal. The present global environment has thrown up new challenges

where workforce has to coordinate with the western markets that are almost 10 hours

behind. Thus, the work has become more taxing and burdensome. These pressures and

demands of work, reflected both in longer hours, more exhaustion and the growth of

evening and weekend work, leaves little ‘quality’ time for the family leading to

problems like, juvenile crime and drug abuse among the children. Moreover, these

work pressures are also having a direct impact on the health of the employees.

Again, due to rapidly changing business environment, the organization are not

able to provide secure employment and that is why the attitudes and values of people in

work are also changing and they are less willing to display unconditional commitment

to the organization and as noted by Guest, 2002, the decline of work as central life

interest along with conflicting demands of work results in an imbalance between work

and rest of life. The attitude towards life too is rapidly changing among the youth

today. They believe in working hard and partying harder. They like to travel, socialize,

pursue hobbies, take up adventure sports etc. When they do not get time for these

activities, they are gripped by frustration and unhappiness.

Family sphere changes that have impacted the work life balance of individuals

in today’s context include nuclear families, single parent households, dual earning

parents, parents working at different locations and increasing household work. Hence, it

has become very difficult to meet the family demands. Another change is the entry of

women in workforce in a big way, while still continuing with their earlier role of a

homemaker. So, women are playing a dual role, that of a breadwinner as also a

homemaker. It is generally women who take the primary responsibility for childcare

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and who, in situations of conflict, adjust their working lives to accommodate family

pressures (Falkenberg and Monachello, 1990; Ramu, 1989). All this puts an extra

pressure on women employees.

Nathani and Jha (2009) has grouped factors influencing work and family life

spheres into three namely, family and personal life related factors, work related factors

and others. Family and personal life related factors include increasing participation of

women in workforce, increasing participation of child bearing women in workforce,

increasing participation of dual career couples in workforce, increase in single-parent/

single person households, increase in child-care/ elder care burden on employees and

health and well being considerations . Work related factor include long hour culture and

unpaid overtime, time squeeze, demand for shorter working hours, increase in part-time

workers, work intensification and stress and changing work time. Other factors include

ageing population, rise of service sector industries, technological complexity of work,

skill shortages, loss of social support network, globalisation and demographic shift of

workforce.

As these changes at the workplace and family are affecting the work life balance

of the employees working in various organizations, thus organizations are focusing on

this issue.

1.2 WORK LIFE BALANCE: CONCEPT

Work life balance was initially conceived in terms of work family conflict

(Kahn et al., 1964), work family enhancement/ facilitation (Grzywacz and Marks,

2000), or, work family balance (e.g. Hill, et al. 2001). Kahn et al., 1964 defined role

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conflict as the “simultaneous occurrence of two (or more) sets of pressures such that

compliance with one would make more difficult compliance with the other”. Greenhaus

and Beutell (1985) based on the work of Kahn et al. (1964), defined work family

conflict as: “A form of inter role conflict in which the role pressures from work and

family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect. That is, participation in the

work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work)

role.” Conflict between work and family has been found to be bi-directional (Frone et

al., 1992a; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Most researchers make the distinction

between work-family conflict, and family-work conflict. Work-to-family conflict

occurs when experiences at work (e.g. extensive, irregular, or inflexible work hours,

work overload and other forms of job stress, interpersonal conflict at work, extensive

travel, career transitions, unsupportive supervisor or organization) interfere with family

life,. For example, an unexpected meeting late in the day may prevent a parent from

picking up his or her child from school. Family-to-work conflict occurs when

experiences in the family (e.g. presence of young children, primary responsibility for

children, elder care responsibilities, interpersonal conflict within the family unit,

unsupportive family members) interfere with work life. For example, a parent may take

time off from work in order to take care of a sick child (Wikipedia, 2008).

As noted by Grywacz and Bass (2003), how work and family intersect in a

person's life, or rather how they fit, has been reported to have important ramifications

for individuals and families. The preponderance of work-family research

conceptualized fit as the absence of work-family conflict (Barnett, 1998; Greenhaus

and Parasuraman, 1999; Perry-Jenkins et al.,2000). However, workers' everyday

experiences showed that work and family are both sources of growth and support as

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well as burdens and strains (Barnett, 1998 ; Barnett & Hyde, 2001; Crouter,1984). This

evidence suggested the possibility that work and family can benefit each other, and that

work-family conflict is distinct from positive spillover or work-family enhancement

(Grzywacz and Marks, 2000). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) also argued that work and

family responsibilities need not always clash. From enhancement approach, a number

of terms have been used to describe the positive benefits of work and family role

participation including, work-family positive spillover (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000),

work family enrichment(Carlson et al.,2006 ; Greenhaus and Powell, 2006) and work

family facilitation (Grzywacz, 2002 ). Grzywacz et al. (2007) laid the conceptual

foundation for work family facilitation and defined it as the extent to which an

individual’s engagement in one social system, such as work or family, contributes to

growth in another social system.

Work–family balance was defined as “the extent to which individuals are

equally engaged in and equally satisfied with work and family roles” (Clark, 2000;

Kirchmeyer, 2000). Work-family balance referred to the degree to which an individual

is able to simultaneously balance the temporal demands of both paid work and family

responsibilities, whereas work-family conflict represented incompatibilities between

work and family responsibilities because of limited resources like time and energy

(Gröpel,2005).

In the recent years, it is being realized that life involves multiple domains and is

not restricted to the domains of work and family only. Warren (2004), for example,

noted that over 170 different life domains have been identified in previous

investigations. The major ones include domains of work, financial resources, leisure,

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dwelling and neighborhood, family, friendships, social participation and health. All

these domains of life are closely related to each other. This means, that neglecting or

inappropriately preferring one life area will have an impact on other areas. For

example, spending too much time and energy for work could lead to health problems

(e.g., somatic complains) or conflicts in the family (e.g., with one’s partner), which in

turn might affect the performance at work. On the other hand, spending too little time

and energy for work usually leads to problems at the workplace and loss of

employment which could also affect other life areas (e.g., stress, depression, family

problems, less self-actualization). A broad term thus emerged in literature to refer to

work/non-work conflict and it is “Work Life Balance” (Fisher, 2001; Hobson et al.,

2001). It offers more inclusive approach to study work/non-work conflict compared to

work family conflict.

The term “work/life balance” was coined in 1986, although its usage in every

day language was sporadic for a number of years. Interestingly, work/life programmes

existed as early as 1930’s. Before World War II, the W.K. Kellogg Company created

four six hour shifts to replace the traditional three daily eight-hour shifts, and the new

shifts resulted in increased employee morale and efficiency (Lockwood, 2003).

Reiter (2007) categorized definitions of work life balance (WLB) according to

a framework of ethical ideologies. According to him, definitions of WLB can be

considered according to the extent to which the definition implies universal rules of

what balance “is” versus definitions that are relative to an individual as well as the

idealism of the definition. Idealism refers to the extent to which a definition infers that

with the right conditions, the desired outcome can always be achieved, versus

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definitions that accept that this cannot always be the case. When these two dimensions

are dichotomized and crossed, they yield a 2 × 2 classification of ethical ideologies:

situationists, absolutists, subjectivists, and exceptionists. Definitions framed from a

situationist position (Clark, 2000; Greenblatt, 2002) focus on a “fitting” definition of

balance for a person depending on his or her personal context. This will include their

stakeholders, resources, and desires. Using a situationist definition of balance, people

could be grouped according to their values and situational variables such as family

structure, life stage, gender, career, or income level with varying definitions of WLB

for different segments. The subjectivist definition (Amundson, 2001) is concerned only

with the individuals’ desires and suggests that as long as they are happy with their

WLB, nothing else matters. On the nonrelativistic side of the typology, absolutists

(Greenhaus et al., 2003; Kirchmeyer, 2000) and exceptionists (Burton, 2004)

definitions tend to be less concerned with the consequences of balance. Definitions

framed within an absolutist perspective accept that rules can prescribe a “right” formula

for balance. An example of this is Greenhaus et al.’s (2003) definition of equal time,

equal satisfaction, equal involvement in each of the work and home spheres to achieve

work-family balance (WFB). This contrasts with exceptionists’ definitions that are of a

utilitarian nature and seek to reflect the greatest good for the greatest number.

Kirchmeyer (2000) defined a balanced life as achieving satisfying experiences

in all life domains. Kirchmeyer went on to be more prescriptive, stating that to achieve

satisfying experiences in all life domains requires personal resources like energy, time

and commitment to be well distributed across domains.

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Bailyn et al. (2001) defined work /life balance as harmonious and holistic

integration of work and non-work, so that men and women can achieve their potential

across the domains in which they play out their life roles. According to Fisher (2001)

work life balance comprises of four components. The first component is time, i.e., how

much time is spent at work, compared to how much time is spent engaged in other

activities. The second component is related to behaviour, such as, work goal

accomplishment, as work life balance is based on ones’ belief that he is able to

accomplish what he would like at work and in his personal life. Two additional issues

or components are Strain and Energy. Strain has been defined as a third source of inter

role conflict (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). The rationale for including energy is

consistent with the notion of time; energy is a limited resource and relevant to

employee being able to accomplish work and/or non work related goals. He further

suggests that work life balance, includes both work/personal life interference as well as

work/personal life enhancement and gives three dimensions of work life balance, i.e.,

• Work interference with personal life (WIPL)

• Personal life interference with work (PLIW)

• Work/Personal life enhancement (WPLE)

Work/life Balance has also been defined as a state of equilibrium in which the

demands of both person’s job and personal life are equal (Work-life balance, 2002, The

Word Spy). Greenblatt (2002) described work life balance as acceptable levels of

conflict between work and non-work demands. This according to her usually involves

managing competing demands for resources. She suggested that achieving work life

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balance is dependent on attaining and managing sufficient resources to make possible

the achievements that people regard as the most important.

Lockwood (2003) defined the term from the viewpoint of employer, and of the

employee. From Employees’ viewpoint: “It is the dilemma of managing work

obligations and personal/family responsibilities” and from Employer’s viewpoint: “It is

the challenge of creating a supportive company culture where employees can focus on

their jobs while at work”. Lewis et al. (2003), Rapoport et al. (2002) and Taylor (2002)

suggested work/personal life integration as a working terminology to capture the

synergies and connections between different parts of life and the way they flow into

each other.

Duxbury (2004), in her research, defined work life balance as involving three

things: role overload, work to family interference and family to work interference. Role

overload is having too much to do in the amount of time one has to do it in. Thus, it

leads to the feeling of stress, fatigue and time crunch. Work to family interference

occurs when work demands and responsibilities make it more difficult for an employee

to fulfill family role responsibilities. Family to work interference occurs when family

demands and responsibilities make it more difficult for an employee to fulfill work role

responsibilities.

Hudson Resourcing (2005) defined work/life balance as a satisfactory level of

involvement or ‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s life. U.K. organization,

Employers for Work-Life Balance (2005) defined work life balance as “people having a

measure of control over when, where and how they work, leading them to be able to

enjoy an optimal quality of life”. Work life Balance is achieved when an individual’s

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right to fulfilled life inside and outside paid work is accepted and respected as a norm,

to the mutual benefit of individual, business and society.

Swamy (2007) defined work life balance as a practice that is concerned with

providing scope for employees to balance their work with the responsibilities and

interests they have outside work. It enables them to reconcile the competing claims of

work and home by meeting their own needs as well as those of their employers.

Although definitions and explanations vary, work/life balance is generally

associated with equilibrium, or maintaining an overall sense of harmony in life (Clarke

et al., 2004).

1.3 WORK LIFE BALANCE: THEORIES

Several theories have been propounded to explain the work family linkage.

These include Segmentation, Compensation, Spillover and the Border theory. The

earliest view of the relationship between work and home was that they are segmented

and independent and do not affect each other. Blood and Wolfe (1960), who were

pioneers of this perspective, applied this concept to blue collar workers. They explained

that for workers in unsatisfying or un-involving jobs, segmentation of work and home

is a natural process. The separate spheres pattern viewed the family as a domestic haven

for women and work as a public arena for men (Zedeck, 1992).However, this view of

segmentation was challenged by researchers who demonstrated that work and family

are closely related domains of human life (Bruke and Greenglass, 1987; Voydanoff,

1987).

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The Compensation theory proposed that workers try to compensate for the lack

of satisfaction in one domain (work or home) by trying to find more satisfaction in the

other (Lambert, 1990). Piotrkowski (1979, p.98) also concluded that men “look to their

homes as havens, look to their families as sources of satisfaction lacking in the

occupational sphere”. Two forms of compensation have been distinguished in the

literature (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000). First, a person may decrease involvement in

the dissatisfying domain and increase involvement in a potentially satisfying domain

(Lambert, 1990). Second, the person may respond to dissatisfaction in one domain by

pursuing rewards in the other domain (experiences that may fulfill the person’s desires,

Champoux, 1978 ). The latter form of compensation can be either supplemental or

reactive in nature (Zedeck, 1992). Supplemental compensation occurs when individuals

shift their pursuits for rewarding experiences from the dissatisfying role to a potentially

more satisfying one. For example, individuals with little autonomy at work seek more

autonomy outside of their work role. On the other hand, reactive compensation

represents individuals' efforts to redress negative experiences in one role by pursuing

contrasting experiences in the other role such as engaging in leisure activities after a

fatiguing day at work.

The most popular view of relationship between work and family was put forth

by Spillover theory. Several researchers suggested that workers carry the emotions,

attitudes, skills and behaviors that they establish at work into their family life (Belsky et

al., 1985; Kelly and Voydanoff,1985; Piotrkowski, 1979; Piotrkowski and Crits-

Christoph, 1981) and vice-versa (Belsky et al.,1985; Crouter, 1984). Spillover can be

positive or negative. Positive spillover refers to fact that satisfaction and achievement in

one domain may bring along satisfaction and achievement in another domain. Negative

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spillover refers to the fact that difficulties and depression in one domain may bring

along the same emotion in another domain (Xu, 2009).

Clark (2000) presented a work/family border theory - a new theory about work

family balance. According to this theory, each of person’s role takes place within a

specific domain of life, and these domains are separated by borders that may be

physical, temporal, or psychological. The theory addresses the issue of “crossing

borders” between domains of life, especially the domains of home and work. According

to the theory, the flexibility and permeability of the boundaries between people’s work

and family lives will affect the level of integration, the ease of transitions, and the level

of conflict between these domains. Boundaries that are flexible and permeable facilitate

integration between work and home domains. When domains are relatively integrated,

transition is easier, but work family conflict is more likely. Conversely, when these

domains are segmented, transition is more effortful, but work family conflict is less

likely (Bellavia and Frone, 2005).

1.4 WORK LIFE BALANCE: CONCEPTUAL MODELS

A number of conceptual models of work life balance/work family conflict/work

family enrichment have been proposed (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Frone et al.,

1992(b); Guest, 2002; Crooker et al., 2002; Kirrane and Buckley, 2004; Voydanoff,

2005; Greenhaus and Powell, 2006 and Kelley and Moen, 2007).

Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) gave a model of the sources of work family

conflict. They suggested three major sources of work family conflict (a) time based

conflict (b) strain based conflict and (c) behaviour based conflict. The model proposed

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that any role characteristic that affects person’s time involvement, strain or behaviour

within a role, can produce conflict between that role and another role. Time based

conflict occurs when time devoted to one role makes it difficult to participate in another

role or when time pressures associated with one role make it physically impossible to

comply with expectations arising from another role. Strain based conflict is experienced

when strain symptoms from one role intrude into and interfere with participation in

another role. Behaviour based conflict occurs when specific behaviours required in one

role are incompatible with behavioural expectations within another role. According to

the model, work domain pressures include the number of hours worked, inflexibility of

the work schedule, role conflict, role ambiguity, expectations for secretiveness and

objectivity and family domain pressures include the number of children, spouse

employment, family conflict, low spouse support and expectations for warmth and

openness. The model also proposed that these role pressures (and hence, work family

conflict) are intensified when the work and family roles are salient or central to the

person’s self concept.

Frone et al. (1992 b) examined the antecedents and outcomes of WFC (work

family conflict) and assessed whether WFC plays an important integrative function in

work and family stress research. A comprehensive model of work-family interface was

developed and tested. The direct predictors proposed in the model were job stressors

(work pressure, lack of autonomy, role ambiguity), family stressors (parental workload,

extent of children misbehaviour, lack of spouse support, degree of tension in

relationship), job involvement and family involvement. The results indicated a positive

reciprocal relationship between W-F conflict (work to family conflict) and F-W conflict

(family to work conflict). Job stressors and job involvement were found to be positively

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related to the frequency of W-F conflict. Conversely, family stressors and family

involvement were positively related to the frequency of F-W conflict. Both types of

WFC were positively related to a specific measure of within-domain distress. F-W

conflict was positively related to work distress, whereas W-F conflict was positively

related to family distress, at least among blue-collar workers.

Guest (2002) gave a model outlining the causes, nature and consequences of a

work-life balance citing recent research to illustrate the various dimensions. According

to the model, the determinants of work life balance are located in the work and home

contexts. Contextual determinants include demands of work, culture of work, demands

of home and culture of home. Individual determinants include work orientation (i.e. the

extent to which work (or home) is a central life interest), personality, energy, personal

control and coping, gender and age, life and career stage. The nature of work life

balance was defined both objectively and subjectively. The objective indicators include

hours of work and hours of uncommitted or free time outside work. Subjective

indicators refer to the states of balance and imbalance. According to Guest, balance

may be reported when equal weight is given both to work and home or, when home or

work dominates by choice. Spillover occurs when there is interference of one sphere of

life with other. The model further indicates numerous outcomes of work life balance

which include personal satisfaction and wellbeing at work, home and life as a whole,

performance at work and home, impact on others at work, family and friends.

Crooker et al. (2002) provided a theoretical framework to explain the contextual

antecedents of work life balance by identifying the environmental and individual

mechanisms and relationships that combine to create work life balance. They explained

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how life complexity and dynamism affect work life balance and the moderating effect

of munificence (abundance or scarcity) and accessibility of resources. The model

categorized complexity and dynamism in clusters of home and extended family

(number of people in the house, number of children, elder care, care of sick relative),

job and employer (scheduling and reaching work, overtime, shift work, travel

commitments, job transfers), occupation or profession (continuing education for

personal growth, membership and leadership of professional groups) and community

and free time activities. Further, the employer, family, community and profession

domains were stated to be the providers of resources like, leave and time off policies,

employee wellness programmes, employee assistance programmes, family support-

emotional empathy, feedback and guidance, profession - training opportunities and

conferences. The model argued that higher levels of life complexity and dynamism

experienced by individuals results in lower levels of perceived work life balance.

However, this relationship varied with munificence and accessibility of resources in

one’s environment as well as with individual differences of values and personality

traits.

Kirrane and Buckley (2004) put forward a number of theoretical propositions

regarding the process and experience of work family conflict. The paper reviewed

existing theoretical perspectives and engaged with the new border theory of

Clark (2000). The individual variables included were two personality measures,

conscientiousness and positive affect, and the work related variables included were

autonomy and supervisory support (tangibles) and work role identification (subjective).

They proposed that individual variables and work based variables (both subjective and

tangible) will have impact on experienced work family domain conflict, which will in

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turn lead to work based outcomes, namely, intention to leave and organizational

citizenship behaviour.

Voydanoff (2005) formulated a conceptual model that linked work, family, and

boundary- spanning demands and resources to work and role performance and quality.

The model proposed that work, family and boundary spanning demands and resources

combine to create two dimensions of work family fit. Work demands-family resources

fit derives from work demands, family resources, and boundary spanning demands and

resources, whereas family demands-work resources fit results from family demands,

work resources, and boundary spanning demands and resources. The two dimensions of

work family fit combine with boundary spanning strategies to influence work family

balance. Work family balance then affects work and family role performance and

quality.

Greenhaus and Powell (2006) proposed a theoretical model of work family

enrichment. Work family enrichment was defined as the extent to which experiences in

one role improve the quality of life in the other role. It was proposed that resources

generated in Role A (work or family) can promote high performance and positive affect

in Role B (family or work) and that the extent to which a resource heightens

performance and positive affect is moderated by the salience of Role B, the perceived

relevance of the resource to Role B and the consistency of the resource with the

requirements and norms of Role B. The model specifies two mechanisms or paths by

which a resource generated in Role A can promote high performance and positive affect

in Role B. First mechanism is the instrumental path, by which a resource can be

transferred directly from Role A to Role B, thereby enhancing performance in Role B.

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Second, is the affective path, in which a resource generated in Role A can promote

positive affect within Role A, which in turn, produces high performance and positive

affect in Role B.

Kelley and Moen (2007) proposed a conceptual model of how schedule control

impacts work life conflicts and described specific ways to increase employee’s

schedule control. The model suggested a direct effect of perceived schedule control on

work family conflict. The model also suggested that enacting schedule control by

changing one’s behaviour will reduce work family conflict and simultaneously increase

perceived control over when and where one works. The model further proposed three

moderators i.e. gender, life stage and occupation. The article posited that schedule

control is an important remedy to both chronic and acute time pressures and work life

conflicts, with potential health, well being and productivity benefits.

On the basis of various theories of work life balance/work family conflict and

various conceptual models discussed above, it can be concluded that multiple factors

related to individual, work and family affect the work life balance of an individual.

Some of the major individual related factors include work orientation, gender, age, life

and career stage, personality. Work related factors include role ambiguity, role conflict,

number of hours worked, work schedule flexibility, task autonomy. Family related

factors include number of children, spouse support, family involvement. Work life

balance results in a number of benefits to the individual and organization which include

personal satisfaction and well being, job satisfaction, productivity and the lack of work

life balance results in negative consequences in terms of work distress, job

dissatisfaction, absenteeism and high turnover.

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1.5 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

The Indian economy is showing a robust growth with 8.5 per cent expected

GDP during fiscal 2010-11 (Times of India, March 23, 2010). With rising foreign

exchange reserves, a booming capital market and rapidly expanding FDI inflows, India

has emerged as the second fastest growing economy in the world. Information

technology has been one of the promising sector for India and generating revenues both

for the domestic as well as the global market. India's IT potential has attracted many

multinationals to grab a share of the pie and cash in on the IT boom. India's domestic

market has also become a force to reckon with as the existing IT infrastructure has been

evolving both in terms of technology and depth of penetration.

1.5.1 Indian IT-BPO Performance

The Indian software & services industry has shown a rapid growth since

2001-02 (Department of Information Technology, Government of India). The overall

Indian software & services industry revenue grew from US$ 10.2 billion in 2001-02 to

reach US $ 58.7 billion in 2008-09, translating to a compound annual growth rate

(CAGR) of about 26.9 per cent. Despite the severe global recession, the industry grew

at modest rate of 12.9 % in 2008-09. IT-ITES industry’s growth trends are given in the

Table below.

Table 1.1: IT – ITES industry revenue trends (in billion US $)

Year/ Item 2001- 02 2002- 03 2003- 04 2004- 05 2005- 06 2006- 07 2007- 08 2008- 09 CAGR

IT-ITES Exports

7.6 9.5 12.9 17.7 23.6 31.1 40.4 46.3 28.6

IT-ITES Domestic

2.6 3.0 3.8 4.8 6.7 8.2 11.7 12.4 22.2

Total 10.2 12.5 16.7 22.5 30.3 39.3 52.0 58.7 26.9

Source: NASSCOM

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Exports dominate the revenues earned by the Indian software & services

industry. The export intensity (the share of IT-ITES Exports to total IT-ITES Revenue)

of Indian software & services industry has grown from 74.5% in 2001-02 to 78.9% in

2008-09. Total software & services exports grew from US $ 7.6 billion to US $ 46.3

billion in 2008-09, a CAGR of 28.6%.The share of ITES-BPO exports nearly doubled

during this period. The total ITES -BPO exports increased from US $ 1.5 billion in

2001-02 to US $ 12.7 billion in 2008-09, a CAGR of about 39.2 per cent. BPO

accounts for about 27 per cent of total exports. The Indian software and services

exports including ITES-BPO are estimated at US $ 49.7 billion (Rs. 235,080 crore) in

year 2009-10, a 5.5% growth in dollar terms and 8.7 % in rupee terms (Information

Technology Annual Report 2009-10, Department of Information Technology). Segment

wise export revenue trends are given in the Table below.

Table 1.2: Segment wise export revenue trends in IT – ITES industry (in billion US $)

Year/ Item 2001- 02 2002- 03 2003- 04 2004- 05 2005- 06 2006- 07 2007- 08 2008- 09 CAGR

IT Service 5.8 5.5 7.3 10.0 13.3 17.8 23.1 26.5 23.2

ITES-BPO 1.5 2.5 3.1 4.6 6.3 8.4 10.9 12.7 39.2

Software Products, Engineering Services

0.3 1.5 2.5 3.1 4.0 4.9 6.4 7.1 48.5

Total IT-ITES 7.6 9.5 12.9 17.7 23.6 31.1 40.4 46.3 28.6

Source: NASSCOM

Though the IT-BPO sector is export driven, the domestic market is also

significant. The revenue from the domestic software & services market is estimated to

have grown from US $ 2.6 billion in 2001-02 to US $ 12.4 billion in 2008-09, a CAGR

of about 22.2 per cent. ITES-BPO segment in the domestic market has witnessed

noticeable growth over the past few years. The share of ITES-BPO industry in domestic

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market is estimated to have increased from 3.8% in 2001-02 to 15.3% in 2008-09. The

revenue from the domestic IT market (excluding hardware) is expected to grow to

about US $ 14 billion (Rs. 66,200crore) in year 2009-10, an anticipated growth of 9%

in dollar terms and 12% in rupee terms. The domestic BPO revenue is estimated to

increase to about US $ 2.29 billion (Rs. 10,800 crore) in year 2009-10, a growth of

18.6% in dollar terms and 22%in rupee terms (Information Technology Annual Report

2009-10, Department of Information Technology).

Table 1.3: Segment wise domestic revenue trends in IT – ITES industry (in billion US $)

Year/ Item 2001- 02 2002- 03 2003- 04 2004- 05 2005- 06 2006- 07 2007- 08 2008- 09 CAGR

IT Service 2.1 2.4 3.1 3.5 4.5 5.5 7.9 8.3 19.5

ITES-BPO 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.1 1.6 1.9 44.5

Software Products, Engineering Services

0.4 0.4 0.4 0.7 1.3 1.6 2.2 2.2 23.7

Total IT-ITES 2.6 3.0 3.8 4.8 6.7 8.2 11.7 12.4 22.2

Source: Nasscom

1.5.2 Employment in IT /ITES sector

The Indian IT-ITES industry is India’s largest employment generator in the

organized sector. The total number of IT and ITES-BPO professionals employed in

India has grown from 0.52 million in 2001-02 to 2.21 million in 2008-09. However, the

Indian IT sector saw slow hiring for most part of the year 2009-10 but this picked up a

little in the third quarter. The global economic crisis sharply reduced the demand for IT

services offered by Indian companies as clients tried to cut costs. The total direct

employment in IT software and services is estimated to grow by 4% and cross 2.29

million in 2009-10 (excluding employment in hardware sector). This shows that a net

21

90,000 additional jobs have been created in year 2009-10 as compared with 200,000 in

the previous year. The indirect employment attributed by the sector is estimated to be

about 8.2 million (Information Technology Annual Report 2009-10, Department of

Information Technology).

Table 1.4: Employment in IT-ITES Industry (in millions)

Year/ Item 2001- 02 2002- 03 2003- 04 2004- 05 2005- 06 2006- 07 2007- 08 2008- 09

IT Services & Exports 0.17 0.21 0.30 0.39 0.51 0.69 0.86 0.92

BPO Exports 0.11 0.18 0.22 0.32 0.42 0.55 0.70 0.79

Domestic Market 0.25 0.29 0.32 0.35 0.38 0.38 0.45 0.50

Total Employment 0.52 0.67 0.83 1.06 1.29 1.62 2.01 2.21

Source: http://www.mit.gov.in/content/employment

However, everything about this industry is not picture perfect. Being a new

industry that has witnessed phenomenal and quick growth, this industry faces shortage

of middle/senior level managers although entry level recruitment poses no problem

with plenty of talent available. Another issue is high attrition rates. The attrition rate in

the industry has been hovering around 35%, which is quite high for any industry

(Niharika, 2008). This industry has peculiar work demands such as long working hours,

meeting pressing deadlines, working on holidays determined by geographic

considerations, assuming pseudo identities, learning foreign accents, operating in alien

business environment, altered social and family life, night shifts, and so on. Employees

in this industry are burdened with work pressures, performance competition, stress and

time starvation. In fact, software jobs have such high stress and punishing hours that

they crush morale, deplete personal lives, and compromise health.

All this is blurring the work life and personal life and employees are facing a

big problem of work life imbalance. Increasing sickness among employees and the high

22

rate of attrition has opened the eyes of IT/BPO companies to the need to take better

care of the physical and mental health of their employees and promote their work-life

balance. Many IT companies are now setting up self-contained campuses that enable

employees to manage office and home easily. Night-time work has come down from

100 per cent to about 60 per cent in the BPO industry. Women employees are given

options like working from home, maternity leave extending up to one year, ‘paternity

leave’ for male staff to take care of their wives in the pre and post-delivery days, etc.

Recent research has also shown lack of work life balance to be associated with a

variety of negative consequences for both individuals and organizations. The

consequences reported by individuals include increased levels of stress and somatic

complains (Burke, 1988), depression and lower mental health (Beatty, 1996; Grzywacz

and Bass, 2003),less life satisfaction, well-being and overall decrease in the quality of

life (Adams et al., 1996; Aryee, 1992; Fisher, 2001; Greenhaus et al., 2003), decrease in

the quality of family life, higher rates of family conflicts and marriage breakup (Crouter

et al.,1989; Higgins et al., 1992). The consequences for the organizations include

decreased job satisfaction and reduced productivity (Burke, 1988; Frone et al., 1992b;

Higgins et al.,1992; Thomas and Ganster, 1995), greater likelihood of leaving the

company, turnover intentions (Galinsky and Johnson, 1998) and increased absenteeism

and rising healthcare costs (Goff et al.,1990). This research evidence strongly suggests

the importance of achieving work life balance. A growing number of progressive firms

have recognized the critical significance of work life balance and designed corporate

policies and programmes to empower and assist employees in fulfilling their major life

responsibilities.

23

Though the issue of work life balance is being widely discussed in United

Kingdom, USA, Australia, New Zealand and other countries of the world, yet in India,

not much research has been done and it is not very easy to find reference to work life

balance polices and issues. Desai (2003) remarked that “there exists little formal

research in India’s work family field and few organizations in the country have family

friendly policies, such as flexi time etc. …” Work schedules are complicating the

matter for many families, especially in the BPOs where employees need to work at

night. This according to her is the sector which needs to be addressed and researched.

This present study of work life balance will thus, help in better understanding of

the issue of work life balance of employees working in the IT and ITES industry.

1.6 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Work Life Balance of Working Professionals- A study of IT and ITES Industry.

1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

The operation definitions of the terms used in the present study are given below:

(i) IT

Information Technology (IT), according to the Information Technology

Association of America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation,

support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software

applications and computer hardware" (Wikipedia, 2009).

24

(ii) ITES

ITES, Information Technology Enabled Service, is defined as outsourcing of

processes that can be enabled with information technology and covers diverse areas like

finance, HR, administration, health care, telecommunication, manufacturing etc.

(http://www.call-centers-india.com/ites.html )

(iii) Work life balance

Work Life Balance refers to the sum total of the scores attained by the working

professional on three dimensions namely, work interference with personal life, personal

life interference with work and work/ personal life enhancement as measured by work

life balance scale (Hayman, 2005).

(iv) Working professional

According to Macmillian Dictionary (2009), a professional is someone who has

special skills or qualifications. For the purpose of the present study working

professional refers to employees in IT or ITES industry who have acquired special

skills to enable themselves to work in IT or ITES industry ( e.g. data management,

networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design,

management and administration of entire systems, customer interaction services, e.g.,

call/contact centres and email help desks, engineering and design, back office

processing, finance and accounting (provided remotely), insurance claims processing

(provided remotely), HR services (provided remotely), web site development and

maintenance services, data search, integration and analysis,, IT facilities management

(including provided remotely), network consulting and management).

25

1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study’s findings will help to identify the individual, family, and work

related variables related to work life balance. Thus the study would help the industry

practitioners to: (a) understand the work life balance and its various dimensions;

(b) understand the relationship between individual related variables; family related

variables; and work life balance and design interventions for enhancing emotional

intelligence of working professionals and also design support systems to enable the

working professionals to shoulder their family responsibilities, and thus, reduce

interference of family life in work; and (c) redesign work related variables such as task

variety, task autonomy and work schedule flexibility so as to improve work life balance

of working professionals. In addition the study will help in taking stock of the existing

programmes for enhancing work life balance and evolving strategies for strengthening

those existing programmes. The industry would be able to formulate policies for

recruitment, development and deployment of professionals, thus leading to better talent

management and reduction in costs.

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