Work/Life Conflict

Submitted to:Shayla Khanam

Assistant Professor- Management

School of Business and Economics

United International University, Bangladesh

Submitted by:Class serial number Name ID

01 Shakil Ahmed 11112157205 Shagufta Rahman 11115102207 Sabina Akhter 11115115412 Taiyeb Ahmed 11115134913 Maria Haque 111151535

Date of submission: 28th December, 2015

Letter of transmittal

December 28,2015

Ms. Shayla Khanam

Assistant Professor- Management

School of Business and Economics

United International University

Subject: Submission of Report.

Dear Ma’am,

We are pleased to submit the report that you asked for & gave us the authorization to work on

“Work/Life Conflict”. We tried our best to work on it carefully and sincerely to make the

report informative.

The study we conducted enhanced our knowledge to make an executive report. This report

has given us an exceptional experience that might have immense uses in the future endeavors

and we sincerely hope that it would be able to fulfill your expectations.

We have put our sincere effort to give this report a presentable shape and make it as

informative and precise as possible. We thank you for providing us with this unique

opportunity.

Sincerely yours,

Shakil Ahmed

Signature: ………………….

Acknowledgement

It is our esteemed pleasure to present the project report on “Work/Life Conflict”.

We express our deep gratitude to our course guide, Ms. Shayla Khanam

(Assistant Professor- Management, School of Business and Economics), who have

gave us the inspiration to pursue the project and guided us in this endeavor. She has

been a constant source of motivation and encouragement for us. We thank her for all

the initiative and zeal she filled us with throughout the report.

Executive SummaryThe concept of work-life conflict has developed out of demographic and social changes that

negatively resulted in a more diverse and declining workforce and different family/work

models. Work-life conflict is seen as a way of distracting and not supporting the labor force

for their economic well-being.

This review of research and literature in the areas of work-life conflict, work-place culture,

employee engagement, discretionary effort and productivity aims to demonstrate the links

between these factors.

This research includes case study and reviews of number of studies. However, workplace

culture is identified as an intermediary factor in whether work-life conflict is related to

decreased productivity.

Key aspects of workplace culture that negatively affects the link between work-life balance

and productivity are managerial support, career consequences, gender differences in attitudes

and use, attitudes and expectations of hours spent in the workplace and perception of fairness

in eligibility for work-life options.

Although little research has been done specially linking solution for work-life conflict that

whole heartedly supports work life balance.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................6

Overview of the Company.........................................................................................................7

Review of Related Litareture...................................................................................................10

Analysis and Results................................................................................................................11

Recommendations & Conclusion.............................................................................................14

Bibliography.............................................................................................................................16

Appendix..................................................................................................................................17

IntroductionAll over the years, people used to work to satisfy their personal and social living needs. They

are always struggling to improve their living conditions but as much they achieve, as much

they demand more(according to Maslow’s need theory).In spite of the technology and

industry advancement which provided better communications and easier work, people still

need better conditions that can help them satisfy their family-life, own life and social

relations. People sometimes try to satisfy their family and social life needs which could result

in work performance degradation and increase the absenteeism rate.

Most individuals are found engaged in multiple roles. Work-life conflict is a situation when

an individual faces problems in maintaining different role simultaneously. These different

roles set different responsibilities and demands on people. (Dxbury), (Carslon), (Higgins),

(Greenhaus), (Chen) & (Carikei) define work-life conflict as a form of inter-role conflict

when one of the roles imposes different demands and requirements on people that are not

compatible with the other role. Work domain requires time, energy and commitment that may

not allow people to satisfy their family and life needs.

(Higgins) & (Greenhaus) classify this role conflict into two types:

Work-to-family conflict: that occurs when work demands prevents (or hardens) one to

satisfy their family needs such as long work hours, travel and so.

Family-to-work conflict: that occurs when family responsibilities cause degradation

of work performance. Children’s care and conflict at home are examples of family

situations that may affect work.

Metro Weddings

Overview of the CompanyHistory

Mr. Mahbube Subhani Prottoy started this company as a small sole proprietorship company

in March 18, 2013. In that time he, along with his two fellow friends thought of to make a

small business where they can serve people with professional photography services and earn

money besides their under graduation from Dhaka University. In two and a half years Metro

Weddings turned into a well known wedding event planner in Dhaka city.

Mission

Giving customers the best wedding experience, memories and services of their events as well

as maximizing it’s profit up to 10% from previous years.

Vision

To becomes a leading wedding agency in Bangladesh.

Values

Creating an environment that fosters creativity and openness to new ideas leading

advancement in photographic skills, technology, equipments and processes.

Achieving excellence in services to exceed customer expectation and build long term

relationships.

Determining and achieving business objectives and explore opportunities for

accelerating growth.

This company’s primary interest both in past and in present is to capture and forever preserve

the unforgettable moments of a wedding event not just through the eyes of the professional

photographers, but also with the heart of well wishers who rejoice in this events, as quoted by

its owner & chief photographer Mahbube Subhani Prottoy.

Office

It maintains its official working from 28/A Rankin street, Wari, Dhaka-1203.

Capital

It has a capital of around 25,00,000 taka only.

Services

Metro Weddings is an event planner. It provides services like:

1. Professional wedding photography services,

2. Professional wedding cinematography services

3. Professional wedding videography services

4. Wedding event management,

5. Wedding decoration,

6. Wedding catering.

Employees

It has total 15 employees altogether including its owner and chief photographer Mr. Subhani,

it’s 2 senior photographers, 2 assistant photographers, 2 cinematographers, 3 videographers

and 5 event managers.

Service conditions

Working days: Friday, Saturday

Week off: Tuesday

Work timing: 6:00 pm to 12:00 pm

Break hours: In the middle of the event, employee may have a break for an hour based on

situations.

Dress Code

The dress code for both male and female have to be formal. Casuals in office would be

acceptable.

Attendance

Punctuality must be cultivated and late coming for more than 15 minutes is not appreciated.

Regularity will always be appreciated and considered at the time of appraisal.

Equipments

This company has equipments like cameras, lenses and flash units. Those are:

Cameras:

Canon 5d SR (1)

Canon 5d mark iii (2)

Canon 6d (2)

Canon 70d (2)

Canon 7d (3)

Lenses:

Canon EF 100mm (1)

Canon EF 85mm (2)

Canon EF 24-70mm (2)

Canon EF 50mm (2)

Canon EF 70-200mm (3)

Flashes:

Canon 600 Ex RT (5)

Canon 430Ex ii (5)

( Also including other photographic materials )

Review of Related LiteratureWork life conflict is a common factor in many organizations. It is also common in many

countries. There are many reasons behind it. Some countries are trying to give a flexible

environment for the employees. Because it is also a profitable for the organizations.

Recently in USA some worker are not satisfied with their working time. Because the

organization is not giving them any time to them for relaxing. This is a problem for them.

They need some rest for their selves. If they get proper time to get rest and freedom they will

be more efficient.

Another example happens in with a lady who did not get the time for her newborn baby. It

happened in Malaysia. The lady was suffering from some mental stress for her family. The

organization should be careful about this matter. Sometimes it is very harmful for the

organization. If the lady gets proper time for her baby she will be more attentive.

Recently in Canada there is a employee who is not happy with his job. Because the boss is

not giving him any break. He is unhappy because he wants to spend more time with his

family. Sometimes break is important for every person because they become so bored for

their working life. People should be careful because it is harmful for every organization. If

the organizations give the employee break he will be more attentive with his job.

Recently in India in an organization there is an employee who is not satisfied with the time

break of the work. He doesn’t have time for the family. The organizations have no time for

the thinking of the employee. The organization should be careful for the employee’s

satisfaction. On the other hand the organization can give him chance to spend time with his

family. There are also many problems that any organization can face for the employee. Every

organization should be careful about the satisfaction of the employee.

These examples can help any organization to remove the problem. Because of this many

organization can suffer from many unexpected problem.

Every organization in the world should be careful about the employees satisfaction or

dissatisfaction. If the organization is not careful about this, the organization will suffer a lot.

So they should be very careful about this matter. If the employees are happy the organization

will be benefited. On the other hand if they are not satisfied the organization will suffer a lot.

Analysis and ResultsPoor rating of Work Life

From the appendix we can interpret that in Metro Weddings male employees are able to

manage their work life balance but in case of female employees they are facing problems in

balancing their work and life.

Factors causing Work Life conflict

From the appendix we can know how organizational professional issue affect the employees

work life balance and we also able to judge that which kinds of personal issue employees face

during job and which affect their work life balance. There is more work pressure for female

employees than from male employees of Metro Weddings. Mostly influencing factor for

work life conflict as mentioned in sequence are work pressure in the top, target and deadline

at the second, than come job schedule, working hours, travelling and transportation problem

and many more other minor and different personal issues.

1. Working days of employees per week a. Impact in employees personal life/family

From Appendix, we can interpret that in Metro Weddings employees have to work for about

two days in a week and in some conditions they have to work for 6 days in a week. Male

employees don’t face any problem in this condition. But in case of female employees they are

facing trouble because they have to give time to their job as well as to their family and their

personal and social life.

2. Working hours of employees per day

a. Impact in employees personal life/family

We can also interpret that workers of Metro Weddings are working for 5 to 6 hours in a day.

But as we see deeper in sight we get that employees are working more than 5 to 6 hours as

they have to do other works like post processing of images, editing them and giving delivery

to the customers. The main reason we found out during our survey that Metro Weddings is

lacking at some extent to make proper planning and time management due to that male

employees do not face any problem in this working hour but female employees face a great

difficulty in working till late at night.

3. No motivation in work environmenta. Impact in employees personal life/family

As motivation factor is more important for the job, it also help employee to keep their work

life balanced. From the appendix we can interpret that female employees do not getting pay

raise and other motivational behaviors.

b. Impact in Organization

They neither are motivated nor de-motivated from the management side. That would cause

into employees performance degrade and hamper the company’s development.

4. Worry about work when not at worka. Impact in employees personal life/family

We can interpret that male workers sometimes may get tensed for their work when they are

outside the office. But the female employees of the agency are tensed and thinking of their

pending work and job also when they are not at the working place. We can consider this as a

a work pressure which leads employees to become tensed and it also depends on the

individual behavior. While in the medium scale companies we can see that major of the

employees not get tensed and not think for their work once they outside the firm. When we

deeply insight the appendix we are able to know that female employees as assistant

photographers are highly or always get tensed and think out their work and job because post

processing, editing and delivering pictures are the toughest job in professional photography

services and it is highly competitive segment and due to that employees of these segment

always phase competition and due that they bear high work pressure.

5. Physical problems due to work

a. Impact in employees personal life/family

From the appendix we can assume that how the work load effect on health of employees and

indirectly to the work life balances of employees. When we compare the health of male and

female employees of Metro Weddings we can assume that female employees tend to work

more in both their job and family and also they are always in work and family pressure,

tension and anxiety which affects greatly in their health issues.

b. Impact in organization

If employees in Metro Weddings get sick, that would result into employee absenteeism in

company and company’s performance will be hampered.

Recommendations & ConclusionWhat organization should do

1. Making Policy which will be helpful for balancing work and life

Metro Weddings may make some policies regarding to help their employees for balancing

work and life. Policies like:

a) Flexible ending time:

This company’s female employees cannot work late at night, so this company should

make changes to the work ending time for its female employees.

b) Flexible hours:

Women in general are less energetic than men, so this company may offer their

female employees for an hour of break or similar to this facility.

c) Flexible work schedule:

Company can schedule the works of employees so that employees can get a clear idea

about what to do and when to do and work more accurately and in less time.

d) Holidays / Pay time off:

Metro Weddings can offer its employees for occasional or seasonal holidays or

vacations as the desire or need arises.

e) Job sharing:

Employees can share their work with co-workers or work in group, if they face any

problem or to complete that job on time.

f) Career break:

Female employees can have a career break to rearing up their children getting married

or to complete their studies etc. Even male employees can be offered by the same.

2. Determining security for job to reduce work life conflict

According to the responses what we have received from the employees of Metro Weddings,

they feel less secure about their job. So this company should develop a sense in their

employees that they are secured in their position in jobs. They should not be demotivated or

threatened about their job. Company may perform motivational activities to determine the

security for job of their employees.

3. Proper Counseling

Proper counseling to the employees of Metro Weddings can make their work much easier.

Once they get much clear about what they have to do, it would be easier for them to complete

their work quickly. That’s how they will not have any pending work to do at home or after

office time or job time.

4. Open Communication

Metro Weddings can give chances to their female employees to communicate more clearly or

openly with their boss so that they can show their problems towards their work and life to

their boss and their boss can determine some solvency about them. A friendly environment

can be maintained in this organization for employee benefits.

5. Motivating Employees

Metro Weddings can offer their employees with pay raise according to doing over time, or

working more hours than the expected time. Other motivational behaviors like giving

transportation facility to the female employees, praising employees for doing better, and

giving employee’s promotions according to their progress in job can be considered too.

Here we can conclude that work life balance plays an important role in business environment.

It is responsibility of company to make a work life balance of employee, because if the

employees are not able to give enough time to their family then they may become frustrated

which affect their output negatively and which ultimately affect company negatively.

Bibliography1. http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/three-faces-of-work-life-conflict/?

_r=0

2. https://www.google.com.bd/search?

newwindow=1&q=work+life+conflict+in+malaysia&oq=work+life+conflict+in+mala

ys&gs_l=serp.1.0.0i22i30.326151.328833.0.330915.6.2.0.4.4.0.390.696.3-

2.2.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..0.6.717.qjVG0wET_FA

3. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?

q=work+life+conflict&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUK

EwjdsKKRo_rJAhWPj44KHZv-D0YQgQMIGTAA

Appendix

Questionnaire-1

1. Age: 29

2. Gender: Female

3. Are you married?

“Yes I’m.”

4. Do you have children?

“Yes I have a 5 years old baby girl.”

5. What is your designation in this company?

“I’m an Assistant Photographer here.”

6. What type of organization is it?

“It’s an event management agency.”

7. How many days in a week do you normally work?

“ Most of the time, two days in a week, Friday and Saturday. Because wedding events always take place in holidays. Sometimes more than two days, because we have other stuffs to do, like post processing, giving delivery of photographs and videos to customers”

8. How many hours in a day do you normally work?

“Around 5-6 hours.”

9. How motivating is your work environment?

“ Fairly motivating. Our boss is very well behaved and well organized and has a good monitoring capability. But lacking in maintaining time table and lack of fair wage sometimes tend to be demotivating.”

10. How would you rate your own work-life balance?

“ Very Poor.”

11. What are the possible problem creators both at your professional and personal life that gives rise to issues of work life conflict?

“I’m facing a great deal of timing problem in my work. I can’t give time to my family, to my child. I’m facing transportation problem as I have no car of my own and I have to work till late at night and my husband is always feeling uncomfortable about it. And what amount of wage I’m getting from this job, isn’t enough to maintain my family or to carry out my personal expenses. Also, I’m facing discrimination with my male co-workers, my boss doesn’t provide me with good pay raise, off hours and bonuses as I have to work hard and over time. Also work pressure is getting a big issue in my job.”

12. How much difficulty do you have in getting the balance that is right for you?

“A lot of difficulties”

13. How often do you think or worry about work when you are not actually at work place?

“Always I have tension of my pending works, like post processing or giving delivery of photographs to the customers.”

14. Are you regularly required to work at home?

“Yes in every working day I have to make it early through my home as my husbands have to go to his office too, so there is no one to watch out my baby. So I have to do my pending works in home.”

15. Do you ever miss out on quality time with your family or your friends because of pressure of work?

“All the time”

16. Does work ever have a negative effect on your personal life like tiredness, depression, anxiety ?

“Very often”

17. Does your company have a separate policy for work-life balance?

“No they are not aware of that.”

18. Overall how satisfied are you with Metro Weddings as an employee?

“I’m pretty much dissatisfied.”

19. Do you feel secured about your job?

“ Actually no.”

20. Do you have any other female co-worker?

“Yes I have a female co-worker who works as an event manager here.”

21. Is she facing the same problems as you?

“Yes. She is an undergraduate student, she is facing problems same as me as she can’t concentrate well in her studies and in her family.”

22. Do you think your fellow male co-workers facing the same problems as you?

“No they are not.”

Questionnaire-21. Age: 24

2. Gender: Male

3. Are you married?

“No, I am not.”

4. What is your designation in this company?

“I’m a cinematographer here.”

5. What type of organization is it?

“It’s an event management agency.”

6. How many days in a week do you normally work?

“Two days in a week, Friday and Saturday. Sometimes more than that, because we have to give time in our office where we have to do editing of video clips and give delivery of them to the customers.”

7. How many hours in a day do you normally work?

“Around 5 to 6 hours.”

8. How motivating is your work environment?

“Not so motivating. Our boss does not maintain time schedule well”

9. How would you rate your own work-life balance?

“Not good.”

10. What are the possible problem creators both at your professional and personal life that gives rise to issues of work life conflict?

“I can’t give time to time personal life. I can’t focus on my studies as I am an undergraduate student. I can’t give time to my family and can’t attend social gatherings. The wage that I am getting from this job is not enough to carry out the expenses of my

studies and my personal expenses. There is no scope for getting bonus for extra hours or over time. Also the pressure of work load is very high.

11. How much difficulty do you have in getting the balance that is right for you?

“ Pretty much difficulties.”

12. How often do you think or worry about work when you are not actually at work place?

“I don’t actually worry about my work so much because I spend enough time in office to complete my pending works.”

13. Are you regularly required to work at home?

“Not regularly but sometimes I have to attend classes so those days I need to complete my pending works at home.”

14. Do you ever miss out on quality time with your family or your friends because of pressure of work?

“Yes sometime.”

15. Does work ever have a negative effect on your personal life like tiredness, depression, anxiety ?

“Not really.”

16. Does your company have a separate policy for work-life balance?

“No they don’t have.”

17. Overall how satisfied are you with Metro Weddings as an employee?

“ Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied.”

18. Do you feel secured about your job?

“Not really.”

19. Do you think your female co-workers are facing the same problems?

“I don’t have any idea about this.”