Defining Work Life Balance

Defining Work Life Balance Work life balance can be defined as the extent to which an individual is equally engaged in their work life and personal life (Greenhause, Collins, & Shaw, 2003). The opposite of this is work life conflict, which is when work is interferes with family life, and vice versa (Harris, Marrett, & Harris, 2011). Work life conflict is experienced when demands from one role interfere with participation or performance of the other role (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). When employee gives an extra time and energy into work role, the family role will suffer and vice versa.
Importance of Work Life Balance Work- life balance benefits includes reduced work-family conflict (Thomas and Ganster, 1995), increased job satisfaction (Thompson

Role boundary permeability describes the ability for someone to be physically in one role while psychologically in another role (Chesley, 2005). In other words, what happens at work can affect personal life of the employee. The impact can go in the opposite direction too, with employee’s personal life problems affect job performance. Technological developments are one of the factors that contributed to the increased in boundaries between work and family (Brough, O’Driscoll, & Kallaith, 2005). Spillover has been shown to have both a positive and negative form. The positive spill over occurs when something good happens in one area and it gives a positive impacts to another area. For example, when an employee gets a promotion at work and has a feeling of satisfaction both at work and at home. Negative spill over is the opposite of positive spill over. Negative spill over can cause undesirable outcomes such as family dissatisfaction and increased in stress levels (Chesley,

Chesley (2005) found that technology use can cause decrease in quality of life, increase work boundaries, and cause negative spill over and distress. The areas that will be examined for possible negative effects are stress, life satisfaction and job satisfaction.
Job Stress With the work world rapidly changing, employees are becoming more concern with their work life balance (Shivananda & Ashok, 2012). A study done by Shivananda, and Ashok (2012) found that there was a negative relationship between work life balance and stress level. This would mean that those who have a low level of work life balance would experience high levels of stress and vice versa. Brough, O’Driscoll, and Kalliath (2005) conclude that technology advancement has caused a more competitive business environment. This would mean that employee needs to devote more time and energy to their work. With smartphone technology becoming increasingly, people will tend to spend more time working as the technology allows doing that. This will decrease personal time and cause boundaries between work and life to become bigger than