To Study The Impact of Time on Work Life Balance of Small Entrepreneurs in Indore

Dr.(Mrs.)Kamlesh Singh Principal Jain College, Gwalior

Dr. ShikhaAgrawal Sr. Trainer Chameli Devi Group of Institutions 106 F, KalyanSampat Gardens, Nr. VaishnoDhamMandir Bicholi Indore Contact No.- +91-9926013399 Email: shikhajjw@gmail.com

Prof. K. S. Thakur Dean Chairman and Head, School of Commerce and Business Studies Jiwaji University, Gwalior (M.P.)

Abstract

‘Balance’ refers to a 50:50 investment or allocation which is not a desired situation for all people. WLB is not simply a matter of time distributed equally in the workplace and at home. It cannot be weighed or simply calculated by a predetermined formula. People have many roles to play, such as employer, manager, caregiver, parent, partner and child. When role demands from one domain tend to interfere with demands arising from the other domain, role conflict occurs. Once an individual confronts role conflict, it is unlikely that he or she can enjoy a feeling of balance. WLB is how people play a successful role in both work and families with minimal role conflict.

This research is to identify the impact of time on work life balance of small entrepreneurs and to understand its concepts so that the same can be proposed to the small entrepreneurs to achieve better balance in their lives. The results of the quantitative anal ys is s how significant impact of stress, on the work life balance of small entrepreneurs.

Key words: time, work life balance, small entrepreneurs.

Introduction

Discussion about the definition of work-life balance is also about whether work and life are discrete spheres or not. Certain authors oppose to the term work-life balance because work is a part of life (Carlson, Grzywacz and Zivnuska, 2009). Others argue that a balance should embrace other domains as well, because work and life are not the only domains beings are engaged in. The same problem befalls when using the term ‘work-family balance’, referring to work and family being the main domains individuals are harmonizing(Ransome, 2007). Greenhaus et.al (2003) originates a number of common elements between the definitions of balance. The first is the conception of equality between experiences in the work role and in other roles. Marks and MacDermid’s (1996) call this equality of role commitments ‘evenhanded alertness’. Balance is achieved when – positive and negative – weights are alike divided between roles. Equality concerns input and consequences. The inputs are personal resources, such as attention, time, involvement, and commitment (Kirchmeyer, 2000). Outcomes are recurrently described in terms of satisfaction. Positive role balance assesses the extent to which aspecific is equally satisfied in all life roles. Greenhaus et.al (2003) divided role engagement into three components of balance:

• Time balance: an identical amount of time dedicated to work and family roles.

• Involvement balance: an equal level of psychological involvement in work and family roles.

• Satisfaction balance: an equal level of satisfaction by means of work and family roles.

They intellectualize balance as independent of an individual’s desires or values. This means that they believe that an individual who gives substantively more antecedence to one role than the other is relatively imbalanced even if the dissemination of commitment to family and work is highly constant with what the individual wants or values. However, it is the question whether such a balance is vigorous or not. In this research, it is not about an objective distribution of time and involvement concerning roles, but about the experience of this distribution. Therefore, a work-life balance is subjective. However, defining balance as being ‘in the eye of the beholder’ also has several drawbacks.

At individual level there are various issues that contribute to work life balance. Or are the cause of inequity too if not managed properly. These causes are reviewed in detail in the review of literature. But the prominent one as also accentuated by Grzywacz and Carlson (2007) is Time management as is discussed.

Review of Literature

Some studies have tried to evaluate whether working time arrangements that are intended to facilitate work-life balance, which are occasionally referred to as ‘flexible’ or ‘family friendly,’ enhance business performance. Such arrangements comprise working time reductions, part-time hours, flexi time and tele working. naturally, these investigations rely on assessments by anagers of their impact on productivity and employees issues (reduced absenteeism, reduced stress and better concentration, improved maintenance and recruitment, improved staff morale, promotion of equal opportunities and diversity). Infrequently, the opinions of unions and other workers’ representatives are sought.

Hobson et al., (2011) focuses on the force of working time arrangements – the time demands of employment – on work-life integration or ‘balance’. A large body of investigate has investigated this question, which is reviewed below. However, it should first be noted that other situational factors also influence the capabilities of men and women to protected ‘work-life balance’. A second strand of research in this field looks at the force of aspects of job quality other than working time on work-life balance by leaving workers with unsatisfactory mental and physical resources to fully engage in personal life. This move towards draws attention to the issues of ‘boundary work’, ‘spill-over’ and psychological damage between the domains and roles of employment and personal life, which are not resolute solely by working hours.

Hochschild, 1997; Kelly and Voydanoff, 1985; Staines, 1980; Alis and Dumas, 2003; Lewis et al., 2003; Pocock, 2003.Steiber (2009) expresses the issue neatly by drawing a difference between ‘time-based conflict’ and ‘strain-based conflict’, structure on Voyandoff (2005), who draws a third distinction about ‘boundary-spanning’ demands . Thus, if a job combines high demands (a heavy workload, intense pace of work, expressively demanding tasks, complex problem solving, unsatisfactory resources to get the job done) with a lack of control or decision-making autonomy, this generates job strain, which is in turn interrelated with stress, physical health troubles and negative impacts on work-life balance.

Karasek, (1979), Karasek and Theorell, (1990),Voydanoff, (2005); Genin’s (2009) Beham and Drobnič, (2010) have examined the force of other dimensions of job quality on work-life balance. For example, job uncertainty has a negative impact on reports of work-life balance, while variety in job comfortable and autonomy of working methods have a positive influence study of 350 French managerial level employees found that the individuality of the job, the working environment and the individuals themselves single-minded the level of conflict between work and private life.

Den Dulk et al., (2011); Fagan and Walthery, ( 2011) extended and created both time-based and strain-based conflict in jobs is shaped by the regulatory structure: legislation, as well as collective agreements and other voluntary provisions, set the appropriate conditions for enhancing work-life balance or exacerbating the conflicts and tensions among employment and personal life. Whether employers believe that they have a accountability to promote work-life balance, or consider it largely the responsibility of the state is an significant consideration in analysing the pivotal issue of the degree and form of the work-life balance policies that are industry and implemented at the workplace

Steiber. N. (2009) said when in view of work-life balance outcomes it is useful to delineate two dimensions of working time preparations: the volume and the schedule of the hours worked. The volume of hours worked clearly impacts on the amount of time that is left for other actions. But the manner in which hours are programmed is also important for the quality of the fit with domestic schedules and wider social life rhythms. Work schedules include both: the times when hours are worked, including experience to non-standard work rhythms (working during the evening, at night, at weekends or on rotating shifts); and the type of elasticity, which includes fixed and expected schedules, those that vary frequently according to the needs of the employer (employer-led flexibility) and those that present some autonomy for workers to vary when they work, as well as working from home (employee-led flexibility).

Tetrick.L. &Buffardi. L. (2006) evaluation studies show that, to recover the efficacy of policies establishing an individual right to request reduced hours of work, numerous features need to be built into their design. First, it is essential for the legislation to provide a clear definition of the procedure and the ‘business grounds’ on which such a demand may be turned down. The legislation in the United Kingdom provides for very little redress if the employer discards the request, in contrast with the Dutch and German legislation, under which the justification for rejecting a request are narrower and the courts have the right to scrutinize and assess the ‘business case’ confirmation presented by the employer. Legal provisions allowing for trial periods for new arrangements also help employers and employees to reach conformity, following the example set by judgments in New South Wales in Australia about employees with family responsibilities who requested choice work schedules. An option to request a move from part- to full-time hours is also a necessary policy feature to assist time adjustments across the life course.

Objectives

The paper aims to find out the impact of time on work life balance of small entrepreneurs of Indore region. Time is considered to be an important element in the evaluation of work life balance. Hence the paper aims at identifying the impact time has on work life balance.

Ho1 : There is no impact of time on worklife balance.

Research Methodology

The research is exploratory in nature with survey method being used to collect the data. The population of the study was small entrepreneurs in Indore. The sampling frame of the study was restricted to small entrepreneurs. According to MSME t he limit for investment in plant and machinery / equipment for manufacturing / service enterprises, as notified, vide S.O. 1642(E) dtd.29-09-2006 for small enterprises are for manufacturing Sector Enterprises i nvestment ofmore than twenty five lakh rupees but does not exceed five crore rupees and for Service Sector investment ofmore than ten lakh rupees but does not exceed two crore rupees. Convenient sampling technique was used to select the sample of 200 small entrepreneurs as a sample size. Primary Data was collected through questionnaire as a tool for data collection. Some of the secondary data sources were also used to review the researches made in this area.

Description of the Tool Used for Data Collection and Analysis

The data for research was collected through a self designed questionnaire. To examine the impact of stress on work life balance linear regression was used. LR analysis was carried out to study the impact of work satisfaction, time management and stress on worklife balance. According to Sekaran (2003), correlation coefficient, r, signifies the strength of relationship between two variables and how much variation in the dependent variable can be explained by the independent variables.

Result and Discussion

To collect sample of entrepreneurs in both manufacturing and service area total five hundred questionnaires were distributed to the respondents, who were the small entrepreneurs in manufacturing and service sectors in the region of Indore. Quantitative data from 157 manufacturing and 167 service sector entrepreneurs were received. Out of the received questionnaires 17 were discarded due to incomplete or irrelevant data, same is being represented in Table 1.01

Table: 1.01 Response Rate

Status of Questionnaires	Nos.	Percent
Total Questionnaires Distributed	500
Total Questionnaires Received	341	68.2
Discarded Questionnaires or parts	17
Manufacturing entrepreneurs	168
Service Entrepreneurs	173
Non Returned Questionnaire		159

1.02 Response Rate from Small Entrepreneurs

Linier regression analysis was carried out to study the impact of stress on work life balance. The table 1.03 shows the modal summary after the test of regression analysis.

Table 1.03 Results of Regression Analysis for Ho1

Model Summary –Ho1

a. Predictors: (Constant), Time Management

b. Dependent Variable: WLB

The above model summary table 1.03 consists of the r, r square and adjusted r square values of service and manufacturing sector entrepreneurs for time as independent variable and Work Life balance as dependent variable. r- Square provides an indication of the explanatory power of the regression model. r square is the percentage of variance in the dependent variable explained by the independent variable. The r – square value of service sector entrepreneurs is 0.124. This means that 12.4% percent of variance of Work life balance is explained by Time. Similarly in the manufacturing sector entrepreneurs, the r – square value is 0.083 that concludes that 8.3% variance of work life balance is explained by Time.

Table 1.04(a) ANOVA – Service sector Ho1

a. Predictors; (constant) Time management

b. Dependent Variable: WLB

Table 1.04.b ANOVA – Manufacturing Service sector Ho1

a. Predictors; (constant) Time management

b. Dependent Variable: WLB

The F statistics as indicated in tables 1.04.a and 1.04.b is 9.755 and 9.716 for service sector and manufacturing sector entrepreneurs respectively. The F statistics explains which explains that the regression modal has more explained variance than the error variance. To the questions related to time management the entrepreneurs in the questionnaire selected those options that indicated that time management has a direct relation to their work life balance.

Table 1.5(a) Coefficients – Service Sector Ho2

Table 1.5(b) Coefficients – Manufacturing Sector Ho2

Based on the results as shown in the tables 1.5a and 1.5baboveit is concluded that, time a significant independent variable which affects the work life balance of small entrepreneurs in the service sector and manufacturing sector entrepreneurs of Indore region. There is a significant relationship for the variable time management on work life balance as p<0.05. Hence the hypothesis that there is no significant impact of time management on work life balance is rejected.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Time should be scheduled proficiently at work comprising time for oneself in the calendar and taking time for family and friends is essential. There are times when working late just cannot be aided, but schedules should be accustomed so that one can leave on time three days per week. Staying focused although in the office, and budgeting time meritoriously are useful. Arranging a block of time during the day devoid of meetings when one can focus on chores with minimal interruptions improve productivity. Flex-time options should be explored inside the organization. If accessible, this may be an accommodating solution. Time taken off can be deliberate.

Activities can be scheduled with family and friends such as a weekend trip, or just something gratifying. Time away from work should count! Staying coupled to work through smart phones, tablets or laptops has become the norm, although being beavered in allows work-related issues to spill over to the family domain and disrupts recovery from work stress. Inspection work emails using a smart phone or tablet external normal work hours can be advantageous for catching up with work, but it can also lead to on-the-job stress that spills over to the home. If there are any unkind text messages or emails from occupational people -- such as a boss, co-worker, clients, customers or contractors -- you may be more likely to deliberate about work-related issues or worries. It will affect your feelings and behaviors at home, which could further encouragement people at home. If one spouse is undergoing work stress, it can affect the other spouse. If both are stressed from work and neither is able to use the home as a place to boost for the next day, the stress can build up at home rather than decrease. People who are able to unblock from work activities when off the work experience lower levels of fatigue and work burnout, Park says. They also have higher levels of positive emotions and life satisfaction than those who remain allied to work-related tasks and matters outside of normal work hours.

References

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2. Ransome. P. (2007). Conceptualizing boundaries between 'life' and 'work'. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. 18(3). 374-386.

3. Greenhaus. J. Collins. K. & Shaw. J. (2003). The relation between work-family balance and quality of life. Journal of Vocational behaviour. 63(3). 510-531.

4. Marks SR. MacDermid SM (1996) Multiple roles and the self. a theory of role balance. J Marriage Fam (58).417–432

5. Tetrick. L. &Buffardi. L. (2006). Measurement issues in research on the work-home interface. Work-life balance. a psychological perspective 90-114

6. Steiber. N. (2009). Reported levels of time-based and strain-based conflict between work and family roles in Europe. A multilevel approach. Social Indicators Research. (93). 469-488.