Work-Family Conflicts and Leadership

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The work-family balance relationship continues to occupy center stage, with good reason. The hard-hitting article, “The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict” (Center for American Progress, 2010), sates “Fully 90 percent of American mothers and 95 percent of American fathers report work-family conflict.”

Author Lisa Petrilli, in her article for C-Level Strategies, “Leadership in the Age of Work-Family Conflict” (August 2011), confronted the issue of “traditional life” and the realities of today’s business environment. The recent global recession has only served to exacerbate these conflicts to sometimes dangerous levels.

Work-Life Is Too Often Out of Balance

Work versus family life balance has become a serious issue in the 21st century. The work-family conflicts have been growing in the workplace since at least the late 1970s, but few employers apparently became concerned until the 2000s.

There are valid reasons for the current imbalance. Understanding the causality of existing problems helps senior management find the solutions. Family-owned business organizations are particularly susceptible to these conflicts as work and family lines often become blurred beyond recognition. Yet, the substantive reasons behind these conflicts remain.

• Firmly established in the 1960s, the U.S. work model is based on the existence of the “nuclear family,” with stable married two parent households, most of which contain stay-at-home moms.
  
  
• The “model” has changed 180 degrees, with most children of two parent households living with not one, but two working role models.
  
  
• From senior executives to hourly employees, everyone is working many longer hours than in previous decades.
  
  
• Because of senior management mindsets and technology, employers perceive their workforce as being available 24/7.
  
  
• Other industry-specific reasons for this imbalance are approaching infinity.

Current reality is at odds with the traditional work-life model. The uncertainty of job security, increasing work hour expectation of employers and the demands of succeeding in a global economy under stress has created a damaging imbalance in this delicate human equation.

The added conflict generator of nepotism in the workplace during this difficult economic environment, with jobs at a premium, has further clouded the work-family balance. A family-owned business often makes this condition even more frustrating.

Work-Family Conflicts Not Expected to Disappear

The fallout from the destructive recession indicates that work-family imbalance conflicts will continue for the foreseeable future. Business leaders face stronger challenges than the average American worker.

Senior management must grapple with a continuing down economy, escalating benefit costs (particularly health care programs) and a dearth of new business expansion and revenue growth opportunities. Dealing with serious conflicts at home poses even more psychological roadblocks to effective leadership.

Effective leaders also understand that they must try to improve the work-family balance for their employees, to keep them performing at a high level. This consideration forces leaders to firmly compartmentalize their own work-family conflicts when they enter their offices.

The 2011 Work+Life Fit™ Reality Check report indicates that, while work-life flexibility did not improve during the deep recession, it did not lose its popularity and witnessed a growing use in the workplace. A second piece of the limited “good news” reveals that work-life equations are finally gender-neutral, with males and females earning equal attention from employers concerned about creating a proper balance.

On the downside, over 70 percent of active employees name their jobs as a “significant source of stress.” This mindset serves to enhance the work-family imbalance. Leaders should understand this reality and be sensitive to the concerns of their workers.

While developing brand, marketing, financial, and operations strategies, C-level leaders should also realize that American employees work longer hours than other developed countries, including Japan, noted for worker engagement and pride. The U.S. also lacks laws and regulations that support working families. For example, the U.S. is the only country that lacks paid maternity leave regulations among the top 30 developed, industrialized economies in the world.

Whether you manage a family-owned business, a startup or a major corporation, as a leader you must accept the current work-life conflict environment and commit to minimizing its damage to you and your workforce. Challenging? Yes. Impossible? No.

Just as football and basketball coaches substitute players freely to keep them fresh and vibrant, leaders should offer as much work-life flexibility as possible to their employees. Workers will appreciate management’s concern for their work-family balance and, hopefully, retain their enthusiasm for their jobs and their employers.

Executives must also keep themselves fresh and energetic to be effective leaders. Overworked senior executives will note their own performance levels being taxed by energy and creativity shortfalls. When combined with their own work-family conflicts, allowing discord to continue and lacking energy, they may make costly leadership judgment errors.

Job satisfaction ranks high on the wish lists of executives and workers alike. As leaders concentrate on increasing revenues and expanding bottom lines, they must also realize that the work-life equation is out of balance and should be equalized. Senior executives should start with balancing their personal equation and spread their influence to their employees to improve their job satisfaction and performance.

Source:
http://www.lisapetrilli.com/2011/08/01/leadership-age-of-worklife-balance/