Short term pain for long term gain: managing work life balance in a recession
Professor Linda Duxbury, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Canada
Thursday
18 June 2009
Allan Scott Auditorium, UniSA City West campus, Hawke Building, 50 North Terrace, Adelaide
Presented by the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre in partnership with SafeWork SA - WorkLife Balance Strategy, Department of the Premier and Cabinet
To be broadcast on Radio Adelaide in the Public Domain series: Sunday 13 September 10am
Unedited transcript of lecture (pdf format)
Web address for reports coming from Duxbury and Higgins
National Study of Work-Life Conflict
Report One: The 2001 National Work-Life Conflict Study: puts the
series into context by describing the sample of employees who participated
in the research and examining the various "risk factors" associated with
work-life conflict.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/work-travail/index.html
Report Two: Work-life Conflict in Canada in the New Millennium: A
Status Report: makes the business case for change by looking at how high
levels role overload, work to family interference, family to work
interference, caregiver strain and spillover from work to family) affect
employers, employees and their families.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/work-travail/report2/index.html
Report Three: Exploring the Link between Work-Life Conflict and the
Use of Canada's Health Care System: focuses on how work-life conflict
affects Canada's health care system (ie quantifies the system demands
associated with high work-life conflict and attempts to put some kind of
dollar value on how much it costs Canada to treat the health consequences of
such conflict).
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/work-travail/report3/index.html
Report Four: Who Is at Risk? Predictors of High Work-Life Conflict:
identifies key risk factors for role overload, work interferes with family,
family interferes with work and caregiver strain.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/work-travail/report4/index.html
Report Five: Reducing Work-Life Conflict: What Works? What
Doesn't?: examines what employers, employees and their families can do to
reduce work-life conflict.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/occup-travail/balancing-equilibre/index_e.html
Report Six: Work-Life Conflict in the New Millennium: Key Findings
and Recommendations From The 2001 National Work-Life Conflict Study
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/pubs/occup-travail/balancing_six-equilibre_six/index-eng.php
Other Reports
Work-Life Balance in the New Millennium: Where Are We? Where Do We Need to
Go? CPRN Discussion Paper No. W12 October 2001
http://www.cprn.org/cprn.html
Where to Work in Canada? An Examination of Regional Differences in Work-Life
Practices (2003) (2003). Looks at how the various predictors and
consequences of work-life conflict vary by region of Canada. Website:
http://www.cprn.org/en/doc.cfm?doc=1220
Many organizations and governments, busy with dealing with the recession, think that work-life issues are of secondary importance. This talk focuses on the consequences such an approach is likely to have.
Using both Canadian and Australia data this talk quantifies the human and monetary costs of such as an approach. Links are drawn between work-life conflict and increased demands on Australia's health care system, increased use of prescription drugs, and declines in physical and mental health. Dr Duxbury also presents data showing that employees who cannot balance work and family are more likely to cope by having fewer or no children - a strategy that will have significant implications on Australians ability to remain globally competitive in the seller's market for labour that is predicted to start in 2011, the exact same time that the recession is likely to end.
Dr Duxbury also links work-life conflict to key organizational success factors such as recruitment, retention, and succession planning. The talk ends with a discussion of what organizations and governments can do to reduce work-life conflict in their workforce. Strategies discussed include increased flexibility, a focus on the immediate management and a change in organizational culture.
Biography
Linda
Duxbury is a Professor at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton
University. She received an M.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in
Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo. Within the past decade
she has completed major studies on Balancing Work and Family in the public,
private Sectors and not for profit sectors; HR and Work-family Issues in the
Small Business Sector; Management Support (What is it and Why does it
Matter?); Career Development in the Public Sector and in the High Tech
Sector; generational differences in work values. Dr. Duxbury has also
conducted research which evaluates the organizational and individual impacts
of e-mail, portable offices, cellular telephones, blackberrys, telework,
flexible work arrangements, shiftwork and change management and studying
what makes a "supportive" manager. She has recently completed a major a
follow-up study on work-life balance in which 32,800 Canadian employees
participated.
Dr Duxbury has published widely in both the academic and practitioner literatures in the area of work-family conflict, change management, supportive work environments, stress, telework, the use and impact of office technology, managing the new workforce and supportive management. She has also given over 300 plenary talks on these issues to both public and private sector audiences.
Within the Business School at Carleton, Dr Duxbury teaches masters and PhD courses in Managing Change as well as the masters course in Organizational Behaviour.
Dr Duxbury is also an accomplished trainer and speaker in the area of supportive work environments, work-life balance, managing the new workforce, recruitment and retention, change management, gender and communication and the communication process.
Dr Duxbury held the Imperial Life Chair in Women and Management from 1992 to 1996 and was director of Carleton Centre for Research on Education on Women and Work from 1996 to 1999. In 1999 she was appointed to the Fryer Commission on Labour-Management Relations in the Federal Government. In May 2000, Dr. Duxbury was awarded the Public Service Citation from the Association of Public Service Executives for her work on supportive work environments. In October 2002 she was awarded the Canadian Workplace Wellness Pioneer Award for her "pioneering efforts, creativity, innovation and leadership in the field of organizational health."
SafeWork
SA is the lead agency for the South Australian Strategic Plan
Target 2.12 "Improve the quality of life of all South Australians through
the maintenance of a healthy Work Life Balance"
The SWSA WorkLife Balance Strategy
The SWSA WLB Strategy is working in three areas
- Improving and promoting minimum standards and legislation that supports WLB
- Developing an awareness raising programme and research to support WLB
- Establishing partnerships with other government agencies to address the WLB target
Work Life Balance [WLB] is no longer a luxury item but a key industrial and OH&S issue for many workers struggling to reduce the tension between the demands of work and the responsibilities in the rest of their lives. For employers, looking at flexible work arrangements can improve attraction and retention, reduce turnover, absenteeism and rehabilitation costs, increase productivity and improve their standing as an 'Employer of Choice'.
For employee's, the opportunity to have some say over how work is organised and have some access to flexible work and leave arrangements enables young people, parents and older workers to access and stay in work and reduce the stress of juggling other responsibilities.
For further information on the SafeWorkSA WorkLife Balance Strategy. Click on Events and Resources for our next seminars or contact the Unit to join the elist. Hogan.Michelle@dpc.sa.gov.au
While the views presented by speakers within the Hawke Centre public
program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University
of South Australia or The Hawke Centre, they are presented in the interest
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strengthening our democracy - valuing our cultural diversity - and building
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