A gender evaluation of the balance construct in b-schools of UAE

Abstract

Work-life balance has become a challenge in today’s fast paced workplaces, leading to work-life conflicts and adoption of unsustainable work practices by employees. Technological advancement has instilled an ‘always on’ attitude among employees, which has led to extended office hours as they are never disconnected from their work whether at home or on a holiday since they have access to office mails and messages all the time. This is the main cause of stress and burnout among the employees. This paper is an attempt to analyse the work life balance of the Academicians working in the business schools in UAE. It further explores the influence of gender on job satisfaction levels related to work life integration among employees. For the data analysis a pilot survey was conducted on respondents based on simple random sampling to get the estimate of work life balance of employees. The analysis revealed that both male and female employees find it difficult to maintain a balance between personal and professional life. Female employees had greater challenges as they had additional household responsibilities and family commitments, which makes it difficult for them to work overtime in the organization, or on weekends and holidays. These facts can be used as an input for the government departments in UAE which continuously strive to bring around policies to enhance the work life balance of employees across all the sectors in UAE.