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This chapter challenges middle-class bias in work-life literature by examining work-life balance dynamics through a social class perspective. It reveals class-based disparities in physical, temporal, and psychological outcomes, including the role of economic capital in work-life balance and the challenges encountered by the socially mobile in achieving psychological balance. It emphasizes the need to acknowledge social class implications for work-life balance and urges organizations to address class-based inconsistencies and inequalities in their practices.

Interrelationships among some common factors of human resource (HR) management and quality management are still unexplored. Changes in work patterns due to the Covid-19 pandemic have aroused interest in some of these factors, such as working-hours, work pressure, work–life balance practices, job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to explore the interrelationships among such factors. Specifically, the influence of work hours, work pressure, job rotation and work–life balance on job satisfaction is evaluated both directly and under the mediating influence of working conditions.

A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in Indonesia among diversified organisations. A total of 432 responses were gathered, and they were examined using hypothesis testing and partial least square based structural equation modelling.

The study confirms the statistically proven impact of work pressure, job rotations and work–life-balance practices on working conditions. Job rotations, work–life balance practices and working conditions directly influenced job satisfaction. Work pressure did not influence job satisfaction directly, but it significantly influenced working conditions, which eventually affected job satisfaction. Working hours neither affected working conditions nor job satisfaction in a significant manner.

Covid-19 necessitated working from home, which is a peculiar work–life balance situation. The findings are helpful for organisations in planning strategies related to work–life-balance, working hours, multi-skilling, working conditions and other quality of work life factors in both regular working conditions and under Covid-19 conditions.

The proven influence of work pressure and work–life-balance practices may result in the formation of informal organisations, social groups and increased social networking. As working hours are not diagnosed as an influencing factor for job satisfaction, organisations may think about increasing them, affecting the social fabric of the working community.

Previously unexplored interrelationships among various quality of work life factors are established. Under Covid-19 circumstances, factors such as working hours, work–life-balance and work pressure are investigated in a novel manner. The factors and their interrelationships are important to both quality management professionals and HR professionals.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the relevance of the intersections between work and personal life. Measures introduced to slow the spread of COVID-19 have included an increase of working from home and the temporary closure of schools and child-care facilities, leading to a lighter workload for some and a heavier workload for others. These consequences are likely to affect employees’ work–life balance (WLB), although the impact may differ across groups of employees depending on the nature of their work, family and personal demands and resources. This mixed-method study examined how Dutch government employees perceive their WLB during the pandemic and how differences in what employees are experiencing can be explained. In May/June 2020, an online survey (N = 827) and an interview study (N = 17) were conducted at a government organization whose employees were obliged to work from home partly or exclusively. Results indicate that demands changed when working entirely from home and resources became more important to maintain WLB satisfaction. Being able to manage boundaries across life domains and find a new routine also appeared to be crucial for WLB satisfaction.

Previous theoretical and empirical literature has advocated growth in the access and use of flexible working arrangements by establishing their link with individual and especially parental subjective well-being. Given this, the current research investigates impact that their own or their partners’ transition to flexitime and teleworking has on parental subjective well-being. The cross-partner dimension has not been explored yet by prior studies. Measures for cognitive, subjective well-being include satisfaction with life overall, satisfaction with the amount of leisure time, and satisfaction with health. Ordered logit longitudinal models are estimated using Understanding Society data from 2009 to 2019. Corroborating prior studies, the current analysis finds that mothers’ transition to flexitime and teleworking has a positive impact on their leisure time and health satisfaction. For fathers, switching to telework improves satisfaction with their amount of leisure time, while adopting flexitime can take a toll on self-reported health satisfaction. However, contrary to expectations, mothers’ move to teleworking can be injurious for fathers’ life satisfaction levels, yet fathers’ adoption of flexitime fosters mothers’ satisfaction with their leisure time amount.

The author argues that we must stop and take a look at what our insistence on human labour as the basis of our society is doing to us, and begin to search for possible alternatives. We need the vision and the courage to aim for the highest level of technology attainable for the widest possible use in both industry and services. We need financial arrangements that will encourage people to invent themselves out of work. Our goal, the article argues, must be the reduction of human labour to the greatest extent possible, to free people for more enjoyable, creative, human activities.

The construction industry (CI) is known for heavy workloads and long working hours. Consequently, quantity surveyors (QSs) find it difficult to integrate work with life. Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify the causes and consequences of poor life management (LM) in both female and male QSs working for contractors at construction sites and strategies that would improve the LM of the QSs.

The study adopted a mixed research approach by conducting semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire survey to identify the significant causes and consequences of poor LM in QSs and strategies that would improve the LM of the QSs. Manual content analysis and mean weighted rating (MWR) were used to analyze the collected data.

Heavy workloads are the most significant cause of poor LM in QSs. The study found that male QSs are highly addicted to substance use and that female QSs lose sleep because of poor LM. Teamwork is the most significant strategy that would enhance the LM of both female and male QSs working at sites.

The traditional work–life balance refers to the harmony between work and non-work lives of an individual. LM is associated with five spheres of life: work, family life, health, social life and spiritual life. Given that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have focused on LM, this study becomes significant because it identifies the causes and consequences of poor LM of QSs working in the CI and the strategies that would enhance the LM of the QSs.

This chapter examines the extent to which Working from Home (WfH) affects the temporal alignment of work and private life, i.e., the consideration of personal and family interests in work scheduling, for male and female employees with and without children. A distinction is made between telework that is formally recognized home working time by the employer, and informal overtime at home that is not recorded. It is argued that while the first represents a job resource, by increasing flexibility in work scheduling, the latter constitutes a job demand, which hinders the consideration of personal and family responsibilities in work time planning. Due to differences in status beliefs, identification and the distribution of childcare, gender gaps as well as differences according to family responsibilities are predicted in these associations. Using data from the German BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey 2018, the temporal alignment of work and private life is found to be positively associated with telework, particularly so for men, and negatively associated with informal overtime at home, particularly so for women. While mothers do not benefit from telework during regular working hours in particular, they have the worst temporal alignment of work and private life when they work informal overtime at home.

In this paper the authors aim to consider the impact of regulatory changes on work‐life integration outcomes. Using the cases of France and the UK they seek to explore changes in objective and subjective measures of work‐family conflict.

The authors use data from the European Foundation's European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) to analyse trends in employees' working time and work‐life integration outcomes.

The authors observe an increase in reported satisfaction with work‐life integration in the UK in contrast to a slight fall in France. The authors also find a reinforcement of the working time norms in France and something of a tentative re‐emergence in the UK. However, against these trends evidence is also found of an enhanced flexibility in the scheduling of hours in both countries with French employees more at risk of changeable schedules.

Downward trends in working time do not necessarily translate into satisfaction with work‐life integration and may create their own tensions and conflicts for employees where there is reduced autonomy. While regulatory change may help shape the working time experiences of employees, the underlying tension between employee and employer‐friendly flexibility highlights the challenges for working time regulation and work‐life integration in different societal contexts.

The paper makes a contribution to the analysis of work‐life integration outcomes by examining both objective and subjective measures using comparable data. The authors underline the need to contextualise the regulation and experiences of work‐life integration in different societal settings.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of flexible working conditions on work‐family conflict in European countries. Flexible work has increasingly been used by employers to adapt to the demands of economic competition, often at the expense of employee's demands. Yet, at the same time, flexible work can provide a means to better combine work and family obligations. The paper seeks to explore which of these effects dominates for different types of flexible employment, paying specific attention to gender‐specific effects.

For the cross‐national analysis of work‐life‐conflict, the authors employ the latest wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) from 2010, featuring a module on “Family, work and well‐being”. Binomial logistic regression is used to identify determinants of work‐life‐conflict both on the micro‐ and the macro‐level. In addition to looking at flexible work forms as a phenomenon per se, specific attention is given to the experience of different types of employment flexibilization throughout the financial crisis.

For both genders, irregularity and unpredictability of working hours negatively impact on work‐life conflict beyond the mere amount of working hours. Yet, higher autonomy in choosing one's work time is used very differently: While women tend to use their control over working hours to achieve a better work‐life‐balance, men tend to use these arrangements to increase their work commitment, thereby enhancing their perceived work‐family conflict. The authors argue that this gender‐specific use of flexible work arrangements might still reflect the traditional gender roles and gender‐segregated labour market structures. Adding to previous literature, the authors furthermore demonstrate that gender‐specific differences are also apparent in the effects of the most recent economic crisis.

By examining the effects of various types of flexible employment separately for men and women, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the gender‐specific effects of flexible work arrangements on work‐family‐conflict within European countries. The 5th wave of the ESS furthermore for the first time allows an empirical investigation of the effects of the recent financial crisis on work‐family conflict from a cross‐nationally comparative perspective.

This paper aims to understand the impact of smart working on employees’ quality of life. The service-dominant logic indicates that key actors, including employees, are resource integrators. This empirical study contributes to the current knowledge of transformative service by expounding on smart working practices and their relationship with self-efficacy and, ultimately, quality of life of employees.

This study contends that smart working enhances employees’ self-efficacy. The current research uses conservation of resources (COR) theory as a basis in hypothesizing that self-efficacy serves as a key resource, which can stimulate workplace creativity, job satisfaction and quality of life. An onsite survey is conducted among employees who have been involved in smart working in the travel agency context.

Smart working has a positive effect on self-efficacy, which positively influences workplace creativity, job satisfaction and quality of life. Workplace creativity enhances job satisfaction but does not influence quality of life. Job satisfaction boosts quality of life, which is important to tourism services and their employees amid various crises.

Consistent with COR theory, the immediate recommendation to managers is to invest in smart working, which can lead to employees’ creativity, job satisfaction and quality of life.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this empirical study is the first to assess the viability of smart working in the travel agency context. Smart working offers positive outcomes, such as convenience for employees to work independently, improving workplace creativity, job satisfaction and quality of life. Travel agencies are mainly categorized as small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In the future, SMEs may also introduce smart working that can eventually become their competitive advantage to retain talented employees.

旅行社中的智慧办公与员工的生活质量

本文旨在了解智慧办公对员工的影响.服务主导逻辑表明, 员工等关键人物是资源整合者。本文通过实证研究揭示了智慧办公实践及其与员工自我效能和生活质量的关系, 对现有转型服务知识做出贡献。

本研究认为智慧办公可以提高员工的自我效能。基于资源守恒理论(COR), 本研究假设自我效能是激发职场创造力、工作满意度和生活质量的关键因素, 对旅行社中参与智慧办公的员工进行了现场调查。

智慧办公对自我效能有正向影响, 同时自我效能对职场创造力、工作满意度和生活质量均产生正向影响。职场创造力能够提高工作满意度, 但对员工的生活质量不起作用。另外, 工作满意度有利于提升生活质量, 这对面临各种危机的旅游企业和员工具有重要意义。

根据COR理论, 即刻建议管理者投资推行智慧办公, 从而提升员工的创造力, 工作满意度和生活质量。

这一实证研究首次尝试评估旅行社中推行智慧办公的可行性。智慧办公可带来多种积极效果, 如为员工独立工作提供便利, 提升员工的职场创造力、工作满意度和生活质量等。旅行社属于中小型企业(SMEs)。未来, 中小型企业同样可尝试引入智慧办公, 这将成为其留住优秀员工的竞争优势。

关键词：智慧办公, 公平评估, 自我效能, 创造力, 自主, 生活质量

文章类型： 研究型论文

El trabajo inteligente en las agencias de viajes y la calidad de vida de los empleados

Resumen

Este artículo tiene como objetivo entender el impacto del trabajo inteligente en la calidad de vida de los empleados. Basándose en la lógica de servicio dominante, los actores clave, incluidos los empleados, son integradores de recursos. Este estudio empírico contribuye al conocimiento actual de lo que constituye un servicio transformador al exponer prácticas laborales inteligentes y su relación con la autoeficacia y, en última instancia, la calidad de vida de los empleados.

Este estudio sostiene que el trabajo inteligente mejora la autoeficacia de los empleados. Plantea la hipótesis de que la autoeficacia sirve como un recurso clave que puede estimular la creatividad en el lugar de trabajo, la satisfacción laboral y la calidad de vida utilizando la teoría de la conservación de recursos. Se ha realizado una encuesta in situ entre los empleados que han llevado a cabo trabajo inteligente en el contexto de la agencia de viajes.

El trabajo inteligente tiene un efecto positivo en la autoeficacia que influye positivamente en la creatividad en el lugar de trabajo, la satisfacción laboral y la calidad de vida. La creatividad en el lugar de trabajo mejora la satisfacción laboral, pero no influye en la calidad de vida. La satisfacción laboral mejora la calidad de vida, lo que es importante tanto para los servicios turísticos como para sus empleados durante las crisis.

De acuerdo con la teoría de la conservación de recursos, la recomendación inmediata a los gerentes es invertir en un trabajo inteligente que pueda conducir a la creatividad, la satisfacción laboral y la calidad de vida de los empleados.

Este estudio empírico es el primero del que tengamos constancia en evaluar la viabilidad del trabajo inteligente en el contexto de la agencia de viajes. El trabajo inteligente ofrece beneficios, como la posibilidad de que los empleados trabajen de forma independiente, mejorando así la creatividad profesional, la satisfacción laboral y la calidad de vida. Las agencias de viajes se incluyen principalmente en la categoría de pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes). En el futuro, las pymes también pueden introducir el trabajo inteligente, que puede llegar a convertirse en su ventaja competitiva para retener a los empleados con talento.

Trabajo inteligente, Equidad en las valoraciones, Autoeficacia, Creatividad, Autonomía, Calidad de vida