The South African workplace : meeting the work life balance challenge

Abstract

The construct of Work Life Balance (WLB) gained international recognition as a business imperative within overseas organisations, realising the reality impact of work-life conflict. The past two decades marked intensive research within countries, such as Canada, on the value-add of these practices on hte bottom-line of the organisation. The pressures created by competing within a global economy marked the importance of creating a sustainable global competitive advantage through human capital. Within the last decade this aspect has been prominenet on various research forums. South African organisations which could be regarded as Multi - National Corporations (MNCs) swiftly adopted these practices as a cloned version on their South African counterparts. However, no actual studies provide insight into the applicability of WLB models to the South frican workplace.