South Asian Journal of Global Business ResearchEmerald Article: Work-life balance in South East Asia: the Indian experienceUjvala Rajadhyaksha

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To cite this document: Ujvala Rajadhyaksha, (2012),"Work-life balance in South East Asia: the Indian experience", South Asian Journal of Global Business Research, Vol. 1 Iss: 1 pp. 108 - 127

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COUNTRY PERSPECTIVE

Work-life balance in South EastAsia: the Indian experience

Ujvala RajadhyakshaDepartment of Business Administration and Economics, St Mary’s College,

Notre Dame, Indiana, USA

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth country perspective on work-lifebalance issues in India.Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach is used that includes case studies ofwork-life interventions offered by a sample of Indian organizations. Primary and secondary data weregathered through interviews with HR managers and from company web sites.Findings – Commonly offered work-life interventions by Indian companies address issues of genderequality, flexibility, stress reduction, health awareness and childcare.Research limitations/implications – Sample of organizations in the study is purposive in natureand HR policies of smaller companies in the informal sector are not included. Future research needs toconsider how India’s unequal economic development across the organized and unorganized sectorsmay affect effectiveness of work-life interventions.Practical implications – Based on India’s socio-cultural realities additional work-life interventionsare suggested in the areas of elder care, employee training and commuting.Social implications – Organizational work-life interventions in India are varied and disparate andhave focused mainly on the formal sector. There is no overarching government policy addressing workand family issues across different sectors. Implicit gendering of governmental policies and work-lifeinitiatives covertly reifies patriarchal structures that make such interventions necessary in the first place.Originality/value – The paper exclusively brings out connections between India’s socio-economiccontext and work-family issues of employees, which no other study has achieved before.

Keywords India, Developing countries, Human resource management, Public companies,Private companies, Multinational companies

Paper type Research paper

IntroductionWork-family research in Anglo developed countries has grown over the last fourdecades. It has been spurred by changing demographics and social structures,especially as more women have entered the workforce. In particular, the end of theWorld Wars brought about a shift in the traditional male-breadwinner family structure(Casper and Bianchi, 2002). However, in recent years, an increase in dual-incomefamilies along with single-parent women-headed households and the sandwichgeneration (which has care-giving responsibilities for children and aging parents), hasled to a growing interest in how work and family responsibilities can be effectivelybalanced by individuals (Neal and Hammer, 2007). Centers for work and familyresearch have been established in many developed countries, in a range of disciplinessuch as sociology, psychology, organizational behavior, labor economics, industrialrelations, management, demography and women’s studies (Drago and Kashian, 2003).

In contrast, emerging economies have been slow to pick up the trend, because theyhave a more gendered distribution of work and family roles (Bhalla and Kaur, 2011).Consequently, there is not sufficient understanding of the manner in which recenteconomic growth interacts with historical, social and institutional factors within these

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available atwww.emeraldinsight.com/2045-4457.htm

Received 21 July 2011Revised 17 November 2011Accepted 22 November 2011

South Asian Journal of GlobalBusiness ResearchVol. 1 No. 1, 2012pp. 108-127r Emerald Group Publishing Limited2045-4457DOI 10.1108/20454451211207615

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countries and how it affects the work and non-work lives of employees. This paperaims to address this gap in the literature by discussing how the work-life agenda hasevolved in India. Although a slew of studies in recent years have highlighted HR issuesin the Indian context (e.g. see the special issue – Budhwar and Varma, 2010), no studyhas exclusively focussed upon work and family issues in India.

India has ten of the 30 fastest-growing urban areas in the world and is likelyto move 700 million people to cities by 2050 (Goldman Sachs, 2003). Furthermore,India’s GDP per capita is expected to quadruple and surpass the USA by 2043(Goldman Sachs, 2003). India’s rapid economic growth even in the midst of a worldrecession has given rise to a burgeoning urban middle class which is expected to growfrom about 5 percent of the population (50 million) to 40 percent (580 million), creatingthe world’s fifth largest consumer market (McKinsey Global Institute, 2007). Higherincomes and urbanizations are likely to have a significant impact on family structuresin India. In particular, distribution of work and family roles along gender and classlines are likely to experience major shifts (De Silva, 2003). Within this backdrop, it iscritical that organizations in India start paying serious attention to balancing the workand family lives of employees.

To kick start this discussion and to propose some recommendations for policy makers,researchers and practitioners, the present paper provides an in-depth country perspectiveon work-life balance issues prevailing in India. First, work-family research in developedcountries is presented to contrast with the existing state-level policies that affect thework-life balance of Indian employees. Next, India’s socio-economic context is examinedin order to evaluate how it affects work and family behaviors of Indian workers ona daily basis. Finally, existing work-life practices of a range of Indian organizationsare presented, in order to identify challenges and propose recommendations for theimplementation of relevant work-life balance interventions in India.

Literature reviewWork and family research in developed countriesEarly family research can be traced to the post Second World War period when the UKand USA encouraged women into paid work; however, soon afterwards they wereexpected to resume their family roles in order to provide jobs to returning troops. Theflux in gender roles resulting from this social dynamic created an interest amongscholars in the manner work and family roles intersect with each other (MacDermid,2004). In a timeline study of work-family research in the USA after Second World War,Pruitt and Rapoport (2002) identify the early period after Second World Waras idealization of the American family with the male-breadwinner husband and thestay-at-home wife and mother. They argue that during this time, there was a movementto secure rights for working women in the lower middle class and business andprofessional women in the upper class. The period between the 1960s and 1970s, on theother hand, witnessed the growth of a more assertive feminist movement that led tocritically evaluating the traditional gender roles in the economy. The 1970s witnessed agrowing number of dual earner couples as the oil crisis raised the cost of living. The1980s led to some disillusionment with the increasing role of women in the workforceas it became evident that women, instead of being liberated from traditional genderroles, were instead taking on a dual burden. This period also witnessed the beginningof “family friendly policies” in the workplace. The 1990s focussed on the role oforganizations in alleviating work-family pressures faced by employees, as well as theexpansion of work-family research to previously under-studied populations in the USA

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such as single-parent families, poor working families and ethnic groups(Pruitt and Rapoport, 2002). The USA approach to managing work-life balanceissues has been characterized by an emphasis on encouraging organizations to respondto work-family needs of employees by making them important stakeholders in theprocess, as opposed to advocating governmental response in the form of public policyon matters pertaining to child care (Kelly et al., 2008). As a result, US mandates onlyshort unpaid family leaves, as compared to other developed nations such as Canadaor Australia that emphasize more governmental intervention to manage work-familystresses.

Duxbury and Higgins’s (2001) study identified many important trends with regardto work and family variables in Canada. They found that work hours and overtimework had been gradually increasing, especially for those employees who workedfor larger organizations. Work was also taking over a part of the weekends. Men,managers and professionals and employees who worked for non-profit sectorexperienced the heaviest work demands. On other hand, women and those withdependents experienced heavier family demands. They also found that in general workdemands of employees exceeded their family demands. In the UK, research on work-lifeissues received a boost after Second World War. As increasing numbers of women inthe workforce found it difficult to balance work and family responsibilities while theirmen were fighting the war, the UK government came up with the option of part-timework. While this did alleviate conflict to a slight degree, it did not change thetraditional gendering of work and family roles in the UK (Crompton et al., 2010). In arecent review of work-life research in Australia and New Zealand, Bardoel et al. (2008)found that work-life research there was also driven by the changing nature of work andlabor demographics. They identified several existing themes in work-life issuesin Australia/New Zealand, including challenges posed by the changing nature ofwork and especially lengthening hours of work, government policy and legislationpertaining to child care, maternity/paternity leave and care giving, work-lifechallenges faced in different family structures such as single-parent homes and genderissues in work-life research. They concluded that work-life research in Australia andNew Zealand shared some of the characteristics surrounding research in otherdeveloped countries, such as a focus on organizational interventions to reduce negativeemployee outcomes.

In summary, a majority of work-life research conducted in developed countries hasbeen driven by the changing nature of work and shifting demographics and familystructure. It has broadly adopted a business case perspective to these issues andfocussed on organizational outcomes of employee’s work-life experiences andorganizational responses to employees’ work-life balance challenges (Matz, 2003).

Work and family research in IndiaAs compared to work-family research in developed countries that has evolvedin a distinct cross-disciplinary field of inquiry, in India it has followed two separateand disconnected paths, focus on underprivileged women that has discussedstructures of patriarchy and their contribution to subordination of women atwork and home and psychosocial research conducted largely from a role theoryperspective that has examined work-family relations within urban settings. Therehas been little cross-pollination between these two streams and limited focushas been maintained on the role of the organizations (Rajadhyaksha and Smita,2004).

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Trends in work-family research in IndiaDecade of the 1970s. The first fillip to work and family research within the Indiancontext came during the mid-1970s. Events such as the declaration of 1975 asInternational Women’s Year and the 1970s as the Women’s Decade led to establishingwomen’s studies centers across the country to release the first ever Report of theCommittee on the Status of Women in India (Government of India, 1974). Thisreport officially recorded the subordination of women by summarizing statistics ofimbalanced child and adult sex ratios, in order to engage the government in women’sempowerment and development. A favorable outcome of this report was more researchdedicated to issues relating to women and work and family issues ( Jain and Rajput,2003). From the beginning, women’s studies centers in India adopted a critical inquiryin order to expose the structures that upheld subordination of women. Hence a largenumber of studies described appalling working conditions for women in differentsectors of the economy and discussed the organization of family relations thatsubjugated women at home (e.g. Krishna Raj, 1983). At the same time, psychosocialstudies that focussed upon work and family roles of urban working women in Indiawere conducted. Since working women were new to the Indian society during thisdecade, a majority of these studies were concerned with the status of and perceptionstoward working women, stresses of balancing work and home duties and its impact onthe psychological well-being of women (Bharat, 2000).

Mid 1980s-1990s. The next decade addressed the deficiency of male respondents inwork and family studies. As the number of urban educated women who were stillcommitted to being married increased, there was also a corresponding increase in thenumber of working couples in urban areas. Hence a slew of studies focussed uponworking couples and explored gender differences in attitudes toward enactmentof work and family roles. This incorporated husbands’ perspectives to the studies(e.g. Ramu, 1987). Some studies also included perspectives of underprivilegedsegments of the Indian society, such as Dalit women (Rege, 2000).

Mid-1990s onwards. This decade was marked by the liberalization of the Indianeconomy. Work and family research continued in this environment, along the twoindependent research trajectories developed previously. Research was primarily drivenby the need for highlighting existing norms of patriarchy and structural constraints ofincreasing poverty, oppressive family life, growing fundamentalism and politicizationof religion underlying women’s status in the country (Desai, 1994). Studies alsoexpanded their focus to examining the impact of globalization on female workforceparticipation (Sonpar and Kapur, 2001). Research from a psychosocial perspectivecontinued its examination of gender differences in work and family roles. Given a smallbut noticeable presence of women in professional and high-status jobs, studies alsobegan to distinguish between career and job-oriented women (e.g. Parikh and Shah,1994) and discussing the possibility of transitioning men’s roles.

Between 1995 and 2000, information technology-enabled services (ITES), callcenters and software sector boomed in India. Many organizations consequentlyadopted work practices from the west. Workplaces began to offer services traditionallyassociated with the family and non-work domain within their premises such asgymnasiums, day care facilities, laundry facilities, canteen facilities, even futons tosleep on if you felt like a nap (Devi, 2002). Although the IT sector was meantto enable working women to balance work and family responsibilities, in reality,IT organizations ended up neglecting family time. As the motivation to offer familyfriendly measures was more to imitate what was done in the developed world, a

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number of incentives offered were pared down during economically difficult times(Poster and Prasad, 2005).

Research on work and family during the mid-1990s and beyond, broadly followedthe course of the previous two decades. The previously mentioned disconnectionbetween researchers of work and family in India appears to have reduced the ability toaddress and resolve basic dilemmas in Indian society, such as persistent perpetuationof traditional sex-role stereotypes and behavior despite economic development. It hasalso limited the range of interventions suggested to address the problems of work-family balance. For example, women’s studies have focussed upon influencing policychange through state interventions. Psychologists, on the other hand, have offeredsolutions at an individual level. There have therefore been fewer interventions at anorganizational level.

Non-institutional and institutional (state-level policy) support for work-family balancein IndiaAlthough there are many laws focussed on the conditions of work for women and menin the unorganized and organized sectors, laws that have a direct bearing on balancingwork and family are few and focussed mainly on the organized sectors of the economy.Hence support for work and family balance in India comes from a non-institutionalfamily context. It is usually provided by extended family members, such as parentsand in-laws (if they are close at hand and in good health), paid help (which is relativelycheap in India but unorganized and unreliable oftentimes) and the spouse (dependingon the attitude of the spouse toward work and family roles and only when all othersources of support have been exhausted) (Rajadhyaksha, 2004). Child care centers,though increasing in urban areas, are still quite uncommon and not alwaysprofessionally managed. Centers for the care of the elderly, assisted-living facilities,hospice care, etc. are virtually absent, as this form of care is usually expected to beprovided by family members and often falls on women’s shoulders.

Institutional support for balancing work and family takes the form of governmentpolicies that may appear progressive on paper but are poorly implemented. SomeIndian government policies include the Maternity Benefits Act of 1961, the FactoriesAct of 1948 and the amendment to the Indian Penal Code (1869) Section 509 aimed ataddressing sexual harassment in the workplace. The Maternity Benefits Act of India(1961) entitles a woman up to six weeks of leave with full pay, both before and afterdelivery of the child. If the woman wants, she can take the entire 12 weeks of leaveafter the delivery. Under this Act, it is unlawful for an employer to discharge or dismissa woman during or on account of maternity leave, except for gross misconduct.Furthermore, a woman worker must be permitted to take two nursing breaks inaddition to normal breaks until the child is 15 months old ( Jain and Agarwal, 1995). Asper the Factories Act of 1948, in a factory as defined under the Act, an employer mustprovide child care facilities, where more than 30 women workers are employed forchildren below the age of six years ( Jain and Agarwal, 1995). With regards to protectionfrom sexual harassment in the workplace, the Indian Penal Code of 1869 (Section 509)makes sexual harassment punishable with simple imprisonment and/or a fine. Toprevent sexual harassment responsibilities are clearly laid out for the employer andemployee. The employer’s responsibilities included developing a sexual harassmentpolicy, communicating it clearly, developing a confidential and time-bound complaintsprocedure, treating sexual harassment as a disciplinary offence and amending servicerules accordingly to incorporate these changes. Employees’ responsibilities include

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talking about the issue of sexual harassment and holding meetings, compelling theemployer to establish a complaints committee headed by a woman with at least halfwomen members and involving local NGOs (Srivastava, 2010).

India’s socio-economic context and its impact on work and family behaviorsIndian civilization dates back more than 3,000 years. The history of the Indiansubcontinent includes many instances of foreign influences co-mingling with domesticHindu life. Foreign contact came from trade connections as well as through foreigninvasions and colonial rulers (Thapar, 1990). India’s post-colonial context is marked byeconomic, social, religious and linguistic diversity, which shapes employee work andfamily behavior in myriad ways. Understanding this diversity is the starting point formaking informed organizational interventions to promote work-life balance (Cooke andSaini, 2010).

All major belief systems including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Judaismand Zorastrianism exist in India. The Indian Constitution declares India as a secularstate; however, religion is an important facet of contemporary Indian life. Peopleengage in daily religious rituals, which are continuously evolving and adapting tomodern realities. Sometimes, Hindu employees actively celebrate holidays at work byperforming a puja that entails making ritualistic offering to various Gods, to whichmanagers and senior bosses, especially, are invited. Hence, India presents lessersegmentation between work and family spheres, as compared to countries in thedeveloped world. The traditional/personal and the modern/professional, frequentlyco-mingle without any conflict (Rudolph and Rudolph, 1967).

According to the latest figures available, the Hindu population that constitutes amajority of 80 percent dominates much of India’s social, cultural, economic andpolitical climate. Muslims are the next largest religious group with 14 percent of thepopulation (Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 2001). Family life is centralin both religions. In Hinduism, an individual’s soul or “atman” is released from thebody and is re-born. The ultimate aim of a Hindu is to get forever released from thecycle of birth and re-birth (i.e. attain “moksha” or salvation). A person’s karma or deedsdetermine where the person is currently placed in this path toward salvation. One wayof accomplishing moksha is to ideally fulfill one’s duty or “dharma” in one’s present liferoles as mother/father, husband/wife, brother/sister, aunt/uncle (Embree and De Bary,1972). Failure to do so can have moral and religious consequences not just for theindividual, but for the entire family. A work-life implication of adherence to one’spersonal dharma is that employees may periodically take time off to perform religiousduties associated with birth and death in the family. For instance, an employee maytake time off work for arranging the “thread ceremony” ritual for their son when hecomes of age, or to go on pilgrimages to places of worship. Although in recent years,employees with a more westernized work ethic in large corporations have started toaccommodate these rituals on holidays or weekends, there is an overwhelming socialexpectation to perform rituals as part of one’s dharma. Many male employees often feelthe social pressure to fulfill their duty of being the “good son” by taking care of theirparents during old age. Some may even pass over a promotion that would meanrelocation to another city to stay closer to their parents.

Hinduism’s dominance has sometimes caused conflict with other religious groups.Periodic resurgence of Hindu fundamentalism within the country has resulted inviolent Hindu-Muslim and Hindu-Christian riots that can paralyze the countrybringing it to a standstill. At the same time, Hindu religion is polytheistic and a wide

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array of Gods, deities and sects of Hinduism are worshipped in different formsthroughout India (Marriott, 1955). This diversity of Hindu religious practices andcustoms requires organizations to accommodate various Hindu holidays.

Cultural aspects of Indian societyCaste system and its prevalence in modern India. Traditionally, Indian society washierarchically ordered through the caste system, which is an important aspect ofHinduism and is supported by the principle of dharma (Basham, 1954). Usually anindividual’s caste was determined at birth and governed all aspects of their lifeincluding professions you could practice, the way you cooked your food and who youcould marry. Upper castes enjoyed more privileges than lower caste groups in India,thereby creating a high “power distance” culture where status differences are tolerated(Chhokar et al., 2007). As a consequence, status and titles can be an important source ofmotivation in the Indian work environment (Kanungo and Mendonca, 1994), althoughthis may be changing for younger managers working in the newer IT-enabled sectorand business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors (Budhwar and Bhatnagar, 2009).

Traditionally, Brahmin priests were the highest caste. Since their word wasconsidered to be Godly, it allowed them to wield considerable power and influencein the society. Hence it is not uncommon to find Hindu households askingBrahmin priests to sanctify rituals associated with birth, marriage and death. Evenwell-established business entrepreneurs may rely on priests to select auspicious datesto start important business ventures such as opening a new factory or planning abusiness trip abroad. In a recent study of software entrepreneurs in Chennai, Harriss(2001) found that many were making large donations to fund temple reconstruction orsubscribing to Vedanta philosophy as a way to improve their focus upon work.

We have shown previously that social change has been slow in India due toentrenched beliefs. Hence, changing traditional attitudes of employees toward workand family responsibilities can be a challenging task for managers. A change in habitsin India is more likely to be acceptable if it is endorsed by or role modeled by someonein a position of authority or higher status, or if the group/department as a collectiveaccepts the change. More recently in urban areas, the popular rhetoric of change aspossible through the actions of independent-minded individuals has been on the rise.For example, recent popular Indian movies such as 3 Idiots or books written by alumniof prestigious management institutes in the country (e.g. Chetan Bhagat’s Five PointSomeone; Greenless, 2008) have proven appealing for the youth.

It is generally argued that many aspects of Indian economy are still dominated bythe upper caste. Hence, pursuing HR-led “caste-based diversity” agendas that mayimpact work-life balance of employees can be difficult. For the first time since 1931, the2011 Census Survey of India gathered information on caste, mainly at the behest ofpolitical parties who were in favor of affirmative action for lower caste groups. Incontrast to the past when there was a social tendency called “sanskritization” (Srinivas,1952) to upgrade one’s caste, the expectation was that there would be more “downwardmobility” of caste among some segments of the population in order to avail educationaland employment benefits provided by the government to members of the lower caste(Blakely and Whitewell, 2010). Unfortunately, limited data are available from theNational Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) (Kulkarni, 2002) withregards to the scheduled caste and tribes that are entitled to government support.Recently, the Government of India recommended the establishment of a diversity indexand Equal Opportunity Commission (Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of

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India, 2008). In response, some companies have discreetly begun caste profiling ofemployees through voluntary disclosures. Other organizations such as the Tata group,Godrej group, Thermax, Mahindra and Mahindra and Bharti Airtel have begun toactively pursue a policy of affirmative action focussed on Dalits, tribal and otherbackward castes (Vijayraghavan and Ramsurya, 2009).

The Indian family. Traditionally, family structure in India (in particular Hindufamilies) is extended; however, nuclear families are also becoming more common inurban areas (Roy, 2000). Families are usually indulgent toward children and the aged.They are patriarchal in nature with the eldest male member becoming head of thehousehold. Women are encouraged to bear (male) children in order to carry forward thelineage and to ensure funeral rites are performed by the eldest son of the family.Marriages in India also tend to be arranged for the young by family elders or kinshipgroups (Kakar, 1978). Even when young people in urban areas select their ownpartners, approval is sought from parents and other family members. Partners areusually sought from within the same caste or religion or social class/status group(Chhokar et al., 2007). Divorce, although increasing, especially among young couples, isstill largely uncommon in society.

Status of women in India. The status of women in India has witnessed manychanges over its long history (Pruthi et al., 2003). While in ancient India womenenjoyed many freedoms, in its more recent history, they were relegated to a lowerstatus than males in practically all spheres of life. Hindu widows were especiallyrelegated to the lowest status. Such norms led to a low gender egalitarian culture. Aswith respect to caste, the government has attempted to correct social imbalances withwomen through a system of “reservations.” The recently passed Women’s ReservationBill of 2010 ensures a 33 percent reservation to women in Parliament and statelegislative bodies (The Times of India, 2010).

India’s sex ratio is heavily skewed in favor of men (914 females for 1,000 males;Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, 2011). There is also a huge gender gapin education. Only 82 percent of men and 65 percent of women are literate (Ministry ofHome Affairs, Government of India, 2011). While the number of women students inscience, engineering and management fields has increased from 1 percent in 1971 to20 percent in 2000, it is still small compared to males (Parikh and Sukhatme, 2004).Unfortunately, there is also a leak in the pipeline for women when it comes totranslating educational qualifications in to job experiences and career, due to India’straditional social and cultural traditions. Women form about a third of India’s workingpopulation. A majority (90 percent) of these women are employed in unorganizedsectors. The percentage of women in the organized sector has increased from 12.2percent in 1981 to 17.2 percent in 1999, according to the latest census figures available.In 2004-2005, 36 percent of women in urban India were in the workforce or studying(Bhalla and Kaur, 2011). This increase is likely to boost dual-income families; however,there is also a huge dropout rate of women from the workforce as they approach mid-30s, partly on account of work-family conflicts and social pressure. In summary,attitudes toward work and family roles can vary significantly for women with varyinglevels of education and income in the country. The labor force participationrate for women in India has been found to be a U-shaped curve, with more women inthe workforce at extremely low and high levels of income and education (Olsen andMehta, 2006) and the majority of middle India displaying more traditional genderrole norms. This aspect needs to be considered for work-family programs in Indianorganizations.

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Furthermore, although the employment and status of women has been changingin recent years, this change has been slow. The status quo appears to be largelymaintained through the endorsement of Hindu cultural beliefs of masculinity and castepurity, caste superiority and chastity. Men are expected to protect and honor the chastebehavior of women in their family as a way of maintaining caste purity (Dube, 2001).This attitude toward women’s roles along with the institution of endogamous marriagemakes it difficult for women and men to promote ideas of gender egalitarianismwithin Indian society. India’s value system and demographic statistics thereforeexplain the absence of research in the work-family area and simultaneously build acase for it, especially since the redistribution of work and family roles is critical for theempowerment of women and men in this context.

Sample and methodologyThis country perspective aimed at capturing a snapshot of current organizationalpractices and attitudes toward work-life balance issues in India. Data were collectedfrom a cross-section of organizations in India via interviews with HR managersparticipating in a work-life balance workshop organized by the Boston Center for Workand Life in 2009 and secondary research of company web sites that featured in theNASSCOM India Leadership Forum of 2009 and companies that featured inNASSCOM Awards for Excellence in Gender Inclusivity 2009 survey. We includeddifferent types of organizations to allow for a variety of practices to be highlighted:public, private and multinationals. Since a larger proportion of women in India tend toseek employment in government-owned institutions (broadly the public sector),they are required to follow the state’s policies pertaining to a work-life balance.Multinational companies (MNCs) were included because they are often leaders inadopting progressive HR policies and in addressing diversity issues. Finally, sincegrowth in the new emerging economy context has been driven by local companies thathave sprung up in the IT/ITES and BPO sector, we also included them in our sample.

In addition, based on findings from secondary sources, we also studied thecompanies that are well respected for their HR policies. We conducted interviews with12 HR managers (two of the HR managers were women) either face-to-face, over thetelephone or via e-mail. In the interviews managers were asked to describe majorinitiatives undertaken within the company to support the work-life balance ofemployees. Since the focus was not on the manager’s own personal experiences withwork-family conflict, there appeared to be no apparent need to get balanced male/female distribution of HR managers in the sample. In addition, organizationalresponses of public sector organizations and major private sector companies both fromthe IT/ITES and BPO as well as non-IT sectors and of MNCs, were profiled throughsecondary sources such as company web sites and newspaper articles and briefs.Please refer to Table I for a list of companies and sectors covered in the sample.

Case descriptionsFollowing are results of interviews in each type of company selected.

Public sector organizationsMany government sector and public sector companies in India, such as Indian OilCorporation (IOC) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), included in the sample aregenerally viewed as offering a reasonably well-balanced work environment, withsomewhat lower salary, but excellent perks in the form of paid vacation leave, paid or

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Type of company Sector Work-life response

PublicIndian Oil Corporation Oil and gas Traditional nation-building thrust, WL response

directed toward employee welfareReserve Bank of India Banking/finance Somewhat low salary but excellent perksPrivate (non-IT )Merck, Sharpe and Dohme(India)

Healthcare Job autonomy in managerial and sales jobs,liberal health and hospitalization benefits

Tata Motors Limited(Tata group)

Automotive “Grihini udyogs” – women’s cooperatives run bywives of employees that made and sold productslike pickles, condiments and paper bags in theopen marketTata Second Career Internship Program forWomen – re-entry to women after a career break

Hindustan Lever Limited Fast-movingconsumer goods

Flexible work schedules, work from homeoptions, opportunities for women to return after acareer break

PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting services Child care subsidies, support for schooladmission of employee’s children

Private (IT/ITES/BPO)Infosys Business consulting,

IT and outsourcingservices

Health Assessment Lifestyle Enrichment (HALE) –portal for online dissemination of information onvarious stress-related issues, hotline wherebyemployees can directly receive counseling andexpert opinions

Wipro Integrated business,technology,consulting, testingand processsolutions

Nutrition consulting, health centers, medicalcamps and regular well-being events like theAnnual Wipro Marathon, Mitr (friend) –employee volunteers trained to counsel otheremployees

MNCsCISCO (India) Networking

solutionsWAN – Women’s Action network – focus onmentoring and career development of women,professional workshops like the Role ModelLeadership Series (RMLS), community initiatives –Girls in Technology, Adopting charities focusedon education, networking events and “Bring yourkids to work” day

IBM (India) Innovativetechnology, businesssolutions, businessconsulting services

Extension of global diversity initiatives to focuson career development of women

Johnson and Johnson (India)Limited

Healthcare andrelated products

WLI – Women’s Leadership Initiative to supportcareer development of women communityinitiatives to support health of the girl child

GE (India) Healthcare, globalresearch

RESTART – contains a detailed flex programand manager training, access to a daycare facilitythrough collaboration with another GE businessand special pre- and post-maternity programssuch as a “Mom to be” relaxation room, “Mom tobe” car park and a lactation room

Table I.Work-life responses of

Indian organizations

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highly subsidized housing, pay equity and job stability. For instance, perks at RBIinclude independent accommodation in prime localities; furnishing allowance;consumer loans; conveyance allowance; book grant; medical facilities; LTC; lounge;if required a laptop and a mobile phone; and retirement benefits for the employee andfamily (RBI, 2011).

Private sector organizationsPrivate sector companies have increased their prominence in India and become majorrecipients of foreign direct investment since liberalization of the economy in the1990s. The Tata group of companies is an old and well-respected conglomerate inIndia. It has work-life initiatives targeted at both general employee welfare and womenempowerment. In the Tata Motors plant located at Pune, there are several cooperativesmanaged and run by wives of company employees. These cooperatives called “grihiniudyogs” provide the company with a variety of products ranging from cables forvehicles to chapattis (Indian bread) for its cafeteria. The cooperatives spawned by TataMotors provide additional income opportunities to employees and the women workingin them are paid the government-prescribed minimum wage plus receive all statutorybenefits. The majority of the products are consumed within Tata Motors althoughsome, like pickles, condiments and bags, are also sold in the open market (TML GrihiniUdyog, 2010). The Tata group also has a Tata Second Career Internship Program forWomen (Tata SCIP) to help aspiring women looking for a second career opportunity.Tata SCIP assigns projects to candidates within any of the group companies. Evenwomen with a career gap of up to eight years can find work under this program. Thisinitiative also helps improve diversity, considering that women at the group are largelyconcentrated in service-oriented companies like TCS and Taj Hotels, as compared tothe traditional manufacturing companies like Tata Steel and Tata Motors (Singh andZachariah, 2010). Unlike the most established private sector companies like Tatagroup, other private sector and MNCs offer well defined rather than broad welfaremeasures to help employees balance work and family. For example, Merck Sharp &Dohme, India (in the healthcare sector) advertises that managers and sales workforcecan enjoy autonomy, in order to attract and retain the top talent. They also offer liberalhealth and hospitalization benefits, sometimes picking up the remaining tab of anemployee’s health expenses when it exceeds the insurance coverage. In keeping withthe government’s family planning philosophy, however, the company covers expensesfor only up to the second child of the employee (personal communications with HRmanager and see Merck Sharpe and Dohme, 2010). Some companies such as HindustanLever Limited, India and P&G India offer flexible working hours to encourage womento return after taking a career break (Singh and Zachariah, 2010). Other companiessuch as PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt Ltd (India) offer child care subsidies and supportemployees with school admissions of children, since on-site day care can be quiteexpensive due to exorbitantly high rents for office space and long commutes thatemployees engage in to work in the bigger cities (personal communications with seniorpartner in India).

Indian IT/ITES/BPO companies. The demand to attract and retain talented womenappears to be driving many local BPO firms to offer some unique customized work-lifeinitiatives. For instance, one local BPO firm in Gurgaon, offers on-site day care centers,by building glass walls for the day care center and providing plenty of electric outletson other side of the wall for women to plug in their laptops and work while feeling closeto their children (personal communications with HR manager). Other firms appear to

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focus on health and well-being awareness. Two well-known examples of Indiancompanies offering wellness initiatives to their employees to mitigate work-stress areInfosys Technologies and Wipro. Infosys Technologies has a wellness initiative namedHealth Assessment Lifestyle Enrichment (HALE). It primarily consists of an onlineportal used for disseminating information on stress-related issues and a hotlinewhereby the employees can directly receive counseling and expert opinions. The datafrom the portal as well as the hotline helps HR to track key indicators like absenteeismcauses and resultant billing losses. The data also helps measure the effectiveness ofthis initiative in terms of improvement in productivity (Birkinshaw, 2008). For Wipro,which is one of the leading players in both IT and BPO sector, encouraging employeewellness is an integral part of its corporate culture. It is reflected in numerous healthand safety initiatives, which supplement existing health benefits, including nutritionconsulting, health centers, medical camps and regular well-being events like theAnnual Wipro Marathon. However, the most successful of all the projects has been onecalled “Mitr” which means “friend” in Hindi. In this program, 28 volunteer employeeswere trained to counsel fellow employees to manage stress. “Mitr” signifies toemployees that they do have a friend in Wipro and that they should be able to confideand share their problems within the company (Navare, 2008).

MNCs. Many MNCs operating in India offer work-life interventions under the broadrubric of gender diversity awareness initiatives. For example, CISCO set up theWomen’s Action Network (WAN) in 2004. WAN India has more than 350 employees asits members. The WAN activities are strategized and executed by a core team ofvolunteers led by the WAN leads under the guidance of executive sponsors andthought leaders. Some of the activities organized by CISCO WAN India includementoring, professional workshops like the Role Model Leadership Series (RMLS)workshops and other community initiatives such as Girls in Technology, Adoptingcharities focussed on education, networking events and “Bring your kids to work” day(CISCO, 2010). IBM India undertakes measures for the advancement of women andpromotes workplace flexibility as part of its global diversity initiatives that are basedon equal opportunity, affirmative action and work/life balancing programs. Thesemeasures are focussed on mentoring and coaching for women, attending internal andexternal conferences and symposia, participating in steering committees, emphasizingon executive and technical resources programs, regularly carrying out work/personallife employee surveys and develop diversity-specific hiring programs (IBM – India,2010). Johnson & Johnson ( J&J) India has established the Women’s LeadershipInitiative (WLI) with the support of top management. WLI is aimed at removingbarriers to the advancement of women and at attracting and developing womenleaders in the company. J&J is committed to fostering a culture of inclusion by buildingthe much-needed sensitivity about gender inclusion in the workplace. WLI also hastask forces created to work on areas of work-life integration, policy development,learning and career development and networking. In addition, the company undertakescommunity initiatives focussed on improving awareness of health issues, such asdiabetes and AIDS, providing support to street children, orphans and tribal girls andoffering maternity and gynecological care to women in need ( Johnson & Johnson(India), 2010). General Electric (GE) initiated a program called RESTART at theirtechnology center in Bangalore ( John F. Welch Technology Center). This is aimed athiring women technologists who are on a career break. RESTART contains a detailedflex program and manager training, access to a day care facility through collaborationwith another GE business and special pre- and post-maternity programs such as a

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“Mom to be” relaxation room, “Mom to be” car park and a lactation room. RESTARThires are provided with mentors to guide them in “re-learning” the organization. Afterlaunching the RESTART campaign, GE has had 1.3 million web site hits, receivedover 1,500 applications and to date has already hired four RESTART technologists.In 2008, GE won the Smart Workplace Award, which is a national award provided toorganizations with effective flex environments (GE (India), 2010).

DiscussionAforementioned case studies in India indicate that work-life initiatives are offeredmainly in the following areas. Please refer to Table I for a summary of these results.

(1) Gender equality: although this may not strictly be considered a work-lifebalance initiative, it appears to be a common thrust among selected MNCs aswell as large private sector organizations. Many MNCs operating in India offerprograms supporting the career development of women under the broadumbrella of work-life benefits and diversity initiatives. It is important to notethat the term diversity is understood differently in India and in the west (Cookeand Saini, 2010). While the term diversity in the USA may refer mainly togender, racial and ethnic diversity, in the Indian context where there is a greatdeal of ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity already present, pursuingdiversity goals is perceived as being meaningful mainly as far as gender isconcerned (Venkata Ratnam and Chandra, 1996). Therefore, the motivation forMNCs to offer family friendly practices in their Indian subsidiaries is partly theintention to maintain uniformity across HR practices globally. Accomplishingdiversity with regard to caste, class and regional status appear to be fraughtwith challenges in India. It is also in response to the demands placed on themby younger men and women employees and often used as retention strategy. Itappears that these companies are following a “business case” for investing inwork-family initiatives.

(2) Flexibility: since economic growth in India has occurred largely in urban areas,public infrastructure in cities is under great strain. Providing flexibility interms of when and where work is conducted can reduce employee stress andwork interruptions and also encourages a higher productivity. A challengewith implementing this initiative, however, is that in many smaller towns andcities in India, power interruptions are common, hence the idea of logging fromhome for a definitive period of time could prove to be difficult. In addition,many middle class employees working in urban centers often live in crampedaccommodations. Those with several family members, such as elder parentsand children, may not be able to afford dedicated office space at home.

(3) Stress reduction: recent studies of young people in the BPO sector in India(Vaid, 2009) have shown increasing levels of stress and substance abuse amongemployees. Stress reduction programs that involve creating a collegialatmosphere at work with opportunities to interact informally, such as creatingcommunal and casual spaces for chatting, listening to music or getting a cup oftea or coffee with friends, have appealed to many Indian employees. The Mitrhelpline at Wipro is an example. However, gym facilities and fitness centers atwork is of limited use to employees. Given India’s hot and humid climate,fitting in an exercise schedule during the lunch hour after a long commute towork is not likely to be a highly desired activity.

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(4) Health awareness: although corporate-sponsored marathons and 10K runs arebecoming popular in cities such as Bangalore and Mumbai, especially amongthe more westernized younger employees, regular exercise is not a commonhabit with most Indians. Hence, increasing health awareness can be beneficialto Indian employees in the long run. As mentioned previously, Infosys isconsciously doing just that.

(5) Child care: some organizations in India have begun to offer child care facilitiesor child care subsidies. Many urban women use some form of paid help forchild care, in conjunction with family-based support, but often complain aboutthe low and uneducated quality of the available paid help. Partnering withlocal child care providers to develop quality standards and performanceguarantees on behalf of employees would clearly be an important step (BrightHorizons, 2009) because of challenges of finding an appropriate and reasonablepriced renting space at the workplace for a child care facility.

Recommendations and implicationsBased upon the above discussion, we offer a few important recommendations forIndian organizations, in terms of elderly care, training and commuting. First, asindicated in our review of India’s socio-economic context, many Indian families areextended. Hence family responsibilities apply not just to one’s children but also toaging parents and parents-in-law. Provision of medical coverage for parents and aseparate form of leave for dealing with family issues (similar to FMLA in the USA)could be an important policy going forward. It is quite common for male employeesfulfilling their duty as son, to use up vacation leave and personal finances to deal withhealth issues of dependent parents. Providing health insurance coverage that includesparents/in-laws in addition to children and contracting with well-known hospitals toprovide quality nursing care, or compiling a vendor list of quality elder care providers,can be of help to those who are able to afford help but unable to arrange for it. Second,investment in training for employees to build skills and to encourage employees to usetechnology more efficiently could improve productivity and work-life balance. Finally,since the rapid pace of urbanization in Indian has made commuting to and from worktime consuming and exhausting, investment in transportation resources can assistemployees with work conflicts and mitigate delays caused by long and difficultcommutes. In fact, many BPO firms do provide employee pick up and drop off services.However, a low gender egalitarian culture has resulted in instances of sexual assault onyoung women employees being dropped off after a late night shift (Shukla, 2010).A solution that some BPO firms have come up with is to make it a policy that awoman employee will not be the last one to be dropped off from work and some havebegun encouraging women BPO employees to take self-defense classes (personalcommunications with HR manager).

Some lacunae exist in the Indian government’s policy to addressing work andfamily issues. First, work and family balance issues are rarely tackled directly in policystatements. The approach is an indirect one and appears to be steeped in a patriarchalstyle of functioning that assumes that the worker is male, hence focusses entirely uponthe overall worker welfare and health. For example, as per the Factories Act of 1948,women could not be employed on the night shift. In recent years with increasingemployment of women in the BPO/call center industries, the Ministry of Labour andEmployment of the Government of India has made some amendments to this Act to

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allow flexibility for women to work on night shifts (The Hindustan Times, 2006).Second, no laws have been promulgated or passed that specifically cover the right toshared family responsibilities, part-time workers and domestic workers, even thoughIndia is a signatory to the Conventions of the International Labour Organization(Convention nos 156 in 1981, 175 in 1994 and 177 in 1996, respectively). Finally, manyof the existing laws lack effective implementation, as organizations find ingeniousways of circumventing them. For instance, employers bypass the legislation requiringthem to provide child care facilities if 30 or more women are employed in the workplaceby employing fewer than 30 women as permanent employees and the rest as part-timeor contract labor.

Implications for future researchAlthough organizations in India have taken concrete steps to enable employees tobetter manage work and family responsibilities, the motivation for providing work-lifebalance initiatives is varied and disparate, depending on the company’s sector, age, sizeand ownership and the class or level of employees being targeted. Consequently thespace for work-life initiatives in India looks somewhat like a kitsch that is reflective ofthe multicultural and social and economic diversity of India. Work-life responses ofolder well-established organizations in the government and private sector (e.g. the Tatagroup) appear to be driven by an ideology of corporate social responsibility (Capelliet al., 2010) rather than market need. These are also focussed on worker welfare andcommunity development targeting entire family and women empowerment. Such anapproach aligns with the nation’s building efforts of these companies and althoughmany of the benefits offered by them appear to be appreciated by employees, theirstance on work and family issues is undeniably patriarchal in character. The realpressure to offer unique and relevant family friendly measures, however, is being facedby local private Indian companies in the IT and BPO sector. The rapid growth rate ofthese companies has resulted in the employment of young women in large numbers aswell as long work hours. While in initial years of their establishment, these companiestended to imitate western work-family balance practices in form rather than spirit,their motivation behind offering these services has emerged as a genuine desire toreduce stress and attract and retain talented employees. MNCs on the other handappear to offer work-life balance practices as an extension of their worldwide diversityinitiatives and in an effort to tailor these to the Indian situation seem to focus largelyon improving women’s career growth as a means to a better work-life balance. Onother hand, there appear to be virtually no formal work-life initiatives or protectionsfor workers in the unorganized sectors.

While each initiative has its strengths, overall they do little to change the structuresof patriarchy that necessitate such interventions in the first place. The implicitgendering of many work-life initiatives in India (e.g. targeting child care facilitiestoward women and health check-ups and stress management for men) can inadvertentlyreaffirm traditional gender role norms within the Indian context. Furthermore, theprevailing normative expectation that the ( Joint) Indian family should be the providersof support (in keeping with the ingrained notions of one’s dharma surrounding liferoles as son/daughter, wife/husband and father/mother) challenges establishing amarket for paid services. Finally, demographic factors play a role. Despite the fact thatthe number of women workers is increasing, a large part of this increase has been inthe unorganized sector. Even when the number of women workers in the organizedsector has risen, their rate of economic participation has not been higher than men.

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Collectively, these factors make it difficult to build a persuasive “business case” forwork-family issues in workplace. However, it appears that the Indian context presentsa stronger case for a social justice perspective for work-life initiatives. Such a perspectiverequires greater reliance on governmental policy in addition to organizational incentivesto balance work-family demands. At the moment, however, there is an absence of agoverning policy at the national level to guide work-family efforts for varied segmentsof workers in the country. There is particularly a glaring absence of policy initiatives ororganizational interventions for workers in the unorganized sector. There is also lackof understanding about the connections between the work-family behaviors ofemployees in lower and upper strata of the economy. Do men attain work-life balance atthe expense of women’s work-life balance? Do urban educated women attain work-lifebalance at the expense of poor women’s (maids) work-life balance? Future researchneeds to be cognizant about the manner in which income inequalities in India affectwork-life balance of all employees across the organized and unorganized sectors. Thiswill require more cross-disciplinary research work in the work-family field – perhaps itis time for centers for work and family research to be established in India as well.

In conclusion, this paper provides a country perspective on work-life balance issuesin India. As discussed previously, India presents a unique combination of endemicfactors such as endogamous marriage, the caste system, low gender egalitarianism,income equality, a large informal sector and rapid economic growth. Collectively, thesecreate a complex kaleidoscope pattern of diverse realities. Understandinginterconnections among these realities is the key to effectively addressing work andfamily problems in India. To the extent that a similar constellation of forces presentthemselves in other low to middle income economies, lessons learned in India could betranslated more generally to other countries in South Asia, or any country that hassimilar gender traditions to India.

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About the author

Ujvala Rajadhyaksha is an Associate Professor of Management at Saint Mary’s College, USA.Her research interests include work and family issues, gender issues in management and theIndian context. She received her PhD from the Indian Institute of Management, India. UjvalaRajadhyaksha can be contacted at: urajadhy@saintmarys.edu

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Work-lifebalance in South

East Asia