Work-Life Balance and Use of Smartphone for Stress- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theWork-Life Balance and Use of Smartphone for Stress. Answer: Work life balance Work-life balance is defined as an extent up to which a person is equally engaged in and at the same time equally satisfied with her or his role in work and family (Greenhaus, Collins Shaw, 2013). The reverse of work life balance is work life conflict, which arise when the domains of work and life are incompatible and doing something in job, interferes with the quality of family life or vice-versa (Harries, Marret Harris, 2011). Issues surrounding the use of Smartphone and work life balance Harries, Marret and Harris (2011) opined that work life balance was significantly associated with life satisfaction, stress and job satisfaction. Use of excessive Smartphone both in personal and professional life lead to the generation of Smartphone addiction and this in turn leads to mental health complications (Choi, Lee Ha, 2012). Apart from mental health, use of Smartphone has also lead to the increase in accidental death and injuries and thereby cast fatal health impacts. In Singapore, At least 50 % of people aged between 17 to 25 years have encountered at least one road accident because they were glued to the screen of their Smartphones while walking down the street (The Straits Times, 2015). Overuse of Smartphone leads to the generation of social media anxiety. According to Enez Darcin et al. (2015), Smartphone addiction in young people leads to the generation of social phobia and privacy theft, which in turn converts into mental health complications. According to Leslie et a l. (2012), use of Smartphone has lead to the economic advancement. Use of multiple apps like tax consulting apps has helped individuals to stringently manage their income. Leslie et al. (2012) further opined that use of Smartphone has dramatically increased the ability to collaborate and communicate with any people at any part of the world. This has helped the companies to reduce their expenses on travelling allowances as those and no longer necessary and thereby promoting economic growth. Argument in favour of use of Smartphone in maintaining work life balance According to Thurston (2012), advancement in the domain of technology helped to work under flexible working hours. For example, people have to no longer wait to be in front of their computer or at office to finish their work. They can finish their task easily with the help of technology from anywhere and anytime. This enables people to spent time with their family members on special occasions while staying connected with their work and meeting their targets. Tims et al. (2013) is of the opinion that use of Smartphone has helped to improve the job performance this is because, Smartphone aids in quick communication and deter decision making while working both on and off-field and thereby helping to increase on-job performance. Increase in the job performance increases the productivity of employees as instead of waiting for client or the prospective customers, they can employ their dead time for other tasks like sending mails or doing cold calls or video meeting, this accelerates the ov erall process and thus leading to increase in productivity. This increase in productivity in turn helps the employees to perform better in a flexible manner and thereby helping to increase job satisfaction rate and increase in the parameter in the performance management appraisal system Tims et al. (2013). Tims et al. (2013) stated that use of Smartphones helped to increase the collaboration and dynamics among the co-employees via reducing their communication gap and this has lead to the increase in team performance. Increase in the team performance helps to increase the productivity and this positive side is reflected in the better work-life balance. Argument in against the use of Smartphone in maintaining work life balance According to Day et al. (2012), technology like excessive use of Smartphone can negatively impact the work-life balance. Use of excessive technology in everyday life cause increased blurring of boundaries of work and life and thereby causing significant distress and negative spill over (Derks Bakker, 2014). Now-a-days everything can be done with the single click of Smartphone such that, people end up spending significant amount of their personal time working through their Smartphone beyond their office hours as technology enables them to do that. This rise in the personal span of time spent in working generates boundaries between life and work become significantly blurred (Derks Bakker, 2014). Smartphone technology has enabled email to be accessed with ease at any point of time, such that these official emails keep popping up even beyond the working hours and thereby hampering the personal space and comfort (Derks Bakker, 2014). According to the reports published by Waller Ragsde ll (2012), average amount of time spent on email beyond the working hours is 30 minutes per day though this time might not seems significant enough but over a week adds up to extra 3 to 4 hours of extra work. People are of the opinion that even if they try to avoid bringing work-pressure at home, they develop an urge to check their emails, every time they receive a notification from their office mail and thus disrupting the equilibrium of the work life balance. In relation to the comment stated by Thurston (2012) in the above paragraph, Waller and Ragsdell (2012) is of the opinion that while Smartphone gives maximum flexibility in working anytime and anywhere, it generates a tendency among the employees to complete the work in a relaxed manner. Such that, employees lack the urgency to finish their work within the office hours, as they feel they have ample time and can finish the same at home. This leads to generation of bringing office work to home culture, and thus hampering the pe rsonal space. Furthermore, study conducted by Harris (2014) highlighted that there exist a negative relationship between work life balance, stress and Smartphone intrusion. This signifies that people who are using Smartphone are more intrusive on their personal life and hence more stressed. Thus from the above discussion I have come up to a conclusion that the smartphone and its influence on the work life balance has both positive and negative aspects. What more important is proper balance in the use of Smartphone in order to extract the best out of this advanced technology and while employing it as blessings. References Choi, H. S., Lee, H. K., Ha, J. C. (2012). The influence of smartphone addiction on mental health, campus life and personal relations-Focusing on K university students.Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society,23(5), 1005-1015. Day, A., Paquet, S., Scott, N., Hambley, L. (2012). Perceived information and communication technology (ICT) demands on employee outcomes: The moderating effect of organizational ICT support. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17(4), 473-491. Derks, D., Bakker, A. B. (2014). Smartphone use, workhome interference, and burnout: A diary study on the role of recovery.Applied Psychology,63(3), 411-440. Enez Darcin, A., Kose, S., Noyan, C. O., Nurmedov, S., Y?lmaz, O., Dilbaz, N. (2016). Smartphone addiction and its relationship with social anxiety and loneliness.Behaviour Information Technology,35(7), 520-525. Greenhaus, J. H., Collins, K. M., Shaw, J. D. (2013). The relation between workfamily balance and quality of life. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63(3), 510- 531. doi:10.1016/S0001-8791(02)00042-8 Harris, K., Marett, K., Harris, R. (2011). Technology-related pressure and work-family conflict: Main effects and an examination of moderating variables. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 41(9), 2077-2103 Harris, T. R. (2014).The impact of smartphones on work-life balance(Doctoral dissertation, Middle Tennessee State University). Leslie, P., Pearce, J. M., Harrap, R., Daniel, S. (2012). The application of smartphone technology to economic and environmental analysis of building energy conservation strategies.International journal of sustainable energy,31(5), 295-311. The Straits Times. (2015). Using your phone as you walk may get you in an accident. Accessed on 23rd March. Retrieved from: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/using-your-phone-as-you-walk-may-get-you-in-an-accident Thurston, R. (2012). The technology threat to work/life balance. GPSOLO, 29(5), 36-40 Tims, M., Bakker, A. B., Derks, D., Van Rhenen, W. (2013). Job crafting at the team and individual level: Implications for work engagement and performance.Group Organization Management,38(4), 427-454. Waller, A., Ragsdell, G. (2012). The impact of e-mail on work-life balance. Aslib Proceedings, 64(2), 154-177.