Manager Behaviour, Generation, and Influence on Work-Life Balance: An Empirical Investigation

IntroductionWork-life balance is a growing topic of interest in the field of management. As the employee landscape changes with the addition of more women in the workplace accompanied by three different generations of employees, management will be forced to pay more attention to the work-life balance needs of employees. The increasing amount of focus on work-life balance and the introduction of more family friendly policies, such as flexible work arrangements, have made managers' responses to work-life balance issues more critical (Cennamo & Gardner, 2008).Baby Boomers (born between the years of 1946 and 1964), Generation X (born between the years of 1965 and 1979) and Millennials (born between the years of 1980-2000) are the three largest generations found in the current workforce, with a 54-year age gap between the oldest baby boomer and the youngest millennial. The Millennials and the Baby Boomers have the biggest presence among the three (Glass, 2007). With a number of Baby Boomers planning to work beyond retirement, this age gap will continue to grow as younger Millennials enter the workforce (Toosi, 2006).The current literature reveals no significant difference in the need or desire for work-life balance based on an employee's age. However, a difference does exist when employee age is combined with how the manager affects work-life balance for the individual employee (Darcy, McCarthy, Hill, & Grady, 2012). Consequently, managers must be aware of the types of work-life balance options available and how they personally contribute to their employees' experience of work-life balance.Despite the recent proliferation of research on work-life balance, gaps in the literature exist relative to managerial demographics and their influence on promotion of work-life balance within organizations. Specifically, current literature fails to address the relationship between a manager's age and corresponding generation relative to an individual employee's experience level of work-life balance. The challenges resulting from the age differences between managers and employees pose the potential for work-life conflict if and when multiple generations lack understanding of each other's wants and needs. The absence of research in this area presents an opportunity to explore how managers of different ages promote work-life balance via their personal behaviors, skills, and characteristics. Identification of trait differences may lead to a greater awareness of the impact of managerial actions on employees' perceptions, and concurrently enhance managers' ability to increase work-life balance. The purpose of this paper is to answer two questions: Does the age of the manager affect employee perceptions of work-life balance within the organization? What behavioral characteristics of managers contribute to employee perceptions of work-life balance?Theoretical BackgroundWork-life balance has been defined in numerous ways. Recent definitions include, "how individuals choose to prioritize their work, family, individual, and community responsibilities" (Munn, Rocco, Bowman,& van Loo, 2011, p. 1),"the absence of unacceptable levels of conflict between work and non-work demands" (Ross & Vasantha, 2014, p. 62), or as "a state where the needs and requirements of work are weighed together to create an equitable share of time that allows for work to be completed and a professional's private life to get attention" (Heckerson & Laser, 2006, p. 27).Munn (2013) later suggested that his definition of work-life balance "supports the notion that work-life balance is individualistic, meaning that each individual may achieve it differently by doing what is meaningful and works best in all aspects of his or her life" (p. 407). This statement points to the complexity of the work-life balance issue and the difficulty for managers who are challenged to respond to each employee's need for work-life balance. …