Development of a Bi-directional and Multi-Dimensional Measure of Work-life Balance

Issues related to the interactions between personal and professional life have gained popularity amongst academicians as well as practitioners in recent times. In spite of this development, research in this area is not holistic as it has been mainly focusing on the adverse or favorable nature of interactions between work and life. Moreover, the scope of research in this area is largely restricted to the study of individuals with family responsibilities or is developed and appropriate only in distinct western cultural contexts. There is a lack of reported scale of work-life balance that assesses holistically the bi-directional and multi-dimensional nature of work-life interaction. In this study, an attempt has therefore been made to develop a holistic scale for measuring work-life balance. Data was collected from 400 working professionals working in diverse sectors and based in four major cities in India. Quantitative analysis has yielded a 19-item, four-factor scale for measuring work to life and life to work interference and enhancement with high reliability and validity measures. This paper further discusses the strategic implications of this scale for human resource management in general.