Primate Behavior: Chimpanzees Essay

Million years ago, it is believed that the chimpanzees, unable to construct technology that makes migration possible, have remained marooned for more than five million years in a small corner of Africa. The popular assumption of a closeness between human and chimpanzee intelligence is that the fact that the brain of the chimpanzee has remained at about 500 cc while that of the human has advanced to about 1300 cc. Chimpanzee as believed is our closest relative, yet the human brain is more than two and a half time larger than that of a chimpanzee, a human intelligence is a thing part. The wild chimpanzee teaches it’s young very little. But does the young chimpanzee suffer? No. For everything the parent does the young chimpanzee learns to do itself, without parental training. Even the most complex acts of the adult chimpanzee –nut cracking, termite fishing, water sponging – do not depend on parental assistance. A chimpanzee mother allows her infant to eat the nuts she has cracked; she tolerates her infant as it leans heavily on her while she is busy doing her task; but she never turns away from her own successful nut cracking to watch the efforts of her infant. Although the chimpanzee mother does not assist her infant by acting as a watchful pedagogue, the manner of motivation is taken place by the repeating observation of her infant. In other words, by watching its mother, the infant â€Å"get hooked† on the problem and thus, as a result solving problem made easy. While these acts do not occur in all chimpanzees, they are nevertheless species-specific acts which all chimpanzees have a potential. With respect to temperament and sex behavior, bonobo and chimpanzee have no serious comparison in their cognitive performances. Copulation in bonobo acts in various positions whereas chimpanzee copulation is dorso-ventral position. This difference sometimes taken to indicate a lack of imagination on the part of the male chimpanzee is due to an anatomical difference . The sex skin of the female chimpanzee makes ventral-ventral copulation impossible, whereas the sex skin of the bonobo can accommodate all sexual connections. Bonobos are easier to work with and far less aggressive than chimpanzees. Sexual activity in the bonobo is not confined to adult heterosexual pairs but is commonly engaged in between adult and child, female and female etc. Bonobos are far less aggressive than chimpanzees, and thus are easier to work with. In conclusion, primate behavior can be compared with human behavior, a close one. Evolution as some books say, chimpanzees are our early relatives. Footprints show that they left evidence of closeness, a study wherein we have common ancestors.

God’s Existence and Aquinas Objection Essay

I was in the debate team in high school. And there were times that our team would take the against side of the statement. In his famous work Prologion, written in 1077-1078, Anselm presents the idea the God exists because God is the greatest thing of all, that the idea of thinking of God exists prove its existence. Hundred of years later, Thomas Aquinas brings up the account that addresses Anselm’s idea in objection 2 of Question II, First Article of Summa Theologica. Aquinas objects Anselm’s argument later in his work by attacking the idea that God is something that can be thought greater. To understand Anselm’s argument for God’s existence, one must first understand the principles that forms the argument. The first principle is the claim that â€Å"nothing greater can be thought. † There is too types of existing, existing in understanding (existing0) and existing in reality (existing1). Then, we try to think of something is existing1. Anselm let â€Å"something† be â€Å"something than which nothing greater can be thought (NGT),† or in another word â€Å"a being than which nothing greater can be conceived† according to the Proslogion. The very first act of thinking that something is existing1 serves as the basis of it existing0. Because in the process of trying to think of something greater, we already establish its existence0. For example, there is a flower A, existing1. This flower A is the most beautiful flower, that this flower is a NGT. In order to prove this flower is NGT, one has to think of all the flower he has seen, flower B, C, or D. In the process of searching through one’s mind trying to think of a flower that is more beautiful than flower A, flower A already exists in one’s mind, which is existing0. To open his argument, Anselm then said an example of NGT is God. The second principle is the principle of â€Å"thinking of non-existing objects (Principle E). † Anselm uses the example of a painter conceiving the drawing he will paint, then executing his plan in mind to make the painting exists in reality. To breakdown his argument, let’s begin with something that exists0. Because one has the ability to imagine that something exists0, one can also imagine that the same thing exists1. This priniciple is the most uncontroversial because it is just a matter of imagination. The fact that one has imagination allows him to imagine whatever he wants. For example, one imagines he won the lottery and has a million dollars. It is safe to say that one can proceed to think of that million dollars is existing1, regardless of if the million dollars truly exists1. Applying Principle E back to the argument of NGT, if one can imagine NGT in existence0, one can also go ahead and imagine NGT existing1. The third principle is â€Å"thinking something greater than something (Principle G). This principle compares the greatness of existing0 and existing1. Anselm proposes that â€Å"greatness† has two faces: qualitatively and existentially. To further support his argument, Anselm implies that greatness qualitatively means everything positive, such as, more beautiful, more knowledgeable, more influential, etc. Base on this assumption, Anselm argues that, â€Å"Suppose it exists in the understanding alone: then it can be conceived to exist in reality; which is greater. † To apply this principle in daily life, one can relate to a million dollars example above. One can imagine having a million dollars in his mind, but that million dollars doesn’t exist1. In another case, one owns a millions dollars, which means that million dollars exists1. The rhetorical question here will be, which case is more appealing to you, which scenario is â€Å"greater? † Back to Anselm’s claim, the â€Å"it† in his argument is, of course, NGT, which is God. That God exists1 is better than God only exists0 but not exists1. The next principle returns to the basic meaning of NGT. Principle N presents the idea â€Å"if something can be thought to be greater than x, then x is not an NGT. † Assume something is an NGT, nothing greater can be thought. If there is another thing that is greater then it. This â€Å"something† is no longer an NGT. This principle is pretty self-explanatory. To put it in everyday examples, imagine the beautiful flower A is the most beautiful flower in the whole wide world. However, one found another flower more beautiful than A. Now A is no longer an NGT, regardless in existence0 or existence1. Now substitute God in for NGT in the equation. Because Anselm already claimed that God is an NGT, if one can think of something greater than God, God is no longer an NGT. According to the Proslogion, â€Å"God cannot be conceived not to exist. –God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived. –That which can be conceived not to exist is not God. † The upcoming principle’s idea bases that of principle E. Principle T simply proposes the idea that â€Å"an NGT can be thought. † Because one has the ability to think of an object either exists0, exists1, or even both, one can also think of NGT existing0, existing1, or both. The idea that one can think of something is very broad and universal, that â€Å"something† can simply be anything. The final piece of Anselm’s argument is Principle M. This principle presents the very vague idea that â€Å"if something must be thought as existing1, then it exists1. † If one must think of a flower exists1, then that flower does exist1. Now that all principles Anselm needed to support his argument that God exists are gathered, he begins his argument with a â€Å"fool (thinker)† that â€Å"understands [God] is in his understanding; although he does not understand it to exist. † To fully understand this argument, one has to accept Anselm’s assumption that God, indeed, is an NGT. The argument that the thinker has the ability to think of NGT existing1 is based on Principle E that if one can think of an object then he can think of it existing1. The idea of thinking NGT exists1 is â€Å"greater† than the idea of thinking NGT exists0 but doesn’t exist1 (Principle G); therefore, one can think of something greater than the NGT that exists0 but not in reality. However, this violates the basic meaning of an NGT (Principle N), nothing greater can be thought. So the idea that one can think of something greater than the NGT that exists0 but not in reality is contradictory to the fundamental element of an NGT. Which comes to the agreement that if one think of an NGT it is to be existing1. The conclusion implies the principle that one can thought of NGT exists1 (Principle T). Also, one can and must only think of an NGT exists1. This lead to the final conclusion. If one has no choice but think of something exists1, that something must be existing1 (Principle M). Therefore, an NGT, God, exists. Aquinas gives an condensed version account of Anselm’s argument in Summa Theologica. In objection 2 of question II, â€Å"Whether the existence of God is self-evident? †, Aquinas addresses the idea much abruptly. He first implies that Anselm’s idea of God is an NGT is equivalent to saying â€Å"things are said to be self-evident which are known as soon as the terms are known,† that the significant of the word â€Å"God† is nothing better can be conceived. He follows the account by stating that the word â€Å"God† â€Å"exists actually and mentally is greater than that which exists only mentally. † Therefore, if the word â€Å"God† is understood mentally it has to be understood to exist actually. Both Anselm’s argument of Aquinas’s account of it come to the same conclusion that God exists, that the thought of it existing lead to its real existence. Aquinas objects Anselm’s idea by stating that not everyone understands the word â€Å"God† will agree that it is an NGT. He follows his objection by stating: Yet, granted that everyone understands that by this name God is signified something than which nothing greater can be thought, nevertheless, it does not therefore follow that he understands that what the name signifies exists actually, but only that it exists mentally. Aquinas’s main objection is that the idea of NGT can be interpreted that it can only exists mentally. However, for Anselm’s argument to work, one has to understand that God can exists in reality; therefore, Aquinas further objects Anselm’s claim by stating those â€Å"who hold God does not exist† will not admit the fact that God is an NGT and it exists in reality. In Anselm’s defense, he based all his argument on the fact that God is â€Å"a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. † As a true believer of God, Anselm would have simply oppose those who does not believe in God has not fully understand the meaning of â€Å"God†; therefore, they fail to grasp the idea God exists in reality. If one understands God, he will be able to think of God’s existence in mind then agree to think of it in reality. After reading excerpts both from the Proslogion and the Summa Theologica, I am more inclined to support Aquinas’s claim. Although I do not think Aquinas has successfully destroyed Anselm’s argument, I think there are more weak links in Anselm’s argument than that of Aquinas’s. The most apparent loopholes are Principle M and Principle G. First, Principle M states that if one has to think of something as existing1, then that something has to exists1. However, Anselm neglects the fact that what one believes exists1 does not has to be true. For example, children were told to believe Santa Claus exists in reality and many of them do believe that idea. The contradiction being what those children â€Å"can and must† think exists1, Santa Claus, does not exists1. Second, the positivity of â€Å"greatness† implied in Principle G is too vague. The concept of greatness of reality is â€Å"better† than that of in mind can be subjective. Just because one person thinks the existence in reality is greater than existence in mind does not equal others perception of greatness. With doubts in Principle M and Principle G, I think Aquinas has a stronger position compare to Anselm does.

Explain the future of Global Aviation which includes regulation, Essay

Explain the future of Global Aviation which includes regulation, economics and organizational entities involved - Essay Example The root of crises at the level of air carriers and aviation industry is fragmentation, one of the major weaknesses of airport management is a monopoly in the provision of services and ground service and refueling. Another problem, the complexity of current state of civil aviation and prospects of its development is the lack of transparent and economically viable national system of rates for airport fees and tariffs. The rates for airport fees and tariffs do not match the quality of services provided. In conjunction with practiced monopoly suppliers of kerosene in airports are extremely negative impact on the regularity and profitability of the airlines, often resulting in delays and the cancellation of flights, and sometimes for an end to the flights of individual carriers from any airport. International experience shows that the competition in the global airline industry, aviation industry and organization / management of air traffic can not develop completely independently and requires strong and coordinated support to the state. This calls for an early launch a comprehensive program of reform and greater coordination of the management industry in the new national project. Governments should adopt and consistently enforce the set-up that includes economic incentives and administrative practices aimed at consolidating the industry. This should set clear and transparent criteria under which these airlines should be enlarged. There should be the market of specialization airlines (as they enlarge) - domestic / international, local / long-haul, cargo / passenger transport. Such specialization should meet the needs of the population and the economy and meet the profile of the carriers(Baldwin, 1999). It is necessary to realize the strategy of building a national network of airports, combining ticks carrying

A financial comparison on Zara and Burberry.(UK) Essay

A financial comparison on Zara and Burberry.(UK) - Essay Example The first Zara shop opened its doors in 1975 in A Corua,the city that saw the Group's early beginnings and which is now home to its central offices.Its stores can now be found in the most important shopping districts of more than 400 cities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa." (Our Group). However, "Burberry was founded in 1856, when Thomas Burberry constructed his first outerwear pieces for the local sportsmen of Basingstoke, England. In the century and a half since then, Burberry has come to represent the standard for quality and style in outerwear, anchored by its iconic trench coats, now legendary the world over." (Overview: The Past. 1856).Positioning could be seen in terms of the market which companies wish to attract and retain, and the brand and corporate image of the companies registered in the buying patterns of consumers and clients, especially with relation to competing and rival brands. The market positioning a company adopts would depend upon a lot of factors, com petitive or otherwise.In the case of Zara, operations are very swift and fast, both in terms of serving customers and also replenishing stocks, catering to the needs of the customers. Since their stock turns are good, they are able to position themselves well to meet the varied needs of their clientele."At Zara, design is conceived as a process that is closely linked to the public. Information from our stores is constantly transmitted to a design team made up of over 200 professionals, informing them of our customers' needs and concerns." (Zara). Highest standards of excellence and elegance: However, in the case of Burberry Ltd., it is seen that it operates in the luxury segment. Burberry was established in 1856, and has had a chequered history of market vicissitudes due to fall in currencies in principle Asian markets, and market fluctuations. However, the Company has overcome all these obstacles and is now very much poised for bigger growth plans. "An icon of classic clothing, Burberry has utilized licensing and brand extensions to appeal to a younger generation of fashion-conscious customers." (Company History). It can be observed that the marketing approaches and positioning adopted by these two companies, Zara and Burberry are different. According to Zara, "The customer is the centre of our particular business model which integrates design, manufacture, distribution and sales through a wide network consisting of our own stores." (The Company). According to Burberry, "No other brand within the luxury sector enjoys a comparable platform: approach to the consumer, product breadth and global reach. Day after day, year after year, management seeks to capitalise on the opportunities inherent in this positioning." (Strategy and Mission. 1856). Inventory controls: While Zara targets the middle income segment customers with volume of sales as more important, Burberry targets exclusive luxury segments who value highest quality and servicing standards. As a result, the annual number of stock turn of Zara is higher at around 9 times when compared to Burberry at 3 times. These stock turns are important since it is directed connected with inventory controls and movement of stocks. A lower stock turn may indicate slower

Astra Planeta Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Astra Planeta - Assignment Example Twinkle 5 is a suitable name for this company because the first thing that comes to the mind of most Europeans and Americans when they hear the word â€Å"Twinkle† is â€Å"star†. Since the name has to be connected to â€Å"Five Stars†, â€Å"Twinkle 5† is a name that shares the theme as well as number. Twinkle 5 is also suitable because it will be the first bicycle and e-scooter company in Europe and America that will be called Twinkle 5, so the name lends the company a unique identity. A very important aspect of Twinkle 5 is that it carries the themes of tidiness, neatness, cleanliness, and perfection. Sparkle is the word used for shining and twinkling. It is commonly used in the toothpaste ads. Sparkle shares the theme of shining and twinkling with the â€Å"Five Stars.† Sparkle is a very simple yet sophisticated name that never goes out of trend. Besides, there is no bicycle and e-scooter company named Sparkle in Europe or America. To hear the name Sparkle, a bicycle or e-scooter is not the first thing that comes to mind; but then all this company is about is innovation, creativity, and drama. Even if not technically, the name does lend a feeling of cleanliness and tidiness that is the embodiment of this work. The name Tri-Prism is the short form of Triangular Prism. â€Å"Tri-Prism† is a suitable name for this company because a triangular prism has five faces through which light passes and refracts or reflects. This has quite a lot in common with â€Å"Five Stars† both in terms of number and in terms of function. Stars also serve as a source of light. Tri-Prism is a fancy name unheard of in the bicycle and e-scooter industry as the name of a shop before in Europe or America. It is easy to pronounce and yet, its uniqueness leaves a trace on the mind of the listener. â€Å"Shine at Prime† is a very different name and has a theme to share with â€Å"Five Stars.† Prime is also connected to the word â€Å"primary† which in academic terms is translated as â€Å"five†. Shining is a function of stars. So joined together, shine at prime not only relates to â€Å"Five Stars† but also generates a beautiful message to the customers.

Bureaucratic and Normative Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Bureaucratic and Normative Control - Essay Example Actually hierarchy in general (in the sense of levels of authority) is to be found in any administration which has a certain degree of magnitude and complexity. The feudal type of administration had a complicated hierarchical system. (Davis, 1994, p73) 'There is hierarchy of a social rank corresponding to the hierarchy of fiefs through the process of sub-infatuation...' 6 But the difference between the two kinds of hierarchies, according to Weber, is to be found in the type of authority relations. In the feudal case the relationship between inferior and superior is personal and the legitimating of authority is based on a belief in the sacredness of tradition. In a bureaucracy, authority is legitimised by a belief in the correctness of the rules and the loyalty of the bureaucrat is oriented to an impersonal order, to a superior position, not to the person who holds it. So what makes an administration more or less bureaucratic from the hierarchical point of view is not the number of le vels of authority, or the size of the span of control; the decisive criterion is whether or not the authority relations have a precise and impersonal character, as a result of the elaboration of rational rules. Concerning first the criterion of meaningful adequacy, it does not necessarily make sense to someone that a type of organisation having the Weberian characteristics to an extreme degree should yield maximum efficiency. One could equally well imagine such an organisation as being extremely inefficient. For example, some of these characteristics, even from a common sense point of view, seem to promote administrative inefficiency rather than efficiency (e.g. promotion by seniority). As to the criterion of objective possibility, in the light of the empirical research done since Weber, one can argue that a perfectly rational-efficient organisation having Weber's ideal characteristics is not objectively possible, in the sense that it runs against the known laws of nature -- in this case, against recent empirical findings. Such findings rather indicate that the more accentuated some characteristics of the ideal type are, the more inefficient the organisation becomes. In one sense, a great part of the literature on bureaucracy since Weber

Principle of marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Principle of marketing - Essay Example After its merger with Alliance Unichem in July 2006 the company seeks to become the world's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group. The alliance aspires to develop its core businesses of retail pharmacy and wholesale across the world and become a significant player in many major international markets. With more than 1500 retail outlets of Boots alone the Alliance Boots has now more than 3000 retail outlets, besides a good presence on the net. The combined skills, strengths and brands of Alliance Boots makes it Europe's leading pharmacy-led health and beauty group. This is a Market-leader in own brand products. Superdrug, on the other hand is UK's fashion conscious beauty and health retailer. Today it is the second-largest beauty and health retailer with over 740 stores in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. Superdrug currently has 226 in-store pharmacies. During the last two year the company has made good investment in establishing itself as a brand in UK. Superdrug recently took up a 10 month campaign for reducing the VAT on condoms and came out successfully when the UK government reduced the VAT from 17.5% to 5%. Now the company has taken up the issue of slashing the VAT on kids' sun care products and for reclassifying the sun-care cream as an essential health care product instead of a luxury beauty item.

Ethics and Performance Measures Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Ethics and Performance Measures - Research Paper Example It is imperative to measure the extent to which ethics are applied, so that the company becomes resourceful to employees and the community at large. By doing so, it win the trust of consumers, as well as gaining more profits for the organization. When a company manages to have a greater profit margin, it has a better opportunity to expand and offer more opportunities for employees. The vices that are taken for granted in the company are the ones that draw back the efforts in the organization (Shell, 2009). Unethical Behavior As A Result of Wrong Performance Measures There are many things which lead to the unethical behaviors in an organization. There is a need for constant checking of the manner in which employees conduct themselves because, if they are left on their own, they end up making mistakes due to peer influence or greed. In Sparkling Automotive Company, the presidents need to ensure that there is the measurement of ethics and behaviors of the employees because failure to ch eck on the behaviors can ruin a business that has been operational since 1930. The fact that there are no unethical behaviors exhibited by the employees does not mean that the employees are trustworthy (Arveson, 2002). Most of the employees harbor bad intentions or they get influenced by corrupt distributors or suppliers who access commodity from the company in wholesale. They may offers bribes to the respective employees for some under movements which will cause the company a lot of money. This ends up making the company undergo loss because the workers will out any money to be paid. Competitors use the gullible employees to carry out destructive missions, such as pirating the procedures used in manufacturing of the plugs; they result in production of counterfeit products which affect the results in the markets. Many workers who do not keep the secrets of the company line of production cause a dent to the company because they create unnecessary fracture to the production niche. Whe n counterfeit products are in surplus in the market, it takes the market a hard time to realize, hence, it affects the turnover of the company (Arveson, 2002). Corrupt means of cost cutting in the company where the heads of the organization acquire bribe to give tenders affect the image of the company. All this needs to be checked because neglecting such issues only worsens the situation in the organization of Sparkling Automotive Company (SAC) (Shell, 2009). When performance measures are tied to compensations, it creates a workforce that is driven by the need to create more resources for the company. This propagates the encouragement of unethical behaviors due to compromised honesty. In Sparkling Automotive Company, performance measures fall into four categories, which are customer perspective, financial perspective, internal process perspective, and learning and growth perspective. All these categories need to be acted upon for the company to flourish in its manufacturing and sale s of plugs in Sparkling Automotive Company. When all levels of employees in the company are not involved in the company activities pertaining production and selling of the plugs, there would be a lot of frauds that can choke the running of the organization. Delivering the plugs can counter a lot of hiccups which slow the

Associations such as the ACM and the Australian Computer Society have Essay

Associations such as the ACM and the Australian Computer Society have developed code of ethics for computing professionals - Essay Example Organisations such as Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) and Australian Computer Society (ACS) are strong advocates of ethical practices by IT personnel and have laid out sets of recommendations. This essay will look at some of their codes and how they can have practical use in reducing clearly identified threats to computer systems. At the outset, it is important to remember that almost any sort of business enterprise today will have a dedicated IT department. Hence the code of ethics laid down by ACM and ACS are applicable to IT personnel of such departments, irrespective of the business domain of the particular organisation. Some of the frequently occuring information security breaches are common for almost all businesses that are enabled by Information Technology. Broadly speaking, the term system security threats refers to â€Å"the acts or incidents that can and will affect the integrity of business systems, which in turn will affect the reliability and privacy of business data†. (Lin, 2006). Irrespective of the size of the organisation, the threat is persistent, and hence measures have to be undertaken to curb security breaches and ensure business continuity. Beyond the commonly identified security threats such as Viruses, Spyware, Adware, etc, a major source of information leakage and misappropriation occurs due to the abuse/misuse of computer network by employees themselves. (Lin, 2006). Since IT personnel have privileged access to vital business information, it is often very tempting for them to misuse this privilege and undermine the prospects for their employers. Employees are also prone to using Internet connectivity for their personal use when in fact they were strictly meant for official use. For example while email and general Internet access are given to improve productivity, surveys have shown that employees (including IT personnel) use them for such activities as online-shopping, playing games, social

A Gllance At Information And Communication Technology Essay Example for Free

A Gllance At Information And Communication Technology Essay Information and communication technology (ICT) has become an important tool in all aspects of life. With the development of technology, the introduction of ICT as a tool has essentially brought tremendous revolution to the practices and procedures of nearly all forms of endeavor within business and governance during the past decades. Consequently, the importance of ICT project management cannot be overemphasized since it is the catalyst for successfully carrying out the ICT project. A critical research on the factors influencing the performance of ICT has been conducted as well as the introduction of different evaluation models or frameworks, which are used determine if an ICT project is successfully implemented. The last but not the least, a conclusion and a recommendation are given to prove that the potential values and benefits will be brought by elaborately analyzing those related factors before implementation and regularly evaluation on the ICT project. Table of content Introduction Recently, the role of Information and communication technology (ICT) has become more and more important in any forms of organizations and businesses. According to Daniels (2002) ICT has evolved to be one of the basic tool but pervasive among the public within such a short time. Besides, understanding the operational mechanism of ICT and mastering the fundamental skills and concepts of ICT are regarded as the basic knowledge that people now should equip with. However, it seems that many people have the wrong perceptions of what ICTs are; it’s commonly that ICTs generally be referred to ‘computers and computing related activities’ before the definition of ICT officially clarified by a United Nations report (1999). Also, according to UNESCO ICT could be understood in the way that which is the combination of ‘Informatics technology’ with other related technology, such as communication technology in particular. In other words, ICT is a more extended than information technology (IT), ICT not only emphasizes the technology itself, but also highlights the unified communications and the integration of telecommunications, computers; furthermore, by using these products such as the enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, users will be able to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information. Now, we can find the radio broadcasts, audio conferencing, teleconferencing, email, interactive voice response system, audiocassettes and CD ROMs etc., are vari ous kinds of ICT products available, and those ICT products have been used for different purposes in our daily life, work environment, or common business practices. There are more and more people become aware of the benefits and efficiency brought by the ICT. With that in mind, people are starting paying more attentions on the ICT management issues, such as how to better manage ICT projects, what are those key factors determining the performance of ICT project, or how to adequately evaluate the performance of ICT project. Discussion Just as the other project management is, there are various success/failure factors related to the ICT project management. Here we discuss the roles of attitudes and the alignment between ICT and business, which are regarded as two of the most important key factors in ICT project management. A corresponding literature review is also preformed in order to better understand the background. The Roles of Attitudes Based on recent researches on the acceptance and use of ICT project, and related ICT design and development, ICT only brings values to the organization if it is accepted, applied and widely applied by those targeted users. From one of the research (Zhang, P. 2007), the author mentioned two different theories, which the inconformity between these two theories lays in the concepts behind and effects behavioral intention. The theories mentioned are Attitude toward ICT as an object (ATO) and Attitude toward using ICT as a behavior (ATB). By definition, ATO is â€Å"a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor† (Eagly et al. 1998) or, as a combination of evaluative judgments about an object (Crites et al. 1994), while ATB is defined as â€Å"an individual’s positive or negative feelings (evaluative affect) about performing the target behavior.† (Fishbein et al. 1975) And the conceptual confusions whether attitudes play important role in the context of ICT project acceptance and use has been clarified, and there is an interesting evidence showing that the roles of attitudes can change as the users’ use of the ICT increases. The Alignment between business and ICT The literature related to the information and communication technology (ICT) demonstrated that alignment between ICT and business will influence the business performance and effectiveness of the organization in a positive way. (Cumps, B., Viaene, S., Dedene, G., Vandenbulcke, J 2006) Furthermore, the alignment of business and ICT of an organization is one of the fundamental sustainable factors, which can also be an advantage for an organization. In that case, the organizations should consider establishing specific ICT management routines in order to obtain better alignment performance scores. Since the role of ICT cannot be underestimated, more and more people want to know whether the ICT really brings values, whether the ICT substantially improved the efficiency, or whether the ICT works as expected. Based on the research, there are several more comprehensive ICT management capability maturity framework developed, such as the ICT management capability maturity framework and ICT Per formance Reference Model. The differences between these two frameworks or models are the focus and the content. ICT management capability maturity framework The framework is a ‘spider diagram’, which includes seven indicators: ICT Applications, Business-ICT relationship, ICT strategy alignment, ICT user profile, ICT managerial paradigm, ICT governance and ICT organization. Before applying the ICT management capability maturity framework, the users should firstly define the critical processes of their ICT management for each indicator. For each indicator, there are specific process-orientated evaluation standards, and the users should make judgments for each standard to see whether it fits to the organization’s characters, needs, and specific industry. For each applied standard, there are different dimensionalities to assess the maturity of capability. The key function of this framework is to be used as an evaluating tool and a improvement roadmaps that can point out directions for the senior management on ICT and business management in strategies planning in order to sustainably improve, develop, and manage the ICT capability in support of optimized business value delivery. From this capability maturity framework, we can clearly see the ICT management capability maturity of an organization as well as its improvement footprint. At the same time, with the use of such framework, the organization can be evaluated on its overall ICT management capability, the comparison analysis between different organizations can be conducted, and even the industrial benchmark can als o be made to see the ranking of the organization in the certain industry. ICT Performance Reference Model ICT Performance Reference Model is a model using the reference model principles in the area of ICT management. For better understanding of the meaning of reference model, here the definition of the reference model that â€Å"Reference model contains relevant structures and relationships among the model elements (process structures, levels, document structures) and also the predefined knowledge (best practice examples) already included in these structures.† is used. ICT Performance Reference Model combines the strengths of mathematical and data modeling techniques for its structure and knowledge management principles for its content; namely, it represents the best practices and knowledge in the formalized model structure, and therefore allows easier knowledge replication. The framework of ICT Performance Reference Model includes ICT Management Process, ICT Performance management Methodologies, ICT Performance Measurement Processes, ICT Performance Measures and ICT Performance m anagement Tools and Applications. The performance of ICT project is then be evaluated through these dimensions. With the implication of ICT Performance Reference Model, it would be easier to address ICT management related issues including application functionality overlap, technology and knowledge heterogeneity, and constantly changing business pressures. Conclusion From the discussion part, we can see that there are different success/failure factors relate to the Information and Communication Technology project management. Each factor cannot be left out from consideration whenever applying an ICT project, namely, the importance of each factor cannot be overestimated, or there would possibly result in an unpleasant outcome. On the other hand, it is also necessary to have the ICT project to be reviewed, or assessed the related management capability maturity periodically. With the regular evaluation, the organization will have better understanding about the current state of the implementation of ICT project, the acceptance level of related personnel, the operation results compared to expected results, and the continuing alignment with organization’s strategies. Recommendations As we all know that the management of ICT in the enterprise has been increasing in importance and nowadays it is one of the critical success factors of any type of business. In order to ensure sustainable growing of an organization, the use of ICT cannot be avoidable. After the careful research, I recommend the organization should look into every success/failure factors corresponding with the ICT project before implementation, which will largely reduce the risk of carrying out a project and ending in nothing. At the same time, with careful elaboration on each success/failure factors, the organization will have better understanding of its status quo, its strengths and weakness, which can be a great headstone for the design and implementation of the ICT project. In addition to the prior-art research, the ongoing assessment is also important for an ICT project management. In that case, the organization should choose adequate evaluation model or framework with some customized changes in order to fit into the needs of the organization. By doing the regular inspection, the organization can notice the wrong behavior in time and make certain modifications accordingly. Without such safeguard monitor mechanism, it may be too late when the organization realizes the mistakes happening. References Becker, J., Knackstedt, R., Pà ¶ppelbuß, D. W. I. J. (2009). Developing maturity models for IT management. Business Information Systems Engineering, 1(3), 213-222. Cumps, B., Viaene, S., Dedene, G., Vandenbulcke, J. (2006, January). An empirical study on business/ICT alignment in European organisations. InSystem Sciences, 2006. HICSS06. Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on (Vol. 8, pp. 195a-195a). IEEE. Donnellan, B., Sheridan, C., Curry, E. (2011). A capability maturity framework for sustainable information and communication technology. IT professional, 13(1), 33-40. Novotnà ½, O. (2009). ICT performance reference model in the context of corporate performance management systems. IDIMT-2009 System and Humans–A complex Relationship. Linz: Trauner Verlag Universitat, 13-16. Silvius, A. G. (2009, April). Business and IT Alignment: What We Know and What We Dont Know. In Information Management and Engineering, 2009. ICIME09. International Conference on (pp. 558-563). IEEE. Zhang, P., Aikman, S. (2007). Attitudes in ICT acceptance and use. In Human-Computer Interaction. Interaction Design and Usability (pp. 1021-1030). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Impact of Work Life Balance on Performance

Impact of Work Life Balance on Performance CHAPTER ONE Its all about quality of life and finding a happy balance between work and friends and family Philip Green, British billionaire businessman 1. INTRODUCTION: In cultured and well developed societies including both eastern and western countries the conflicts of work and life balance has been the main issue in the modern and globalised economy. Apparently, the need to maintain flexible work-life balance has become essential as the number of female workers and part time workers have gained more part in the growing globalised multinational organisations (Shelton, 2006). These conflicts are traditionally from societal norms which still requires a man to concentrate on careers rather than on family issues, and it works vice versa with the female members of the society who are supposed to take care of the family more rather than working towards their career options (Walker et al., 2008). The work-life pressures and conflict between personal and professional roles has become the primary area for researches to find the impact of organisational performance due to the imbalanced work-life culture and especially the source of disadvantages women faces in the corporate society. It can be justified as the focus was more on low payment, part-time work culture and absence at the top levels of business (Doherty, 2004). Some more researches of Human Resource and their roles argued that the work-life issue affects the living standards of their employees (Hammer et al., 2004; Shelton, 2006). It was also proved by Shelton (2006), that the working pattern affects the work-life culture and strategies to maintain a balanced structure and the organisational performance. In United Kingdom a variety of work-life balance rules and policies has been implemented by the Labour government since their three successive rules since 1997 (Lewis and Campbell, 2007). 1.1 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTION: The main purpose of this research work is to analyse the impact of work-life balance on the organisational performance, especially the retail sector (TESCO), which is operating at a huge scale in United Kingdom and Europe and moving internationally. The main area of this research concentrates on the shop floor workers who work in direct relation with their customers who are the main sources of income for the organisation. This study can be used by the Store Managers and Operational Managers of TESCO to develop and implement various needs and wants of their employees especially the shop floor workers in order to improve the organisational performance. The following questions are considered to be the main areas of my research: How the imbalanced work-life culture affects the organisational performance in the retail industry (TESCO), whose main customers is the general public. This question leads to some sub-questions which need to be analysed in order to attain the answer for the main area of study, specifically: How organisations handle work-life conflicts? Is there any influence on the work-life balance strategies on Human Resource and other management practices? What are the main strategies to maintain a balanced work-life culture? What are the main factors of motivation? Is there any relationship between work-life balance and organisational performance? My research is organised in a flow to understand the needs and wants of an employees who works in direct contacts with customers. In my first chapter the major definitions to terms, role of balanced work-life culture, and its importance in relation with Human Resource Management is discussed before moving to the literature part of my research work. In the next chapter the previous studies relating to my research work has been critically analysed to support my research work and moving down to methodology chapter to state how the data collection work was carried out to support my research. This chapter depicts the ways used to collect data and how it was interpreted. The last chapter of my research work is the crucial one and it analysis all the data and gives empirical results of my research study supported by recommendations and conclusion to my work. 1.2 BACKGROUND: In the developed countries, the work-life balance conflict has gained its prominence as the globalised world tends to increase the level of competition among the rival firms in the same sector. Hence, it is considered that Human Resource Management department has a role to play in maintaining a balanced work-life culture in order to motivate the employees to work committed for the organisational growth. The retail market in the United Kingdom is expected to plunge by 15% by 2011 valuing over  £312bn (Datamonitor, UK Retail Futures 2011), showing the slowdown in the annual growth and the increase in the operating cost which acts as the hindrance to utilise the limited available capital. The world economic crisis and changes in the spending perspective of the general public has changed the way the retail industry was operating. Thus, Human Resource is considered as the vital department to tackle this operational changes by finding right people for the right job and ensure they work c ommitted for the organisational growth. Thus overall view of the retail industry has been a tough challenge for the HRM to provide high standards of training and development programmes to their employees. But at the same time it is necessary to understand the needs and requirements of the employees at the operational level who directly work with the end customers in order to provide quality services. TESCO, a leading supermarket retailer in the food and non-food sector operating in United Kingdom and in 13 other countries around the world have more than 500,000 employees and moving rapidly with new and potential markets. This shows the importance of Human Resource Management to maintain a balanced work-life culture which will boost organisational growth. There are various motivational factors that gives job satisfaction and helps to maintain a balanced life, which has to be identified in order to concentrate on that to provide quality training and development needs. 1.3 CONCLUSION: This research work concentrates on finding the motivational factors and the level of awareness among the Customer Assistants who work in the shop floor of TESCOs to improve the training and development programmes. The current economic situation has spared the corporate with limited sources and hence it is not wise to spend lot of money on unnecessary and unwanted programmes. The researcher has used the time and resources to collect and discuss some related topics in the literature review chapter before choosing his research methods. After the discussion about the importance of the objectives in the literature review the researcher moves to methodology chapter to know about the available methods and techniques to collect and analyse the data. At last the analysed data is used to interpret and conclude the argument to find out some recommendations for the organisation. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW: A days work is a days work, neither more nor less, and the man who does it needs a days sustenance, a nights repose and due leisure, whether he be painter or ploughman George Bernard Shaw 2.1 INTRODUCTION: The role of Human Resource Management has increased lately, as the globe has become too small and the brands have moved internationally. This revolution in the global trade has increased the nature of job to be more time bound and customer oriented leaving the employees lot of stress to maintain a balanced work-life culture. Hence, it has become the primary role of Human Resource Department to train and develop their employees to maintain a balanced work-life culture. This chapter finds the literature research works that have been carried out in the past to support the research questions and aims and objectives of the research work. 2.2 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: The Human Resource Management (HRM) is undergoing significant change in designing management systems to utilise the skilled human talents efficiently and effectively to attain the increased levels of organisational goals. All types of organisations, including from small to big, have to recruit, select, train and manage effectively to attain their individual and corporate goals. Hence, Human Resource is essential to fulfil the requirements of both side employees and employers. On the other hand HR has to abide by the legal systems that has been passed out by the government of the nation, and especially in case of international or multinational business firms. Therefore Human Resource Management is considered to be a vital management department whose prime responsible not only stick to recruitment and placing the employees under job, but extends from job satisfaction and retention till retirement, as they are the main capital of every organisation (Mathis and Jackson, 2007). The introduction of part time work culture in United Kingdom has been the cause for the improvement of HRM activities as the multicultural society faces lot of legal and other issues from social backgrounds. Especially the retail giants like TESCO, Sainsbury, Primark, and Marks Spencer are investing lot of their time and money to frame some strategic systems to maintain a balanced work culture which has its direct impact on the organisational performance (Maxwell et al., 2008). On the contrary some people take their employment as their career opportunity to grow within an organisational sector and works dedicated balancing both lives. In such cases the Human Resource Management has to support their employees through training and development programmes to motivate them to go forward with their balanced work life. 2.3 RETAIL INDUSTRY: The growing technology and internationalisation has been a challenge to most industries including the retail industry which operates all over the west and in direct relationship with their customers. This is one of the major industries which have close contact with the customers daily on face to face basis. Hence, this industry requires the employees to be have well balanced work-life culture to deal smoothly with their customers. Retail internationalisation has gained overwhelming focus during the recent years, as the concept of globalisation has attained maturity. This concept has given the well-established retailers like TESCO, Sainsbury, Wall-Mart, etc., to move into international markets with their strong domestic success. The new concepts in the Human Resource Management and the development in the globalisation has given lots of challenges to maintain employees at peace across culture and across global and international laws (Burt et al., 2005). Until late 1990s products were c entral to some organisations, including both intangible and tangible assets. Traditionally manufactures were concerned about the designing and production of goods, whilst retailers were engaged in gathering the products for directly selling to the customers. Moving forward with the economic and cultural changes, the way the retailers work have been changed from just retailing the products and services to manufacture, market, and sell their goods and services and make it available to customers at all convenient levels. Thus the retail market has widened its business from selling to overall business opportunities. The retail industry has split further into various sectors and includes various types of products and contributing a major chunk to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of United Kingdom, both in the production output and employment rate (Varley, 2001). This evolution of retail business in the west especially in the Europe and United States has given lot of opportunities to the retail business to set up lots of projects under pipeline. This developed the construction and food industry in the United Kingdom and in most European countries. The development in the retail industry has widened the opportunities for the international studen ts and the locals studying in United Kingdom. The retail industry in-spite of recession is doing good and pushing the economy from recession to recovery. During 2007, retail industry has produced the highest return in the property business. The retail business has increased the existence of shopping centres accommodating lots of restaurants, entertainment and other complexes which attracts a huge customer base (Dijkman, 2008). The 2007-2008 economic crisis had shaken the entire industry from its development. Though the economic hit was hard, the retail industry jumped out from the storm to lead the economy towards recovery. The growth of high street business was slowed down during March 2009 and thereon, whereas more than 13% of retailers showed stronger sales during this period when compared to the same period a year ago in 2007. This proved the consumer spending is more in the retail industry and its plays an important challenge to the Human Resource Management to rightly take up this opportunity to develop their business. Hence Human Resource works out to fix employee satisfaction and employees benefit to increase their operational output (Wade, 2010). 2.4 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE: Human Resource department has become the back bone of every organisation, and it is vital for the employees to know how it operates. In others view it is urged that Human Resource is an evil, a bureaucratic force enforcing unnecessary rules and regulations, restricting innovation and hinders the required changes. The Human Resource department is responsible in finding the suitable hires for the right job at the right time, which is considered as one of the main reason for increasing job stress and unsatisfactory level of performance (Mathis and Jackson, 2007). Any strategic activity by HRM is done once it has identified and analysed thoroughly the surroundings or environment where it operates. Hence, organisational culture plays a vital role in maintaining work life balance among its employees (Torrington et al., 2005). Human Resource Management (HRM) is considered as the basis of all management and not as the basis for business activity. The old organisational culture of depending on product or services offered by them to increase the organisational performance does not hold well in modern developed economy. The employees or workers of the company are considered as the major asset to increase the organisational performance and brand image in the market. Managing these resources has to be done constantly by balancing the organisational needs and employees needs that work together to attain the corporate objectives. The changes in the workforce and expectations among the employees and companies HR managers have to work innovatively to convert their organisational background or culture a more friendly and efficient. Especially the employees working in the retail market is considered as the important market in the United Kingdom and are forms the major workforce (Boone, L., and Kurtz, D., 2008). 2.5 E-HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: The modern technological world has witnessed changes in the policies and practices that have been followed in old organisational culture. It is very important for all brick-and-mortar organisations to adopt changes out from the introduction of electronic and web based practices, as the newly introduced web based practices changed the business-to-business practices, the activities of a marketplace, changes in the supply chain, and acts as a catalyst for business. These changes provide HR management with lots of challenges to maintain value in the system to attract the employees and make them satisfied with their work culture in order to maintain a balanced work-life culture to improve the organisational performance. The dot com business has changed the way the business was carried out and it has given a challenging work culture to the employees in all major sectors including the retail market. This revolutionary age has been the reason for Enron to file bankruptcy, and internet age is growing together with the business and globalisation and not going down. The growth in the B2B business and B2C business has enhanced the usage of eHRM within and outside the organisation. This has been a challenge to maintain work-life balance as this web based technology has introduced work from home culture, any time availability for work, etc., which disturbs the personal life at every moment (Torres-Coronas and Arias-Oliva, 2005). 2.6 WORK LIFE BALANCE: Work-life balance is usually viewed as the lack of work-life conflict or mostly the strength in which where work life interferes with family life or vice versa (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). Work-life balance relates to the absence of conflict in their personal and professional life (Clark, 2000) as satisfaction and committed and dedicated work without any role conflicts (Guest, 20002). Shaw (2003) has stated that work-life balance extents to individuals who are engaged equally and fully satisfied in both places. It is also considered as a global assessment that work resources meet family demands, and family resources meet work demands such that participation is effective in both domains (Voydanoff, 2005; Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). Work and leisure is no longer related to any certain kind of jobs or market, and it has become an international requirement for every organisation to compete with their rivals and maintain a satisfied employees group (Lewis, 2003). In terms of United King doms department of Trade and Industry, Work-Life balance is defined as the about adjusting working patterns regardless of age, race or gender, [so] everyone can find a rhythm to help them combine work with their other responsibilities or aspirations (Maxwell, 2005). It is always considered that the work-life balance is very essential to maintain a health working conditions for the organisational benefit and for the benefit of its employees (Barnett, 1998; Edwards and Rothbard, 2000). Similarly, it had been proved by so many research works that the conditions of work life balance have its impact on the performance of the organisation (Kersley et al., 2005; Bureau of Labour, 2007). To maintain work and life a in a balanced scale, there are so many factors and so many persons to play in maintaining balance and harmony of their employees (Allen et al., 2006). Work life balance concerns on employees having a measure to control about where, when and how they work (Clutterbuck, 2003), and the new policies are initiated in strengthening the work life balance in United Kingdom and European Union (DTI, 2002; Lewis et al., 2003) and it has been argued that the employees should co-ordinate various aspects of professional and personal life to have a balanced life. After the introduction of globalisation in the economy, most organisations including the retail firms have started to move across cultures and across oceans to increase their presence and customer base. So, it has seen an intense increase in the working peoples working hours and their working life, which has both positive and negative impact on individuals professional and personal life (Lewis et al., 2003; Bryson et al., 2007; Bulger et al., 2007; Fereday, 2007). This term work-life balance has come out to replicate the concerns the working individuals face to manage their lives equally to improve the living conditions of the society and the performance of the organisation (Greenblatt, 2002; de Cieri et al., 2005; Pocock, 2005; Bryson et al., 2007, Fleetwood, 2007, McDonald et al., 2007). The retail industries have grown to support the community and it has converted the main stores to provide 24/7 services to the society (Pryjmachuk and Richards, 2007). Supple working conditions facilitate autonomy in work place and it improves work-life balance of the employees (Barriball et al., 2007; Dwyer et al., 2007). Many organisations tout work-life balance as a value, and always the workaholics are given more rewards and respect. But this concept holds no good any more as the introduction of globalisation and its cultural impact has turned the organisations to show more interest in maintaining work-life balance for its employees. The modern era has c reated more leaders to pay their attention towards work-life balance and they moralize the good value of upholding a balanced life inside and outside the organisation. It helps to improve more productivity while at work. Work and family issues are not the case during survival farmers and their families worked together to make a living. It has started once the family units made a male breadwinner for their house-wives. It was stated that during world war II, when most of the men in the west are out for war, the women population of more than70% were in the workforce, including pregnant women, which had been a hot topic of those times to maintain balance between their family commitments and to make a living (Shilling, 2009). It is very important to maintain a good balance especially when the employees have kids and old people to take care at home. In the views of Shelton (2006), work-life disagreement is the form of inter-role issue starting due to stress originating from one or more roles and responsibilities. The bonus, pay and other options are great but at the same time every job has got its roles and responsibilities that gives pressures and has direct and indirect effects on the personal and organisational life. This depends on the leadership and managerial skills of the manager who manages the team (Flaum, 2009). Especially women employees are considered more sentimental and dedicated towards their personal and professional life and have less free time as they are tied up with family and society. Shelton (2006) created a hypothetical framework on the constructs based on role conflicts and role involvement to positive plans the effective strategies to reduce work-life conflicts, through influencing roles. The work-life conflict reduces the well-being of the organisational culture and gradually affects the overall organis ational performance. 2.7 HISTORICAL OUTLOOK OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE: Since the introduction of globalisation and free trade, organisations started to move globally and freely with fewer restrictions on investments in the outside market and this has changed the roles and responsibilities of HRM. Originally the issue of work-life was considered as a problem between family and work (Lewis, 2003), and eventually it was argued that its not the issue between work and life, but between the organisational performance and employee satisfaction and dedication towards work. Furthermore the working timings of the employees were considered as one of the major issue to maintain a balanced work culture and they have introduced flexitime to challenge this issue. This issue broadened along men, women, families, and cultures of the organisations (Bird, 2006). Major research work considers individuals as a unit (Family or Team) and not as separate individual who works without any relationship with their sub-ordinates. Traditionally it is viewed as the absence of conflic t among work and family, or the level of intensity or frequency of work interfering family or vice versa (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). 2.8 GLOBAL AND DOMESTIC WORK-LIFE BALANCE MODELS: In many contexts it is considered whether the domestic models hold good in international podium, where the globalisation has changed the international business are carried out. In the global context the main issues to be examined is whether work interferes with life on certain outcomes. In United States it has been proved that the domestic work interferes more on personal life than in any other country, but in other global environments it is considered that personal life interfere with work. This depends on the responsibilities and roles the employees play within an organisation and their role in the family, hence considering both sides from life to work and work to life (Greenhaus, 1988; Dixbury and Higgins, 1991; Frone et al., 1997; Edwards and Rothbard, 2000; Shaffer et al., 2001). The United Kingdom is facing lots of political issues out from people living longer, the changes in the needs of men and women in the labour market in terms of private life and other ways of working. Lots of models have been framed to calculate the work life balance of both genders at various periods and requirements of life. Shelton (2006) created a notional structure supporting role involvement and conflict to envisage the importance of strategies to lower the impacts of conflicts on balanced work culture or manoeuvring roles. This conflict is positively correlated with both organisational performance and family commitments. It is always considered that soaring levels of conflicts are expected for the female employees who have huge targets. 2.8.1 SCIENTIFIC MODEL: Frederick Taylor (1911) proposed that every job possibly will be measured by the amount of work completed and it is always linked with the number of pieces finished or piece rate. This theory is based on the concept that harder the employees work the more rewarded they are. Taylor considered that monetary benefits serve as the motivational factor for the committed employees to work more efficiently and effectively. 2.8.2 TWO FACTORS MODEL: Frederick Herzbergs two factor model or motivation-hygiene theory states certain motivational factors that will have positive impact on the role of employees towards organisational development, like the good basic pay and clean work environment. It was considered that once these factors are in place it automatically keeps up the strengths of the employees to work dedicated for the organisations and stays with the organisations for a long time. 2.8.3 HIERARCHY OF NEEDS: The above two theories were criticised by another great management guru, Maslow, where he showed that people needs to have certain basic needs like safe and secure workplace, emotional fulfilment, self esteem, relationship etc., to be with the organisation with their full committed minds and souls. This concept has gained its attraction since globalisation as it turned up many organisations to go international and grow parallel with the increasing technology and changing market culture. 2.9 LONGITUDINAL EFFECTS OF GLOBALISATION ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE: Globalisation has changed the way the works are being carried out and it has changed the roles and responsibilities at each level of hierarchy, giving both positive and negative effects in their balanced life. This also includes the mental strength, changes in the physique, health effects, etc., which might be a reason out of its increased job pressure or imbalanced work-life. 2.10 IS ORGANISATIONAL INTERVENTION IMPROVES WORK-LIFE BALANCE? The world worst economic crisis has given fears in the minds of workers at all levels of management and the management has restricted and reduced the spending on the organisational development in terms of employee benefits and other allowances, by considering cost effectiveness and cost cutting programmes to effectively handle the risked finance to reduce the risk of being cut. The increased concern about the security, family preferences, the multinational organisations are trying to implement various strategies to effectively use their capital for the retention of its skilled and talented employees by providing balanced work-life. However, it is not the only remedy to be auctioned to gain a balanced work group (Harris and Brewster, 2003; Poelmans, 2005). In the perspective of employees, Work Life Balance is maintaining balance between the roles and responsibilities at home and at work. Work Life Balance is the principle that paid employment should be integrated with domestic life and community involvement in the interests of personal and social well-being (Heery and Noon, 2008). Work Life Balance is not only the time we spend working against non-working. It is about how employees use their time to relax, work and energies themselves and spends time with their family and kids (Morgenstern, 2008). It is considered that there exist a direct relationship between the work life balance of the employees and the organisational performance. Work Life Balance is considered as a strategic model to implement lots of Human Resource polices and rules in order to change the organisational atmosphere and organisational cultur e of how the hierarchy works, i.e., either in the vertical way or horizontal way, leading to satisfied employees and managed which in turn leads to organisational success and improved growth. Strategies of Work Life Balance in organisations includes roles and polices including flexible work arrangements, childcare, depends care and other personal and parental benefits (Blari-Hoy and Wharton, 2002; Hyman and Summers, 2004; De Cieri et al., 2005). It is considered that the widespread changes in work-life issues and changes in the workforce demography in developing and developed societies have increased issues of work-life balance (Fleetwood, 2007; Lewis et al., 2007). The increased pressure towards the multi skilled employees out from roles and responsibilities has changed the organisational environment and work culture (Campbell and Charlesworth, 2004). Emphasis on family is considered as more important and higher quality and any imbalance caused by work has a negative effect on both personal and professional life (Frone et al., 1992; Greenhaus et al., 2003; Singh, 2010). Every job is considered to have an element of fun and it gives satisfaction and pleasure instead of stress and pressure. This directly and indirectly leads to the increased organisational output and innovation for the long strategic roles. The term has been in the field of Human Resource over the last two decades and it is considered a vital one in the developed and improve technological world. Work-Life balance is one of the major things to maintain balanced and motivated employees whom even monetary benefits cannot afford to improve the organisational performance. At times salary will not be an attractive one to hold back the employees within the organisation as a committed employee, but the balanced work-life culture provided by the organisations will hold the employees with commitment till their retirement in the same organisation (Mehra, 2010). Human Resource plays a vital role in maintaining transparency to ensure that the office environment doesnt create pressure on their empl oyees and their nature of work. Work-Life balance has been very famous for the last two decades where technology started encroaching peoples time more and more. It is considered that the term itself inherent some problem which presupposes a separation among work and life. In United States most companies offer work-life balance programs to attain competitive advantage whereas in Europe and United Kingdom it is considered as a social responsibility but it is considered that both these terms are not different and the goals are intertwined wherein competitive advantage can be gained through recruiting skilled employees and retaining with socially responsible activities to enhance the reputation of the organisation. 2.11 IMPACT OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE ON EMPLOYEES: Every organizations sets their workplace to be more attractive than their rivals to gain the competitive advantage through satisfying the employees needs and wants by providing balanced work-life culture. Some organisations still believe on the importance of money for the employees as they consider only monetary benefits motivate the individuals to work committed. Some companies find increasing Impact of Work Life Balance on Performance Impact of Work Life Balance on Performance CHAPTER ONE Its all about quality of life and finding a happy balance between work and friends and family Philip Green, British billionaire businessman 1. INTRODUCTION: In cultured and well developed societies including both eastern and western countries the conflicts of work and life balance has been the main issue in the modern and globalised economy. Apparently, the need to maintain flexible work-life balance has become essential as the number of female workers and part time workers have gained more part in the growing globalised multinational organisations (Shelton, 2006). These conflicts are traditionally from societal norms which still requires a man to concentrate on careers rather than on family issues, and it works vice versa with the female members of the society who are supposed to take care of the family more rather than working towards their career options (Walker et al., 2008). The work-life pressures and conflict between personal and professional roles has become the primary area for researches to find the impact of organisational performance due to the imbalanced work-life culture and especially the source of disadvantages women faces in the corporate society. It can be justified as the focus was more on low payment, part-time work culture and absence at the top levels of business (Doherty, 2004). Some more researches of Human Resource and their roles argued that the work-life issue affects the living standards of their employees (Hammer et al., 2004; Shelton, 2006). It was also proved by Shelton (2006), that the working pattern affects the work-life culture and strategies to maintain a balanced structure and the organisational performance. In United Kingdom a variety of work-life balance rules and policies has been implemented by the Labour government since their three successive rules since 1997 (Lewis and Campbell, 2007). 1.1 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTION: The main purpose of this research work is to analyse the impact of work-life balance on the organisational performance, especially the retail sector (TESCO), which is operating at a huge scale in United Kingdom and Europe and moving internationally. The main area of this research concentrates on the shop floor workers who work in direct relation with their customers who are the main sources of income for the organisation. This study can be used by the Store Managers and Operational Managers of TESCO to develop and implement various needs and wants of their employees especially the shop floor workers in order to improve the organisational performance. The following questions are considered to be the main areas of my research: How the imbalanced work-life culture affects the organisational performance in the retail industry (TESCO), whose main customers is the general public. This question leads to some sub-questions which need to be analysed in order to attain the answer for the main area of study, specifically: How organisations handle work-life conflicts? Is there any influence on the work-life balance strategies on Human Resource and other management practices? What are the main strategies to maintain a balanced work-life culture? What are the main factors of motivation? Is there any relationship between work-life balance and organisational performance? My research is organised in a flow to understand the needs and wants of an employees who works in direct contacts with customers. In my first chapter the major definitions to terms, role of balanced work-life culture, and its importance in relation with Human Resource Management is discussed before moving to the literature part of my research work. In the next chapter the previous studies relating to my research work has been critically analysed to support my research work and moving down to methodology chapter to state how the data collection work was carried out to support my research. This chapter depicts the ways used to collect data and how it was interpreted. The last chapter of my research work is the crucial one and it analysis all the data and gives empirical results of my research study supported by recommendations and conclusion to my work. 1.2 BACKGROUND: In the developed countries, the work-life balance conflict has gained its prominence as the globalised world tends to increase the level of competition among the rival firms in the same sector. Hence, it is considered that Human Resource Management department has a role to play in maintaining a balanced work-life culture in order to motivate the employees to work committed for the organisational growth. The retail market in the United Kingdom is expected to plunge by 15% by 2011 valuing over  £312bn (Datamonitor, UK Retail Futures 2011), showing the slowdown in the annual growth and the increase in the operating cost which acts as the hindrance to utilise the limited available capital. The world economic crisis and changes in the spending perspective of the general public has changed the way the retail industry was operating. Thus, Human Resource is considered as the vital department to tackle this operational changes by finding right people for the right job and ensure they work c ommitted for the organisational growth. Thus overall view of the retail industry has been a tough challenge for the HRM to provide high standards of training and development programmes to their employees. But at the same time it is necessary to understand the needs and requirements of the employees at the operational level who directly work with the end customers in order to provide quality services. TESCO, a leading supermarket retailer in the food and non-food sector operating in United Kingdom and in 13 other countries around the world have more than 500,000 employees and moving rapidly with new and potential markets. This shows the importance of Human Resource Management to maintain a balanced work-life culture which will boost organisational growth. There are various motivational factors that gives job satisfaction and helps to maintain a balanced life, which has to be identified in order to concentrate on that to provide quality training and development needs. 1.3 CONCLUSION: This research work concentrates on finding the motivational factors and the level of awareness among the Customer Assistants who work in the shop floor of TESCOs to improve the training and development programmes. The current economic situation has spared the corporate with limited sources and hence it is not wise to spend lot of money on unnecessary and unwanted programmes. The researcher has used the time and resources to collect and discuss some related topics in the literature review chapter before choosing his research methods. After the discussion about the importance of the objectives in the literature review the researcher moves to methodology chapter to know about the available methods and techniques to collect and analyse the data. At last the analysed data is used to interpret and conclude the argument to find out some recommendations for the organisation. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW: A days work is a days work, neither more nor less, and the man who does it needs a days sustenance, a nights repose and due leisure, whether he be painter or ploughman George Bernard Shaw 2.1 INTRODUCTION: The role of Human Resource Management has increased lately, as the globe has become too small and the brands have moved internationally. This revolution in the global trade has increased the nature of job to be more time bound and customer oriented leaving the employees lot of stress to maintain a balanced work-life culture. Hence, it has become the primary role of Human Resource Department to train and develop their employees to maintain a balanced work-life culture. This chapter finds the literature research works that have been carried out in the past to support the research questions and aims and objectives of the research work. 2.2 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: The Human Resource Management (HRM) is undergoing significant change in designing management systems to utilise the skilled human talents efficiently and effectively to attain the increased levels of organisational goals. All types of organisations, including from small to big, have to recruit, select, train and manage effectively to attain their individual and corporate goals. Hence, Human Resource is essential to fulfil the requirements of both side employees and employers. On the other hand HR has to abide by the legal systems that has been passed out by the government of the nation, and especially in case of international or multinational business firms. Therefore Human Resource Management is considered to be a vital management department whose prime responsible not only stick to recruitment and placing the employees under job, but extends from job satisfaction and retention till retirement, as they are the main capital of every organisation (Mathis and Jackson, 2007). The introduction of part time work culture in United Kingdom has been the cause for the improvement of HRM activities as the multicultural society faces lot of legal and other issues from social backgrounds. Especially the retail giants like TESCO, Sainsbury, Primark, and Marks Spencer are investing lot of their time and money to frame some strategic systems to maintain a balanced work culture which has its direct impact on the organisational performance (Maxwell et al., 2008). On the contrary some people take their employment as their career opportunity to grow within an organisational sector and works dedicated balancing both lives. In such cases the Human Resource Management has to support their employees through training and development programmes to motivate them to go forward with their balanced work life. 2.3 RETAIL INDUSTRY: The growing technology and internationalisation has been a challenge to most industries including the retail industry which operates all over the west and in direct relationship with their customers. This is one of the major industries which have close contact with the customers daily on face to face basis. Hence, this industry requires the employees to be have well balanced work-life culture to deal smoothly with their customers. Retail internationalisation has gained overwhelming focus during the recent years, as the concept of globalisation has attained maturity. This concept has given the well-established retailers like TESCO, Sainsbury, Wall-Mart, etc., to move into international markets with their strong domestic success. The new concepts in the Human Resource Management and the development in the globalisation has given lots of challenges to maintain employees at peace across culture and across global and international laws (Burt et al., 2005). Until late 1990s products were c entral to some organisations, including both intangible and tangible assets. Traditionally manufactures were concerned about the designing and production of goods, whilst retailers were engaged in gathering the products for directly selling to the customers. Moving forward with the economic and cultural changes, the way the retailers work have been changed from just retailing the products and services to manufacture, market, and sell their goods and services and make it available to customers at all convenient levels. Thus the retail market has widened its business from selling to overall business opportunities. The retail industry has split further into various sectors and includes various types of products and contributing a major chunk to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of United Kingdom, both in the production output and employment rate (Varley, 2001). This evolution of retail business in the west especially in the Europe and United States has given lot of opportunities to the retail business to set up lots of projects under pipeline. This developed the construction and food industry in the United Kingdom and in most European countries. The development in the retail industry has widened the opportunities for the international studen ts and the locals studying in United Kingdom. The retail industry in-spite of recession is doing good and pushing the economy from recession to recovery. During 2007, retail industry has produced the highest return in the property business. The retail business has increased the existence of shopping centres accommodating lots of restaurants, entertainment and other complexes which attracts a huge customer base (Dijkman, 2008). The 2007-2008 economic crisis had shaken the entire industry from its development. Though the economic hit was hard, the retail industry jumped out from the storm to lead the economy towards recovery. The growth of high street business was slowed down during March 2009 and thereon, whereas more than 13% of retailers showed stronger sales during this period when compared to the same period a year ago in 2007. This proved the consumer spending is more in the retail industry and its plays an important challenge to the Human Resource Management to rightly take up this opportunity to develop their business. Hence Human Resource works out to fix employee satisfaction and employees benefit to increase their operational output (Wade, 2010). 2.4 ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE: Human Resource department has become the back bone of every organisation, and it is vital for the employees to know how it operates. In others view it is urged that Human Resource is an evil, a bureaucratic force enforcing unnecessary rules and regulations, restricting innovation and hinders the required changes. The Human Resource department is responsible in finding the suitable hires for the right job at the right time, which is considered as one of the main reason for increasing job stress and unsatisfactory level of performance (Mathis and Jackson, 2007). Any strategic activity by HRM is done once it has identified and analysed thoroughly the surroundings or environment where it operates. Hence, organisational culture plays a vital role in maintaining work life balance among its employees (Torrington et al., 2005). Human Resource Management (HRM) is considered as the basis of all management and not as the basis for business activity. The old organisational culture of depending on product or services offered by them to increase the organisational performance does not hold well in modern developed economy. The employees or workers of the company are considered as the major asset to increase the organisational performance and brand image in the market. Managing these resources has to be done constantly by balancing the organisational needs and employees needs that work together to attain the corporate objectives. The changes in the workforce and expectations among the employees and companies HR managers have to work innovatively to convert their organisational background or culture a more friendly and efficient. Especially the employees working in the retail market is considered as the important market in the United Kingdom and are forms the major workforce (Boone, L., and Kurtz, D., 2008). 2.5 E-HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: The modern technological world has witnessed changes in the policies and practices that have been followed in old organisational culture. It is very important for all brick-and-mortar organisations to adopt changes out from the introduction of electronic and web based practices, as the newly introduced web based practices changed the business-to-business practices, the activities of a marketplace, changes in the supply chain, and acts as a catalyst for business. These changes provide HR management with lots of challenges to maintain value in the system to attract the employees and make them satisfied with their work culture in order to maintain a balanced work-life culture to improve the organisational performance. The dot com business has changed the way the business was carried out and it has given a challenging work culture to the employees in all major sectors including the retail market. This revolutionary age has been the reason for Enron to file bankruptcy, and internet age is growing together with the business and globalisation and not going down. The growth in the B2B business and B2C business has enhanced the usage of eHRM within and outside the organisation. This has been a challenge to maintain work-life balance as this web based technology has introduced work from home culture, any time availability for work, etc., which disturbs the personal life at every moment (Torres-Coronas and Arias-Oliva, 2005). 2.6 WORK LIFE BALANCE: Work-life balance is usually viewed as the lack of work-life conflict or mostly the strength in which where work life interferes with family life or vice versa (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). Work-life balance relates to the absence of conflict in their personal and professional life (Clark, 2000) as satisfaction and committed and dedicated work without any role conflicts (Guest, 20002). Shaw (2003) has stated that work-life balance extents to individuals who are engaged equally and fully satisfied in both places. It is also considered as a global assessment that work resources meet family demands, and family resources meet work demands such that participation is effective in both domains (Voydanoff, 2005; Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). Work and leisure is no longer related to any certain kind of jobs or market, and it has become an international requirement for every organisation to compete with their rivals and maintain a satisfied employees group (Lewis, 2003). In terms of United King doms department of Trade and Industry, Work-Life balance is defined as the about adjusting working patterns regardless of age, race or gender, [so] everyone can find a rhythm to help them combine work with their other responsibilities or aspirations (Maxwell, 2005). It is always considered that the work-life balance is very essential to maintain a health working conditions for the organisational benefit and for the benefit of its employees (Barnett, 1998; Edwards and Rothbard, 2000). Similarly, it had been proved by so many research works that the conditions of work life balance have its impact on the performance of the organisation (Kersley et al., 2005; Bureau of Labour, 2007). To maintain work and life a in a balanced scale, there are so many factors and so many persons to play in maintaining balance and harmony of their employees (Allen et al., 2006). Work life balance concerns on employees having a measure to control about where, when and how they work (Clutterbuck, 2003), and the new policies are initiated in strengthening the work life balance in United Kingdom and European Union (DTI, 2002; Lewis et al., 2003) and it has been argued that the employees should co-ordinate various aspects of professional and personal life to have a balanced life. After the introduction of globalisation in the economy, most organisations including the retail firms have started to move across cultures and across oceans to increase their presence and customer base. So, it has seen an intense increase in the working peoples working hours and their working life, which has both positive and negative impact on individuals professional and personal life (Lewis et al., 2003; Bryson et al., 2007; Bulger et al., 2007; Fereday, 2007). This term work-life balance has come out to replicate the concerns the working individuals face to manage their lives equally to improve the living conditions of the society and the performance of the organisation (Greenblatt, 2002; de Cieri et al., 2005; Pocock, 2005; Bryson et al., 2007, Fleetwood, 2007, McDonald et al., 2007). The retail industries have grown to support the community and it has converted the main stores to provide 24/7 services to the society (Pryjmachuk and Richards, 2007). Supple working conditions facilitate autonomy in work place and it improves work-life balance of the employees (Barriball et al., 2007; Dwyer et al., 2007). Many organisations tout work-life balance as a value, and always the workaholics are given more rewards and respect. But this concept holds no good any more as the introduction of globalisation and its cultural impact has turned the organisations to show more interest in maintaining work-life balance for its employees. The modern era has c reated more leaders to pay their attention towards work-life balance and they moralize the good value of upholding a balanced life inside and outside the organisation. It helps to improve more productivity while at work. Work and family issues are not the case during survival farmers and their families worked together to make a living. It has started once the family units made a male breadwinner for their house-wives. It was stated that during world war II, when most of the men in the west are out for war, the women population of more than70% were in the workforce, including pregnant women, which had been a hot topic of those times to maintain balance between their family commitments and to make a living (Shilling, 2009). It is very important to maintain a good balance especially when the employees have kids and old people to take care at home. In the views of Shelton (2006), work-life disagreement is the form of inter-role issue starting due to stress originating from one or more roles and responsibilities. The bonus, pay and other options are great but at the same time every job has got its roles and responsibilities that gives pressures and has direct and indirect effects on the personal and organisational life. This depends on the leadership and managerial skills of the manager who manages the team (Flaum, 2009). Especially women employees are considered more sentimental and dedicated towards their personal and professional life and have less free time as they are tied up with family and society. Shelton (2006) created a hypothetical framework on the constructs based on role conflicts and role involvement to positive plans the effective strategies to reduce work-life conflicts, through influencing roles. The work-life conflict reduces the well-being of the organisational culture and gradually affects the overall organis ational performance. 2.7 HISTORICAL OUTLOOK OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE: Since the introduction of globalisation and free trade, organisations started to move globally and freely with fewer restrictions on investments in the outside market and this has changed the roles and responsibilities of HRM. Originally the issue of work-life was considered as a problem between family and work (Lewis, 2003), and eventually it was argued that its not the issue between work and life, but between the organisational performance and employee satisfaction and dedication towards work. Furthermore the working timings of the employees were considered as one of the major issue to maintain a balanced work culture and they have introduced flexitime to challenge this issue. This issue broadened along men, women, families, and cultures of the organisations (Bird, 2006). Major research work considers individuals as a unit (Family or Team) and not as separate individual who works without any relationship with their sub-ordinates. Traditionally it is viewed as the absence of conflic t among work and family, or the level of intensity or frequency of work interfering family or vice versa (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007). 2.8 GLOBAL AND DOMESTIC WORK-LIFE BALANCE MODELS: In many contexts it is considered whether the domestic models hold good in international podium, where the globalisation has changed the international business are carried out. In the global context the main issues to be examined is whether work interferes with life on certain outcomes. In United States it has been proved that the domestic work interferes more on personal life than in any other country, but in other global environments it is considered that personal life interfere with work. This depends on the responsibilities and roles the employees play within an organisation and their role in the family, hence considering both sides from life to work and work to life (Greenhaus, 1988; Dixbury and Higgins, 1991; Frone et al., 1997; Edwards and Rothbard, 2000; Shaffer et al., 2001). The United Kingdom is facing lots of political issues out from people living longer, the changes in the needs of men and women in the labour market in terms of private life and other ways of working. Lots of models have been framed to calculate the work life balance of both genders at various periods and requirements of life. Shelton (2006) created a notional structure supporting role involvement and conflict to envisage the importance of strategies to lower the impacts of conflicts on balanced work culture or manoeuvring roles. This conflict is positively correlated with both organisational performance and family commitments. It is always considered that soaring levels of conflicts are expected for the female employees who have huge targets. 2.8.1 SCIENTIFIC MODEL: Frederick Taylor (1911) proposed that every job possibly will be measured by the amount of work completed and it is always linked with the number of pieces finished or piece rate. This theory is based on the concept that harder the employees work the more rewarded they are. Taylor considered that monetary benefits serve as the motivational factor for the committed employees to work more efficiently and effectively. 2.8.2 TWO FACTORS MODEL: Frederick Herzbergs two factor model or motivation-hygiene theory states certain motivational factors that will have positive impact on the role of employees towards organisational development, like the good basic pay and clean work environment. It was considered that once these factors are in place it automatically keeps up the strengths of the employees to work dedicated for the organisations and stays with the organisations for a long time. 2.8.3 HIERARCHY OF NEEDS: The above two theories were criticised by another great management guru, Maslow, where he showed that people needs to have certain basic needs like safe and secure workplace, emotional fulfilment, self esteem, relationship etc., to be with the organisation with their full committed minds and souls. This concept has gained its attraction since globalisation as it turned up many organisations to go international and grow parallel with the increasing technology and changing market culture. 2.9 LONGITUDINAL EFFECTS OF GLOBALISATION ON WORK-LIFE BALANCE: Globalisation has changed the way the works are being carried out and it has changed the roles and responsibilities at each level of hierarchy, giving both positive and negative effects in their balanced life. This also includes the mental strength, changes in the physique, health effects, etc., which might be a reason out of its increased job pressure or imbalanced work-life. 2.10 IS ORGANISATIONAL INTERVENTION IMPROVES WORK-LIFE BALANCE? The world worst economic crisis has given fears in the minds of workers at all levels of management and the management has restricted and reduced the spending on the organisational development in terms of employee benefits and other allowances, by considering cost effectiveness and cost cutting programmes to effectively handle the risked finance to reduce the risk of being cut. The increased concern about the security, family preferences, the multinational organisations are trying to implement various strategies to effectively use their capital for the retention of its skilled and talented employees by providing balanced work-life. However, it is not the only remedy to be auctioned to gain a balanced work group (Harris and Brewster, 2003; Poelmans, 2005). In the perspective of employees, Work Life Balance is maintaining balance between the roles and responsibilities at home and at work. Work Life Balance is the principle that paid employment should be integrated with domestic life and community involvement in the interests of personal and social well-being (Heery and Noon, 2008). Work Life Balance is not only the time we spend working against non-working. It is about how employees use their time to relax, work and energies themselves and spends time with their family and kids (Morgenstern, 2008). It is considered that there exist a direct relationship between the work life balance of the employees and the organisational performance. Work Life Balance is considered as a strategic model to implement lots of Human Resource polices and rules in order to change the organisational atmosphere and organisational cultur e of how the hierarchy works, i.e., either in the vertical way or horizontal way, leading to satisfied employees and managed which in turn leads to organisational success and improved growth. Strategies of Work Life Balance in organisations includes roles and polices including flexible work arrangements, childcare, depends care and other personal and parental benefits (Blari-Hoy and Wharton, 2002; Hyman and Summers, 2004; De Cieri et al., 2005). It is considered that the widespread changes in work-life issues and changes in the workforce demography in developing and developed societies have increased issues of work-life balance (Fleetwood, 2007; Lewis et al., 2007). The increased pressure towards the multi skilled employees out from roles and responsibilities has changed the organisational environment and work culture (Campbell and Charlesworth, 2004). Emphasis on family is considered as more important and higher quality and any imbalance caused by work has a negative effect on both personal and professional life (Frone et al., 1992; Greenhaus et al., 2003; Singh, 2010). Every job is considered to have an element of fun and it gives satisfaction and pleasure instead of stress and pressure. This directly and indirectly leads to the increased organisational output and innovation for the long strategic roles. The term has been in the field of Human Resource over the last two decades and it is considered a vital one in the developed and improve technological world. Work-Life balance is one of the major things to maintain balanced and motivated employees whom even monetary benefits cannot afford to improve the organisational performance. At times salary will not be an attractive one to hold back the employees within the organisation as a committed employee, but the balanced work-life culture provided by the organisations will hold the employees with commitment till their retirement in the same organisation (Mehra, 2010). Human Resource plays a vital role in maintaining transparency to ensure that the office environment doesnt create pressure on their empl oyees and their nature of work. Work-Life balance has been very famous for the last two decades where technology started encroaching peoples time more and more. It is considered that the term itself inherent some problem which presupposes a separation among work and life. In United States most companies offer work-life balance programs to attain competitive advantage whereas in Europe and United Kingdom it is considered as a social responsibility but it is considered that both these terms are not different and the goals are intertwined wherein competitive advantage can be gained through recruiting skilled employees and retaining with socially responsible activities to enhance the reputation of the organisation. 2.11 IMPACT OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE ON EMPLOYEES: Every organizations sets their workplace to be more attractive than their rivals to gain the competitive advantage through satisfying the employees needs and wants by providing balanced work-life culture. Some organisations still believe on the importance of money for the employees as they consider only monetary benefits motivate the individuals to work committed. Some companies find increasing