WorkLife Balance : A Cross-Cultural Review of Dual-Earner Couples in India and the

United States

The research article was published in Journal Advances in Developing Human Resources Vol 18,
Issue 1, 2016 published by Sage Publications. The Authors are Sunny L. Munn, Ashland University,
Ohio, USA and Sanghamitra Chaudhuri, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.

This article identifies the worklife issues of dual-earner couples and organizational practices in both
the United States and India in an effort to help organizations effectively manage worklife policies
affecting the gender role dynamics of todays multicultural organizations.

This article identifies themes within the worklife literature for dual-earner couples in India and the
United States in an effort to inform human resource development (HRD) scholars and practitioners
about the current state and worklife needs of dual-earner couples in both countries. It would be
beneficial for HRD professionals to understand and appreciate better workplace demographics in
terms of social, cultural, and legal requirements in the two countries to encourage the creation and
implementation of worklife friendly policies and environments.

The stakeholders of this research are HRD practitioners and scholars, employers, public policy
officials, and dual-earner couples employed in the United States and India. It opens the door to a
better understanding of the transferability of current research to practice.

The purpose of this article is to identify themes within the worklife literature for dual-earner couples
in India and the United States. Supportive organizational practices in India and the United States that
facilitate the worklife balance of dual-earner couples are discussed. The identification and
transferability of HRD practices used to enable the worklife balance of employees in both countries
are also explored. Understanding the impact of workforce gender dynamics and the impact of work
life programming on dual-earner couples could provide direction to practitioners and scholars in both
countries working to enhance worklife programs within organizations.

Methodology: For the purpose of this analysis, a structured literature review was used (Rocco, Stein,
& Lee, 2003). First, emergent trends and issues were identified within and across the two countries by
scanning the research, establishing selection criteria, creating a database of records, and
using Boyatziss (1998) content analysis. Google Scholar was chosen as the database. Returned
results were sorted by relevance; patents and citations were excluded from the search.

The findings were:

In Indian Context

1. For women in dual-earning families, the responsibility toward family has been as important as
their commitment to work. However, for men, excelling in their careers was the priority, and
family responsibility was limited to providing financial support
2. It was found that, due to the importance of the institution of family, it was impossible for
Indian women to work without spousal and extended family support.
3. Women did not feel comfortable expressing themselves to their managers. Traditional gender
roles may also play into women feeling less comfortable stating their opinions.
4. Both men and women practice various coping strategies, including religion, attitude, helping
others, and getting support from family and friends, when dealing with worklife conflict.
5. Men are more committed to their occupational role when compared with women.
In USA Context

1. Successful marital partnerships are enhanced if couples believe in a mutually symbiotic

relationship and work collaboratively to divide responsibilities in their day-to-day lives.
2. Women were slightly more involved with chores related to family, including child care and
organizing family life, whereas men gave more attention to their careers.
3. Adaptive strategies representative of supportive workplaces include flexible work
scheduling, non-traditional schedules, professional/job autonomy, working at home,
supportive supervisors, supportive colleagues and supervisees, and firm boundaries
4. 55% of men versus 45% of women felt that there was an equal division of labor when it came
to child care in their homes.
5. Job security was a significant predictor for lower workfamily conflict and lower turnover
intentions for both men and women.
6. Women show weaker job satisfaction when they perceive that their job is interfering with
their family responsibilities, but men do not follow the same pattern.
7. Men have more relationship tension when their partners had increasing levels of work-to-
relationship conflict.

Implications and Practice

1. This research broadens the scope of already published research and is adding to the domain
knowledge.
2. This article reveals that worklife balance is a subjective and experiential phenomenon so
researchers should conduct more qualitative, in-depth, phenomenological, critical, and
ethnographic studies that may help HRD professionals design better programs. Researchers in
India should better model empirical quantitative research after well-constructed U.S. studies
in an effort to measure the full impact of worklife practices and family conditions on the
experiences of dual-earner couples.

Suggestions for enhancing work-life balance

1. Dual-earner couples may need to find unique ways to balance work and life. Indian
organizations have started introducing family friendly benefits(compensation, flextime,
telecommuting, and sponsored vacation) and services(child care facilities, social support, and
employee assistance programs) to address employee worklife balance.
2. It is also suggested that family supportive organizational policies intended to alleviate work-
to-family conflict might also be useful in remedying family-to-work conflict, thus providing
support for both men and women employees.
3. HRD practitioners could work to improve employee assistance programs that aid in the
development of coping skills.
4. High involvement work practices, such as including employees in the decision-making
process, autonomous work teams, training and mentoring, and performance-based pay are
often associated with increased commitment, satisfaction, and worklife balance.
5. To facilitate worklife balance, redesigning work could be a potential solution that could
eventually result in more control over work time and increased job complexity, especially for
hourly workers.
6.
Conclusion:

The contributions of this study are threefold. With the worlds shifting and almost permeable
boundaries, conducting cross-cultural research on different aspects of worklife balance should equip
HRD professionals with the knowledge base to design more family friendly policies. Second, by
focusing on a sample from India and the United States, this study brings forth the influence of socio-
cultural variables to the operation of the worklife interface. And, finally, despite the increasing
workforce participation of women, developing countries have been underrepresented in worklife
research.

As per me, the research is thoroughly based on the literature review, with Google Scholar as data
source. To me this study ventures into qualitative field but still keeps its roots in quantitative field. It
is not empirically sound. The different studies over period of 20 years are analysed here for both India
and USA (1970-), in different time frames (India after 1991). The research process and the sampling
process is acceptable as well. The finding, suggestions and conclusions are easy to interpret. Hence, in
my view, this research is acceptable.

Submitted by:

Sunil Kumar Saroha

Ph.D (HR-I)

Dated: 6/10/2017