Work, life, flexibility and workplace culture in Australia: results of the 2008 Australian work and life index (AWALI) survey.

• Author: Skinner, Natalie
• Position: Contributed Article - Survey

Abstract

This article summarises the main results of the 2008 Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) survey of Australian workers. The survey reveals significant issues for Australian workers that arise from the intersection of work with the rest of their lives. Hours of work, work overload and the nature of direct supervision and workplace culture emerge as important in explaining differences in work-life interaction. When hours are the same, those with caring responsibilities (especially mothers, and particularly single mothers) have worse work-life outcomes than others. The article briefly considers the implications of findings for labour market policy and workplace initiatives.

Introduction

This article reports on a 2008 survey of work and life issues in Australia. The 2008 Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) survey was conducted against a new political background with the election of the Rudd Labor Government in late 2007. The new Government committed itself to getting 'the balance right between fairness and flexibility in the workplaces of the nation; and to ensure that by practical assistance to working families in Australia that the great Australian fair go has a future and not just a past' (Rudd 24th November 2007). At both a national and international level, a high level of interest in work-life issues continues in industrialised countries (Lewis, Brannen and Nilsen 2009; Warhurst, Eikhof and Haunschild 2008). Late in 2007, the OECD published its synthesis of thirteen individual country reviews of work and family policy (including Australia), examining tax/benefit policies, parental leave systems, childcare support, and workplace practices around the world. In launching the report, the OECD observed that 'striking a balance between going to work and raising children is not justa concern for families. Getting the balance wrong reduces birth rates, labour supply and gender equity, and can even harm child development. It puts the shape of society in the future in question' (OECD 2007, p. 1).

Research evidence continues to mount about the dimensions and effects of work- life interaction, both internationally and in Australia (Duxbury and Higgins 2003; Geurts and Demerouti 2003; Lewis et al 2009; Pocock, Skinner and Williams, 2008; Warhurst et al 2008). This body of research confirms that work affects life beyond work in complex and significant ways, with good arguments for a greater response from employers, governments and trade unions, and considerable agreement around the causes and consequences of poor work-life interaction and interventions that can help counter it (Geurts and Demerouti 2003 provide a good summary).

In this article we report on a second national assessment of work-life interaction in Australia, conducted in March 2008, comparing overall results with those of a year earlier (see Pocock Skinner and Williams 2007 and Skinner and Pocock 2008 for full reports).

What the Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) measures

AWALI contains five questions which directly assess perceptions of work-life interaction (Pocock, Williams and Skinner, 2007). The items are provided in Appendix A. Given that the 2007 AWALI survey revealed that work-to-life spillover is much greater than life-to-work spillover (in line with outcomes in many other countries), we refined AWALI in 2008 to focus only on the work-to-life relationship. AWALI measures two dimensions of work-life interaction: first, the impact of work on respondents' capacity to engage satisfactorily in the activities and responsibilities of the non-work sphere (that is, a 'general interference' effect) and, secondly, the time available to spend on activities outside work (that is, a 'time strain' effect). These two items were adapted from Frone, Russell and Cooper's (1992) measure of work-family conflict. A five-point frequency response scale was used (1 = never; 2 = rarely; 3 = sometimes; 4 = often; 5 = almost always).

AWALI measures work-life interactions that include, but are not confined to, work-family issues. People without children also experience spillover from their working lives on to their relationships, recreation, households, health and well- being (Pocock et al 2007). AWALI also measures the effects of work on community connections: putting more hours into paid work affects relationships beyond home, including the capacity to build friendships and support networks in the broader community, but these are generally not investigated in assessments of work-life interaction. The 'community interference' item was also based on the Frone et al (1992) measure, with the same five-point response scale as the previous two work-life items.

AWALI employs as well a commonly used single measure of time pressure (feeling rushed or pressed for time) in daily life, which is an indirect measure of work-life fit. The five-point frequency response scale was used for this item. Finally, AWALI includes a general assessment (constructed by the researchers) of satisfaction with work-life balance (1 = very satisfied; 5 = not at all satisfied). The rationale and antecedents of these measures are set out in Pocock, Williams and Skinner (2007). In AWALI 2008, we construct an overall work-life index employing the average of all of the above five measures, which we scale from 0 (best work-life interaction) to 100 (worst work-life interaction).

In AWALI 2008, work overload was measured by a single item about whether respondents felt that they had too much work to do (1 = strongly disagree; 3 = neither agree or disagree; 5 = strongly agree) (Cordes, Dougherty and Blum 1997). Organisational culture was assessed by three items about the extent to which employees' organisation makes an active effort to address work-life conflict (adapted from White, Thompson and Kopelman 2003), whether their supervisor was accommodating of personal and family needs and whether employees were expected to put jobs before personal and family life (reverse scored) (both items adapted from Thompson, Beauvais and Lyness 1999). The same response scale was used as for the work overload item. Flexibility was assessed by two items dealing with the extent to which employees have control over when they do their work, and the degree to which their working times can be flexible to meet their needs. These items were sourced from the HILDA survey (Watson and Wooden 2002), with the same response scale used as with the overload item.

The Data

The AWAL12008 sample is a national stratified random sample of 2,831 Australian workers conducted by using computer assisted telephone (CATI) interviews over four weekends in March and April 2008 (Skinner and Pocock 2008). Overall, 2,831 participants (2,384 employees; 387 self-employed; 60 undetermined work status) answered the core demographic items and the five items that comprise the work- life index. A subset of this sample (1,404 respondents) answered both the core questions and an additional set of items relating to organisational culture, unsocial work time and employment sector (public, private). Of those successfully contacted by phone, 46.2 percent participated in the 2008 survey. As in 2007, Newspoll conducted the survey. In accord with usual Newspoll practice, respondents were selected by means of a stratified random sample process which includes a quota set for each capital city and non-capital city area, and within these areas a quota set for statistical divisions or subdivisions. Household telephone numbers were selected by using random digit dialling, and there was random selection of an individual in each household by means of a 'last birthday' screening question.

As Table 1 shows, on the whole the AWALI 2008 sample was representative of the Australian labour market at the time of the survey, although there is an over- representation of highly skilled workers (professionals and managers), those with a university qualification and public sector employees.

Work-Life Interaction in 2008 -Analysis of Individual Work-Life Items

All findings are reported for employees, excluding the self-employed, unless specified otherwise. Table 2 shows that work interferes with life beyond work for most Australians to some extent. In 2008 over half of all employees felt that work sometimes, often or almost always interferes with activities outside work, and slightly more agreed that it interfered with time for family or friends. Around 55 per cent of employees frequently (often/almost always) feel rushed or pressed for time. There has been little change between 2007 and 2008 on most of the separate elements of work work-life interaction shown in Table 2.

When we average and standardise the five measures of work-life interaction so that the minimum score on the index is 0 (indicating the best possible work-life interaction) and the maximum score is 100 (the worst possible work-life...