Globalization and Work-Life Balance (Essay Sample)

Commonality of Neo-Liberalism, Globalization, and Work-Life balance
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Commonality of Neo-Liberalism, Globalization and Work life balance
Introduction
Many scholars presume that Neo-liberalism and globalization mean the same thing in this decade. The implications of these terms have an impact on the way individual notions concerning their occupations have been adopted. According to (Talani 2014), globalization is the intensification of social, political, cultural, and economic relations across borders. Therefore, it is a qualitative phenomenon on how the economic world perceives it. Neo-liberalism is the revival of liberalism. However, in economic terms, it is the belief that states need to refrain from intervening the economy, and instead leave individuals to participate freely in a self-regulating market (Campbell 2001). On the other hand, work life balance refers to the relationship between an individual’s occupation and the commitments back at home. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between neo-liberalism, globalization and work-life balance in order to establish the extent of commonality in them.
Characteristics of Neo-Liberalism, Globalization and Work life balance
Neo-liberalism is enshrined in pursuit to five agendas. It believes in the power of markets to efficiently allocate resources and encourage economic development. It is entangled in the privatization of state-owned enterprises in an effort to encourage market forces in order to stimulate economic efficiency. Similarly, it entails the cutting of state expenditures on social welfare provisions and ideological believes on collectivism and individualism (Aguiar & Herod 2006). On the other hand, when we consider globalization, it is portrayed as a dramatic increase in foreign direct investment, the renationalization of social groups and an unprecedented interdependence of financial markets. Social groups entail business and labor. However, technological transformation is a distinguishing component of qualitative globalization. It brings about transformation in terms of financial transactions and production (Talani 2009). These ideologies both in globalization and in neo-liberalism are common in terms of their characteristics.
Similarly, work-family concept is a transformative idea that has grown in the last decades (Chick et al 2004). It has led to unprecedented interchange of roles within family members. For instance, it is the concern of both parents to take care of their siblings as opposed to the past where only women were mandated to take this responsibility. In this case, paternal leaves are now available at work places. In those days, fathers’ roles were to feed the household as the wife took care of the siblings. However, fulfilling the activities of work and family context by many parents is a major challenge. This has led to the evolution of conflicts in managing the affairs of both the employees and the family. Therefore, work-family conflict is as highlighted by (Burchielli et al 2008) is a form of inter-role conflict whereby family and work demands are inconsistent in respect to participation in both roles being a challenge in relation to the participation in the other role. These attributes form the major characteristics of work-family balance concept.
Conclusion
In relation to the concept of neo-liberalism, globalization, and work-family balance as examined by various authors, there is a close interrelationship on how they are interpreted. Currently, the way we view this concept is not the way they were perceived in the past. These concepts are all related to transformation and modernization in the current society. Therefo...