Perceived balance and experienced imbalance: the superficial and unsustainable work-life balance of Chinese employees

This paper seeks to gain a robust understanding of the work-life balance (WLB) in the Chinese context. Over 95% of research into the work-family/life interface looked at the western developed societies (Kossek et al., 2011; Casper et al., 2007). WLB in China has been largely neglected in WLB and HRM literature to date. Drawn from the overall-based approach (Grzywacz and Carlson, 2007), in this paper employees’ perception of WLB is socially-constructed by the multi-layered factors at the national, organisational and individual context ,and the Job-demand and Resource model (Demerouti, et al., 2001) is applied to examine the influence of dominated work elements on employees’ WLB experience at the organisational level. The study is a mixed methods case study drawing upon 312 questionnaires, 23 semi-interviews, and official documents to identify and explore Chinese employees’ perceptions and experiences of WLB in two pharmaceutical state-owned enterprises. The research finds; there is no consensus over what WLB means in China. It would appear that employees tend to embrace work-life integration and enrichment rather than identifying with the traditional segmentation and conflict perspectives dominant in western literature (e.g. Nippert-Eng 1995; greenhaus and beutell 1985). While a relatively positive WLB picture is painted from analysing employees' perceptions, it is argued that this is both superficial and unsustainable: long working hours, work intensification, employer-friendly flexibility, and limited formal work-life support have largely eroded these employees’ personal life, critically challenging the reported balance. This contradiction in essence derives (primarily) from the irreconcilable work-life collisions between employees’ ever-growing needs of better life and the logic of the intensified labour process under the market economy, and the power inequality in the employment relationship. Employees tend to yield to the exogenous forces and identify with a relative satisfactory WLB based upon work-focused enrichment. Given that, it is argued that although aspects of Chinese culture, such as 'harmony' and 'self-dedication' contribute to this interpretation of work-life integration and enrichment (e.g. Ling and Powell, 2001; Lu et al., 2010), these perceptions of balance appear to be a rhetorical response, and is not sufficient in explaining the work-life nature and relationship. The key contribution of this research lies in providing an understanding of WLB within the Chinese context, critically assessing the appropriateness of western WLB literature to China through multi-data triangulation. The superficial and unsustainable WLB Chinese employees experience reflects the nature of work and lived work-life experiences in the context of globalising capitalism, which can apply for the wider workforce in most of world, notwithstanding the particular relevance of the Chinese context. The results of this study urge the need for further research into work-based demands and resources as predictors of perceived organisational work-life support as well as suggesting implications for managerial practice.