Work-life balance

Initially regarded as an issue to be managed by the individual employee, work-life balance has now taken a central position in the employment practices and policies of employers (Kim, 2014). The recent increase in attention from organisations to work-life balance issues is directly linked to the many benefits that have been discovered as associated with work-life balance for both the employer and employee (Emslie & Hunt, 2009; Jones, Burke & Westman, 2013). On the side of the employees, improved work-life balance positively impacts their psychological wellbeing whereas organisations are able to increase affective organisational commitment, job satisfaction, worker engagement, organisational citizenship behaviours and employee productivity through appropriate work-life balance practices and policies (Cega1Ta-Leiva, Sanchez-Vidal & Gabriel Cegarra-Nava1To, 2012; Emslie & Hunt, 2009; Jones et al., 2013). Apparently, the issue of diminishing work-life balance is present in all work sectors but more common to certain industries due to the nature of work (Hill, Miller, Weiner & Colihan, 1998; Lingard & Francis, 2004; Tausig & Fenwick, 2001). For instance, industries such as hospitality and shipping have high incidences of diminishing work-life balance due to the complex and demanding nature of the conditions under which people work in these sectors (Chiang, Birtch & Kwan, 2010; Thomas, Sampson & Zhao, 2003). Specifically, for the shipping industry, seafarers working on cruise ships and bulkers tend to complain about stressful working conditions which negatively impact on their work-life balance in the long run (Barnett et al., 2017).