WORK-LIFE BALANCE FOR WORKING PARENTS: PERSPECTIVES AND STRATEGIES Pratima Daipuria, Deepti Kakar Associate Professor, Department of Management, Jagan Institute of Management Studies, Rohini, Delhi, India. Abstract The changing dynamics of the workplace has forced the organizations to frame policies which are employee-centric. The workforce today is more dynamic and young in nature and wants to exude greater control over their work and life. The social structure of family is disintegrating more into nuclear families where both the parents are working. Pressures at work, competition, and target based management styles have resulted in increased pressure and also long working hours. The parents who overstay at work are continuously stressed out thinking of their child/children and associated responsibilities. The kids on the other hand feel neglected or may sometimes go astray, celebrate misadventures or bond in unfocussed companionships. The study explores the issues faced by such working parents and the surviving strategies adopted by them. The answers to a questionnaire administered on working parents has been analyzed to understand the underlying demographic as well as other variables to ind out work-life imbalances. The indings of the study will beneit organizations as they will be able to design practices which focus on employee work/life issues and thus reap dividends. This will result in a more satisied and productive workforce which is less stressed. Also such practices will result in the creation of employers’ brand and the reputation of being an employer of choice. Keywords: Work-Life Balance, Working Parent, Work Performance, and Personal Life. 1. INTRODUCTION For some, work is worship, for others a compulsion. In trying to churn out reasons as to why people work, money and economic fulillment top the list of answers among others which harp on passion, self fulillment etc. People have indulged in paid work since times immemorial and continue to do so, with more vigour and variety at offer. With passage of time, the social as well as gender inequations of work and personal life have undergone a sea change. Glancing in the latter half of the last century - during the 1940’s, and 1950’s, men managed work and women managed life. Women were involved in taking care of the household work and also ensured the smoothening of the emotional underpinnings in the family (Moen, 1998) A signiicant change that occurred in the 1960’s and 1970’s was the increase in women entering the labor force, as well as the increase in single parent homes. This made the gender boundaries fuzzy, that deined who is responsible for work issues and who is responsible for life issues (Quick et al., 2004; Greenblatt, 2002). With the gender roles being blurred, the possibility of work-life spillover has multiplied. All employees, both male and female, now deal with aspects of homemaking and breadwinning. This has led to more and more people experiencing more worry about life issues during work hours and since they feel uneasy about the invasion of their personal life on their work-life, they also begin to experience more worry about their job during non-work/life hours (Quick et al., 2004). Change has been conspicuous on the organizational front too. Globalization, the internationalization of markets, economies, and corporations, has changed the way modern organizations do business. The change brought not only opportunities in abundance but also left corporations struggling with challenges related to technology, economics, politico-legal, and socio-cultural aspects. The irms have to make necessary adjustments to the changing trends especially those related to the workforce. According to the organizational learning theory, organizations adapt to changing environment by adopting defensive strategies and use knowledge offensively to best it with the environment. This includes people at all levels becoming involved in providing strategic perspectives in decision making. As India started looking outside, the outward stride of the Indian womenfolk, away from home and hearth to the workplace, became speedier and smarter. Globalization brought forth unheard of opportunities and also introduced new work structures and culture. The inluence of the