54 Amity Global HRM Review September Work-life Balance Vs Work-family balance - An Evaluation of Scope *Joshin Joseph, **Deepu Jose Sebastian Despite focus on work-to-nonwork balance research overlooked the underpinning between work-life balance construct and work family balance construct. This study examined the scope of work-life balance construct over work-family balance construct in terms of the constructs capability to explain variance in three speciic domains viz., work, family and personal life; with the help of regression analysis based on randomly obtained data from 190 personals who are employed in the banking sector of Kerala. The result proved that work-life balance construct which is more comprehensive and wider than work-family balance construct. The result postulates that it is worthwhile to divert the focus from work-family balance to work-life balance as it provides much wider comprehension about the balance between work and nonwork life of an employee than work-family balance can provide. Keywords: Work-life balance, Work-family balance, Work/non-work balance Introduction The term work-life balance was the contribution of ‘New ways to Work and the Working Mothers Association’ in the United Kingdom during the late of 1970s to describe the balance between work and personal life (Burnett, 2011). Feminization of the work environment was the major catalyst agent behind the development of the work-life balance concept. In United States, the phrase ‘work-life balance’ was irst used in the year 1986 in relation of prioritisation of hours between work and non-work activities (Coradon Health, 2016; see also Burnett, 2011).Within the next decade the concept become very popular in the work environment (essential not only for the employee themselves but also for the employers too) particularly among the western nations. Together with the popularisation of the work-life balance concept, the preview of the concept has got narrowed from work to non-work balance (work to personal life balance) to work to family life balance(Fisher, Bulger, & Smith, 2009). That is the personal life sphere of work-life balance concept has replaced with family life, which resulted in the branching of the work-life research in to two. The work-family balance construct-which speak about the magnitude of balance between work domain and family domain (e.g., Greenhaus and Powel, 2006; Voyandoff, 2005; Frone, 2003; Clark 2000). And the work-life balance construct-which speak about the magnitude of balance between work domain and non-work domain (non-work domain includes family, personal life/self-care, friends, society, religion, etc.,)(e.g., Smeltzer, et al., 2016; Glasgow & Sang, 2016; Hayman, 2005). Because of the absence of conceptual clarity among researchers with regard to the scope and dimension of the work-life balance concept, the work-life balance has become a widely used term with no set of deinition (Glasgow & Sang, 2016). Though the need of balancing between paid work and unpaid work (non-work activities) has never been questioned (Glasgow & Sang, 2016; see also Joseph & Sebastian, in press). During the early decades of work to non-work balance research work-family theme override work- life balance theme. Majority of the research on work- nonwork relationships predominantly conined its focus on work and family roles (Greenhaus & Foley,2007).The over emphasis of work and family role and thereby narrowed the scope of work- life balance research. Which further result in the coninement/narrow-downing of the work to non- work balance research in to the concept of work- family balance. By the end of 1990s more researchers started exploring work to non-work balance beyond the scope of work sand family domains (e.g., Smeltzer, et al., 2016; Brough, et al., 2014; Fisher, Bulger, & Smith, 2009; Kalliath & Brough, 2008; Hayman, 2005; Fisher-McAuley, Stanton, Jolton, & Gavin, 2003; Frone, 2003) and argued that work- family balance is only a sub-theme which can be nested inside the work-life (non-work) balance construct.The researchers who argue in favour of work-life balance (i.e., work-life balance has wider scope than work-family balance) claimed that work work-life balance construct has stronger relationship with work, family and personal related spares in comparison with work-family balance construct. *Junior Research Fellow, Departnment of Commerce, ST. Thomas College, Pala **Associate Professor and Doctoral Research SupervisorPost-Graduate Department of Commerce. Deva Matha College, Kuravilangad