PHWP: Abstract Detail: Rethinking the Work-Life Interface: It's Not about Balance, It's about Resource Allocation

This article focuses on work-life balance, arguing that an effective work-life balance involves effective personal resource allocation. The authors suggest that people have a limited amount of energy, time, and money; people prefer to expend those resources on activities they enjoy and minimize resource expenditure on activities they do not enjoy. Furthermore, the authors contend that people’s sense of work-life balanace is a function of the extent to which they are happy with the way they are allocating their resources. When they feel as though resources are being allocated in preferred ways, positive outcomes result. However, when they feel resources are being allocated in non-preferred ways (i.e., demands require more resources than they prefer to allocate), then negative outcomes result.

Grawitch, M. J., Barber, L. K., & Justice, L. (2010). Rethinking the Work&#x-,Life Interface: It’s Not about Balance, It’s about Resource Allocation. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 2, 127-159.