Work-life Balance Dilemma of Chinese Millennial Employees: Factors affecting the Perception of Work-life Balance

Abstract

More spotlight is given to Work-life balance (WLB), as people’s living standard keeps increasing in China. The research on WLB has been relatively in-depth in European and north American countries, and has reach a peak in early 20th century. Meanwhile, China’s exploration in this field is still in a preliminary stage, let alone taking WLB initiatives in enterprises. However, as Millennials have gradually become the main force in the labor market, the conflict between Millennial employees' emphasis on work-life balance and lagging HRM concepts gives rise to the management difficulties and high turnover rate among Millennials in recent China. In order to find whether there is a link between the Millennials’ work value and their perception of WLB, and contribute empirical evidences to the research of WLB in China, this study examined the predicting effects of work/non-work demands on work-life balance, and explored how work value, work flexibility and supervisor support affect the perception of work-life balance. A total of 390 questionnaires were collected from 16 commercial banks in Nanning, Guangxi province, China for quantitative analysis. The results indicate that work/non-work demands are the direct determinates lead to work-life unbalance/conflict; the millennial employees values work-life balance more than the prior generations and negatively related to work-life balance; work flexibility and supervisor support are positively related to work-life balance.