Academic integrity violations

Academic integrity violations, such as plagiarism, cheating, data fabrication, and collusion, gravely jeopardize student learning as well as the university's evaluation of the effectiveness of that learning and the caliber of its rewards. Academic integrity violations are regarded seriously and may be punished with expulsion from the university as well as failure in the course. Students should be aware that the University uses text-matching software to safeguard the quality of student learning and that your assignment will be checked using this software. I acknowledge and agree that the examiner of this assessment item may, for the purpose of marking this assessment item: reproduce this assessment item and provide a copy to another Griffith staff member; and/ submit this assessment item to a text-matching service. This web-based service will retain a copy of this assessment item for checking the work of other students, but will not reproduce it in any form. Examiners will only award marks for work within this assignment that is your own original work. I, hereby certify that: except where I have indicated, this assignment is my own work, based on my personal study and/or research. I have acknowledged all materials and sources used in the preparation of this assignment whether they be books, articles, reports, lecture notes, or any other kind of document or personal communication. I have not collaborated with another student or person in planning, developing and writing this assessment item. This assignment, or parts thereof, has not been submitted for assessment in any other course or at any other time in the same course. I have not copied in part or in whole or otherwise plagiarised the work of other students and/or other persons. I haven’t made this piece of work available to another student. Providing this declaration falsely is considered a breach of academic integrity. I have retained a copy of this assessment item for my own records.



Efforts by the Contemporary Worker to Balance Work and Leisure

Introduction

In the contemporary world, many people rely on the wages they earn from their labor for survival. Professions have continued to grow as better ways of getting around tasks have been invented (Johnson, 2016 p. 3). However, one of the key developments has been the increasing pressure on jobs due to the growing population. Most economies have been struggling to create new jobs at the rate at which the population is growing. In addition, the cost of living has been constantly growing as prices of basic commodities and services increase. The person who has been caught amidst all these changes is the worker (Jones and Vagle, M.D., 2013 p. 133). Individuals are increasingly focusing on their jobs in order to fend for themselves and their families. This dedication has led to a reduction in the hours spent on interactions and leisure. This essay is an analysis of an image that brings out the relationship between leisure and work, that is, the importance of leisure in balancing both work and the social aspects in life.

When individuals concentrate too much on their work, their social life and mental wellbeing is compromised (Lunau et al., 2014 n.p). Individuals who spend a lot of time at work are lose control over their friendships and personal commitments such as marriage and parenthood. The increasing workload does not allow individuals to bond with their families by spending time with them or even indulging in recreational activities such as visiting the beach.

This paper will analyze an image of an individual working from the beach. The image creates an impression of a person caught in a conflict between working and spending some time off. The individual in the picture seems to have chosen to meet both the need to have fun and to work in a single activity. The essay tries to examine whether the person has achieved satisfaction of both needs in the same place or they are likely to fail in meeting one of the two needs.

The Relevance of the Image to Conflict Theory

The conflict theory is an idea that was preponed by Karl Max to explain the state of perpetual conflict that occurs in the society due to limited resources. Marx opines that social order is subject to power and domination, rather than the need to conform to the norms and reach a consensus (Van Krieken et al., 2013 p. 18). According to this theory, individuals with wealth and power at their disposal have the ability to take anything that they wish from the poor. Though the poor will try as much as possible to hold onto the resources, the rich will always have their way of taking it away and suppressing the poor.

According to Karl Max, there is social inequality when it comes to division of resources (Doob, 2015 p. 3). The bourgeoisie us a class of the rich who have wealth at their disposal. The proletariat is the working class that is poorer than the bourgeois class. In the picture to be analyzed in this essay, the resource being competed for is labor by the working class. The workload t the average worker has increased and they require more hours of input in order to meet the needs of their employer. Therefore, the person in the picture is a victim of the struggle between themselves and the employer over their time and skills.

According to the proponents of the social conflict theory, the rich and powerful individuals, who are the employees, will ensure that they maintain uneven distribution of resources through ideological coercion (Van Krieken et al., 2013 p. 73). The worsening conditions of the welfare of the worker is meant to benefit the employer. The individual being featured in this essay is caught between a conflict of classes where the employer demands more of their time by adding to their workload. Their desire to keep their jobs and increase their earnings is what makes them more dedicated to their work and ready to forego leisure in order to meet the demands of their employer.

Relevance of the Selected Image to the Theme

The images below are of two people relaxing on a beach while looking busy on their computers. The water shores are usually used as a place for relaxation after having a busy day or leisure activities such as swimming and surfing. Interpretation of an image is subjective. However, it is unlikely that an individual will need a computer to have fun on a beach. Therefore, the assumption that the writer is making is that the individual is working from the beach in order to achieve a work-life balance. The person presented in the photograph is in formal clothing. This picture can be fit in the contemporary situation where many people have a hard time balancing between work and leisure and would like to do both at the same time. This situation arises from the growing demand for individual contribution at the workplace. The contemporary worker has relied on technology to meet this demand.







Literature Review

According to Williams et al. (2016 p. 517), contemporary workers experience conflicts at the personal level due to the need to balance between work and their personal life. Generally, there have been growing demands for the time needed for one to meet their professional obligations. This growing demand has been experienced in most fields with the individuals almost being left with the choice between entirely concentrating on their jobs or leaving them to take up family responsibilities or concentrate on their social life. This situation has negatively affected job satisfaction and increased turnover intentions among workers as workloads become greater and more overwhelming.

Leisure is an integral part of modern personal and family life. The amount of time that an individual spends away from time is either used for personal relaxation and development or utilized in bonding with social units such as friends and family (Kelly et al., 2014 p. 2). Leisure activities have been found to provide a feeling of social support and decrease of loneliness and the isolation in individuals. Being involved in leisure activities such as mentoring and volunteering provides a context in which individuals realize their strength and capacities to be of service to others. In addition to that, a leisure activity relaxes the mind of an individual. The interaction between work and leisure is not unidirectional. This is because work provides resources such as money that facilitate the leisure activities (Lunau et al., 2014 n.p).

Kofodimos in his works refers to work-life balance as a satisfying, healthy, and productive life with work, play, and love. Leisure should, therefore, be included in the work-life balance. He argues that a broader concept of work-life balance would need assessment of time, involvement, and satisfaction of the diverse set of roles. These diverse roles are leisure, community membership, and self-development. According to him, it is important to balance the work and social life roles (Kofodimos 2004, p.88).

When given a choice between leisure and work, most individuals are likely to choose leisure (Bryson and MacKerron, 2017 p. 17). Neulinger defines leisure as freedom and intrinsic motivation. In his works, he says that leisure and family are related and are distinct from work. That is, the nurturing and developing of parenting aims are done in the context of play (Neulinger 1984, p. 187). Therefore, leisure plays a major role in the strengthening of the family and friendship relations. Moreover, Aryee et al. found cultural norms as one of the factors affecting family-work interface. For instance, people from Hong Kong put their family interest above their own. Hence, leisure roles are not distinct from family roles and should be studied together (Aryee, Tan, and Debrah 2004, p. 48).

Methodology

Photo Elicitation refers to the process of decoding the message in a photo. In this research, the photo used is a contemporary image that represents what the researcher has come across either in real-life situations or in secondary sources such as the media (Banks and Zeitlyn, 2015 p. 90). The first step in this process was looking at the background of the photograph under study. In this case, the background is a beach. Many people in the contemporary society have at least come across information about what takes place on beaches. After understanding the background, the researcher concentrated on the objects in the photograph. The most noticeable object in this case is a human being. The process of photo elicitation involving a human being will concentrate on their posture, attire, facial expression and the objects they are holding. In this case, the person in the photograph is an adult male, wearing formal attire, lying down in the sand and wearing a smile. Such clues are used to determine the activity that the person is taking part in and their feelings towards the environment and their status.

Analysis

The man in the picture is wearing a shirt, a necktie and a pair of trousers. He seems to have initially dressed up for an official function or activity such as work, a board meeting or a business trip. It is likely that they have come straight from these official activities to the beach. Many revelers go to the beach dressed up in casual clothing such as shorts, vests or swimming costumes. Despite not having dressed up for the occasion and place, the man is smiling. This shows that the leisure activities have a positive impact on the social lives of the individuals. They strengthen social relationships as well as relieve stress. Referring to the image above, the person seemed to be relaxing while busy on their laptop in formal attire. It is likely that due to the amount of time spent in formal places such as offices and boardrooms, the person found it appropriate to continue work in a relaxed environment. Therefore, leisure helps in balancing the work and the social life.

Most of the people within the working class spend their time in places designated to them by their employers. The etiquette and moral standards with which the individuals have to carry themselves with around the places are meant to suit the needs and expectations of the employer. Therefore, the worker is distracted from their social and family roles. Setting time aside for the recreational activities helps a person balance both the work and the life roles (Zhou and Feng, 2017 p. 2). The pressure to work may be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic pressure comes from the need to achieve one’s career goals and earn money that can enable them meet their needs and those of their dependents. Extrinsic pressure is built on the intrinsic one. For a person to meet the two goals above, they have to be in line with the expectations of the employer. Therefore, the employer seems to be the beneficiary of the activity which the man in the picture is undertaking. Under normal circumstances, the man would be on the beach enjoying themselves by indulging in activities such as swimming and surfing. However, they have chosen to still dedicate their time to serving their employers or clients.

Parents who engage in the recreation activities with their families had mostly only minor problems with their children (Harrington, 2015 p. 474.). The time spent together with children creates an emotional bond. The leisure time can be used to observe the behaviors of kids and to correct their developing vices. Therefore, children from such families tend to be more disciplined. On the contrary, the parents who go to work on a regular basis find it hard to guide their children. The parents do not get enough time to address the issues affecting their child. Deviant behavior can develop among the children who do not get enough attention from their parents. These children also feel neglected and their issues may not be handled to their satisfaction. Therefore, apart from the gains on the physical and emotional wellbeing, having ample leisure time enables individuals to meet their responsibilities in social units towards their children, spouse and friends.

Conclusion

It is vital for individuals to realize the importance of leisure in their lives. The contemporary worker offers a valid case study of an individual suffering in the context of the social conflict theory. The employer has the resources required to meet the needs of the worker and their dependents. In order to have these resources, the worker has to meet the expectations of the employer. There is a struggle between the employee and the worker for the time and skills possessed by the worker. The picture analyzed in this essay proves Marx’s prediction that the employer will always win in such cases. The person in the picture is trying to achieve a work-life balance by engaging in leisure while at the same time working. It is important to balance the work and the social aspects of an individual’s everyday life. If the work aspect outweighs the social aspect, problems are likely to arise. Such include broken marriages and lack of time to know the issues affecting other people. Another way that leisure can be used to balance work and life is through working in a relaxing environment. Working in places where the mind is less stressed improves the performance of the person. For example, in the image above, the man is working while on the sea shore. The shore is a relaxing environment where one can be motivated to work easier. Instead of spending time in closed offices, working on the beaches can be implemented to increase the work efficiency. Employers need to motivate their employees through taking them out for recreation. Apart from motivating them, the effectiveness of the worker will also improve. Despite the several studies conducted, more research still needs to be done to emphasize the importance of leisure in life in order to convince employers to give employees more time off work. This will effectively solve the conflict between the two for human resource, which is one of the most important resources in any economy.



Word count 2346

References

Aryee, S., Tan, H., and Debrah, Y. (2004). Perceived organizational support among employed parents. Hong Kong: Business Research Centre, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University.

Banks, M. and Zeitlyn, D., 2015. Visual methods in social research. Sage.

Bryson, A. and MacKerron, G., 2017. Are you happy while you work?. The Economic Journal, 127(599), pp.106-125.

Doob, C.B., 2015. Social inequality and social stratification in US society. Routledge.

Harrington, M., 2015. Practices and meaning of purposive family leisure among working-and middle-class families. Leisure Studies, 34(4), pp.471-486.

Johnson, T.J. ed., 2016. Professions and Power (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Kelly, E.L., Moen, P., Oakes, J.M., Fan, W., Okechukwu, C., Davis, K.D., Hammer, L.B., Kossek, E.E., King, R.B., Hanson, G.C. and Mierzwa, F., 2014. Changing work and work-family conflict: Evidence from the work, family, and health network. American Sociological Review, 79(3), pp.485-516.

Kofodimos, J. (2004). Balancing act. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Books on Demand.

Lunau, T., Bambra, C., Eikemo, T.A., van Der Wel, K.A. and Dragano, N., 2014. A balancing act? Work–life balance, health and well-being in European welfare states. The European Journal of Public Health, 24(3), pp.422-427.

Neulinger, J. (1984). To leisure. State College, sPa.: Venture Pub.

Van Krieken, R., Habibis, D., Smith, P., Hutchins, B., Martin, G. and Maton, K., 2013. Sociology. Pearson Higher Education AU.

Williams, J.C., Berdahl, J.L. and Vandello, J.A., 2016. Beyond work-life “integration”. Annual review of psychology, 67, pp.515-539.

Zhou, R. and Feng, C., 2017. Difference between Leisure and Work Contexts: The Roles of Perceived Enjoyment and Perceived Usefulness in Predicting Mobile Video Calling Use Acceptance. Frontiers in Psychology, 8.