Balancing Act: How Managers Can Integrate Successful Careers and Fulfilling Personal Lives / Edition 1

by Joan R. Kofodimos

Overview

Examines the shifting demographic, economic, and social forces—the changing gender roles, harsher economic realities, and dual career families—that pull managers and executives out of balance. Draws on ten years of research, consulting, and training on the topic to describe the cost of imbalance to individuals and organizations and tells how to restore equilibrium. Provides numerous checklists and self-assessment tools to help determine the degree and the nature of imbalance in our lives and in our organizations. Outlines a step-by-step process for personal change that can lead to an improved quality of life and provides individuals with a blueprint for initiating organizational changes that jointly optimize personal development and organizational effectiveness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555425081
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/06/1993
Series:	The Jossey-Bass Management Series
Pages:	191
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 9.65(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

JOAN KOFODIMOS is a partner in the Renaissance Group in Greensboro, North Carolina, which conducts research and consulting in human and organization development. An adjunct member of the Center for Creative Leadership, she is coauthor (with R. E. Kaplan and W. H. Drath) of Beyond Ambition (Jossey-Bass, 1991).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Facing the High Costs of Imbalance in Our Lives
1. The Time/Energy Imbalance: Putting Work Above All Else
2. The Mastery/Intimacy Imbalance: Finding Fulfillment ExclusivelyThrough Work
3. The Idealized Image: Trying to Be Who We Think We ShouldBe
4. Choosing Personal Balance: How and Where to Start Changing
5. Assessing the Costs of Imbalance for Individuals andOrganizations
6. Creating the Balanced Organization
Afterword: The Balance Revolution

Editorial Reviews

"The definitive guide for finding balance in our personal and organizational lives. I have added Joan Kofodimos's insightful work to the 'must-read list' for our executive programs." —Robert W. Conroy, M.D., director, Menninger Management Institute

From the Publisher

Kofodimos (coauthor of Beyond Ambition: How Driven Managers Can Lead Better and Live Better , Jossey-Bass, 1991) defines the ``balancing act'' as a ``satisfying, healthy, and productive life'' that incorporates activities ``with attention to self and to personal and spiritual development.'' Writing for managers, executives, and human-resource professionals, she describes various societal, personal, and organizational forces that lead to life imbalance and workaholism. Although she emphasizes organizational costs and effects, she does include methods for achieving personal balance and exercises for self-examination. Unfortunately, most of the supporting research is based on a study of male managers, thus excluding consideration of the struggle women have also waged. Still, this book will be invaluable to anyone wanting to achieve a balanced life. Highly recommended.-- Kathy Shimpock-Vieweg, O'Connor Cavanagh Lib., Phoenix, Ariz.

Library Journal

An often-overlooked aspect of productivity is the role played by employees' personal well-being and job satisfaction. Building on an earlier work she coauthored, "Beyond Ambition": "How Driven Managers Can Lead Better and Live Better" (1991), Kofodimos here emphasizes the importance of balancing work and home life, as well as achieving personal well-being and job satisfaction. She argues that attempts to alleviate burnout or to deal with personal crises are piecemeal approaches that ignore the whole individual. She insists that the organization has both a stake in and an obligation to help with finding integrated solutions to managers' personal and career problems. Based on interviews with hundreds of managers, Kofodimos' advice targets both individuals attempting to balance their lives and practitioners such as human-resource managers, responsible for helping them. After analyzing the root causes of the imbalances she detects, Kofodimos offers a series of exercises aimed at self-discovery.

David Rouse