Employees’ extended hours in the organizations: An ethics Perspective

Balancing the demands of work and family is very important especially for a dual-career couple. This study investigates the ethicality of overworking employees to maximize an organization's profits. Though it increases one's job satisfaction owing to one's professional success, it leads to a poorer marital quality. Additionally, the poor marital quality would in long run spill over at work, making the individual dissatisfied at his job as well, leading to poorer productivity.

The sample included 100 human resource professionals from various organizations, whose views on the issue whether employee should be overworked so as to increase company's profits was taken. Job satisfaction and marital quality tests were conducted on 30 heterosexual married couples using the Job satisfaction scale by Singh Sharma (1999) along with Marital Quality Scale by Shah (1991).

The results were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical analytical tools like Spearman's Correlation method have been used. The results revealed that the two variables are negatively correlated. Also, the survey instrument was shown to be both reliable and valid by the experts in the field. The results of the survey showed that the human resource professionals regard overworking an employee unethical.

A more genuine results would have been expected in a face-to-face interaction with the participants.

The results of this study would help employers realize the importance of their employee's personal time and prevent any measure of take-home jobs. Academicians can use the results to build upon new theories and models for a better understanding of such complex phenomena.

This study is probably the first to include the dimensions of job satisfaction, marital quality and overworking among married couples relating it to business ethics, specifically in the Indian context.