An exploration of work- life balance (WLB) policies in hotels in Lebanon and viable WLB policy development -

Abstract

The purpose of this research study is to explore the availability of work life balance policies in the hotel industry in Lebanon as well as the barriers to their introduction and implementation. In addition, this paper aims at developing indigenous WLB policies that are viable within the prevalent Lebanese and Arab culture and that will help achieve higher organizational competitiveness while at the same time catering for the needs of various employee categories. In addition to a detailed literature review that will tackle our focal issue, work life balance, this field project will draw data from 11 structured interviews conducted with Heads of Departments who are currently employed at chosen hotels in Lebanon. We believe that the 11 respondents will provide enough insights that will allow reaching saturation of information since the project is exploratory in nature. Our results show that two main factors govern logic behind adopting certain policies in this industry as well as the barrier to their introduction and implementation which are the nature of the industry as well as the Lebanese context.