The examination of the relationship between work life balance and flexible working system in organizations: A research in Afyonkarahisar

Technological developments, global business models, changing market conditions and increasing pressure of competition have made it almost impossible for organizations to survive with existing systems. For this reason, organizations have had to turn to innovative and competitive business arrangements where they can provide high performance at a lower cost. The intense competition and the pressure of technological change affect not only organizations but also employees who perform various tasks and responsibilities in organizations. On the one hand, people strive to develop new talents and skills required by the change in technology, and on the other hand, endeavor to maintain a meaningful and satisfying part of their life outside of work and occupation. The fact that people feel the existence of a constant conflict between their intensive work and their duties and their personal lives outside the work shows that the balance of work life is not sufficiently achieved. On the other hand, positive psychosocial conditions such as motivation, social support, love and sense of belonging obtained from non-work life can positively affectin dividuals' commitment and performance to the organization they work for. For this reason, it is among the most important responsibilities of contemporary organizations to prepare the conditions that can create the balance of work life in organizations and to determine the policies that will ensure the continuity of this balance. In addition to technological advances, the widespread use of information technologies in all functions and business processes in organizations has made it possible to use the workforce in a flexible time rather than full-time labor. Thus, organizations perform almost all their functions on a digital platform with the contribution of advanced information technologies. In the other hand, industry 4.0 is a revolution in production, that preparing to completely eliminate the existence of traditional human labor for production and support activities in organizations. Thus, a small number of workforce with advanced multi-faceted skills and skills is assigned to flexible, broadly defined and strengthened tasks instead of narrowly defined and full-time employment. This revolutionary transformation in working life also brings some new opportunities for employees to maintain work life balance. Thus, as organizations become virtual, employees will be able to fulfill their duties and responsibilities without limitation of physical distance, time and space. Suchpractices, called flexible work systems, also offer employees the ability to effectively control and balance both work and non-work life. This study investigated the relationship between work life balance and flexible work systems, assuming that work life balance in organizations can be achieved by flexible work systems. Research results have shown that there is a positive meaningful relationship between work life balance and flexible work systems. Thus, it was concluded that flexible working systems had positive effects on maintaining the work life balance of the employees with in the limits of the sample.