Group travel influencing work-life balance of millennials: the study of IT companies in Pune

Work-life balance (WLB) is a subject of primary concern for every organization. This paper attempted to delineate the influence of group travel on the WLB of millennials working in the IT companies in Pune. The study of group travel was compared to individual journeys. Four factors of group travel: escapism, refreshment, bonding, gain a new perspective; we’re used to establish a relationship between group travel and work-life balance. Data were collected from 214 millennials employed in IT companies in Pune using an online survey. Multiple regressions analysis has affirmed that group travel has a positive and significant influence on the work-life balance of the millennials. The findings of this study would contribute to crucial contributors such as the company to modify the policies regarding travel vacation for the employees and acts as marketing inputs to outside stakeholders like travel agencies, hotels, and hospitality businesses.


Introduction
Nowadays, companies are not searching for a highly-skilled candidate or have an excellent academic re-cord. Still, they have the right attitude and can take its mission and vision in a positive direction. Most of the millennial share some characteristics which can be a good fit for the company. The majority of millennials value Travel than any other generation [1]. They like to spend more of their income on Travel than buying a home or anything else. Previously the trips or business trips are considered unfavourable, but now these are the things that attract millennials a lot. That's why the same thing can be applied in the organization to keep the millennials motivated and helps them to maintain work-life balance (WLB), thereby increasing the organization's yield and competence [2]. In this pandemic situation of COVID-19, there is a lockdown in most states, and many IT professionals are given work from home [3]. They cannot go outside, meet anyone, and share what they feel, staying inside the house all day. That is why people are suffering from depression, boredom, lost interest in work. In prior literature, there are studies related to travel motivations [4]. Research states that "the intensity of group travel is impacted not only by the cultural background of individual or collectivism, but also by a variety of variables, including social, political and economic influence, and by individual travellers' background" [5]. But no literature talks about whether group travel has any relationship with WLB. Through this research, we are trying to find out the connection between the group travel and the WLB and taken specifically the millennial in the Software (IT) industry in Pune as my research scope because the nature and scenario of the work in the software service organization poses unique challenges for professionals [6]. So this study would help an organization taking a proper step to increase the performance and involvement of their millennial workforce [7].

Literature review
Work-Life Balance (WLB) Today, the importance of WLB is more emphasized by those entering the workforce than in their history. Research shows that graduates have to labor for more excellent hours in settings where they feel a growingly unsatisfactory balance between family and working life. Most psychologists believe that a worker's expectations should not be based on his capacity to live a satisfactory personal life outside of their professional setting" [8]. "Training and family are the top two fields of human existence, and for researchers across the world, their interaction has been studied. The needs of a family and work need to be balanced and integrated" [9]. "Work/life balance is the phrase used to define the balance between working time and other elements of life that an individual requires. Work-life balance is a means to balance an organization's workers' personal and work life.WLB urges staff to split up their period according to their priorities and to balance their time via allocating time to their family, health, holidays, etc. It is an essential notion in the business sector because it motivates and increases employees' allegiance to the enterprise" [10]. His study focused on the professors in school for evaluating the worklife synergy where he found that some teachers were doing great in balancing between work and life, but some teachers were struggling. He has proposed many ways to overcome that [11]. Previous findings have shown that the higher education level is also positively associated with burnout [12]. This study was done on US physicians, in which they found that the frequency of burnout is at a disturbing stage. "Today employees get a range of family services and initiatives, such as job sharing, telecommuting, parental leave with protection, part-time return-to-work opportunities, flexible, resource and referral services, in-house child care and working parent support groups. " And numerous researches believe that "these advantages can reduce the stress associated with various role balance. "It makes an obvious sense that it would attract people and use this technique to enhance the employee mood and behaviour of the business to give work-life-balancing activities. " "By not promoting workers' a more balanced work-family life, the organizations' personal lives contribute to stress, which undermines the workforce's capacity to be focused, productive and creative. " " Male and female WLB respondents were selected by [13] and discovered a substantial difference between the replies between the categories.
In [14], Grant-Vallone and Ensherexamined international expatriates regarding employee health, conflict in work and personal life, and organizational support. The study examines the impact of corporate assistance and two types of work and personal life conflicts on the health and happiness of expatriate employees. "In general, employees claimed that their personal life is affected by greater levels of work than by personal life. The results showed that conflict between work and life was linked to sadness, anxiety, and personal conflict in the working-life environment. Programs that deal with both forms of conflict are therefore necessary to retain high-quality workers" [15] Previous conclusions show that the "general view of employees of being valued and cared for by the organization, " in the absence of anticipated direct rewards or personal recognition, has a positive link with (a) conscientiousness in carrying out conventional job responsibilities, (b) affectivity in the organization and calculating implication, expressed on behalf of the organization's behalf. " Travel and Well Being [1] gave importance to the relationship between Travel and well-being. They focused on "subjective well-being experienced and how it related to travel. The model shows that motility about particular conducts and activities (which relates to the attitudes, values, and beliefs) indirectly and directly impacts well-being. Acker, Witlox. "The indirect effect reflects the fact that the potential to travel on its own is of importance through the activity and travel patterns and experience thereof. This may express optional ideals and the flexibility, independence, and autonomy that a possible journey offers. The direct connection between mobility and individual activity and travel patterns shows that increased motility can (decrease) involvement (decrease) in specific activities and thus enhance (decrease) both hedonic and eudemonic well-being". In Clark & Oswald (1996) discovered a modest connection between absolute income alone and the well-being of employees. "The second and key conclusion is that comparative income indicators are associated strongly with the reported degree of pleasure at work. " Cappelli and Cauvin(1991) show that relative earnings can also predict employees' attitudes and actions. This reveals an increase in health and satisfaction levels among the people in Madurai City who are traveling by bicycle.
"An escape from the monotonous routine; an escape from the routine; an escape from work; an escape from the boss; a client; a shuttle, a house; the rubbish and leaking rods. " In addition to escaping, family and friendship, relaxation is also a key feature in previous literature.
"Two reasons may be seen as incentives for Travel: anomie and ego improvement. The pushing elements were both of these stated motivations. Anomie denotes the will to exceed the sense of solitude that the traveler desires in everyday life. Instead of ego enhancement, it comes from the desire to recognize the state of the journey. [6] revealed that the motive for outgoing British passengers was found to be pulling and pushing. Japanese traveller's studies found that Relax, Knowledge, and Adventure are highly important to be considered travel motivation.
Group Travel [7] In his study proposed an extended model related to group travel and individualism/collectivism culture. He claims that intention and behaviour in group travel is a function of the cultural upbringing of collectivism or individualism, along with the backgrounds of individual travellers.
'Researchers note that group travel patterns are preferred by tourism of collectivist society. The data show that visitors in Japan, Korea, and China are groupbased and hierarchical, value affiliation and connections, and Travel in groups. In addition, "The subjective well-being of the vacation group revealed the first one a developed sense of well-being before and after holidays in comparison with the other group" (Gilbert & Abdullah, 2004).

Satisfaction
Satisfaction is a lovely inclination you get when you get something you needed or have accomplished something you needed to do. "Satisfaction is the opinion that a service offers a pleasant degree of consumption. Measurement of travel service satisfaction would mean that travellers are satisfied with the complete travel service or sections. Customer satisfaction is less broad than SWB (Subjective Well Being) and relates only to service users". "Traveller satisfaction is driven by what happens when you use a method of Travel. Travelling every day can impact the mood of a person and contribute to cumulative fulfillment.
Many kinds of research are predicated on a sense of comfort and pleasure. "It is thought that some psychological requirements are met when an individual experiences leisure. " However, "the relevance resides in the quantity of time available and the value that people attach to their recreational activities. The question of leisure is distinct from money or other indicators of material living conditions. High incomes don't always indicate increased leisure or a reduction in leisure time. ".Moreover, activities that are related to leisure help in encouraging personal development, entertainment, and relaxation.

Software (It) Professionals
"The features of the India software services business and the notion of work constitute some type of difficulty for industry experts. Due to female professionals, the problems are exacerbated. The development of a project-oriented association characterizes the software industry in India; more sophisticated and critical projects have been outsourced to India". [12] Conducted qualitative research of IT workers and showed that, in most situations, the "informants' expectations differed; the informants seemed to focus mostly on monetary assistance and non-monetary support. Those who emphasized monetary help generally tried to boost salaries while those who focused on non-monetary advantages tried to pay leave, equal treatment, and recognition. " "With an increasing number of women working in India and the IT sector facing a talent deficit, it seems that comprehending the job and family of professionals in the lives of professionals becomes an important HR problem. " Millennial Age Y, otherwise called millennial, spread individuals conceived between the 1980s and 1996. Millennial professionals are both a challenge and an opportunity to their employer's Researchers have found that the meaning of the following motivational factors is "confirmed in Generation Y: constant learning and work development; interesting, difficult and various tasks; social relations and the behaviour, flexibility with schedules and working hours; balance work-life" in the previous studies. "Millennials indicated their anticipation of dynamic tasks being assigned (e.g., diverse, difficult, developmental, adaptable), of being part of a dynamic team (e.g., supportive, developmental, and enthusiastic team), and of working with a coach. In the material, the individuals were concerned with developing their skills (i.e., their worth for the labor market) and receiving assistance and care. They seemed to assume that anyone could do train their skills to increase the chances of success in the work jungle". Through his study, he said: "The job is done by this generation better and faster. They are extremely collaborative and team-oriented and search for significance in work and learning. Although these charac-teristics in the work environment, management, and supervision are highly recognized, Generation Y people are difficult. Generation Y also recognizes clear direction, calls for timely feedback on performance, expects consultations and managerial decision-making, and calls for continuous intellectual challenge. These traits differ considerably from those of the individualists and the working lovers of the preceding generation". [9] discovered Generation Me (or Millennial) to display greater outside control; a low social-approval propensity; increased self-confidence, sadness, selflove, and anxiety. "Organizations and managers that grasp these underlying generational gaps will be more successful, as they manage their youthful people, in some situations discover methods to address disparities and build against pressure in others. The earnings of the 21st century go to companies who are capable of harnessing the distinctive characteristics of Generation Me and that of their firm".

Millennial and Work-Life Balance
Millennials give priority to their lifestyle and working interactions. This applies to most firms, including professional services; "Millennial job applicants take professional decisions on the subject of work-life balance as highly essential. An excellent work-life balance influences your job happiness, job performance, and ethical decision-making favourably. Millenniums show while the concerns of work-life balance are crucial both for men and females, women exhibit considerably stronger reactions to some topics relating to flexible working arrangements.

Millennial and Travel
Folmer, in their study, found that travel motivation is mainly determined by experiential demands firmly associated with seeking unique Travel and tourist experiences. This differentiates them and also contributes to ideal societal position and thus making their travel journey. For them, Travel is a mode of gaining freedom, helping adolescence to adulthood transition, escape, and relaxation. "Millennials are open-minded travelers that want liberty and flexible ways to see the globe as well as to regard travel as a great opportunity. " Therefore we have seen in previous literature that no research had covered anything related to the effect of group travel on the WLB of millennials. This study aims to delineate the influence of group travel on the WLB of millennials working professionals in IT ser-vice organizations. It would be beneficial for the organization to understand what their workforce wants and what steps they must take to ensure their well-being. To study the group travel impact on work-life balance, we had taken four factors of group travel, and we individually found their impact on WLB. Thus, the following hypotheses were proposed.
H1: The link between gaining a fresh viewpoint and balance between work and life is good.
H2: The balance between cooking and work-life is a favourable relationship.
H3: The link between bonding and the balance between work and life is favourable.
H4: The connection between the equilibrium of work and work-life is positive.
H5: The balance between group travel and working life has a good link. H5:

Measures
The variables in this study were measured by the carefully chosen items and adapted from the previous literature. The study of group travel was done as compared to individual Travel. Jang & Cai's research adopted three things measuring each variable, i.e., escapism, refreshment, bonding, and six items measuring gain new perspective, were adopted from Jang & Cai's research. The above variables are the factors of group travel. Another four items measuring work-life balance were adopted from Banu & Duraipandian's research. These factors are used to found whether there is an association between group travel and WLB. All the items were estimated by a five-pointer Likert scale, tied down by (1) "Strongly disagree" and (5)"Strongly agree. "

Data Collection and Sample
The study adopted a quantitative analysis method. Data were gathered from the respondents lying in the age group of millennials working in the information technology (IT) companies in Pune. For the survey, the snowball sampling method was used. Online questionnaires, in Google form, were sent through email and other social media to first known respondents and requested them to distinguish further respondents. Overall, 214 completed surveys were returned in two weeks of data collection.
Out of 214 respondents surveyed, 44.39 percent were female, and 56.07 percent were male. So there is no large difference between the gender which makes this study free of bias gender opinion. The age group of respondents, 53.86 percent, were lying in the range of 23 and 28 years old,33.64 percent were lying in the range of 29 and 34 years old, 12.61 percent were lying in the range of 35 and 40, and no one was 40 years old or above. Also, 51.86 percent of respondents were having work experience of 0-3 years, 25.70 percent were having work experience of 3-5 years,16.82 percent were having work experience of 5-10 years, 4.20 percent were having work experience of 10-15 years, and 1.40 percent were having work experience of 15 years and above. Annual income was classified into six groups: Additionally, some more questions had been asked to the Millenials. More than 50 % of the respondents often go for group travel once in 3 months (26.34 %) and 6 months (29.03%). Visit friends/relatives (66.80 %), and trips which include plans to sight-see or any tour (54.30%) was the highest chosen purpose of Travel for the millennial. And to get some distance from work was the top reason for traveling. After being questioned about the benefits of traveling alone, those who preferred traveling alone ( 10.57 %), you come to know yourself more intimately. It can help your problem-solving and decision-making skills improve were the two highest marked by respondents. On the other hand, those who chose group travel provide companionship (59.10%), safety (54.30%), and the relationship and connection increases (50.50%) were the benefits marked by them.

Data analysis and result
Descriptive Statistics and Reliability Analysis Table 1 shows the results after performing the descriptive statistics. The final score of the variables was calculated by taking an average across the individual scores among the five variables. Among the five variables, bonding had the highest mean (M= 4.279, SD= 0.7277). Especially, respondents strongly show their concerns about bonds with their friends, family, and colleagues associated with traveling in a group (M = 4.371, SD = 0.7330). Remarkably, they also highly consider that group travel helps meet people with a similar lifestyle (M= 4.247, SD= 0.7301).
For reliability analysis, the Cronbach's alpha (α) was calculated as mentioned in Table 1, As suggested by Hair et al. (2010), Cronbach's alpha value must lie above the threshold value of 0.7, and the matter in the study for the variables ranged from 0.702 to 0.935. Additionally, Cronbach's alpha for all the 19 items was 0.888, also more significant than 0.7. Therefore, It can be reasonably concluded that the measures had high reliability.

Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
An EFA was implemented for the items measuring the four predictors: escapism, refreshment, bonding, gain a new perspective using Principal components with Varimax rotation. Table 2 shows the results of exploratory factor analysis.
The results revealed that the KMO value was 0.803 and the 0.001 significance level shown by Bartlett's Test, demonstrating that the data were valid for exploratory factor analysis. As anticipated, four components with eigenvalues greater than 1 as shown in Figure 1 were pulled out, and the total variance explained by the variable was 67.217%. All factors loading were above 0.5as illustrated in Table 2. The first factor is "gain a new perspective, " which accounted for 19.805% of the variance was highest among all the aspects with an eigenvalue of 5.096. The second-factor "refreshment" captured 18.109% of the clash with an eigenvalue of 2.127. The third-factor "bonding" captured 16.398% of the variance with an eigenvalue of 1.494, and the fourth-factor "escapism" accounted for at least 12.904% of the clash with an eigenvalue 1.366. In sum, the three factors "gain new perspective, " "refreshment, " and "bonding" captured more than 50% of the variance, contributing to explaining much of why the millennials of IT companies in Pune prefer group travel. Graph 1 shows Scree Plot showing four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.

Multiple Regression Analysis
To examine the influence of the four factors on the web of millennials in IT companies in Pune, multiple regression analysis was conducted. Scatterplots, the value of tolerance, boxplots, Mahalanobis distance, and variance inflation factor (VIF) was checked for confirming the regression assumptions. Results showed that the regression assumption of homoscedasticity was fulfilled, and multivariate outliers and multicollinearity were not of concern.
For testing the hypothesis, multiple regression was executed. The analysis showed that gain a new perspective (β = 0.485, p<0.01) had a positive and significant impact on the work-life balance of millennials, which supports our first hypothesis (H1). Also, refreshment(β = 0.183, p<0.05), had a positive and significant impact on the work-life balance of millennials, which supports our second hypothesis (H2). Bonding (β = 0.361, p<0.01), had a positive and significant impact on the work-life balance of millennials, which supports our third hypothesis (H3). Table 3 shows the result of multiple regression. Lastly, escapism (β = 0.244, p<0.01) had a positive and significant impact on the millennial's work-life balance, which supports our fourth hypothesis (H4). In combination, the four predictors of group travel (i.e., gain a new perspective, refreshment, bonding, and escapism) explained a significant variance, that implies, group travel accounts for approximately 46 percent of the variance in WLB, R 2 = 0.459, F = 38.334, p<0.01. This supports our fifth hypothesis (H5) that there is a positive relationship between group travel and the work-life balance. As demonstrated by the standardized regression coefficients (in Table 3), gain new perspective (β = 0.485) exerted the strongest influence on work-life balance among all the predictors, followed by bonding (β = 0.361), escapism (β = 0.244) and refreshment (β = 0.183), respectively.
Discussion and implication research on group travel influencing the WLB of the individual has been scarce. This study is among the first that has researched the impact of group travel on the WLB of especially the millennials in IT companies in Pune. In terms of IT and infrastructure, Pune is becoming a focal point for job opportunities and developers(Pune: The queen of Deccan, 2016). Hence, there is a need to manage the workforce accordingly. This study on group travel impacting work-life balance was conducted as compared to individual Travel. All the respondents are millennials, and their responses indicated that group travel has a positive and significant impact on their WLB. The findings showed that the strongest indicator for WLB is gaining a new perspective, which includes increasing knowledge, meeting new people, experiencing new and different lifestyles, doing unique things, and meeting people with similar interests. The millennials are more into gaining a new perspective of life to become empathetic, rational, and compassionate and balance their work and life effectively. After earning a unique perspective through group travel that has a significant effect on WLB is refreshment. There must be a need to refresh ourselves so that we can perform our tasks better. Refreshment includes getting freedom, relaxation, and thrills, and excitement. Group travel offers these so that a person can have a fresh start to his work after coming back to everyday life. Refreshment is followed by the factor that is bonding. Millennials of IT companies in Pune point out that through their response that bonding shows a positive and significant impact on their WLB. Sticking with their family, friends, and colleagues helps them to manage their life and work efficiently. These three factors of group travel contribute more than 50 percent variance in the WLB. Lastly, escapism also has a positive and significant impact on WLB. For Millenials in IT companies in Pune points that as compared to individual Travel, group travel offers them the better escape, be it escaping from the home demands, be it from the hectic job or to escape from the routine. All four factors of group travel contribute 67.217 percent of the variance in the WLB of millennials in IT industries in Pune.
The study's outcomes have imperative implications for companies and individuals. During this pandemic situation of COVID-19, the IT professionals are assigned work from home. Their WLB has been affected. Given the significant impact of group travel on the WLB, these professionals miss going out, gaining a new perspective, bonding, meeting with people, refreshment. Considering the normal situation, the company should reconsider its policies regarding the welfare of its employees by giving them personal time to pursue their hobbies or spend time with their families. Given the significant and most substantial influence of gain, a new perspective on the work-life balance shows that millennials value meeting new people, sharing their knowledge, lifestyle, interests. This acts positively towards their WLB.
Considering the significant effect of refreshment and escapism on WLB, companies should increase the frequency of travel trips for the employees, should use paid sabbatical leave. This will allow employees to pursue their passions and reenergize themselves away from the workplace. Companies can also incorporate the idea of a workstation that is a vacation that will enable you to work remotely while containing components of relaxation that let you loosen up, unwind, and be increasingly productive. Companies can also collaborate with some hotel chains and resorts, offering a workstation package for guests who wish to work remotely in calm and refreshing surroundings. Companies can also use sustainable Travel like trains and buses; these rides are always memorable. On an individual level, millennials, as they know their job is hectic, should try to arrange group travel once a while so that it helps positively to balance between life and work.

Conclusion
There are several ways in which future research studies can broaden and expand the current research. The sample studied might be one-sided due to the usage of snowball sampling and millennials only. Future examinations can simple random sampling comes under probability sampling techniques by considering the other different age groups and addressing the limitation. It would be likewise alluring to gather information from greater sample size to increase the general-ization of the study's findings. Besides, future research can also improve this by including more potential determining factors of group travel impacting WLB. Finally, an analysis can evaluate the possible changes in millennials' inspiration towards group travel related to WLB at various focuses in time previously and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also acts as marketing inputs to outside factors like travel agencies, hotels, and hospitality businesses. Travel agencies can organize group travels, especially for millennials, with more incentives and frequency. At the same time, hotels can also give group discounts and incentives to particular age groups as their marketing strategy to attract people from this category to their ventures.

Statement on ethical issues
Research involving people and/or animals is in full compliance with current national and international ethical standards.