Work-Life Balance And Employee Commitment

Project and Seminar Material for Business Administration and Management BAM

Abstract

The research profers an appraisal of work-life balance and employee commitment. It provides a conceptual analysis of work-life balance and determines its correlation or non correlation with employee commitment. The research typify a significant dimension in human resources management as it projects the importance of improving workers moral for high productivity through providing a work condition that enhances a balance between employee work hours and other employee personal and family commitment.

Chapter One

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Work life balance describes the relationship between your work and the commitments in the rest of your life, and how they impact on one another. Employers, employees and government want to maximise participation in the workforce. However, in our demanding lives many people struggle to balance work and the responsibilities of caring for children, family members with a disability or elderly parents. For other workers it’s often difficult to find time outside work for study, volunteering, taking care of their own health or participating in sport and recreation. There is no ideal work life balance; everyone is different and the ‘right’ balance may alter over time as families grow older and personal commitments change. Having options about how work is organised makes managing work and life demands possible by allowing employees to work in non-traditional work patterns and locations that better fit their personal commitments. Overall quality of life improves and businesses also benefit from employees’ higher morale and commitment. For employers the capacity to negotiate flexible work arrangements provides an antidote to loss of skills and experience and the high cost of recruitment and retention in a competitive labour market. Employers who provide flexible work options immediately gain a competitive edge in the labour market by becoming ’employers of choice.

The concept of work-life balance, also referred to as ‘work-life conflict’ or ‘work-family conflict’, has received a great deal of attention from scholars in recent times. Whilst there have been various interpretations of the term, here we use the definition from the New Zealand Department of Labour website (2007) that describes it as “…effectively managing the juggling act between paid work and the other activities that are important to people”. Work-life imbalance can appear in various forms from the inability to remove oneself psychologically from the demands of the job (Messersmith, 2007:430), to a blurring of the lines between work and home life (Boswell and Olson-Buchanan, 2007:593).Despite being a relatively new body of thought, the existence of academic studies on work-life balance is broad. Focuses range from political action (see Bryson, Warner-Smith, Brown and Fray, 2007) to the impact of technologies (see Boswell et. al. 2007) to its effect on worker’s attitudes (see McPherson, 2007). This saturation is hardly surprising given that, according to a report written on behalf of global research organisation ESOMAR, over two thirds of people across 23 different countries believe they lack work-life balance and nearly half felt personally affected by the imbalance (Echegaray, Cornish, and Donnelly, 2006:9).The research shall therefore determine work-life balance and employee commitment

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The problem confronting this research is to appraise work-life balance and employee commitment. The basis for the research stems from numerous complaint and the inability of employees to maintain a balance between their official work and personal and family lives. It is also a significant dimension in human resources management to proffer solution to work-life balance and employee commitment.

1.3 Research Questions

What is the nature of work-life balance and employee commitment
What is the effect of work-life balance and employee commitment

1.4 Objectives of the Research

To appraise work-life balance and employee commitment
To determine the effect of work-life balance and employee commitment
To proffer strategy to managing work-life balance and employee commitment.

1.5 Significance of the Research

The research shall determine the nature of work-life balance and employee commitment and shall proffer a significant human resource management strategy to work-life balance and employee commitment. The research shall also serve as a veritable source of information for issues on work-life balance and employee commitment

1.6 Statement of the Hypothesis

HO There is a relationship between work-life balance and employee commitment
Hi There is no relationship between work-life balance and employee commitment
Ho The level of work-life balance is high
Hi The level of work-life balance is low
Ho The effect of work-life balance and employee commitment is low
Hi The effect of work-life balance and employee commitment is high.

1.7 Scope of the Study

The study proffers an appraisal of work-life balance and employee commitment and elucidate a significant human resource dimension strategy to managing work-life balance an employee commitment.

1.8 Definition of Terms

Work-Life Balance:

Work life balance describes the relationship between your work and the commitments in the rest of your and how they impact on one another

Employee Commitment:

Is the psychological attachment and the resulting loyalty of an employee to an organisation.

Chapter Five

Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

5.1 Summary of Findings

This study finds a significant relationship between work life balance and organizational commitment in selected IT firms in Lagos. As the significance value is less than .05 so null hypotheses were rejected. Likewise, the correlation analysis indicates that there is high disparity between work-life balance and employee commitment. According to the results, the study found a significant relationship of work life balance and organizational commitment across the Gender and marital status. Yet, on the other side it indicates that top management employees are more committed to their work then the professionals and by comparing professionals with the sports staff the professionals show more commitment and this greater commitment is might be due to the seniority.

5.2 Conclusion

As found through empirical study, employees’ balance of work and life indirectly affects in-role performance through affective commitment. The finding shows the role of affective commitment as a mediating factor for reinforcing the effect of work-life balance on in-role performance. As explained by Meyer and Allen (1997), employees who are strongly committed to their organizations identify with, get involved in, and feel loyal towards their organizations. This enhanced emotional attachment to the organization leads to increased outcomes.

5.3 Recommendation

Helping workers to achieve work-life balance is the imperative duties of organizations (Carlson et al., 2009). Considering the importance of work-life balance in the workplace, the findings of the study have important practical implications.

The relationship between work-life balance and employees’ affective commitment is a major contribution in this study. Previously reviewed studies provided support for the importance of work-life balance in terms of employees’ affective commitment. The result is important in identifying ways in which companies can increase their employees’ affective commitment to the company. Of even more significance are the results that support the important relationship between affective commitment and inrole performance. The results regarding this relationship underscore the need for managerial attention to having an affectively committed workforce.

Organizations can focus on supporting employees’ work-life balance to secure their affective commitment to the organizations. For this, organizations could set up a work-life balance policy and programs that would support their employees in fulfilling their official work at the workplace and their individual responsibilities outside the workplace as well. For example, employers can provide a work-life benefit program such as Happy Friday (employees can leave their office two hours early on the last Friday of every month), refreshing day-offs (employees take two weeks off every three years to refresh their mind and to have time to spend with families), and a flexible labor time system (employees can choose work time based on their preferences), and these benefit programs will likely influence employees’ emotions and perceptions in that they will feel the organizational support of caring about their well-being. More importantly, the organizational culture must be supportive of the programs so that all employees will feel comfortable using that program whenever they need it.

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