BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Every individual is an integral part of the family in particular and the society in general. In today’s business world, employee performance is not just a key determinant of organizational goals but also being influenced by family issues. As a result, organizations look for different ways of supporting their employees, in order for them to strike a balance between work and life in a bid to enhance corporateperformaance (Obiageli, Uzochukwu and Ngozi, 2015).
In recent time, there has been an upsurge in the consideration of the pressures that work has on family as well as life of employees. This has triggered research bordering on wok-life balance (WLB). In an environment where there is high level of competitive pressures stemming largely from efforts to deliver quality service, the weight of this on employees are enormous (Karatape, 2010). This is because the issue of conflict or interface between people’s private lives and occupational stress is critical to understanding how organisation can leverage on their performance and productivity levels (Deery, 2008; Aluko, 2009).
Work life balance is a very important phenomenon that is of great concern to various employees in both private and public sectors. It goes beyond prioritizing the work role and one’s personal life. It also affects the social, psychological, economical and mental well being of the individual. All these is been reflected in the output of the individual, which affects his or her performance in the work place on the long run. Work life balance has implication on employee attitudes, behaviours, wellbeing as well as organizational effectiveness (Eby et al cited in Obiageli et al., 2015).
Many researchers have generally agreed on the important role of work-life balance as it is related with an individual’s psychological well-being and overall sense of harmony in life, which is an indicator of balance between the workplace role and the role in family (Obiageli, Uzochukwu and Ngozi, 2015).
A central characteristic of work-life balance is the amount of time a person spends at work. There are indications that long work hours may harm personal health, endanger safety and increase stress. Developing economies like Nigeria are faced with serious economic challenges and labour market pressures added to poor social infrastructures, poverty, high unemployment and corruption. These conditions further exacerbate the work and life of the average Nigerian worker whose aim is to make a living and who may have to arduously build up accommodating arrangements and cognitive psychological coping behaviours that stimulate desirable satisfaction and effectual functioning both at work and at home. Most workers in Nigeria are affected by lack of work flexibility, elevated work pressures and long working hours; a situation that decreases their job performance and productivity (Fapohunda, 2014).
According to Clark (2009) work-life balance is the contentment and good functioning at work and at home with negligible role conflicts. Work-life balance is about finding the right balance between one‘s work and one‘s life (outside work) and about feeling comfortable with both work and nonwork commitments.
Performance is described as the attained result of skilled workers in some specific situations (Prasetya and Kato, 2011). Robbins (2001) also indicated that when employee feels happy about work related tasks then his performance is increased and he/she performs tasks in better way.Studies like Bond (2009), Hochschild (2007) and Okeke (2011) affirm that when people spend too many hours at work, and spend less with their families, their health and work performances begin to deteriorate.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Research on Work Life Balance (WLB) has greatly advanced in western countries (Ozbilgin, Beauregard, Tatli and Bell, 2011), however this cannot be said for developing economies like Nigeria where little is known about WLB practices, both in structural and cultural forms, and of course an obvious paucity of empirical studies in this area.Hence, the need for this study is timely and sacrosanct. Inadequate work life balance is a problem that poses a big risk to workers well being, their performance as well as the organizational performance. Many employees often have difficulties in attempting to balance employment responsibilities with their social life. The challenges of integrating work and family life is a part of everyday reality for majority of workforce.
Employees work hard to strike a balance to fulfill the demands of the working life and meeting the commitments of family life. Those who fail to do so either quit the organization thereby increasing the rate of attrition or become less productive. Owing to the high level of unemployment that has plagued the Nigerian labour market,organizations and employers of labour mostly in the private sector have taken advantage of this menace by always demanding unattainable and unrealistic results from their employees without any concerns for employees social-family well being. This has led to broken homes, job dissatisfaction and sub-optimal commitment and employees’ productivity. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to investigate the effect of Work Life Balance on organizational performance with a special reference to Guaranty Trust Bank Nig. PLC.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of this study is to assess the effect of work life balance on organizational performance. Other specific objectives of the study are:
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This study will be guided be the following research questions:
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Ho1: There is no significant relationship between work life balance and organisational performance.
Ho2: Work life balance is not positively related to employees’ commitment.
Ho3: Work life balance strategy is not a significant predictor of employees’ job satisfaction.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The outcome of this study will educate the general public and managers of corporate organizations and the banking sector on the causes of low productivity of female employee and how improved organizational culture can be used to maintain proper work life balance. This research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars and researchers interested in carrying out further research in this field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide new explanation to the topic.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study will cover in the gap in knowledge by critically investigating the effects of Work Life Balance on organizational performance with a special reference to Guaranty Trust Bank Nig. PLC in selected branches in Abuja.
1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
Besides time and resources constraint the researcher encountered some of the limitations that hampered the study revolves around gathering of primary materials and analyzing data. The banks unwillingness to release all the necessary data for the research work, probably for the fear of competitors however the researcher assured them of anonymity as the information obtained is vital to this study hence considered confidential. More so, the uncooperative attitude of the female bankers which led to the non-return of some questionnaires was another setback to the researcher. However in spite of the limitations the researcher painstakingly ensured that these f actors were downplayed.
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