Balance between Work and Professional Life

As the time changes continuously, it is very difficult to maintain the balance between the work and the personal life. A person is engaged with different relationships that influence a lot to balance between the working life and personal life. In early 1960’s researchers found imbalance in personal life and work (kumari, 2012). There are many studies conducted on work life balance and it suggests the positive impact on each individuals families. Work place flexibility is the skills of a worker to engage when, where and how long to related task (Hill et al, 2008).

The topic “Work-Life Balance” has been selected because with increases industrialization and urbanization since Second World War, women labor force participation has increased tremendously and we observe many dual earner couples (Narayanan and Narayanan, 2012). These families used to count on help from non-working women relatives. However, traditional family care support has also decreased with time due to a host of reasons (less family members are available to look after their parents in old age due to increased rural-urban migration and increased need for income).

The current situation (where workers have to look after their children as well as work/earn) leads to a situation called work-family conflict. It refers to pressures from work and family domains, which are incompatible with each other in such a way that meeting requirements of one role makes it difficult to satisfactorily fulfill the other role (kumari, 2012). According to research, working long hours is one of the sources of work-family conflict. Hence, to maintain the balance between work and family life, the theory “work-life balance” has been adopted. According to which the growth of any company depends on the interrelated performance and commitment of the employees. Both personal and professional lives are interrelated and difficult to be separated from each other. Organization needs to keep its employees happy and satisfied to get the maximum productivity (Marget Deery, 2008). The balance is achieved when an individual’s rights are fulfilled by the people from whom he/she is expecting to sort out the core problems and issues regarding professional and personal life. Previous studies elaborates that employees satisfaction, motivation, profitability, productivity, recruitment and retention policies can be improved by adopting flexible working arrangements and full determination towards the betterment of the employees and organizational goals.

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Here we are conducting a study of Work life balance in prospective of the employees of Pakistan International Airline. In which different factors have been identified which affects mainly on the overall productivity and behaviors of the employees and what can be done to improve the success, happiness and satisfaction. Different behaviors were noticed in all the departments’ cause of its internal and external forces towards the political worth. High rate of flexibility is there due to the change in the executive posts and current economic, political, and law and order situations of Pakistan. In addition if the work life balance policies are formed adversely it can distress the performance of the business very badly. Employers should focus on better work life balance policies with the competitive compensation packages to have better human resource management. Work life balance policies can reduce the costs by the retention of employees. It can increase the profitability and good will of the organization too. Work life balance also reduces the stress of employees and builds a protected and improved workplace.

Problem Statement:

Most of the researches have been found in the past on the factors effecting work life balance of employee (Narayanan and Narayanan, 2012), (Kumari, 2012), (Wilkinson et al, 2008), (saif et al, 2011). The results indicate the positive impact on employee of work life balance. The increase in the globalization, changing nature and increase in the complexity of life, there is a problem faced by employee to create balance between working life and personal life. If this complexity and changing behavior is not recognized, it creates problem in the development of employee. There is a need to work and create employees’ life balanced.

Research Objective:

The objective of this research is to identify the demographic profile of employee who are working in Airline industry, determine the factors affects work-life balance on the employees of Airline industry.

Research Question:

Q1) is it important to consider employee has a balanced life?

Q2) Are the factors includes (workplace rigidity, Job Contents, Personal Commitment, Situational issues and family circumstances) effecting work life balance?

1.4 Limitation of Study:

Due to limitation of budget, and sources the study is only limited in Karachi city of Pakistan.

Literature Review

2.0 Theoretical Background:

2.1 Work-Life-Balance:

Today, the work life balance is a common issue at every workplace. The work life balance creates balance between the work and life includes career and the life style. It is the state of equilibrium where any person is able to get satisfies with personal and professional life. Balancing time with parents, spouse, children, friends, relatives, colleagues, supervisors and subordinates is the biggest challenge to be achieved. The empirical study gives the idea of work life balance performed in past. Work life balance has become a challenge throughout the world. The study will identify the assessment of employees about their organization from the work life balance prospective and how it is practiced at their workplace. This will also measure the level of job satisfaction of employees of the PIA in relation to their socio-economic factors. It is to be cited from (Narayanan and Narayanan, 2012), the individuals are facing the challenges that how they balance their work life and personal life (Ramachandra & Suman, 2007). It is to be cited from (Narayanan and Narayanan, 2012) that this study is also supported by (lewis et al, 2012) who study younger’s in four European countries and found the positive desire related to work life balance.Without balance in working life and personal life, it is very difficult to maintain and control the personal and working life. In order to be satisfied, the individual must create the balance between their work life and personal life. It is found generally that work life balance is too difficult (Narayanan, 2012).

2.2 Family circumstances:

Family circumstances include the relationship which depends on any person and needs to be managed properly (Narayanan and Narayanan, 2012). It includes parents, siblings, children, and spouse and responsibilities towards them. Family circumstances are also a factor that influence on Work-Life Balance. Due to mutual understanding between the families, the positive work life balance can be created. Changes in the family size and structure have played an important role to reflect the fundamental decline in values of family. People have changed their way of building families and generating individualization more preferable than the collectivism. Children are facing the experience of increase in single-parent family living; decreased number of siblings in home, homosexual marriages is approved to be legal worldwide. However rise in family income and fall in child number has been noticed [1] . Circumstances that are mainly identified are overcrowded housing, children’s education and health, progress of children, parents’ educational attainment, parental paid work, economic resources and poverty.

2.3 Personal Commitments:

Commitment is said to be and example of goodness and doing things as per our own will. This is a factor that is observed to be very important in balancing the work and life of employees. Commitments can be given to the friends, family or relatives to build relations and keep your life free of problems and happy. An employee can be committed to hisher career development and consistent growth and productivity. At the same place health and hobbies are also said to be very important to build the overall personality of any person which can not be neglected. Our religious and community activities are also a part of our socio-cultural forces which needs to be maintained in a predefined circle of social and religious values and attributes. In our study we have seen that how these different factors are playing role in the lives of employees and how much work-life balance policies by organization are helping them to maintain those commitments.

2.4 Job Contents:

Job contents are all the elements of any job that are defined in job description from organization to the employees. Job content is the nature of job, its title, reporting responsibilities, subordinates, main purpose, and accountabilities of the job and employment conditions. It includes different levels of work It may include shift work, on-job training, all leave arrangements, working hours etc. Here we have identified and worked on the some factors related to the job contents affecting on the work life balance of the employees. Factors that were affecting mainly are leave arrangements, inflexible/flexible working time, job sharing, trainings and growth opportunities, and employees’ relations with their colleagues.

2.5 Situational Issues:

Situational Issues are the issues which are not pre-planned. It comes suddenly. Situational issues are a barrier in working and personal life. Situational Issues can be sickness, emergency, responsibilities. It can be faced in the form of heavy work load at home or workplace and similarly if any problem occurs at the home or workplace then how would an employee deal with it, we also asked them that if this happens at same time at both places then what they would prefer first to be solved or to deal with. Generally if we see that situation issues if arise at home it builds a negative approach in the mind of employee that how would his/her boss will react to it and if situational issue arises at workplace it gives a positive approach in the mind of employee that it would be considered to be good if he cope up with it and how well he handle the situation for the betterment of organization.

2.6 Work place Rigidity:

Work place rigidity means the stiffness at the workplace and hurdles that can be hard or demanding efforts from employees to improve the work speed, productivity or commitment to the performance. This also includes the deadlines and schedules which need to be met by the employees on time with the expected outcome. Pressures of traveling and reaching on time affects the employees start of work and balanced mental approach. Expectations from boss and his attitude also develop the boundaries for all employees and their confidence level. Some times the work load increases due to which employees take work to their home for completion which can affect the personal life a lot. In this state an employee needs to manage all the criterias at a time; his work, his office, his home and responsibilities towards all people around him. An other factor is also very important in this study which is to avail leave immediately. This makes the image of an organization towards its employees that how much they are co-operative or supportive to them and how much rigidity is to be faced at this place.

Empirical Study:

Narayanan and Narayanan (2012) explore the factors that can influence the work life balance of IT professionals. The statistical technique which is used in this research is multiple linear regression, factor analysis, t-test and chi-square. The data is collected through designed questionnaire. The results suggest that there are different reasons that can affect the work life balance of IT professionals.

Kumari (2012) examines the views of employee on work life balance practice and the policies in banking sector. The sampling method which is followed in this research is Quota. The data is collected through survey and the statistical technique which is used in this research is factor analysis, t-test, Karl pearson’s correlation, descriptive statistics, mean. The results suggests that there is a difference between the male and female related to job satisfaction as compare to different factor of work life balance. The correlation is positive between WLB and job satisfaction.

Margaret derry (2008) investigate the job retention of an employee and also identify the work life balance that influence employee to sustain or left the organization. The data is collected through the hospitality and the tourism industry. The results indicate that the satisfaction of job and the attitude in job, commitment to organization and personal problems both positively and negatively impacts on work life balance in employee turnover.

Wilkinson et al (2008) identify the awareness of work life balance policies in New Zealand and Australia. The data is collected through questionnaire. The results indicate that the less number of professionals are available and the economy is continuously growing, this area identifies and there is a need to work on it and reconsider all the strategies. The employees are not considering the work-life balance in their life.

Beham and Drobnic (2009) investigate the connection between the different work needs and resources and satisfaction with work-family balance life. The data is collected through survey. The statistical technique which is used in this research is hierarchical multivariate regression. The results indicate that psychological job demands and the insecurity of job has a negative impact on the satisfaction of employee. Job control and social support positively impacts on satisfaction of employee, but this happens after controlling the conflict with family.

Rehman and Roomi (2012) explore many factors that can effect the working life of women within the economy of Pakistan. The data is analyzed through phenomenological approach (IPA), by using this researcher investigates the factors that affects the working life of women. The methodology analyzed the data which includes the women who are entrepreneur, identify criteria how they manage their life as well as the strategies that used by the female and with the help of this female balance their life, work and family. The results shows that different motivation factors helps and motivate females to make their business, work life balance is one of the important factors. The females’ own business helps female to balance their life. The factors which challenge the women to make work balance in their life are culture, society, norms and values etc. strategic planning, competing and delegating are the most appropriate strategies which women used to maintain the work life balance in their work and life.

Waller and ragsdell (2012) investigates the culture of a company who receives emails 24 hours and its impact on the employees outside the working hours and the second objective is to find out the hours spent by the employee to read email outside the company. The data is collected through online questionnaire and there is mixed approach is used in this research. Mixed approach means both qualitative and quantitative. The results are finding through the gender, length, and role of service in an organization and related to current literature.

Saif et al (2011) examines the connection between employee satisfaction related to job and the work life balance. The technique used in this research is multiple linear regression. The results indicate the significant relationship between the employee satisfactions related to job and work life balance. The result of ANOVA suggest that these is no difference between the employee satisfaction at work and work life balance on three levels of management includes top, middle and first level of management.

Methodology

3.0 Research Approach:

3.0.1 Quantitative Approach:

The research is based on quantitative approach. The quantitative research is based on facts and figures. Through quantitative research, the researcher tries to explore the relationship or connection between the dependent variable (work-life-balance) and independent variable (personal commitment, family circumstances, situational issues, job content). Through quantitative research approach, researcher is able to apply the statistical technique and analyze the result.

3.1 Research Purpose:

The researcher used explanatory research to examine the relationship between dependent and independent variable. Explanatory research helps to identify why certain action happens. The explanatory research also helps to create theories, prediction of future.

3.2 Research Design:

The research design is correlational research, because researcher wants to check the relationship between the variables and also wants to check its impact.

3.3 Data Source:

The research is primary and the data is collected through questionnaire from the employees of Pakistan International Airline.

3.4 Data Instrument:

The instrument used in this research is questionnaire and independent variable questions are adopted from the published article (Narayanan & Narayanan, 2012) and dependent variable questions are adopted from (Kumari, 2012).

3.5 Target Population:

The population targeted in this research is employees’ of Pakistan International Airline.

3.6 Sample Size:

The sample size used in this research is 50.

3.7 Statistical Technique:

The statistical technique used in this research is frequency statistics, descriptive statistics, factor analysis and multiple linear regression.

3.8 Data collection Technique:

The data is collected through questionnaire and analyzed it with liker scale (1 to 5). 1= strongly disagree and 5= strongly agree.

3.9 Research Hypothesis:

H0a = Job content does not impact on work life balance

HAa = Job content impact on work life balance

H0b = Family circumstances does not impact on work life balance

HAb = Family circumstances impact on work life balance

H0c = Situational issues does not impact on work life balance

HAc = Situational issues impact on work life balance

H0d = Personal commitment does not impact on work life balance

HAd = Personal commitment impact on work life balance

H0e = Work place rigidity does not impacts on Work life balance

HAe = Work place rigidity impacts on work life balance

3.10 Model Equation:

Work life balance = Constant + Work place Rigidity + Job content + Family circumstance + situational Issues + Personal commitment.

In this chapter, we are doing the analysis of our results. The results are obtained through questionnaire data putted in SPSS. This is the results of our methodology which is quantitative, through these tables, we analyze our study and take results.

Estimation and Results

Table 4.0 Frequencies

Statistics

Gender

Martial.Status

Experience

N

Valid

50

50

50

Missing

0

0

0

Analysis:

The statistics table indicates that there is a data conducted from 50 people and no data is missing.

Particular

Cateory

Frequency

Percentage

Gender

Male

26

52%

Female

24

48%

Marital Status

Single

26

52%

Married

24

48%

Experience

1-3 years

12

24%

4-5 years

14

28%

More than 5 years

12

24%

More than 10 years

12

24%

Analysis:

The frequency in gender indicates that, there are 26 males and 24 females are participated in fulfilling the questionnaire.

The frequency in marital status indicates that, there are 26 employees who are single and 24 females who are married.

The frequency of experience indicates that, the employee who participated in our questionnaire are 12 employees who has a experience of 1-3 years, 14 employees has a experience of 4-5 years, 12 employees who has more than 5 years of experience and 12 employee who has a experience of more than 10 years.

Table 4.0.1 Descriptive Statistics

N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

Gender

50

1.00

2.00

1.4800

.50467

Martial.Status

50

1.00

2.00

1.4800

.50467

Experience

50

1.00

4.00

2.4800

1.11098

Valid N (listwise)

50

Analysis:

The gender has a mean of 1.48. martial.status has a mean of 1.48, the mean are same because the participant we selecedt in questionnaire are 26 male and 24 female from which 26 employees are single and 24 employees are married. The mean of experience is 2.48, which shows that mean occurs between those employees who had experience from 4-5 years or above 5 years.

Table 4.1 Cronbach’s Alpha:

Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s Alpha

N of Items

.819

28

Analysis:

The Cronbach’s Alpha table actually shows the reliability of data or questionnaire. In other words, Cronbach’s Alpha is the indicator for the testing the actual data, that it is reliable or not. The Cronbach’s Alpha data value must be greater than 0.5. So it means the data is reliable used for study. In this research, the researcher take all variables and check the Cronbach’s Alpha, the value of Cronbach’s Alpha is “.819”, which indicates the data is reliable and able to be used for study.

4.2 Factor Analysis:

Table 4.2.1 KMO and Bartlett’s Test

KMO measure

Bartlett’s test

Sig value

0.622

999.365

0.000

Analysis:

The value of KMO is between the 0-1. The value more closely to 1 is better. Here the value of KMO is .622, which indicates that the provided data is able to make the factor. The value of KMO also indicates 62.2% of variation explained by our variables. The value of Bartlett’s test, it actually indicates the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. The null hypothesis in the correlation matrix is not an identity matrix. The Bartlett’s test sig value which is “.000” indicates that our null hypothesis do not accept and alternate hypothesis accept. It indicates that the matrix is an identity matrix. This is the minimum standard which tells that the factor analysis is able to apply on the data.

Table 4.2.2 Rotated Component Matrix

Cronbach’s Alpha

Component

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

WLB1

 

.881

WLB2

 

.862

WLB3

0.872

.715

WLB4

 

.732

WLB5

 

.779

WPR1

 

.851

WPR2

 

.920

WPR3

0.895

.816

WPR4

 

.814

WPR5

 

.775

JC1

 

.774

JC2

 

.894

JC3

0.879

.693

JC4

 

.819

JC5

 

.837

FC1

 

.837

FC2

0.8

.732

FC3

 

.749

FC4

 

.662

SI1

 

.773

SI2

0.698

.538

SI3

 

.596

SI5

 

.650

PC1

 

.777

PC2

 

.690

PC3

0.865

.599

PC4

 

.877

PC5

 

.884

Analysis:

The rotated component matrix indicate the factor create in each variable. Six components are made due to 6 variables. The Work life balance has five questions. The variable indicate by the name of WLB. All the questions from WLB1 to WLB5 are in sequence, so it shows the factor is made. The WLB is also reliable because the Cronbach’s alpha value is greater than 0.5. the value of Cronbach’s alpha at “0.872” the second variable “Work place Rigidity” also has five questions, and all the questions from WRP1 to WRP5 are in sequence, so it indicates the factor is made in the variable. The WRP is reliable, because its Cronbach’s Alpha value is “0.895” which is greater than 0.5. the third variable “Job Content” also has five questions. Job content indicates in the table by the name of JC. All the questions from JC1 to JC5 are in sequence, so it shows the factor is made in the variable. The JC is reliable, because its Cronbach’s Alpha value is “0.879” The fourth variable “Family Circumstances” has four questions. Family circumstances are indicated in the table by the name of Fc. All the questions from Fc1 to Fc4 are in sequence, so it shows the factor is made in the variable. The family circumstances variable is also reliable, because its Cronbach’s Alpha value is “0.8”. The Fifth Variable “Situational Issue” has five questions, but one question is not be applicable to create factor, so SL4 is not included in it. Except SL4, all other questions are able to create factor in the variable. The situational issue variable is also reliable, because its Cronbach’s Alpha is “0.698”. the sixth variable “Personal Commitment” also has five questions. All the questions from PC1 to PC5 are in sequence, so it indicates the factor is made in the variable. The personal Commitment is also reliable, because its Cronbach’s Alpha value is “0.865” which is greater than 0.5. So all the factor included in rotated component matrix are able to make variable and all factors are reliable.

4.3 Analysis of Regression:

Table: 4.3.0 Model Summary

Model

R

R Square

Adjusted R Square

Std. Error of the Estimate

dimension0

1

.587a

.344

.270

.68603

Predictors: (Constant), Personal commitment, Situational Issues, Work Place Rigidity, Job Content, Family Circumstances

Analysis:

The model summary table has these items “R”, R Square, Adjusted R Square and Std. Error of the Estimate. The value of R is .587 which shows the correlation between independent and dependent variable. The correlation between dependent and independent variable is .587. The value of R-sqaure is .344¸which shows the 34.4% variation on dependent variable which is “Work Life Balance” is explained due to change in independent variable “Personal Commitment, Situational Issues, Job Content, Family Circumstances, Work Place Rigidity”.

Table 4.3.2 Anova

Model

Sum of Squares

df

Mean Square

F

Sig.

1

Regression

10.873

5

2.175

4.620

.002a

Residual

20.708

44

.471

Total

31.581

49

Analysis:

The table of Anova in regression shows the overall significancy of model. The sig value “.002” shows that the overall model is significant because its value is less than 0.5. the F-statistics shows the combine effect of the model. The combine effect of the model is “4.620”. The d.f which is degree of freedem indicates in total that, there is a sample of 50, but due to “n-1” it indicates 49. The predictors are used in this research are 5 and the residual which is also called the error, n-p-1, 50-5-1 equals 44.

Table 4.3.4 Coefficients

Coefficientsa

Model

Unstandardized Coefficients

Standardized Coefficients

t

Sig.

Collinearity Statistics

B

Std. Error

Beta

Tolerance

VIF

1

(Constant)

.471

1.493

.316

.754

Work Place Rigidity

.025

.122

.030

.209

.836

.736

1.358

Job Content

-.219

.163

-.185

-1.341

.187

.784

1.275

Family Circumstances

-.073

.231

-.054

-.315

.754

.506

1.974

Situational Issues

.300

.236

.181

1.268

.211

.732

1.366

Personal commitment

.831

.234

.602

3.551

.001

.518

1.932

a. Dependent Variable: Work Life Balance

Analysis:

The coefficients table is the most important table in regression analysis. This table shows the effect of each independent variable on dependent variable. The beta of work place rigidity is .025 which has a positive impact on work life balance but the sig value indicates that this impact is not significant because sig value is “.836” which is greater than 5%. The beta of job content is “-.219”, which shows the negative impact on work life balance, but this impact is insignificant because the sig value is “.187” which is greater than 5%. The beta value of family circumstances is “-.073”, which shows the negative impact on work life balance, but impact is insignificant because the sig value is “.754” which is greater than 5%. The beta value of situational issues is “.300” which shows the positive impact on work life balance, but impact is insignificant because the sig value is “.211” which is greater than 5%. The beta value of personal commitment is “.831” which shows the positive impact on work life balance, and its impact is also significant because the sig value is “.001” which is less than 5%. The personal commitment is significant because if someone has commit to somebody on someday, but on the workplace boss immediately calls you, there is a imbalance create between the personal commitment and work place. So it effects significantly to work life balance. The collinearity statistics shows that, there is no problem of multicollinearity exists in our model. The all value of tolerance is 0.5 or greater than 0.5 which shows that there is no problem of multicollinearity exists.

Conclusion

The balance between the work and the life is very important, because without balancing the life, a person can not perform very well and always become dissatisfied. I select the variables in my point of view to check that personal commitment, job contents, situational issues, family circumstances and work place rigidity and checked its impact on the work life balance. The personal commitment is about to commit any body like family, friends etc. situational issues are the problems which are not pre-planned, it can be occur at any place. Job content are the duties and responsibilities written in job description, family circumstance includes number of dependents to employee in family, work place rigidity shows the working demand and work life balance is about to create balance between the working life and personal life. The statistical technique which are used to analyze the data are frequencies, descriptive analysis, factor analysis and through regression we can check the impact of these variables on work life balance. The results of regression analysis indicates that, all variables impact insignificantly on work life balance except personal commitment, the reason behind is that the employee face hurdles when he/she commits to somebody.