ABSTRACT

Work Life Balance is the working arrangements that make sure an employee balances between personal and work responsibilities. Poor Work Life Balance is a major risk that poses risks to the well-being of the employees, their performance, and organizational performance. Most of the employees often find it challenging to balance their social life and employment responsibilities. The study sought to examine the relationship between work- life-balance and performance of Kitui county government employees.

The objectives of the study were to establish the effect of leave policy on the performance of employees; to examine effect of flexible working arrangements on the performance of Employees; to investigate the effect of welfare policies on the performance of employees and to examine the effect of family responsibilities on the performance of employees.

The study was anchored on the spill over theory and the role theory. The findings of the research would be helpful to the HR managers, government policy makers and scholars and students of HRM. The study adopted an explanatory research design and a descriptive research design. The targeted population was the 207 employees. They comprised of top level management, middle-level management, and the subordinate staff. The researcher adopted a stratified sampling and simple random sampling to get a representative sample for the research. The sample size was 25% of the target population; that is, 53 employees, 4 from the top management, 11 from middle-level management and 38 from the subordinate staff.

The study used a semi -structured questionnaires with both closed-ended and open-ended questions to collect data from the sample. A drop and pick method was employed to administer the questionnaires to the respondents, but they were pre-tested for reliability and validity before being administered to the respondents. The collected data was analyzed and presented using SPSS. Descriptive statistics like frequency distribution was used to analyze the data. The presentation of the data was done using frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs.

Moreover, a correlation and multiple regression analysis to determine the correlation between WLB and employee’s performance were conducted. The findings of the study indicated that there is a negative correlation between leave policy and employees’ performance as well as between welfare policies and employees’ performances. Therefore, it was concluded that the presence of welfare and leave policies is crucial; it does not affect performance, but the lack of it may cause a decline in performance.

On the other hand, flexible work arrangements and family policies were found to be positively correlated to employees’ performance. The researcher recommended more flexible work arrangements be made available to all employees as long as it won’t compromise on performance. More welfare service such as a professional counselor, recreational facilities, and childcare services should be made available for all employees.

Moreover, the county government should consider establishing family holiday where employees and their dependents would be shown a sort of appreciation. This would not only help the employees to reduce work-related stress but would also be motivated to perform better at work. Finally, further research should be conducted in other county governments  and over the years to confirm the findings of this study.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1.Background of the study

As the work environment becomes more dynamic day by day, it is important that employers both in private and public sector ensure there are better work life balances to ensure  employee performance. Globalization and advancement in technology have led to increased competition among organizations (Evans, Pucik and Barsoux 2002), prompting organizations to focus on work life balance initiatives to enhance employee performance. Employees are an important resource in any organization; hence, it is prudent for human resource managers to optimize their contribution to the company’s goals and objectives as a way of sustaining effective employee performance by minimizing work life conflicts (Afshan, Sobia, Kamran and Nasir 2012).

Therefore, both private and public organization must treat their employee well by ensuring their welfares are considered to enhance their performance. The UK government has been at the forefront in campaigning for better work life balance to enhance the employees’ performance. A Research commissioned by the UK government revealed that inflexible and working long hours leads to poor health, poor family life, and lower employee’s productivity (Arrowsmith, 2001). Developed countries like the UK have gradually embraced work life balance initiatives, but most developing countries, especially in Africa are yet to embrace them fully despite evidence of a statistical positive correlation between work life balance and employees’ performance.

In Cameroon, some large private organizations have established work life balance facilities to reduce the work family conflicts that may negatively affect the employee’s performance. Some of the facilities include day care facilities, health facilities for men and women, prayer

rooms, and Flexi time for lactating mother. Some organizations like ECO Bank, Britam, and the standard chartered bank have instituted work life balance facilities to mitigate employee stress, and enhance their performance. This is crucial for performance in the modern competitive business environment. Frese (2002) observed that Organizations need high performance of their employees to meet their goals and attain a competitive advantage.

1.2. Statement of the problem

The employees face various work- related problems. Stress is a common problem that bedevils most of the employees. Allen and Spector (2002) attributed this to multiple roles and responsibilities most employees have both at work and at home. When there is no balance between work responsibilities and home responsibilities, there is usually a conflict between the two, which when not handled properly causes stress and even depression. Allen and Spector (2002) found that multiple roles among employees have an effect on the well-being both at work and home. This may result in a work family conflict which causes negative spillover from family to work or vice versa (Agarwala, 2007) which manifest itself in form of stress, passive-aggressive behavior, and inablity to concentrate at work. The problems are as a result work life conflicts which affects inividual employees socially, economically, psychologically as well as their mental wellbeing.

Job insecurity is another issues that affet employees performance. The office has political infleunce and county boss are may change after five years. It is less than one years to the next general election which may saw change in the management. This brings uncertainities to some employees since their position can be infeunced by the politics of the day, which have a negative impact on perfromance.

Inability to manage heavy workload is also a problem which affects employee performance since it is a major cause of occupational stress (Robbins, 1996). Previous studies have classified stress factors which affects employee performance into four categories. First, the working conditions which include weekend duty, shift problems, long working hours, inadequate pay, safety issues and discriminations. The second stress factor is relationship at work and third is ambiguity in responsibility and authority. Finally, organizational structure and climate such as major change in the workplace, communication policy, and lack of participation in decision making is among the stress factors that affect employee performance. This may explain the below-average performance by the employees in many institutions.

The workplace pressure continues to increase in the society globally. According to Brough, Holt, Bauld, Biggs, and Ryan, (2008) employees all over the world continue to experienced problems as they trying to balance family, work, and other private matters that relates to their life. The demand to meet target at work, family related pressure, and the pressure to balance the two has affected most employees’ well-being, health. As a result, employers are using a lot of money on healthcare costs. Organizations continue to register high employee turnover as it becomes difficult to retain high-quality employees in a competitive environment (Parus, 2010).

A study conducted in the USA by Alexandra, Beauregard, and Henry (2009) revealed that job-related stress costs the Industry approximately 300 billion dollars annually in the form of turnover, absenteeism, diminished productivity and medical, insurance and legal expenses. While the concept of work life balance has been embraced in developed countries, in Africa, the human resource managers have not fully embraced it, yet the studies conducted in African country indicate a need for an effective work life balance. Mordi and Ojo (2011) conducted a study in Nigeria and found that most employees suffer work life conflicts. Keino and Kithae (2016) conducted a study on the effects of work life performance on performance staff working at Airtel, Orange, Yu, and Telkom Kenya, and Safaricom, headquarters in Nairobi. The findings revealed that the factors of Work life balance such as long hours at work, lack of vacations, overtime, work and family conflict have negative effects on staff performance at work.

Kamau, Mukaya and Wagoki (2013) conducted a study on work-life-balance practices on Performance of Eco Bank Employee and found that Work life balance practices like having flexible working hours have a positive relationship with staff performance. Muli (2014) also conducted a study on WLIs and Performance of Kenya’s Commercial Banks employees. The outcomes of the study showed there is a positive between employee performance and HR work-family support services and HR financial incentives.

Scholars in this area of study have focused on private sectors and in Kenya, the focus has been on commercial banks and large corporations in the telecommunication sector. Less has been done on government institutions in Cameroon, yet even government employees continue to suffer work-related stress which negatively affects their performance. Therefore, this study sought to close the gap and contribute to the existing body of Knowledge by examining the relationship between work life balance and employee performance with a focus on leave policy, flextime arrangements, welfare policies and family responsibilities.

1.3.General Objective

The general objective was to establish the relationship between work-life-balance and employees’ performance in Financial institutions in Buea.

1.3.1.   Specific Objectives

1. To establish the effect of leave policy on the performance of employees
2. To determine the effect of flexible working arrangements on the performance of Employees.
3. To investigate the effect of welfare policies on the performance of employees
4. To establish the effect of family responsibilities on the performance of employees