Abstract

To sustain their activities, financial institutions operating in Buea municipality need employees who can portray adequate behaviours despite the work life conflicts they experience. The study examines the effect of work life balance practices on employee behaviours in selected financial institutions in Buea.

The study retained four (4) work life balance practices (leave programmes, fringe benefits, informal work arrangements and use of technology) and two (2) behaviours (organisational citizenship behaviour and employees intention to quit). To achieve this, the study adopted a survey research design for an accurate investigation.

One hundred and thirteen (113) employees were surveyed across the twenty (20) selected financial institutions in Buea using stratified and simple random sampling techniques. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics (standard, mean and percentages) and ordinary least square regression.

Results showed a significant positive association of leave programmes, fringe benefits and informal arrangement on organisational citizenship behaviour and employees intention to quit in financial institutions in Buea. The use of technology was insignificant and negative. Thus, we recommend the introduction of fringe benefits programmes by financial institutions to be granted to the loyal employees. Financial institutions should implement flexible leave programmes and not focus only on annual leave.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

In the wake of globalisation and rapid technological advances, boundaries between work and home are blurring and demands on workers and enterprises have never been this higher. This has meant increasing challenges for workers to be able to successfully reconcile the conflicting demands of paid work and their personal lives. Dramatic increase in women labour force participation and the resulting demise of the so-called “male breadwinner” model have often resulted in a “double burden” for women of both paid and unpaid work.

Globalisation of markets and technological innovations has left the world more competitive. Industries and organisations in a bit to cope with competition turn to over work their employees for long hours to meet deadlines to keep their customers satisfied and gain a sphere of the  markets. This has not gone down well with human capital given that man is a social being and this mad rush to withstand competition, improve quality of products, occupy a great sphere of market has led to work life balance conflicts and the crucial need to seek for solution . It is at this backdrop that scholars and practitioners became interested in seeking a solution to the problem and arrived at what is known today as work life balance.

Helmle et al. (2014) attest that several factors are responsible for this spark of interest including changes in demographic composition in the labor market, the amount of work and pace and increase in working hours. In every aspect of life, there is a need to be a balance so Breitenecker and Shah (2018) maintain that a person can live happily, healthier and successful when there is a work life balance and it is of first importance for a good quality of life. Different researchers have attempted to describe the concept of work life balance and it boils down to work being a venue for official tasks to be carried by a person on a given job and life being a collection of activities not related to work like household chores and balance is reached only when there is harmony between the two (Semlali & Hassi, 2016). Work life balance is becoming a challenge to financial institutions in Buea because there’s no balance between their work life and private life. This is becoming an   issue due to long working hours, lack of leave programmes, no use of technology, lack of fringe benefits and lack of informal arrangements. Employees of these financial institutions face these challenges from their employers who do not put in place adequate practices to balance their employees work and private life. Laws like ILO have been put in place to ensure this balance but the application is not well followed by financial institutions in Buea.

In this light it becomes crucial for organisations to put in place adequate work life balance practices that can allow employees to socialize with the community and at the same time keeping cost and turnover under control. It has been noted also that, a happy employee will become a productive employee (Helmle et al., 2014); (Joo & Lee, 2017); (Abualoush et al., 2017).  Organisations need to take an initiative to help the employees attain a work life balance given that today’s employees do not only seek an employer for a job but also for a work life balance and their wellbeing. In the absence of a work life balance, financial institutions will experience high employee turnover, reduced employee productivity, reduced employee morale, reduced employee loyalty and commitment, and poor organisational performance (Grovea & Crooker, 1995); (Roehling et al.,2001); (Goff et al., 1990); (Thomas & Ganster, 1995). Thus it can be highlighted that in the absence of adequate work life balances policy within an organization cause employees to put on behavioural patterns that negatively affect the organisation. Hence, organisations including private financial institutions in Buea should come to this realization and adopt work life balance practices programmes for the good of their employees and the institutions themselves.

One of the most important aspect of human resource management is to keep employees healthy both physically and mentally to ensure efficiency at work and this can only be achieve via a work life balance policy that is adequate enough to meet the needs of the employees and those of the organisation. Nielsen et al. (2008) noted that employee well-being is very important to measure and there is a need to engage them at work. In the same line, Koubova and Buchko (2013) noted those employees who feel good and harbor less stress at work and at home are most likely to behave well which in turn greatly affect their behaviours, productivity and the general performance of the organisation. Shaffer et al. (2016) noted that employee engagement at work can be of great wealth to an organisation given that workers turn to be more motivated when engaged at work and often demonstrate great level of involvement in their jobs and organisations with improvement in their productivity.

However, for employees to be able to act as the engine and life sustainers of their various organisations, they must be able to exhibit adequate behaviours.  In other words for organisations to depend on their human resource for their success and progress or growth, those human resources must pursue “adequate behaviours” to make that happened. Adequate behaviours here refer to highly citizen employees, lower intention to quit by employees and highly committed employees. Kimberlee (2019) defined employee behaviours as the actions of a person based on specific stimuli at work; employee behaviour is triggered by actions such as greeting customers, talking to co-workers and interacting with management. Managers note employee reactions to deadlines, difficult work tasks and problems.

Cho et al. (2009) defined Employee’s intention to quit as being a worker’s intention to leave the current organisation and this intention is said to be a conscious and deliberate desire to leave an organisation within the near future. The authors highlighted that there are three elements in the withdrawal cognition process, namely, thoughts of quitting, the intention to search for another job somewhere else and the intention to quit. Boshoff et al. (2002) defined intention to quit as the strength of an individual’s view that they do not want to stay with their employer.

Different studies have been undertaken to measure employee behaviours (Stelle, 2013); (Hassan, 2014). Scholars have outline work life balance as a key concept affecting the life of an employee and that a balanced work life policy within the work place can push employees to put on their best of behaviours (Oludayo et al., 2018); (Rabindra et al., 2017); (Khurram Shakir, 2018); (Lamalakshmi & Selverani, 2019); (Mamoona, 2017); (Subhash et al., 2017); (Iwona, 2018); (Dwi & Nida, 2018); (Harihara & Thevanes, 2018); and (Shumaila et al., 2019).

After a review of studies on work life balance and employee behaviours, work life balance has been noted to positively affect employees’ behaviours in term of enhancing organisational citizenship behaviours (Oludayo et al., 2018); (Rabindra et al., 2017); (Subhash et al., 2017); (Iwona, 2018); (Dwi & Nida, 2018); (Harihara & Thevanes, 2018);  and (Shumaila et al., 2019).  From the literature, there exist some differences in the conclusions reached by various authors as some concluded that a positive relationship exist between work life balance practices (leave programmes, fringe benefits, informal work arrangements and use of technology) and employees behaviours (Oludayo et al., 2018); (Rabindra et al., 2017); (Subhash et al, 2017); (Iwona, 2018); (Dwi & Nida, 2018); (Harihara & Thevanes, 2018); and (Shumaila et al., 2019). But some authors concluded that, a negative relationship exist between work life balance practices and employees intention to quit (Mamoona, 2017); (Khurram Shakir, 2018); (Lamalakshmi & Selverani, 2019).

Extensive research have been carried out regarding work life balance and how it influences different elements of employees behaviours but however very little have been done taking into consideration these two types of behaviours (organisational citizenship behaviour and employees intention to quit). This study seeks to add value and contribute to the existing body of knowledge or existing literature from that perspective. Almost all the studies that have been carried out by researchers on work life balance and employee behaviours have ignored the fact that several variables put together could have different results. Also, most studies have looked at the direct relationship between work life balance practices and employee behaviours. The indirect relationship between these two concepts has been ignored by most researchers creating a gap which this research seeks to fill.

Previous research has consistently shown that work life balance practices has a relationship with employee behaviours; however, no research has been conducted with the ongoing Anglophone crisis and Covid 19 constraints on work life balance practices and employee behaviours in financial institutions in Buea, Cameroon. The present study proposed to extend the findings of the previous studies by exploring the relationship between WLB practices and employees’ behaviours in a crisis situation as a means of closing the gap that exits in the literature and to add value to existing literature.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Sustaining the activities of financial institutions operating in Buea has been the objective of central management yet, the ability to do this is pivoted on appropriate employee behaviours that is the ability for employees to stay long in the company and exhibit organisational citizenship behaviour and less employees’ intention to quit despite the work life balance conflict they experience. The increasing presence of financial institutions in Buea has been accompanied by the increasing need for appropriate behaviours.

With the ascend of Covid 19 and the anglophones crisis, financial institutions in Buea are facing the challenge of maintaining their normal activities; the financial sector is heavily affected by the measures taken against the spread of the coronavirus. Departments and branches are temporarily working from home, which is an unprecedented event in the history of the financial industry. Many internal and external services are being offered online.  It has become a challenge to the financial institution in Buea especially MFIs who are noted for poor treatment of their workers because young graduates in this financial institutions are in a quest of experience for better jobs (Nwahanye, 2015), offering limited leave programmes and equally inability to offer these online services effectively and efficiently to the customers and the compulsory use of a face mask which is uncomfortable.

While many variables affect employee behaviours that is their intention to quit and the level of citizenship behaviour, work life balance practices seems to be the most important of them in the face of ever growing pressure to financial institutions in Buea. Thus harmonizing work and personal life is an important component of human resource (Poelmana & Colifian, 2008). Despite the increase interest and favorable outcomes of work life balance, few studies have directly linked it to its outcomes (Carlson et al., 2009);  (Fron, 2003).

Financial institutions in Buea face work life balance issues due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Even though some workers still manage to be on duty there are many customers to attend to due to the measures put in place to curb Covid 19. As a result, many have reported experiencing stress and work life imbalance and change in behaviours. In trying to balance work and family activities, it has often resulted in conflicts. Generally, employees continue to experience major conflicts trying to balance work and other private matters related to their life (Brough et al., 2008). This multi-faced demand between work and home responsibilities is a source of conflict for workers in these financial institutions in recent years.  This Lack of work flexibility, high work pressure and longer working hours may result to the stressing out many of their workers, affecting their behaviours at work as well as the upbringing of their children, which may lead to broken and unhappy homes and poor social life. Recently, putting work and family activities in these organisations is increasingly becoming important.

Work life Balance is a delicate balancing act for organisations and few are able to institute effective structures to enable it work equally for the organisation and also for the employees. Inadequate work life balance is a problem that poses a big risk to workers well-being, as well as their behaviours. Many employees often have difficulties in attempting to balance employment responsibilities with their social life.

 1.3 Research Questions

This research is sought out to provide an answer to the question how does a work life balance practices affect employee behaviours in selected financial institutions in Buea?

1. What is the effect of work life balance practices on organisational citizenship behaviour in selected financial institutions in Buea?
2. What is the effect of work life balance practices on employees’ intention to quit in selected financial institutions in Buea?

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