International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume 5 Issue 5, July-August 2021 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470

Work-Life Balance and Employee Performance

Dibua, Emmanuel Chijioke PhD; Nosike, Chukwunonso Joseph PhD;
Oburoh, Pamela Oritse-tsegbemi
Department of Business Administration, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, Nigeria

ABSTRACT How to cite this paper: Dibua,

The study examined work-life balance and employee performance in Emmanuel Chijioke | Nosike,
Nestle Nigeria Plc using an inferential statistics on a sample 312 Chukwunonso Joseph | Oburoh, Pamela
respondents. Data collected were analysed using regression technique Oritse-tsegbemi "Work-Life Balance
of the Ordinary Least Square (OLS). Results revealed that all the four and Employee Performance" Published
in International
coefficients of the model - task characteristics, knowledge
Journal of Trend in
characteristics, social characteristics and work context - significantly Scientific Research
influence employee performance in Nestle Nigeria Plc. In descending and Development
order, the individual coefficients of the model as revealed in the table (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-
showed that task characteristics, knowledge characteristics, social 6470, Volume-5 |
characteristics and work context have variously influenced the Issue-5, August IJTSRD46367
employee performance with 51.5%, 35.8%, 32.3% and 27.6% 2021, pp.2379-
respectively. Based on the findings of this study, it was 2383, URL:
recommended that there is need for organizations to design www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd46367.pdf
programmes that will enhance task characteristics because it have
been discovered to significantly improve employee morale, reduce Copyright © 2021 by author (s) and
International Journal of Trend in
absenteeism, and retain organizational knowledge. Organizations
Scientific Research and Development
should also come up with programmes that will improve employees Journal. This is an
Knowledge characteristics, Social characteristics, and work context Open Access article
which have been found not to be significant and therefore suggest distributed under the
that attention should be given to these areas to improve affective terms of the Creative Commons
commitment in organisations. More job autonomy should be given to Attribution License (CC BY 4.0)
low hierarchy group to help improve their job commitment. This was (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
found to be one of the reasons they lack commitment. Management
of organizations should conduct training programmes in relation to
work-life-balance through which organization can improve the work-
life-balance of their staff in the area of time management and
personal effectiveness, effective work load management, personal
and professional development training courses and life management
training courses.
KEYWORDS: Work-Life Balance, Employee Performance, Task
Characteristics, Knowledge Characteristics, Social Characteristics,
Work Context

1. INTRODUCTION
Work-life balance has become an increasingly separated by certain physical, psychological and
pervasive concern to both employers and employees temporal boundaries, the two concepts are operational
of most organisations in recent time. There has been within the same context of time and space. The nature
an upsurge in the consideration of the pressures that of work itself has changed from the 9-to-5 affair to a
work has on family as well as life of employees. This 24-hour, 7-day society, where customers expect
has triggered research bordering on work-life. In an services at times that suit them (CIPD, 2007 as cited
environment where there is high level of competitive in Adetayo, Olaoye and Awolaja, 2011). For
pressures stemming largely from efforts to deliver example, the situation in the banking sector has called
quality service, the weight of this on employees are for a serious concern where both couples work in the
enormous (Uzoechi and Babatunde, 2012). Work is bank and they no longer have time to take care of
generally considered as a part of life. Though their family and children. Attending to social function

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD46367 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 5 | Jul-Aug 2021 Page 2379
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
is even challenge. Another challenging situation is the creating a work-life balance a person isn’t able to take
people working in the hospitality industry like hotels, time to enjoy the life they have worked so hard to
these categories of work for almost 12 to 18 hours per create. They aren’t available for friends and family
day. These situations are what motivated this study. members, and often take their stress out on the ones
they love. They can also suffer from illness and
The human resource professionals seek options to
physical disorders that stem from prolonged stress
positively impact the bottom line of their companies,
improve employee morale, retain employees with such as heart disease. Arguably, it is plausible and
logically discernible that the importance of work-
valuable company knowledge, and keep pace with
workplace trends (Dhas & Karthikeyan, 2015). family balance, whether implicit or explicit, to the
organisations and employees cannot be ignored. In
According to Lazăr, Osoian and Raţiu (2010) work-
line with the aforementioned challenge of work-life
life balance practices are deliberate organizational
balance, it is important that organizations implement
changes in programs or organizational culture that are
various work-life balance initiatives that may assist
designed to reduce work-life conflict and enable
employees to better balance their work and family
employees to be more effective at work and in other
responsibilities, gain improvements in well-being and
roles. Extant literature has been in congruity in
provide organizational benefits.
explaining the concept of work-life balance (Mwangi,
Boinett, Tumwet & Bowen, 2017). It is basically the Statement of the Problem
positive relationship between work and other equally Most organizations have realized that the
important activities in life which include family, performance of their workers plays a vital role in
leisure, personal development and community determining the success of the organization.
development issues. The relationship cannot be Committed employees give a big contribution to
clearly defined and varies from person to person organizations because they perform and behave on
according to their life demands. Work life balance is achieving organization’s goals. Workers who are
intended to allow employees greater flexibility in committed to their organization are happy to be
their working patterns so that they can balance what members of it; believe in and feel good about the
they do at work with the responsibilities and interests organization and what it stands for, and intend to do
they have outside work. It is also about effectively what is good for the organization. However,
managing the juggling act between paid work and balancing their work and family lives becomes a
other activities that are important to us - including teething problem for the employees in their effort to
spending time with family, taking part in sport and give their best to the organization. Perceptibly, an
recreation, volunteering or undertaking further study. employee needs some level of job autonomy, control
Work-Life Balance refers to the successful or empowerment to be consistent in his commitment
management and organization between remunerative to achieving organization’s goals. Some aspects of
work and the other roles and responsibilities that are job autonomy that can aid an employee in his
important to people as 'individualized' human beings commitment to achieving organization’s goals
and as a part of the society.( Yadav & Rani, 2015; include task characteristics, knowledge
Dhas & Karthikeyan, 2015). characteristics, social characteristics and work
context. These indicators arguably help employees in
People who are constantly tied to their jobs deal with
enhancing their performance in their organization. It
the symptoms of stress and burnout. If a person
is against this backdrop that this study tends to
doesn’t have a time to relax and recharge, their ability
investigate the perceived rising level of stress and
to do their job decreases and their performance level
burnout among employees in various organizations in
suffers. Thus, from a management point of view, it is
Nigeria arising from the challenge of work-life
important to encourage a person to take time off from
balance, a scenario that has generated a litany of
work instead of putting in long hours. Creating a
health challenges among workers. Long work hours
schedule that allows a person to do activities they
and highly stressful jobs not only hamper employees’
enjoy will help them to be better employees, friends,
ability to harmonize work and family life but also are
and family members. Once the time to work is over
associated with health risks, such as increased
the person needs to learn to walk away from the
laptop and not answer the cell phone for work calls. smoking and alcohol consumption, weight gain and
depression. Work life conflict has been associated
This type of balance is not easy to achieve because
with numerous physical and mental health
there will always be people who want to make
implications (Meenakshi, Subrahmanyam &
demands on an individual’s time. People need to learn
that it is okay to say no and only agree to take on Ravichandran, 2013). Mmakwe and Ojiabo (2018)
observed that “Job related stress can be mostly
additional tasks if they are important. Without
immobilizing because of its possible threats to family

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
functioning and individual performance. Job related n= N
stress can create a difference between demands on +N(e)2
families and the ability of families to provide material
security for them.” And that inability to maintain a Where: n=sample size
reasonable balance between family life and work life N=population
results in work to family conflict which in turn causes e=Margin of error (5% or 0.05)
stress and ultimately decreases the employee I=Constant
performance. Available literature suggest that there is Substituting in the above formula:
limited research in this area of study thus, warranting
an empirical investigation on work-life balance and n= 2300
employee performance. 1+2300 (0.05)2
Objectives of the Study = 300
The main objective of this study is to examine work- 1+2300 (0.0025)
life balance and employee performance. The specific
are to ascertain the influence of task characteristics, = 2300
knowledge characteristics and social characteristics, 6.75
work context on affective commitment.
= 340.7
2. METHODOLOGY
= 341
Area of Study
The study was carried out in Nestle Nigeria Plc. Method of Data Analysis
Nestle Nigeria Plc is a subsidiary of Nestle Group Out of the 341 questionnaires distributed only 312
which was originated from Switzerland by Henri were dully completed and returned. Data collected
Nestle in the year 1866. The company started with the was analyzed using the linear regression analysis of
development of nfant food in 1867 and merged with the Ordinary Least Square (OLS). Linear regression
Anglo-swiss condensed milk company in 1905 which model of the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) approach
formed the Nestle Group today. Nestle Nigeria plc was used to analyse the objectives in order to
was founded in 1961 and conducted trading under the ascertain the influence and also determine the
name of Nestle Products Nigeria Limited and later relationship between the independent variables and
became Nestle Nigeria Plc. It’s first operations was in dependent variable in the conceptualized model of the
distribution and sales of Nestle products imported, study.
before they began the manufacturing of local goods. Thus, the model of this study, is stated as follows:
Nestle Nigeria Plc has four branches: Agbara
Manufacturing Complex, Ogun State, Flower gate The functional form of the model is
factory shagamu, Abaji factory, Abaji and Nestle AFC = f(TCHA, KCHA, SCHA, WCNT)..............(1)
Headquarters, ilupeju. Nestle Nigeria Plc has various The mathematical form of the model is
brands like, Maggi, cerealac, Nutrend, Milo, Nestle AFC = β0+β1 TCHA +β2 KCHA +β3 SCHA +β4
Purelife water e.t.c. WCNT...........................(2)
Population of the Study The econometric form of the model is
The population or unit of analysis of the study AFC = β0+β1 TCHA +β2 KCHA +β3 SCHA +β4
consists of employees of Nestle Nigeria Plc. The WCNT +αi .......................... (3)
researchers were able to obtain the records of the
employees of Nestle Nigeria Plc whose total number Where; AFC = Affective Commitment
is 2300 employees, these employees consists of TCHA = Task Characteristics
contract staff, full time staff and various employees
KCHA = Knowledge Characteristics
who work on shifts, some of these employees who
work on shifts are quality monitoring technicians, SCHA = Social Characteristics
supply chains and production, kitchen staff, fortlift WCNT = Work Context
operators, store keepers, electrical and automation
technicians e.t.c. β0 = Intercept of the model
Sample Size and Sampling Technique β1 – β4 = Parameters of the mode
The sample size for the study was obtained using αi = Stochastic error term
Taro Yamane formula. The formula is stated thus:

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Decision rule: Accept the null hypothesis when the social characteristics and work context on affective
probability value is greater than the alpha value, commitment, the model used for the regression
otherwise we reject. analysis was expressed in the general form as given
Level of Significance = 0.05 below: AFC = β0+β1 TCHA +β2 KCHA +β3 SCHA
+β4 WCNT +αi. For this model, affective
3. PRESENTATION OF EMPIRICAL RESULT commitment was used as the dependent variable
This section summaries the analysis of the data (AFC) and independent variables included TCHA,
collected from the field and they are presented in the KCHA, SCHA and WCNT. The relationships
tables below to highlight the major findings. between the dependent variable and independent
Regression Result variables, and the results of testing significance of the
In this subsection, multiple regression analysis was model have been respectively interpreted. In
used to determine whether independent variables interpreting the results of multiple regression
(task characteristics, knowledge characteristics, social analysis, the three major elements considered were:
characteristics and work context) simultaneously the coefficient of multiple determinations, the
impact the dependent variable (affective standard error of estimate and the regression
commitment). As a result, the subsection examines coefficients. These elements and the results of
whether the multiple regression equation can be used multiple regression analysis were presented and
to explain the causal theory of work-life balance and interpreted accordingly. Table 1 below presents the
employee performance. To investigate the influence result on the employees’ commitment model.
of task characteristics, knowledge characteristics,
Table 1: The Affective Commitment Model Summary
Mo del R R Squared Adjusted R Squared Std Error of the Estimate
1 0.664 0.661 0.660 3.0324
Source: Field Survey, 2019.
Table 1 reports the model of affective commitment with the coefficient of determination R2 = 0.660 at 0.05 a
significant level. The coefficient of determination indicated that 66.0% of the variation in the affective
commitment for the sample of 312 can be explained by Task characteristics, Knowledge characteristics, Social
characteristics, and work context while 34.0 % remains unexplained. The results of the summary Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA) are presented and interpreted in Table 2.
Table 2: Summary ANOVA
Sum of squares df mean square F Sig
Model Regression 79.116 5 15.823 15.0 0
Residual 13.751 38 1.020
Total 117.867 43
Source: Field Survey, 2019.
Table 2 reports the summary ANOVA and F statistic which reveals the value of F (15.0) being significant at 0.05
confidence level. The value of F is large enough to conclude that the set of independent variables: task
characteristics, knowledge characteristics, social characteristics and work context as a whole were contributing
to the variance in affective commitment. The results of the affective commitment regression model using the
four independent variables were presented and interpreted in Table 3.
Table 3: Affective Commitment Regression Model
B Std. Error t-value Prob. value
Constant 0.011 1.532 0.007 0.111
Task Characteristics 0.515 0.025 20.600 0.000
Knowledge Characteristics 0.358 0.056 6.393 0.018
Social Characteristics 0.323 0.045 7.177 0.006
work context 0.276 0.019 14.526 0.002
Source: Field Survey, 2019.
Dependent variable: Affective Commitment
Table 3 evaluates and interprets the standardized coefficients of correlation (beta). In estimating the contribution
of each independent variable in the study, it was established that all independent variables significantly

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 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
contributed in variance of the affective commitment at significance level of 0.05. However, the relative
importance of each independent variable was different. Also, since the significance values are less than 0.05, the
coefficients are significant and therefore the regression equation would be:
Y = 0.011+ 0.515 β1+ 0.358 β2 + 0.323 β3 + 0.276 β4
4. CONCLUSION AND these areas to improve affective commitment in
RECOMMENDATIONS organisations. More job autonomy should be given to
This study has examined work-life balance and low hierarchy group to help improve their job
employee performance. The regression result revealed commitment. This was found to be one of the reasons
that all the four coefficients of the model - task they lack commitment. Management of organizations
characteristics, knowledge characteristics, social should conduct training programmes in relation to
characteristics and work context - significantly work-life-balance through which organization can
influence employee performance. In descending improve the work-life-balance of their staff in the
order, the individual coefficients of the model as area of time management and personal effectiveness,
revealed in the table shows that task characteristics, effective work load management, personal and
knowledge characteristics, social characteristics and professional development training courses and life
work context have variously influenced the employee management training courses.
performance with 51.5%, 35.8%, 32.3% and 27.6%
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