Work-Life Balance And Job Satisfaction Among Employees

1.0                                                         INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background Information to the Study

In the modern day, juggling work and personal obligations has become a major concern for companies and workers alike, as the lines separating personal and professional domains have become less clear as a result of changing client expectations and technological advancements that have altered traditional work routines (Abioro, Oladejo, & Ashogbon, 2020). Even when spending personal time with families, employees are unable to completely disengage from work. Thanks to modern communication methods like e-mail. Thus, dissatisfaction and inefficient functioning at work and in personal life arise, with little role conflict, which brings about the concept of work-life balance.

Work-life balance refers to striking a proper coordination between work and personal life of an individual. This is the stage where a person is feeling at ease in managing family and job related obligations. Work life balance is defined as the power which can be used in terms of productivity and efficiency in different areas of work and life for making good decisions. In the process of balancing multiple criteria, work life balance incorporates activities that have the potential to promote employee autonomy and flexibility (Abdullah, Kabia, & Pandey, 2022). According to Silaban and Margaretha (2021) work-life balance means that employees are free to use their working hours flexibly and balance their work with other commitments. By implementing work-life balance programs in the company, employees will not spend their time doing their works only. However, they can still have a life outside the works, for example, their families, and their social works, therefore it creates a balance that will make employees happier and more satisfied to do their work life.

Work-life balance includes more than just balancing work and family responsibilities; it also includes things like hanging out with friends and family, enjoying entertainment, and pursuing creative endeavors (Hughes &Bozionelos, 2021). Employers and employees strategies are key to manage both domains effectively. Lockwood (2023) opined that companies are realizing that improving the lives of their workers both at work and at home is essential to raising the caliber of their workforce as a whole. Hence, proactive companies are urged to support work-family integration as a way to increase employee loyalty.

In the opinion of Agha, Azmi and Irfan (2020) work-life balance is about finding the right balance between work and life, and about feeling comfortable with both work and family commitments. Work-life balance is essentially the balance between three components, namely, paid work, unpaid work and personal time. Byrne (2019) describes work life balance as juggling of five aspects of one’s life at any one point in time, namely, work, family, friends, health and self. He further clarifies it as awareness of different demands in relation to energy and time, ability to allocate the time and energy among different domains of work and life and then to apply and make choices. Work life balance includes practices that have the capacity to increase the autonomy and flexibility of employees in the process of balancing different requirements. Some work life balance issues are extremely important in the workplace, like increased level of stress, competition and insecurities in the workplace. All these factors are key and lead to disruption of work and satisfaction (Agha et al., 2020).

According to Kasbuntoro, Irma, Maemunah, Mahfud and Mochammad (2020) work-life balance means employees have balance time, work pressure, pay, between work and life outside. Therefore, many organization implement work life balance policies in order to maintain the quality and commitment of the employees who are required to achieve the targets given. These policies is a concept of moral intelligence and motivation that will create balance in work, self-management, self-motivation, and responsibility. The purpose of this policy is expected to create a better quality of life which will create a healthy and fit body, clear thinking, physical and sincere sense of enjoyment of life. It is hoped that with the implementation of the work life balance policy, employees will not only spend their time just for work, but also have other lives outside the world of work, such as in family, social life, so as to create a balance, which will make them happy (Kasbuntoro et al., 2020).

Job Satisfaction has been defined as the degree to which employee have a positive and effective orientation towards employment by organization (Azeem & Akhtar, 2024). Hasibuan (2020) asserted that job satisfaction is an emotional attitude that is fun, which makes employee loves his job. This attitude is reflected by work morale, discipline, and work performance. Job satisfaction is an effective or emotional response to various aspects or aspects of one’s work. A person can be relatively satisfied with one aspect of work and not satisfied with one or more aspects of others. Job Satisfaction is a (positive) attitude to labor on his work, which arises based on the assessment of the work situation. This assessment can be done on one of his work, and the assessment done has a sense of respect to achieve one of the important values at work.

Many organizations face challenges in accurately measuring job satisfaction, as the definition of satisfaction can differ among various people within an organization. However, most organizations realize that job satisfaction impact their work performance and creating a benchmark for measuring job satisfaction, managers can employ proven test methods such as the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) or the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ). These assessments help management define job satisfaction objectively. Workers having problem balancing work roles and family roles, set bad standard in the company work setting and often upset the friendly work ambience. So, both work life balance and job satisfaction are related to each other and have impact on job performance of the employees….