An Empirical Analysis of Factors Affecti PDF

Journal of International Academic Research (2012) Vol.12, No.1.
30 April 2012
An Empirical Analysis of Factors Affecting Work Life

Balance among University Teachers: the case of Pakistan
Noor Fatima: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Pakistan.
noor_e_fatimah@hotmail.com
Dr Shamim A.Sahibzada: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and

Technology, Pakistan.
shamim@szabist-isb.edu.pk
Abstract
Balance in work and family life is an emerging challenge for both employees and employers.
The present research categorises selected variables as work and family related factors to
study work life balance. This paper analyses the determinants of work and life imbalance
with respect to male and female university teachers. A total of 146 teacher’s responses from
both private and public sector universities are included in the study. Statistical analysis
reveals that partner support, colleague support and job resources are positively associated
with the work life balance whereas unfair criticism at job is negatively associated with work
life balance. Independent sample t-test is used to analyse the effect of independent variables
on work life balance with respect to male and female university teachers. The variables,
partner support, childcare responsibilities, elder dependency, and colleagues support have
different effect when analysed by male and female university teachers as independent
samples.
Keywords:
Work life balance, University, Teachers,
1. Introduction
Work/life is commonly referred to as work and family. To balance between the family
responsibilities and work responsibilities has become a challenge for the people in many
professions. Felstead, Jewson, Phizacklea and Walters (2002) defined the work life balance
(WLB) strategies as those strategies which enhances the independence of employees in
coordinating with the work and non-work aspects of their lives. Work- life conflict is a form of
inter- role conflict where the role demands of work interferes with the role demands of home
or leisure activities (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). The strain due to the disagreement
between home and work domains has increased amongst employees in most sectors of the
economy (Lewis, Gambles and Rapoport, 2007). Employees expect from their employers to
address their need of work life conflict (Kossek, Dass and DeMarr, 1994). There is a dire
need that organisations adopt such human resource policies and strategies that could
accommodate the work and life needs simultaneously to lessen the work and family role
strain (Cieri, Holmes, Abbot and Petti, 2005). Russell and Bowman (2000) asserted that the
issue of work/ life balance is gaining an increasing attention by the employees related to all
organisations and managing the conflict between work demands and family responsibilities
have become a serious challenge for organisations.
Managing rising demands from the work and family domains represented a source of high
strain for many employees which even lead to the health problems among employees.
Although it is believed that work family role strain is more common among women
An Empirical Analysis of Factors Affecting Work Life Balance among University Teachers:
the case of Pakistan 16
Journal of International Academic Research (2012) Vol.12, No.1. 30 April 2012
employees, but men also experience stress resulting from differing roles and demands
(Burley, 1994).
Strain between work and family roles is a common experience among university employees.
According to the study of Anderson, Morgan and Wilson (2002), university employees
reported higher dissatisfaction with the work- family life than corporate employees which lead
to stress and cause harm to the psychological wellbeing of the employees thus affecting their
job performance negatively. Whenever the conflict arises between work and family among
the university employees it also affects the quality of higher education (Elliott, 2003).Fisher
(1994) found that academics experienced more problems in maintaining effective work life
balance than other professionals, as their profession incorporates a wide range of
responsibilities with potentially challenging demands. Most academics surveys supported
that their work produced strain that made it difficult for them to fulfil their family and social
obligations. Work and family role strain reduces worker’s productivity and increases turnover
and absenteeism of the employees. More importantly; however, the majority of academics
felt dissatisfaction with their institutions and complained that their institutes do little to help
employees to achieve a fair balance between their work and family lives. In Australia,
Winefield et al. (2003) found that the majority of academics complained about the conflict
between work and home commitments. The present study aims to explore the factors that
affect work life balance of the teachers of the public and private universities of Pakistan, and
to find out the major determinants of work and family role strain among university faculty.
1. Literature Review
Work-life balance refers to people having enough time to have balance in their job and home
life. Karakas and Lee, (2004) explained work life balance issues as spending good time with
family members, getting free time to be able to relax for emotional wellbeing and health of
family members , having good communication and support from the fellow colleagues,
obtaining high quality child care and education; and being satisfied with the work load.
According to the study of Kinman (2001), the strongest factor of psychological distress and
job dissatisfaction was related to work life conflict. He found out that over half of the
academics surveyed complained that they have to regularly work at home during the
evenings which cause stress. Netemeyer, Boles and McMurrian (1996) asserted that majority
of the employees reported that they remained preoccupied with work issues even after
leaving the workplace and feel difficulties in sleep at home.
The demand from organisations to attend to the family responsibilities of employees has
been increasing due to the rise in the number of single parent’s households and dual earners
(Goodstein, 1994). Elliott (2003) explained that major problem faced by the working parents
of children, aged six or younger, is to afford high quality child care which is costly and
consumed a large portion of income and reduces the likelihood that the mother will be
employed. The double burden of child care and elder care puts more emotional burden on
women than on men. In reality, it is still women who keep hold of the major responsibilities
for childcare and are much more likely to work part-time, sparing time for family
responsibilities (Daly and Lewis, 2000). Gerson (1993) explained that fathers also
experienced tension in child caring as their working wives are not present at home to look
after their kids. Thus, in early decades of twentieth century some large companies felt the
need that employers should allow free time and energy to workers to look after their children.
Child care facility thus positively affected employee’s decisions to remain employed at the
company (Kossek and Lambert, 2004). Ross and Mirowsky (1988) demonstrated that
employed mothers who felt difficulty making child-care arrangements suffered from high
depression. Research by Jaffrey and Karen (1991) indicated that relative to childcare, elder
care involves more unexpected care giving situations, and it is more difficult to manage and
causes greater levels of stress for the care provider. Greenberger et al., (1989) showed that
married women often spend a lot of time and energy in taking care of their in laws, especially
the parents of their husbands, in short the principle care givers for the elders are women,
who provide care in their roles as wives, daughters and daughter in laws. In addition,
because many women who care for the elders also care for the children as primary
caregivers they become more accustomed to care giving as compared to men (Blair and
Litcher 1991). Like child care, eldercare can adversely impact employees personally, and
professionally as well as emotionally, and financially. The impact of elder care on
professional lives of employees includes increased absenteeism, sluggishness, a reduction
in work hours, unavailability for overtime work, a shift from full-time to part-time work, and in
some cases early retirement. (Ross and Mirowsky, 1988).Not only the elder care
responsibilities have affected the employed workers but also prevented some people to enter
the work force (Frone, Russell and Cooper, 1992). The cost of elder care manifests not only
in economic and financial terms but also in terms of caregiver’s overall health. Caregivers
report feelings of depression, isolation, loneliness and stress due to their care giving
obligations (Kossek and Lambart, 2004).
According to Sullivan and Lewis (2006) schedule inflexibility increased depression in both
men and women and increased physical distress such as insomnia, appetite problem,
tension related aches and pain. Christensen and Staines (1990), found that flexitime
programs decreased late comings, absenteeism, and turnover. In their research, Thomas
and Ganster (1995) have found a positive association between flexitime policies and job
satisfaction. They concluded that flexible time policies enhanced employee productivity by
decreasing absenteeism and turnover, and positively served families by decreasing
depression in employees as families get more time to spend together which reduces work/
family conflict.
Gilbert (2002) stated that longer working hours though reduces general family satisfaction,
but workers who are more committed to their work reported significantly higher family
satisfaction as compared to the workers who are less committed to their work. So it is not
only the work timings that affect family but the behaviour of workers towards their jobs that
affect their family life.
Greenhouse and Powell (2003) have suggested that certain working conditions, such as time
flexibility can mitigate the negative effects of work demands on family life.
New requirements at jobs have brought an increased workload. Professional lives

characterised by more and more challenges, frequently changing assignment, work and time
schedules, job insecurity and frequent relocations are some of the factors which cause work
life strain. Most of the faculty new to the campus report that they feel isolated, and they are
often besieged due to unclear expectations and heavy workloads (Luce and Murray, 1998).
Frone (2000) found that work-home conflict equally affected the health of men and women
whereas Emslie, Hunt and Macintyre, (2004) did not find any significant gender differences in
perceptions of work-home conflict. According to the study by Thompson et al. (1998), it is a
general perception that organisations with lower level of work life conflict possess supportive
organisational culture. Kossek, Dass and DeMarr (1994) explained that one of the reasons of
the work life strain is a lack of integration between the employee’s life and organisation’s
goals. He further asserted that negative culture, poor working environment and bad attitudes
of supervisors create barriers to the implementation of work life balance.
Roehling and Moen (2001) predicted that earnings (salary), schedule flexibility, family friendly
work policies, and supportiveness of colleagues are related to work and life strain. Non
supportiveness of colleagues affects the employee loyalty negatively. They further found that
a partner with unstable or low income increases the financial burden on other partner.
Smith and Smith (2008) found that future accountants give high importance to work-life
balance in making career decisions and they feel that a healthy work-life balance positively
affects their job performance. They further explained that Maslow’s hierarchy theory and
McClelland’s motivational needs theory provide theoretical support for understanding
people’s motivation to achieve a healthy work-life balance. According to Kinman and Jones
(2008), reward imbalance is one of the reasons of work stress among the employees. In their
study, schedule flexibility and the autonomy of the employee in his work were found to be a
key predictor of work- life balance. Parasuraman and Simmers (2001) also found that self-
control or having autonomy in the work can help individuals to schedule work in a way that
reduces the likelihood of work-family conflict. A study by Warren and Jhonson (1995)
showed that managing dependence on colleagues at the job increases social demands and
stress. Personal problems with colleagues affect the employees psychologically and make it
difficult for them to manage household work effectively.
Kinman and Jones (2008) reported that work related stress has increased in the educational
sector. They reported heavy workload and resource and time limitations as the most nerve-
racking aspects of academic work.
Smith et al., (1995) studied stress on faculty, they differentiated role-based stress (resulting
from unclear responsibilities and criteria for evaluating success), task-based stress (resulting
from work overload), and person/system-based stress (resulting from high self-expectations
and pressure to compete). They concluded that stress appears to play a negative role in
university faculty work lives and that work overload is a major source of the stress
experienced. Such factors as discipline, rank, and sex were significant in explaining task-
based stress. There result showed that associate professors and women report relatively
higher levels of stress.
Lease (1999) examined the stress experienced by tenure-track faculty at three universities,
and found that satisfaction with salary, working hours, and perceived support of colleagues
directly influence the level of stress and indirectly affects satisfaction.
In accordance with the study on Australian university employees conducted by Winefield et

al., (2003), academics are generally contended with intrinsic factors such as the degree of
intellectual inspiration they experience while supervising and teaching their students, and
with the opportunities to take initiative; while they are less satisfied with extrinsic factors of
the job such as salary, promotion prospects and working hours.
A university which aims to gain competitive advantage needs to develop an approach to work
life balance strategies that meet the needs of the faculty. Faculty and staff feel dissatisfied
due to heavy work load. Universities usually face low budgets which have negative impact on
salaries and working conditions of the employees which is disappointing for the vast majority
of the faculty and staff who work long hours and are committed to their students, their work,
and their institutions and results in increased stress among the university employees
especially the faculty members. If university administration wants to improve faculty
performance and in order to retain qualified faculty, they must identify those issues that
causes work life conflict and strain among university employees.
Educational institutes particularly have lower budgets, which is apparent from the salaries
and working conditions of the universities, resulted in the lower quality of work life, the
productivity of the university employees is important to the university authority, they must
identify those issues which are important to the lives of university employees. The purpose of
the present study is to analyse the determinants of work life conflict among university
teachers.
3. Objectives of the Study

3.1. Research Objectives
The purpose of the present study is to identify causes of work and family role strain among
university teachers of public and private sector institutions. Among the selected impediments
of work life balance, the present research intends to analyse the differences that may exist
between work life balance of male university teachers and female university teachers in
Pakistan.
3.2. Research Questions

The present research aims to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the factors that contribute to the work and family role strain in male and
female university teachers?
2. Do differences exist between overall work life balance of male and female university
teachers?
3.3. Research Hypotheses

The following research hypotheses have been developed to analyse data. The
conceptual framework has been adopted from Elliott (2003) to test these
hypotheses.
H1: There is difference in the work life balance of male and female university teachers.
H2: There is difference in the work life balance of male and female university teachers with
respect to the partner support.
respect to the childcare responsibilities.
respect to the elder dependency.
respect to the job resources.
respect to the colleague support.
respect to the unfair criticism.
4. Research Design
4.1. Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework has been adopted from Elliott (2003). The variables
included in the study were partner and spouse support, elder dependency, job
resources, colleagues support, unfair criticism, childcare responsibilities and work life
balance. In the current research, work life balance is treated as dependent variable
whereas different family and work related variables are taken as independent
variable. Selected work related factors that may cause stress are included in the
framework i.e., job resources, colleague support and unfair criticism. Likewise
selected family related factors that may cause stress are identified as partner
support, elder dependency and childcare responsibilities. All variables in present
research are elaborated as under:
Causes of Work and Family Stress caused due to conflict between demands of work and
Role Strain family role
Partner and Spouse Support Partner support and help to fulfil responsibilities
Elder Dependency Dependency of aging parents
Job Resources Availability of adequate resources at work
Colleagues Support Social support from colleagues as praise for work
Unfair Criticism Lack of support and criticism on work
Childcare Responsibilities Child care issues of 18 years younger children
Work and life satisfaction by managing both responsibilities
Work Life Balance
adjacently
Source: (Elliot, 2003)
Causes of Work and

Family Role Strain
Work Life Balance
Female
Job Resources
Colleague Support Work Related Factors
Male Unfair Criticism
Partner Support
Family Related Factors
Elder Dependency
Child Responsibilities
4.2. Sampling and Data Collection

The objective of the research is to identify the causes affecting work life balance in male and
female university teachers. Having thoroughly examined relevant previous research tools, a
questionnaire that suits to the local and social settings of Pakistan has been developed
which is based on the study of Elliott (2003).Various factors from this study have been
modified to address each of the variables of the present research framework. The
questionnaire was self-administered with a covering letter to motivate respondents to
carefully provide their neutral opinion against the factors under investigation. The research
target population mainly included married male and female university level teachers of both
public and private universities of Pakistan. Convenience sampling method has been used to
get the responses from both public and private sector universities. With the response rate of
58%, a total of 84 responses from public sector universities and 62 responses from the
private sector universities are included in the research. The questionnaires which failed to
provide adequate data for analysis purposes, such as incomplete questionnaires, responses
from unmarried teachers and biased responses, have been excluded from the study. The
reliability of the data was measured using Cronbach’s Alpha, which shows an estimate of 0.7
thus assuring the data reliability.
5. Data Analysis
5.1. Results and Discussions
Data is entered and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
version 13.0. Two different statistical tools applied to test the hypotheses are: (i)
Independent sample t-test; and (ii) One –Way ANOVA
i) Independent Sample t- test

Independent sample t-test is used for analysis purpose because the data collected are
further sampled as of two different populations i.e., female university teachers and male
university teachers. This is to test whether there is significant difference between the work
life balance and its factors for male and female university teachers. Having met the test
assumptions, it allows to significantly compare the means of two sample groups to test the
research hypotheses. Descriptive statistics to compare the mean values of male and female
university teachers is given as table 1.
Table 1: Group Statistics

Sex N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Male 97 3.1149 .79575 .08080
Partner Support
Female 49 1.9388 .78980 .11283
male 97 2.2371 .83881 .08517
Childcare Problems
female 49 4.1224 .59974 .08568
male 97 2.6701 1.08706 .11037
Elder Dependency
female 49 4.2041 .40721 .05817
male 97 3.1619 1.08704 .11037
Job Resources
female 49 3.0694 .95442 .13635
male 97 3.0478 .76775 .07795
Colleagues Support
Female 49 2.4833 .59005 .08429
Male 97 3.5515 .57047 .05792
Unfair Criticism
Female 49 3.6224 .40222 .05746
Male 97 2.8892 .72278 .07339
Work Life Balance
Female 49 2.4633 .36782 .05255
Independent sample t-test is used to test whether there is significant difference between the
work life balance and the related factors of male and female university teachers.
Table 2: Independent Sample T-Test

Levene's Test t-test for Equality of Means
for Equality of
Variances
F Sig. T Df Sig. (2- Mean Std. 95% Confidence
tailed) Difference Error Interval of the
Differen Difference
ce
Lower Upper
Partner Equal .973 .326 8.454 144 .000 1.17617 .13912 .90119 1.4511
Support variances
assumed
Equal 8.475 97.085 .000 1.17617 .13877 .90075 1.4516
variances
not
assumed
Childcare Equal 2.556 .112 -14.017 144 .000 -1.88534 .13451 -2.15120 -1.6194
Problems variances
assumed
Equal -15.606 127.489 .000 -1.88534 .12081 -2.12438 -1.6462
variances
not
assumed
Elder Equal 64.745 .000 -9.532 144 .000 -1.53398 .16093 -1.85206 -1.2159
Dependency variances
assumed
Equal -12.295 135.786 .000 -1.53398 .12477 -1.78071 -1.2872
variances
not
assumed
Job Equal .448 .504 .505 144 .614 .09247 .18310 -.26944 .45438
Resources variances
assumed
Equal .527 108.273 .599 .09247 .17542 -.25524 .44017
variances
not
assumed
Colleagues Equal .333 .565 4.515 144 .000 .56457 .12504 .31741 .81173
Support variances
assumed
Equal 4.917 120.970 .000 .56457 .11481 .33727 .79187
variances
not
assumed
Unfair Equal 4.888 .029 -.777 144 .438 -.07090 .09122 -.25120 .10940
Criticism variances
assumed
Equal -.869 128.681 .386 -.07090 .08159 -.23233 .09053
variances
not
assumed
Work Life Equal 9.239 .003 3.875 144 .000 .42591 .10992 .20864 .64318
Balance variances
assumed
Equal 4.719 143.980 .000 .42591 .09026 .24751 .60431
variances
not
assumed
The first research hypothesis states that there is difference in the work life balance of male
and female university teachers. Descriptive statistics in table 1 shows that work life balance
among male university teachers (2.88) is greater than the female university teachers (2.46).
It indicates that male university teachers feel more balance between work and life than the
female university teachers do. In order to check the significance, refer to the independent
sample t-test in table 2. Levene’s test for equality of variance shows that F (9.239) is
significant (Sig. 0.003 < α 0.05), in this case, the significance of equal variances not
assumed is considered as it shows significance. Therefore, we reject the null hypothesis and
conclude that the work life balance of male and female university teachers is different.
The second research hypothesis is that there is difference in the work life balance of male
and female university teachers with respect to partner support. The mean value of male
university teachers (3.11) is higher that female university teachers (1.93). This difference is
significant (Sig. 0.000 < α 0.05) as shown in table 2. Thus we reject the null hypothesis and
conclude that there is a significant difference in work life balance of male and female
university teachers with respect to partner support.
Third research hypothesis is that there is difference in the work life balance of male and
female university teachers with respect to childcare responsibilities. The mean value of
female teachers (4.12) is more than male university teachers (2.67). The difference in mean
values is statistically significant as shown in the table 2. Thus we reject the null hypothesis
and conclude that there is a difference in the work life balance of male and female university
teachers in context of childcare responsibilities.
The fourth hypothesis is that there is difference in the work life balance of male and female
university teachers with respect to elder dependency. Under descriptive statistics, the mean
value of female university teachers (4.20) is greater than male university teachers (3.16).
This difference in mean values is significant as (Sig. 0.000 < α 0.05). Thus we reject the null
hypothesis and conclude that there is a difference in work life balance of male and female
university teachers with respect to elders’ dependency.
The next research hypothesis is that there is difference in the work life balance of male and
female university teachers with respect to job resources. Descriptive statistics in table 1
exhibits that male university teachers (3.16) have more work life balance with respect to job
resources as compared to the female university teachers (3.06). This difference is not
significant as the significance level is 0.614 > α 0.05 as shown in table 2. Thus we do not
reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is no difference in the work life balance of
male and female university teachers with respect to job resources.
Next research hypothesis is that there is difference in the work life balance of male and
female university teachers with respect to colleagues support. The mean value of male
university teachers (3.04) shows that male university teachers have more work life balance in
context with colleagues support than female university teachers (2.48). As per the Levene’s t
test (0.00), speaking, this difference is significant. Thus, we reject the null hypothesis and
conclude that statistically work life balance of male and female university teachers is different
with regards to colleagues support.
The next research hypothesis states that there is difference in the work life balance of male
and female university teachers with respect to unfair criticism. Mean values indicates that
the unfair criticism is more related with the female university teachers (3.62) as compared to
the male university teachers (2.89). But the Levene’s T-test demonstrate that the difference
in mean values is not significant (0.438 > α 0.05). Thus we do not reject the null hypothesis
and conclude that there is no difference in work life balance of male and female university
teachers in reference to unfair criticism.
ii) One way – ANOVA

One way-ANOVA is another statistical technique used for testing mean differences between
male university teachers and female university teachers (two different independent samples).
Thus it has been applied here to find whether data from male and female university teachers
have a common mean which validates the results obtained from the Independent sample T-
test. As shown in Table 3, One way-ANOVA examines mean differences’ using the F-
statistic, whereas t-test reports the t- statistic.
Table 3: ANOVA
Sum of Df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Partner Between 45.036 1 45.036 71.478 .000
Support Groups
Within 90.730 144 .630
Groups
Total 135.765 145
Childcare Between 115.716 1 115.716 196.471 .000
Problems Groups
Within 84.812 144 .589
Groups
Total 200.527 145
Elder Between 76.604 1 76.604 90.863 .000
Dependency Groups
Within 121.402 144 .843
Groups
Total 198.007 145
Job Resources Between .278 1 .278 .255 .614
Groups
Within 157.163 144 1.091
Groups
Total 157.441 145
Colleagues Between 10.376 1 10.376 20.385 .000
Support Groups
Within 73.298 144 .509
Groups
Total 83.675 145
Unfair Between .164 1 .164 .604 .438
Criticism Groups
Within 39.008 144 .271
Groups
Total 39.171 145
Work Life Between 5.905 1 5.905 15.012 .000
Balance Groups
Within 56.645 144 .393
Groups
Total 62.550 145
The ANOVA results in table 3 also demonstrate that significant difference exist between
male and female university teachers for determining work life balance in partner support,
elder dependency, colleagues support and childcare problem, whereas the difference
between male and female university teachers in the context of job resources and unfair
criticism is insignificant . Finally it is also shown in the ANOVA table that male university
teachers are significantly more satisfied with the work life balance as compared to female
university teachers. So it is shown that One-Way ANOVA analysis validated the results of
independent sample t-test.
6. Conclusion and Policy Implications

Glass and Estes (1997) revealed in their study that conflict between paid work and family
responsibilities lead to low employee productivity and caused poor family functioning.
Educational institutes particularly have lower budgets, which is apparent from the salaries
and working conditions of the universities, resulted in the lower quality of work life. Smith et
al., (1995) concluded that stress appears to play a negative role in university faculty work
lives. Pfeffer (1994) asserted that in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage,
employers relied on a committed and productive workforce.
The productivity of faculty and the ability to retain the productive faculty is very important to
the universities in this era of cut throat competition. So universities must be able to identify
the issues that matters to the quality of life of their faculty. Present study examined issues
relating to work/life balance in lecturers working in the universities of Pakistan. This research
categorised the causes of work life imbalance as family related factors and work related
factors among male and female university teachers. Further the difference between work life
balance and other factors affecting work life balance between male and female university
teachers is explored. The results of this study show that that there is a statistically
meaningful difference between the work life balance of male and female university teachers.
Moreover, the overall satisfaction with work life balance of male university teachers is greater
than the overall satisfaction of female university teachers. These results are in accordance
with the study of Elliott (2003) that women felt greater work and family role strain than men.
MacEwen and Barling (1994) found that work – home conflict badly affected the women’s
psychological health as compared to men.
By looking at the factors affecting work life balance, result indicates that spousal
supportiveness at home and colleague supportiveness at work contribute positively to work
life balance, whereas child care problems, elder dependency at home and unfair criticism at
work place contributed negatively towards work life balance.
This study concluded that with reference to partner support male teachers are more satisfied
with work life balance as compared to females. It is found that female university teachers felt
more work life strain due to child care responsibilities, and it is further noticed that elder
dependency is doubling the burden of women than men. As Daly and Lewis (2000) also
concluded in their study that in reality, it is still women who primarily carry the major
responsibilities for care.
Work life balance with reference to colleague support provide evidence that female university
teachers are less satisfied with their colleague supports as compared to their male counter
parts. One reason for dissatisfaction with the colleague support could be that as females are
over stressed due to over burden of household chores. It is also shown by the results that
females are more affected by the unfair criticism at the work place than do the male faculty
members. As generally females are more sensitive by nature, so feel bad about unfair
criticism as compared to males. Elliott (2003) asserted that unfair criticism at work place
increased work life strain and unpleasant experience at work affected the family life badly.
Emslie, Hunt and Macintyre (2004) concluded that factors affecting work- home life did vary
by sex; having children and being in a senior position were more strongly related to work –
home conflict for women than men.
7. Recommendations
It is recommended that universities must pay attention to work and family conditions
when designing their work and family policies. Further research is necessary in order to
help to formulate the policies that academics might adopt and strategies that
organisations might introduce in order to enhance work-life balance in the sector. The
challenge is to develop a balanced social agenda that includes government supports
and regulations that not only holds employers accountable for the implementation of
strategies but that also motivated them to provide incentives to give out work–life
opportunities widely.
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Journal of International Academic Research (2012) Vol.12, No.1.

An Empirical Analysis of Factors Affecting Work Life

Dr Shamim A.Sahibzada: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and

New requirements at jobs have brought an increased workload. Professional lives

In accordance with the study on Australian university employees conducted by Winefield et

3. Objectives of the Study

3.2. Research Questions

3.3. Research Hypotheses

Causes of Work and

Colleague Support Work Related Factors

Male Unfair Criticism

4.2. Sampling and Data Collection

i) Independent Sample t- test

Table 1: Group Statistics

Table 2: Independent Sample T-Test

ii) One way – ANOVA

6. Conclusion and Policy Implications

April C. Gilbert (2002) ‘Facilitating or Resisting: Patterns of Satisfaction and Spousal

Goodstein, J.D. (1994) ‘Institutional pressures and strategic responsiveness: employer

Parasuraman, S. and Simmers, C. (2001) ‘Type of employment, work-family conflict and

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