See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/351088379

THE IMPACT OF WORK LIFE BALANCE ON EMPLOYEEPERFORMANCE

Article  in  Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research · April 2021

CITATIONS READS

3 12,188

2 authors, including:

Kishore Kulothungan
Voorhees College
44 PUBLICATIONS   50 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

A study on exploring Entrepreneurial Intentions of Business Students View project

Attitude View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Kishore Kulothungan on 25 April 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

THE IMPACT OF WORK LIFE BALANCE ON

EMPLOYEEPERFORMANCE
S.Roopavathi
Research Scholar, Voorhees College, Vellore.
Dr.K.Kishore
Research Supervisor & Assistant Professor, Voorhees College, Vellore.

ABSTRACT
The work life balance is considered to be a key factor in terms of the success of employees.
The goal of this study is to review theoretical literature on work-life balance as its impact on t
organisationwork. The research work sought to examine extensively whether there is a
relationship between labour flexibility and production efficiency, relationship between
employer - employee and increased productivity, work climate and turnover rate, and lastly
job protection and retention of employees. The study therefore suggested that labour stability,
employer -employee relationship, work atmosphere and job protection have a positive impact
on improved production quality, increased efficiency, employee turnover rate, retention of
employees. The results showed that when workers perceive a work-life imbalance, they
respond negatively, and that management should implement work-life balance strategies to
enhance employee performance. It has been inferred from the research results that the work-
life balance is of considerable importance to modern work organisations.
KEYWORDS:Work life balance,Employee performance,Job satisfaction

INTRODUCTION
Many individuals face the issue of juggling work and family life in today's ever-demanding
work climate. Despite the worldwide search for work-life balance here referred to as work-
life balance (WLB), very few have found a meaning and term that is appropriate. It is about
changing the working habits to allow workers to integrate work with their other duties, such
as caring for children or elderly relatives. WLB does not mean an equal balance. WLB is a
mixture of interactions between various areas of one's life, the benefits and drawbacks
associated with that equilibrium or imbalance may affect multiple levels of society.
TheWLB-related drawbacks will affect both the employee and the employer. For the
employee, the effects may have a negative impact on job and life satisfaction, mental
wellbeing, physical health, and individual organisational performance (Guest, 2001). For
employers, low results, absenteeism, sick leave and higher employee turnover, recruiting and
training costs would be the effects of low work life balance (Department of Trade and
Industry, 2001). Compared to the amount of time you spend with your family and doing stuff
you love, WLB basically means the amount of time you spend doing your work. In intensely
competitive labour markets, an enterprise needs to magnetise and retain respected workers. In
terms of development and management of work life balance initiatives, it is a powerful
driving force for improved organisational knowledge and performance. WLB is an important

Volume XII, Issue X, October/2020 Page No:31

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

human resource management field that is attracting growing attention from government,
scientists, leadership, and members of employees.
NEED OF THE STUDY
There is a workup need to focus on maintaining a better work-life balance. The inability to
balance both family and work leads to poor performances. The productivity of performance
effects in a great manner. The rate of absenteeism increases and lowers the commitment of
employees towards work which leads to poor morale of the individuals. Every single
individual can create his/her own work-life balance by tasting the joy of the job. Integration
enhancement develops balance in personal and professional life by allowing oneself more
towards it. Maintaining a work life balance helps reduces stress and burnouts in life. Many
organizations are actively participating in work-life balance programs to manage high
turnover rates in the organization, for proper recruitment and selection of Employees,
retaining excellent people by devising many policies and strategies of the organizations.
These work life balance programs are also mainly conducted by organizations to destress
people at the right time by certain coping strategies by reducing their stress level by
rebalancing work life. Many Employers also provide long term vacations as well as flexible
timings to their employee especially women performing dual role responsibilities and also
providing them options of work from home that really create a positive understanding
between employer as well as employees. So, there is an urgent need to study this issue deeply
so that companies can really go through the various issues related to their employees by
implementing work-life balance programs and ensuring the welfare of their people as well as
organization.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To study the present scenario of worklife balance
2. To examine the factors influencing worklife balance of employees
3. To interpret the basic concept of employee performance
4. To analyse the impact of work-life balance on employee performance
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research paper is basically descriptive and analytical in nature. In this paper, an attempt
has been taken to analyse the impact of work-life balance and its impact on Employee’s
Performance the Data collection is on secondary sources such as research papers, articles
according to the need of the study.
WORK LIFE BALANCE
The term "work life balance" may be defined as a state of equilibrium in which the
requirements of both the work and personal life of an individual are equal. This word was
coined in 1986 but its use has been intermittent for a number of years in everyday language.
Work life balance programmes are a global phenomenon. Workers want flexibility and
autonomy over their work and personal lives in global cultures as well. Interestingly, services
for work life had existed as early as the 1930s. The W.K. Kellogg Company developed four
six-hour shifts before World War II to replace the conventional three regular 8-hour shifts,
and the new shifts resulted in improved morale and efficiency of workers. Firms started to

Volume XII, Issue X, October/2020 Page No:32

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

provide work life services in the 1980s and 1990s. While the first wave of these initiatives
was mainly to help women with children, the worklife programmes today are less gender-
specific and consider other as well as family responsibilities Work-life balance is defined as a
'fit' between the multiple roles in the life of a person, in its broadest sense (Hudson, 2005).
REASONS FOR IMBALANCE IN WORK LIFE BALANCE
1. There is a lot of competition among the population to perform better and to achieve more
in the organizational end which demands more attention and efforts, extended working hours
and awareness.
2. Individual career ambition causes ignorance to the rest of the life aspects.
3. The global economy has a wider impact of work-life balance which affecting everything
from choice of education and job.
4. The insufficient income of employees.
5. Less paid individuals to work for extended hours to earn adequate.
6. Higher paid individuals confine into working more hours with higher responsibilities.
7. More time in travelling because of traffic jams.
8. Demographic changes.
9. Collapsing limits between work and home.
10. Other reasons include insecurities in life due to various reasons on the professional front
as well as the personal front, lack of broader outlook towards people and issues, job security
and extensive use of communication technology, lack of support and understanding of family
members, fellow colleagues, co-workers, work -role ambiguity and conflict.
EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
(Abualoush et al., 2018) identified that the execution of work activities or job duties is termed
as employee performance that requires effectiveness, efficiency and better quality. Every
employee is responsible for the achievement of organizational goals. Employee contributions
open the way towards the success of a business. A positive work environment motivates
individuals to perform effectively. Employee performance is a vital factor which marks the
growth of both individual and organization and is beneficial for both as well. There is a link
of employee performance with the work activities and task of employee execute in an
effective manner. It also focuses on the contribution of the employee for the organization as
well as among employees of the organization which explores output, work attendance and
attitude.According to (Faiza & Nazir, 2015)Employee performance is a measurable aspect by
adopting different techniques.(Koubova&Buchko, 2013) in their study says that the alarming
issue is that how an individual can manage a satisfactory personal life and productive
performances at the workplace the question arises on the fact that both the factors whether
complementing or conflicting each other. (Johari et al., 2018) confirms that if a person is not
capable to maintain exact balance and better control then that will cause lack of energy and
overburden workload. The imbalance makes the presence of fatigue and poor performances;
that further decreases the quality of life.

Volume XII, Issue X, October/2020 Page No:33

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Organizations should concentrate on enhancing the efficiency of their organisations to
achieve the competitive edge. People factor plays an energetic role in maximising and
maintaining the efficiency of the organisation.
Arulrajah and Opatha, (2012 ) argued in this context that the success of an company depends
directly on the individuals that it hires. Since the organisation's personnel are regarded as the
major stakeholders in deciding the organisation's efficiency. Organizations are therefore
increasingly forced to concentrate on enhancing employees ' job performance in order to
increase the performance of the company. Given the current situation, companies need to find
ways and strategies to enhance employee performance.
Wheatly (2012) suggests that the work-life balance of workers provides the employer and
staff with win-win results.
Grady et al.(2008) also argued that work-life balance is essential for the well-being of
individuals, the success of organisations and a functioning society.
V. Madhusudhan et.al (2013) identified the factors responsible for work-life balance and
extracted the responsibility for work-life balance from dependents, time flexibility, task
consistency, coworkersupport , family culture , work-hours and head support. Management
will concentrate on time flexibility, task consistency, co-worker support, working hours and
head support for work-life balance According to Fatima et.al ( 2012) factors influencing
work-life balance are partner support, co-worker support and job resources are positively
linked to work-life balance while unfair work-life criticism is negatively linked to work-life
balance The study shows that male workers are more comfortable with work-life balance
compared to females by comparison to partner support. This is found that female workers
have faced more work-life pressure due to childcare obligations, and it is further observed
that elderly dependency doubles women's burden than men.
Sathyanarayana, et., al (2018 ) conducted a analysis of work-life balance determinants among
164 IT-sector employees in Bangalore city. Supervisory support, job autonomy,
organizational culture , work aspirations, work satisfaction, family support and self-
management were the factors found. It was found that the majority of respondents agreed that
the major factors affecting their work-life balance were heavy workload and frequent
deadlines.
Poulose and Sudarsan (2017) evaluated the impact of work-life balance dimensions on
organizational factors, namely work overload and support for work and their predictor
relationship with work satisfaction , particularly among health care nurses in India. The
findings showed that the benefits and stresses faced by the workers imperatively affect all
realms of work and personal life. In addition , the results indicated that organizational
support, supervisors, and colleagues would go a long way in helping workers achieve better
organizational outcomes.
Rajni Gyanchandani (2017) conducted a qualitative study using a thematic approach on
work-life balance among selected 30 software professionals in Pune city. Six concepts,
including social need, personal need, time management , collaboration, rewards and benefits,
and function, were used. The findings showed that many workers give up their own time

Volume XII, Issue X, October/2020 Page No:34

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

bearing in mind the overall goal of striking a work-life balance. Employees, particularly
women, have a lot of role clash as moms and other members of their family.
Mahesh et al .(2016) reviewed the analysis of the literature on work-life balance, its
dimensions and its effect on organizational efficiency. According to the report, an
organization can not work to its full potential unless there is complete engagement and
dedication from all the workers, which comes when they have a healthy work-life balance. In
addition, it is known that several dimensions or variables (both internal and external)
contribute positively and negatively to work satisfaction. Organizations have experimented
with different methods , strategies, systems , and processes to ensure their workers ' job
satisfaction. While it is important to take care of their latent desires, demands and concerns,
there are also other advantages of an excellent work-life balance, such as of efficiency,
maintaining worthy workers for a longer period of time, effective balancing of people's
resources and jobs, a productive working environment, and eventually achieving management
goals.
In addition, Naithani (2010) has claimed that an organisation that neglects issues related to
the work-life balance of employees will end up with lower productivity of employees and in
turn will find it harder to enhance the work output of employees.
As noted above, work-life balance plays a pivotal role in deciding employee job efficiency. In
this sense, several researchers have found a favourable link to work success in the work-life
balance. In general, the work-life balance that encourages HRM activities such as
telecommuting, job sharing, accessibility and so on leads to enhancing the efficiency of
workers by removing the tension between work and life. By enhancing employee
engagement, happiness, dedication, corporate citizenship behaviour and productivity as well
as reducing employee turnover and absenteeism, work life balance contributes to increasing
job performance. This analysis reveals, according to the aforementioned literature, that work-
life has a positive relationship with job performance.
DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
The management of family and work roles leads to better performances with a high
productivity rate. That facilitates the space for growth to both the parties-employer and
employee. Proper time management and stress management reduces the burden of managing
work and family life. A perfect balance between both and effective management is a must.
By following various policies and programs facilitate by organizations, an individual can
manage his roles in a better way without any stress. Organizations nowadays provide a range
of facilities, policies and programs to keep their employees motivated to cope with all the
stuff regarding work responsibilities. A person with good emotional well-being can perform
better at the organizational end. An employer can improve work-life balance by devising
several HR policies and including flexible time scheduling, by providing the number of days
as paid leaves for child care, maternity leave paid, work from home etc. According to a study
by Messmer in 2006, flexible scheduling is the benefit valued most by employees.
Implementing work-life balance programs and ensuring the welfare of their people as well as
organization. SelfManagement also plays a very pivotal role in maintaining work-life balance
where Employee is required to control their behaviour and give their best to the company.
Some evaluative parameters are also required to ensure whether these programs are really

Volume XII, Issue X, October/2020 Page No:35

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

having desired outcomes and effects over the employers, employees and the overall growth of
the organization
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Overburden and extended working hours cause imbalance between work and life. To avoid
that an organization should grow its size so that work activities can be divided.
2. Organizations can arrange workshops and seminars on time, stress, and effective work
management; and prioritizing work activities for their employees. It will develop a habit of
punctuality by avoiding the pressure of the time factor.
3. Designing of work-life balance plan for every job position of employees in the
organizations will lead to job satisfaction and enhance the productivity of employees.
4. Technological advancement is highly required to avoid paper or manual work activities. It
also reduces communication gap and saves time.
5. Employees should be committed towards their working hours to avoid delay in work
activities and work pressure.
6. There should be a provision of a healthy work environment in the organization for its
employees to reflect positivity. Thriving lifestyles help to tackle the situation better.
7. A childcare facility near to workplace help employees a lot in handling their kids and that
reduces the stress experienced by parents.
8. Provision of freelancing, compressed workweeks and bendy work time beneficial for
employees to adjust their working time to manage more time for demanding situations of
different life roles
9. There should not be any provision of bringing office work at home .no work on the cell
phone during non-working hours, and setting a clear boundary between work and home.
10. Proper times management for personal life, family life and professional life and by
maintaining a to-do list.
CONCLUSION
Briefly, it can be said that work-life balance is a significant issue in the present scenario and
it has a vital impact on the productivity and growth of both the organization and the
employee. This study is providing basic conceptual clarity between work-life balance and
employee performance. There is a powerful relationship between both. WorkLife is all about
a measure and control on when, where and how the individuals work. There are many factors
which act as supporting elements for employees to maintain the balance between work and
personal life. Work-Life balance and employee performance are equally proportional to each
other. If work-life is balanced in well-mannered then the performance of the employee will
be effective. On the other hand, the imbalance between work-life influences stress among
individuals and it is difficult to perform productive while wearing stress in mind.
Organizations, with the provision of a healthy work environment and culture, proper training
programmes and better life plan designs, can help its employees to perform better. Support
from employer to employees plays a role of motivational factor to employees.

Volume XII, Issue X, October/2020 Page No:36

Journal of Interdisciplinary Cycle Research ISSN NO: 0022-1945

REFERENCES

1. “Work-Life Balance Imperatives for Modern Work Organization: A Theoretical

Perspective,” 2016
2. Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on
employee performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management, 63(3), 308-323.
3. Beauregard, T. A., & Henry, L. C. (2009). Making the link between work-life balance
practices and organizational performance. Human Resource Management Review,
19(1), 9-22.
4. Chetna PMK. Impact of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on employee
loyalty. International journal of social science & interdisciplinary research (8), 26-41
(2012).
5. Mahesh, B. P., Prabhushankar, M. R., Chirag, S. K., & Amit, V. S. (2016). A study of
work-life balance and its effects on organizational performance. International Journal
of Engineering Research and Advanced Technology, 2(01), 344-349.
6. Explain what is Employee Performance Management? From www.peoplestreme.com.
7. Goyal, KA., & Babel, AA 2015 „Issues and Challenges of Work Life Balance in
Banking Industry of India‟, Pacific Business Review International, vol. 8, no. 5,
pp.113-118
8. Koopmans, L., Bernaards, CM., Hildebrandt, VH, Schaufeli, WB, de Vet Henrica,
CW, & van der Beek, AJ 2011, „Conceptual frameworks of individual work
performance: a systematic review‟, Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine, vol.53, no.8, pp.856-866.
9. Meenakshi Kaushik, & Neha Guleria. (2020). A Conceptual Study on Work-Life
Balance and its impact on Employee Performance. Sparkling International Journal of
Multidisciplinary Research Studies, 3(1), 1-11.
10. Mohammad niaz,Journal of Vocational Behaviour (2003) – “Relation between work
family balance and quality of life.”
11. Parvin, M. M., & Kabir, M. M. N. (2011). Factors affecting employee job satisfaction
of pharmaceutical sector. Australian Journal of Business and Management Research,
1(9), 113-123.
12. Thevanes, N “Relationship between Work-Life Balance and JobPerformance of
Employees." IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) 20.5 (2018):
11-16.
13. V. Madhusudhan Goud and K. Nagaraju (2013), “Work Life Balance of Teaching
Faculty with Reference to Andhra Pradesh Engineering Colleges”, Global Journal of
Management and Business Studies, Volume 3, Number 8, pp. 891-896.

Volume XII, Issue X, October/2020 Page No:37

View publication stats