Worklife

Impact of Work Life Balance on Employee Job Satisfaction
in Private Banking Sector of Karachi

Purpose-The core purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of work life
balance on employee job satisfaction in private banking sector of Karachi. The
data were collected keeping in consideration features such as gender, age,
managerial position and tenure of job. Factors involved are job satisfaction and
work life balance with respect to flexible working conditions, work life balance
programs, employee intention to change/leave job, work pressure/stress and
long working hours.
Methodology/Sample- A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed out of
which 273 were returned back after filling. The selected method for sampling
in this research is snowball sampling. Data were collected using both primary
and secondary sources. Primary data were collected through questionnaires.
The data was analyzed using SPSS, test applied was correlation.
Findings-The findings suggest that work life balance has very less impact on
employee job satisfaction in private commercial banking sector of Karachi. The
reason of such results may be due to the uncertain conditions, high inflation
and unemployment rate in Pakistan.
Practical Implication- This research can be beneficial for the banking sector
to improve their policies, benefits programs and pay structures to attract, recruit
and retain more capable candidates. The results of this research shows that even
in the metropolitan city like Karachi, employees are not aware of issues like
job satisfaction and work life balance that is undoubtedly a basic right. People
are contended as far as they have job, rest of the things do not seem important
to them. This research can be utilized as a light for banks to pay attention to
such factors, because their benefits are not only for employees but can benefit
banks in the long run especially in maintain work force turnover.
Sobia Shujat
Lecturer at Bahria University Karachi Campus
Farooq-E-Azam Cheema
Dean Management Sciences at the Institute of Business & Technology (Biztek)
Faryal Bhutto
MBA Scholar at Bahria University Karachi Campus
Keywords : work life balance, job satisfaction, turnover rate, banking sector
* Sobia Shujat : sobiashujaat@bimcs.edu.pk
* Farooq-E-Azam : dr.cheema@ibt.edu.pk
* Faryal Bhutto : snowwhite2687@gmail.com
Jel classification :
09 Journal of Management and Social Sciences
Sobia Shujaat, Farooq-E-Azam Cheema, Faryal Bhutto
1. INTRODUCTION
The rapid economic growth and development in the world has created new activities
and
open new doors for all the business organizations. The globalization trend has put the
organizations hard to retain their competitive advantage. This trend has also affected
the
banking sector. Banking sector become more competitive. The changes in business
activities
bring change in culture and perception of the employees. Organizational changes due
to
downsizing, mergers/ acquisitions and radical changes in technology have changed the
work setups. The employees in present are more involved in their jobs than in the last
decade. The long working hours, work pressure, high demanding jobs, use of
sophisticated
technology made it difficult for employees to keep a balance between their job and work
commitments (Nadeem and Abbas 2009).
Businesses are facing increasing demands to raise efficiency and becoming more
responsive to customers and employees. No longer is it just a matter of remuneration
and
promotional prospects; job seekers are increasingly making employment decisions on
how
well their current or potential workplace can support a balance between personal lives
and
paid occupation (Tanvi and Fatama 2012). Pakistan is no more exception in this regard.
Metropolis of the country like Karachi being considered as very busy and fast moving
city
and the work load and pressure and long working hours affects the level of employee
job
satisfaction.
Considerable research has already been conducted on work life balance and
employee satisfaction in developed countries. Developing countries have also started
paying+ attention on this front to increase employee job satisfaction. In Pakistan much
research has been conducted on this issue and more efforts are being suggested to the
bigger organizations especially the banking sector where longer working hours is a
particular
norm, to restore a work-life balance for the better good of the social and family life of the
workforce. For instance, a study was conducted in Pakistan by Nadeem and Abbas,
(2009)
to discover the relationship among work life conflict and employee job satisfaction at all
levels of the management in public and private organizations. Findings showed that job
satisfaction at top level of management has negative correlation with family to work
interference, family to work interference and stress and job satisfaction has positive
correlation with job autonomy. Job satisfaction at the middle level of employees
decreases
when work life conflict and stress increases. Job satisfaction at the lower level of
employees
has negative correlation with stress and family to work interference and positive
correlation
with job autonomy.
Objective of this study is, thus, to examine the impact of work life balance on
employee job satisfaction and to identify which factors of work life balance have more
influence on employee job satisfaction in banking sector. This research can be helpful
for
banks to identify the factors which influence the employee work-life balance and the job
satisfaction in the result. And to take measures to restore this balance.
Accordingly, following are the hypothesis to be tested for this study:
.H1: There is no effect of long working hours on employee job satisfaction.
.H2: There is no effect of flexible working condition on employee job satisfaction.
.H3: There is no effect of work pressure on employee job satisfaction.
.H4: There is no effect of change of job on employee job satisfaction.
.H5: There is no effect of work-life balance programs on employee job satisfaction.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature shows that managers have valuable role in encouraging employees to
manage
their work and life activities. Strong relationship exists between work life balance and
employee satisfaction, hence companies should make policies and programs for
employees
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Impact of Work Life Balance on Employee Job Satisfaction in Private Banking Sector of
Karachi
on work life balance. Managers can apply different roles of leadership to manage
employees
work life balance and provide success to the company (Rani et al 2011). When
employees
are not clear about their roles to be performed then employees are unable to meet
organizational goals and it also has an impact on their personal life and employees
become
dissatisfied towards their job and organization faces lack of effectiveness.
Work-life balance policies and family supportive cultures have been observed in
France and Japan also (Aybars 2007, Cole 2006). There is a wide variety of work-life
balance initiatives for employees being incorporated by organizations and include
flexible
work hours, job sharing, parental leave on-site child care facility and telecommuting
(Hartel
et al. 2007). Studies suggest that in absence of work-life balance, employees'
dissatisfaction
increases.
However it is found that when employees' need in respect of creating a work-life
balance is met by different organizational programmes they show higher job satisfaction
and organizational commitment (Gregory and Milner 2009). A study was conducted in
Pakistan by Nadeem and Abbas, (2009) to discover the relationship among work life
conflict and employee job satisfaction at all levels of the management in public and
private
organizations. Findings showed that job satisfaction at top level of management has
negative
correlation with family to work interference, family to work interference and stress and
job satisfaction has positive correlation with job autonomy. Job satisfaction at the middle
level of employees decreases when work life conflict and stress increases. Job
satisfaction
at the lower level of employees has negative correlation with stress and family to work
interference and positive correlation with job autonomy.
Hanglberger (2010) studied the effect of work-life balance, specifically working
hours on employees' job satisfaction and finds a positive relationship between them.
The
same was analyzed by Gash et al. (2010) for women in UK and Germany and the
findings
supported Hanglberger studies, showing a positive effect of reduced working hours on
employees' life satisfaction. Another study (Malik et al. 2010) was conducted in Pakistan
to investigate the relationship between work-life balance, job satisfaction and turnover
intentions among medical professionals in hospitals.
The level of employees' job satisfaction increases by many factors and when
employees are satisfied with their work, they feel motivated ( Noor, 2011). The demand
of employees work life balance is increased by change in trends in the business such as
change in organizations structure, diversity of work force and female employees
working
in organizations. Organizations should provide work life balance facilities to their
employees
so that employees can perform their duties effectively and leads organization to the
success
(Parvin and Kabir, 2011).
Another study by Dev 2012, conducted in India indicates that work-life balance
is significantly correlated with job satisfaction in the banking sector. It suggested that
female employees should be given more facilities such as flexi time, job sharing, child
care, etc to gain their organizational commitment. It was revealed that those doctors
who
are better in managing their work-life shows higher satisfaction with jobs and less
turnover
intentions. Job satisfaction has negative correlation with work stress, family to work
interference and work to family interference but have positive correlation with workload.
Employees' productivity is reduced and their turnover and absenteeism are increased
due
do work life strain and most of the institutions also complain that they can't much
facilitate
their employees to balance their work and family responsibilities. Fatima and Sahibzada
(2012) conducted a study on work-life balance in the universities. They concluded that
due to heavy workload in universities, staff becomes dissatisfied. Hence, universities
should develop strategies that could facilitate faculty needs to balance between work
and
life activities to achieve competitive advantage.
A study was conducted by Maren et al. (2013) to analyze work-life balance and
job satisfaction among teachers exposed a negative relationship between work-life
conflicts
and job satisfaction. The study suggested that if organizations offer facilities to reduce
work-life conflicts, it will lead to improvement in employees' job satisfaction. Chahal et
al. (2013) suggested to increase the efficiency of the employee's bank should timely
appraise
their employees and encourage them to work hard because satisfied employees are
reason
for the success of the organization. When employees are satisfied with their jobs they
become loyal and committed to the organization. Saleem et al (2013) say that
organization
should make strategies and policies that will help employees to have clear
understanding
regarding their job tasks and objectives and if employees are not satisfied with their job
they will not pay attention to their work and will not make customers happy.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data was collected through snowball sampling method A total of 300 questionnaires
were distributed to private commercial banks of Karachi out of which 273 were returned
back after filling. 86.45% of the respondents were of non-managerial level whereas
13.55%
of respondents were of middle level managers. 69.96% respondents were male and
30.04%
were female. 39 respondents belonged to executive level and 21 belonged to
operational
level. 12.09% respondents were of less than 25 years of age, 47.62% respondents were
of 25 to 35 year of age, 32.97% of the respondents were of 36 to 45 years of age, while
7.33% respondents were of 46 to 55 age groups.
Primary data were collected through questionnaires with 5 point likert scale where
A = strongly disagree, B = somewhat disagree, C = neutral, D = somewhat agree, E =
strongly agree. While secondary data was collected from books, magazines, research
journals and web sites etc. The data was analyzed using SPSS 19 version, the test
applied
was Correlation Pearson's Product to analyze the relation between work life balance
and
job satisfaction.
4. DATA ANALYSIS
The following results show the correlation of work life balance on employee job
satisfaction:
Correlations
The correlation between the long working hours and job satisfaction is r = - .085. Hence,
the first null hypothesis H1 is accepted. This coefficient shows that there is weak and
negative relationship between the employees working hours and the job satisfaction.
So,
there is insignificant relation between long working hours and job satisfaction and it is
concluded that as long working hours have weak relation so it has no impact on the
level
of employee's job satisfaction in banking sector but long working hours have negative
relation so bank can increase employee's job satisfaction by reducing working hours of
employee's.
job satisfaction Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Long working hrs Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
job satisfaction
1
273
-.085
.164
273
Long working
hrs -.085
.164
273
1
273
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Karachi
Correlations
The correlation between the flexible working conditions and employees job satisfaction
is r = .003. Hence, the second null hypothesis H2 is also accepted. This coefficient
shows
that there is very weak and positive relation between the flexible working conditions and
job satisfaction among employees. So, there is insignificant relation between the flexible
working conditions and employee's job satisfaction and it is concluded that as flexible
working conditions have very weak relation so it has no impact on the level of
employees'
job satisfaction in banking sector. However banks can increase the level of employee's
job
satisfaction by increasing flexible working conditions to employees.
Correlations
The correlation between the work pressure and employee's job satisfaction is r = -.033.
Hence, the third null hypothesis H3 is also accepted. This coefficient shows that there is
weak and negative relation between the work pressure and employees job satisfaction.
So,
there is insignificant relation between the work pressure and job satisfaction and it is
concluded that as work pressure have negative relation with employee's job satisfaction,
banks can reduce work pressure among employees to increase employees job
satisfaction.
However work pressure can be decreased by allocating job duties according to the
employees
skills.
Correlations
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Flexible working conditions Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
job satisfaction
1
273
.003
.956
273
Flexible working
conditions
.003
.956
273
1
273
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
work pressure Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
job satisfaction
1
273
-.033
.582
273
work pressure
-.033
.582
273
1
273
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
WLB programs Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
job satisfaction
1
273
-.083
.170
273
WLB programs
-.083
.170
273
1
273
The correlation between the work life balance programs and employees job satisfaction
is r = .083. Hence, the fourth null hypothesis H4 is also accepted. This coefficient shows
that there is weak and positive relation between work life balance programs and
employee
job satisfaction. So there is insignificant relation between the work life balance programs
and employee job satisfaction. Therefore, it is concluded that as work life balance
programs
have positive relation with employee job satisfaction. However, banks can increase the
level of satisfaction of employees by increasing employees work life balance programs.
Correlations
The correlation between the employees intention to leave\change the job and job
satisfaction
is r = -.021. Hence, the fifth null hypothesis H5 is also accepted. This coefficient shows
that there is weak and negative relation between change of job and employees job
satisfaction.
So there is insignificant relation between the employee's intention to leave job and job
satisfaction. However, employee's job satisfaction can be increased by reducing
employee's
intention to change or leave the job by providing certain work life balance facilities.
5. DISCUSSION
According to this research work pressure have negative and weak relation with
employees
job satisfaction in private banking sector of Karachi. Previous researches also support
findings of this study. For example, Nadeem and Abbas, (2009) found in their study that
work pressure/stress is negatively correlated with job satisfaction in both private
company
LMKR and public company NADRA. Saleem et al. (2013) found in their study that job
stress have very low impact on job satisfaction of employees in banking sector of
Bahawalpur.
Ashfaq et al. (2013) also found that work pressure also has weak relation with employee
job performance in banking sector of Pakistan. Although work pressure has insignificant
impact on job satisfaction, organizations can promote employee job satisfaction by
distributing job duties according to the employee's skills and managers should also
clarify
their tasks to each employee so that they can perform their work on time to reduce their
work pressure\stress. This point is also in lines with the findings of this study.
This study has also found out that there is positive relation of work life balance
programs on employee job satisfaction in banking sector of Karachi. It is supported by
other studies also. For example, Ueda, (2012) concluded that work life balance
programs
have positive and significant effect on employee job satisfaction of full time and part
time
employees working in business organizations of Japan. According to findings of this
study
these programs help employees to reduce their work burden and they will effectively
perform their job and not job activities. Accordingly, banking sector can increase
employee's
job satisfaction by increasing work life balance programs for employees, which is likely
to help them manage their job and family.
Likewise, the study has found that long working hours have negative and weak
relation with employee's job satisfaction in private banking sector of Karachi. Long
working
hours do have much impact on employee's job satisfaction level because employees of
Karachi banks have made it a norm to work long hours and give more priority to their
job
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
Change of job Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed)
N
job satisfaction
1
273
-.021
.735
273
Change of job
-.021
.735
273
1
273
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Karachi
activities than non job activities in their life. In this way, this study contradicts with the
work of Chahal et al. (2013) that found that 62.5% of employees in Canara bank in delhi
NCR were dissatisfied with their job due to long working hours. However, work of
Purohit,
(2013) supports findings of this study that shows that 80% of the IT companies of Pune
region in India practiced flexible time under the head of flexible working conditions
because in IT companies employees work in day and night shifts.
6. CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of work life balance on employee
job satisfaction and to identify which factor of work life balance have more influence on
employee job satisfaction in banking sector of Karachi. The research findings show that
work life balance have not much impact on employee job satisfaction and some factors
of work life balance such as employee intention to leave job, work pressure and long
working hours have negative relation with employee job satisfaction and work life
balance
programs and flexible working conditions have positive relation with employee job
satisfaction. It is found out that the organizations can face multiple problems if their
workforce satisfaction level is lower. It is essential that HR departments are responsive
to the needs and constantly changing requirements of workforce and the effect of
environmental issues in order to improve programs and policies. It also saves cost of
hiring
by improving employees retention. In case of research conducted in private banking
sector
of Karachi, the factors which were supposed to have greater impacts on employee job
satisfaction and work life balance does not turn out to be effective. In this research, the
null hypothesis of all the factors of work life balance with job satisfaction is accepted.
There could be many reasons behind it i.e. the culture of Pakistan where one bread
earner
leads a family, the high inflation rate and fewer opportunities of jobs make employees to
work on compromised benefits and salaries. These factors could be the reason as why
the
results of this study are different than the rest of world.
7. REFERENCES
BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE SURVEY IN THE
BANKING SECTOR OF BANGLADESH
view with charts and images
BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE SURVEY IN THE BANKING SECTOR OF BANGLADESH
BANK OVERVIEW
SONALI BANK LTD
Sonali Bank was established in 1972 under the Bangladesh Banks (Nationalization) Order, through
the amalgamation and nationalization of the branches of National Bank of Pakistan, Bank of Bhowalpur
and Premier Bank branches located in East Pakistan until the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. When
it was established, Sonali Bank had a paid up capital of 30 million taka. In 2001, its authorized and
paid up capital were Tk 10 billion and Tk 3.272 billion respectively. The bank’s reserve funds were To
60 million in 1979 and To 2.050 billion on 30 June 2000.
BANK ASIA LTD
Bank Asia Limited is a scheduled commercial bank in the private sector established under the Banking
Company Act 1991 and incorporated in Bangladesh as a public limited company under the Companies
Act 1994 to carry out banking business in Bangladesh. Bank Asia Limited acquired the business of
Bank of Nova Scotia, Dhaka in the year 2001 and at the beginning of the year 2002 the Bank also
acquired the Bangladesh Operation of Muslim Commercial Bank Limited (MCBL), a bank incorporated
in Pakistan, having two branches at Dhaka and Chittagong with one booth at Dhaka. Bank Asia at
present carrying its banking activities through thirty six branches including ATM, Locker, SMS, Internet
Banking, SME & Foreign Exchange services in the country.
EASTERN BANK LTD
Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) is one of the modern, fully online and technologically superior private
commercial Banks in Bangladesh. Eastern Bank markets a wide range of depository, loan & card
products. These products include different types of Savings & Current Accounts, Personal Loans, Auto
Loan, Debit Card, Pre-paid Cards, Internet Banking, Treasury, Syndication, Corporate Banking and
SME Banking services through a network of branches & centers countrywide. Tracing its origin back
to 1992, EBL is serving the individual and corporate clientele alike with remarkable success offering
innovative banking services since then.
CITY BANK LTD
City Bank is one of the oldest private Commercial Banks operating in Bangladesh. It is a top bank
among the oldest five Commercial Banks in the country which started their operations in 1983. The
Bank started its journey on 27th March 1983 through opening its first branch at B. B. Avenue Branch
in the capital, Dhaka city. It was the visionary entrepreneurship of around 13 local businessmen who
braved the immense uncertainties and risks with courage and zeal that made the establishment &
forward march of the bank possible. Those sponsor directors commenced the journey with only Taka
3.4 core worth of Capital, which now is a respectable Taka 330.77 core as capital & reserve.
IBBL
Bangladesh is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. The people of this country are deeply
committed to Islamic way of life as enshrined in the Holy Qur’an and the Sunni. Naturally, it remains a
deep cry in their hearts to fashion and design their economic lives in accordance with the precepts of
Islam. The establishment of Islamic Bank Bangladesh Limited on March 13, 1983, is the true reflection
of this inner urge of its people, which started functioning with effect from March 30, 1983. This Bank
is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
3.1 Better Work-Life Balance Survey
The survey was developed as part of a research project, called the Work and Family Project – Pilot
Program, which involved conducting pilot programs with ten workplaces to evaluate the effectiveness
of their work-life balance policies. The project was a collaboration between the then Department of
Industrial Relations (DIR) and the University of Queensland with an Australian Research Council
funding grant and funding from DIR. The Better Work-Life Balance Survey (or BWLB Survey for short)
was developed as a self-assessment measure to evaluate the work-life balance policies of workplaces.
Between 2002 and 2004 ten Queensland organizations participated in the project and around 3,000
employees in both rural and urban areas in Queensland completed the survey.
The Better Work Life Balance Survey aims to measure how effectively organizations accommodate
work life balance, by assessing employee’s awareness of work life balance policies and their comfort
levels in using these policies.
Effective work life balance and flexible work policies are imperative to business for many reasons,
including:
 improved employee relations

 improved staff retention rates
 reduced absenteeism and sick leave
 improved staff morale, engagement and satisfaction
 greater staff loyalty and commitment
 improved productivity
The Better Work Life Balance Survey can help your organization improve and promote work life
balance in the workplace by:
 identifying areas of policy development and implementation where change may be required
(e.g. improve awareness; change workplace culture)
 monitoring the effectiveness of organizational changes by re-administering the survey after
changes have been made
 responding to the changing needs of your employees and ensuring employees are aware of
existing and changed policies by re-administering the survey periodically
3.2 Aspects of analysis

The design of the BWLB Survey is structured around the three basics an organization needs to have
in place to effectively accommodate employees’ work-life balance:
1. It must have institutionalized work-life balance policies;
2. Its employees must be aware of the existence of these policies; and
3. Employees must be able to fairly and appropriately access these policies.
Based on these three main themes, the survey items examine:
1. Current organizational policies (in the form of a separate survey for the employer);
2. Dissemination and awareness of policy information; and
3. Prevailing workplace culture with regards to work-life balance issues. In addition, the survey
examines how important work-life balance policies are to employees.
The survey examines four types of policies:
– leave arrangements (e.g. careers leave, purchased leave);
– Policies relevant to parenting and pregnancy (e.g. parental leave, breastfeeding facilities);
– Flexible work arrangements (e.g. job sharing, flexi-time); and
– Additional work provisions (e.g. counseling services, health programs).
3.3 Method
The survey can be conducted in just about any workplace and is designed to be completed by both
employers and employees. It is provided in a Microsoft Excel format and requires Microsoft Excel to
view and use. The survey is available in electronic and in hardcopy format, however, all data needs to
be entered into the electronic version of the survey to enable information to be analyzed and
interpreted. The Better Work Life Balance Survey Manual provides detailed information on how to
conduct the survey.
ANALYSIS
4.1 ASPECT BASIS ANALYSIS OF EACH BANK
Here showing the importance of the policies of organization from each possible aspect of each bank
both the perspective from organization & employee/employer.
SONALI BANK
From the table we can easily understand that this bank providing some facilities for the employees like
careers leave, opportunity leave, study leave, career break & pooling of leave entitlements. This bank
offer better facilities for the mother of the child by providing the paid maternity leave, opportunity to
reenter the existing job after leave, safety at workplace & staggered return to job after pregnancy. In
the flexible work arrangements section the performance of the bank is very poor they don’t provide
any type of the facilities according to the flexibility of the work. The employee feel worthy if they provide
the employee oriented service in the workplace because it is his/her second home so they expect
much more flexibility to work according to their capacity. In the additional work provisions the bank
gives limited facilities to its employees like telephone for personal use, health programs and equal
access to promotion, training & development. But it is very much flexible & easy to give incentive to
them by providing these facilities & give a boost in the productivity of the bank.
Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is not close to up to the level.
BANK ASIA LTD
careers leave, study/training leave, bereavement leave & pooling of leave entitlements. Bur the bank
doesn’t provide other facilities relating to the leave arrangements of which he give emphasizes on the
cultural/religious leave as a important one. This bank offer better facilities for the mother of the child
by providing the paid maternity leave, opportunity to reenter the existing job after leave, safety at
workplace & staggered return to job after pregnancy. But this bank didn’t provide any other facilities
to the mother & her partners because fathers also have some responsibilities for the child & mother
so he have to take some time off for the family related matters. Moreover it is very much important to
bring child in the workplace & keep them in the childcare but the employer didn’t provide any type of
this facility for this reasons women are sometimes losing their momentum because of the extra
pressure from the family. In the flexible work arrangements section the performance of the bank is
very poor they don’t provide any type of the facilities according to the flexibility of the work. The
employee feel worthy if they provide the employee oriented service in the workplace because it is
his/her second home so they expect much more flexibility to work according to their capacity. In the
additional work provisions the bank gives limited facilities to its employees like telephone for personal
use, health programs and equal access to promotion, training & development but they don’t provide
the other necessary facilities stated in the table. The employee is feeling if the bank has the program
for the employee like relocation or placement assistance because it is very much needed for the
employee to cope up with the new environment in case of the transfer or newly appointed from other
location.
Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is close to up to the level.
EASTERN BANK LTD
In case of Eastern Bank Ltd it is clear that they are giving Study/Training leave, cultural/ religious
leave, pooling of leave entitlements & bereavement leave so there are some facilities are given to the
employees working in the organization. But they don’t provide other benefits expected by the employee
like careers leave, career break so it is very much attention grabber things to the management of the
organization. In the parenting & pregnancy policies the bank has some distinctive features for the
employees. It has gave paid maternity leave, opportunity to return to same job after maternity/paternity
& adoption leave, pre-natal leave & safety at work during pregnancy to its employees. The given
facilities to the employees is feel enough to them & other facilities which aren’t given to employees
aren’t get importance in the view of the employees of the organization. In this bank they have 1 clause
achieve for flexibility requirement in the workplace which is job sharing which is very much important
for the employee to retain their normal work process. This bank also inflexible in terms of the various
job related terms & conditions. From the employee viewpoint job sharing, cap on overtime, time off in
lieu, roistered days off & self-roistered and/or staggered start & finish times get attention for their
perspective. In the additional work provisions this bank gives poor facility for their employee because
they provide the facilities like telephone for personal use, health programs & equal access to
promotion, training & development. Among the other facilities which aren’t given to the employee two
facilities are get importance like referral services for employees’ personal needs, counseling services
for employees because of some reasons.
Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is up to the level. It can be easy to give incentive to them
by providing these facilities & give a boost in the productivity of the bank.
CITY BANK LTD
study/training leave, bereavement leave, pooling of leave entitlements to its employees but other
facilities entitled to the leave arrangements don’t give to the employees of their organizations. But
among the facilities not given to them some facilities are prefer by the employees of the bank. Those
are – careers leave, 48/52 pay averaging for purchasing additional annual leave, cultural/religious
leave. In case of parenting & pregnancy policies the bank provide some basic facilities like paid
maternity leave, opportunity to return to same job after maternity/paternity & adoption leave, pre-natal
leave, staggered return to work after pregnancy. But this bank don’t provide any type of childcare or
other necessary facilities for their betterment & they haven’t safety in the workplace so it is the most
vulnerable position for the mothers who have children under 6 because these mother can’t match their
feeding for their children. In terms of the flexibility this bank perform poorly according to the duties &
responsibilities to the employees of the organization because it don’t provide any type of the clause
stated in the table containing flexible work arrangements. In the analysis of additional work provisions
this bank gives poor facility for their employee because they provide the facilities like telephone for
personal use, health programs and equal access to promotion, training & development. Among the
other facilities which aren’t given to the employee 3 facilities are get importance like telephone for
personal use, health programs and equal access to promotion, training & development because of
some reasons.
Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is close to up to the level.
IBBL
study/training leave, career breaks, cultural leave. But they do not give bereavement leave & pooling
of leave entitlements. This bank offer better facilities for the mother of the child by providing the paid
maternity leave, opportunity to reenter the existing job after leave, safety at workplace & staggered
return to job after pregnancy. In the flexible work arrangements section the performance of the bank
is very poor they don’t provide any type of the facilities according to the flexibility of the work. But this
bank don’t provide any type of childcare or other necessary facilities for their betterment & they haven’t
safety in the workplace so it is the most vulnerable position for the mothers who have children under
6 because these mother can’t match their feeding for their children. In terms of the flexibility this bank
perform poorly according to the duties & responsibilities to the employees of the organization because
it don’t provide any type of the clause stated in the table containing flexible work arrangements. The
employee feel worthy if they provide the employee oriented service in the workplace because it is
his/her second home so they expect much more flexibility to work according to their capacity. In the
additional work provisions the bank gives limited facilities to its employees like telephone for personal
use, health programs and equal access to promotion, training & development. But it is very much
flexible & easy to give incentive to them by providing these facilities & give a boost in the productivity
of the bank.
Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is no satisfactory.
4.2 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AMONG BANKS
Here showing the comparative analysis among the banks showing their importance of the policies of
organization from each possible aspect of each bank both the perspective from organization &
employee/employer.
From the chart analysis it is indicating that Sonali bank being a state owned bank giving working
satisfaction is satisfactory level. On the other hand, rest of the 4 banks is moving around the state
owned bank in their performance of work level satisfaction.
LEAVE ARRANGEMENTS:
In terms of leave arrangements EBL is playing satisfactory level of performance. On the other hand,
IBBL is the weakest participant in providing leave facilities.
PARENTING & PREGNANCY POLICIES:
In terms of leave arrangements all banks are playing same level of satisfaction.
FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS:
SONALI bank is the weakest participant in providing leave facilities.
ADDITIONAL WORK ARRANGEMENTS:
SONALI bank is the weakest participant in providing leave facilities.
FORMALITY OF POLICIES:
From the answers taken from the responders in the survey it is obvious that one common thing is
discovered in front of me it is – no bank has formal work-life balance policy in the written form. But
another interview taken from them it is clear that they have unstructured but corporate culture based
informal policies for the work-life balance policies. But it is one of the major debacles that no bank has
the formal policies regarding the work-life balance policies & the employees even don’t know how they
can be benefitted by the organization they are worked for. Moreover because of the not having of the
formal written work-life balance policies employees can’t maintain their life according to the corporate
culture & they can’t prepare themselves with previous idea about the work-life balance.
EXPERIENCE IN ORGANIZATION:
In terms of leave arrangements IBBL is playing satisfactory level of performance. On the other hand,
EBL is the weakest participant in providing leave facilities.
But after all aspects basis analysis it can be stated that In the eyes of the employee Eastern Bank Ltd
is a ultimate bank which provide better service among selected five banks to the employee because
the employee are much more satisfied in the Eastern Bank Ltd than other 4 banks in the score &
percentage of the total score given to highest possible marks.
ASPECTS IBBL CITY BANK SONALI BANK BANK ASIA EBL

LTD LTD LTD
Leave arrangements 18 19 22 20 17
Policies relevant to parenting and 24 24 24 24 24
pregnancy
Flexible work arrangements 9 24 13 14 15
Additional work provisions 17 19 18 19 19
Formality of policies 7 5 6 5 5
Personal experience at the 60 61 66 63 68
organization
TOTAL 135 140 148 149 152
RECOMMANDATIONS
After analyzing the questionnaire filled by the employees of the 5 different levels of 5 different banks
some loopholes are get attention of me as a fault of creating the better work-life balance policy in the
organization. So I have some recommendation for the banks as an aggregate manner.
Recommendations are:
· Banks should write down complete work-life balance policies for the employees.
· Banks should treat all the employees in different way but creating equitable balance of treatment.
· Employers have to think of the mental expectation of the employees to reduce the gap between the
employer & employee.
· Banks should introduce new department for the employee relations which can be named employee
welfare division.
· Banks can facilitate the employees how to cope up with the complex world to keep free from the
anxiety & tension in their mind.
· Banks should provide better facilities to keep the employee happy to achieve the better productivity
from the employees.
· Banks can create workshop to work-life policy manual with inclusion of the all levels of management
& general employees.
· When regulatory organizations check the banks performance they can add one more thing to check
the human development ratio in the banking sector to evaluate the actual development performance
of the banks in terms of human also.
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the answers given by the employees of the various banks it is very much clear that
people are much more sacrificed their family life for the betterment in the work life. Even most of the
employees are unknown about the facilities or their rights what should be getting from the organization
where they worked. Another important thing is that companies are very much unknown about the
workers expectation & need because of the complex system in the corporate world. Only few facilities
are known of the basic work-life balance policies. Even they haven’t any written policy for the work-life
balance maintenance. Employers have to give proper attention to the employees expectation & need
because banking job is the people oriented job where a employee can uplift the image of the bank to
the customers on the other hand he/she can downsize the whole business by not doing proper things.
REFERENCES
Abstract
This paper attempts to identify the factors such as emotional intelligence, work
overload, spiritual intelligence, organizational support, job engagement & technology
advancement influencing work life balance of employees in private commercial banks of
Bangladesh. The research has been conducted on 208 employees working in various
private commercial banks of Bangladesh by using confirmatory factor analysis. The
findings showed that Work Overload, Organizational Support & Emotional Intelligence
are positively related to work life balance. However, Job Engagement and
Technological Advancement are found to be negatively related to work life balance.
Moreover the finding showed Spiritual Intelligence is not related to work life balance.
Abstract
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IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM)
e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN: 2319-7668. Volume 21, Issue 5. Ser. VIII (May. 2019), PP
01-12
www.iosrjournals.org
DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org
1 | Page
Improving Work Life Balance: A Study on Employees in Private
Commercial Banks of Bangladesh
Rubina Easmin1, Tasmia Anwar2, Rabiul Hossain Dovash3, Ridoan Karim4

1(School of Business Administration, East Delta University, Bangladesh)
Corresponding Author: Rubina Easmin
Abstract: This paper attempts to identify the factors such as emotional intelligence, work
overload,
spiritual intelligence, organizational support, job engagement & technology
advancement influencing
work life balance of employees in private commercial banks of Bangladesh. The
research has been
conducted on 208 employees working in various private commercial banks of
Bangladesh by using
confirmatory factor analysis. The findings showed that Work Overload, Organizational
Support &
Emotional Intelligence are positively related to work life balance. However, Job
Engagement and
Moreover the
finding showed Spiritual Intelligence is not related to work life balance.
Keywords: Conservation of Resources, work-life balance, emotional intelligence,
spiritual intelligence, job
engagement, work overload, technology advancement, organizational support
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------
Date of Submission: 09-05-2019 Date of
acceptance: 25-05-2019
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
I. Introduction
Increased importance on competition and technological advancements have forced
organizations to be
more competitive as a result they require employees with higher competencies and
multitasking so that they can
sustain at minimum operational cost. So employees often face with challenges to
perform well and employ most
of their time at work in this era of globalization and competition. Organizations which do
not provide employees
for a chance of work/life balance might end up facing increasing number of
dissatisfied and unproductive
employees and hence slowly wear away (Gupta, 2016). Based on OECD index (2017)
long work hours might
hamper employees’ health, jeopardise safety and cause stress. It has also been
observed, on an average 1 in
every 8 employees in the OECD work more than 50 hours per week and full time worker
in OECD dedicates
62% of the day or about 15 hours, to individual care and leisure.
Maximum job being full time and permanent in Bangladesh leave very less options for
employees to be
able to create a balance between work and life. So there are scopes for work on
improving WLB for researchers.
Few observed recent studies suggest on improving work life balance policies and
factors those can affect WLB
(Tasnim, Hossain & Enam, 2017; Uddin, Mamun, Hoque & Uddin, 2013; Newaz &
Zaman, 2012).
There are numerous researches which concluded work life imbalance has
negative consequences.
Employees suffer from depression and physical problems due to the work life imbalance
as they are stressed at
work (Tasnim et al., 2017) as well as longer working hours have been linked to
depression (Frone, Russell &
Cooper, 2011). Employees have reported high level of work interferes with their
personal life (Reddy, Vranda,
Ahmed & Nirmala, 2010). The imbalance has also been found to have a negative affect
the on the employees’
relationships with family causing work-family conflict (Doble & Supriya, 2010) which
could result in decline in
productivity. Hence, work-life balance is of major importance for every employed
individual because
imbalances might affect their well-being and productivity negatively.
There have been various studies on work life balance. While some figured out
factors to implement
work life balance policies by organizations (Aamir, Hamid, Haider & Akhtar, 2016;
McCarthy, Cleveland,
Hunter, Darcy, & Grady, 2013, Newaz & Zaman, 2012) and some studied the factors
affecting the balance
(Fernando & Umma, 2016; Uddin et al., 2013).
All the previous studies worked on factors those could be used to improve and influence
the work-life
balance of workforce, so further research would be useful to figure out how other
factors can contribute to
WLB. Thus the research gap suggests determining the relationship between a number
of organizational factors,
individual factors and to work-life balance. The findings will contribute in
understand the role individual,
Improving Work Life Balance: A Study On Employees In Private Commercial Banks Of
Bangladesh

2 | Page
organizational and environmental factor have on enhancing the work-life balance of
today’s workforce. In this
study, individual factors include spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence and
job engagement,
organizational factors include organizational support and work overload and
environmental factor includes
technological advancement (Kumarasamy, Pangil & Isa, 2015).
II. Literature Review
2.1 Work Life Balance (WLB)
Work life balance is effectively balancing work and all other essential non-work
activities such as
family, community activities, voluntary work, personal development, leisure and
recreation (Dundas, 2008). So
it is important to maintain work-life balance or else individual’s performances will suffer
at work and non-work
domains. In the world of competitive age, where people keep juggling between their
personal and professional it
is important to identify the factors those could help individuals to maintain WLB.
Tomazevic, Kozjek & Stare
(2014) argued that WLB means to effectively combine professional life with
personal commitments and to
create coordination between them.
Previous studies have found link between WLB with job satisfaction and organizational
commitment.
Researchers have found positive relationship between WLB, job satisfaction and
organizational commitment
(Saif, Malik & Awan, 2011; Virick, Lily & Casper, 2007; Kinnie, Hutchinson, Purcell,
Rayton & Swart 2005;
Youngcourt, 2005; Scholarios & Marks, 2004). Studies have also found other factors
such as job flexibility and
work support to be positively related to WLB (Fathima & Sahibzada, 2012;
Julien, Somerville & Culp,
2011;Tremblay, Genin& di Loreto, 2011; Warner & Hausdorf, 2009; Thompson, Kirk &
Brown, 2005; Wayne,
Mussisca & Fleeson, 2004; Greenhause & Powell, 2003; Hill, Hawkins, Ferris &
Weitzman, 2001)
There are factors which were found to be negatively related such as job stress or
stressful environment,
work overload and job demands (Bell, Rajendran & Theiler, 2012; Amstad, Meier, Fasel,
Elfering & Semmer,
2011; Chiang, Birtch, & Kwan, 2010; Kinman& Jones, 2008; Wong & Lin, 2007;
Wallace, 2005; Gillespie,
Walsh, Winefield, Dua & Stough, 2001; Astin & Astin, 1999).
1.2 Spiritual Intelligence (SI)
Spiritual intelligence is the way of individual fulfillment and sustainable lifetime
performance at
extraordinary levels. It is the discipline of people’s energy management which allows
accessing a full range of
human capabilities that required succeeding in life and developing in the current
economic condition and social
perspective (Wigglesworth, 2012 & Zohar, 1997). SI influences people in their personal
life, especially to them
who are struggling at their workplace. Emmons (2000) identified five components of SI:
the capability to go
beyond, experience intense level of awareness, learn from day to day experiences, and
utilize spiritual means to
find solution of a problem & engage in moral behavior.
Previous research found a positive connection between SI and WLB. Employees can
divert their job
stress into positive energy through SI. Mechanisms of spiritual intelligence help
employees to be free from
anger, anxiousness & fear (Zohar & Marshall, 2000). Singh & Sinha (2013) found that
employees with higher
spiritual intelligence consider life in a broader perspective and learn to be pleasant in
difficult moments also.
People who have higher spiritual intelligence are more satisfied in the workplace
(Koražija, Žižek & Mumel,
2016). Workplace satisfaction helps employees to maintain a balanced personal life.
If work culture and HR
creative aspects merge with SI, productivity as well as WLB will develop.
1.3 Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify emotions accurately, to access and
generate emotions to
assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge, and to reflectively
regulate emotions so as to
promote emotional and intellectual growth (Mayer & Salovey, 1997).
EI can be considered as a factor affecting WLB because it is the ability to
identify and control
emotions, helps employees to keep calm under pressure, as well as maintain good
relationship with others and
have a positive outlook towards life thus it can improve individual and organizational
performance. So EI could
be considered to be a significant area in maintaining WLB. Studies have shown
that understanding and
controlling emotions can be significant role in individual’s life and work environment
(Joshi, Suman & Sharma
2015; Law, Wong, & Song, 2004; Sy & Côté, 2004).
There have been studies showing links between EI and WLB. A significant difference in
EI among the
gender groups was observed because they have contrasting view in distinguishing and,
dealing emotions (Higgs,
2004; Hopkins & Bilimoria, 2008). Results show emotional intelligence is an
important factor for female
employees in achieving WLB (JothiSree & Jyothi 2012). A survey conducted on police
officers in Malaysia and
found that WLB among police officers requires EI and control of emotions to meet the
demands they faced on
the streets (Kumarasamy et al., 2016). Mayer & Salovey (1997) mentioned that
employees who demonstrate EI
can control own emotions as well as others. So it can be identified that employees
with higher EI will have
Bangladesh

3 | Page
WLB as they will be able to cope up with the results that they face due to stress. EI
contributes to various
important outcomes in the family, the workplace and other aspects of life (Goleman,
2001). So employees those
are able to make best use of EI will be able to find out how to influence people and will
also be able to strike a
balance between their professional and personal lives.
1.4 Job Engagement

Job engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling work-related state of mind that is
characterized by
vigour, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, & Bakker,
2002). The social exchange
theory states that employees will show positive attitudes and behaviors when employers
care for employees and
offer opportunities for them (Blau, 1964).So when employees receive good
treatment it leads to favorable
outcomes for both the parties i.e. employers and employees (Eisenberger,
Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe,
Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002).
Job engagement has a positively related to job performance because employees
involved in work
perform better. Rich, Lepine, & Crawford (2010) observed significant positive
relationship between job
engagement and performance. Amarakoon & Wickramasinghe (2010) found that there
is a positive relationship
between job engagement and WLB. Susi & Jawaharrani (2011) too argued that WLB
has an important impact
on job engagement.
It can be understood from Schaufeli et al., (2002) that engaged employees are vigorous,
dedicated and
absorbed, and these characteristics help to produce committed employees and can
help them manage a good
balance. So, there could be a chance that job engagement positively affects WLB.
1.5 Work Overload

Work overload occurs due to excessive work demands from an individual which is
beyond his/her
capacities and hamper regular flow of work. Heavy workload is an indicator of job stress
among employees that
create severe health issues along with an imbalance in their wok life and family life.
Earlier researchers found
there is a negative relation with excessive workload and employees’ wellbeing
(Kumarasamy, Pangil, Isa, 2015;
Kinman& Jones, 2008; Astin & Astin, 1999). Shah, Jaffari, Aziz, Ejaz, Ul-Haq, Raza
(2011) referred that large
organizations more often assign their employees huge task with a narrow span of time.
This type of assignment
can cause employees pressurized & make them demotivated towards their work life
as well as personal life.
Work overload and balancing work life and family life has been consider as a major
issues to many researcher at
all career specially for the female employees (Sorcinelli, 2007). It is proved in many
research findings that
excessive workload never help employees to produce extra output, perhaps it create
employees frustrated and
dissatisfied in their life. Nasruddin & O’Driscoll (2012) found work stress can create
work life conflict in the
means of work to family conflict or family to work conflict. However it is very obvious that
negativity of work
overload towards work life balance proved over its positivity.
2.6 Organizational Support

Organizational support is providing favorable treatment to the employees instead
of unfavorable.
Organizational support theory focus on the extent of employees perception that
employer values employees
contributions and think about their well-being (Kurtessis, Eisenberger, Ford, Buffardi,
Stewart, Adis, 2017).
Perceive organizational support change the traditional perception of employees
about their employers and
organization. For maintaining balance between job life and personal life organization
must be concerned about
employees’ wellbeing. Researcher found that organizational support could arise from
social support. As social
support reduce stress inside and outside workplace, maintaining balance between work
and life could become
easier (Ganster, Fusilier, & Mayes, 1986). Parasuraman, Greenhaus, Granrose (1992)
& Allen (2001), specify
this social support in organization arises in the means of support from supervisors,
colleagues and the entire
organization.
Warner & Hausdorf (2009), found work to family conflict reduces by proper support form
organization
& supervisory level on personal issues. Also collegial support & organizational
resources apart from unfair
criticism are positively related with work life balance (Fathima & Sahibzada, 2012).
Supportive perceptions of
HR manager or direct supervisor on work related programs help employees to uplift
their outcomes and reduce
the turnover intentions (McCarthy et al., 2013). Hence, based on preceding studies, it is
highly expected that
organizational support & work life balance are positively related.
2.7 Technological Advancement

Technology is the most volatile form in environment. Technological advancement
changed the balance
in employer-employee relationship. Employees are mostly affected due to this
advancement in the means of
working through technological gadgets like smartphones, tablets & other devices that
enable employees to stay
connected with work all the time. Now a day work culture of organization also
changed and employees are
Bangladesh

4 | Page
grouped together onto cross-functional teams, so for being more productive these
teams have to stay connected
all the time regardless of their work schedule. Radical change of technology is
considered as double-edge sword
by most of the researchers because of its advantages and disadvantages
simultaneously. Working beyond office
certainly affects work life balance. Managers can become more strategic in
assigning task to employees.
Employees can create an impression to employers by appearing dedicated,
spontaneous, and willful (Bolino,
1999). Hill et al., (2001) got the affirmative impact of technology in balancing work & life.
Later on Konrad &
Yang (2012) support advantages of technological innovations because it provides huge
alternatives in the means
of telework, by which employees can work from satellite offices or from remote
locations. Fazili & Khan (2017)
also gave a clear guidance for managing new generation of human resources & using
technology for employees
benefit in the form of flexibility in location, time & quickness of decision.
However because of technological advancement sometimes workforces have to bring
their incomplete
workloads out of the office which create a negative impact on personal life. Information,
communication and
technology advancement expand the working hours and engage employees
towards 24 hours and 7 days
(Prasopoulou & Pouloudi, 2006; Thompson et. al., 2010). Fageria (2016)
supported this argument by the
findings that flexible work trends increase job pressure and demands immediate
responses. These actions and
decisions make employees busy all the time. Organizations are hampering work life
balance of employees by
creating e-mail traditions & using some medium of communication like telephone,
videoconferencing,
networking sites etc. (Waller & Ragsdell, 2012; Githinji & Wekesa, 2017).
Based on the research findings the pros of technological advancement in maintaining
work life balance
of employees is very few than the cons.
III. Hypothesis
From the literature review, the following hypotheses are thus derived:
H1: There is a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and work-
life balance
H2: There is a significant positive relationship between spiritual intelligence and work-
life balance.
H3: There is a significant positive relationship between job engagement and work-life
balance.
H4: There is a significant positive relationship between organizational support and work-
life balance.
H5: There is a significant negative relationship between excessive work overload and
work-life balance.
H6: There is a significant negative relationship between advance technology and work-
life balance.
IV. Methodology
4.1 Respondents of the Study:
The population for the study is private commercial bank employees in
Bangladesh who are
experiencing high level of job stress and always complaining about their work
life imbalance. Survey
instruments were delivered to respondents’ end through personal visit and
electronic mail. Convenience and
snowball sampling techniques were used to collect the responses. In collecting
data, researchers personally
visited respondents’ facility for several times and briefed the respondents how to
fill it up. A total of 280
questionnaires were distributed to different banks, manufacturing companies. Out of
280 questionnaires only
206 were found to be useful which indicate a response rate of 73.57%.
4.2 Measurement
Seven existing instruments have been used in this research. Work-life balance
constructed by Hayman
(2005), emotional intelligence by Wong and Low’s Emotional Intelligence Scale
(WLIES) (2002), spiritual
intelligence by Spiritual Intelligence Self Report Inventory (SISRI) constructed by King
and DeCicco (2009),
job engagement measured by Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)
instrument which adapted from
Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma, and Bakker (2002), work overload constructed by
Quresh, Ahmed Jamil,
Iftikhar, Arif, Lodhi, Naseem and Zaman (2012), technology advancement by Waller and
Ragsdell (2012) and
organizational support was measured using instruments constructed by Esenberger,
Cummings, Armeli, and
Lynch (1997). Each respondent was asked to rate each item on a 5-point Likert scale (5
= strongly agree……..1
= strongly disagree).
V. Data Analyses and Findings
5.1 Measurement Model:
While screening the data set we have found no missing data in any of the cases. We
found about 12
respondents who were unengaged as evidenced by giving the exact same response for
every single item, which
should not have been the case since the items fewer than two unobserved
variables (work-life balance &
organizational support) are reverse coded. These respondents thus were not included in
the final sample size of
208. Since we have 40 measured variables in our model to begin with, this makes the
ratio between measured
variables and respondents about 5:1. Simulation studies show that with normally
distributed indicator variables
Bangladesh

5 | Page
and no missing data, a reasonable sample size for a simple CFA model is about N =
150 (Muthén and Muthén,
2002); whereas, Bentler and Chou (1987) suggest a ratio as low as 5 cases per variable
would be sufficient when
latent variables have multiple indicators. Data is considered normal if skewness and
kurtosis are between ±3 and
±7 (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2008). In this regard, skewness and kurtosis of all the 40
indicator items are found to
be between ±3 and thus we can conclude that the data are normally distributed. Out of
six (6) latent constructs,
the Technological Advancement (TA) is just identified; whereas, the rest of the
constructs are over identified.
Before starting the CFA, we set some guidelines for deriving an optimal model.
According to Hair Jr,
Black, Babin & Anderson (2010), Bryne (2010), and Kline (2011) factor loadings that
signify the relationship
between the latent and observed variables should be ≥ 0.7. Yet, other researchers
such as Chua (2009), and
Rosseni (2014) argue that any factor loadings ≥ 0.5 can be accepted if other
model fit measures such as
RMSEA, CFI, GFI, and TLI are achieved. Cut-off values of some of these selective
model fit measures are
provided in the table below.
Table 1. Cut-off values of selective model fit indices
Chi-square (X2) assesses overall fit and the discrepancy between the sample and
fitted covariance
matrices. X2/df, which is called the normed chi-square is a value equals the chi-square
divided by the degrees of
freedom (df).
CFI Compares the fit of a target model to the fit of an independent, or null, model.
The RMSEA
demonstrates how well the model, with unknown but optimally chosen parameter
estimates would fit the
populations covariance matrix (Byrne, 1998).Whereas, PCLOSE is a "p value" for
testing the null hypothesis
that the population RMSEA is no greater than .05.SRMR represents the square root of
the difference between
the residuals of the sample covariance matrix and the hypothesized covariance model
(Hooper, Coughlan &
Mullen, 2008).The Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) also known as Non-Normed Fit Index
(NNFI) is an incremental
fit index.TLI was developed against the disadvantage of Normed Fit Index regarding
being affected by sample
size (Cangur & Ilker, 2015).
Initially we created a rough model in AMOS 23 for conducting CFA where the 40
measured variables
were divided into 7 latent variables. The latent variables are; Work-life Balance (WLB),
Job Engagement (JE),
Work Overload (WO), Emotional Intelligence (EI), Spiritual Intelligence (SI),
Organizational Support (OS), and
Technological Advancement (TA). Table 2 shows the 40 indicator variables that were
divided in these 7 latent
variables.
Table 2. Indicator variables
Constructs
Indicator
Code
Items
Work-life Balance
wlb1
My personal life suffers because of work
wlb2
My work suffers because of my personal life
wlb3
I find it hard to work because of personal matters
wlb4
My job makes personal life difficult
wlb5
I neglect personal needs because of work
wlb6
I miss personal activities because of work
wlb7
I struggle to juggle work & non-work
Emotional Intelligence
ei8
I am able to control my temper and handle difficulties rationally
ei9
I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions
ei10
I have good control of my own emotions
ei11
I have good understanding of my own emotions
ei12
I really understand what I feel
ei13
I always know whether or not I am happy
ei14
I always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them
Spiritual Intelligence
si15
I am able to move freely between levels of consciousness or awareness
si16
When I experience a failure, I am still able to find meaning in it
si17
I often see issues and choices more clearly while in higher states of
consciousness/awareness
si18
I am able to make decisions according to my purpose in life
Measure
Threshold
Literature
Chi-square/df (X2 df)
Between 1 and 3
Hu, L., Bentler, P. M.(1999), Tabachnick and Fidell (2008), Kline
(2011), Rosseni (2014)
CFI Comparative Fit Index
> 0.95
Hu, L., Bentler, P. M.(1999), Kline (2011), Rosseni (2014),
Schumacker and Lomax (2010)
SRMR Standardized Root
Mean Square Residual
< 0.08
Hu, L., Bentler, P.M.(1999), Kline (2011), Schumacker and Lomax
(2010)
RMSEA Root Mean Square
Error of Approximation
< 0.06
Hu, L., Bentler, P.M.(1999), Kline (2011), Rosseni (2014),
Schumacker and Lomax (2010)
PCLOSE
> 0.05
Hu, L., Bentler, P.M.(1999)
TLI Tucker-Lewis Index
> 0.9
Schumacker and Lomax (2010), Hair Jr et. al., (2010), Gaskin (2012)
Bangladesh
6 | Page
si19
I am able to find meaning and purpose in my everyday experiences
si20
I have developed my own techniques for entering higher states of
consciousness or awareness
Job Engagement
je21
At my work, I feel bursting with energy
je22
I am immersed in my work
je23
I find the work that I do full of meaning & purpose
je24
At my job, I feel strong & vigorous
je25
I am enthusiastic about my job
je26
My job inspires me
je27
When I get up in the morning, I feel like going to work
Organizational
Support
os28
The organization fails to appreciate any extra effort from me
os29
The organization would ignore any complaint from me
os30
The organization shows very little concern for me
os31
Even if I did the best job possible, the organization would fail to notice
Work Overload
wo32
I experience excessive work pressure
wo33
I work for long hours, on overtime and even on holiday
wo34
I am unable to meet out the demands of my job
wo35
I spend so long at work that my outside relationship is suffering
wo36
I am so busy; I find it increasing difficult to concentrate on the job in front of
me
wo37
I feel tired during the day due to excessive work load
Technological
Advancement
ta38
By spending time on communication devices outside of working hours, I feel
I miss out on other things
ta39
Information communication devices received outside of office hours result in
myself having to do work outside of office hours
ta40
Technological advancement at work has helped me to work away from office
offering me more flexibility
In the CFA analysis conducted through AMOS, indicator variables with factor
loadings < 0.5 were
eliminated sequentially until we could derive a model that meets all the criteria of model
fit measures. As a part
of standard procedure, we decided to have a closer look at the modification
indices to make necessary
adjustment for a better fitted model. In this regard, we also eliminated items with
overall high standardized
residual covariances as their present affects overall goodness of fit. The codes of
indicator variables that were
sequentially removed are ta40, ei13, ei14, si15, si16, wo33, wo34, si17, wo32, os30,
wo37, je21, je21, je22,
je26, ei12, ei11, si18, wlb3, je27, wlb7, wlb5. A major adjustment in the model was
brought when we had to
drop Spiritual Intelligence (SI) from the final model derived, as the remaining items
(code: si19, si20) under this
latent variable demonstrated low composite reliability (.686; <0.7). All the parameters
of the model here are
estimated using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE).The model with all its
standardized estimates is
presented below:
Figure 1. Measured Model: Work-life Balance
The loadings between the indicator items and latent variables are high (>0.5) and there
are no negative
error variances observed in the model. Achieved measurement model fit indices are X2
df = 1.661 (X2=171.032,
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7 | Page
df =103), CFI=0.953 (>0.95), SRMR =0.053 (<0.08), RMSEA=0.056 (<.06),
PCLOSE=0.230 (>0.05), and TLI
=0.939 (.09). These measures signify that the model is feasible. It can be observed in
the table 3 (below) that
composite reliability (CR) scores of all the latent variables are greater than 0.7;
Average variance extracted
(AVE) for each of the latent variables are greater than 0.5 and all of the
AVE>MSV (Maximum Shared
Variance). This suggests that there is no convergent validity issue in the model
derived. Convergent validity
refers to the extent to which measured variables of the same construct are correlated.
Whereas, discriminant
validity refers to the extent to which constructs are distinct. In this regard, the standard
procedure suggests if the
correlation scores between each construct with other constructs are all less than the
square root of AVE of each
construct, then the model has no discriminant validity issue. Square root of AVE
(diagonally presented) of the
constructs and the correlation scores between the constructs in table 3, provide
empirical evidence that each
construct is unique and thus there is no serious issue as regards discriminant validity in
the model derived.
Table 3. Convergent Validity and Discriminant Validity
CR
AVE
MSV
MaxR(H)
WLB
TA
OS
WO
EI
JE
WLB
0.840
0.570
0.169
0.856
0.755
TA
0.775
0.639
0.120
0.862
-0.347***
0.800
OS
0.839
0.634
0.415
0.839
0.310***
-0.107
0.796
WO
0.710
0.551
0.415
0.724
-0.412***
0.268**
-0.644***
0.743
EI
0.778
0.541
0.212
0.793
0.128
-0.190*
0.254**
-0.460***
0.736
JE
0.848
0.652
0.202
0.868
0.117
-0.038
0.427***
-0.365***
0.449***
0.807
Thresholds From:
Hu, L., Bentler, P.M. (1999), "Cutoff Criteria for Fit Indexes in Covariance Structure
Analysis: Conventional
Criteria Versus New Alternatives" SEM vol. 6(1), pp. 1-55
Significance of Correlations:† p < 0.100, * p < 0.050, ** p < 0.010, *** p < 0.001
We conducted a Common Method Bias (CMB) test to check whether the estimated
impacts, in the
model derived, suffer from bias. CMB is the spurious variance that is attributable to the
measurement method
rather than to the constructs the measures are assumed to represent (Podsakoff,
MacKenzie, Lee & Podsakoff,
2003). Common Method Variance (CMV) is considered to be the source of CMB
and it is defined by
Richardson, Simmering, and Sturman (2009) as the systematic error variance that is
shared among variables
which are measured with the same source or method. This systematic error variance
can cause CMB and can
also bias the estimated relationships among variables or measures (Jakobsen &
Jensen, 2015; Campbell & Fiske,
1959). Podsakoff et. al., (2003) suggested several remedies to overcome this issue.
One of the approaches is
known as Common Latent Factor (CLF) that helps to detect significant shared variance
among the variables. In
this method, a latent factor is introduced which is then modelled such that it directly
affects all other items
administered. In this model, CMV is controlled by explicitly incorporating the effects of a
latent method factor
on each observed indicator. All the standardized estimates with CLF
(unconstrained) in our model can be
observed in figure 3.
Figure 2. Measurement Model with CLF (Unconstrained)
Here, we compared the unconstrained common latent factor (with X2=126.9,
df=86) to fully
constrained (zero constrained) common latent factor (with X2=171.0, df =103) to check
whether the chi-square
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8 | Page
difference (delta X2=44.1, df=17) test between the two is significant. The p-value in this
regard transpired to be
less than α = 0.05; this indicates shared variance across all items is significantly
different from zero. Since zero -
constraint model is significant (i.e., measurable bias is detected), we ran an equal-
constrained test to check
whether response bias is evenly distributed across all the items. In this case we
compared the unconstrained
common latent factor (with X2=126.9, df=86) to equal constrained (constrained to 1)
common latent factor (with
X2=174.9, df =103) in this his case chi-square difference (delta X2=44.1, df= 17) is
found to be significant as
well. This suggests we have unevenly distributed bias.
Meanwhile, model fit measures with CLF (unconstrained) are achieved; X2df = 1.475
(X2=126.872, df
=86), CFI=0.972 (>0.95), SRMR =0.043 (<0.08), RMSEA=0.048 (<.06),
PCLOSE=0.560 (>0.05), and TLI
=0.956 (>0.9). This result shows better findings after CFA with CLF.
We thus retained the CLF construct and imputed factor scores for subsequent
causal analysis. We
impute factor scores by creating new variables which represent each latent variable;
these new variables account
for the shared variance explained by the CLF and create common method bias (CMB)
corrected measures.
5.2 Structural Model:
The structural model in figure 4 epitomizes the structural relationships between
the dependent
(endogenous) and independent (exogenous) variables. Here, each exogenous and
endogenous variable
incorporates CMB corrected measures. The standardized coefficients in the figure 4
recapitulate the relationship
between work-life balance (endogenous variable) and all the exogenous variables: work
overload, organizational
support, emotional intelligence, job engagement, and technological advancement. A
regression analysis (in table
3, 4 & 5) was also conducted in this regard using SPSS 23 to generate t values and to
check the significance of
these relationships.
Figure 3. Structural Model
The R-squared value of the structural model is 54.8%; this value signifies that
our model explains a
good proportion of the variability in the dependent (endogenous) variable.
It can be observed from the model below that organizational support is predictive of
greater work-life
balance. The relationship between the two variables is significant in our findings as the
p-value is less than α =
0.05. This finding supports our hypothesis that there exists positive relationship between
these two variables.
Whereas, technological advancement and job engagement are predictive of lower work-
life balance. These two
relationships are also significant as the p-values correspond to these variables
transpired to be less than 0.05.
Here, the relationship between technological advancement and work-life balance
supports our hypothesis that
the advancement in technology related to certain job has negative effect on work-life
balance. In our findings,
the association between job engagement and work-life balance suggests work-life
balance decreases as one
becomes more engaged in his/her respective job. This discovery diverges from
our hypothesis formulated
related to the variable. Though the relationships between work-life balance and
work overload, emotional
intelligence are positive in our findings, these are observed as statistically insignificant.
Hence, our hypotheses
related to these two exogenous variables and endogenous (work-life balance) could
not be established. The
structural model (in figure 3) also comprises of correlations among exogenous
variables for a better
understanding of their intricate relationships.

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9 | Page
Table 4. Model Summary
Model Summary
Model
R
R Square
Adjusted R Square
Std. Error of the
Estimate
1
.740a
.548
.537
.67466
a. Predictors: (Constant), TA, JE, OS, EI, WO
Table 5. ANOVA
ANOVAa
Model
Sum of Squares
Df
Mean Square
F
Sig.
1
Regression
111.442
5
22.288
48.968
.000b
Residual
91.943
202
.455
Total
203.386
207
a.Dependent Variable: Work-life Balance

b.Predictors: (Constant), Technological Advancement, Job Engagement,
Organizational Support,
Emotional Intelligence, Work Overload
Table 6. Coefficients
Coefficientsa
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
t
Sig.
B
Std. Error
Beta
1
(Constant)
2.908
.337
8.631
.000
Work Overload
.120
.119
.088
1.009
.314
Organizational Support
.394
.087
.338
4.508
.000
Emotional Intelligence
.069
.115
.039
.600
.549
Job Engagement
-.294
.088
-.207
-3.319
.001
Technological Advancement
-.861
.070
-.698
-12.216
.000
a. Dependent Variable: Work-life Balance
VI. Data Analyses and Findings
The main purpose of this research is to find the factors that influence employees work
life balance.
From literature review we found so many individual, organizational and environmental
factors that create work-
life imbalance. Our findings contradict with earlier research in some of the factors. We
hypothesized spiritual
intelligence with work-life balance because it motivates people to balance their work
schedules and help to
spend time with the family (Emmons, 2000). But in our study we didn’t find any relation
of spiritual intelligence
with work life balance in our findings. Another factor work overload is found positively
related in our study,
which is supposed to be negatively related with balanced work life. Many employees
believe working long or
extra hour doesn’t affect them because now-a-days employees consider it as one of
the organizational culture
(Kodz, Kersley, Strebler, & O'Regan, 1998). Organizations need to investigate the
most influential factors
which can help them to nurture their employees and maintain their balances work life
and personal life. Through
the research an organizations can find ways to motivate their employees and utilize
them properly. This research
will initiate the academics to nurse an environment of thinking out of the box and
curiosity beyond routinized
works for bringing positive drives to the organization.
VII. Limitations of the Research
The study covers some selected private commercial banks in Bangladesh, based
on convenience
sampling, in Bangladesh. The generalization of the study might not be accurate
because of the subjectivity in
sample selection. Random sampling in place of convenience sampling might bring
representative result in
generalizing the result for picturing the overall scenario. The limited sample size
(N=208) was another
limitation, hence, the large sample size could reveal more representative result for
generalizing the case. There
are various measurement instruments of work life balance, emotional intelligence,
spiritual intelligence, work
overload, job engagement and technological advancement developed by various
scholars not from the same
country and the context which might not be giving representative results. The findings
may yield different result
if other measurement instruments were used.

Bangladesh
10 | Page
VIII. Future Directions
Comprehensive research is necessary to generalize the overall results. There is an
enormous scope of
doing research entailing demographic factors i.e., gender, age, education level,
marital status, nature of
organization, employment level, structure of ownership, and tenure to predict overall
work life balance. In
addition, large sample size might provide an insight into more generalization of
the study because of the
representation of more respondents. Further research on the relationship among
various WLB factors moderated
by demographic factors in Bangladesh might be suggested.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to East Delta University, Bangladesh for supporting this research
project.
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IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) e-ISSN: 2278-487X, p-ISSN:
2319-7668. Volume 21, Issue 5. Ser. VIII (May. 2019), PP 01-12 www.iosrjournals.org
1 | Page Improving Work Life Balance: A Study on Employees in Private Commercial
Banks of Bangladesh Rubina Easmin1, Tasmia Anwar2, Rabiul Hossain Dovash3,
Ridoan Karim4 1(School of Business Administration, East Delta University, Bangladesh)
2(School of Business Administration, East Delta University, Bangladesh) 3(School of
Business Administration, East Delta University, Bangladesh) 4(School of Business
Administration, East Delta University, Bangladesh) Corresponding Author: Rubina
Easmin Abstract: This paper attempts to identify the factors such as emotional
intelligence, work overload, spiritual intelligence, organizational support, job
engagement & technology advancement influencing work life balance of employees in
private commercial banks of Bangladesh. The research has been conducted on 208
employees working in various private commercial banks of Bangladesh by using
confirmatory factor analysis. The findings showed that Work Overload, Organizational
Support & Emotional Intelligence are positively related to work life balance. However,
Job Engagement and Technological Advancement are found to be negatively related
to work life balance. Moreover the finding showed Spiritual Intelligence is not related to
work life balance. Keywords: Conservation of Resources, work-life balance, emotional
intelligence, spiritual intelligence, job engagement, work overload, technology
advancement, organizational support ------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 09-05-2019
Date of acceptance: 25-05-2019 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction Increased
importance on competition and technological advancements have forced organizations
to be more competitive as a result they require employees with higher competencies
and multitasking so that they can sustain at minimum operational cost. So employees
often face with challenges to perform well and employ most of their time at work in this
era of globalization and competition. Organizations which do not provide employees for
a chance of work/life balance might end up facing increasing number of dissatisfied
and unproductive employees and hence slowly wear away (Gupta, 2016). Based on
OECD index (2017) long work hours might hamper employees’ health, jeopardise
safety and cause stress. It has also been observed, on an average 1 in every 8
employees in the OECD work more than 50 hours per week and full time worker in
OECD dedicates 62% of the day or about 15 hours, to individual care and leisure.
Maximum job being full time and permanent in Bangladesh leave very less options for
employees to be able to create a balance between work and life. So there are scopes
for work on improving WLB for researchers. Few observed recent studies suggest on
improving work life balance policies and factors those can affect WLB (Tasnim, Hossain
& Enam, 2017; Uddin, Mamun, Hoque & Uddin, 2013; Newaz & Zaman, 2012). There
are numerous researches which concluded work life imbalance has negative
consequences. Employees suffer from depression and physical problems due to the
work life imbalance as they are stressed at work (Tasnim et al., 2017) as well as longer
working hours have been linked to depression (Frone, Russell & Cooper, 2011).
Employees have reported high level of work interferes with their personal life (Reddy,
Vranda, Ahmed & Nirmala, 2010). The imbalance has also been found to have a
negative affect the on the employees’ relationships with family causing work-family
conflict (Doble & Supriya, 2010) which could result in decline in productivity. Hence,
work-life balance is of major importance for every employed individual because
imbalances might affect their well-being and productivity negatively. There have been
various studies on work life balance. While some figured out factors to implement
work life balance policies by organizations (Aamir, Hamid, Haider & Akhtar, 2016;
McCarthy, Cleveland, Hunter, Darcy, & Grady, 2013, Newaz & Zaman, 2012) and
some studied the factors affecting the balance (Fernando & Umma, 2016; Uddin et al.,
2013). All the previous studies worked on factors those could be used to improve and
influence the work-life balance of workforce, so further research would be useful to
figure out how other factors can contribute to WLB. Thus the research gap suggests
determining the relationship between a number of organizational factors, individual
factors and to work-life balance. The findings will contribute in understand the role
individual,
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 2 | Page organizational and
environmental factor have on enhancing the work-life balance of today’s workforce. In
this study, individual factors include spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence
and job engagement, organizational factors include organizational support and
work overload and environmental factor includes technological advancement
(Kumarasamy, Pangil & Isa, 2015). II. Literature Review 2.1 Work Life Balance (WLB)
Work life balance is effectively balancing work and all other essential non-work
activities such as family, community activities, voluntary work, personal development,
leisure and recreation (Dundas, 2008). So it is important to maintain work-life balance or
else individual’s performances will suffer at work and non-work domains. In the world of
competitive age, where people keep juggling between their personal and professional it
is important to identify the factors those could help individuals to maintain WLB.
Tomazevic, Kozjek & Stare (2014) argued that WLB means to effectively combine
professional life with personal commitments and to create coordination between them.
Previous studies have found link between WLB with job satisfaction and organizational
commitment. Researchers have found positive relationship between WLB, job
satisfaction and organizational commitment (Saif, Malik & Awan, 2011; Virick, Lily &
Casper, 2007; Kinnie, Hutchinson, Purcell, Rayton & Swart 2005; Youngcourt, 2005;
Scholarios & Marks, 2004). Studies have also found other factors such as job flexibility
and work support to be positively related to WLB (Fathima & Sahibzada, 2012;
Julien, Somerville & Culp, 2011;Tremblay, Genin& di Loreto, 2011; Warner &
Hausdorf, 2009; Thompson, Kirk & Brown, 2005; Wayne, Mussisca & Fleeson, 2004;
Greenhause & Powell, 2003; Hill, Hawkins, Ferris & Weitzman, 2001) There are factors
which were found to be negatively related such as job stress or stressful environment,
work overload and job demands (Bell, Rajendran & Theiler, 2012; Amstad, Meier, Fasel,
Elfering & Semmer, 2011; Chiang, Birtch, & Kwan, 2010; Kinman& Jones, 2008; Wong
& Lin, 2007; Wallace, 2005; Gillespie, Walsh, Winefield, Dua & Stough, 2001; Astin &
Astin, 1999). 1.2 Spiritual Intelligence (SI) Spiritual intelligence is the way of
individual fulfillment and sustainable lifetime performance at extraordinary levels. It
is the discipline of people’s energy management which allows accessing a full range of
human capabilities that required succeeding in life and developing in the current
economic condition and social perspective (Wigglesworth, 2012 & Zohar, 1997). SI
influences people in their personal life, especially to them who are struggling at their
workplace. Emmons (2000) identified five components of SI: the capability to go
beyond, experience intense level of awareness, learn from day to day experiences, and
utilize spiritual means to find solution of a problem & engage in moral behavior.
Previous research found a positive connection between SI and WLB. Employees can
divert their job stress into positive energy through SI. Mechanisms of spiritual
intelligence help employees to be free from anger, anxiousness & fear (Zohar &
Marshall, 2000). Singh & Sinha (2013) found that employees with higher spiritual
intelligence consider life in a broader perspective and learn to be pleasant in difficult
moments also. People who have higher spiritual intelligence are more satisfied in the
workplace (Koražija, Žižek & Mumel, 2016). Workplace satisfaction helps employees
to maintain a balanced personal life. If work culture and HR creative aspects merge
with SI, productivity as well as WLB will develop. 1.3 Emotional Intelligence (EI)
Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify emotions accurately, to access and
generate emotions to assist thought, to understand emotions and emotional knowledge,
and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth
(Mayer & Salovey, 1997). EI can be considered as a factor affecting WLB because
it is the ability to identify and control emotions, helps employees to keep calm under
pressure, as well as maintain good relationship with others and have a positive outlook
towards life thus it can improve individual and organizational performance. So EI could
be considered to be a significant area in maintaining WLB. Studies have shown
that understanding and controlling emotions can be significant role in individual’s life
and work environment (Joshi, Suman & Sharma 2015; Law, Wong, & Song, 2004; Sy &
Côté, 2004). There have been studies showing links between EI and WLB. A significant
difference in EI among the gender groups was observed because they have contrasting
view in distinguishing and, dealing emotions (Higgs, 2004; Hopkins & Bilimoria,
2008). Results show emotional intelligence is an important factor for female
employees in achieving WLB (JothiSree & Jyothi 2012). A survey conducted on police
officers in Malaysia and found that WLB among police officers requires EI and control of
emotions to meet the demands they faced on the streets (Kumarasamy et al., 2016).
Mayer & Salovey (1997) mentioned that employees who demonstrate EI can control
own emotions as well as others. So it can be identified that employees with higher EI
will have
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 3 | Page WLB as they will be able to
cope up with the results that they face due to stress. EI contributes to various
important outcomes in the family, the workplace and other aspects of life (Goleman,
2001). So employees those are able to make best use of EI will be able to find out how
to influence people and will also be able to strike a balance between their professional
and personal lives. 1.4 Job Engagement Job engagement is defined as a positive,
fulfilling work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and
absorption (Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, & Bakker, 2002). The social
exchange theory states that employees will show positive attitudes and behaviors when
employers care for employees and offer opportunities for them (Blau, 1964).So when
employees receive good treatment it leads to favorable outcomes for both the
parties i.e. employers and employees (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe,
Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002). Job engagement has a positively related to job
performance because employees involved in work perform better. Rich, Lepine, &
Crawford (2010) observed significant positive relationship between job engagement
and performance. Amarakoon & Wickramasinghe (2010) found that there is a positive
relationship between job engagement and WLB. Susi & Jawaharrani (2011) too argued
that WLB has an important impact on job engagement. It can be understood from
Schaufeli et al., (2002) that engaged employees are vigorous, dedicated and absorbed,
and these characteristics help to produce committed employees and can help them
manage a good balance. So, there could be a chance that job engagement positively
affects WLB. 1.5 Work Overload Work overload occurs due to excessive work
demands from an individual which is beyond his/her capacities and hamper regular
flow of work. Heavy workload is an indicator of job stress among employees that create
severe health issues along with an imbalance in their wok life and family life. Earlier
researchers found there is a negative relation with excessive workload and employees’
wellbeing (Kumarasamy, Pangil, Isa, 2015; Kinman& Jones, 2008; Astin & Astin, 1999).
Shah, Jaffari, Aziz, Ejaz, Ul-Haq, Raza (2011) referred that large organizations more
often assign their employees huge task with a narrow span of time. This type of
assignment can cause employees pressurized & make them demotivated towards
their work life as well as personal life. Work overload and balancing work life and
family life has been consider as a major issues to many researcher at all career
specially for the female employees (Sorcinelli, 2007). It is proved in many research
findings that excessive workload never help employees to produce extra output,
perhaps it create employees frustrated and dissatisfied in their life. Nasruddin &
O’Driscoll (2012) found work stress can create work life conflict in the means of work
to family conflict or family to work conflict. However it is very obvious that negativity of
work overload towards work life balance proved over its positivity. 2.6 Organizational
Support Organizational support is providing favorable treatment to the employees
instead of unfavorable. Organizational support theory focus on the extent of
employees perception that employer values employees contributions and think about
their well-being (Kurtessis, Eisenberger, Ford, Buffardi, Stewart, Adis, 2017). Perceive
organizational support change the traditional perception of employees about their
employers and organization. For maintaining balance between job life and personal life
organization must be concerned about employees’ wellbeing. Researcher found that
organizational support could arise from social support. As social support reduce stress
inside and outside workplace, maintaining balance between work and life could
become easier (Ganster, Fusilier, & Mayes, 1986). Parasuraman, Greenhaus, Granrose
(1992) & Allen (2001), specify this social support in organization arises in the means
of support from supervisors, colleagues and the entire organization. Warner &
Hausdorf (2009), found work to family conflict reduces by proper support form
organization & supervisory level on personal issues. Also collegial support &
organizational resources apart from unfair criticism are positively related with work life
balance (Fathima & Sahibzada, 2012). Supportive perceptions of HR manager or direct
supervisor on work related programs help employees to uplift their outcomes and
reduce the turnover intentions (McCarthy et al., 2013). Hence, based on preceding
studies, it is highly expected that organizational support & work life balance are
positively related. 2.7 Technological Advancement Technology is the most volatile form
in environment. Technological advancement changed the balance in employer-
employee relationship. Employees are mostly affected due to this advancement in the
means of working through technological gadgets like smartphones, tablets & other
devices that enable employees to stay connected with work all the time. Now a day
work culture of organization also changed and employees are
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 4 | Page grouped together onto cross-
functional teams, so for being more productive these teams have to stay connected all
the time regardless of their work schedule. Radical change of technology is considered
as double-edge sword by most of the researchers because of its advantages and
disadvantages simultaneously. Working beyond office certainly affects work life
balance. Managers can become more strategic in assigning task to employees.
Employees can create an impression to employers by appearing dedicated,
spontaneous, and willful (Bolino, 1999). Hill et al., (2001) got the affirmative impact of
technology in balancing work & life. Later on Konrad & Yang (2012) support advantages
of technological innovations because it provides huge alternatives in the means of
telework, by which employees can work from satellite offices or from remote locations.
Fazili & Khan (2017) also gave a clear guidance for managing new generation of human
resources & using technology for employees benefit in the form of flexibility in location,
time & quickness of decision. However because of technological advancement
sometimes workforces have to bring their incomplete workloads out of the office which
create a negative impact on personal life. Information, communication and technology
advancement expand the working hours and engage employees towards 24
hours and 7 days (Prasopoulou & Pouloudi, 2006; Thompson et. al., 2010).
Fageria (2016) supported this argument by the findings that flexible work trends
increase job pressure and demands immediate responses. These actions and decisions
make employees busy all the time. Organizations are hampering work life balance of
employees by creating e-mail traditions & using some medium of communication
like telephone, videoconferencing, networking sites etc. (Waller & Ragsdell, 2012;
Githinji & Wekesa, 2017). Based on the research findings the pros of technological
advancement in maintaining work life balance of employees is very few than the cons.
III. Hypothesis From the literature review, the following hypotheses are thus derived:
H1: There is a significant positive relationship between emotional intelligence and work-
life balance H2: There is a significant positive relationship between spiritual intelligence
and work-life balance. H3: There is a significant positive relationship between job
engagement and work-life balance. H4: There is a significant positive relationship
between organizational support and work-life balance. H5: There is a significant
negative relationship between excessive work overload and work-life balance. H6:
There is a significant negative relationship between advance technology and work-life
balance. IV. Methodology 4.1 Respondents of the Study: The population for the
study is private commercial bank employees in Bangladesh who are experiencing
high level of job stress and always complaining about their work life imbalance.
Survey instruments were delivered to respondents’ end through personal visit and
electronic mail. Convenience and snowball sampling techniques were used to collect
the responses. In collecting data, researchers personally visited respondents’ facility
for several times and briefed the respondents how to fill it up. A total of 280
questionnaires were distributed to different banks, manufacturing companies. Out of
280 questionnaires only 206 were found to be useful which indicate a response rate of
73.57%. 4.2 Measurement Seven existing instruments have been used in this
research. Work-life balance constructed by Hayman (2005), emotional intelligence by
Wong and Low’s Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLIES) (2002), spiritual intelligence
by Spiritual Intelligence Self Report Inventory (SISRI) constructed by King and DeCicco
(2009), job engagement measured by Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES)
instrument which adapted from Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma, and Bakker
(2002), work overload constructed by Quresh, Ahmed Jamil, Iftikhar, Arif, Lodhi,
Naseem and Zaman (2012), technology advancement by Waller and Ragsdell (2012)
and organizational support was measured using instruments constructed by
Esenberger, Cummings, Armeli, and Lynch (1997). Each respondent was asked to
rate each item on a 5-point Likert scale (5 = strongly agree……..1 = strongly disagree).
V. Data Analyses and Findings 5.1 Measurement Model: While screening the data set
we have found no missing data in any of the cases. We found about 12 respondents
who were unengaged as evidenced by giving the exact same response for every single
item, which should not have been the case since the items fewer than two
unobserved variables (work-life balance & organizational support) are reverse coded.
These respondents thus were not included in the final sample size of 208. Since we
have 40 measured variables in our model to begin with, this makes the ratio between
measured variables and respondents about 5:1. Simulation studies show that with
normally distributed indicator variables
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 5 | Page and no missing data, a
reasonable sample size for a simple CFA model is about N = 150 (Muthén and Muthén,
2002); whereas, Bentler and Chou (1987) suggest a ratio as low as 5 cases per variable
would be sufficient when latent variables have multiple indicators. Data is considered
normal if skewness and kurtosis are between ±3 and ±7 (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2008). In
this regard, skewness and kurtosis of all the 40 indicator items are found to be between
±3 and thus we can conclude that the data are normally distributed. Out of six (6) latent
constructs, the Technological Advancement (TA) is just identified; whereas, the rest of
the constructs are over identified. Before starting the CFA, we set some guidelines for
deriving an optimal model. According to Hair Jr, Black, Babin & Anderson (2010), Bryne
(2010), and Kline (2011) factor loadings that signify the relationship between the latent
and observed variables should be ≥ 0.7. Yet, other researchers such as Chua
(2009), and Rosseni (2014) argue that any factor loadings ≥ 0.5 can be
accepted if other model fit measures such as RMSEA, CFI, GFI, and TLI are
achieved. Cut-off values of some of these selective model fit measures are provided in
the table below. Table 1. Cut-off values of selective model fit indices Chi-square (X2)
assesses overall fit and the discrepancy between the sample and fitted covariance
matrices. X2/df, which is called the normed chi-square is a value equals the chi-square
divided by the degrees of freedom (df). CFI Compares the fit of a target model to the
fit of an independent, or null, model. The RMSEA demonstrates how well the
model, with unknown but optimally chosen parameter estimates would fit the
populations covariance matrix (Byrne, 1998).Whereas, PCLOSE is a "p value" for
testing the null hypothesis that the population RMSEA is no greater than .05.SRMR
represents the square root of the difference between the residuals of the sample
covariance matrix and the hypothesized covariance model (Hooper, Coughlan &
Mullen, 2008).The Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) also known as Non-Normed Fit Index
(NNFI) is an incremental fit index.TLI was developed against the disadvantage of
Normed Fit Index regarding being affected by sample size (Cangur & Ilker, 2015).
Initially we created a rough model in AMOS 23 for conducting CFA where the 40
measured variables were divided into 7 latent variables. The latent variables are; Work-
life Balance (WLB), Job Engagement (JE), Work Overload (WO), Emotional Intelligence
(EI), Spiritual Intelligence (SI), Organizational Support (OS), and Technological
Advancement (TA). Table 2 shows the 40 indicator variables that were divided in these
7 latent variables. Table 2. Indicator variables Constructs Indicator Code Items Work-
life Balance wlb1 My personal life suffers because of work wlb2 My work suffers
because of my personal life wlb3 I find it hard to work because of personal matters wlb4
My job makes personal life difficult wlb5 I neglect personal needs because of work wlb6
I miss personal activities because of work wlb7 I struggle to juggle work & non-work
Emotional Intelligence ei8 I am able to control my temper and handle difficulties
rationally ei9 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions ei10 I have good
control of my own emotions ei11 I have good understanding of my own emotions ei12 I
really understand what I feel ei13 I always know whether or not I am happy ei14 I
always set goals for myself and then try my best to achieve them Spiritual Intelligence
si15 I am able to move freely between levels of consciousness or awareness si16 When
I experience a failure, I am still able to find meaning in it si17 I often see issues and
choices more clearly while in higher states of consciousness/awareness si18 I am able
to make decisions according to my purpose in life Measure Threshold Literature Chi-
square/df (X2 df) Between 1 and 3 Hu, L., Bentler, P. M.(1999), Tabachnick and Fidell
(2008), Kline (2011), Rosseni (2014) CFI Comparative Fit Index > 0.95 Hu, L., Bentler,
P. M.(1999), Kline (2011), Rosseni (2014), Schumacker and Lomax (2010) SRMR
Standardized Root Mean Square Residual < 0.08 Hu, L., Bentler, P.M.(1999), Kline
(2011), Schumacker and Lomax (2010) RMSEA Root Mean Square Error of
Approximation < 0.06 Hu, L., Bentler, P.M.(1999), Kline (2011), Rosseni (2014),
Schumacker and Lomax (2010) PCLOSE > 0.05 Hu, L., Bentler, P.M.(1999) TLI
Tucker-Lewis Index > 0.9 Schumacker and Lomax (2010), Hair Jr et. al., (2010), Gaskin
(2012)
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www.iosrjournals.org 6 | Page si19 I am able to find meaning
and purpose in my everyday experiences si20 I have developed my own techniques for
entering higher states of consciousness or awareness Job Engagement je21 At my
work, I feel bursting with energy je22 I am immersed in my work je23 I find the work that
I do full of meaning & purpose je24 At my job, I feel strong & vigorous je25 I am
enthusiastic about my job je26 My job inspires me je27 When I get up in the morning, I
feel like going to work Organizational Support os28 The organization fails to appreciate
any extra effort from me os29 The organization would ignore any complaint from me
os30 The organization shows very little concern for me os31 Even if I did the best job
possible, the organization would fail to notice Work Overload wo32 I experience
excessive work pressure wo33 I work for long hours, on overtime and even on holiday
wo34 I am unable to meet out the demands of my job wo35 I spend so long at work that
my outside relationship is suffering wo36 I am so busy; I find it increasing difficult to
concentrate on the job in front of me wo37 I feel tired during the day due to excessive
work load Technological Advancement ta38 By spending time on communication
devices outside of working hours, I feel I miss out on other things ta39 Information
communication devices received outside of office hours result in myself having to do
work outside of office hours ta40 Technological advancement at work has helped me to
work away from office offering me more flexibility In the CFA analysis conducted
through AMOS, indicator variables with factor loadings < 0.5 were eliminated
sequentially until we could derive a model that meets all the criteria of model fit
measures. As a part of standard procedure, we decided to have a closer look at
the modification indices to make necessary adjustment for a better fitted model. In
this regard, we also eliminated items with overall high standardized residual
covariances as their present affects overall goodness of fit. The codes of indicator
variables that were sequentially removed are ta40, ei13, ei14, si15, si16, wo33, wo34,
si17, wo32, os30, wo37, je21, je21, je22, je26, ei12, ei11, si18, wlb3, je27, wlb7, wlb5.
A major adjustment in the model was brought when we had to drop Spiritual Intelligence
(SI) from the final model derived, as the remaining items (code: si19, si20) under this
latent variable demonstrated low composite reliability (.686; <0.7). All the parameters
of the model here are estimated using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE).The
model with all its standardized estimates is presented below: Figure 1. Measured
Model: Work-life Balance The loadings between the indicator items and latent variables
are high (>0.5) and there are no negative error variances observed in the model.
Achieved measurement model fit indices are X2 df = 1.661 (X2=171.032,
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 7 | Page df =103), CFI=0.953 (>0.95),
SRMR =0.053 (<0.08), RMSEA=0.056 (<.06), PCLOSE=0.230 (>0.05), and TLI =0.939
(.09). These measures signify that the model is feasible. It can be observed in the table
3 (below) that composite reliability (CR) scores of all the latent variables are greater
than 0.7; Average variance extracted (AVE) for each of the latent variables are
greater than 0.5 and all of the AVE>MSV (Maximum Shared Variance). This
suggests that there is no convergent validity issue in the model derived. Convergent
validity refers to the extent to which measured variables of the same construct are
correlated. Whereas, discriminant validity refers to the extent to which constructs are
distinct. In this regard, the standard procedure suggests if the correlation scores
between each construct with other constructs are all less than the square root of AVE of
each construct, then the model has no discriminant validity issue. Square root of AVE
(diagonally presented) of the constructs and the correlation scores between the
constructs in table 3, provide empirical evidence that each construct is unique and thus
there is no serious issue as regards discriminant validity in the model derived. Table 3.
Convergent Validity and Discriminant Validity CR AVE MSV MaxR(H) WLB TA OS WO
EI JE WLB 0.840 0.570 0.169 0.856 0.755 TA 0.775 0.639 0.120 0.862 -0.347***
0.800 OS 0.839 0.634 0.415 0.839 0.310*** -0.107 0.796 WO 0.710 0.551 0.415
0.724 -0.412*** 0.268** -0.644*** 0.743 EI 0.778 0.541 0.212 0.793 0.128 -0.190*
0.254** -0.460*** 0.736 JE 0.848 0.652 0.202 0.868 0.117 -0.038 0.427*** -0.365***
0.449*** 0.807 Thresholds From: Hu, L., Bentler, P.M. (1999), "Cutoff Criteria for Fit
Indexes in Covariance Structure Analysis: Conventional Criteria Versus New
Alternatives" SEM vol. 6(1), pp. 1-55 Significance of Correlations:† p < 0.100, * p <
0.050, ** p < 0.010, *** p < 0.001 We conducted a Common Method Bias (CMB) test
to check whether the estimated impacts, in the model derived, suffer from bias. CMB is
the spurious variance that is attributable to the measurement method rather than to the
constructs the measures are assumed to represent (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee &
Podsakoff, 2003). Common Method Variance (CMV) is considered to be the
source of CMB and it is defined by Richardson, Simmering, and Sturman (2009)
as the systematic error variance that is shared among variables which are measured
with the same source or method. This systematic error variance can cause CMB and
can also bias the estimated relationships among variables or measures (Jakobsen &
Jensen, 2015; Campbell & Fiske, 1959). Podsakoff et. al., (2003) suggested several
remedies to overcome this issue. One of the approaches is known as Common Latent
Factor (CLF) that helps to detect significant shared variance among the variables. In
this method, a latent factor is introduced which is then modelled such that it directly
affects all other items administered. In this model, CMV is controlled by explicitly
incorporating the effects of a latent method factor on each observed indicator. All the
standardized estimates with CLF (unconstrained) in our model can be observed in
figure 3. Figure 2. Measurement Model with CLF (Unconstrained) Here, we compared
the unconstrained common latent factor (with X2=126.9, df=86) to fully
constrained (zero constrained) common latent factor (with X2=171.0, df =103) to check
whether the chi-square
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 8 | Page difference (delta X2=44.1,
df=17) test between the two is significant. The p-value in this regard transpired to be
less than α = 0.05; this indicates shared variance across all items is significantly
different from zero. Since zero -constraint model is significant (i.e., measurable bias
is detected), we ran an equal-constrained test to check whether response bias is
evenly distributed across all the items. In this case we compared the unconstrained
common latent factor (with X2=126.9, df=86) to equal constrained (constrained to 1)
common latent factor (with X2=174.9, df =103) in this his case chi-square difference
(delta X2=44.1, df= 17) is found to be significant as well. This suggests we have
unevenly distributed bias. Meanwhile, model fit measures with CLF (unconstrained) are
achieved; X2df = 1.475 (X2=126.872, df =86), CFI=0.972 (>0.95), SRMR =0.043
(<0.08), RMSEA=0.048 (<.06), PCLOSE=0.560 (>0.05), and TLI =0.956 (>0.9). This
result shows better findings after CFA with CLF. We thus retained the CLF construct
and imputed factor scores for subsequent causal analysis. We impute factor scores
by creating new variables which represent each latent variable; these new variables
account for the shared variance explained by the CLF and create common method bias
(CMB) corrected measures. 5.2 Structural Model: The structural model in figure 4
epitomizes the structural relationships between the dependent (endogenous) and
independent (exogenous) variables. Here, each exogenous and endogenous
variable incorporates CMB corrected measures. The standardized coefficients in the
figure 4 recapitulate the relationship between work-life balance (endogenous variable)
and all the exogenous variables: work overload, organizational support, emotional
intelligence, job engagement, and technological advancement. A regression analysis (in
table 3, 4 & 5) was also conducted in this regard using SPSS 23 to generate t values
and to check the significance of these relationships. Figure 3. Structural Model
The R-squared value of the structural model is 54.8%; this value signifies that our model
explains a good proportion of the variability in the dependent (endogenous) variable. It
can be observed from the model below that organizational support is predictive of
greater work-life balance. The relationship between the two variables is significant in our
findings as the p-value is less than α = 0.05. This finding supports our hypothesis that
there exists positive relationship between these two variables. Whereas, technological
advancement and job engagement are predictive of lower work-life balance. These two
relationships are also significant as the p-values correspond to these variables
transpired to be less than 0.05. Here, the relationship between technological
advancement and work-life balance supports our hypothesis that the advancement in
technology related to certain job has negative effect on work-life balance. In our
findings, the association between job engagement and work-life balance suggests
work-life balance decreases as one becomes more engaged in his/her respective
job. This discovery diverges from our hypothesis formulated related to the
variable. Though the relationships between work-life balance and work overload,
emotional intelligence are positive in our findings, these are observed as statistically
insignificant. Hence, our hypotheses related to these two exogenous variables and
endogenous (work-life balance) could not be established. The structural model (in
figure 3) also comprises of correlations among exogenous variables for a better
understanding of their intricate relationships.
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 9 | Page Table 4. Model Summary
Model Summary Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1
.740a .548 .537 .67466 a. Predictors: (Constant), TA, JE, OS, EI, WO Table 5. ANOVA
ANOVAa Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 111.442 5
22.288 48.968 .000b Residual 91.943 202 .455 Total 203.386 207 a.Dependent
Variable: Work-life Balance b.Predictors: (Constant), Technological Advancement,
Job Engagement, Organizational Support, Emotional Intelligence, Work Overload
Table 6. Coefficients Coefficientsa Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized
Coefficients t Sig. B Std. Error Beta 1 (Constant) 2.908 .337 8.631 .000 Work Overload
.120 .119 .088 1.009 .314 Organizational Support .394 .087 .338 4.508 .000 Emotional
Intelligence .069 .115 .039 .600 .549 Job Engagement -.294 .088 -.207 -3.319 .001
Technological Advancement -.861 .070 -.698 -12.216 .000 a. Dependent Variable:
Work-life Balance VI. Data Analyses and Findings The main purpose of this research
is to find the factors that influence employees work life balance. From literature review
we found so many individual, organizational and environmental factors that create work-
life imbalance. Our findings contradict with earlier research in some of the factors. We
hypothesized spiritual intelligence with work-life balance because it motivates people
to balance their work schedules and help to spend time with the family (Emmons,
2000). But in our study we didn’t find any relation of spiritual intelligence with work life
balance in our findings. Another factor work overload is found positively related in our
study, which is supposed to be negatively related with balanced work life. Many
employees believe working long or extra hour doesn’t affect them because now-a-days
employees consider it as one of the organizational culture (Kodz, Kersley, Strebler, &
O'Regan, 1998). Organizations need to investigate the most influential factors
which can help them to nurture their employees and maintain their balances work life
and personal life. Through the research an organizations can find ways to motivate their
employees and utilize them properly. This research will initiate the academics to nurse
an environment of thinking out of the box and curiosity beyond routinized works for
bringing positive drives to the organization. VII. Limitations of the Research The study
covers some selected private commercial banks in Bangladesh, based on
convenience sampling, in Bangladesh. The generalization of the study might not be
accurate because of the subjectivity in sample selection. Random sampling in place
of convenience sampling might bring representative result in generalizing the result
for picturing the overall scenario. The limited sample size (N=208) was another
limitation, hence, the large sample size could reveal more representative result for
generalizing the case. There are various measurement instruments of work life balance,
emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, work overload, job engagement and
technological advancement developed by various scholars not from the same country
and the context which might not be giving representative results. The findings may yield
different result if other measurement instruments were used.
Bangladesh DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112
www.iosrjournals.org 10 | Page VIII. Future Directions
Comprehensive research is necessary to generalize the overall results. There is an
enormous scope of doing research entailing demographic factors i.e., gender, age,
education level, marital status, nature of organization, employment level, structure
of ownership, and tenure to predict overall work life balance. In addition, large
sample size might provide an insight into more generalization of the study
because of the representation of more respondents. Further research on the
relationship among various WLB factors moderated by demographic factors in
Bangladesh might be suggested. Acknowledgements The authors would like to East
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Work-Life Balance Issues of a Commercial Bank
1. Introduction
Mercantile Bank Limited emerged as a new commercial bank to provide efficient

banking services and to contribute socio-economic development of the country. The
Bank commenced its operation on June 2, 1999.The Bank provides a broad range of
financial services to its customers and corporate clients. The Board of Directors consists
of eminent personalities from the realm of commerce and industries of the country.
Mercantile Bank Limited (MBL) is considered as third generation bank extending full
range of banking facilities by providing efficient, friendly and modern fully automated on-
line service on a profitable basis. Since its inception, it has introduced fully integrated
online banking service to provide all kinds of banking facilities from any of its
conveniently located branches.
This organization wants to mix profit and social responsibility together and as such
serve the people of the nation. The concept of Mercantile Bank Limited (MBL) is also
based on helping deprived people and at the same time making profit by providing top
class financial services.
For this reason loan portfolio of this bank is dedicated towards small and medium
enterprises. It has been found that there exists a segment of people who do not have
access to capital but if fund is given to them, they can excel in their own small and
medium businesses and as such contribute in the development of the economy.
One other specialty of Mercantile Bank Limited is to disburse remittance anywhere

within the country within limited possible time through arrangement with Western Union
and SWIFT for its remittance services.
1.1: Vision
“Would make finest corporate citizen.”
1.2: Mission
“Will become most caring, focused for equitable growth based on diversified deployment
of resources, and nevertheless would remain healthy and gainfully profitable Bank.”
1.3: Core values
* For the customers: providing with caring services by being innovative in the
development of new banking products and services.
* For the shareholders: maximizing wealth of the Bank.
* For the employees: respecting worth and dignity of individual employees devoting
their energies for the progress of the Bank.
* For the community: Strengthening the corporate values and taking environment
and social risks and reward into account.
*
New technology: Adopting the state-of-the art technology in banking operations.
2. Conceptual Framework
2.1: Origin of Study
This internship report was assigned as a partial requirement for the completion of the
BBA Program of North South University. The intention was to give an opportunity to the
students to gain some real world experience by working in a practical environment. For
my internship I was placed in Mercantile Bank Limited, Sylhet Branch and for my report
I have collected information from the Human Resource Policy (revised manual-2011) of
MBL and their annual report 2011. During my internship period my supervisor was Mr.
Debojyoti Mojumder who is Assistant vice president and manager operation of Sylhet
branch, and my Faculty Advisor was Mr. Muhammad Faisol Chowdhury, Lecturer of
School of Business, North South University.
Work-life balance is a combination of interactions among different spheres of one’s life,

the advantages and disadvantages associated with that balance/imbalance can affect
multiple levels of society and also in human life. The disadvantages associated with
work-life imbalances are numerous and impact both employee and employer. For the
employee, consequences can have a negative impact on work and life satisfaction, on
well-being, mental health, and physical health and on individual performance in
organizations. So it is essential to have a better balanced work-life.
2.2: Objective of the Study
I have prepared this report based on two purposes:

2.2.1 Primary Objective:
The report aims to provide information on the issues that make work-life balanced and
how this is followed by the employees and employers of Mercantile Bank Limited.
2.2.2 Secondary Objective:
* The main purpose of this report is to present the findings of a bank-wide audit that
was carried out to gain information on staff experience of work-life balance policies and
practices at Mercantile Bank Limited. The audit was conducted through a staff survey.
* MBL considers their employee as an asset. For having an effective and valuable
asset they always try to motivate their employees. MBL upper level management thinks
about their employee conditions. This is important to know the meaning of work-life
balance in context of employment.
* Since they hire people through many comprehensible and clear assessments, they
have good intellect property as their workforce. They have not directly mentioned work-
life balance policy in their policy manual but employees get all the opportunities
regarding this issue. So another one is to focus on work-life balance policy maintained
by human resource department of MBL.
* Find out the significance of work-balance policies and practices for the employees
and employers of Mercantile Bank Limited.
* Another objective is to focus on the findings of the survey and come up with some
solutions for development of company’s work-life balance policy implementation.
2.3: Scope of the Study:

There is a certain boundary to cover this report. This particular report only covers work-
life balanced issues that actually practiced in Mercantile Bank Limited. Mainly I focused
on all the employees of Mercantile Bank Limited Sylhet Branch. And I also talked with
the Senior Vice President who is the Branch Manager of this Branch Mr. Imam Kabir
Chowdhury and Assistant Vice President who is Manager Operation of this Branch Mr.
Debojyoti Mojumder regarding work-life balance policy of MBL. There are 17 employees
in this branch those are actively working and I surveyed among all the employees of this
branch. Through Mercantile Bank Limited Human Resource Policy Manual I got lots of
information that helped me a lot in making this report. As well as I gathered information
through internet Mercantile Bank Limited official web-site. Moreover I got some
confidential information which is not possible to disclose publicly, so those data and
information had to be ignored for this report.
2.4: Methods
For making any report most of the data should be taken that reflect actual situation. For
my report I have collected various types of primary and secondary data. In a disciplined
way I can say that the report input were collected from two sources-
2.4.1 Primary sources:
For my Primary data, I went through face to face interview process and personal
observation through several informal conversations. I interviewed 17 employees of MBL
Sylhet branch to collect data and it was absolutely informal. I talked with them regarding
their satisfaction, the opportunities that they are getting in MBL. They helped me a lot
and through these conversations I got lots of information for my report.
2.4.2 Secondary sources:
* Mercantile Bank Ltd. official web-site

* Human Resource Policy Manual ( Revised-2011)
* Agreement Policy
2.5: Limitations of the Study

I am lucky enough to get a chance to prepare a report on ―Work-Life Balanced Issues
of Mercantile Bank Limited. I tried heart & soul to prepare a well-informed report. But
unfortunately I faced some difficulties when preparing this report. I tried to overcome the
difficulties. In spite of trying my level best, some difficulties that hamper our schedule
report work:
2.5.1 Shortage of time:
As per North South University BBA Program Internship Guideline, three months is the
standard time. Within this short time, I need to prepare this internship reports as well as
some other reports for as an intern in Mercantile Bank Limited. For this reason, I could
not get a fluent time schedule for the report.
2.5.2 Limitation of related with the organization:
In Sylhet there is only one branch of Mercantile Bank Limited. That’s why employees of
this branch always have tremendous work pressure. So they were too busy because of
their work. For this, they did not give sufficient time to fulfill our queries.
2.5.3 Difficulty in collecting data:
Many employers of the organization were not well known about all information that I
asked them. Many of them also hesitated to answer the questions. These things
hampered the information collection.
2.5.4 Confidential data:
I got some confidential data which is not possible to disclose publicly, so those data and
information had to be ignored for this report.
3. Literature Review
3.1: Work-Life Balance
The term work-life balance is commonly used as a more comprehensive expression to

describe policies that have been previously termed 'family-friendly', but are now
extended beyond the scope of the family. Work-life balance refers to the flexible working
arrangements that allow both parents and non-parents to avail of working arrangements
that provide a balance between work responsibilities and personal responsibilities. The
term ‘work-life balance’ is preferred due to the fact that it encompasses the experiences
and needs of parents and non-parents alike, and is a more progressive theoretical
framework in which to think about new ways of living and working that are satisfactory to
all.
3.2: Importance of Work-Life balanced issues for the employees and employers
Since employers and employees are the human asset for any organization, so it is
important to make them satisfied in all aspects. The adoption of work-life balance
policies and practices can improve an organization’s ability to respond to customers’
demands for increased access to services and deal with changes in a way that can be
satisfactory to both employers and employees.
This can also suggests that employers who support a work-life balance culture and offer
flexible working arrangements are likely to have a competitive advantage in the labor
market in particular in relation to the new generation of employees.
3.3: Developing Work-Life balanced issues
Work-life balance is the term used in the literature to refer to policies that strive to
achieve greater complementarities and balance between work and home
responsibilities. These policies apply to all workers, not just working parents, and their
presence or absence in an organization may have an effect on those facing a crisis
pregnancy, particularly in judging their own ability to combine both work and family life.
Some of the terms used in the literature on work-life balance are not commonly used or
may be unfamiliar, thus explanations and definitions are given below:
* WLB: Work-life Balance also referred to as family friendly work arrangements

(FFWA), and, in international literature, as alternative work arrangements (AWA).
* V-Time: This is voluntary overtime to meet production needs; extra hours are
'banked' and taken as time off or as extra pay. It differs from flexi time where starting
and finishing times are staggered, and can mean reduced or increased weekly working
hours over a period of time.
* Zero hours contract: This is a flexible contract that does not specify the amount of
time a worker will spend per year on their employment, leaving it open to meet demand.
* E-working: The term used to describe flexible working that can be done from any
location using technologies such as laptops, wireless internet connection and mobile
phones.
* Tele working: This is where the location is flexible by using technologies to

complete work - this allows work to be done from home; also known as e-working.
Term-time working: this is when a parent is allowed to work only during school term
times, with all school holidays off. Payment can be calculated either by usual payment,
with no payment during holidays, or salaries can be spread out across the year.
Other forms of flexible working conditions include:

* Part-time working
* Job sharing
* Flexible time
* Shift working
* Annualized hours
* Compressed hours
* Home working
*Career breaks
*Study leave.
3.4: Effective Issues of Work-Life Balance
* I have already mentioned that there is no work-life balance policy written in the
Human Resource Policy manual of MBL. But all the employees of Mercantile Bank
Limited get opportunities to make their work life and personal life balanced. They get all
the flexibility in their work place. This is generally practiced in all the branches of MBL. If
employees want they can come late to the office and can go earlier before the actual
time but for this they must have valid and strong reason.
* Now a day’s not all the bank give these type of flexibility to their employees and
employers. For the growth of organization it is essential to make employees satisfied.
Employees of MBL are satisfied in this aspect. This is clearly said by the Chairman of
Mercantile Bank Limited Mr. Abdul Jalil Chowdhury (M.P) to HRD of MBL that if anyone
wants to transfer anywhere for his/her family he/she will get this opportunity. So it is a
great competitive advantage for Mercantile Bank Limited in current labor market.
4. Analysis
4.1MOST
Mission
“Will become most caring, focused for equitable growth based on diversified deployment
of resources, and nevertheless would remain healthy and gainfully profitable Bank.”
Mercantile Bank Limited has obtained effective strategy and efficient workforce. With
the help of these two essential elements MBL has been giving services to their valued
customer. It has become a trustworthy and reliable bank in current competitive market.
Objective
Strategic Objectives:
* To achieve positive Economic Value Added (EVA) each year.

* To be market leader in product innovation.
* To be one of the top three Financial Institutions in Bangladesh in terms of cost
efficiency.
* To be one of the top five Financial Institutions in Bangladesh in terms of market
share in all significant market segments it serves.
Financial Objectives:
* To achieve a return on shareholders’ equity of 20% or more, on average.
Strategies
* To strive for customers best satisfaction & earn their confidence.

* To manage & operate the Bank in the most effective manner.
* To identify customers needs & monitor their perception towards meeting those
requirements.
* To review & updates policies, procedures & practices to enhance the ability to
extend better services to the customers
* To train & develop all employees & provide them adequate resources so that the
customer’s needs are reasonably addressed
* To promote organizational efficiency by communicating company plans, polices &
procedures openly to the employees in a timely fashion.
* To cultivate a congenial working environment. To diversify portfolio both the retail &
wholesale markets.
Tactics
Introduce new and competitive products:
Mercantile Bank Limited constantly tries to come up with new products and services and
tries to refine its existing products. They design the products that are fully compatible to
the individual customer needs.
Refine the interest rate:
Mercantile Bank Limited regularly refines the interest rate of their saving schemes and
loans and make sure that it is within the range and preference of its customers.
Provide high standard customer service:
Mercantile Bank Limited frequently promotes customer service by providing its staffs
with extra incentives. There are guidelines regarding the behavior to the customer and
the level of customer service. Mercantile Bank Limited sends auditors in every branch
who provide report about the service quality of each branch and staffs are provided with
reward or penalty according to their performance.
Training of the staffs:
The staffs of Mercantile Bank Limited get special training to improve their customer
service. In every two or three months, small training and meeting sessions take place
where the staffs get feedback about their customer service.
Compliance with foreign exchange policy of Bangladesh bank:
Mercantile Bank Limited makes sure that all the foreign trade services and the
movements of inward and outward remittance are done under the guideline of foreign
exchange policy provided by Bangladesh Bank.
CSR Tactics:
MBL’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) focuses on the following areas:

* Education for underprivileged children;
* Assistance for the disabled/needy; and
* Support for the environment.
Promotion:
This part of the marketing department deals with all the promotional activities of
Mercantile Bank Limited. Prime responsibilities of this department are: Maintaining
strong public relations with various media intermediaries, advertising the company’s
products and services, building a strong corporate image of Mercantile Bank Limited.
Public Relations:
The marketing department of MBL organizes various environmental and social activities
in order to build a strong corporate image of Mercantile Bank Limited in the minds of
customers as well as in the media. Maintaining strong relationship with news media is
another major duty of this department.
Advertising:
Newspapers Advertising: Regular advertisements of various services of Mercantile

Bank Limited are given in some of the countries most renowned daily newspapers.
In addition to these tactics Mercantile Bank Limited tries to regain these problems under
the shadow of law. They deal with these problems very carefully. Now the bank is too
much concerned about giving loans to the customers. The rules and regulations of the
bank are now much strict than before.
4.2 SWOT
Strength
Dedicated & Efficient work force:
Mercantile Bank Limited has a dedicated &efficient workforce, which is one of the
biggest strength for the bank. This efficient workforce helps the bank to achieve the
bank’s objectives in terms of new branch opening, new product innovation for the
customer. They do their best to help the bank to be one of the best banks in
Bangladesh. They try to serve and deliver the best.
Excellent working environment:
The working environment of Mercantile Bank limited is very warm friendly. The
employees are very friendly with one another and always willing to help each other. The
top management is also very friendly with the middle and lower level managers. The
healthy relation also helps the bank to achieve their goals and objectives.
Warm relationship with the customers:
The employees of the bank maintain a very healthy relation with the customers of the
bank. The employees are always helpful and ever ready to solve any problems of the
customers. The employees sometimes deliver personalized services to the customers.
The ongoing relationship between the employees and the customers is an asset for the
bank. The employees always help the customers to understand the bank procedures.
Introduced a variety of lucrative products:
Keeping the demand of the customers in mind, Mercantile Bank Limited has always
tried to serve new, innovative and effective products to the customers. Mercantile Bank
Limited frequently do market surveys to know what the customers want and try to serve
according to that. The bank has launched many schemes to satisfy the need of different
customers.
Network across the country:
Through the 61 branches, Mercantile Bank Limited has a very strong network
throughout the country. Mercantile Bank Limited has a very strong network and is able
serve the needs the demand of customers of the whole country.16
Weakness
Unable to implement branch banking yet:
One of the biggest drawbacks of Mercantile Bank Limited is that the bank has not been
able to implement any branch banking yet. Branch banking means operating banking
activities such as accepting deposits or making loans at facilities away from a bank's
home office. Mercantile Bank Limited’s main problem has been that the bank has a very
strong control over its main branch but looses it when it comes to other branches
specially those branches which are in remote places.
Alignment of HR policy is job based not skill based:
Another problem of Mercantile Bank Limited is that the alignment of Human Resource
policy is job based instead of being skill based. That makes a lot of deserving
candidates demoralized. This policy is not good for the bank too. The bank can also
suffer in the long run.
Decision making process is not as fast as expected:
A main problem of Mercantile Bank Limited is that the bank’s decision making process
is not as fast as it should be. The top management of the bank takes suggestions from
other managers. Sometimes confliction arises in making a decision. That makes the
decision making process slow.
Unavailability of foreign training:

Another weakness of Mercantile Bank Limited is the availability of foreign training in the
bank. Foreign training is very important for employees, managers and for the bank too.
They come to know how banking is done in abroad. That helps to develop the creativity
and excellence of an employee or a worker. But, so far, Mercantile Bank Limited does
not have foreign training.
Opportunities
Positive economic growth:
Economic growth means A positive change in the level of production of goods and
services by a country over a certain period of time. Nominal growth is defined as
economic growth including inflation, while real growth is nominal growth minus inflation.
Economic growth is usually brought about by technological innovation and positive
external forces. The positive economic growth of the country is a big opportunity for
Mercantile Bank Limited. If the bank can use its resources well, Mercantile Bank Limited
will be much benefited from this opportunity.
Exploration of new business avenues:
Exploration of new business avenues is one of the biggest opportunities for Mercantile
Bank Limited. New factories are continuously being established in Bangladesh. These
factories are opening new doors of profit for the banks. Mercantile Bank Limited can
allow them loans at higher interest rate and increase profit.
Expansion of credit operation:
Expansion of credit operation in SME, agriculture & renewable energy sector is a very
big opportunity for Mercantile Bank Limited. People in rural areas are taking loans from
banks for SME and agricultural activities. If it has the needed resources, Mercantile
Bank Limited should pounce upon the opportunity.
Bringing mass into the banking net:

More and more people are entering into the banking net now-a-days. Mercantile Bank
Limited should take the opportunity and bring mass into their banking net.
Corporate Philanthropy:
To make their image more acceptable to mass, Mercantile Bank Limited must do social
things. That will help their reputation they will be more acceptable by the mass.18
Threats:
Extreme competitive market:
The banking market today is very tough and competitive. Competitors are very tough
and competitive. Mercantile Bank Limited has a tough competition in the banking sector.
The bank should continuously implement new plans to keep their place in the market.
Aggressive marketing policy:
Aggressive marketing policy by the competitive banks is a big threat for Mercantile Bank
Limited. Other banks are becoming very aggressive. Mercantile Bank Limited must think
of a way to keep their place in the market.
Deposit rate Fluctuation:
Deposit rate in the central bank can fluctuate any time. This is a big threat for Mercantile
Bank Limited.
4.3 PESTEL
Political Factors
Political culture of Bangladesh is not very much popular in this country. Hartal is one
kind of political strike here, which is called by the opposition party of the government.
During the strike every business and wheels of vehicles become stopped. Strike is one
of the worst cultures in this country. MBL has to maintain a very tough scheduling during
the strike days. It becomes tough to make transaction for both the employees and
customers during this day. Eventually it makes a big loss for the organization.
Economic Factors
Bangladesh is a country of high inflation rate. Inflation rate always affect every
organization of this country especially banks are affected. They have created value for
their consumers. Interest rate always fluctuates for this reason. Deposit schemes like
MSS (Monthly Saving Scheme), FDR (Fixed deposit Scheme) etc required interest rate
for the customer. Currently local banks cannot decide its interest rate. This is fixed up
by the Bangladesh Bank and this will be followed by the entire bank industry in our
country. There are other policies those are also fixed up by the Bangladesh Bank. Now
the interest rate is 12.5% and for saving deposits its 6% for MBL. This 12.5% rate can
be changed any time. It actually depends on money market.
Social Factors
Socially people are conservative and in many cases they are emotional. Generally
people convinced with the new features and satisfied interest rate in bank industry. It is
the main duty for any bank to make people satisfied with their service. But it is tough to
read their mind. Sometimes they actually don’t know what they want. They have right to
get better service always. So bank should concentrate on their service and the way
through which they will provide it. Employee should be trained very effectively so that
they can make their customer understand about their features. But sometimes it
becomes tough for any bank to meet their target in a competitive market.
Technological Factors
Technological advancement is also important for any organization‘s achievement since

new technology can be an effective weapon against inflation and recession. MBL has a
very effective information and technological (IT) department. To sustain in a competitive
market MBL has been using the latest technology. They have recruited very talented
engineers for their operations. They use much updated software for their operations like
PC Bank through which all the branches are internally connected and also connected
with the main branch.
Environmental Factors
The whole world is increasingly experiencing the devastating effects of environmental

changes for Green House affects due to global warming. The Bank is mindful of its
responsibilities to the future generations by playing its part in promoting environmental
awareness and in the conservation of the environment. The Bank takes environmental
issues very cautiously while financing new projects. It finances only in those projects
which are environment-friendly. Early detection of environmental risks is an integral part
of credit appraisal system of the Bank. Ecological damage will sooner or later harm not
only the society but also the Bank, in the form of loan losses or image problems. In this
regard, the Bank participated by sending its officials in Foreign Training Program on
'Environmental Issues'. Issue of Green Banking is considering with utmost core in this
Bank.
Legal factors:
These are related to the legal environment of the country. Different categories of law
include:
* Consumer Laws: these are designed to protect customers against unfair practices
such as misleading descriptions of the service.
* Competition Laws: these are aimed at protecting small bank against harassment by
larger bank and ensuring customers are not exploited by banks with monopoly power.
* Employment Laws: these cover areas such as redundancy, dismissal, working
hours and minimum take-home pay. They aim to protect employees against the abuse
of power by management.
* Health and Safety Legislation: these laws are aimed at ensuring the workplace is
as safe as is reasonably practical. They cover issues such as training, reporting
accidents, healthy environment and the appropriate provision of safety equipment.
* Other laws to consider are discrimination law, employment law etc.
4.4 STEEPLED
STEEPLED Analysis stands for social, technological, economical, environmental,

political, legal, educational and demographic factors. All those factors explained under
PESTEL analysis except educational and demographic factors. These two factors
explained below.
Educational Factors
MBL is continuing its supports to the education sector as before. Every year,
scholarships are provided to the needy but brilliant students of different educational
institutions. Children of the employees are also given scholarship for their brilliant
results. The Bank also encourages the employees to have professional degrees.
MBL gives opportunities to the employees who wish to get higher studies in abroad.
The Bank provides cash money incentives to the employees who pass the Banking
Diploma.
MBL has donated to Hicare School, Rajshahi for education and development of the deaf
children as a part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. They are emerging more
programs for education development.
Demographic Factors
There are 75 branches of MBL in Bangladesh and 1737 employees are actively working
in these branches. MBL considers local employees for working in local branches for
better performances. Female employees get opportunity for transfer as her family
placement.
MBL considers this flexibility not only for employees but also for their better service.
They posted their employees in local branches because they will understand their local
language and culture.
All the employees of MBL both male and female get equal opportunity to maintain their
family life. Customers of MBL also get same services in every branch. This is not
differentiated in anywhere. Product of MBL is not affected by the location or by the
people who works for MBL.
5. Findings and Analysis of this project
* As an internee, I joined Mercantile Bank Limited, Bangladesh on 16 February, 2012

on Sylhet branch. My topic of the project was “Work-Life Balance issues of banking
sector employees: A case of Mercantile Bank Limited.”. As I have mentioned earlier
there are 17 employees in this branch and I have conducted my survey among all the
employees of this branch except manager and manager operation.
* I made one set of questionnaire for conducting my survey. All the questions were
related with their work life and daily family life. I have also included some questions
regarding their work-life balance policy though in their HR policy manual this type of
policy is not clearly written.
* After completion of the survey, I analyzed the data by using pie charts. There are
15 questions on a set. In this report I will not to show the analysis of all the questions. I
will show analysis of ten questions as I believe findings from those questions will be
very much beneficial for Mercantile Bank Limited.
* I have conducted my survey in every department like clearing, foreign remittance,
cash, transfer, credit and foreign exchange department. All of them were very much
helpful to this survey and they responded to every question very willingly.
* This has become a great help to me for making my report. I have also collected lots
of information from them through informal conversation. Since this branch is outside
Dhaka so the environment is very friendly. That’s why I did it without any difficulty.
* Employees of MBL are very much satisfied with their management and HR
department. This is a great support for any organization especially for service oriented
organization. Through my questionnaire I came to know about their attention to their
work life and family life balance issues.
Question no 1: How many hours in a day do you spend traveling to work?
a) Less than half an hour

b) Nearly one hour
c) Nearly two hours
d) More than two hours
From the above data 33.33% employees said that they spend less than half an hour for
travelling to work, 40% said they spend nearly one hour and 27% said they usually
spend nearly two hours. Since this branch is not in Dhaka so employees of this branch
can come to office without having any traffic jam. Sometimes they face it but it’s not that
much extreme like Dhaka city.
5.1: Flexible management
* I am doing my project on work-life balanced issues of the entire banking sector

employees of our country but I am preparing my report based on Mercantile Bank
Limited, Bangladesh.
* Employees of MBL those are working in other branches in Dhaka everyday they
have to face many difficulties like transportation problem, traffic jam etc. Usually they
spend more than 2 hours to come to their office. Day by day it’s becoming very tough
for people to lead their life in a regular way. In other regions except Dhaka city
employees at least can come to their office on time if they don’t have any reason to
come late.
* MBL employees are allowed to come late in office but for this they must have to
take permission from their immediate boss or branch manager or manager operation.
This is only applicable for urgency not for usual time.
* Employees of MBL outside Dhaka can spend a large amount time with their family
than the other branches of Dhaka city because they spend more time in travelling and a
significant amount of time they spend on road from traffic jam. So they could not
balance their work and family life in a normal way like other employees of MBL. It’s
becoming tough for them to make it balanced.
* MBL considers their employees as a valuable asset for their organization. So they
treat their employees in a better way. Employees of MBL are highly satisfied with their
organization, their upper level management and their various policies those are required
to balance their work life and family or personal life.
* For improving business performance MBL developing organizational culture and for
this they have developed their strategic HR department. Employees of the Bank play
significant role in providing better customer service. So it’s their main duty to think about
employee’s opportunities.
Question no 2: Being employed, who is helping you to take care of your children?
a) Spouse
b) In-laws
c) Parents
d) Servants
On this question 14% people responded that their spouses take care of their children
and 7% responded in laws. 14% parents and 7% responded that servants take of their
children.
5.2: Take care of family
* Not all the employees have children but those who have children it’s a vital family
issue for working people to take care of their children. Working spouse need to have
helping people to take of their family and their children.
* I have included all the probable options in my survey questionnaire regarding this
issue and 14% employees responded their wives take care of their children and 14%
responded their families take care of their children in their absence.
* Generally servants take care of both the family and the children of working spouse
if they do not live in a joint family. But now a day it is very unusual to live in a joint
family. In this situation working people must have to have helping hand for their family
maintenance.
Question no 3: How many hours in a day do you spend with your family?
a) Less than 2 hours

b) 2-4 hours
c) 4-6 hours
d) More than 6 hours
From above data here is 20% people responded that they spend more than 6 hours with
their family, 54% spend 4 to 6 hours and another 27% employees said they usually
spend 2 to 4 hours with their family.
5.3: Spending hours with family
* A family is a place where human being born and they grown up within the family’s
values and environment. There are some fundamental elements which are actually
required for having a wonderful family. Every member of a family should have
contribution for it.
* Mercantile Bank Limited is very much friendly for their human asset. So that
employees are pleased with their organization. Employees of MBL working inside
Dhaka could not make that much time to spend with their family only for country’s
terrible situation.
* If there is any emergency higher level management of MBL allow their employees
in this kind of situation for their family. By this way employees can make their work life
and family life balanced.
Question no 4: Do you generally feel you are able to balance your work-life?
a) Yes
b) No
Here 94% employees said that they are balancing their work life and family life. Only
one employee said which is 6% responded that he/she is unable to do that. So this can
be taken as exception.
5.4: Balancing work life and family life
* Work life and personal both should be accepted as different areas. Employees
should not have mixed up these two areas. When a person works in office he/she must
have to concentrate on his/her respective work and on the other hand when he/she
spends time with family they must have to take care of it.
* Employees of MBL get all kind of facilities which is required for balancing work life
and their family life. That’s why in my survey most of the employees responded that
they are satisfied in balancing their work life and family life.
Question no 5: How do you feel about the amount of time you spend at work?
a) Unhappy
b) Indifferent
c) Happy
d) Very happy
On this question 100% employees said that they do their job in their office with full of
happiness.
They work 5 days in a week and sometimes employees of HR department and IT
department have to work in weekend for extra work. But they do their respective job
with full of cheerfulness.
5.5: Mind-set at work place
* In Mercantile Bank employees can do their work in a friendly environment. They

have very much work pressure but they carry out with their job with full of happiness.
* MBL is 100% employee oriented organization and it considers employees as

valuable asset. MBL management has made its culture and working environment
according their employees requirements. That’s employees are pleased with their
working environment.
* The employees of MBL are also very friendly with one another and always willing to
help each other. The top management is also very friendly with the middle and lower
level managers. The healthy relation also helps the bank to achieve their goals and
objectives.
Question no 6: Do you ever feel tired or depressed because of work?
a) Never
b) Rarely
c) Often
d) Always
Here on this question 40% employee responded they often feel tired or depressed
because of work, 46% responded they rarely feel tired, 14% responded they never feel
tired and most important thing is 0% employee responded they always feel tired or
depressed because of work.
5.6: Way of thinking about job
* As I have mentioned earlier MBL has most employee friendly environment. That’s
why from my survey I got 0% response on the option whether they feel always tired or
depressed because of work or not.
* It’s a great achievement for any organization to have their employee satisfaction.
Employees of MBL do their job with full of happiness and they always try to make good
dealing with their customer.
* This achievement will bring great success for this organization. In our country there
is very much competitive market for banking sector and in this situation MBL is one of
the most prominent and successful bank in their respective sector.
Question no 7: Does your company have a separate policy for work-life balance?
a) Yes
b) No
c) Not aware
From above data 53% employees responded they have no separate work-life balance
policy, 27% said yes they have and 20% responded not aware actually.
5.7: Separate policy for work-life balance issues
* I have already mentioned MBL has no clear written work-life balance policy. But
indirectly employees of MBL have the benefit of this policy. Since Mercantile Bank is an
employee oriented organization they are very careful about their employee’s facilities
and their opportunities.
* Management team of MBL is extremely dedicated to their organization only for its
support that generally employees get form it. This is clearly practiced in MBL; if anyone
wants to transfer anywhere he/she will get this opportunity to transfer according to their
necessities for his/her family.
* This might not be practiced in other organization but MBL always offer much
effective facilities to their employees than the other commercial banks.
* MBL employees enjoy different kinds of leave like casual leave, maternity leave,
sick leave, quarantine leave etc. If any employee suddenly face emergency he/she can
work for ½ day. For this immediate supervisor needs to be informed and employee must
have permission.
* Employees can also share job with their colleagues if person have any problem or
any emergency. Beside this employees have also chance to leave office early if
respective work in finished.
Question no 8: Do you personally feel any of the following will help you to balance your
work life?
a) Flexible starting hours

b) Flexible finishing time
c) Flexible hours, in general
d) Job sharing
From above data 46% employees responded they are interested to share job with their
colleague to make work-life balanced, 27% flexible office ending time, 27% flexible
office hours in general.
5.8: Work-life balance issues
* Job-sharing is basically a form of part-time work that provides you with the
equivalent of one full-time employee while giving the job-sharing employees the ability
to keep their careers on track while allowing more time for family responsibilities or
other activities.
* In case of emergency or urgent movement one can share job with colleague and
employees of MBL practice this type of strategy. By doing this work will be done on time
along with balancing other activities.
* Another thing is flexible ending time of office hour. If an employee finishes his/her
work he/she can leave office in the early hours.
Question no 9: Do you feel work life balance policy in the organization should be
customized to individual needs?
a) Strongly agree
b) Agree
c) Indifferent
d) Disagree
On this question employees agreed 53%, strongly agreed 33% and indifferent were
14% and 0% employees disagreed with this issue.
5.9: Customize work-life balance policy according to employee needs
* Employees should be the main fundamental of any organization because they work
for the company. Organizations reach to its goal with the help of its employees.
Employers should keep in mind before implementing work-life balance policy that this is
for the employee’s satisfaction.
* The introduction of work-life balance policies should be equitable for all employees
and it should be customized to individual needs. By implementing a work-life balance
strategy employers can help to reduce stress in their employees. This can lead to a
more motivated and loyal workforce, increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and it
is also good for PR.
* The efficient work force of Mercantile Bank acts as the fundamental pillar to reach
the Bank at today’s height of success. Employees work for company’s benefit and
management should execute policy according to the employee needs.
Question no 10: Do you think that if employees have good work-life balance the
organization will be more effective and successful?
a) Yes
b) No
If so how?
On this question 100% employees agreed that work-life balance has significant
contribution on organization’s success. Organization’s effectiveness and successfulness
depends on the employees and for this employees must have to be comfortable with
their job life and family life.
5.10: Organizational success depends on work-life balance of employees
* An organization requires most dedicated and efficient workforce for its betterment.
It will be possible if organization believe that their employees are their asset and
management has to have policies which are essential for employee’s to make their
work-life balanced perfectly.
* MBL employees are its asset and they are very much dedicated to their job. As a
result MBL has achieved its success with the help of its employees and also its
customers. Employees deal with the customer and also operate the whole company
operation.
* So if employee feels good and feel comfortable with their job and their work place
culture, facilities he/she will give outstanding feedback to the customer, will behave
good with them and finally it affects the organization’s success.
* Work-life balance policy could be like flexible working hour, job sharing, tele
working,
working from home, term-time hours, compressed hours and part-time working. Leave
provision, for example, special leave for emergencies etc can be included.
* MBL does not have clear written work-life balance policy but all these facilities are
given to their employees to make their work life and family life balanced. Employees of
this organization perform well because they are happy with their organization and they
have achieved great success for their company.
6. Summary of analysis
After doing survey I have analyzed very thoroughly all the questions and data that I
have acquired from MBL employees of Sylhet branch. In the beginning of this report I
mentioned that MBL employees are very much happy and satisfied with their
organization. Now I have come up with evidence that they are actually happy with their
job and their company policy.
* Employees of MBL practicing job sharing, flexible working hour, flexible ending
office hour etc all kind of work-life balanced issues. They feel that they are able to
balance their job and family life. In Human Resource Policy manual of MBL there are
some policies like leave, allowances, pay system etc included for their human asset. But
separate work-life balance policy is not clearly written in their HR policy manual.
* Female employees of MBL get Maternity leave for 4 months with pay and they
have opportunity to transfer according to their desired branch of MBL. Male employees
also get this opportunity. The chairman of MBL stated that MBL is employee oriented
bank and employees are their main asset and valuable resource.
* All regular employees of MBL have mandatory leave of 15 days in a year and
along with this they have opportunity to take leave in case of emergency and urgent
activity.
* For urgent activity employees are allowed to come late in office and also can go
out before ending time. But for this they have to take permission from their senior
manager and they must have valid reason.
* Mercantile Bank Limited has all kind of flexibility to their employees. Though in
their HR policy manual work-life balance policies are not clearly written but employees
of MBL have all kind of flexibility and facilities which are required to have balanced
work-life.
* Not all employees have children. But those who have children and their life partner
is also employed there must be someone to take care of their family in their absence. In
my survey employee responded their parents, servants or their in laws usually take of
their family in their absence .
* Work-life balance for any one person is having the ‘right’ combination of
participation in paid work and other aspects of their lives. This combination will change
as people move through life and have changing responsibilities and commitments in
their work and personal lives. Employees of MBL might get changes in their unwritten
balance policy but it will be changed according to their desires.
Effects of Work Life Balance on Employee Loyalty in Private Commercial Banks of
Bangladesh
Md. Awal Al Kabir, Murshida Rahman
Abstract
Maintaining employees’ personal life and work life- which is referred as Work Life
Balance- is a recent concept of contemporary Human Resource Management. Banking
sector provides one of the busiest working environments in Bangladesh. To achieve its’
business objectives banking sector needs to develop the professional lives of the
employees along with their family lives. The study examines employee loyalty’s
relationship with work life balance opportunities in private commercial banking sector of
Bangladesh.The specific objectives of the research are- to examine to what extend the
private commercial banks are giving opportunities to their employees to have proper
work life balance, to explore the perceptions of the employees to current work schedule
and the factors which are dependent on their loyalty to the organization,. The research
adopts a research design where the population size is thirty nine (39) and the sample
size is ten (10) private commercial banks. At least hundred (100) structured
questionnaires are being filled completely by the employees.Various factors are
identified that are directly related to Work Life Balance and employee loyalty such as
working hours, leave policies, holidays/ picnics, health programs, work pressure, work
distribution, job satisfaction, etc. The findings are based on the employees’ present
situation of work life balance in connection with employee loyalty. Recommendations
are given on the basis of the areas which need to be focused more and on the basis of
the top managements’ responsibilities to make their employees loyal through providing
work life balance.If the implementation of the suggested recommendations can be
ensured, the objectives of the study will be achieved. Moreover, the study can also help
the managers of various organizations to understand how Work Life balance policies
can influence proper job satisfaction of employees.
Abstract
This paper represents the current scenario of work-life balance in private commercial
banks of Bangladesh which indicates a pessimistic approach has been adopted by the
management. Apart from the multinational banks, most of the national banks are not
aware of this concept and hardly have any policy regarding the work-life balance issues.
At this moment, different socio-economic barriers and lack of human right awareness
may support the management for not taking this issue seriously. However, if they want
to achieve their business objectives through the development of the human resource
then there is no alternative to develop the working lives of their workforce. This paper
recommends management should consider the nature of business and background of
employees they have employed and customize their policies with the participation of the
employees. This paper also discusses some other recommendations considering the
perspectives of both parties as well as the perspectives of Bangladesh.
Karachi Purpose-The core purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of work life
balance on employee job satisfaction in private banking sector of Karachi. The data
were collected keeping in consideration features such as gender, age, managerial
position and tenure of job. Factors involved are job satisfaction and work life balance
with respect to flexible working conditions, work life balance programs, employee
intention to change/leave job, work pressure/stress and long working hours.
Methodology/Sample- A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed out of which 273
were returned back after filling. The selected method for sampling in this research is
snowball sampling. Data were collected using both primary and secondary sources.
Primary data were collected through questionnaires. The data was analyzed using
SPSS, test applied was correlation. Findings-The findings suggest that work life balance
has very less impact on employee job satisfaction in private commercial banking sector
of Karachi. The reason of such results may be due to the uncertain conditions, high
inflation and unemployment rate in Pakistan. Practical Implication- This research can be
beneficial for the banking sector to improve their policies, benefits programs and pay
structures to attract, recruit and retain more capable candidates. The results of this
research shows that even in the metropolitan city like Karachi, employees are not aware
of issues like job satisfaction and work life balance that is undoubtedly a basic right.
People are contended as far as they have job, rest of the things do not seem important
to them. This research can be utilized as a light for banks to pay attention to such
factors, because their benefits are not only for employees but can benefit banks in the
long run especially in maintain work force turnover. Sobia Shujat Lecturer at Bahria
University Karachi Campus Farooq-E-Azam Cheema Dean Management Sciences at
the Institute of Business & Technology (Biztek) Faryal Bhutto MBA Scholar at Bahria
University Karachi Campus Keywords : work life balance, job satisfaction, turnover rate,
banking sector * Sobia Shujat : sobiashujaat@bimcs.edu.pk * Farooq-E-Azam :
dr.cheema@ibt.edu.pk * Faryal Bhutto : snowwhite2687@gmail.com Jel classification :
09 Journal of Management and Social Sciences Sobia Shujaat, Farooq-E-Azam
Cheema, Faryal Bhutto 1. INTRODUCTION The rapid economic growth and
development in the world has created new activities and open new doors for all the
business organizations. The globalization trend has put the organizations hard to retain
their competitive advantage. This trend has also affected the banking sector. Banking
sector become more competitive. The changes in business activities bring change in
culture and perception of the employees. Organizational changes due to downsizing,
mergers/ acquisitions and radical changes in technology have changed the work setups.
The employees in present are more involved in their jobs than in the last decade. The
long working hours, work pressure, high demanding jobs, use of sophisticated
technology made it difficult for employees to keep a balance between their job and work
commitments (Nadeem and Abbas 2009). Businesses are facing increasing demands to
raise efficiency and becoming more responsive to customers and employees. No longer
is it just a matter of remuneration and promotional prospects; job seekers are
increasingly making employment decisions on how well their current or potential
workplace can support a balance between personal lives and paid occupation (Tanvi
and Fatama 2012). Pakistan is no more exception in this regard. Metropolis of the
country like Karachi being considered as very busy and fast moving city and the work
load and pressure and long working hours affects the level of employee job satisfaction.
Considerable research has already been conducted on work life balance and employee
satisfaction in developed countries. Developing countries have also started paying+
attention on this front to increase employee job satisfaction. In Pakistan much research
has been conducted on this issue and more efforts are being suggested to the bigger
organizations especially the banking sector where longer working hours is a particular
norm, to restore a work-life balance for the better good of the social and family life of the
workforce. For instance, a study was conducted in Pakistan by Nadeem and Abbas,
(2009) to discover the relationship among work life conflict and employee job
satisfaction at all levels of the management in public and private organizations. Findings
showed that job satisfaction at top level of management has negative correlation with
family to work interference, family to work interference and stress and job satisfaction
has positive correlation with job autonomy. Job satisfaction at the middle level of
employees decreases when work life conflict and stress increases. Job satisfaction at
the lower level of employees has negative correlation with stress and family to work
interference and positive correlation with job autonomy. Objective of this study is, thus,
to examine the impact of work life balance on employee job satisfaction and to identify
which factors of work life balance have more influence on employee job satisfaction in
banking sector. This research can be helpful for banks to identify the factors which
influence the employee work-life balance and the job satisfaction in the result. And to
take measures to restore this balance. Accordingly, following are the hypothesis to be
tested for this study: . H1: There is no effect of long working hours on employee job
satisfaction. . H2: There is no effect of flexible working condition on employee job
satisfaction. . H3: There is no effect of work pressure on employee job satisfaction. . H4:
There is no effect of change of job on employee job satisfaction. . H5: There is no effect
of work-life balance programs on employee job satisfaction. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature shows that managers have valuable role in encouraging employees to
manage their work and life activities. Strong relationship exists between work life
balance and employee satisfaction, hence companies should make policies and
programs for employees Vol. 7, No. 2, (Fall 2011) 10 Impact of Work Life Balance on
Employee Job Satisfaction in Private Banking Sector of Karachi on work life balance.
Managers can apply different roles of leadership to manage employees work life
balance and provide success to the company (Rani et al 2011). When employees are
not clear about their roles to be performed then employees are unable to meet
organizational goals and it also has an impact on their personal life and employees
become dissatisfied towards their job and organization faces lack of effectiveness.
Work-life balance policies and family supportive cultures have been observed in France
and Japan also (Aybars 2007, Cole 2006). There is a wide variety of work-life balance
initiatives for employees being incorporated by organizations and include flexible work
hours, job sharing, parental leave on-site child care facility and telecommuting (Hartel et
al. 2007). Studies suggest that in absence of work-life balance, employees'
dissatisfaction increases. However it is found that when employees' need in respect of
creating a work-life balance is met by different organizational programmes they show
higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Gregory and Milner 2009). A
study was conducted in Pakistan by Nadeem and Abbas, (2009) to discover the
relationship among work life conflict and employee job satisfaction at all levels of the
management in public and private organizations. Findings showed that job satisfaction
at top level of management has negative correlation with family to work interference,
family to work interference and stress and job satisfaction has positive correlation with
job autonomy. Job satisfaction at the middle level of employees decreases when work
life conflict and stress increases. Job satisfaction at the lower level of employees has
negative correlation with stress and family to work interference and positive correlation
with job autonomy. Hanglberger (2010) studied the effect of work-life balance,
specifically working hours on employees' job satisfaction and finds a positive
relationship between them. The same was analyzed by Gash et al. (2010) for women in
UK and Germany and the findings supported Hanglberger studies, showing a positive
effect of reduced working hours on employees' life satisfaction. Another study (Malik et
al. 2010) was conducted in Pakistan to investigate the relationship between work-life
balance, job satisfaction and turnover intentions among medical professionals in
hospitals. The level of employees' job satisfaction increases by many factors and when
employees are satisfied with their work, they feel motivated ( Noor, 2011). The demand
of employees work life balance is increased by change in trends in the business such as
change in organizations structure, diversity of work force and female employees
working in organizations. Organizations should provide work life balance facilities to
their employees so that employees can perform their duties effectively and leads
organization to the success (Parvin and Kabir, 2011). Another study by Dev 2012,
conducted in India indicates that work-life balance is significantly correlated with job
satisfaction in the banking sector. It suggested that female employees should be given
more facilities such as flexi time, job sharing, child care, etc to gain their organizational
commitment. It was revealed that those doctors who are better in managing their work-
life shows higher satisfaction with jobs and less turnover intentions. Job satisfaction has
negative correlation with work stress, family to work interference and work to family
interference but have positive correlation with workload. Employees' productivity is
reduced and their turnover and absenteeism are increased due do work life strain and
most of the institutions also complain that they can't much facilitate their employees to
balance their work and family responsibilities. Fatima and Sahibzada (2012) conducted
a study on work-life balance in the universities. They concluded that due to heavy
workload in universities, staff becomes dissatisfied. Hence, universities should develop
strategies that could facilitate faculty needs to balance between work and life activities
to achieve competitive advantage. A study was conducted by Maren et al. (2013) to
analyze work-life balance and 11 Journal of Management and Social Sciences Sobia
Shujaat, Farooq-E-Azam Cheema, Faryal Bhutto job satisfaction among teachers
exposed a negative relationship between work-life conflicts and job satisfaction. The
study suggested that if organizations offer facilities to reduce work-life conflicts, it will
lead to improvement in employees' job satisfaction. Chahal et al. (2013) suggested to
increase the efficiency of the employee's bank should timely appraise their employees
and encourage them to work hard because satisfied employees are reason for the
success of the organization. When employees are satisfied with their jobs they become
loyal and committed to the organization. Saleem et al (2013) say that organization
should make strategies and policies that will help employees to have clear
understanding regarding their job tasks and objectives and if employees are not
satisfied with their job they will not pay attention to their work and will not make
customers happy. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The data was collected through
snowball sampling method A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed to private
commercial banks of Karachi out of which 273 were returned back after filling. 86.45%
of the respondents were of non-managerial level whereas 13.55% of respondents were
of middle level managers. 69.96% respondents were male and 30.04% were female. 39
respondents belonged to executive level and 21 belonged to operational level. 12.09%
respondents were of less than 25 years of age, 47.62% respondents were of 25 to 35
year of age, 32.97% of the respondents were of 36 to 45 years of age, while 7.33%
respondents were of 46 to 55 age groups. Primary data were collected through
questionnaires with 5 point likert scale where A = strongly disagree, B = somewhat
disagree, C = neutral, D = somewhat agree, E = strongly agree. While secondary data
was collected from books, magazines, research journals and web sites etc. The data
was analyzed using SPSS 19 version, the test applied was Correlation Pearson's
Product to analyze the relation between work life balance and job satisfaction. 4. DATA
ANALYSIS The following results show the correlation of work life balance on employee
job satisfaction: Correlations The correlation between the long working hours and job
satisfaction is r = - .085. Hence, the first null hypothesis H1 is accepted. This coefficient
shows that there is weak and negative relationship between the employees working
hours and the job satisfaction. So, there is insignificant relation between long working
hours and job satisfaction and it is concluded that as long working hours have weak
relation so it has no impact on the level of employee's job satisfaction in banking sector
but long working hours have negative relation so bank can increase employee's job
satisfaction by reducing working hours of employee's. job satisfaction Pearson
Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Long working hrs Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N job
satisfaction 1 273 -.085 .164 273 Long working hrs -.085 .164 273 1 273 Vol. 7, No. 2,
(Fall 2011) 12 Impact of Work Life Balance on Employee Job Satisfaction in Private
Banking Sector of Karachi Correlations The correlation between the flexible working
conditions and employees job satisfaction is r = .003. Hence, the second null hypothesis
H2 is also accepted. This coefficient shows that there is very weak and positive relation
between the flexible working conditions and job satisfaction among employees. So,
there is insignificant relation between the flexible working conditions and employee's job
satisfaction and it is concluded that as flexible working conditions have very weak
relation so it has no impact on the level of employees' job satisfaction in banking sector.
However banks can increase the level of employee's job satisfaction by increasing
flexible working conditions to employees. Correlations The correlation between the work
pressure and employee's job satisfaction is r = -.033. Hence, the third null hypothesis
H3 is also accepted. This coefficient shows that there is weak and negative relation
between the work pressure and employees job satisfaction. So, there is insignificant
relation between the work pressure and job satisfaction and it is concluded that as work
pressure have negative relation with employee's job satisfaction, banks can reduce
work pressure among employees to increase employees job satisfaction. However work
pressure can be decreased by allocating job duties according to the employees skills.
Correlations job satisfaction Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N Flexible working
conditions Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N job satisfaction 1 273 .003 .956 273
Flexible working conditions .003 .956 273 1 273 job satisfaction Pearson Correlation
Sig. (2-tailed) N work pressure Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N job satisfaction 1
273 -.033 .582 273 work pressure -.033 .582 273 1 273 job satisfaction Pearson
Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N WLB programs Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N job
satisfaction 1 273 -.083 .170 273 WLB programs -.083 .170 273 1 273 13 Journal of
Management and Social Sciences Sobia Shujaat, Farooq-E-Azam Cheema, Faryal
Bhutto The correlation between the work life balance programs and employees job
satisfaction is r = .083. Hence, the fourth null hypothesis H4 is also accepted. This
coefficient shows that there is weak and positive relation between work life balance
programs and employee job satisfaction. So there is insignificant relation between the
work life balance programs and employee job satisfaction. Therefore, it is concluded
that as work life balance programs have positive relation with employee job satisfaction.
However, banks can increase the level of satisfaction of employees by increasing
employees work life balance programs. Correlations The correlation between the
employees intention to leave\change the job and job satisfaction is r = -.021. Hence, the
fifth null hypothesis H5 is also accepted. This coefficient shows that there is weak and
negative relation between change of job and employees job satisfaction. So there is
insignificant relation between the employee's intention to leave job and job satisfaction.
However, employee's job satisfaction can be increased by reducing employee's
intention to change or leave the job by providing certain work life balance facilities. 5.
DISCUSSION According to this research work pressure have negative and weak
relation with employees job satisfaction in private banking sector of Karachi. Previous
researches also support findings of this study. For example, Nadeem and Abbas, (2009)
found in their study that work pressure/stress is negatively correlated with job
satisfaction in both private company LMKR and public company NADRA. Saleem et al.
(2013) found in their study that job stress have very low impact on job satisfaction of
employees in banking sector of Bahawalpur. Ashfaq et al. (2013) also found that work
pressure also has weak relation with employee job performance in banking sector of
Pakistan. Although work pressure has insignificant impact on job satisfaction,
organizations can promote employee job satisfaction by distributing job duties according
to the employee's skills and managers should also clarify their tasks to each employee
so that they can perform their work on time to reduce their work pressure\stress. This
point is also in lines with the findings of this study. This study has also found out that
there is positive relation of work life balance programs on employee job satisfaction in
banking sector of Karachi. It is supported by other studies also. For example, Ueda,
(2012) concluded that work life balance programs have positive and significant effect on
employee job satisfaction of full time and part time employees working in business
organizations of Japan. According to findings of this study these programs help
employees to reduce their work burden and they will effectively perform their job and not
job activities. Accordingly, banking sector can increase employee's job satisfaction by
increasing work life balance programs for employees, which is likely to help them
manage their job and family. Likewise, the study has found that long working hours
have negative and weak relation with employee's job satisfaction in private banking
sector of Karachi. Long working hours do have much impact on employee's job
satisfaction level because employees of Karachi banks have made it a norm to work
long hours and give more priority to their job job satisfaction Pearson Correlation Sig.
(2-tailed) N Change of job Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) N job satisfaction 1 273 -
.021 .735 273 Change of job -.021 .735 273 1 273 Vol. 7, No. 2, (Fall 2011) 14 Impact
of Work Life Balance on Employee Job Satisfaction in Private Banking Sector of Karachi
activities than non job activities in their life. In this way, this study contradicts with the
work of Chahal et al. (2013) that found that 62.5% of employees in Canara bank in delhi
NCR were dissatisfied with their job due to long working hours. However, work of
Purohit, (2013) supports findings of this study that shows that 80% of the IT companies
of Pune region in India practiced flexible time under the head of flexible working
conditions because in IT companies employees work in day and night shifts. 6.
CONCLUSION The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of work life
balance on employee job satisfaction and to identify which factor of work life balance
have more influence on employee job satisfaction in banking sector of Karachi. The
research findings show that work life balance have not much impact on employee job
satisfaction and some factors of work life balance such as employee intention to leave
job, work pressure and long working hours have negative relation with employee job
satisfaction and work life balance programs and flexible working conditions have
positive relation with employee job satisfaction. It is found out that the organizations can
face multiple problems if their workforce satisfaction level is lower. It is essential that HR
departments are responsive to the needs and constantly changing requirements of
workforce and the effect of environmental issues in order to improve programs and
policies. It also saves cost of hiring by improving employees retention. In case of
research conducted in private banking sector of Karachi, the factors which were
supposed to have greater impacts on employee job satisfaction and work life balance
does not turn out to be effective. In this research, the null hypothesis of all the factors of
work life balance with job satisfaction is accepted. There could be many reasons behind
it i.e. the culture of Pakistan where one bread earner leads a family, the high inflation
rate and fewer opportunities of jobs make employees to work on compromised benefits
and salaries. These factors could be the reason as why the results of this study are
different than the rest of world.
7. Recommendations
After going through the report and knowing all about MBL’s unwritten work-life balance
policies, I draw some recommendations:
* MBL practices work-life balance issues and it should be included in their HR policy
manual. For this they can include new separate part named work-life balance policy in
their HR manual. Work-life balance policy should be flexible and clear, so that work-life
balance policies can be changed to meet the needs of employees and the organization
as they change.
* It could be widely communicated, so that employees are aware of what policies are
available.
* It should be easily accessible, so that employees know what is available and feel
they can use the provisions without being penalized.
* MBL can include a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, to investigate if they are
succeeding in their aims and are being applied consistently.
* Finally employees of MBL are satisfied in balancing their work life and family life
but they are not actually known about work-life balance policy. So it’s an important duty
for MBL management to make them understand about their work-life balance policy
because it can create inspirations in their employee’s mind.
8. Conclusion of report
For working people it is important responsibility to have balanced work life and family
life. In today’s situation middle class people need to have job both for the male person
and female person. It’s become tough especially for female person to main both the
family and job. Work-life balanced issues practiced to have sound work-life. Now a day
organizations are introducing these types of issues among their employees. By
introducing this they could acquire most dedicated and inspired employees.
Work-life balance remains an issue that requires considerable attention from society.
The changing nature of the global economy, where organizations often operate on a
24/7 schedule and technological advances have made it possible for an employee to be
connected at all times.
So, employees should have idea about work-life balanced issues for having better
personal life. It will be possible if organizations let their employee know about their
work-life balance policy. Work-life balance policies can assist employees achieving a
balance between their work and personal commitments that is right for them. However,
availability of policies is not necessarily enough for these policies ‘to work’.
The policies need to be supported by the workplace culture, which reflects the beliefs,
values and norms of the whole of the organization from the CEO to staff members.
Other important factors in the success of work life balance policies include proper
communication of commitment to the policies to existing and future employees , raising
awareness of the policies, education of managers about the importance of policies, and
training of managers on ’how to’ implement these policies.
By this report it is clear that MBL never introduced work-life balanced issues to their
employees but indirectly they are practicing it from the beginning. Employees are
satisfied with their organization but it can be apparent to them for their motivation.
“Efficiency is our strength”- this is the MBL’s theme against their human capital. It will be
more effective if work-life balanced issues are directly introduced to their employees.
Work-life balance policies are required to have inspired, dedicated and motivated
employees.

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Impact of Work Life Balance on Employee Job Satisfaction

in Private Banking Sector of Karachi

BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE SURVEY IN THE BANKING SECTOR OF BANGLADESH

SONALI BANK LTD

BANK ASIA LTD

EASTERN BANK LTD

CITY BANK LTD

3.1 Better Work-Life Balance Survey

 improved employee relations

3.2 Aspects of analysis

1. It must have institutionalized work-life balance policies;

2. Its employees must be aware of the existence of these policies; and

3. Employees must be able to fairly and appropriately access these policies.

Based on these three main themes, the survey items examine:

2. Dissemination and awareness of policy information; and

The survey examines four types of policies:

– leave arrangements (e.g. careers leave, purchased leave);

– Flexible work arrangements (e.g. job sharing, flexi-time); and

– Additional work provisions (e.g. counseling services, health programs).

4.1 ASPECT BASIS ANALYSIS OF EACH BANK

Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is not close to up to the level.

BANK ASIA LTD

Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is close to up to the level.

EASTERN BANK LTD

CITY BANK LTD

Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is close to up to the level.

Overall satisfaction of employee/employer is no satisfactory.

4.2 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AMONG BANKS

PARENTING & PREGNANCY POLICIES:

FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS:

ADDITIONAL WORK ARRANGEMENTS:

ASPECTS IBBL CITY BANK SONALI BANK BANK ASIA EBL

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Rubina Easmin1, Tasmia Anwar2, Rabiul Hossain Dovash3, Ridoan Karim4

DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org

1.3 Emotional Intelligence (EI)

DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org

1.4 Job Engagement

1.5 Work Overload

2.6 Organizational Support

2.7 Technological Advancement

DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org

DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org

DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org

DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org

Improving Work Life Balance: A Study On Employees In Private Commercial Banks Of

DOI: 10.9790/487X-2105080112 www.iosrjournals.org

a.Dependent Variable: Work-life Balance

Improving Work Life Balance: A Study On Employees In Private Commercial Banks Of

Mercantile Bank Limited emerged as a new commercial bank to provide efficient

One other specialty of Mercantile Bank Limited is to disburse remittance anywhere

2.1: Origin of Study

Work-life balance is a combination of interactions among different spheres of one’s life,

I have prepared this report based on two purposes:

2.3: Scope of the Study:

2.4.1 Primary sources:

2.4.2 Secondary sources:

* Mercantile Bank Ltd. official web-site

2.5: Limitations of the Study

2.5.3 Difficulty in collecting data:

3.1: Work-Life Balance

The term work-life balance is commonly used as a more comprehensive expression to