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Research Proposal on Family Friendly Policies and Work-life Balance: An

Explanatory Research on Working Women in the Public Sector Training
Organizations in Bangladesh

Preprint · November 2022

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 Research Proposal
on

Family Friendly Policies and Work-life Balance: An Explanatory Research on

Working Women in the Public Sector Training Organizations in Bangladesh

Dr. Mohammad Rezaul Karim

1. Introduction
Due to the effects of globalisation on gendered division of labour, global market
strategies, structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), use of information technology
and changing work organisation, working conditions are changed in different formats
and there has been an increase of female participation in employment (Benach, et al.,
2002; Gardiner and Martinez Lucio, 2006; Pyle, J. L., 2002). This change becomes
more significant especially for the involvement of female workers at the workplace
with a great responsibility at home for family activities. Like their male counterparts
women are also earners for their families. However, they have to maintain their
family activities such as caring young children, looking after ageing and disabled
people that seems women have to do more than their men peers.
Having realized this fact, family-friendly policies (FFP) have been enacted and
practised in the organization on the basis of recommendations of policy makers,
researchers with an intention to utilize the women capital and play an important role
in uplifting living conditions of women (Dye, 2005). These FFPs serve as the
balancing between work and family live. These issues are considered as the benefit
for working women with or without children who enjoy the advantage to utilise their
time for family responsibilities. On the other hand, organizations can also be
benefitted from better performance.

Working parents, especially full time employees, have to do a lot as they have to
maintain their family lives with home activities and pressure of workplace. And
traditionally women are supposed to be responsible for doing their family activities
(Zaffarullah, 2000). So if they are engaged in the labour market it becomes difficult
for them to maintain their both lives. It becomes complex to balance between work
and life. Though male counterparts are now helping their families, still this percentage
is very insignificant. For the betterment of quality goods and services, good nation,
good working condition, social commitment and social stability, family friendly
policies claim urgency to create work life balance.
Family friendly policies are the policy options prepared and maintained by the
government or organizations that provide the greater opportunities to working people
particularly working women in order to spend more time for their family activities
after doing office work. On the other hand, Work-Life Balance is about balancing
between work and life. It is something making balance between work and the family
responsibilities where the work and working facilities are conducive for the
maintenance of family life (Charles and James, 2005). Work may bring positives
rather than negatives.
According to the preference theory about 60% women are enjoying working life and
performing family activities who are termed as adaptive that proves a significant
number of women needs to make balance between work and family life in the UK
(Hakim, 2000). However, this is about 22.8% in Bangladesh. Issues of family
friendly policies such as leave policy, maternity leave policy, posting policy of couple
in the same or near place, pension police caring facilities at the workplace are
important elements of ‘current social and political thinking on the workplace and
working life’ (Cully, et al., 1999: 144).
As the family friendly policies and work-life balance are the concerns, the issue of
quality of life has become a new aspect for the increase of female participation in
labour force (Adkere, 2006). Bangladesh is waved by the globalisation,
internationalisation, pressure of donor agencies and recent change in the growth of
female employment (Ahsan et al, 2002). During the last thirty years there has been a
significant growth in the labour market that starts 1980s. The growth of female
participation in the public sectors at work increased from 3 per cent in 1980 to 19 per
cent in 2000 (Haque, 2005; Kabeer, 1997). Traditionally women in Bangladesh are
responsible to do household works which works as a social norm. However, with the
increase number of female employees at the workplace it is seen that they have to
maintain their family activities and working life (Ali, 2005; Mahmud, 1997;
Zafarullah, 2000). So there is a close relation between work and family that claims to
maintain balance between them to do both responsibilities smoothly.
This research has been framed to examine the causal relations between the family
friendly policies and working life of women. It will also attempt to find out key
factors associated with work-life balance and working conditions as well as threats
and challenges in order to provide recommendations to the policy makers to be
implemented in future.
2. Research Questions
The research has been designed to achieve some specific objectives for which the
following research questions are set:
ü How does the issue of family friendly policies affect the working life of
women employees?
ü To what extend family friendly policies help working women in creating
balance between work and life?
ü Are PSTO women-friendly in terms of complying government policy options?

3. Objectives of the Research

This research is designed to analyze the family-friendly policies FFPs) in order to
examine the positive and negative consequences on working employees, women in
particular in the public sector training organizations (PSTO) in Bangladesh. The main
objectives of the research are:
3.1. To examine the family friendly policies formulated by the government and
practiced in the PSTO in Bangladesh.
3.2. To determine the relationship between the FFPs and women employed in
different level of the organizations.
3.3. To test the effect of FFPs on working women in order to create balance
between work and life.
3.4. To find out to what extend the PSTO are women-friendly.
3.5. To set policy recommendations for the organizations to be followed for the
betterment of the organizations as well as employees.

4. Problem Statement/Significance of the Study

Traditionally it is a duty of woman to do household activities and caring and rearing
young children and elderly people in Bangladesh (Zafarullah, 2000). Still these are
considered and practised as the feminine tasks. So if a woman enters job market,
naturally she has to perform both the job in home and in office unless very few who
can afford domestic help. After doing 9-5 office work, it is really difficult for them to
maintain family activities. Working women are facing multi-dimensional pressure
from inside and outside the office. Women are now contributing a lot to the economic
activities along with the familial and social responsibilities. However, it becomes very
difficult to maintain spending more time for family activities after working hard at
official activities. There is a conflict between two lives. If the professional life is
emphasized, the personal life hampers. Women who think much on their career, they
have complete required trainings and academic degree within the five years of their
service that brings some negative consequences like late marriage, late children, less
time for spouses or elders. If they want to pay attention at home they have to quit the
job as well. Necessity of spending time with family members leads to adapt skills and
training late, presses not to take better position and subsequently these negative issues
create hindrance for hierarchical development. Hence it shows the necessity of
brining balance between personal and professional life. However, provisions of family
friendly policies make working women more comfortable with the job. FFPs bridge
between work and family activities.

Women and FFPs in Public Sector Training Organizations

Although the rate of male labour force declined during the period of 1984-2000, the
rate of female labour force increased from 8.3% in 1984 to 22.8% in 2000.The rate of
female labour force in the PSTO is almost the same 22% (Rahman, 2005). As training
is generally a full-time job for trainees and have to stay in the campus of the particular
organizations, the need 24/7 supervision and guidance unlike other government
organizations that follow the 9-5, 5 working-day culture. So those who work in the
training organizations have to work or keep busy all time particularly who are directly
associated with the course. The schedule of training courses extends until mid night
i.e. 10pm. This full-time business creates pressure on employees especially who have
to maintain care works in the family. Since working women have to perform both jobs
in home and office, they have match between two jobs. The nature of job in the
training organization creates pressure on them and signifies the need of balancing
between these two. These training organizations are located in such a place where
employees are dissuaded to live outside the campus. This situation brings problem for
those whose husbands work outside. For this conditions sometimes women have to
maintain two families, one is the on-campus and another one in off-campus. Some
female officers are posted in this organization for temporary basis, for 3-5 years
(GoB, 2004). They work on deputation. But they are supposed to be back to their
parent organization at any time. This creates family shift to two different places.
Although PSTOs maintain different working culture, these are run by same
government rules and regulations and family-friendly policies. The question is how
these FFPs can play an important role in this changing working culture. Since these
are issues that bring negative consequences in working life, women in these PSTO are
needed to balance working and family life.

5. Literature Review
The issues of family friendly policies, work-life balance, work culture clearly
interrelated and affect a majority of employees particularly working women of public
sector training organizations who have to perform their family activities along the
with official work.
Training Organizations in Bangladesh
The main role of the public sector training organizations is to build the capacity of
public servants of Bangladesh by providing knowledge, skill according to the need of
the time so that people can be provided efficient and effective services. There are as
many as 28 cadre services and almost every service has its own training organization.
However, Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC) is for all
government employees. Except BPATC all training organizations are maintained by
the government rules and regulations. BPATC is the only autonomous organization
run by the ordinances. However, regarding the family friendly policies, all options are
also applicable for its employees. So there are 29 training institutes established to
provide training to the public servants. These have been established in accordance
with the need of development of huge number of intake every year. Each training
institute has its own set up with a good number of employees. All training institutions
have employed 2275 at different levels (chart-1) with a huge gap at every level (chart-
1 &2) between man and woman.
Chart-­‐1:  Ra+o  all  employees  at  different  levels  

15%   Chart-­‐2:Ra+o  of  Man  and  Women  

25%  
7%  
22%  
53%  

78%  

Managerial  level  man   Non-­‐mangerial  level  man   Man   Women  

Managerial  level  woman   Non-­‐mangerial  level  woman  

Out of 29 public sector training organizations, there are 23 training organizations

where women are employed and the rest do not have any working woman. The ratio
of women working in the different levels of 23 organizations appears that more
women work in the lower level positions (chart-3).

Char-­‐3:  Ra+o  of  Woman  at  different  

levels  

31%  

69%  

Managerial  level   Non-­‐mangerial  level  

Family-friendly policies
Family-friendly policies are defined as the provisions of traditional benefits, such as
health insurance and paid vacation, and may even assert that the most important
elements of family-friendliness are a secure job and adequate pay (Kingston, 1990).
These policies encompass many issues such as maternity leave, paternity leave,
dependent care benefits, medical leave benefits, time-off and flexible work schedule
benefits. Dependent care benefits are those that help employees with their
responsibilities for their children and dependent relatives, like older parents. These
include child care resource and referral, elder care resource and referral, on-site or
near-site child care, vouchers for child care, and dependent care assistance plans.
Other dependent care benefits include consortium child care centres, emergency or
sick child care, long-term care insurance, and respite care.
On the other hand, Flexible working is the arrangements of annualized hours,
compressed hours, flexible time, flexitime, job rotation, job sharing, weekend
working, evening working and opportunities to work at home with the benefit of both
employers and employees with or without children (Cully et al., 1999: 143; Blyton,
1994; Gardiner, 2007; Walsh, 2005). It is an alternative way of traditional 9-5 work
culture and is an important element to secure family friendly workplace. Many
companies are using this policy. Various types of flexible working time arrangements
are there in the organisation. Holt and Thaulow (1996:83-85) identify informal
flexibility besides formal flexibility in their research that comprises the unwritten
rules or working culture which is allowable and these arrangements are made for the
personal needs of parents and these informal rules exist alongside the formal rules
and this informal flexibility is more widespread than formal flexibility. The research
evidence identified that flexible working brings benefit for potential employees and
employers because it help manage non-work demands, such as child care
responsibilities, follow non-work interests, such as sport and hobbies, engage with the
community, for example through volunteering, carry out their work in ways which
suit their personal work style and achieve a better work-life balance. However,
management fears of adaptation and practice for some reasons such as lower hourly
rates, less predictable or anti-social hours, exclusion from training, promotional
opportunities, support from the colleagues, supervisor and service seekers (Green
paper 2012) However, mainstreaming flexible work helps minimize negative
responses from colleague and reduce resentment since these options are available for
all.
In Bangladesh, family friendly policies comprise of those policies from which
working employee, women in particular get the benefit to utilize time for their family
activities. These are formulated by the policy makers in order to practice in
government organisations. Typically these policies include the various options of
getting leave like maternity leave, medical leave, getting the advantage of being
posted in the same place of spouse or nearer or near to house, enjoying the pension
scheme, utilizing the flexible working. Here, flexible working is the combination of
various outcome of policy decisions and practiced both formally and informally,
especially in training organizations. This includes time-off, shifting job (job rotation),
weekend working, and evening working.

Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance (WLB) is about balancing paid and unpaid care work. It is
something which concerns men and women where men value flexibility in paid works
with intension to spend more time with their family members (Charles and James,
2005:170). The work performed by the employees helps maintain their family life
making their arrangements for their family responsibilities like child caring, working
at home, taking time off etc. This is very much encouraging for the female workers
with children who can arrange their job timings or sharing jobs, even can take career
breaks. This also includes parental leave, working home or from home that help their
families (Dex and Smith, 2002:4). Clark, 2001 in Walsh (2005:154) defines ‘work-
family balance as satisfaction and good functioning at work and a home with a
minimum role of conflict but contends that such a synergistic state is difficult to attain
, mainly because the simultaneous combination of work and home is likely to entail
some degree of role conflict.’ WLB is one kind of balancing between job and family
life to make everything done smoothly for greater benefit.
There are very few researches conducted so far in Bangladesh. Evidence suggests that
there is a low level of work-life balance for the working women due to their family
responsibilities, caring elders, long working hour, posting in the rural areas, lack of
day care centres (Zafarullah, 2000).
Working culture
There are several changes that organisations have adapted with. These changes have
shaped the nature and types of work. Demand from the customers end and
organisational necessity have brought attention to exercise various types of flexible
arrangements, shifting duties, weekend working etc. Some emergency services like
medical, security are needed to provide 24/7. Flexible working hours is scheduled for
the benefit of all. However, everyone has family and want enjoy the flexible time. So
time is a factor to reschedule for the company. This is especially difficult in the 24/7
office culture.
Since Bangladesh is also waved by the globalization and organisations are
established for providing services to the citizen, working culture has also got changes
with the various dimension like time-off, home working, shifting etc. particularly in
training organizations (Farzana, 2006).

Conceptual Framework and Key Variables

It reveals in the literature that working culture is shaped by the policies the
organisations adapt. There are some policy options that affect on working women to
choose and enjoy the benefits.
Maternity policy is a provision for married women to take 6 months leave with full
payment. This encourages them to continue the jobs (Gob, 2006). However this
opportunity can be enjoyed twice only in the whole period of service life. This policy
is equal and applicable to all types of employees. It’s not a matter whether she is a
permanent or temporary employee. So the organization cannot discriminate anybody
in providing this opportunity. It is also one of the indicators for the entitlement of
enjoying the benefit whether any woman was denied during their two years of service.
Medical leave is only granted on medical ground from a period of 4 months to
maximum 2 years. This serves as the confidence for women so that they can utilize
this for themselves and for their family members. There are 6 six types of medical
leave provisions in this category which are fully unavailable in private organisations.
It has positive effect on working women. The posting policy has been incorporated a
new options of spouses particularly women to be posted in the same place her
husband works or near to his working place or near to her house. This is treated as one
of the positive policy options for working women allowing them for greater work-life
balance.
The pension is one the important issues for maintaining social security. It has
tremendous effect on the retention of employment as well sustainable organizational
growth (Kotlikoff and Wise, 1989). Requirement of minimum years of service for
getting full advantage from this policy varies from public to private organizations,
country to country across the world. It is a system of getting financial benefit after a
certain period job s/he serves to the government. There are many types of pension
benefits including family pensions. Pension is the today’s money of employee saved
and incremented by the government and to be paid in future for the secured life of
employees. Bangladesh government has this benefit scheme for employees including
women where the condition is to serve at least 25 years or can be availed at the age of
retirement at 59. It boasts up them and creates confidence level that they will be able
to survive in future. In Bangladesh government service is still a widely expected job
and accepted in society due to its status and most importantly the pension system.
There are four types of pension such as matured pension, family pension, pension due
to incapability ( happens due to medically unfit), self-retirement. These options can be
enjoyed according to the need and choice of employees. Although pension creates
balance for working women, the benefits come after the service. It does not bring
benefit to present working employees.
The childcare policy in Bangladesh is newly added policy options and incorporated
due to the outcome of foreign funded projects. After introducing this option by the
MATT2 (Managing at the top 2), all most every ministry and many government
organisations are legally bound to establish childcare centre for the working women’s
young children between 6 months to 3 years of age. This encourages women to stay
longer hour and full devotion in jobs.
Flexible working arrangement is another family friendly policy options enjoyed by
employee and can utilize time according to the need of family responsibilities.

Government initiatives, organizational practices and working women

Maintaining work-life balance is affected by adaptions and practices of family
friendly policies by the organizations. It is also affected by the government rules and
acts. If the country has fundamental issue of increasing women employment in order
to mainstream them and create equity in employments, there must be some rules and
these rules must be maintained by every organization. In Bangladesh, There is a 30
per cent quota for women in employment (GoB, 1997; BPSC, 2011). So every
organisation is bound to comply with. This is also the case for following acts, rules,
ordinances including FFPs. If organization provides FFPs, the women employment
besides enactment of FFPs by the government, organisational practices in true sense is
also having great impact on working women. The will and wish of top level
managements, organisational culture, women-friendly working environment are
simultaneously required. The close relation can be captured in a diagram:

Figure-1: Relation among the government initiatives, organizational practices and

working women & organizational output
 Government  initiatives  
-­‐Constitutional  obligation  
-­‐Policy  options  
-­‐acts,  rules,  ordinances  
 

Organizational  Practices  
-­‐FFP  options  as  in  organizations  
-­‐Practice  of  policies  
-­‐Working  culture  

Working  w omen   Organizational  Output  

-­‐working  life   -­‐  Quality  product  
-­‐family  life   -­‐organizational  service  

Relation between dependant and independent variables:

The policy options are the independent variables and working women are the
dependant variable. The degree of availability and unavailability creates positive or
negative impact on working women. The independent variables are comprised on
maternity policy, medial leave policy, posting policy of spouses in the same or nearer
place, pension and childcare policy. The conceptual framework is drawn below as the
causal relationship:

Figure-2: Conceptual framework and relation between independent and

dependent variable

Independent  Variable   Dependent   Impact  

Variable  

Maternity  Policy  

Medical  leave  Policy  and  

health  care  benefits  
Work-­‐  
Posting  Policy   Working   Life  
Women   Balance  

Pension  Policy  

Childcare  Policy  

Flexible  working    
 Variables and Indicators
Each and every variable has different dimensions and indicators by which the degree
of benefits depends on the practices of these issues in the organizations. The detailed
list of indicators by which variables can be analyzed and later examined is tabled
here:

Table-1: Variables and indicators

Sl No. Variable Indicators
1. Working Ø Permanent and temporary employees
women Ø Work on deputation
Ø Jobs are regulated by organization and government rules
Ø Entitled to enjoy all organizational benefits
Ø Part of managerial or non-managerial activities
2. Work-life • Enjoy all FFP benefits according to need
balance • Support from organizations
• Support from supervisors, colleagues
• Getting enough time after work
• Getting leave from the organization at any time, particularly
during the emergency
• Getting financial support from the organization for family
members
3. Maternity ü Practice of granting leave for all pregnant women
policy ü Benefits for two times, 6 months each time
ü Payment of salary during the leave period
ü Getting leave according to the necessity of employee
4. Medical policy - Options in the organizational policy
And healthcare - Grounds for medical leave such as, sickness of oneself, family
benefits members
- Frequency of sanctioning
- Past record of the organization
- Salary payment issues
- Maximum duration in options and to be provided
- Free Medicare service for employees, family members
- Free life insurance
5. Posting policy v Spouses are working people
v Working in the same organization
v Posted near to husband’s working place
v Posted near to family members
6. Childcare Ø Availability of day care centre
policy Ø Sufficient number of experienced carer givers
Ø Sufficient facilities such as toys for children
Ø Minimum rate of charges
Ø Enough space for children, ratio between space and children
Ø Comfortable space for lactating babies
 Ø Emergency medicare services for children
7. Flexible ü Availability of arrangements
working ü Frequency of enjoying these by the women employees
ü Linked with full payment or partial payment
ü Security at night
ü Equitable distribution of jobs in shifting
8. Pension policy Ø Family pension
Ø Self-retirement options and benefits
Ø Pension options for both temporary and permanent employees
Ø Pension cased disposed of within 30 days

Operational definition of concepts used:

Family friendly policies: For the research to be conducted, FFPs are the provisions of
maternity leave, medical leave, posting policy of couple in the same place or near,
childcare policy.
Work-life balance (WLB): WLB is such kind balancing between work and family
where they can utilize the family friendly policy options according to their needs of
family purposes. This is opportunity for women employee to be enjoyed by their
choices not by the choices of management.
Working women: Women who work in public sector training institutions not less
than two years and are engaged in permanent jobs. Those women who work as
apprentice, temporary basis (master rule), have not completed compulsory two years
of job experience and necessary training are not included.
Family friendly policies:
Maternity policy: It means whether a woman enjoys the benefit of fully 6 month-
leave with full payment even this benefits is given by the organization to every
employee.
Medical policy: It is such a policy to be provided to the employee on demand and
need. It is a leave with full pay or half-average pay and varies upto 4 months and 12
months in special case such as severe illness.
Posting policy: This policy is the placement of her or her husband to the same place
they are work if it is the same organization or near to her husband or her husband to
her nearer place.
Pension policy: This is opportunity to get the benefit after retirement as the age of 59
years or at least 25 years of service. It also includes enjoying the self-retirement after
25 years of service.
Childcare policy: This is the policy where organization provides facility of caring
children of below the age of 3 years of working women during the day time until the
office hour finishes at 5 pm.
Flexible working: This is an opportunity of choosing and utilizing the shift work,
weekend working, evening work.
Work-life conflict: It means the spending less time for family and caring activities
due to the longer hour of office work. It is the opposite of WLB.

Hypotheses

H1 There is a positive relationship between the entitlements of family-friendly

policies and the work-life balance.
H2 The more family-friendly policies the organisations practice, the more work-
life balance the employees get
H3 There is a strong relationship between the lower level support of WLB policies
and the higher level WL conflict
H4 The managerial level employees enjoy more work-life balanced life than the
employees at non-managerial level
6. Research Design
According to the purpose of the research this is an explanatory research in nature. It is
designed to examine why family-friendly policies adapted and practiced by the
organizations helps creating balance between work and life of working people,
women in particular. It will also explain why the organization practices these policies
and the causal relationship between these issues and working women. This research is
a field research since it will be conducted in the field and data will be collected
mainly from the respondents on the basis of questionnaire. There will be checking the
issues of work-life balance and family-friendly policies found in the literature and
verified these by the collected empirical data.

6.1. Population and Sampling Frame

 Population is the entire collection of people, animal, plants or things from which data
will be collected. The study has been designed to know the conditions and views of
working women on the family-friendly policies. The research will be conducted in
public sector training organizations in Bangladesh in order to find out key issues of
work-life balance and effects of family friendly policies on working women. So the
population size comprises of all working women of these organizations. The elements
of this population are women at managerial or non-managerial level either permanent
or temporary, women undergone professional training, and women engaged on daily
basis or contractual. However, the study population is different than the population
which is the aggregation of elements from which the sample is selected (Babbie,
2007). Here the study population is 502 that includes all women excluding those who
have not completed their two years of service, temporary workers, daily basis staff.
This 502 is the aggregate number of all women working at managerial level or at non-
managerial level in 23 public training institutes of government. Relation among the
population, study population and sampling is shown below using the diagram:

Figure-3: Relation among population, study population and sampling

Population   Study  Population  

  Population   -­‐women  officers  
-­‐women  officers   -­‐women  staff  
Study  
-­‐women  staff   Population   -­‐permanent  women  employee  
-­‐permanent  women  employee   -­‐  No  temporary  women  
-­‐temporary  women   Samp -­‐no  contractual    employees  
-­‐contracted  employees  
ling   -­‐women  with  necessary  trainings  
-­‐women  with  or  without  
necessary  trainings   Sampling  
-­‐Representative  number  drawn  
from  the  study  population  

Sampling Frame:
Sampling frame is a list or quasi list of the all members of population from which a
probability sample is selected (Babbie, 2007). In order to make representativeness in
the sample, it is essential to include all possible units of population. In complying
with the issue of sampling frame, all working women irrespective of training
organizations, level of employees. As the population size is 502, the sample size will
be 217 (http://research-advisors.com/tools/SampleSize.htm). However, the sample
size varies from the calculated value that found using following the formula.
 ! where, n= sample size
 𝑛 = !!!(!)!
N=Population=502

!"#
e=error=5%
𝑛 = !!!"#(.!")!

n= 223

The calculated value is bigger than the given value in the sampling table. In order to
avoid confusion and increase the respondents, calculated value 223 has been taken as
the sample size. Here the confidence level is 95%.

However, this sampling frame consists of different homogenous groups. Each group
requires some elements of same types in nature; stratified sampling is the best suited
system. The sample size will not include any women who work as apprentice or
temporary basis and do not have at least two years of experience with necessary
trainings. Stratified sampling system has been used in this study. In order to make
representativeness, sample size has been prepared on the basis of two strata such as:
1) Employees at managerial level: This stratum includes all women employees
working in the line area of the organization with the authority of decision
making power and the responsibility of managerial jobs. Hierarchically their
position starts from the mid-level to the topmost positions. In Bangladesh they
are called officers. There are as many as 156 women working in this category
in different organizations. According to the calculated value, the size will be
112.
2) Employees at non-managerial level: This stratum is comprised of all women
employees working in the staff area of the organization with the responsibility
of non-managerial jobs without any authority of decision making power. They
are assigned to help the line managers and responsible to provide technical
support. Hierarchically their position starts from the mid-level to below. In
Bangladesh they are called support staff. The organization is manned for large
number of staff. There are as many as 346 women working in this category in
different organizations. According to the calculated value, the size will be 186.
 Here, it is seen that the sample size on the basis drawn directly from population
using the sampling table is 223 out of 502 whereas it accounts to 298=(112+186)
on the basis of strata. However, in order to make it representative required number
of sampling has been calculated proportionate to population. So, the exact number
of sample size is thereby calculated on ratio basis that is shown below:

Table-2: Population and sampling

Stratum No. of Percent of Calculated As a % of Percent of Required
Employee total sample sample proportionate sampling
population (stratum (stratum sampling Number
basis) basis)
Managerial 112
156 31 112 38 31
Employees
Non- 249
managerial 346 69 186 62 69
Employees
Total 502 100 298 100 100 361

However, due to increase the reliability and less number of respondents in the
managerial level stratum, total 156 respondents have been included in the sample size.
So the sample will be 156+249=405. The sample size has been shown in the picture
below:
Figure-4: Population and Sampling of the research in Public Service Training
Organizations (PSTO)

All  working  women  in  PSTO  (502)  

Population  
(502)  
  Sampling  Size  =405  
Sample  
size  
Stratum-­‐1  (Women  at  managerial  level)=156  
Stratum-­‐2  (Women  at  non-­‐managerial  level)  =249  
 

The ratio of sample size is 156 and 249 for stratum-1 and stratum-2 respectively. List
of population will be prepared on the basis of two strata i.e. managerial and non-
managerial employees. This will be collected from soft copies of each training
organizations. Then from each stratum respondents will be selected on random basis
using the random table number.
 6.2. Unit of Analysis and Measurement
The research is designed to know the views of working women how their working life
is affected due to the adaption and practices of family friendly policies by the
organizations. The unit of analysis of this study is working women employed in the
public sector training organizations.

The variables having attributes of characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutual

exclusiveness are called nominal measures such as age, gender, marital status and
variables with the attributes that can be ranked logically are treated as ordinal
measures such as social class, satisfaction (Babbie, 2011; Curtis & Curtis, 2011).
Some other variables having the attributes of both criteria interval measures are used.
The research to be conducted claims nominal, ordinal and interval measures to collect
data through the questionnaire. This study will use the five point Likert scale (points-
agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat agree, disagree) for
scale construction.

6.3. Data Collection Methods

Literature suggests that there are two kinds of collecting data on policy analysis such
as document research and field research (Weimer and Vining (1999). First one
includes searching theories and empirical evidence from published journals, articles,
periodicals, newspapers, unpublished documents, official documents, research papers,
annual reports, training calendars, monthly reports etc. And the field research includes
collecting data from the field by interviewing people on some structured or semi-
questions or filling up questionnaires. These are raw data which are generally
furnished by using statistical tools and made usable for interpretation. Since
secondary data are documented and easy to collect, this method has been used in this
paper. I will use various documents related to the topic mainly published through
websites of different government organizations. Besides these, I will also use three
other sources of documentation as suggested by Weimer and Vining (1999) which are
ii) journal articles, books and dissertations; iii) publications and reports of interest
groups, consultants and think tanks; and iv) the popular press.
For the development of the conceptual framework and statement of the problem of the
research, there has been a thorough literature review on the basis of concepts theories
and the need of the research. Based on the literature a structured questionnaire will be
prepared and data will be collected from the required respondents of total 298
working women. This questionnaire, after preparing, will be pretested to make the
questionnaire more workable. After the pretest, as many as it takes, modified
questionnaire will be prepared and used for collecting data from the respondents.
Since it is a huge number of respondents, some university students will be appointed
to collect these questionnaires. Since each and every respondents are more or less
known to me, I will send them a formal letter requesting to help my data collectors
and hand it in them within the possible minimum time. Those I am not acquainted
with will talk over phone.

6.4. Analysis of Data

This research is a quantitative research and data will be analyzed in using the
quantitative methods that requires several stages. After collecting data from the
respondents at field level, all raw data will be inserted into data sheet of SPSS with
the help of data entry operators. These data will be verified and cross-checked. At this
stage firstly, face validity will be maintained by checking the questionnaires filled in
by respondents. This study will use statistical analysis with the help of SPSS 18
(Field, 2009; Pallant, 2007). This tool will provide me various issues of analysis by
putting outputs on the basis of inputs i.e. raw data. In the quantitative study it is
necessary to get the idea of descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and various
tests. The SPSS is the best suitable one for this purpose. Basically I will analyze the
relationship between independent and dependent variables using the multiple
regression models in order to test the hypotheses. By using the regression model, this
research will test the bivariate relation i.e. the relationship between the five
independent variables and one dependent variable.

6.5. Schedule
This research has several components which will be done according to the following
schedule.
Table-3: Tentative work schedule
Tasks to be done Feb/13- April/13- May/13- Jul/13- Sep/13- Nov/13-
Mar/13 May/13 Jun/13 Aug/13 Oct/13 Dec/13
Proposal & Literature Review ,
Preparing sampling, questionnaire
Data
Collection
Data Processing
& Tabulation
Data
Analysis
Draft Report
Writing
Final Report Writing & Presentation
& Final Report Submission

6.6. Budget of the Research

This research poses as the big one in terms of respondents, vast area of data collection
field. It will be conducted in different organizations in different parts of Bangladesh.
It will require appointing some data collectors, data entry operators and so on. So
there are some components for which I will need to spend money. National Institute
of Development Administration (NIDA) will provide the required money. The
detailed item-wise costs have been given as the total budget for conducting the
research:
Table-4: Budget for completing the research
The tentative budget is prepared for the completion of the research in stipulated time.
Sl. Number Item No. of Item Cost (in Baht) Total Cost
needed per item (in Baht)
1. Airfare to and from BKK 1 17000 17000
2. Photocopy of Questionnaire 25 sets 5 125
(Pretest)
3. Photocopy of Questionnaire 325 sets 5 1625
(Pretest)
4. Pen 2 dozen 50 100
5. Paper 2 reams 300 600
6. Printer 1 4000 4000
7. Toner for printing 1 1200 12000
8. Marker pen 6 40 240
9. Transportation for researcher - - 4000
10. Honorarium of data collectors 10 persons 3000 30000
11. Honorarium of data entry operator 1 person 5000 5000
Total (Seventy four thousand six hundred and ninety only) 74690

6.7. Limitations of the study

This study is limited to the working women in the public sector training organization
who work in permanent basis and have worked at least years. The impact of family
friendly policies was examined from the viewpoints of women employee. Only the
demand side issues have been taken into consideration. So this study has limitation of
verification by the supply side organizations and male counterparts. If any
organization with these policy options and practices but having no women employed
has not been considered.
After conducting the research and writing the paper, I will provide detail limitations.
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