Relationship between Work Life Balance and Employee Performance of an Apparel Manufacturing Company in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Organizations are operating in a dynamic and competitive environment. They need to create and sustain a competitive advantage if they want to survive and grow. People provide an organization with a source of competitive advantage. Various studies have concluded that an organization’s human resources can be a significant source of competitive advantage. However, performance can be significantly hampered by work life balance. Therefore, the study analyses the factors affecting work life balance and its impact on work performance of an Apparel Manufacturing Company in Sri Lanka. Work life balance is a universal element and individuals in every walk of life must face it. Furthermore, it contributes to decreased quality of work, high staff turnover, and absenteeism due to health problems such as depression, physical and psychological problems. The main objectives of the study are identifying the major factors having an influence to work life balance, to find out the relationship between factors of work life balance and work performance. Main contributors of work life balance are Job satisfaction, Work family conflicts and Job stress were analyzed in this study. The literature review clearly identifies the above factors with the views of previous academics and based on previous literature the list of hypotheses was developed. Likewise, the mixed methodology has been used for the purpose of this study. The population of the study was machine operators in the selected apparel company and from the identified target population of 148; a sample of 107 was selected under stratified random sampling method. A structured questionnaire was designed, pre-tested and used to collect data from the selected sample whilst secondary data was collected through reliable websites, company reports and journal articles. The research findings revealed that all the components tested as per developed hypothesis showed that there is a relationship between work life balance and employee performance. Therefore, research findings indicate that machine operators of the apparel manufacturing company are facing issues related to work life balance which is affecting their work performance immensely. Thus, it can be demonstrated that the work family conflicts, job satisfaction and work stress have a significant impact on employee performance.