An Empirical Investigation of Work Life Balance and Satisfaction among the University Academicians

Abstract

University academicians are playing a significant role in nation building and striving hard to impart quality education to students and also instill moral and ethical values in them. The current study aims to determine the relationship between work-life balance (WLB) and satisfaction among academicians. For the study purpose, 154 academicians from different universities with varied designations were selected randomly from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Pareek et al. (2011) constructed and validated a scale to gather responses from respondents with the aim of understanding WLB in relation to satisfaction. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to interpret the results to make the study more authentic and valuable. The study's findings revealed that (i) all facets of WLB have positive relationships with one another, resulting in workplace satisfaction; (ii) the result also reflects that male faculty members have a lot of pressure and responsibility in the universities than the female faculty members which reflect that male are more prone to dissatisfaction in comparison to the dfemale faculty members (iii) the factor personal needs is having the high degree of correlation followed by the social needs. Results indicate that WLB plays a crucial role to provide satisfaction and surely ignite new information in the contemporary knowledge of work life balance among the Saudi Arabian Universities.

1. Introduction

Academicians face a lot of daily struggle to find and maintain a WLB and satisfaction because they have to guide the youth of the country who are going to build the nation in future. Teachers join the profession not only for getting reputation in the society and handsome salary but they are responsible for improving people’s lives, henceforth they often realize that there are barriers in their way, and it may feel difficult to live up to the expectations of everyone in the community (Russo et al. 2015; Rapoport et al. 2002). It will help teachers develop a long, contended and balanced career by exploring the perfect balance between success in career and WLB. As teachers have a very important role to contribute in the nation building, it is hard to separate the work and the personal life. WLB is something, which is often talked about and sometimes hard to achieve in the education sector (Wong & Ko, 2009). According to the study by Teacher Wellbeing Index surveys (Grappling with WLB, n.d) 74 percent of teaching workers claim that the failure to turn off from work is the biggest factor which results in work-life relationship imbalance. In the context of student learning, WLB is a key factor in improving teacher performance and satisfaction. It is observed that the well-being of the teachers results in a good quality of WLB and even improved student performance (Punia & Kamboj, 2013). The academic staff are the facilitators of skills and knowledge in management education through immersive learning strategies. The role of teaching practitioners, their roles and teaching practices at management institutions have been affected by rapidly evolving educational systems in the new era (Kim, 2019 & Ha, 2020) and therefore, they can experience stress from common work and non-work stressors in their everyday lives, eventually reducing their physiological and psychological well-being which leads to minimize the level of satisfaction. It is a fact that academics have to do numerous other activities in addition to teaching, such as performing administrative work, joining staff meetings, counseling students, directing project activities, internship, summer student selection, administering evaluations, assessing and undergoing faculty development schemes and so on. Therefore, the teaching practitioners are constantly faced with a dilemma of tension between the role of work and an equally challenging role at home in current times.

The WLB demonstrates the dynamic of one’s life between work and personal responsibilities, and the way they affect each other. High-quality WLB is an important element in the efficacy and happiness of teachers, which in turn facilitates pupil learning which provides satisfaction. By allowing them more control over their daily lives and a deeper sense of ownership, it will help attract and retain more motivated students. The nature of work-life management techniques are indispensable for any class of workers in today’s context. This is necessary to optimize performance, retention and enhancing employee loyalty, which can contribute to improved employee participation and satisfaction (Fisher, 2002; Jadhav et al. 2017 & Allen et al. 2000). WLB is indeed a self-determined well-being position that an individual can attain or can set as a goal that helps him to efficiently handle various work roles, at home and in the society. It encourages wellbeing in terms of physical and mental happiness of their family members, and does so without depression, tension or any unwanted support. The idea of WLB is made up of three terms: work, life, and balance. It typically entails setting appropriate goals between work (career and passion) and life (health, recreation, enjoyment, family, and spiritual growth) while minimizing work tension which results in happiness and successful functioning at work and at home (Punia and Kamboj, 2013). WLB refers to an individual’s ability to balance the temporal, emotional, and interpersonal demands of work and family responsibilities at the same time (Hill et al. 2001; Allam, 2017 & Greenhaus & Powell, 2003). WLB is a subject matter of effectiveness for the organization so that it helps in successfully accomplishing the organization’s goals in an effective manner; an individual should balance both in his personal and professional life (Noon and Blyton, 2007; Allam, 2019).

2. Literature Review

To find out more about previous studies and outcomes, a thorough review of literature is performed in this study, there appears to be a connection between WLB and different variables considered. Stress, workload, burnout, engagement, commitment, task conflict, staff turnover, motivation, attrition, job satisfaction, willingness to leave, are indirectly or directly related to the balancing of personal and professional work life (Allam, 2017; Tavassoli & Sune, 2018; Al Kahtani & Allam, 2013) Recently, Allam and Malik (2020) showed those faculties play a key role in providing the satisfaction among students. However, only few studies have assessed the capacity of academics to combine job and personal life and conquer tensions between job and life (Bell et al. 2012; Allam, 2019 & Shan et al. 2018). Teaching is a stressful work that can have a negative effect on the health of teachers (Briner & Drewberry, 2007; Ali & Allam, 2016 & Turner & Braine, 2016). Recognition and supporting teachers’ well-being in universities, as well as empowering teachers to support themselves, is crucial for a safe, long- term learning environment.

Arif and Farooqi (2014) examined as how WLB influenced work satisfaction and organizational engagement among university teachers in Gujrat. They analyzed the relationship between WLB and job satisfaction. Adebayo (2016) examined the WLB of University of Lagos ‘ academic staff and concluded that the academic staff had poor WLB and uncertainty about their position in their job and the university did not have a good policy to address the WLB problems. Abdulraheem (2014) identified that the WLB is highly influenced by employee performance and productivity. Their efficiency is not up to the mark because they have to work on weekends and long working hours, their workload is compounded by additional responsibilities. Businesses often want more agile, efficient workers who can adapt to the business environment. Job demand, lengthy working hours, night shifts, inadequate vacations, pressure due to increasing throat cut competition etc. to finish the tasks on time, causes an imbalance in work-life (Susi and Jawaharrani, 2011). Three central elements of teacher well-being (Humes, 2011) have been identified as mental and emotional, physical and social well-being. The association between family-friendly structures and increased organizational efficiency was analyzed by (Dex & Smith, 2002). Absolutely, those who have a healthy life and career appear to be more efficient at their jobs. One of the issues is balancing personal and family life, which has a greater impact on workers’ lives and careers (Scholarios & Marks, 2004).

Omar et al. (2015) reported that the main factor which create issues with WLB role conflict was workload. Padmasiri and Mahalekamge (2016) conducted research of academic staff at the University of Sri Lanka to see how demographic factors influence WLB. The study found that there is a substantial correlation between marital status, gender and WLB. Furthermore, they reported that married adults, relative to their peers, had a lower degree of WLB. Wong et al. (2017) found a good relationship between WLB with support from co-workers and managers and flexible working conditions for employees in the service sector and given the managers with some input to develop some mechanisms to make the WLB more viable in the workplace to increase employee productivity. It is suggested that the institutional capacities of universities are ‘eroded’ by rising stressors in academia (Perry et al. 1997). Punia and Khosla (2009) suggested that teamwork approach is used in most areas of organizational position tension in the education sector, which means that people prefer to stay free of conflict and stress in this sector because it is linked to teacher achievement both into and out of workplace.

Fatima and Sahibzada (2012) investigated the impact of the work and life imbalance of females and males univer- sity teachers and concluded that the WLB is positively correlated among partner support, colleague support and job opportunities, while excessive feedback at work is inversely related with the quality of work life. Nadeem and Abbas (2009) concluded the relationship between work life and job satisfaction indicates that work overload has little effect on job satisfaction and that there is a positive relationship between job satisfaction and work support. Mcnall et al. (2010) analyzed association between flexible employment conditions and workplace satisfaction. By regression analysis, information was interpreted. The findings showed that the more flexible the employment conditions, the more satisfied workers were with their employers. Rani et al. (2011) investigated the association between the WLB and employee engagement, finding that workplace satisfaction is positively related to work-life balance and negatively related to work enjoyment, subordinate-supervisor relation- ships, and work habits. Allam and Shaik (2020) conducted a study on the quality of work life, stressing that WLB and happiness are the sources of quality of life among Saudi Arabian faculty members. Lee et al. (2019) suggested that it is essential for employees to work in a more effective manner by increasing the level of teamwork among team members working together, as well as the role of the leaders in the organization who lead the teams in achieving work life balance.

2.1. Research Problem

The majority of research in the field of work-life balance has focused on business organizations. According to the reviewed literature, few researchers focused on WLB and academic satisfaction in public universities, especially in Saudi Arabia.

2.2. Research Significance

Both Academicians and universities have a lot to worry for WLB and satisfaction with it in the current situation as the work pressure is increasing in day to day work. As better WLB, increase the performance of the employees, which lead to the attainment of organizational objectives with high impact on the performance and satisfaction. As mentioned by various researchers and seconded by HR professionals that adequate WLB leads to increase the productivity, loyalty, satisfaction, involvement, commitment and lower absenteeism, turnover and dissatisfaction. In addition, it is imperative to understand that education is a very important area; if the academic staff work efficiently, the student’s future is going to be bright which will lead to holistic development of the nation.

2.3. Objectives of the Study

The investigation’s objectives have been established based on an analysis of literature and in light of the context of WLB and satisfaction. It is observed that several studies have been carried out on many issues related to organizational growth and behavior problems, such as work attitude, HRM activities, HR technologies, job efficiency, stress control, etc to increase the competitiveness of organizations. However, the current researchers believe that only a few studies on “WLB with satisfaction” in the scope of university academicians are available. Henceforth, the researchers decided and provided a research on “WLB” and satisfaction among university academic employees and proposed the following objectives:

.  To determine the level of work-life balance among academics.

.  To understand the role of personal needs among university academics as well as how they contribute to other areas of WLB.

.  To evaluate the indicator of personal needs among employees regarding the facets of WLB amongst university academicians.

.  To assess the influence of social status on various facets of WLB among academicians.

.  To analyze the degree of satisfaction among the university academicians with the help of WLB.

2.4. Hypotheses

Following the researcher’s objectives and an examination of the academic journals published, the following null hypothesis prepared to evaluate the results.

H1: There is no difference between male and female university academicians on the different facets of WLB.

H2: On various facets of WLB, there is no difference between married and unmarried university academicians.

H3: In university academicians, there is no significant relationship between the various aspects of WLB.

H4: There is no indicator of teamwork among the elements of WLB for university academicians.

3. Research Methodology

3.1. Sample

The research involved 154 academicians from various universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and random method was employed.

3.2. Measures Tools and Scale for Study

In order to obtain information from the academicians following steps and resources were taken into account. The research instrument was used to collect the information established, standardized and conceptualized by Pareek et al. (2011) from the respondents. The questionnaire contained 36 items, each of which required respondents to rank a response indicator of “if it is not true whether it is definitely true” on a weighted scale of 1–5 on a five-point rating scale. This scale comprises of six variables, including “personal needs, team work, time management, social needs, work and compensation and benefits, ” and six elements in each variable are available with each dimension. The scale’s reliability and validity were also examined and determined in accordance with the industry standards. In addition, researchers drawn the satisfaction level based on WLB information from the respondents.

3.3. Demographic Data

A separate template was used to collect data on the respondents’ demographic profile, such as gender, age, educational qualifications, relationship status, and experience. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data in order to produce meaningful results in accordance with the investigation’s requirements.

4. Results and Discussion

Table 1 shows the gender of the academicians in the university, the numbers of male respondents are 90 (58.4%) and female respondents are 64 (41.6%). The male respondents are in majority and female respondents are in minority. Table 1 exhibits frequency and percent of academicians age group in the university, the majority 86 (55.8%) of academicians are in the age group of 20–35 combined male and female followed by the next age group 35–50, 59 (38.3%) and the lowest number of respondents are in the age group 50–65 i.e. 9 (5.8%). Table 1 showed the educational qualification of the respondents, 137 (89%) of the respondents are PhD and only 17 (11%) are postgraduates.

Table 1: Showing Frequency and Percent of Faculty Members in Terms of Gender

Table 1 exhibits frequency and percent of academician’s designation 136 (88.3%) are assistant professors, 6 (3.9%) are associate professors, lecturers and professors respectively. This result of the data shows that majority of respondents are Assistant Professors. Table 1 also showed the marital status of respondents, majority of respondents are married 110 (71.4), singles number 42 (27.3%), and divorced are only 2 (1.3%). Table 1 exhibits the year of experience of the respondents, the majority of faculty have the experience between 1–5 years 67 (43.5%), the second highest is between 5–10 years 42 (27.3%) and 10–15 and 15 above are 27 (17.5%) and 18 (11.7%) respectively (See Table 2).

Table 2: Showing Correlations Matrix of WLB and Its Factors, Mean and, Std. Deviation

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Table 2 demonstrate the descriptive statistics mean, standard deviation (S.D.) and Pearson moment correlation between the domains of satisfaction related with WLB of academicians working various universities of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The result of the study reveals that out of six domains of satisfaction in WLB, when the level of significance was one percent, all facets had relationships and significant relationships with one another. Therefore, the assumed hypothesis (H03) was statistically rejected. However, the other factors were having the high degree of correlation with each other. The personal needs are having the high degree of correlation 0.751 followed by the social needs 0.686 tested at significant level of 0.01.

Table 3 shows that mean scores of male and female faculty members working in kingdom universities on various WLB satisfaction domains such as social needs, time management, compensation & benefits, personal needs, team work, and work were 116.89 and 118.48, respectively. The t-value found between male and female was (0.623, P > 0.01), and it is important to note that overall satisfaction with Work-Life Balance facets was not statistically significant at any stage, so the proposed null hypothesis (H01) was accepted. The overall mean score is highest for the female faculty members as compared to the male faculty members in the university. The result also reflects that male faculty members have lot of pressure and responsibility in the universities than the female faculty members (See Table 4).

Table 3: Mean, SD and t-Value of Gender on WLB

Table 4 shows the mean ratings of married and single faculty members employed in kingdom universities on different satisfaction dimensions of WLB such as social needs, compensation & benefits, time management, team work, personal needs, and work is 113.83 and 127.10, respectively. The t-value found between married and single was (0.403, P > 0.01). It’s important to note that overall satisfaction with work-life balance facets was not statistically relevant at any stage, so the null hypothesis (H02) was accepted. It is observed that overall mean score is highest for the singles faculty members as they have less responsibilities towards the family in comparison to the married faculty members (See Table 5).

Table 4: t-Value Mean and SD of Marital Status on WLB

Table 5: Model Summary Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis for WLB Dimensions of Personal Need, Compensation & Benefits, Time Management, Social Needs and Work with Teamwork

^aPredictors: (Constant), Social Need.

^bPredictors: (Constant), Compensation & Benefits, Social Need.

Table 5 shows that in the first step, social needs emerged as a significant indicator of personal needs among academicians. The table 10 highlights that the correlation coefficient between social needs and team work (R = 0.741) exhibited that work team of the employees are inclined by this feature. The regression model’s value of R², which indicates the variance in the work team. In the dependent variable of academicians working at the institution, it is found for 74.1% variations, with the F change value (F = 185.504, P > 0.01). In the second step, social need including compensation & benefits emerged as the most dominant predictors among academician in relation to teamwork. The coefficients of correlation between predictors and teamwork (R = 0.791) showed the relationship existed. The coefficient of determination (R² = 0.626) accounted for 62.6% variation which include the predictors, the value of F-change is (F = 30.749, p > 0.01) in terms of teamwork. The R square change (.076) estimated for 7.6% variation among independent variables with dependent variable (See Table 6).

Table 6: ANOVA of Multiple Regressions of Different Aspects of WLB with Team Work among Faculty Members

^bPredictors: (Constant), Social Need, Compensation & Benefits.

^aPredictors: (Constant), Social Need.

^cDependent Variable: Team work.

The determined F-ratio for predictors a & b (F = 185.504, p > 0.01 & F = 126.280, p > 0.01) is highlighted in Table 6 and is considered significant and provided to teamwork of the various designations of academicians employed in the Kingdom. Thus, the assumed null hypothesis (HO4) was somewhat not rejected. The current investigation has been well supported by Wong et al. (2017) and Allam and Shaik (2019).

5. Conclusion and Limitations

There have been a few researches that have looked at academicians’ abilities to define and maintain the line of dialogue in relation to WLB and satisfaction in a statistical form. The researchers have formulated the objectives and hypotheses to accomplish the aim of the investigation and on the basis of the results, the following conclusions are drawn. It is observed that the younger faculty members like assistant professor and post graduates have a lot of pressure of work in the universities. The various facets used in the study to show the satisfaction and WLB have positive relationship with each other. The overall mean score is highest for the female faculty members as compared to the male faculty members in the university. The result also reflects that male faculty members have a lot of pressure and responsibility in the universities in comparison to the female faculty members. The result of the study showed that overall mean score is highest for the single faculty members as they have less responsibilities towards the family in comparison to the married faculty members. Moreover, the study revealed that satisfaction level in this particular investigation depends on the nature of WLB and its environment where they used to work.

Like any other study, this research has certain flipside but at the same time provides scope to overcome from such limitations. The current investigation tested the WLB and based on the findings of the WLB, satisfaction level were provided. The study should take into consideration certain other variables which can contribute better to understand the satisfaction level of the academicians. As the present, investigation was based on questionnaire and sometimes the prejudice approach shown by the responded, which cannot be eliminated. In the future, researchers can expand this study by using different questionnaire and other scientific techniques to investigate the WLB and satisfaction. Furthermore, it is favorable to recommend some HR inventions such as faculty development program plan some group events, organize the holiday tour etc to eradicate the negative attitude towards their academic environment for the purpose of happiness and WLB. Al Kahtani et al. (2016) discovered that better working conditions are a sign of overall performance improvement. The result of the study suggested that there is an immense need of cooperation and teamwork between the faculty members which will further lead to satisfaction in the workplace and will create WLB among the university academicians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Universities set policies for faculty members to recognize their requirement for work-life balance, such as flexibility in working hours, family-friendly policies, and work-life balance programs and initiatives, which demonstrate that employers care about their employees’ betterment and well-being. As a result of friendly policy employee dedication, commitment to the organizational goals and satisfaction towards the work will enhance.