The Relationship between Work Life Balance and Employee Performance: With Reference to Telecommunication Industry of Sri Lanka

In today’s dynamic business environment, work life balance (WLB) has become one of the key issues faced by many employees all over the world. Maintaining work life balance is an issue increasingly recognized as of strategic importance to organization and of significance to employees. There is no one agreed definition of work-life balance but it does appear that the right balance for one person may differ from the next. In simply, WLB means the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing things you enjoy. At present, the service sector is the leading factor for the total economic growth rate. Sri Lankan telecommunication industry is one of the largest service contributors to national economy. Poor work life balance leads to many disastrous things like tardiness, bad performance, lack of motivation, more errors, absence from work turnover and so on. Without a doubt, one of the biggest disadvantages is that poor work-life balance is poor employee performance. This reduces work quality, job satisfaction productivity and creates poor employee efficiency, poor employee effectiveness and, poor employee commitment. When an employee won't be able to give time to his family at home, he will feel stressed at work. A lack of work life balance has also an adverse effect on their employer's prospects for success in many respects. The main objective of this study is to carry out research on the Sri Lankan telecommunication industry and recognize the impact of work life balance on employee performance. The target population of this research is executive level married employees in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka. This investigation area is used Cluster sampling method to select 2 major companies in telecommunication industry. (Dialog Axiata PLC and Sri Kelaniya Journal of Human Resource Management Volume 09-Number 01-January 2014 & Number 02-July 2014 96 Lanka Telecom – Sample Size 100) Data were gathered through questionnaire method and in this study, for the purpose of hypothesis testing the researcher use univariate, and bivariate statistics methods. The Data were analyzed through SPSS 20.0 software to find out the relationship between variables. Findings of the study reveal that there is a strong relationship between work life balance and employee performance. This relationship is positive and has significant level. The research findings give evidence that the better work life balance of the employees leads to increased employee performance.


Introduction
In today's ever demanding work environment lot of people face the problem of balancing work and family life. Despite the worldwide quest for work life balance here on referred to as WLB, very few have found an acceptable definition and concept. WLB does not mean an equal balance; it is about adjusting the working patterns to allow employees to combine work with their other responsibilities such as caring for children or elderly relatives (Higginset al., 2004).WLB is a combination of interactions among different areas of one's life, the advantages and disadvantages associated with that balance or imbalance can affect multiple levels of society. The disadvantages associated with WLB can impact both employee and employer. For the employee, consequences can have a negative impact on work and life satisfaction, mental health, physical health and on individual performance in organization . For employers the consequences of poor work life balance will be poor performance, absenteeism, sick leave and higher staff turnover, recruitment and training costs (Department of Trade and Industry, 2001).
In simply WLB means the amount of time you spend doing your job compared with the amount of time you spend with your family and doing things you enjoy.
An organization needs to magnetize and preserve valued employees in highly competitive labor market. It is a strong motivating factor for increased organizational awareness and action with regard to implementation and management of work life balance strategies. WLB is an important area of human resource management that is receiving increasing attention from government, researchers, management, and employee representatives and popular media.
WLB, from the employee perspective, is the maintenance of a balance between responsibilities at work and at home. Employers view the benefits or the working conditions that they provide to help employees balance the family and the work domains as work life benefits (Russell & Bowman 2000). Initially the concept of work life conflict focused on the impact of family demands on work. It now extends to the impact work has on individual stress, relationships and family well-being (Russell & Bowman, 2000).
Work-to-family conflict occurs when experiences at work interfere with family life inflexible work hours, work overload, interpersonal conflict at work, unsupportive supervisor organization. Family-to-work conflict occurs when experiences in the family interfere with work life primary responsibility for children, elder care responsibilities, interpersonal conflict within the family unit, unsupportive family members.
This project intends to identify is there any relationship between work life balance and employee performance. And also introduce appropriate employment practices to help employees achieve a better work life balance which can provide tangible benefits to the organization as well as the individual. It can enable employees to feel more in control of their working life and lead to increased productivity, lower absenteeism and a happier, less stressed work force. This project also examines how to promote good WLB in the telecommunication industry of Sri Lanka and highlights some benefits for the organizations.

Problem Statement
There have been a number of valuable studies regarding work life balance and employee performance. In the Sri Lankan context there are less researches based on this topic. There for there is a research gap on this regard. So doing this research the researcher hopes to fill the existing research gap. There is no substantive empirical study has been conducted to investigate, what is the relationship between work life balance and employee performance in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka. This is the research gap that will be primarily addressed in this research. So in this research try to identify, is there a relationship between work life balance and employee performances in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka?

Research Objective
The general objective of this study was to identify the relationship between work life balance and employee performance in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka.

Literature Review
The literature review is an evaluative report of information on the findings of the comprehensive study carried out, on the areas of work life balance and employee performance in telecommunication industry, gaining the knowledge required to carry out the advanced survey.
"Work Life Balance isn't only about families and childcare. Nor is it about working less. It's about working smart. About being fresh enough to give all you need to both work and home, without jeopardising one for the other. And it's a necessity for everyone, at whatever your stage in life." (Department of Trade and Industry, 2001)Reducing stress and absence through employer flexibility should not only result in a more satisfied and more productive work force, but also have a knock on effect on improved recruitment and retention" (Human Resource Management International Digest, 2004).The achievement of better WLB can yield dividends for employers in terms of having a more motivated, productive, less stressed workforce, increased productivity, and reduced absenteeism. WLB can have impact on both individual as well as the organization. The independent variable of this research is work life balance and it can be divided in to two main areas like, work centered life & family centered life. In simply work centered life means people give more priority to their work than their family. This will cause to occur work-to-family conflicts. Most probably work centered life occurs due to reasons such as inflexible work hours, interpersonal conflict at work, work overload, and unsupportive supervisor. In simply family centered life mean people give more priority to their families than their work. This is caused to occur familyto-work conflicts. Most probably family centered life occurs due to reasons such as primary responsibility for children, elder care responsibilities, interpersonal conflict within the family unit and unsupportive family members (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010).
Dependent variable of this research is Employee Performance. In any given situation, whether it is in sport or work, we can drill it down to a simple formula.

Performance = Potential -Interference
Employee Performance Management (PE) is a process for establishing a shared workforce understanding about what is to be achieved at an organization level. It is about aligning the organizational objectives with the employees' agreed measures, skills, competency requirements, development plans and the delivery of results. The emphasis is on improvement, learning and development in order to achieve the overall business strategy and to create a high performance workforce. "PE is a process by which organization evaluate employee job performance" (Werther and Davis 1985). Typical Outcomes from Annual Appraisals are misdirected bonuses, too painful, emotionally charged, poor understanding of expectations, bad timing, subjective manager opinion, performance not aligned to promotions, poor development opportunities and no consequence for non-participation.
Limited resources can be a barrier to implement a good work life policy. Other than this a lack of awareness about flexible work options and leave entitlement, inability to access flexible work arrangements, lack of understanding of the benefits and lack of effective communications between the management and employers are some of the barriers to an effective work life balance implementation process. Some of the managers believe that work life policies can reduce the productivity of the organization by giving more freedom to the employers.
As reported in the Daily Mirror (October 9th, 2010), "25% of Sri Lankans are mentally ill". The National council for mental health (NCMH) further explains, one in four Sri Lankans suffer from various kinds of mental illnesses in the recent years. NCMH Director Sahanaya Dr. Niroshan Mendis told the causes of mental illnesses are stress, alcohol, drugs, smoking, diabetes and an unhealthy lifestyle. According to research, the number of stress related disability claims has doubled in recent years. Workers in high stress jobs are three times as others to suffer stress related medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease, frequent headaches and weakened immune system. Stress can also lead to inappropriate coping mechanisms, such as the abuse of alcohol, smoking and drug abuse.

Theoretical Framework
This is an explanatory model and specifies the nature of hypotheses of the study, which were set out in diagrammatic form of figure 1.According to the model, independent variable is "Work Life Balance" and dependent variable is "Employee Performance." They can be described as follows.

5.1.Conceptualization of Independent Variable (Work Life Balance) "Work Life Balance isn't only about families and childcare. Nor is it about working less. It's about working smart. About being fresh enough to give all you need to both work and home, without jeopardising one for the other. And it's a necessity for everyone, at whatever your stage in life."
The good practice of work life balance leads both employees and the organization to get benefits. Basically employees benefit by feeling less stressed and happier both at work and at home. And more people have the opportunity for paid work. A business benefit from having more motivated, more productive and less stressed work force and staff are more likely to stay with their employer. This reduces the cost of recruitment as well as retaining

Work Centered Life Family Centered Life
Employee Performance skills and experiences. Customers and the clients to benefit from a consistent service.
The achievement of better WLB can yield dividends for employers in terms of having a more motivated, productive, less stressed workforce, increased productivity, and reduced absenteeism. WLB can have impact on both individual as well as the organization. Dimensions for measuring work life balance are work centered life and family centered life. Indicators for measuring work life balance are work hours, work load, supervisors, subordinates, peers ( work centered life ) spouse, children, relatives and elder care ( family centered life ).

5.2.Conceptualization of Dependent Variable (Employee Performance) "Employee performance means the ability of an employee to perform the job in a particular way that is leads to both organization and the employee to achieve their common goals and objectives."
Performance means the end results of an activity of a person or an organization. Further organizational performance can describe as the accumulated end result of all the organization's work process and activities. Like all ratios it can be improved by increasing the output, decreasing the input or both.
Employee Performance Management is a process for establishing a shared workforce understanding about what is to be achieved at an organization level. It is about aligning the organizational objectives with the employees' agreed measures, skills, competency requirements, development plans and the delivery of results. The emphasis is on improvement, learning and development in order to achieve the overall business strategy and to create a high performance.
Performance Evaluation is a systematic process by which the organization determines the degree to which the employee is performing the job in relation to the set norms and standards for a particular period of time and identifies the employee potential for development workforce.
Dimensions for measuring Employee Performance is quantitative dimension and qualitative dimension. Indicators for measuring employee performance are work targets, project deadlines, limited resources (quantity) new ideas, errors at work and time utilization (quality).

Hypotheses
Based on the conceptual model the following hypotheses were developed for testing.
H0: There is no significant relationship between work life balance and employee performance.

H1:
There is a significant relationship between work life balance and employee performance.

Methodology
The methodology used in this research is deductive approach. The purpose of this study is hypotheses testing. Studies that engage in hypotheses testing usually explain the nature of certain relationship, or establish the difference among group or the independence of two or more factors in a situation (Sekaran, 2009). Researcher has tested the nature of the certain impact among main two variables. That means this research emphasized there is a significant impact of work life balance on employee performance in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka. The researcher should determine whether a causal or a correlation relational study is needed to find an answer to the issue at hand (Sekaran, 2009). The study in which the researcher wants to delineate the cause of one or more problems is called a causal study. When the researcher is interested in delineating the important variables associated with the problem, the study is called a correlational study (Sekaran, 2009 (Sekaran, 2009). In This study data were gathered just once, perhaps over a period of days, in order to answer a research question. There for this study is called cross-sectional study.
The target population of this research is executive level married employees in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka. Mobitel (Pvt)Ltd, Dialog Axiata plc, HUTCH , Lanka Bell Limited, Sri Lanka Telecom, Airtel, Tritel and Etisalat. The research sample has been selected from executive level married employees in telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka. This investigation area is used Cluster sampling method to select 2 major companies in telecommunication industry. Sample is Dialog Axiata PLC and Sri Lanka Telecom. Sample size is 100. Primary data is collected thorough structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included pre -coded, single choice questions. The questioner has 2 sections. In Section A, the researcher has included the personal profile of the selected employees. In this section the researcher included the age, experience of employees, gender, no of children of employees and mode of transport of selected employees. In Section B, 1-29 questions have included to measure quality of work life balance and employee performance. Statements were given to measure the impact of work life balance on employee performance with five point Likert scales ranging from strong agree to strong disagree.
Secondary data collection for the following research was gathered by the help of previous researcher's articles, journals, research reports, company manuals, related text books and internet.
The researcher used measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode), measures of dispersion (standard deviation), and measures of skewness, the regression analysis and coefficient of correlation analysis to find the relationship between variables for test the hypothesis.

Reliability and Validity
To test the internal consistency of the instrument Cronbach's Alpha was used.
The results of Cronbach's Alpha are shown in following tables.

Data Analysis
Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were done in order to achieve the set objectives and to test hypotheses of the study. Pearson correlation was used to test hypotheses and descriptive statistics were used to do univariate analysis.  Source:-Survey Data

Source: Survey Data
The frequency distribution analysis was made individually for the independent variable of work life balance. The frequency distribution of work life balance is presented in the table 7. As indicated by the table 08 the mean value of the distribution is 4.0200. That means work life balance of respondents is "High". Both mode and median values are 4.The skewness and kurtosis of the distribution are -0.855 and 2.875which indicated that the data recorded for the WLB are approximately normally distributed. The Std. Deviation is 0.60269 which indicates that mean value is confirmed as a great value and it shows all figures are near to mean and mean value is suitable as a value to represent all data.  performance of respondents is "High". Both median and mean values are 4. The skewness and kurtosis of the distribution are -0.778 and 1.521 which indicated that the data recorded for the EP are approximately normally distributed. The Std. Deviation is 0.59789 which indicates that mean value is confirmed as a great value and it shows all figures are near to mean and mean value is suitable as a value to represent all data.

9.2.Bivariate Analysis
This is descriptive statistics for the strength of relationship between two variables. The Bivariate analysis includes the correlation analysis. Using the Pearson Product Movement Correlation with two-tailed test of significance, the Correlation analysis was made to investigate any relationships. According to the results of the Pearson's correlation shown in the table 7.9, there is a positive significance between Work life balance and Employees performance. Pearson correlation between the two variables is .543, which is positive. It shows that there is a relationship between Work Life Balance and Employee Performance and the existing relationship is positive. Since correlation value is more than +0.5 and nearest to the +1, that relationship is much strong. Further the found relationship is statistically significant as correlation is significant at 0.01 levels (2-tailed). Thus, there is a statistical evidence to prove that Work Life Balance and Employee Performance are related. As well as that relationship is positive and has very strong relationship.

Discussions and Conclusion
It was found to be that there is a positive relationship between WLB and EP. The correlation between these variable was 0.543, which is significant at 0.000 levels. This was based on one-tailed tests. Since correlation value is more than +0.5 and nearest to the +1, that relationship is much strong.
Discussing the level of WLB of telecommunication industry in the sample, it was found that they have a High level of WLB with the mean value of 4.02 and standard deviation of 0.60269. Accordingly it was found that WLB in telecommunication Industry were good.
Discussing the level of EP of telecommunication industry in the sample, it was found that they have a High level of EP with the mean value of 3.81and standard deviation of .59789. Accordingly it was found that EP in telecommunication Industry was good.
Several studies have examined the relationship between work life balance and employee performance with mixed results. According to DTI Scotland office (2000), the good practice of work life balance leads both employees and the organization to get the benefits. Basically employees benefit by feeling less stressed and happier both at work and at home. And more people have the opportunity for paid work. Ultimately these things cause to increase employee performance.
According to the findings, it is concluded that the better WLB of the employees leads to increased employee performance.
Based on the empirical investigation of the research the researcher can conclude that there is a strong relationship between work life balance and employee performance. This relationship is positive and has significant level. In conclusion the author would like to emphasize that; to improve WLB in an organization, support from both management and employees is very important.

Recommendations and Limitations
Based on the findings discussed in above, recommendations would be given for the employees and the management of the organization to improve WLB in order to enhance the employee performance of the organization. The recommendations will be in relation to WLB practices identified through the literature review and the feedback of the questionnaires.

Training Programmes
The author has recommended for the management to conduct training programmes in relation to WLB, through which organization can improve the WLB of their staff. Given below are some of the training programmes suggested by the author in order to enhance the WLB of the employees.
 Time management and personal effectiveness -This training programme can be based on individual and organization needs which includes work life balance theme. Work life balance issues can be also included in these types of training programmes.  Effective Work load management -This training programme can include assessing current WLB and how it affects the employee, explain the causes of imbalance, and strategies for upgrading the quality of employees' lives and train the employees to create the life and work goals.  Personal and professional development training courses -This is to encourage the balance between work and life to enable individuals, organizations, and families to be the very best that they can be in all their areas of endeavor.  Life management training courses -This type of training programmes helps the employees to recognize the issues and challenges and allow them to make significant lifestyle changes. It enhances employee's ability to focus on the job in priority wise.
Further, the training plan would also focus upon the managers as well.
Training programmes for managers should be conducted on topics such as dealing with problems, motivate the employees, effective communication with subordinates, and training courses on leadership and management which would ensure the improvement in WLB of the employees in order to enhance the overall WLB of the organization.

 Work-Life stress management
Stress management services and programmes should be provided by an external company specializing in this type of support, information and counseling service. These services should be confidential and can be offered to either individuals or groups of employees. The benefits of this programme can include decreased absenteeism, accidents and stress related disability. It can lead to increased employee productivity and prevention of problems, which could negatively impact the employee's work and home life.

 Workplace flexibility
Flextime is an arrangement whereby employees can vary the scheduling of their working hours within specified guidelines. Essentially, it allows employees, on an individual or collective basis, to determine the start and end times of their working day. Flextime allows the employees to plan their workday around their personal lives. This practice can reduce the tardiness and absenteeism, increases in employee morale and employee job satisfaction and ultimately employee performance.

 Tele working
Tele work, also referred to as telecommuting, is an arrangement whereby an employee, at least on a periodic basis, fulfills his or her regularly scheduled job responsibilities at a remote place. (Own residence) Tele work can advantage for employees as they can organize their workday around their personal and family needs. It can also decrease the transport expenses and reduce commuting time. Tele work allows to work in a less stressful and disruptive environment.

 Workplace child care
Employees may have their children looked after at or near the workplace. The child care center may be owned by the company or be managed by a board of directors that includes representatives of the company and parents whose children go to the center.This facilitates the employees to easier access to a child care service and help to reduce the stress experienced by the parents.

 Health and safety promotion
A healthy workplace provides mutual benefits for employers and employees within a common belief that good health practices by both will lead to individual and organizational self-fulfillment and productivity. Health promotion is the process of enabling employees to increase control over and to improve their physical, emotional and social health. This programme enables all the employees to improve health and maintain their good health. Therefore, the types of health activities can have positive impact on physical, emotional, and social environment.