Abstract
Work-life balance refers to the ability of individuals to balance their work and personal lives. Spending time with family members, having free time to rest for the emotional well-being and health of family members, having outstanding colleague communication and support, receiving elevated childcare and education, and being comfortable with job stress are all part of it. Work-life conflict is the leading cause of psychological distress and job dissatisfaction. This study will assist in proving the hypothesis, and promote future research, produce valuable ideas, and give a better understanding.
Introduction
Employment life balance is the competent management of the balance between paid work and non-paid interests such as family time, exercise, relaxation, and volunteering (Las Heras Maestro et al., 2020). Human resource management is becoming more critical than ever in today’s volatile economic landscape. It is intended to be distinct from the traditional and customary concept of people management. Moreover, individuals can define it based on their happiness and positive functioning in both professional and personal tasks.
Research Question
The current study aims to answer the following questions: Is there a link between work-life balance and job satisfaction, and is there a gender gap in work-life balance?
Questionnaire
Research Hypothesis
There is a strong correlation between work-life balance and workload. One sign of employee stress at work is their workload. The workload is another factor mentioned as the reason employees experience mental stress. Concerns with workload and stress are receiving critical attention and need in-depth investigation to be remedied. A person experiences work overload when they are assigned duties that are above their capabilities. This includes both quantitative and qualitative overload: quantitative overload occurs when there are too many tasks to do.
On average, females’ work-life balance is more affected than males’ among early childhood teachers. The role of work in people’s lives has always been significant. The basis for status inequalities across all demographic groups is gender. It is a social construct that outlines the roles men and women are expected to adopt in society and within their cultures. Numerous studies have examined the connection between gender and work-life balance. While some studies show that women and men have different work-life balances, most show no appreciable variations between them.
Literature Review
Most academics surveyed agreed that their employment caused stress. Work and family responsibilities pressure affects employee productivity and promotes employee attrition and absenteeism (Las Heras Maestro et al., 2020). More significantly, the majority expressed dissatisfaction with their organizations and said they did little to support staff in striking a healthy balance between work and personal life. Businesses must now consider their staff members’ obligations to their families as the number of single-parent families and multi-earner households has increased.
Women bear a more tremendous emotional strain than males due to the dual responsibility of child and elder care (Lin & Jones, 2020). In reality, women continue to carry the majority of childcare responsibilities and are considerably more likely to hold part-time employment to satisfy family obligations. The workload has grown due to new job requirements. Professional lives are characterized by rising challenges, regularly changing duties, work and time schedules, job instability, and frequent relocations, thus, contributing to work-life stress. Most new faculty members report feeling lonely, and vague expectations and demanding workloads frequently harass them.
Research Objectives
Managing a household and raising young children when both partners are employed outside the home is stressful (Loehr, 2019). For two-income households with kids, juggling work and personal obligations requires a variety of trade-offs. In the current study, the crucial drivers of work-life balance for teachers will be investigated. Among the reported hurdles to work-life balance are the links between work-life balance and workload and the possible differences between work-life balance and gender.
Research Design
Work-life balance is handled as a dependent variable in this study, while workload and gender are treated as independent variables. The variables analyzed were relationship and spousal support, elder dependency, employment resources, colleague support, unfair criticism, childcare chores, and work-life balance (Patrick & Ngo, 2017). Work-related stresses such as job resources and severe criticism are included in the framework. Similarly, family-related stresses such as relationship support, elder dependency, and childcare commitments are emphasized.
Sampling and Data Collection
The study investigates the factors influencing early childhood teachers’ work-life balance. Following a thorough examination of relevant past research techniques, a questionnaire appropriate for local and social situations was developed. Several aspects of this study have been adjusted to suit each variable in the current research framework. The questionnaire was self-administered, with a cover note encouraging responders to share their impartial views on the matters under consideration.
The participants have mostly married male and female early childhood educators. Responses from early care centers were gathered using the convenience sample method. The study garnered 84 replies from public institutions and 62 responses from private schools, yielding a response rate of 58%. Incomplete surveys and replies from unmarried teachers were examples of questionnaires that did not give enough data for analysis.
The survey approach was utilized since this study focused on primary data and used quantitative methods. A structured questionnaire was employed to obtain the data needed to achieve the study’s goals. The questionnaire was created with the help of prior studies and tables were used to present the collected data. Meanwhile, descriptive, correlation, and regression analyses were employed. Mean, and standard deviation was calculated as part of the descriptive analysis, as were correlation coefficients for correlation analysis and R2 and modified R2 for regression analysis.
Results
Table 1: Workload Average.
Table 1 shows that the mean value of workload and childcare falls between 3.5 and 5.0, which indicates a high level, while the mean value of social support and WLB falls between 2.5 and 3.5, which indicates a moderate level.
Discussion
The table above indicates that the work-life balance of that chosen personnel is adequate. This correlation study indicated a strong negative correlation between workload and WLB. Thus, that workload has a significant influence on work-life balance. The data gathered from male and female school instructors were tested. The data revealed a significant favorable relationship between social support and an excellent work-life balance. Furthermore, work-life balance was highly related to workload and childcare. Therefore, one can accept the null hypothesis and infer that male and female instructors have different work-life balances as shown in figure 1. The scatter diagram below indicates the negative correlation between workload and work life balance.
Table 2: Statistics.
Male instructors have a better work-life balance (2.88) than female teachers, according to descriptive statistics in Table 2. (2.46). It suggests that men had a better work-life balance than female early childhood teachers. F (9.239) is significant (Sig. 0.003 0.05) according to Levene’s test for equality of variance; in this case, the value of not assuming equal variances is regarded since it demonstrates significance. Consequently, the null hypothesis demonstrates that female early childhood instructors are more affected than male teachers.
Conclusion
Data acquired from male and female school instructors were examined. The findings demonstrated a substantial, strong correlation between workload and work-life balance. Working parents with children aged six or younger confront a challenge in providing high-quality childcare. Women bear a more tremendous emotional strain than males due to the dual responsibility of a child and elder care. The research findings indicated that school administrators should pay considerable attention to teachers’ work-life balance.
Recommendations
When drafting work and family policies, institutions ought to consider work and family circumstances. For academics to discover the concepts as well as strategies companies may utilize to encourage work-life balance, further study is required. The objective is to create a well-balanced social agenda incorporating government aid and regulations that require businesses to implement plans promptly and encourage them to offer incentives for full resolution.
References
Boyd, W., & Garvis, S. (2021). International perspectives on early childhood teacher education in the 21st Century. Springer.
Las Heras Maestro, M., Chinchilla Albiol, M. N., & Grau, M. (2020). The new ideal worker: Organizations between work-life balance, gender, and leadership. Springer.
Lin, Y. M., & Jones, I. (2020). Critical issues in early childhood teacher education volume 1, U.S. perspectives. Information Age Publishing Inc.
Loehr, T. (2019). Balance is B.S.: How to have a work-life blend. Wiley.
Paterick, T. E., & Ngo, E. P. (2017). Physician: Time to invest in yourself! Work-life balance, the needs of the patient, and medical-legal risk management. Greenbranch Publishing.