IJCEM International Journal of Computational Engineering & Management, Vol.

16 Issue 3, May 2013 93

ISSN (Online): 2230-7893
www.IJCEM.org

Role of Family Support in Balancing Personal and Work Life of

Women Employees
S. Padma1, M. Sudhir Reddy2
1
School of Management Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
2
NTIMS, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract
The Economy and Financial needs of the Family made the The term Work Life Balance (WLB) is attracted by all
women to come out the home and work for livelihood. They try including the individuals and Corporate all over the world.
to perform various jobs and sometimes may opt for the difficult Though many have proposed various definitions, there is
jobs in order to satisfy the above need. The present study was on
no accepted definition for this term. Work Life Balance
Female Police Personnel which was conducted in Andhra
Pradesh State Police Department, AP, India particularly on
(WLB) is defined as a satisfactory level of involvement
Women Police Constables and Head Constables. The study has between the multiple roles of a person‟s life. It is a
aimed to find the impact of family Support on Work life Balance. person‟s control over the responsibilities between their
Children age category, Elder parents‟/in-laws health care on workplace, family, friends and self. It is a comfortable
Work Life Balance of Women Employees are also included in state of equilibrium achieved between an employee‟s
the study. Various Statistical tools were used to meet the above primary priorities at their work place and at their private
mentioned objectives. The results revealed that Women with the life. There are various people like family members,
responsibility of elder parents‟ health need to be given a helping friends, supervisors, peer group and others involved in
hand to balance their personal and professional works.
every person‟s life. The support gained from them will
Key Words: Women, Work Life Balance, Family Support play a key role in leading a comfortable life journey.

1. Introduction 3. Literature Review

Women play active role in the economic development of

their country. Earlier their role is only limited to house Various research studies were conducted on Work Life
hold activities. The present educational and infrastructural Balance particularly on Women who were working in
facilities have encouraged women to occupy prominent different sectors in India as well as in the other parts of the
positions in the corporate world. The current global world.
competitive conditions have made the corporate companies Noharika and Supriya(2010) have highlighted work life
to formulate various welfare policies suitable for women in balance across genders and found that both men and
order to grab the untapped potential of the women work women are experiencing work life imbalance. Though after
force. Many women are opting jobs in order to build a Liberalization, many Indian organizations have been
good career and give financial support to their families. To introducing various work life balance practices like flexi
lead a comfortable living and self satisfaction, women are times, part time work, and provision for child care
working hard to get a balance between their personal and facilities which are facilitated in various developed
work life. The support from their spouse, parents, children, countries it is found that imbalance still exist among men
supervisors, friends and peer group will them in gaining and women in every organization. Samuel and Vivienne
the balance between paid and unpaid responsibilities. The (1996) studies revealed that women balance their work and
Work Life balance (WLB) practices raise their job family identity by trading-off one role for the other. In
satisfaction and job performance and reduce absenteeism contrast, men are able to simultaneously identify with work
and stress. and family roles.Elizabeth et.al (2005) investigated the
influence of gender and tenure status in balancing
parenthood and career and results revealed that women
2. Work Life Balance (WLB) reported greater career and family stress and perceptions of
less institutional support for balance of work and family as
IJCEM
www.ijcem.org
IJCEM International Journal of Computational Engineering & Management, Vol. 16 Issue 3, May 2013 94
ISSN (Online): 2230-7893
www.IJCEM.org

compared to men. Astrid (2008) has studied the attitude of employee retention.Rabia et.al (2011) studied the relation
men towards pregnancy, childbirth and child-caring and between Work Family Conflict (WFC) and Family Work
found that they are different from that of women. Conflict (FWC) and its relation with employee retention.
According to him, fathers viewed the mother as the main The results were revealed that there exist week
parent, partly because of their alternating between work relationships between WFC, FWC and employee retention.
and home and because the mothers breast-feed the infants. Jerina et.al (2013) have opined that Family Work Conflict
Hence they feel their role is insignificant in child care. (FWC) and Work Family Conflict (WFC) exerts a negative
Santhi and Sunder (2012) have conducted their study on influence in the family domain resulting lower life
Work Life Balance in IT Industry to find their level of satisfaction and greater inter role conflict of the married
satisfaction as perceived by the women respondents and women employees and it results in psychological distress
the major factors that are influencing their work life and well being of working women. Work place
balance. Their study found that supporting environment in characteristics contribute to higher levels of WFC. Women
the organization, provision of welfare measures play a working in hospital setting reported more WFC whereas
primary role and alternative working time, child care and FWC was found to be more among those women working
recreation play the secondary role in balancing work and in industrial settings.
personal life. Janet(2003) has explained in his study that Carmen K. Fu and Margaret A. Shaffer (2001) have
organizations have made various programs on work life examined the influence of family and work specific
balance and found that profit making organizations determinants of multiple forms of family interference with
provides facilities like flexible work arrangements, work (FIW) and Work interference with family (WIF)
competitive compensation, and advancement for men, conflict and found that parental demands and hours spent
women and minorities, long term saving and profit sharing on household work were important determinants of FIW
programs and resource services to help with such things as conflict and that role conflict, role overload and hours
day care, elder care. Meenakshi and Ravichandran (2012) spent on paid work influenced WIF conflicts. Spouse
have conducted the study on work life balance among support and Superior support and domestic support were
women teachers of engineering colleges and found that played moderate effect on work life conflict.Jennifer, John
working atmosphere plays a key role in order to get a (2005) have studied family and work force factors
balance in personal and work life and flexi time option is contributing to gender differenced in family to work spill
better options to gain the balance. Thriveni Kumari (2011) over and found that Married women were twice as likely as
found that women were facing stress as they perform their men to report they made more adjustments to their work
traditional role like home maker and domestic duties along place such as refusing overtime or turning down
with paid work. She has conducted the study on BPO and assignments for the sake of family.
education sector and found that there is a difference on Campbell et.al. (1994) have examined the effect of women
impact of stress of the women in both the sectors. Rincy employment on family life and the impact of family life on
and Panchanatham (2011) have conducted study on Work work behavior. The research results revealed that women
Life Balance of women entrepreneurs, the factors with children were significantly lower in occupational
influencing their Work Life Balance. The study revealed commitment relative to women without children. Contrary
that role overload, dependent care issues, quality of health, to expectation, women with younger children
problems in time management and lack of proper support outperformed women with older children.
from the family are the major factors causing imbalance in
work and personal life of women entrepreneurs. 4. The Current Study
Krishna Reddy et.al (2010) have conducted the study on
Work life Balance of married women employees to find In the light of the above review of literature and the issues
the factors influencing Work Family Conflict (WFC) and being raised, the objective of the present study is to
Family Work Conflict (FWC) and also studied its relation examine the impact of family members support on Work
with stress. Researchers have found that the number of Life Balance among Female Police Personnel of Andhra
hours worked per week, the amount and frequency of Pradesh State Police Department, India.
overtime, inflexible work schedule, unsupportive Work is important for people in order to lead a happy and
supervisor and an inhospitable work culture increases the comfortable life. But the primary group of any person is
likelihood of women employees to experience conflict his/her family members. If he/ she get the required support
between their work and family roles.Rabia et.al (2011) from spouse and parents, it becomes easy for anyone to
studied the relation between Work Family Conflict (WFC) maintain a balance in their life. Low balance may result
and Family Work Conflict (FWC) and its relation with into employee attrition, high absenteeism and sometimes
employee retention. The results were revealed that there may lead to health problems. And the job of Police
exist week relationships between WFC, FWC and Constable is an everyday challenging. The changing

IJCEM
www.ijcem.org
IJCEM International Journal of Computational Engineering & Management, Vol. 16 Issue 3, May 2013 95
ISSN (Online): 2230-7893
www.IJCEM.org

paradigm in the job of female police constable was that the 5.3.1 Demographic Characteristics and Work
public was placing more confidence in women officers, Life Balance
and female constable were able to fulfill the roles as wife, The questionnaires were administered to 42 (75%) Women
mother and officer on duty. Anupam Kulshreshtha (2008) Police Constables and 14 (25%) Head Constables. Three
in her study Mainstreaming of Women in Police explained quarters 41 (73.2%) were married and the remaining 15
that there was no apparent strategy/ uniformity regarding (26.8%) of the Police constables were single. Out of 56
recruitment, training, work distribution, promotion, posting women employees, 31(55%) of them have give special
welfare etc. The study revealed that the female police care to their elder parents‟/in-laws health. Out of the
personnel undergo the infrastructural problems like long Married 41 Women employees, 23 of them have young
hours of duty, absence of crèches, problems of toilet that children, one of them had no children and the remaining 17
lead to health problems. Based on these observations and have adult children.
arguments following hypotheses are presented. Table 1: Demographic Statistics of Sample
H1: The Unmarried will have higher balance in maintaining Position Women Police Constable: Total:56
work and personal life than Married Women 42 (75%)
Employees. Head Constable:
14 (25%)
H2: Women Employees who give special attention to elder Special Attention to Yes: 31 (55%) Total :56
parents/in-laws health may have lesser Work Life Elder Parents No: 25 (45%)
Balance than women who has no such responsibility. Marital Status of Married: 41 (73.2%) Total:56
H3: There is no significant difference in women employees respondents Unmarried:15 (26.8%)
who do not have children (Group 1), women who have Presence of Young: 23 (56.1%) Total:41
Dependent Adult: 17 (41.5%)
young children (Group 2) and women who have adult Children No Child: 1(2.4%)
children (Group 3) in balancing their work and
personal life.
5.3.2 T-test Results
5. Method
Table 2 reveals that the Married and Unmarried Female
Police Personnel groups have no difference in balancing
5.1 Sample their Work and Personal Life. Unmarried Women group
displaying greater balance than Married group. Hence H1
The respondents were selected using convenience is rejected.
sampling from 13 districts of the state Andhra Pradesh in
India. The total respondents were 56 Female Police Table 2: Comparison of Married and Unmarried female groups on Work
Life Balance
Constable. The average age of all the respondents was
Mean Standard Deviation T-Value Sig
37.93 years. The average work experience of the Female
Variable
Police Constables was 16.86 Years and their qualification Married 3.77 0.736 -5.472
were generally Intermediate (+2) /graduate. Unmarried 4.89 0.466 0.000
5.2 Measures
Table 3 shows that the two groups who have elder
The questionnaire was developed by the authors for the parents/in-laws responsibility than the group who do not
present study. The respondents were asked to rate different have such responsibility differ in balancing their personal
items using a Seven Point Likert Scale where 7 indicated and work life. Hence H2 is accepted.
Strongly Agree while 1 represented Strongly Disagree. The
Cronbach alpha Coefficient for 33 items was 0.838 Table 3: Comparison of The group who has parents‟/in-laws
suggesting that the items have relatively high internal responsibility with the group that does not have parents/in-laws
consistency. responsibility on Work Life Balance
Mean Std. T-Value Sig
5.3 Results Devi
Variable
atio
Various statistical analyses were performed to test the n
different hypotheses. The results of the study are presented Special attention to 4.25 0.825
in four sections. First section presents Demographic Elder Parents/in- 1.789 0.079
statistics of the Sample, the Second section presents T-test Laws 3.85 0.811
No Special
results, the Third section presents ANOVA results and the Attention to
Fourth section presents Regression analysis. Elder Parents/ in-
Laws

IJCEM
www.ijcem.org
IJCEM International Journal of Computational Engineering & Management, Vol. 16 Issue 3, May 2013 96
ISSN (Online): 2230-7893
www.IJCEM.org

5.3.3 ANOVA Results the applied model can statistically significantly predict the
outcome variable Work Life Balance.
Table 4 indicates the descriptive table which shows that
Table 7: ANOVA
there were three groups. Group 1 has 16 women employees
who have no children, Group 2 has 23 women employees Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
who have younger age children and Group 3 has 17
employees who have children with adult age group. Group 1 Regression 18.517 1 18.517 50.336
1 has higher Mean score as 4.81 and group 3 has lower Residual 19.864 54 .368 .000a
mean score as 3.71. Total 38.381 55
a. Predictors: (Constant), Family Support
b. Dependent Variable: Work Life Balance
Table 4: Descriptive Table

Table 8 represents both the constant and Family Support

Std.
N Mean Deviation was contributing significantly to the model. Hence the
No Children (Group 1) 16 4.81 .544
regression equation be Work Life Balance (WLB) = 2.710
+ 0.069 (Family Support).
Young Children (Group 2) 23 3.83 .681
Adult Children (Group 3) 17 3.71 .841
Total 56 4.07 .835
Table 8: Coefficients
Unstandardized Standardized
Table 5 shows the ANOVA table, indicates the F-Value as Coefficients Coefficients
12.713 and significance 0.000 which means that the null Std.
hypothesis has accepted. That means there is no significant Model B Error Beta t Sig.
difference in work life balance of women employees of the 1 (Constant) 2.710 .208 13.015 .000
above mentioned 3 groups. Hence H3 is accepted. Family
.069 .010 .695 7.095 .000
Support
a. Dependent Variable: Work Life Balance
Table 5: ANOVA Table
Mean
Sum of Squares df Square F Sig. 6. Discussion And Conclusion
Between Groups 12.443 2 6.222
The findings of the present study show that the Support
Within Groups 25.938 53 .489 12.713 .000
from Family Members will play a significant role in
Total 38.381 55 balancing Personal and Professional lives. It is evident
from the regression table that Family members Support are
5.3.4 Regression Results a dominant predictor of Work Life Balance. Women
Enter Method of Linear regression was performed to employees who have adult children can easily balance than
establish the relationship between Work Life balance and women with younger age kids. Similarly Women
Family Support. Table 6 shows the Model Summary which employees who need to take care of elder parents/in-laws
explains correlation (R) value as 0.695. Adjusted R2 value health responsibility have lesser work life balance than
indicates the variance that means 47.3 percentage of Work their counterparts. Hence the Police department has to take
Life Balance depends on the independent variable „Family the required measures to help these categories of women
Support‟. employees so that they can balance their professional life
with personal life. The hospital facilities to the employees
Table 6: Model Summary and to their families may help the women employees to
Adjusted R Std. Error of the some extent. Leaves and special permission at the
Model R R Square Square Estimate supervisor level may help the female constable to make a
1 .695a .482 .473 .607 balance between their work and family. The supervisors
a. Predictors: (Constant), Family Support may assist them by empathizing their issues and
considering their requests now and then may relive them
from certain imbalance issues. The prime responsibility to
Table 7 indicates the ANOVA table with F- value as deal with balance lies with the individual woman
50.336 and Significance value less than 0.05. That means employee. Hence they can utilize the assistance and

IJCEM
www.ijcem.org
IJCEM International Journal of Computational Engineering & Management, Vol. 16 Issue 3, May 2013 97
ISSN (Online): 2230-7893
www.IJCEM.org

support from their spouse, siblings and other friend circle [9] Niharika Doble and M.V. Supriya,"Gender Differences
in handling their elder parents. Peer group support may in the Perception of Work-Life
also be unavoidable support in handling personal problems Balance",Management,Vol.5, No. 4, 2010, Pp.331-342
at work place. Cooperative and supportive work climate [10] Pattu Meenakshi.S, DR. K. Ravichandran, "A Study
may help the women employees to feel the work place as on Work- Life Balance Among Women Teachers
their home and utilize their potential for the benefit of the Working In Self-Financing Engineering Institutions",
organization. International Journal of Research In Commerce, IT &
In conclusion, Family members‟ support affects the work Management, Vol. 2 No.3,2012,Pp.51-55.
life balance of women employees. Lower balance may lead [11] Rabia Aslam, Sadaf Shumaila, Mahwish Azhar and
to higher absenteeism, lower job satisfaction and Shama Sadaqat, Work-Family Conflicts: Relationship
sometimes may turn to higher employee attrition. between Work-Life Conflict and Employee Retention –
Organizations with cooperative work culture may help A Comparative Study of Public and Private Sector
them to bring a suitable balance in their professional and Employees, Interdisciplinary Journal of Research in
personal life. Business, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2011, Pp.18-29.
[12] Rincy V. Mathew and N. Panchanatham, "An
Exploratory Study on the Work Life Balance of
Women Entrepreneurs in South India", Asian Academy
References of Management Journal, Vol 16, No. 2,2011, Pp.77-
[1] Brough, P., O'Driscoll, M. P. and Kalliath, T. J. “The 105.
ability of „family friendly‟ organizational resources to [13] Samuel Aryee, Vivienne Luk, "Balancing Two Major
predict work–family conflict and job and family Parts of Adult Life Experience: Work and Family
satisfaction" Stress and Health, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2005, Identity Among Dual-Earner Couples", Human
Pp. 223–234. Relations, Vol. 49, No. 4, 1996,Pp. 465-487.
[2] Campbell, D. J., Campbell, K. M. and Kennard, D. [14] Santhi T S, DR. K. Sundar, "A Study on the Work
"The effects of family responsibilities on the work Life Balance Of Women Employees in Information
commitment and job performance of non-professional Technology Industry", ZENITH International Journal
women" Journal of Occupational and Organizational of Business Economics & Management Research, Vol.
Psychology, Vol. 67, No.4, 1994, Pp. 283–296. 2, No.1, 2012, Pp.82-96.
[3] Carmen K. Fu, Margaret A. Shaffer, "The tug of work [15] Shankar Barua, “Meeting the Maoist Challenge Police
and family: Direct and indirect domain-specific Response” Police Academy Journal, Vol. 60, No.1,
determinants of work-family conflict", Personnel 2008, Pp.76-84
Review, Vol.30,No. 5, 2001,Pp. 502 - 522. [16] Sreenivasa Rao Behara, K. Niranjan, “RuranlWomen
[4] Elizabeth M. O‟Laughlin, Lisa G. Bischoff," Balancing Entrepreneurship in India”, International Journal of
Parenthood and Academia Work/Family Stress as Computational Engineering and Management IJCEM,
Influenced by Gender and Tenure Status", Journal of Vol. 15, issue 6, Nov. 2012.
Family Issues, Vol.26, No.1, 2005,Pp. 79-106.
[5] Janet Polach, "HRD's role in work-life integration
issues: moving the workforce to a change in mindset",
Human Resource Development International, Vol 6,
No. 1, 2003, Pp. No: 57-68.
[6] Jennifer Reid Keene, John R. Reynolds, "The Job Ms. S. Padma is a Research Scholar and working as Academic
Assistant in School of management Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
Costs of Family Demands Gender Differences in Technological University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. She
Negative Family-to-Work Spillover", Journal of Family has presented various papers in National and International
Issues, Sage journals, Vol. 26 No. 3, 2005, Pp. 275- Conferences on various management topics. Her current research
interest areas are Work Life Balance, Employee Motivation and
299. Stress Management.
[7] Jerina Bee .A, K.Baskar &V.Vimala, "Organizational
Culture on Work- Life Balance among Married Women
Employees Productivity" Indian Streams Research
Journal, Vol.3, No.1, 2013, Pp.1-7
[8] Krishna Reddy.N, M. N. Vranda, Atiq Ahmed, B. P. Dr. M. Sudhir Reddy is a Project officer, NTMIS, Jawaharlal
Nirmala, and B. Siddaramu,"Work Life Balance among Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh,
married Women Employees", Indian Journal of India. He has been guiding various doctoral research scholars on
various topics. His current research interest areas are Work Life
Psychological Medicine, Vol. 32, No.2,2010,Pp.112-
Balance, Stress Management, Consumer Behavior, etc.
118.

IJCEM
www.ijcem.org