WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

There are growing concerns that the quality of work and family life of employees is declining and acts as a precursor to poor contributions and performance at work. Manufacturing firms in Ogun State are not an exception. Several factors have been attributed to the decline in the employee performance in the manufacturing firms such as work overload and work hours. This study investigates the effect of work life balance on employee performance in selected manufacturing firms in Ogun state. A survey research design was adopted. The population was 26,754 which consisted of five selected manufacturing firms in Ogun State, Nigeria. The sample size was 520 data were analyzed using descriptive and simple linear regression. The findings revealed that work hours (β = 0.473, t = 10.346, p<0.05) have a statistically significant positive effect on employee performance, while work overload (β = -0.558, t = 9.370, p = 0.000) has negative significant effect on employee performance of the selected manufacturing firms in Ogun State. The study concluded that work life balance practices such as work overload and work hours have effects on employee’s performance in manufacturing firms. Work hours alone are not enough to increase employee performance of a highly skilled, motivated and experienced workforce that an organization needs to excel. Therefore, this study recommends human resources managers to strive to look for newer and innovative employee performance enhancing initiatives because employees are keen on them.