ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------
PHÙNG NGUYỄN MINH TÂM
CÂN BẰNG CÔNG VIỆC – CUỘC SỐNG
CỦA NHÂN VIÊN TRỤ SỞ CHÍNH AGRIBANK
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
OF AGRIBANK HEAD OFFICE STAFF
LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH
HÀ NỘI - 2020
ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH
---------------------
PHÙNG NGUYỄN MINH TÂM
CÂN BẰNG CÔNG VIỆC – CUỘC SỐNG
CỦA NHÂN VIÊN TRỤ SỞ CHÍNH AGRIBANK
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
OF AGRIBANK HEAD OFFICE STAFF
Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh
Mã số: 8340101.01
LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH
NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TRẦN HUY PHƯƠNG
HÀ NỘI - 2020
DECLARATION
The author confirms that the thesis's research outcomes result from the author's
independent work during the study and research period, and it is not yet published in
other's research and article.
The other's research results and documentation (extraction, table, figure, formula,
and another document) used in the thesis are correctly cited, and permission (if required) is
given.
The author is responsible for the Thesis Assessment Committee, Hanoi School of
Business and Management, and the laws for the declaration mentioned above.
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1
1. Rationale ....................................................................................................................... 1
2. Research problem, research objective, and research question ................................ 1
3. Scope of the study ........................................................................................................ 4
4. Significance ................................................................................................................... 4
5. Structure of the thesis statements ............................................................................... 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL MODEL .................. 6
1.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6
1.2. Work-life balance concept ........................................................................................ 6
1.2.1. Work-life balance definitions ............................................................................ 6
1.2.2. Work-life balance benefits ................................................................................. 7
1.2.3. Work-life balance measurement ....................................................................... 8
1.2.4. Factors influencing work-life balance .............................................................. 9
1.3. Related empirical evidences ................................................................................... 12
1.4. Overview of Vietnamese banking system and Agribank .................................... 14
1.4.1. Overview of Vietnamese banking system ....................................................... 14
1.4.2. Overview of Agribank ...................................................................................... 16
1.5. Research model and research hypothesis ............................................................. 16
1.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 19
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 20
2.1. Research methodology ............................................................................................ 20
2.2. Research design process ......................................................................................... 22
2.2..1. Questionnaire design ....................................................................................... 22
2.2.2. Sample ............................................................................................................... 25
2.2.3. Pilot study.......................................................................................................... 26
2.2.4. Data analysis ..................................................................................................... 26
2.3. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING ........................................................ 30
3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 30
3.2. Frequency analysis .................................................................................................. 30
3.3. Descriptive statistics ............................................................................................... 34
3.4. Reliability test .......................................................................................................... 40
3.5. Explanatory factor analysis ................................................................................... 42
3.6. Independent sample t-test ...................................................................................... 46
3.7. One-way ANOVA ................................................................................................... 48
3.8. Linear regression .................................................................................................... 49
CHAPTER 4: DISUCSSION ............................................................................................ 51
4.1. Summary of key findings ....................................................................................... 51
4.2. Discussion ................................................................................................................ 52
4.3. Recommendation .................................................................................................... 54
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 57
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 58
APPENDIX I: SURVEY OF QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................ 1
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: The benefits of work-life balance to the firms and the employees ........................ 8
Figure 2: Proposed research model ..................................................................................... 18
Figure 3: The research onion ............................................................................................... 20
Figure 4: Deductive approach applied in the study ............................................................. 21
Figure 5: Linear regression equation ................................................................................... 28
Figure 6: Gender profile of the respondents ........................................................................ 30
Figure 7: Age profile of the respondents ............................................................................. 31
Figure 8: Education profile of the respondents ................................................................... 31
Figure 9: Marital status profile of the respondents .............................................................. 32
Figure 10: Job position profile of the respondents .............................................................. 32
Figure 11: Time of working profile of the respondents ...................................................... 33
Figure 12: Having children profile of the respondents ........................................................ 34
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Overview of number of Agribank‟s employees and their salary............................. 2
Table 2: Domestic credit provided by financial sector (% of GDP) ................................... 15
Table 3: The format of the first section of the questionnaire .............................................. 23
Table 4: The format of the second section of the questionnaire .......................................... 23
Table 5: Descriptive statistics .............................................................................................. 34
Table 6: Reliability test for work-life balance factor .......................................................... 40
Table 7: Reliability test for organizational support factor ................................................... 40
Table 8: Reliability test for flexible working arrangement factor ....................................... 41
Table 9: Reliability test for technology advancement factor ............................................... 41
Table 10: Reliability test for job stress factor ..................................................................... 42
Table 11: Reliability test for communication factor ............................................................ 42
Table 12: KMO and Bartlett‟s test for work-life balance‟s items ....................................... 42
Table 13: Total variance explained for work-life balance‟s items ...................................... 43
Table 14: Component matrix for work-life balance‟s items................................................ 43
Table 15: KMO and Bartlett‟s test for other items .............................................................. 43
Table 16: Total variance explained for work-life balance‟s items ...................................... 44
Table 17: Component matrix for work-life balance‟s items................................................ 45
Table 18: Independent sample t-test for gender variable .................................................... 46
Table 19: Independent sample t-test for education variable ................................................ 46
Table 20: Independent sample t-test for marital status variable .......................................... 47
Table 21: Independent sample t-test for job position variable ............................................ 47
Table 22: Independent sample t-test for having children variable ...................................... 48
Table 23: One-way ANOVA for age and time of working for the bank variable ............... 48
Table 24: Linear regression ................................................................................................. 49
Table 25: Hypothesis test .................................................................................................... 52
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Ever since the economic renovation, Vietnam is turned from one of the poorest
countries to lower middle income country (The World Bank, 2018). Vietnam is also
official member of World Trade Organization with many trade agreements are signed with
both of developed and emerging countries. In this context, many Vietnamese firms are in
the transformation process from old working style with heavily mono-state management
into modern ones. Today, the companies in Vietnam are doing business in intensive
competitive environment where the winning scenario is obtained through the investment
and the application into advanced technologies, innovative products, high service quality,
and more customer-focus. Consequently, the firms today put a lot more requirements to
their employees such as higher processing time and competencies (Poulose and Sudarsan,
2014). Even that, the employees need to spend more time in the offices in order to fulfil the
jobs and therefore they do not have sufficient times for their family. The term of work-life
balance is delivered in this context and it is the result of inter-relations between personal
life, societal life, and organization life at individual level.
Work-life balance is important aspect in the modern workplace (Brough et al.,
2014). In academic sciences, organizational researchers provide respective assessment
towards the employees‟ psychological items in the workplace and the assessment is based
on the evidences of work outcomes but non-work demands (Burke and Cooper, 2008).
Recent empirical evidences indicate the importance of work-life balance with respective
construction and measurement regarding to this studied topic (Greenhaus and Allen, 2011;
Brough and O‟Driscoll, 2010). However, a concern is highlighted since there are lack of
empirical evidences to propose specific measures for work-life balances (Brough et al.,
2014).
2. Research problem, research objective, and research question
Agribank has highest number of employees compared to other banks in Vietnam
banking system. The bank has 36,682 employees in 2017 and this number is expected up to
38,149 in 2018. Average salary of an Agribank‟s employee in non-managerial role is about
VND22.03 million in 2017 and it is expected increasing to VND22.89 million in 2018. In
the contrast, average salary for a managerial position in Agribank is reduced in 2018, from
VND65.2 million in 2017. With such reduction of average monthly salary in managerial
group, the first problem is highlighted as higher turnover intention may happened in the
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coming years.
Table 1: Overview of number of Agribank’s employees and their salary
Job role Indicator Unit 2017 2018
Number employees People 36,682 38,149
Average monthly salary VND million 22.03 22.89 Non-
managerial Average monthly salary and VND million 23.42 24.64 other compensations
Number employees People 23 25
Average monthly salary VND million 65.2 58.48 Managerial Average monthly salary and VND million 73.89 65.79 other compensations
Source: CafeF (2018)
The second problem related to this studied topic is that turnover rate is very high in
Vietnam. Faro Recruitment (2017) reports that current job turnover rate in the country is
more than 10% and nearly 50% of unemployed people age 15 to 24 years old. Talent Net
(2016) publishes a report about remuneration survey in Vietnam during 2016 and banking
is among top 3 industries which are facing salary decrease rate of more than 6%. Other
while, high-tech, manufacturing, and life sciences and chemicals are the industries with
salary increase rate more than 9% (Talent Net, 2016). According to Talent Net (2016),
Vietnam has high staff turnover rate which is about 8.4% in which banking industry has
staff turnover rate higher than the country‟s average and it is stood at 8.8%. The main
reason of high turnover rate in Vietnam banking system is the expansion of banking
business recently and there are many joint-stock commercial banks in the market. The
competition among the banks are not only by products and services but also by human
resource quality whether smaller banks are able to attract experienced and talent employees
from larger banks.
The third problem is highlighted as the lack of concentration about work-life
balance for the employees in Vietnam. In fact, work-life balance is critical factor in human
resource management (Poelmans and Caligiuri, 2008; Billing et al., 2014). Work-life
balance is even more important in the industries where the employees have to work for
long hours, shift duties, and to deal with the customers‟ issues (Wong and Ko, 2009).
Empirical evidences from previous researchers confirm the positive relation between work-
life balance and employee turnover intention (Blomme et al., 2010; Chiang et al., 2010;
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Yamamoto and Matsuura, 2012). In Vietnam, work-life balance is considered as attentive
studied topic. Some local researchers conduct their researches about work-life balances
with the objectives of identifying the challenges of Vietnamese female entrepreneurs
(Hoang, 2009), quantifying the relation between work-family conflict and employee job
satisfaction in state-owned and foreign-invested enterprises (Nguyen et al., 2016), and
evaluating the impact of work-life balance and employee performance in hospitality
industry (Tran, 2015). These researchers provide good analyses about work-life balance in
Vietnam but there are not any empirical evidences which are found in Vietnam banking
industry.
The fourth problem is highlighted as being an employee of Agribank. It is denoted
that the researcher has been working in the head quarter of Agribank since the university
graduation. During the time of working, the researcher perceives that Agribank does have
the policies to directly address the conflicts between work and life related to its employees.
For example, the bank has vacation, sick leave policies to its employees. The bank also
establishes the policy in which women employees are able to go to the office late by 1 hour
or early by 1 hour in order to take care for her babies. During the employees‟ birthday, the
bank gives VND 300,000 to the employees as birthday gifts. However, all these policies
are being applied also in other banks and it is general policies for the employees. In the
contrast, there are no evaluation which is made in case of Agribank in order to evaluate
other aspects of work-life balance such as how the bank‟s support mechanism is given to
the employees. In addition, human resource status report in Agribank shows that the
percentage of staff turnover rate is increasing over the last 3 years. The staff turnover rate
in 2015, 2016, and 2017 are 5.6%, 7.7%, and 9.1%. It is the alert to human resource
managers in Agribank since its staff turnover rate in 2017 is 9.1% and it is even higher
than the average staff turnover rate in Vietnam‟s banking system which is about 8.8%.
From the statement of research problem, the researcher proposes some research
objectives in this dissertation:
- To determine the factors affecting work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
- To propose managerial recommendations to effectively manage human
resources in the way of maintaining the balance between personal life and working in
Agribank.
To fulfill these research objectives, some research questions must be answered:
- What is the current status of human resource management in Agribank?
- What are the quantified effects of the factors on work-life balance of Agribank‟s
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employees?
- Which factor has highest effect on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees?
- What are the managerial recommendations to effectively manage human
resources in the way of maintaining the balance between personal life and working in
Agribank?
3. Scope of the study
Content: This dissertation is about work-life balance of the employees who are
working in head office of Agribank in Hanoi and how it is influenced by the factors.
Location: The employees who are participated into the survey process are now
working in Agribank‟s headquarter in Hanoi.
Time: The survey is conducted within November and December 2018.
4. Significance
This dissertation is developed with expected outcomes. The first expectation is that
this dissertation employs mixed method with both quantitative and qualitative method to be
adopted in order to evaluate current human resource management in Agribank and how its
effectiveness in maintaining work-life balance for the employees. It allows human resource
managers in Agribank to shape their policies in more proficient way, to reduce the stress at
workplace, and to boost the employees‟ productivity. The second expectation of this
dissertation is that it consolidates previous theories and empirical evidences related to the
studied topic and therefore other researchers get the benefits from reading this dissertation.
Furthermore, other researchers can utilize this dissertation‟s quantitative outcome to
compare with their studies and therefore generating empirical contrasts and differences.
5. Structure of the thesis statements
This dissertation is developed with three chapters beside of introduction and
conclusion section. In the introduction section, the researcher provides some background
information about Agribank which is a cases study of this dissertation. Problem statement
is proposed along with respective research objectives and research questions. The
researcher also proposes what the scope of work and how expected values of this
dissertation.
In the first chapter, the researcher explores different concepts related to employee
behavior and work-life balance. Related theories and empirical evidences are both
collected and put into theoretical reviews. The most important part of Chapter 1 is to
choose the factors affecting on work-life balance of the employees. The researcher would
also like to propose the right research methodology in this chapter. It includes the
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measurement of chosen variables, how the questionnaire is designed and how the survey
process is implemented, what the target respondent and appropriate sample size is, and
what the data analysis techniques that will be employed after primary data is collected.
In the second chapter, the results which are obtained from data analysis process are
put into the discussion. The researcher firstly explores demographic characteristics of the
respondents who are participated into the survey process. Then, the respondents‟ attitudes
towards each questionnaire‟s statement is analyzed through descriptive statistics.
Reliability test and explanatory factor analysis are both employed in this dissertation.
ANOVA analysis and multiple linear regression are utilized in order to understand deeply
about causal relationship among variables.
In the third chapter, the researcher consolidates key findings from previous
chapters. The empirical evidence which is obtained in Chapter 2 are compared with
previous empirical evidences from other researchers.
The last section is conclusion and it refers to managerial advices. Limitations of the
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study are highlighted and how these limitations are addressed in future researches.
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL MODEL
1.1. Introduction
In this chapter, the concept of work-life balance is explored. It is addressed that
different researchers do have different conceptualization about work-life balance;
therefore, it posts the requirement of collecting some available definitions to better
understand this key term. The second part of this chapter is to highlight the factors
influencing work-life balance. Chosen factors are proposed in subsection and the
relationship between each factor and work-life balance is put into a hypothesis.
1.2. Work-life balance concept
1.2.1. Work-life balance definitions Work-life balance is defined by many researchers before. According to Greenbatt
(2002), work-life balance is perceived as the absence of conflicts between work-related
and non-work related demands. Another definition for work-life balance is provided by
Greenhaus and Powell (2003) whether it refers to the circumstance in which the employees
satisfy with both family roles and work roles. In the contrast, when the employees
dissatisfy with these two roles, work-life imbalance is happened. Grzywacz and Carlson
(2007) define work-life balance as the level of the frequency in which the employees‟
works are interfered by their family works and vice versa. Voydanoff (2005) indicates that
work-life balance is obtained when the work resources fulfill family demands and family
resources are fit with work demands. The understanding of work-life balance is also done
through the examination of work-life conflict. Shelton (2006) asserts that work-life conflict
is formulated when the employees are struggling with the pressure from one role and such
pressure dominates other roles. Alam et al. (2009) propose that work-life conflict is
happened when the employees‟ demand of one domain is over other domains and such
conflict decreases both work and life quality. In this dissertation, work-life balance is
defined as the less number of conflicts among the work-related and non-work related
demands of the employees.
Regarding to work-life balance, there is a related theory, namely the balance theory
(Kumarasamy et al., 2015). Balance theory is developed and proposed by Heider (1946)
and it highlights that when a person recognizes a set of benefits from a system, his or her
behavior is to maintain a balance among the elements existed in this system. According to
Dundas (2008), work-life balance is explained well by balance theory in which the
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employees consider that their paid work and the important aspects of their life are
cognitive elements and therefore the employees target to maintain the balance state among
these elements.
1.2.2. Work-life balance benefits It is asserted that the concentration and proper setup in work-life balance allows the
firms to achieve some core benefits in human resource management and in business
performance. Lazar et al. (2010) identify the benefits of work-life balances towards the
firms and the employees and they summary these benefits as in the figure below. In more
detail, when the firms apply effective work-life balance policies, they gain the benefits of
reducing absenteeism and lateness, improving productivity, enhancing organizational
image, increasing employee loyalty and commitment, increasing retention of valuable
employees, and reducing staff turnover rates. In the employee position, work-life balance
allows them to gain a greater sense of job security, higher job satisfaction level, reduction
of job stress, better physical and mental condition, and enhancement of control over work-
life environment. It is translated to the fact that better quality in work-life balance reduces
stressful to the employees and it also reduces the probability of employees‟ absence or
coming to the office later due to personal issues. The employees who can balance between
work and life contexts are able to perform better in workplace and they can increase job
productivity. Furthermore, when the employees receive better work-life balance, they do
not need to find other jobs compared to the employees who cannot balance between work
and life context. It is associated with higher employee commitment towards the
organization. It is also identified that work-life balance helps the employees to reach higher
job satisfaction. In the contrast, job dissatisfaction happens when the employees cannot
balance personal life and work life. In addition, imbalance work-life balance decreases
perceived job security of the employees since they are less performance in the eyes of the
supervisors and it reduces their opportunities for higher job position or promotional
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context.
Benefits to
the firms
Benefits to
the
employees
Figure 1: The benefits of work-life balance to the firms and the employees
Source: Lazar et al. (2010)
Empirical evidences from previous works confirm that work-life balance has
significant relation with job satisfaction of the employees. Empirical evidence from Malik
et al. (2014) confirms that work-life balance has positive effect to job satisfaction of the
employees who are working in business schools in Pakistan. Moreover, Malik et al. (2014)
identify that when the employees are received higher job benefits, they are more balance
between work and life perspectives. Meenakshi et al. (2013) highlight that when the
employees face up with work-life imbalance, their ability to fulfill the job requirements is
decreased and the job performance is not in expected level. According to Garg and
Yajurvedi (2016), poor work-life practices increase job turnover intention and it affects
significantly to the employees‟ asterism.
1.2.3. Work-life balance measurement The measurement of work-life balance is important aspect to both of human
resource manager and the researchers in this area (Poulose and Sudarsan, 2014). Generally
,previous researchers develop a measurement scale to measure work-life balance.
According to Greenhaus and Beautell (1985), work-life balance is measured through
different types of conflicts and they are conflicts related to the employee behavior, time,
and constraint. Behavior constraint is generated when the employees‟ specific behavior is
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applicable for one job role but it is not suitable to another job role. Time constraint refers
to the situation of the time to fulfill one job role is not suitable to fulfill other job roles.
Strain constraint is determined as psychological strain of the employees within on job role.
Greenhaus and Beautell (1985) assert the hypotheses of which any factors that affect to
behavior, time, and constraint in specific job role lead to work-life conflict. Marshall and
Barnett (1993) propose another scale to measure work-life balance with four factors,
including work-family gains, work-family strains, work-parenting gains, and work-
parenting strains. Among these factors, work-family gains and work-parenting gains are
both considered as having positive effect to work-life balance of the employees while
work-family strains and work-parenting strains have negative effect to work-life balance.
Clark (2001) provides five different scales to measure work-life balance, including
satisfaction at work, satisfaction at home, employee citizenship, the conflicts between
different roles, and family functioning. Fisher (2001) develops a measurement scale with
four items, namely time, the behavior at workplace of an individual, relevant energy to
employee in order to fulfill assigned tasks, and the conflicts between inter-roles. Based on
the review of work-life balance measurement, the researcher concludes that work-life
balance can be measured through its determinants in an linear equation as below:
The equation above shows that work-life balance is depended on its determinants
such as work-family gains, work-family strains, work-parenting gains, work-parenting
strains, satisfaction at work, satisfaction at home, employee citizenship, the conflicts
between different roles, and family functioning, etc. Different researchers may provide or
identify different determinants of work-life balance and it is depended on the research
circumstances.
1.2.4. Factors influencing work-life balance 1.2.4.1. Organizational support Organizational support gains much attention among the researchers in the studied
field of psychology and human resource management (Eisenberger et al., 2004). It is
defined as the level of which the employees perceive that their managers or their
employers to recognize their contribution to the organizations (Aube et al., 2007).
Organizational support also includes supervisor support. Empirical evidence from Mas-
Machuba et al. (2016) confirms that when the supervisors decentralize their decision
making process, their employees feel more comfortable at the workplace. Russo et al.
(2015) acclaim that supervisor support positively influences on work-life balance of the
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employees throughout their action of implementing the regulations related to the
employees‟ roles. However, there are also empirical evidences in which the relation
between supervisor support and work-life balance is not supported. Wu et al. (2013)
compare the impacts of two factors on work-life balance of the employees and these
factors are supervisor support and pleasant working environment. Wu et al. (2013) identify
that supervisor support does not influence on work-life balance of the employees but
please working environment. Another empirical evidence which is provided by Au and
Ahmed (2016) also confirms that work-life balance is not influenced by supervisor
support.
Co-worker support is the second facet of organizational support and it influences on
work-life balance of the employees. In fact, co-worker support is different to supervisor
support due to co-worker works laterally and no right to command (Wong et al., 2017).
Empirical evidence from Valcour et al. (2011) confirms that co-worker impacts positively
on work-life balance of the employees through the fact that co-worker provides work-life
supports to each other. Wong et al. (2017) consider co-worker is the bridge to connect
work and non-work domain and this factor strengthens of work-life balance of the
employees. Moreover, the impact of co-worker support on work-life balance is shown
through instrumental and emotional form (Russo et al., 2015). The first form in co-worker
support is instrumental and it is perceived as tangible supports from co-worker or the
employees can provide job support to each other in case of personal issues. The second
form is emotional and it refers to the co-workers often exchange or share their opinions
with others in order to get better solutions in both work and non-work domain. According
to Ducharme and Martin (2000), co-worker plays prominent role in job outcome and it is
key factor that explains job satisfaction of the employees.
1.2.4.2. Flexible working arrangement The influence of flexible working arrangement on work-life balance of the
employees is put into the discussion. It is notable that flexible working arrangement helps
to boost the employees‟ productivity as well as strengthening work-life balance status
(Sivatte et al., 2015). Empirical evidence from Ariffin et al. (2016) confirms two roles of
different working arrangement. The first arrangement is flexible working arrangement and
it contributes to work-life balance of the employees while the second arrangement refer to
long working arrangement and it makes the employees feel satisfaction in self-esteem.
Subramaniam et al. (2013) confirm that flexible working arrangement leads to higher job
autonomy and job autonomy has positive influence on the reduction of work-life conflicts.
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However, Baral and Bhargava (2010) obtain contradicted result in their empirical study in
which flexible working arrangement does not induce for the reduction of work-family
issues.
1.2.4.3. Technology advancement Technology advancement refers to the application of new technologies into
workplace and it is considered as one of the main factors that impacts significantly on both
work and personal life of people (Kumarasamy et al., 2015). When the firms apply new
technologies, the employees gain the benefit of more flexibility in term of when and where
to work (Lester, 1999). Furthermore, advanced technologies allow the employees to access
to work all times (Lester, 1999). In the contrast, Stephens et al. (2007) identify that recent
development in communication technologies reduce flexibility in personal life and it even
create the difficulty to maintain work-life balance. An empirical evidence which is
provided by Stawarx et al. (2013) confirms that electronic tablet reduces work-life balance
of users. Waller and Ragsdell (2012) identify that email is advanced communication
technology and it is widely used in entire businesses but downside of using this technology
is that it makes the employees harder to balance between work and personal life.
1.2.4.4. Job stress Job stress is defined as the combination of factors that cause the disturbance to the
employees in workplace and the disturbance is happened in both of physical and
psychological aspect (Sultan et al., 2016). Empirical evidence from Jamal (1984)
highlights that high job stress leads to lower job performance from the employees.
Moreover, job stress also affects to work-life balance of the employees (Rizwan et al.,
2013; Younas et al., 2013; Jamal and Baba, 2000). Hobfoll (2004) conducts the interviews
with experienced employees and it is identified that stressful job is explained by the gap
between the employees‟ expectations and the job requirements and higher gap leads to
work-life imbalance. Sale and Kerr (2001) indicate that job stress leads to higher job
dissatisfaction and formulates work-life imbalance. Moreover, job stress level is measured
under specific working conditions, including working with high speed and working under
tight deadline (Green and McIntosh, 2001). When the employees work under this
conditions, they are likely to be stressed out and it could lead to work-life imbalance
(Clutterbuck, 2003).
1.2.4.5. Communication with the employees on workplace’s issues According to Lockwood (2003), communication with the employees about the
issues in the workplace is important since the firms do not achieve desired results from
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work-life benefits if their employees are not communicate and informed about the
programs. Empirical evidence from Walker (2012) highlights that when the employees are
received good communication, they are likely motivated. Therefore, the managers should
open formal and information communication with their staffs. Winkler (2010) identifies
that a healthy work-life balance is obtained when there is cooperation in the firms. It is
noted that good cooperation is achieved through proper communication and it helps to
further improve employee relations and employee loyalty (Winkler, 2010).
Rathee and Bhuntel (2018) explored factors affecting work-life balance of
women in education sector. They applied quantitative research method with primary
data to be collected from questionnaire with 213 female respondents. They
identified that 9 main factors related to work-life balance level, including stress
level, challenges which hinder the work life balance, work life balance, satisfaction,
health problems, environment, problems of work life balance, attitude towards
work, time management.
Agha et al. (2016) identified the relationship between work life balance,
teaching satisfaction and job satisfaction. Questionnaire was distributed for the
collection of data in the public and private higher education institutions for teacher
in Oman. Structured equation modelling was used. A research model was
conceptualized based on the finding, work life balance affects organization
commitment, employee loyalty and job satisfaction. Also, found that teaching
satisfaction had a positive relationship with job satisfaction.
Zaheer et al. (2016) investigated the level of the occupational stress among
females, work life balance and assess the relationship between occupational stress
and work life balance amid female faculties in the central university Delhi. 120
respondents were selected for the sample size. Questionnaire was given to the
respondent for the data collection. Correlation analysis techniques was used to
understand the relationship between occupational stress and work life balance. The
study found that correlation analysis identified a strong positive relationship
between occupational stress and work life imbalance of female faculty in central
universities of Delhi.
Tressa and Manisha (2016) explored the work life balance and stress level of
KV school female‟s teachers. Questionnaire was distributed to the female teachers
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1.3. Related empirical evidences
of primary school. The study found that there was a stress-free environment,
obligations and responsibilities of work life balance for the teaching professionals.
Also, found that the employers of the institution to flexible working strategies and
better working conditions.
Samuel and Mahalingam (2016) identified individual factors demographic
and level of work life balance and how it influences the overall work life balance of
female facilities. A sample size of 200 was chosen for the data collection. Statistical
tools were used like the Chisquare test and ANOVA for the data analysis and
interpretation. The findings of the study reveal that in the engineering colleges
female faculties were in stress due to the continuous work and they face problems in
balancing with their personal life and professional life. Also found that female
faculties face lots of problem in the engineering college as compared to arts and
science faculties in other colleges.
Smith and Gardner (2007) examined work-life balance using a sample of 153
employees in a large New Zealand organization. Analysis of company policies
identified sixteen WLB initiatives currently being offered. Employees were
surveyed to determine the extent of their awareness and use of currently offered
initiatives. Factors influencing WLB initiative use and employee outcomes for
initiative use were investigated. Female employees and younger employees used
more WLB initiatives while employees reporting higher levels of management
support and supervisor support, and perceiving fewer career damage and time
demands also used more WLB initiatives. No support was found for the role of
coworker support on WLB initiative use. Initiative use was related to reduced work-
to-family conflict. Work-to-family conflict,
family-to-work conflict, and
commitment to the organization were related to intention to turnover. The results
highlight the importance of workplace culture in enabling an environment that is
supportive of WLB and consequently use of initiatives that are offered by the
organization.
Kaushik et al. (2014) iscussed various issues like gender stereotype, gender
discrimination and sexual harassment in the context of Indian environment. A
structured questionnaire was developed to collect primary data from 500 firms in
13
India. The respondents in present study have been taken mainly from service sector,
manufacturing sector and education sector. The data collected through questionnaire
was coded and tabulated keeping in context with the objective of the study and was
analyzed by calculating frequencies, factor analysis and one-way analysis of
variance. Analysis indicated that though age and level of management has no
significant effect on these factors but male and female respondents differ
significantly on their opinion regarding these issues.
Sigroha (2014) ompared the employee‟s perception regarding impact and
measures how to improve the work life balance facility of working women. A
sample size of 400 respondents was collected for the data collection. One-way
ANOVA was used for the data analysis and interpretation. The study found that
there was a significant difference in the employees‟ perception regarding the impact
of the child care facility, flexible working hours. Also, found that imbalance of the
health issues of the women.
Saranya and Gokulakrishan (2013) contributed the depression, psychological
stress, imbalance and importance of female work life balance. Empirical study was
conducted through questionnaire method for the data analysis. The study found a
positive association between work life balance, imbalance in the contexts of
depression and psychological stress.
Santhi & Sundar (2012) identified the level of satisfaction, factors and
overall work life balance of women employees. A Sample size of the study was
350. The study found that work life balance programs implemented satisfaction
level on the employees. Also, found that the ranking of the dimensions influencing
work life are as follows: child care, support system, benefits, recreation, work
environment factors in attaining the professional and personal life of the employees.
1.4. Overview of Vietnamese banking system and Agribank
banking model to modern model with the development and the operations of
different banking businesses (Tran et al., 2015). Currently, the system of credit
institutions of Vietnam consists of banks, non-bank credit institutions, micro-
14
1.4.1. Overview of Vietnamese banking system The banking industry in Vietnam has been transformed from old mono-
finance institutions, the branches of foreign banks, and representative offices. Banks
play the most important role in Vietnam banking system in which commercial
banks plays the prominent role of mobilizing funds and issuing loans to different
economic entities. Currently, there are 4 state-owned commercial banks, 31 joint-
stock commercial banks, and 9 wholly foreign-owned banks (State Bank of
Vietnam, 2018).
Vietnam banking system gains tremendous development. The World Bank
(2018) indicates that Vietnam is among ASEAN‟s countries having high domestic
credit provided by financial sector as share of GDP. From 2013 to 2017, domestic
credit provided by financial sector is increased from 104.91% to 140.06%. Vietnam
is only after Thailand (167.35%) and higher than Singapore (129.55%). Moreover,
Vietnam has highest domestic credit to private sector by banks as share of GDP and
it is stood at 130.67% in 2017 and this number is higher than Singapore (128.21%)
and Thailand (11.62%). Credit growth rate in overall banking system of the country
is about 18% in 2017 (The Reuter, 2018).
Table 2: Domestic credit provided by financial sector (% of GDP)
Country
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
12.02
18.37
25.52
39.95
35.48
Brunei
33.84
46.84
55.67
65.12
71.06
Cambodia
22.72
26.75
28.94
33.27
39.30
Myanmar
50.90
51.90
55.86
59.01
63.49
Philippines
94.68
110.23
124.79
116.53
129.55
Singapore
155.86
159.76
167.17
170.73
167.35
Thailand
104.91
108.23
113.77
128.35
140.06
Vietnam
Source: The World Bank (2018)
Given to the development of Vietnam banking system, it is notable that the
market is still being dominated by state-owned commercial banks. According to
Vietcombank Securities (2017), the market shares of state-owned commercial banks
in saving and lending market are 49.3% and 47.7% respectively. Currently, there
are 4 state-owned commercial banks, including Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and
15
Rural Development (Agribank), Global Petro Sole Member Limited Commercial
Bank, Ocean Commercial One Member Limited Liability Bank, and Construction
Commercial One Member Limited Liability Bank. Among these 4 banks, Agribank
has largest charter capital which is stood at VND 30,377 billion and this bank has
942 branches and transaction offices. Other state-owned commercial banks are very
small business scale and they are joint-stock commercial banks but are transformed
and being managed by State Bank of Vietnam due to poor business performance.
facilitate agriculture development of the country. The bank also provides lending
products and services to household sector in 1991 and it also provides the support to
poor people. As of now, Agribank is ranked as one of 10 largest enterprises in
Vietnam (Agribank, 2018). Total outstanding loans of the bank is nearly VND 900
trillion in which 74% of total outstanding loans is to agriculture and rural areas. The
profit of the bank is recorded at VND 5,081 billion in 2017 and it is increased
nearly 17% compared to 2016. Agribank is also one of the first bank in Vietnam
which has banking activities outside of Vietnam, showing through the fact that the
bank establishes its branch in Cambodia in 2010. There are also 837 banks that have
correspondent relationships with Agribank and cross-border payment is opened
between Agribank and other banks from China, Laos, and Cambodia.
1.4.2. Overview of Agribank Agribank is established in 1988 with the objective of providing credit to
1.5. Research model and research hypothesis
The previous section provides empirical discussion about the factors influencing on
work-life balance of the employees. It helps the researcher to reveal 5 factors that could
impact on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees, including organizational support,
flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, job stress, and communication
with the employees on workplace issues. In this context, a research model is proposed in
which work-life balance plays the role of dependent variable while those factors are
independent variables. It is asserted that there are many research models which are
developed to address the key determinants of work-life balance.
There are some research models which are developed and proposed by other
researchers. However, these models do not reflect all important factors affecting to work-
16
life balance in the banks. For example, Giorgi et al. (2017) provide a research model to
measure the effects of factors on work-life balance in banking sector but these researchers
only focus on job stress factors. Oludayo et al. (2015) develop a study of multiple work-
life balance initiatives in banking industry in Nigeria and they propose two factors
affecting to work-life balance, including work arrangement and leave initiatives but these
two factors do not have significant effect to work-life balance in regression analysis result.
Hafiz (2017) examines work-life balance among female employees in banking industry
and this researcher only focuses on the difference of demographic characteristics that cause
the different perception of work-life balance. Obiageli et al. (2015) provide a study about
work-life balance and employee performance in banking sector and they focus only on
leave policy and related factors which are not sufficient for full aspect of work-life
balance. Doshi (2014) provides a research model in which work-life balance is affected by
working hours, working pressure, flexible working arrangements, job nature, career
opportunity, and productivity but they do not measure the effect of these factors to work-
life balance itself. It is concluded that previous researcher do not provide a comprehensive
research model to measure the effects of factors to work-life balance.
In the case study of Agribank, it is asserted that organizational support, flexible
working arrangement, technology advancement, job stress, and communication with the
employees on workplace issues are chosen factors and they are relevant to the bank‟s
current situation. The researcher does not grab compensation factor because of the bank
employees receive good salary package. Organizational support is chosen because of
Agribank is formulated from state-owned management and therefore the gap between the
managers and the staffs is high with old management model in which the employees are
fear to ask the managers and wish for their supports. Flexible working environment is
chosen since it is a new trend in modern working environment. The global survey from EY
(2018) shows that flexible working environment is one of the top concern about work-life
balance. Agribank‟s employees are now working for 8 hours per day, from 8am to 5pm
and there is no special policy to be applied in the bank. However, when the employees are
busy with their family-related tasks, they may come to the office late and therefore it is
proper to setup flexible working arrangement. Technology advancement is the third factor
and it is reasonable since Vietnamese banking industry is now being explored by modern
banking model from fintech companies. Moreover, the application of technologies allow
the employees to reduce the time spent at specific task and therefore they can finish the
task and leave the office on time. The fourth factor is job stress and it is the factor that is in
17
the focus of previous researchers. Obviously, when job stress level is high, it affects to the
employees in both physical and mental way. The last factor is the communication about
workplace issues. In fact, the communication in Agribank is poor since the employees are
still following the culture of silent and they are rarely to speak out the truth.
The relationship between work-life balance and 5 factors (organizational support,
flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, job stress, and communication
H1
Organizational support
H2
Flexible working arrangement
H3
Technology advancement
Work-life balance
H4
Job stress
H5
Communication with the employees on workplace‟s issues
with the employees on workplace issues) is direct as below:
Figure 2: Proposed research model
Source: Developed and proposed by the researcher (2018)
From proposed research model, there are 3 research hypotheses:
H1: Organizational support influences positively on work-life balance of
Agribank‟s employees.
H2: Flexible working arrangement influences positively on work-life balance of
Agribank‟s employees.
H3: Technology advancement influences positively on work-life balance of
Agribank‟s employees.
18
H4: Job stress influences positively on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
H5: Communication with the employees on workplace‟s issues influences
positively on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
1.5. Conclusion
In this chapter, the researcher identifies the definitions for work-life balance.
Moreover, the researcher points out work-life balance is depended on how organizational
support, flexible working arrangement, and technology advancement. A research model is
19
developed with respective research hypotheses.
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research methodology
Research methodology is important component of academic researches and the
researchers often apply onion research framework (Saunders et al., 2016). The research
onion framework is a research structure in which it consists of many layers, including
research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, research method, and data
collection (Saunders et al., 2016).
Figure 3: The research onion
Source: Saunders et al. (2016)
The first layer of research onion framework is research philosophy and it refers to
the researchers‟ belief in which their studies to be developed and social phenomenon are
analyzed (Li, 2015). There are four research philosophies, including positivism,
interpretivism, realism, and pragmatism (Saunders et al., 2016). Among these research
philosophies, positivism reflects the researchers‟ belief in which social phenomenon is
studied by value-free way and researched outcomes are obtained through objective stances
(Aliyu et al., 2015). Positivism research philosophy is chosen due to some reasons. The
first reason is that it is applied in the studies to which causal relationship among variables
is measured. The second reason is that positivism provides objective viewpoints about
social phenomenon and the conclusion is less biased by personal point of view from
20
interpretivism, realism, and pragmatism
The second layer of research onion framework is research approach which is
characterized by deductive and inductive (Saunders et al., 2016). Research approach is
defined as a studying workflow and deductive has different workflow compared to
inductive. According to Walliman (2017), deductive approach is a process of mapping
research problems with existing theories and concepts and the researchers validate applied
theories in certain circumstances. In the contrast, inductive research approach is developed
without existing theories and the researchers aim to develop a new theory based on their
actual observation (Walliman, 2017). In this study, deductive approach is chosen due to
some reasons. The first reason is that the researcher would like to adopt existing theories
related to work-life balance in order to identify key influent factors and then measuring the
effects of these factors to work-life balance of the employees in Agribank. The process of
applying and validating existing theory is associated with deductive approach. The second
reason is that inductive approach is utilized when there is small sample of the subject. The
subject of the study is Agribank‟s employees and this bank has high number of workforce
in Vietnam banking system. To achieve desired outcome, work-life balance of Agribank‟s
employees should be convey in adequate sample size in which deductive approach is better
Problem Statement
Literature Review
Quantified questionnaire
Pre-test
Data analysis
Research Finding
Discussion
Conclusion & Recommendations
compared to inductive approach.
21
Figure 4: Deductive approach applied in the study
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
The third layer of research onion framework is research strategy. There are many
research strategies such as experiment, survey, case study, action research, grounded
theory, ethnography, and archival research (Saunders et al., 2016). In this study, survey is
chosen as research strategy. Survey strategy is defined as the process of collecting relevant
data from the subjects that are linked with the researched fields (Reis and Judd, 2014). The
reason of choosing survey strategy is that it allows the researcher to collect the information
from large sample. Survey strategy is also utilized in the studies with hypothesis
validation.
The fourth layer of research onion framework is research method. According to
Saunders et al. (2016), there are three research methods, namely qualitative and
quantitative and mixed method. Quantitative method is adopted in this study and it is
perceived as the process of collecting and analyzing numerical data through statistical
treatments (Biggam, 2018). The reason of not selecting qualitative method is that it creates
the biases in the researched outcomes due to qualitative method requires subjective
assessment from the researcher. Moreover, the key part of this study is to reveal causal
relationship between work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees and its antecedents,
including organizational support, flexible working arrangement, and technology
advancement. Causal relationship is revealed through multiple linear regression which is
part of quantitative assessment.
The last layer of research onion framework refers to what the data to be collected.
In academic studies, the researchers collect either primary data or secondary data or both
(Saunders et al., 2016). Primary data refers to the information which is not prepared and
collected by anyone before while secondary data is appeared in published reports and
documents (Srivastava and Rego, 2016). In this study, primary data is collected from a
survey process in which the questionnaire is developed, piloted, and sent to Agribank‟s
employees. Beside of primary data, secondary data is also collected and it is the contents
which are taken from books and journals about work-life balance in social sciences.
Another secondary data is taken from the internal reports of Agribank and it helps the
researcher to validate key findings which are extracted from primary data.
2.2. Research design process
2.2..1. Questionnaire design
A questionnaire is designed to collect primary data. The structure of the
22
questionnaire includes two sections. The first section is developed to collect general
information of Agribank‟s employees, including gender, age, education level, marital
status, job position level, time of working for Agribank, and having children or not.
Table 3: The format of the first section of the questionnaire
Factor Item
Gender Male Female
Less than 30 41-50 Age 31-40 More than 50
Education Level Post graduate Graduate
Marital Status Single Married
Non-managerial Job Position Level Managerial position position
Time of Working for 12-24 months 36-48 months
Agribank 24-36 months More than 48 months
Having Children(s) or Yes No not
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
The second section is developed to collect the respondents‟ evaluation towards
predetermined statements. Each statement is represented for each factor used in the
research model. The researcher expects to collect numerical data from the questionnaire
and therefore, a Likert scale is utilized. Likert scale includes five points with the value is
ranged from 1 to 5 and the lower value means the lower agreement or the disagreement of
the respondents. In more detail, 1 is indicated for „Strongly Disagree‟, 2 is indicated for
„Disagree‟, 3 is indicated for „Neutral‟, 4 is indicated for „Agree‟, and 5 is indicated for
„Strongly Agree‟.
Table 4: The format of the second section of the questionnaire
Factor Item Source
In my organization specific WLB policy has been
established documented
The organization provides family – friendly policies Work-life Swarnalatha that help me to fulfill family commitments. balance (2013) Various unique programs are offered by the
organization to the employees for maintaining WLB.
23
Employees are expected to attend training programs for
Factor Item Source
WLB conducted inside and outside the organization
Help is available from my organization when I have
problems supporting the elderly and children
My organization really cares about my well-being
My organization is willing to help me if I need a special Organizational Zheng and Wu favor at work support (2018) My organization is willing to help me if I need a special
favor in daily life
My organization allows me work at home on family
problems
Flexible working arrangements help me balance life
commitments
Flexible work options do not suit me because they tend
to make me feel disconnected from the workplace
Working shorter hours would negatively impact on my
career progress within the organization
Working more flexible hours is essential for me in
order to attend to family responsibilities
Flexible working arrangements are essential for me in Flexible order to be able to deal with other interests and working Albion (2004) responsibilities outside work arrangement Flexible working arrangements enable me to focus
more on the job when I am at the workplace
People using flexible working arrangements often miss
important work events or communications, such as staff
meetings, training sessions, important notices, etc.
Supervisors at my workplace react negatively to people
using flexible working arrangements
Other people at my workplace react negatively to
people using flexible working arrangements
Technology Because of technology, I find it hard to switch off from First Technology
24
advancement work when I am at home or out with friends/family Scotland (2015)
Factor Item Source
Using technology to stay connected to work out with
my working hours has a negative impact on my life
Technology allows me to work more flexibly which has
a positive effect on my stress levels
I feel anxious when I cannot access technology to check
messages for work purposes
Using technology for social contact during the working
day helps me cope better with pressures at work
I find it difficult to control the amount of time I spend
using technology for work purposes out with my
working hours
I would like my employer to take measures to prevent
the overuse of technology for work purposes
I am overworked and have neglected my family
responsibilities due to inability to reject my co-workers
and managers Maurya et al. Job stress I believe that if my work was less complex I would do (2015) it better
I believe that I would concentrate better on my job if I
worked from a different workstation from time to time
Management communication with employees on
issues affecting their work-life balance
The management provides feedback to staff Communication Njeri (2014) concerns on work-life balance
Detailed management explanation of work
assignments and non-work assignments
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
2.2.2. Sample
Sample size for the survey is decided upon on what sampling technique is. It is
perceived that adequate sample size allows the researchers to obtain more meaningful
findings (Saunders et al., 2016). There are two different sampling techniques, including
25
probability sampling and non-probability sampling (Alvi, 2016). In this dissertation,
probability sampling is chosen due to the population is clearly defined as total workforces
of Agribank. When selecting probability sampling technique, each employee in Agribank
receives equal selection and it helps the researcher to avoid systematic errors or biases in
the results due to wrong selection. It is notable that probability sampling technique is
conducted with random selection.
There are several ways to determine appropriate sample size. In the first hand, the
sample size is determined upon on rule of sampling. Rule of 100 indicates that the sample
size must be from 100 respondents (Kline, 1979) and there are rule of 150 (Hutcheson and
Sofroniou, 1999), rule of 200 (Guilford, 1954), rule of 250 (Cattell, 1978), rule of 300
(Garson, 2008), and rule of 500 (Comrey and Lee, 1992). According to Hair et al. (2010), a
sample size of 100-400 is suggested. Comrey and Lee (1992) assert that 100 is poor sample
size, 200 is fair sample size, and more than 300 is good sample size. In this context, the
researcher decides the sample size at 300 respondents. The respondents are Agribank‟s
employees and the researcher only selects those who have more than 12 months of working
for the bank.
2.2.3. Pilot study
Pilot study is conducted to ensure that developed measurement scale is
understandable, the wordings are correct, the instruction to fulfill the questionnaire is easy,
and the possibility of adding more items and/or removing existing items (Kumar et al.,
2013). In this dissertation, developed measurement items are put into pilot study with the
participation of five volunteers who are Agribank‟s employees. They are asked to evaluate
the questionnaire in order to ensure that the questionnaire is good before officially sending
to respective respondents.
2.2.4. Data analysis
After quantitative method is selected and primary data is collected, the researcher
applies some data analysis techniques, including frequency analysis, descriptive statistics,
reliability test, explanatory factor analysis, ANOVA analysis, and multiple linear
regression.
Frequency analysis helps the researcher to understand demographic characteristics
of the respondents. This data analysis technique is fundamental and it counts how many
respondents each aspect of a demographic variable as well as calculating the share of this
group in total sample size.
Descriptive statistics provides two important statistical indexes, including mean
26
value and standard deviation. Mean value provides central tendency in the respondents‟
answers while standard deviation provides how the trustfulness in their answers. Using
mean value, the researcher understands what the respondents‟ attitudes by comparing mean
value with two thresholds in which if mean value is less than 2.5, the respondents disagree
with a statement; if mean value is higher than 3.5, the respondents agree with a statement;
and if mean value is between 2.5 and 3.5, the respondents are neither agreeing nor
disagreeing with a statement. The researcher compares standard deviation with 1.0 and if
the value of standard deviation is less than 1.0, the respondents provide true answer and
vice versa.
Reliability test is conducted to measure the reliability level of the survey‟s scale.
Overall reliability level is measured through Cronbach‟s alpha and it is calculated by
following equation:
̅ ̅ ̅
Where:
: Number of items
̅: Average covariance between items
̅: Average variance
Minimum standard value of this index is 0.6. It means that each factor must have
Cronbach‟s alpha from 0.6 and above. In addition, reliability test requires to check the
value of Corrected Item-Total Correlation of each item with minimum value is 0.3 and
Cronbach‟s alpha if one item is deleted. It is noted that when one item is deleted, new
Cronbach‟s alpha value is lower than original Cronbach‟s alpha.
Explanatory factor analysis is applied to verify the proposed research model in
previous section. EFA is a statistical data analysis and it is applied when KMO value
higher than 0.5 and Bartlett‟s Test is statistically significant at 95% of confidence level. In
case of both meeting the requirements of KMO and Bartlett‟s Test, the new components
are extracted and the number of new components is decided through initial eigenvalue of
each component. If one component has initial eigenvalue higher than 1.0, this component
is selected and vice versa. All selected components must have total variance explained
level from 50%. In addition, the researcher obtains the structure of each component in the
component matrix and this matrix is optimized through Varimax rotation technique. It is
denoted that each item in the component matrix or the rotated component matrix must have
27
factor loading value higher than 0.5.
ANOVA analysis is adopted in this study in order to evaluate how the
demographical differences lead to different evaluation of the respondents towards work-
life balance, organizational support, flexible working arrangement, and technology
advancement. For demographic variable with two dimensions, Independent Sample T-Test
is applied. For demographic variable with more than two dimensions, One-Way ANOVA
is utilized. In both case, of statistical test returns p-value less than 0.05, the respondents
who have different demographic characteristics do have different evaluation towards
selected factors.
Figure 5: Linear regression equation
Multiple linear regression is the last data analysis technique. It is developed to
measure causal relationship between dependent and independent variable. In this
dissertation, dependent variable is work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees and
independent variables are organizational support, flexible working arrangement, and
technology advancement. Overall explanation of independent variables to work-life
balance Agribank‟s employees is expressed through Adjusted R-Square. Moreover, each
independent variable affects to work-life balance and it is quantified through Beta value. T-
Test is utilized to ensure that Beta value is significant.
2.3. Conclusion
In this chapter, The researcher also proposes research methodology through
research onion framework in which positivism research philosophy, deductive research
28
approach, survey strategy, and quantitative research method are adopted. The questionnaire
is also proposed along with the scale items. The next step is to officially roll out the
questionnaire to 300 Agribank‟s‟ employees and to collect their answers successfully.
Obtained data is subjected to quantitative data analysis process and key findings are
29
obtained and discussed in the next chapter.
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING
3.1. Introduction
In this chapter, the researcher would like to adopt some data analysis techniques,
including frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, reliability test, explanatory factor
analysis (EFA), independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, and linear regression. These
data analysis techniques help to extract key findings. Through frequency analysis, the
researcher understands the demographical characteristics of the respondents. The
respondents‟ evaluation towards each item of the questionnaire is explored through
descriptive statistics. Reliability test helps the researcher to evaluate the scale item of each
factor while EFA allows the researcher to confirm proposed research model. Independent
sample t-test and one-way ANOVA are conducted to verify that the respondents who have
different demographical characteristics provide different evaluation. Finally, linear
regression is run in order to quantify the effects of factors on work-life balance of the
employees in the bank.
3.2. Frequency analysis
Frequency analysis is applied for the data input with demographic variables,
including gender, age, education, marital status, job position, time of working for
Agribank, and having children. The details of each demographic variable are illustrated by
149
151
Male
Female
the graphs as below:
Figure 6: Gender profile of the respondents
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Gender includes and female and male respondents. There are 149 females and 151
males in the sample. The percentage of male respondents is 50.3% while the percentage of
30
female respondents is 49.7% and the number of male respondents is only slightly higher
than the number of female respondents. Such obtained result reflects current situation in
Agribank Head Office in which male employees and female employees are equal in term
27
102
52
119
Less than 30
31-40
41-50 More than 50
of number.
Figure 7: Age profile of the respondents
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Age includes less than 30, 31-40, 41-50, and more than 50. Most of the respondents
age less than 40, showing through the numbers of respondents in the age group of less than
30 and 31-40 are 102 and 119 respectively. There are 52 respondents who have ages 41-50
and only 27 respondents who have ages more than 50. The percentages of age group less
than 30, 31-40, 41-50, and more than 50 are 34.0%, 39.7%, 17.3%, and 9.0%. Obtained
result reflects current situation in human resource structure of Agribank Head Office since
137
163
Post-graduate
Graduate
the bank‟s employees are almost less than 40 years old.
Figure 8: Education profile of the respondents
31
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Education of the respondents consists of post-graduate and graduate. There are 163
respondents who achieve graduate level and 137 respondents who achieve post-graduate.
The percentages of post-graduate and graduate group are 45.7% and 54.3%. It shows that
the employees in Agribank Head Office has good education level. Currently, recruitment
policies of Agribank restrict the candidates who do not qualify graduate. Therefore,
101
199
Single Married
obtained result reflects current situation in the bank.
Figure 9: Marital status profile of the respondents
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Marital status of 300 respondents include single and married group. There are 101
respondents who are married and 199 respondents who are still single. The percentage of
single group is 66.3% while the percentage of married group is 33.7%. Since the
employees of the bank are still young, lower number of respondent in married group is
68
232
Non-managerial position Managerial position
reasonable result.
32
Figure 10: Job position profile of the respondents
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Job position is the next demographic variable and obtained result shows that there
are 68 respondents who are holding managerial positions in the bank. Moreover, there are
232 respondents who are not holding managerial positions. The percentages of managerial
position and non-managerial position are 77.3% and 22.7% respectively. Obtained result is
68
79
73
80
12-24 months
24-36 months
36-48 months
More than 48 months
true since the bank tries to reduce the number of managerial positions at the ratio of 70:30.
Figure 11: Time of working profile of the respondents
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Time of working of 300 respondents is collected. Obtained result shows that there
are 68 respondents who work for the bank for less than 24 months (22.7%), 73 respondents
who work for the bank for 24-36 months (24.3%), 80 respondents who work for the bank
for 36-48 months (26.7%), and 79 respondents who work for the bank for more than 48
months (26.3%). Herein, the researcher does not collect the data from the group with time
of working less than 12 months. Quite equal distribution between the groups allows the
33
researcher to evaluate how the opinions to be varied by time.
88
212
Yes No
Figure 12: Having children profile of the respondents
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
The last demographic variable is developed to check whether the respondents have
children or not. Obtained result shows that only 88 respondents who have children and 212
respondents who do not have children. The percentages of having children and not having
children groups are 29.3% and 70.7%. It is reasonable since the number of single
respondents is higher than the number of married respondents.
3.3. Descriptive statistics
The next data analysis is descriptive statistics and obtained result is provided as
below:
Code
Items
N
Minimum Maximum
Mean
Std. Deviation
WLB1
300
2.0
4.0
3.290
0.6222
In my organization specific WLB policy has been established documented
WLB2
300
1.0
4.0
3.170
0.6899
The organization provides family – friendly policies that help me to fulfill family commitments.
WLB3
300
2.0
5.0
4.230
0.7911
Various unique programs are offered by the organization to the employees for maintaining WLB.
WLB4
300
2.0
5.0
4.307
0.7624
Employees are expected to attend training programs for WLB conducted inside and outside the organization
OSU1
1.0
5.0
3.133
1.0484
300
Help is available from my organization when I have problems supporting the elderly and children
OSU2
1.0
5.0
3.263
1.0945
300
My organization really cares about my well-being
OSU3
1.0
5.0
3.317
1.0230
300
My organization is willing to help me if I need a special favor at work
34
Table 5: Descriptive statistics
OSU4
300
1.0
4.0
2.113
0.8182
My organization is willing to help me if I need a special favor in daily life
OSU5
300
1.0
5.0
2.293
0.8017
My organization allows me work at home on family problems
FWA1
300
1.0
5.0
3.793
0.8678
Flexible working arrangements help me balance life commitments
FWA2
300
1.0
3.0
2.037
0.4859
Flexible work options do not suit me because they tend to make me feel disconnected from the workplace
FWA3
300
1.0
5.0
3.503
0.9485
Working shorter hours would negatively impact on my career progress within the organization
FWA4
300
1.0
5.0
3.710
0.8534
Working more flexible hours is essential for me in order to attend to family responsibilities
FWA5
300
1.0
5.0
3.740
0.8454
Flexible working arrangements are essential for me in order to be able to deal with other interests and responsibilities outside work
FWA6
300
1.0
5.0
3.573
0.8985
Flexible working arrangements enable me to focus more on the job when I am at the workplace
FWA7
300
1.0
5.0
3.737
0.8621
People using flexible working arrangements often miss important work events or communications, such as staff meetings, training sessions, important notices, etc.
FWA8
300
1.0
5.0
3.747
0.8435
Supervisors at my workplace react negatively to people using flexible working arrangements
FWA9
300
1.0
5.0
3.760
0.7240
Other people at my workplace react negatively to people using flexible working arrangements
TAD1
300
1.0
5.0
3.553
0.8502
Because of technology, I find it hard to switch off from work when I am at home or out with friends/family
TAD2
300
1.0
5.0
3.610
0.7916
Using technology to stay connected to work out with my working hours has a negative impact on my life
TAD3
300
1.0
5.0
3.517
0.7822
Technology allows me to work more flexibly which has a positive effect on my stress levels
TAD4
300
1.0
5.0
3.703
0.7815
I feel anxious when I cannot access technology to check messages for work purposes
TAD5
300
1.0
5.0
3.623
0.8469
Using technology for social contact during the working day helps me cope better with pressures at work
TAD6
300
1.0
5.0
3.527
0.8396
I find it difficult to control the amount of time I spend using technology for work purposes out with my working hours
TAD7
260
1.0
5.0
3.250
0.9190
I would like my employer to take measures to prevent the overuse of technology for work purposes
35
JST1
300
1.0
5.0
3.613
0.8243
I am overworked and have neglected my family responsibilities due to inability to reject my co-workers and managers
JST2
300
1.0
5.0
3.550
0.8889
I believe that if my work was less complex I would do it better
JST3
300
1.0
5.0
3.853
1.0466
I believe that I would concentrate better on my job if I worked from a different workstation from time to time
COM1
300
1.0
5.0
3.347
0.8883
Management communication with employees on issues affecting their work- life balance
COM2
300
1.0
3.0
2.403
0.7040
The management provides feedback to staff concerns on work-life balance
COM3
300
1.0
5.0
3.630
1.1738
Detailed management explanation of work assignments and non-work assignments
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
From the results of descriptive statistics, the researcher groups the items into three
groups, including the group with mean value less than 2.5, the group with mean value
between 2.5 and 3.5, and the group with mean value more than 3.5. Then, the discussion
for obtained result is delivered.
The group with mean value less than 2.5 has 4 items:
OSU4 – „My organization is willing to help me if I need a special favor in
daily life‟: Mean value of this item is 2.113 and it is less than 2.50. It means
that the respondents do not agree with the content of this item or Agribank
Head Office is not willing to help the employees if they need a special favor
in daily life.
OSU5 – „My organization allows me work at home on family problems‟:
Mean value of this item is 2.293 and it is less than 2.50. It means that the
respondents do not agree with the content of this item or Agribank Head
Office does not allow the employees work at home on family problems.
FWA2 – „Flexible work options do not suit me because they tend to make
me feel disconnected from the workplace‟: Mean value of this item is 2.037
and it is less than 2.50. It means that the respondents do not agree with the
content of this item or the employees of Agribank Head Office believe that
flexible work option do suit them because they do not tend to make the
employees feel disconnected from the workplace.
COM2 – „The management provides feedback to staff concerns on work-life
36
balance‟: Mean value of this item is 2.403 and it is less than 2.50. It means
that the respondents do not agree with the content of this item or the
managers of Agribank Head Office do not provide feedback to staff
concerns on work-life balance.
The group with mean value between 2.5 and 3.5 has 7 items:
WLB1 – „In my organization specific WLB policy has been established
documented‟: Mean value of this item is 3.290 and it is between 2.5 and 3.5.
It means that the respondents are neither agreeing nor disagreeing with this
statement.
WLB2 – „The organization provides family – friendly policies that help me
to fulfill family commitments‟: Mean value of this item is 3.170 and it is
between 2.5 and 3.5. It means that the respondents are neither agreeing nor
disagreeing with this statement.
OSU1 – „Help is available from my organization when I have problems
supporting the elderly and children‟: Mean value of this item is 3.133 and it
is between 2.5 and 3.5. It means that the respondents are neither agreeing
nor disagreeing with this statement.
OSU2 – „My organization really cares about my well-being‟: Mean value of
this item is 3.263 and it is between 2.5 and 3.5. It means that the
respondents are neither agreeing nor disagreeing with this statement.
OSU3 – „My organization is willing to help me if I need a special favor at
work‟: Mean value of this item is 3.317 and it is between 2.5 and 3.5. It
means that the respondents are neither agreeing nor disagreeing with this
statement.
TAD7 – „I would like my employer to take measures to prevent the overuse
of technology for work purposes‟: Mean value of this item is 3.250 and it is
between 2.5 and 3.5. It means that the respondents are neither agreeing nor
disagreeing with this statement.
COM1 – „Management communication with employees on issues affecting
their work-life balance‟: Mean value of this item is 3.347 and it is between
2.5 and 3.5. It means that the respondents are neither agreeing nor
disagreeing with this statement.
37
The group with mean value more than 3.5 has 20 items:
WLB3 - Various unique programs are offered by the organization to the
employees for maintaining WLB: Mean value of this item is 4.230 and it is
higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
WLB4 - Employees are expected to attend training programs for WLB
conducted inside and outside the organization: Mean value of this item is
4.307 and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this
statement.
FWA1 - Flexible working arrangements help me balance life commitments:
Mean value of this item is 3.793 and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the
respondents agree with this statement.
FWA3 - Working shorter hours would negatively impact on my career
progress within the organization: Mean value of this item is 3.503 and it is
higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
FWA4 - Working more flexible hours is essential for me in order to attend
to family responsibilities: Mean value of this item is 3.710 and it is higher
than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
FWA5 - Flexible working arrangements are essential for me in order to be
able to deal with other interests and responsibilities outside work: Mean
value of this item is 3.740 and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the
respondents agree with this statement.
FWA6 - Flexible working arrangements enable me to focus more on the job
when I am at the workplace: Mean value of this item is 3.573 and it is
higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
FWA7 - People using flexible working arrangements often miss important
work events or communications, such as staff meetings, training sessions,
important notices, etc.: Mean value of this item is 3.737 and it is higher than
3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
FWA8 - Supervisors at my workplace react negatively to people using
flexible working arrangements: Mean value of this item is 3.747 and it is
higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
FWA9 - Other people at my workplace react negatively to people using
flexible working arrangements: Mean value of this item is 3.760 and it is
38
higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
TAD1 - Because of technology, I find it hard to switch off from work when
I am at home or out with friends/family: Mean value of this item is 3.553
and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this
statement.
TAD2 - Using technology to stay connected to work out with my working
hours has a negative impact on my life: Mean value of this item is 3.610 and
it is higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
TAD3 - Technology allows me to work more flexibly which has a positive
effect on my stress levels: Mean value of this item is 3.517 and it is higher
than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
TAD4 - I feel anxious when I cannot access technology to check messages
for work purposes: Mean value of this item is 3.703 and it is higher than 3.5.
It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
TAD5 - Using technology for social contact during the working day helps
me cope better with pressures at work: Mean value of this item is 3.623 and
it is higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
TAD6 - I find it difficult to control the amount of time I spend using
technology for work purposes out with my working hours: Mean value of
this item is 3.527 and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents
agree with this statement.
JST1 - I am overworked and have neglected my family responsibilities due
to inability to reject my co-workers and managers: Mean value of this item
is 3.613 and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with
this statement.
JST2 - I believe that if my work was less complex I would do it better:
Mean value of this item is 3.550 and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the
respondents agree with this statement.
JST3 - I believe that I would concentrate better on my job if I worked from
a different workstation from time to time: Mean value of this item is 3.853
and it is higher than 3.5. It means that the respondents agree with this
statement.
COM3 - Detailed management explanation of work assignments and non-
work assignments: Mean value of this item is 3.630 and it is higher than 3.5.
39
It means that the respondents agree with this statement.
3.4. Reliability test
The next data analysis is reliability test and this test is conducted for each factor in
research model. Obtained result presents 3 requirements of reliability test in the tables
below:
Table 6: Reliability test for work-life balance factor
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.912
Items
Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Scale Variance if Item Deleted
Corrected Item-Total Correlation
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
11.707
4.248
0.747
0.906
WLB1
11.827
3.836
0.829
0.877
WLB2
10.767
3.484
0.827
0.878
WLB3
3.606
0.817
0.881
WLB4
10.690 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Cronbach‟s alpha for work-life balance factor is 0.912, indicating for excellent
reliability level of the item scale. Corrected item-total correlation for WLB1, WLB2,
WLB3, and WLB4 are 0.747, 0.829, 0.827, and 0.817. The deletion of WLB1, WLB2,
WLB3, and WLB4 lead to new Cronbach‟s alpha values are 0.906, 0.877, 0.878, and
0.881. It is concluded that all requirements of reliability test are fulfilled.
Table 7: Reliability test for organizational support factor
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.870
Items
Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Scale Variance if Item Deleted
Corrected Item-Total Correlation
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
10.987
9.083
0.814
0.811
OSU1
10.857
9.026
0.776
0.823
OSU2
10.803
10.326
0.602
0.867
OSU3
12.007
11.344
0.602
0.865
OSU4
10.866
0.723
0.841
OSU5
11.827 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Cronbach‟s alpha for organizational support factor is 0.870, indicating for very
good reliability level of the item scale. Corrected item-total correlation for OSU1, OSU2,
OSU3, OSU4, and OSU5 are 0.814, 0.776, 0.602, 0.602, and 0.723. The deletion of OSU1,
OSU2, OSU3, OSU4, and OSU5 lead to new Cronbach‟s alpha values are 0.811, 0.823,
40
0.867, 0.865, and 0.841. It is concluded that all requirements of reliability test are fulfilled.
Table 8: Reliability test for flexible working arrangement factor
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.920
Items
Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Scale Variance if Item Deleted
Corrected Item-Total Correlation
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
FWA1
27.807
26.812
0.665
0.914
FWA2
29.563
29.979
0.626
0.919
FWA3
28.097
26.001
0.687
0.913
FWA4
27.890
26.426
0.728
0.910
FWA5
27.860
26.796
0.689
0.912
FWA6
28.027
26.193
0.712
0.911
FWA7
27.863
26.272
0.739
0.909
FWA8
27.853
25.905
0.807
0.904
FWA9
26.550
0.902
27.840 0.867 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Cronbach‟s alpha for flexible working arrangement factor is 0.920, indicating for
excellent reliability level of the item scale. Corrected item-total correlation for FWA1,
FWA2, FWA3, FWA4, FWA5, FWA6, FWA7, FWA8, and FWA9 are 0.665, 0.626,
0.687, 0.728, 0.689, 0.712, 0.739, 0.807, and 0.867. The deletion FWA1, FWA2, FWA3,
FWA4, FWA5, FWA6, FWA7, FWA8, and FWA9 lead to new Cronbach‟s alpha values
are 0.914, 0.919, 0.913, 0.910, 0.912, 0.911, 0.909, 0.904, and 0.902. It is concluded that
all requirements of reliability test are fulfilled.
Table 9: Reliability test for technology advancement factor
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.885
Items
Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Scale Variance if Item Deleted
Corrected Item-Total Correlation
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
TAD1
21.327
13.858
0.775
0.855
TAD2
21.227
14.624
0.744
0.861
TAD3
21.362
15.043
0.652
0.871
TAD4
21.185
15.472
0.588
0.879
TAD5
21.269
15.163
0.569
0.882
TAD6
21.188
14.663
0.746
0.861
TAD7
14.161
0.870
21.612 0.671 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Cronbach‟s alpha for technology advancement factor is 0.995, indicating for very
good reliability level of the item scale. Corrected item-total correlation for TAD1 TAD2,
TAD3, TAD4, TAD5, TAD6, and TAD7 are 0.775, 0.744, 0.652, 0.588, 0.569, 0.746, and
0.671. The deletion TAD1 TAD2, TAD3, TAD4, TAD5, TAD6, and TAD7 lead to new
Cronbach‟s alpha values are 0.855, 0.861, 0.871, 0.879, 0.882, 0.861, and 0.870. It is
41
concluded that all requirements of reliability test are fulfilled.
Table 10: Reliability test for job stress factor
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.770
Items
Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Scale Variance if Item Deleted
Corrected Item-Total Correlation
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
JST1
7.403
2.803
0.647
0.655
JST2
7.467
2.778
0.573
0.722
JST3
2.251
0.694
7.163 0.612 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Cronbach‟s alpha for job stress factor is 0.770, indicating for good reliability level
of the item scale. Corrected item-total correlation for JST1, JST2, and JST3 are 0.647,
0.573, and 0.612. The deletion of JST1, JST2, and JST3 lead to new Cronbach‟s alpha
values are 0.655, 0.722, and 0.694. It is concluded that all requirements of reliability test
are fulfilled.
Table 11: Reliability test for communication factor
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.796
Items
Scale Mean if Item Deleted
Scale Variance if Item Deleted
Corrected Item-Total Correlation
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
COM1
6.033
2.942
0.638
0.727
COM2
6.977
3.300
0.734
0.687
COM3
2.094
0.773
5.750 0.648 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Cronbach‟s alpha for communication factor is 0.796, indicating for good reliability
level of the item scale. Corrected item-total correlation for COM1, COM2, and COM3 are
0.638, 0.734, and 0.648. The deletion of COM1, COM2, and COM3 lead to new
Cronbach‟s alpha values are 0.727, 0.687, and 0.773. It is concluded that all requirements
of reliability test are fulfilled.
3.5. Explanatory factor analysis
The next data analysis is EFA and it is applied separately for work-life balance‟s
items and other factors‟ items. At first, EFA for work-life balance‟s items is carried out
with KMO and Bartlett‟s test as below:
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.
0.72
Approx. Chi-Square
1,086.92
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
df
6.00
Sig.
0.00
Table 12: KMO and Bartlett’s test for work-life balance’s items
42
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
KMO value is 0.72 and it is higher than 0.50. In addition, Bartlett‟s test of
Sphericity returns approximate chi-square value of 1,086.92 and p-value of the test is less
than 0.05. Therefore, EFA is suitable with the dataset of work-life balance‟s items. After
that the researcher identifies how many components in the dataset.
Initial Eigenvalues
Component
Total
% of Variance
Cumulative %
1
3.182
79.548
79.548
2
0.582
14.543
94.091
3
0.128
3.191
97.282
4
0.109
2.718
100.000
Table 13: Total variance explained for work-life balance’s items
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
There are 4 components in the dataset of work-life balance‟s items. Initial
eigenvalues of Component 1, Component 2, Component 3, and Component 4 are 3.182,
0.82, 0.128, and 0.109. Only Component 1 has initial eigenvalue more than 1.0 so that it is
selected as main component of the dataset. In addition, Component 1 can explain for
79.548% of variance of the dataset. Then, the detail of Component 1 is revealed through
component matrix table as below:
Items
Component 1
0.915
WLB2
0.900
WLB3
0.892
WLB4
0.861
WLB1
Table 14: Component matrix for work-life balance’s items
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Component matrix table provides factor loading values of the items which are
belonged to Component 1. Factor loading values of WLB1, WLB2, WLB3, and WLB4 are
0.861, 0.915, 0.900, and 0.892 and they are higher than 0.50.
In the next stage, EFA is applied for the dataset with items from other factors,
including organizational support, flexible working arrangement, technology advancement,
job stress, and communication.
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy.
0.8
Approx. Chi-Square
4,414.69
Bartlett's Test of Sphericity
df
351
Sig.
0.00
Table 15: KMO and Bartlett’s test for other items
43
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
KMO value is 0.85 and it is higher than 0.50. In addition, Bartlett‟s test of
Sphericity returns approximate chi-square value of 4,414.69 and p-value of the test is less
than 0.05. Therefore, EFA is suitable with the dataset of other items. After that the
researcher identifies how many component in the dataset.
Initial Eigenvalues
Component
% of Variance
Cumulative %
Total
7.938
29.399
29.399
1
3.845
14.243
43.642
2
2.444
9.053
52.694
3
2.139
7.921
60.616
4
1.416
5.246
65.862
5
0.921
3.411
69.273
6
0.913
3.383
72.655
7
0.714
2.645
75.300
8
0.677
2.507
77.807
9
0.613
2.272
80.079
10
0.560
2.076
82.154
11
0.541
2.003
84.158
12
0.487
1.805
85.963
13
0.467
1.729
87.692
14
0.405
1.500
89.192
15
0.378
1.399
90.591
16
0.366
1.355
91.946
17
0.337
1.249
93.195
18
0.298
1.104
94.299
19
0.291
1.077
95.376
20
0.285
1.056
96.433
21
0.234
0.868
97.301
22
0.227
0.840
98.141
23
0.182
0.674
98.814
24
0.135
0.500
99.314
25
0.099
0.367
99.681
26
0.086
0.319
100.000
27
Table 16: Total variance explained for work-life balance’s items
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
There are 5 components in the dataset of other items with initial eigenvalues more
than 1.0. Initial eigenvalues of Component 1, Component 2, Component 3, Component 4,
and Component 5 are 7.938, 3.845, 2.444, 2.139, and 1.416. Other components, however,
have initial eigenvalues less than 1.0 so that they are not selected as main components of
the dataset. In addition, chosen components have % variance explained value of 65.862%
44
which is higher than 50%. Then, the detail of chosen component is revealed through
rotated component matrix table as below. It is denoted that rotated component matrix is a
technique to get optimal combination between items.
Component
Items
2
4
5
3
1
FWA9
0.915
FWA8
0.811
FWA7
0.808
FWA5
0.792
FWA6
0.760
FWA4
0.742
FWA1
0.708
FWA3
0.703
FWA2
0.661
TAD1
0.819
TAD2
0.804
TAD7
0.797
TAD6
0.745
TAD3
0.731
TAD5
0.605
TAD4
0.594
OSU1
0.886
OSU2
0.836
OSU5
0.830
OSU4
0.730
OSU3
0.651
COM1
0.850
COM2
0.801
COM3
0.791
JST1
0.852
JST2
0.807
JST3
0.793
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Table 17: Component matrix for work-life balance’s items
Component matrix table provides factor loading values of the items which are
belonged to each chosen component. The main comment is that all items have factor
loading values more than 0.50. Component 1 is named as flexible working arrangement
due to it has all items of this factor. In the same argument, the names of Component 2,
Component 3, Component 4, and Component 5 are technology advancement,
45
organizational support, communication, and job stress.
3.6. Independent sample t-test
Independent sample t-test is applied for demographic variables with only two
dimensions, including gender, education, marital status, job position, and having children.
Obtained result is presented as below:
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
t-test for Equality of Means
Factor
F-Test
P-value
T-Test
P-value
Flexible working arrangement
0.855
0.356
-0.745
0.457
Technology advancement
3.071
0.081
-1.745
0.082
Organizational support
0.842
0.360
-0.659
0.510
Communication
0.587
0.444
0.918
0.359
Job stress
0.207
0.650
-0.461
0.645
Work-life balance
3.114
0.079
-0.467
0.641
Table 18: Independent sample t-test for gender variable
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Obtained result shows Levene‟s test for equality of variances are not statistically
significant at 5% of confidence interval for all examined factors. The researcher utilizes T-
Test for equal variance not assumed and obtained result shows that all T-test are not
statistically significant. It is concluded that male and female respondents not have different
assessments towards flexible working arrangement, technology advancement,
organizational support, communication, job stress, and work-life balance.
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
t-test for Equality of Means
Factor
P-value
T-Test
P-value
F-Test
0.492
-0.909
0.364
Flexible working arrangement
0.474
0.537
0.708
0.480
Technology advancement
0.383
0.094
0.419
0.676
Organizational support
2.822
0.226
-0.762
0.447
Communication
1.471
0.174
-0.061
0.951
Job stress
1.856
0.133
-1.314
0.190
Work-life balance
2.275
Table 19: Independent sample t-test for education variable
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Obtained result shows Levene‟s test for equality of variances are not statistical
significant at 5% of confidence interval for all examined factors. The researcher utilizes T-
Test for equal variance not assumed and obtained result shows that all T-test are not
statistically significant. It is concluded that the respondents who achieve post-graduate and
graduate as education level do not have different assessments towards flexible working
arrangement, technology advancement, organizational support, communication, job stress,
46
and work-life balance.
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
t-test for Equality of Means
Factor
F-Test
P-value
T-Test
P-value
Flexible working arrangement
1.742
0.188
0.314
0.754
Technology advancement
7.235
0.008
-2.059
0.040
Organizational support
0.217
0.642
0.423
0.673
Communication
3.834
0.051
2.388
0.018
Job stress
0.007
0.932
1.076
0.283
Work-life balance
0.656
0.419
-0.188
0.851
Table 20: Independent sample t-test for marital status variable
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Obtained result shows that technology advancement has equal variance and T-test
is also statistical significant. It is concluded that single and married respondents do have
different evaluation towards technology advancement factor. There is another variable,
namely communication, and it has F-test not statistical significant or equal variance not
assumed but T-test is statistical significant. It means that single and married respondents do
have different evaluation towards communication factor. Other factors have insignificant
T-test so that single and married respondents do not have different evaluation towards
flexible working arrangement, organizational support, job stress, and work-life balance.
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
t-test for Equality of Means
Factor
F-Test
P-value
T-Test
P-value
Flexible working arrangement
0.236
0.628
-0.729
0.468
Technology advancement
0.002
0.968
-0.138
0.891
Organizational support
0.198
0.657
-1.074
0.287
Communication
0.093
0.761
0.909
0.366
Job stress
0.001
0.974
-0.733
0.466
Work-life balance
0.002
0.962
-0.024
0.981
Table 21: Independent sample t-test for job position variable
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Obtained result shows Levene‟s test for equality of variances are not statistical
significant at 5% of confidence interval for all examined factors. Therefore, the researcher
utilizes T-Test for equal variance not assumed and obtained result shows that all T-test are
not statistically significant. It is concluded that the respondents who are holding
managerial position and non-managerial position do not have different assessments
towards flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, organizational support,
47
communication, job stress, and work-life balance.
Levene's Test for Equality of Variances
t-test for Equality of Means
Factor
F-Test
P-value
T-Test
P-value
Flexible working arrangement
1.575
0.211
0.303
0.762
Technology advancement
5.889
0.016
1.690
0.092
Organizational support
0.423
0.516
-0.939
0.349
Communication
0.816
0.367
-1.703
0.091
Job stress
0.105
0.746
-1.538
0.126
Work-life balance
0.066
0.797
-0.243
0.808
Table 22: Independent sample t-test for having children variable
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Obtained result shows Levene‟s test for equality of variances are not statistical
significant at 5% of confidence interval for almost examined factors, except technology
advancement. F-test value of technology advancement factor is 5.889 and p-value is 0.016
less than 0.05. Therefore, the researcher utilizes T-Test for equal variance not assumed for
flexible working arrangement, organization support, communication, job stress, and work-
life balance obtained result shows that all T-test are not statistical significant. Moreover,
the researcher utilizes -Test for equal variance assumed for technology advancement and
T-test is not statistical significant. It is concluded that the respondents who are holding
managerial position and non-managerial position do not have different assessments
towards flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, organizational support,
communication, job stress, and work-life balance.
3.7. One-way ANOVA
One-way ANOVA is applied for demographic variables with more than two
dimensions, including age and time of working for the bank. Obtained result is presented
as below:
Age
Time of working
Factor
F-Test
P-value
F-Test
P-value
Flexible working arrangement
1.355
0.257
0.901
0.441
Technology advancement
0.560
0.642
1.502
0.214
Organizational support
2.045
0.108
0.512
0.674
Communication
1.813
0.145
1.507
0.213
Job stress
1.087
0.355
0.315
0.815
Work-life balance
1.269
0.285
0.482
0.823 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Table 23: One-way ANOVA for age and time of working for the bank variable
Obtained result from one-way ANOVA shows that there are no F-Test values with
p-value less than 0.05. It means that the respondents who have different ages or different
48
time of working for Agribank Head Office do not have different assessments towards
flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, organizational support,
communication, job stress, and work-life balance.
3.8. Linear regression
The last data analysis technique is linear regression and obtained result is presented
as below:
Adjusted R-Square = 0.515; F-Test = 55.992, p-value = 0.000
Factor
Beta
T-Test
P-value
Constant
-0.067
-1.548
0.123
Flexible working arrangement
0.379
8.725
0.000
Technology advancement
0.452
10.418
0.000
Organizational support
0.249
5.730
0.000
Communication
0.272
6.272
0.000
Job stress
0.000
0.209
4.810 Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
Table 24: Linear regression
Linear regression result shows that 51.5% work-life balance‟s variance is explained
by flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, organizational support,
communication, and job stress. Among these independent variables, technology
advancement has highest Beta value therefore it has highest effect to work-life balance of
the employees in Agribank Head Office.
H1: Organizational support influences significantly on work-life balance of
Agribank‟s employees.
Beta value of organizational support are estimated at 0.249. T-Test is statistically
significant at 5% of confidence interval. Therefore, H1 is accepted.
H2: Flexible working arrangement influences significantly on work-life balance of
Agribank‟s employees.
Beta value of organizational support are estimated at 0.379. T-Test is statistically
significant at 5% of confidence interval. Therefore, H2 is accepted.
H3: Technology advancement influences significantly on work-life balance of
Agribank‟s employees.
Beta value of technology advancement are estimated at 0.452. T-Test is statistically
significant at 5% of confidence interval. Therefore, H3 is accepted.
H4: Job stress influences significantly on work-life balance of Agribank‟s
employees.
Beta value of job stress are estimated at 0.209 and 0.209. T-Test is statistically
49
significant at 5% of confidence interval. Therefore, H4 is accepted.
H5: Communication with the employees on workplace‟s issues influences
significantly on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
Beta value of communication are estimated at 0.272. T-Test is statistically
50
significant at 5% of confidence interval. Therefore, H5 is accepted.
CHAPTER 4: DISUCSSION
4.1. Summary of key findings
From the previous chapters, there are some key findings. The first key finding is
extracted from descriptive statistics whether there are some items which are belonged to
organizational support, flexible working arrangement, and communication are disagreed by
the respondents. The researcher focuses on these items with low mean value because of
they are critical information to Agribank to further improve work-life balance to the bank‟s
employees. These items are Agribank Head Office is not willing to help the employees if
they need a special favor in daily life, Agribank Head Office does not allow the employees
work at home on family problems, the employees of Agribank Head Office believe that
flexible work option do suit them because they do not tend to make the employees feel
disconnected from the workplace, and the managers of Agribank Head Office do not
provide feedback to staff concerns on work-life balance.
The second key finding is collected from ANOVA analysis. It is recaptured that
single and married respondents do have different evaluation towards technology
advancement and communication factor. This finding is confirmed by significant value of
T-test for equality of means.
The third key finding is taken from reliability test. Cronbach‟s alpha of work-life
balance, organizational support, flexible working arrangement, technology advancement,
job stress, and communication are 0.912, 0.870, 0.920, 0.885, 0.770, and 0.796. All
Cronbach‟s alpha values are higher than 0.70. In addition, each item of each factor has
corrected item-total correlation values more than 3.0 and when deleting one item, new
Cronbach‟s alpha values is lower than original value. Therefore, all factors qualify
reliability test in which work-life balance and technology advance factor have excellent
reliability level, organizational support and technology advancement have very good
reliability level, and job stress and communication have good reliability level.
The fourth key finding is generated from EFA analysis. This data analysis
technique is conducted separately for the items of work-life balance factor and the items of
organizational support, flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, job stress,
and communication factors. Only one component is extracted for work-life balance factor
with % cumulative variance explained value is 79.548% while there are five components
are extracted for other factors with % cumulative variance explained value is 65.862%.
51
Proposed research model in the first chapter is confirmed through EFA.
The last key finding is identified through linear regression. As mentioned in the
first chapter, a linear equation is constructed between work-life balance factor and its
explanatory factors, including organizational support, flexible working arrangement,
technology advancement, job stress, and communication. Linear regression result shows
that all explanatory factors explain for 51.5% of variance of work-life balance factor. Beta
values of organizational support, flexible working arrangement, technology advancement,
job stress, and communication are estimated at 0.248, 0.378, 0.451, 0.208, and 0.271. T-
Test confirms that Beta values of these explanatory factors are statistically significant at
5% or null hypothesis of beta values equal to zero is rejected. By comparing Beta values,
technology advance is determined as the factor that has highest effect to work-life balance
of the employees in Agribank Head Office.
Hypothesis
Result
H1: Organizational support influences significantly on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
Accepted
H2: Flexible working arrangement influences significantly on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
Accepted
H3: Technology advancement influences significantly on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
Accepted
Accepted
Accepted
H4: Job stress influences significantly on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees. H5: Communication with the employees on workplace‟s issues influences significantly on work-life balance of Agribank‟s employees.
Table 25: Hypothesis test
Source: Conducted by the researcher (2018)
The equation to represent the relationship between work-life balance and its
explanatory factors is expressed as below:
Work-life balance = -0.067 + 0.248 x Organizational support + 0.378 x Flexible
working arrangement + 0.451 x Technology advancement + 0.208 x Job stress + 0.271 x
Communication.
4.2. Discussion
It is asserted that obtained result in this study is aligned with previous empirical
evidences. In more detail, work-life balance is affected positively and significantly by
organizational support, flexible working arrangement, technology advancement, job stress,
and communication. This finding is both similar and different to previous empirical
evidences. Organizational support effects positively and significantly on work-life balance
in this study. Thakur and Kumar (2015) indicate that there is a positive correlation between
perceived organizational support and work life balance. Flexible working arrangement
affects positively and significantly on work-life balance in this study. Wong et al. (2017)
obtain similar result in which work-life balance of the employees receives moderate and
52
positive effect from flexible working arrangement. However, Ogunsanya (2016) identifies
that work-life balance is negatively affected by flexible working arrangement. Technology
advancement affects positively and significantly on work-life balance in this study. This
result is similar to the empirical evidence provided by Al-Saidi (2015) whether work-life
balance is influenced positively by technology advancement in both hardware and software
perspectives. However, Kumarasamy et al. (2015) obtain the result of which this factor
affects negatively on work-life balance. Job stress effects positively and significantly on
work-life balance in this study. Anand et al. (2016) identify that job stress and work-life
balance of the employees are both correlated each other and beta value is positive and
significant. Similar finding is revealed by Aamir and Hira (2011). Communication effects
positively and significantly on work-life balance in this study. According to Joseph et al.
(2012), face to face communication contributes in increasing employee work-life balance
to a large extent.
Another discussion is developed given to the findings from descriptive statistics. It
is recapped that there are 4 items with mean values less than 2.50 or these items receive the
respondent‟s disagreement. The first item is Agribank Head Office is not willing to help
the employees if they need a special favor in daily life. It is critical issue since this finding
reveals that internal cooperation between the employers and the employees is not good. In
fact, when an employee faces up with the issues in daily life, he and she should be received
the support from the employers. It can be explained by the fact that the employees in
Agribank Head Office do not want to share their personal problems. They are likely to hide
their issues rather than publishing these issues to the public.
The second item is Agribank Head Office does not allow the employees work at
home on family problems. Another issue is collected from low mean value of this item.
Generally, when the employees have family problems, they should be stayed at home to
resolve the issues. However, Agribank Head Office does not support such demand and it
can be explained by the lack of formal policies to address this issue. It is also highlighted
that the formal policies are not put into place because of there are no evidence to prove that
the employees have real problems and there is possibility of lazy employees who want to
stay at home. Currently, Agribank Head Office establishes a policy in which an employee
can take leave for a maximum of 12 days and when the number of days for leaving from
the office is more than 12, they are not receive salary for these days. Most of the
employees in Agribank Head Office do not want to have lower salary so that they do not
53
want to get off.
The third item is the employees of Agribank Head Office believe that flexible work
option do suit them because they do not tend to make the employees feel disconnected
from the workplace. Low mean value indicates that the employees in Agribank Head
Office prefers to have flexible working arrangement. In other words, they confirms that
flexible working arrangement is suitable and it does not make employees feel disconnected
from the workplace.
The last item is the managers of Agribank Head Office do not provide feedback to
staff concerns on work-life balance. This finding is explained by the fact that the
employees in Agribank Head Office do not want to share their personal problems so that
their managers cannot provide the feedbacks to address their concerns on work-life
balance. Moreover, the employees are fear of their managers provide negative judgment on
their working attitude, leading to the lack of communication.
4.3. Recommendation
There are some recommendations to be proposed as below:
The first recommendation is given to organizational support factor. Organizational
support includes supervisor support and co-worker support. The bank should establish a
formal discussion mechanism in which the employees are encouraged to share their
personal issues to their co-worker and their managers in order to seek for the supports. This
recommendation is related to corporate culture in which the employees are freely to share
their stories with worry-free to post-impacts. The managers in Agribank may want to
provide a credit to the employees who achieve target performance and support other
employees.
Another recommendation is developed to improve flexible working arrangement in
Agribank. Currently, the employees in Agribank are working under fixed working hours
and working days. The time of working is from 8am to 5pm with 1 hour spent for lunch
time. However, the bank should adopt flexible working arrangement in which the
employees who can accomplish assigned tasks early can leave the offices before 5pm. The
most importance in modern working environment today is the productivity and the
working output rather than controlling working hours. Therefore, the managers of
Agribank should change their management style from strict working principle to flexible
ones. The bank should pay more attention to non-financial indicators and recognize the
potential of the business through the corporate governance system of that enterprise,
including human resource management. Therefore, setting up a human resource
54
management framework towards harmonizing and integrating work - life is not only a way
to retain and recruit talents, but also helps businesses increase attractiveness in the eyes of
partners and leaders private. In addition, many policy businesses do not work on weekends
/ after work hours, or flexibly time and work space (can handle work at home) for
employees during the period of raising children, support for voluntary health insurance for
employees and relatives ... is also being applied by many domestic enterprises.
Accompanying it is the application of advanced personnel management policies, employee
performance scoring, and a compensation mechanism to encourage employees to improve
efficiency; create promotion opportunities for employees. Sustainable development is
increasingly concerned in the world, from governments, to the business community, the
people. The sustainability of an enterprise, including sustainable human resources policies,
is the most important factor in attracting domestic and foreign investment capital, because
sustainable development will help businesses survive. In the longer term, it helps to reduce
risks in the investment process.
The researcher would like to propose the recommendations to address the impact of
technology advancement. Technology advancement has more and more effect to modern
working environment. The employees in Agribank are able to use the computers and
specific software to finish assigned tasks. However, the bank is still the position of lack of
use modern software with cloud-based standards. Therefore, a recommendation is given to
the Information Technology Division of the bank and cloud-based software such as Office
365 should be utilized. The benefit of using these software is that it allows the employees
to work at home when they have family problems and they can answer all emails through
their mobile phone.
Moreover, another recommendation is prepared regarding to the role of job stress. It
is denoted that job stress is phenomenon in workplace today. To reduce job stress of the
employees, Agribank should provide a training to both the managers and the employees.
The training for the managers is about how to assign appropriate tasks to the employees
based on their weaknesses and strengths. The training for the employees is about how to
manage the workload by prioritizing jobs from highest to lowest. Moreover, the bank
should develop a policy in which the employees are able to relax after specific working
intervals. For example, the employees are allowed to get a coffee in the pantry of the bank.
In addition, the bank should apply specific incentive for the employees who are frequently
working under stress situation. In the trend of deeper integration, Vietnamese banks like
Agribank are increasingly approaching the world‟s advanced governance practices, but
55
building a balanced / harmonious working environment for employees is important part.
Agribank should develop or establish a gym, yoga class, café book, cafeteria in the office
so the employees can relax and interact with each other; Office designs aim to help
employees interact more.
Communication should be improved in Agribank. The bank should establish a
forum in which the employees can provide their thoughts about current issues in the bank‟s
working environment. All issues should be captured and analyzed by respective units. The
managers of Agribank should be trained in term of how to communicate with their staffs
and how to resolve the issues in professional ways.
Agribank needs research crossing levels, such as individual, work group, and
organizational, and subareas within levels (e.g. co-workers and managers within the work
group level). Regarding levels of analysis gaps, some levels have been overlooked more
than others. For example, while there is clear documentation of the business outcomes
associated with the reduction of work–family stress, such as decreased absenteeism and
turnover and increased organizational commitment; few studies have been designed to
actually assess the organizational level outcomes and cost-benefits associated with the
implementation/adoption of work–family policies. Thus, a key issue that is critical to the
integration of work–family policies into mainstream organizational policies and practices
56
is the ability to document the beneficial effects on firm performance.
CONCLUSION
Work-life balance is important context in human resource management in modern
companies. Agribank is one of largest banks in Vietnam with high labor forces and
complicated human resource structure. The employees in Agribank are now working in
high competition environment and the workload is increasing over the time while they are
still taking care to their family and personal life. In this context, how to manage work-life
balance becomes important task of the bank. Based on this argument, this study is
developed with the objective of determining the factors affecting work-life balance of
Agribank‟s employees as well as proposing managerial recommendations to effectively
manage human resources in the way of maintaining the balance between personal life and
working in Agribank.
This study has some limitations. The first limitation is perceived as only 55.1% of
variance of work-life balance factor explained by organizational support, flexible working
arrangement, technology advancement, job stress, and communication. It means that there
are other factors which can explain for the change of work-life balance of the employees in
Agribank Head Office. However, these factors are not revealed in this study. Other
limitation is highlighted from the process of collecting primary data. As noted in the first
chapter, the researcher collects primary data from the questionnaire given to 300
employees who are working in Head Office of Agribank. The questionnaire is developed
and sent to the employees with self-administrator approach. In this context, the researcher
concerns the quality of the employees‟ answers since they may provide the answers not
closed to what they are actually thinking.
Given to the limitations of the study above, future studies should be developed with
the addition of other factors besides organizational support, flexible working arrangement,
technology advancement, job stress, and communication. More factors in future research
models may help to increase % of work-life balance‟s variance explained by the factors.
Future studies should be developed with mixed research method in which both
questionnaire and in-depth interview are carried out. The questionnaire allows future
researchers to collect the data to quantify the effects of chosen factors to work-life balance
while in-depth interview reveals underlying issues in work-life balance management in the
57
organizations.
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[http://www.jpc-net.jp/]
APPENDIX I: SURVEY OF QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a student of a university in Vietnam. My thesis‟ topic is about work-life
balance of Agribank Head Office staffs given to the fact that the more balance between
works and life of the staffs, the more productivity at work is generated. To do that, I need
your evaluation towards the factors affecting work-life balance of the employee. These
factors are organizational support, flexible working arrangement, technology advancement,
job stress, and communication. I commit that all your personal information will not be
disclosed and the data achieved from your assessment will be used only in the thesis. If
you have further concern, please contact me via email: minhtamphung@gmail.com
Part I: Demographic Information
Gender Male Female
Less than 30 41-50 Age 31-40 More than 50
Education Level Post graduate Graduate
Marital Status Single Married
Non-managerial Job Position Level Managerial position position
Time of Working for 12-24 months 36-48 months
Agribank 24-36 months More than 48 months
Having Children(s) or Yes No not
Part II: Evaluation of factors affecting work-life balance of Agribank Head Office
staffs.
Please choose the best point given to following scale:
1 – Strongly Disagree, 2 – Disagree, 3 – Neutral, 4 – Agree, 5 – Strongly agree
Factor Item 1 2 3 4 5
In my organization specific WLB policy has been
established documented Work-life The organization provides family – friendly policies balance that help me to fulfill family commitments.
Various unique programs are offered by the
Factor Item 1 2 3 4 5
organization to the employees for maintaining WLB.
Employees are expected to attend training programs for
WLB conducted inside and outside the organization
Help is available from my organization when I have
problems supporting the elderly and children
My organization really cares about my well-being
My organization is willing to help me if I need a Organizational special favor at work support My organization is willing to help me if I need a
special favor in daily life
My organization allows me work at home on family
problems
Flexible working arrangements help me balance life
commitments
Flexible work options do not suit me because they tend
to make me feel disconnected from the workplace
Working shorter hours would negatively impact on my
career progress within the organization
Working more flexible hours is essential for me in
order to attend to family responsibilities
Flexible working arrangements are essential for me in Flexible order to be able to deal with other interests and working responsibilities outside work arrangement Flexible working arrangements enable me to focus
more on the job when I am at the workplace
People using flexible working arrangements often miss
important work events or communications, such as
staff meetings, training sessions, important notices, etc.
Supervisors at my workplace react negatively to people
using flexible working arrangements
Other people at my workplace react negatively to
people using flexible working arrangements
Factor Item 1 2 3 4 5
Because of technology, I find it hard to switch off from
work when I am at home or out with friends/family
Using technology to stay connected to work out with
my working hours has a negative impact on my life
Technology allows me to work more flexibly which
has a positive effect on my stress levels
I feel anxious when I cannot access technology to Technology check messages for work purposes advancement Using technology for social contact during the working
day helps me cope better with pressures at work
I find it difficult to control the amount of time I spend
using technology for work purposes out with my
working hours
I would like my employer to take measures to prevent
the overuse of technology for work purposes
I am overworked and have neglected my family
responsibilities due to inability to reject my co-workers
and managers
Job stress I believe that if my work was less complex I would do
it better
I believe that I would concentrate better on my job if I
worked from a different workstation from time to time
Management communication with employees on
issues affecting their work-life balance
The management provides feedback to staff Communication concerns on work-life balance
Detailed management explanation of work assignments
and non-work assignments