Determinants of Work-Family Balance of ICT Professionals in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Maintaining work-family balance (WFB) has become a challenge for the majority of employees due to the pressure of the external environment. An imbalance between work and family lives leads to numerous adverse effects including work-family conflicts, poor health, and quality of life. Factors that can affect the work-family balance of the ICT industry can be different from others due to the unique working culture. Especially, they have flexible working practices such as working from home, compressed workweek, job sharing, and flex time. Therefore, their WFB can be influenced by those practices. This research, therefore, attempts to identify the factors affecting the work-family balance of the ICT industry in Sri Lanka. Particularly, this study strives to identify the effect of work flexibility, job autonomy, and job satisfaction on work-family balance. The data were collected from 137 respondents through a structured questionnaire distributed via Google forms. Previously tested measures were used to measure the variables and responses were collected over a 5-point Likert scale. SPSS software was used for the regression analysis. The sample profile shows that 75 percent of the sample is below 29 years of age while only 7.5 percent is above 35 years of age. 83 percent of employees possess less than 5 years of experience and 6.5 percent have over 10 years of experience. The results of the ANOVA test indicate that the regression model statistically and significantly predicts the outcome (F = 147,788, p < .05). The model summary statistics show that R-square is 0.69 (p < .05). The regression results indicate that job satisfaction (β = 0.64, p < .05), and work flexibility (β = 0.28, p < .05) have a significant positive effect on WFB. However, job autonomy has no statistically significant effect on WFB (β = -0.09, p > .05). Job autonomy is the freedom, independence, and discretion enjoyed by employees in their work, and this may be required by experienced and senior employees. Thus, a possible reason for this contrary result is that 83 percent of the respondents have less than 5 years of experience, and they may not expect autonomy since they are in the early stage of the learning curve. This study suggests policymakers of ICT companies in Sri Lanka take actions to improve job satisfaction and work flexibility of their employees to improve their WFB and that will help them achieve organizational goals.