The Role of Work Life Balance on Employee Commitment and Turnover Intentions: A Study of Tertiary Institution Workers

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the practice of Work Life Balance (WLB) within an organization can serve as a means of committing employees and discourage their intentions of quitting. The study further explores the factors of work life balance practices that should be implemented through policy to enhance employee commitment and reduce turnover intentions. The study sampled one hundred and thirty five (135) employees from a tertiary institution in Ghana. Quantitative data was collected through the administering of questionnaires and data was analyzed using SPSS. Findings indicate that although WLB has a strong and negative relationship with employee turnover intentions, it does not contribute to employee commitment. It was also observed that among the WLB practices, schedule flexibility has a stronger impact on employee turnover intentions. The study focused on employees in the tertiary education sector and thus the research findings cannot be generalized across the educational sector nor other economic sectors in Ghana.

Management should focus on practicing work life balance in their organizations so as to ensure better commitment in organizational activities and also to prevent employees from quitting. Further, managers should try to continue improving the conditions of work for their employees since it significantly discourages employee from quitting. The study makes a significant contribution to the concept of WLB and its direct impact on employee outcomes.

Keywords Work Life Balance (WLB), Employee turnover intentions (TI), Employee commitment (EC), Schedule flexibility (SF), Job autonomy (JA), Manager support (MS).