Work Life Balance and Performance of the National Police Service Officers in Kwale, County Kenya

Abstract

Organizations have recognized the importance of Work-life balance as a means of employee performance and for this reason, institutions have various programs in place to ensure that the employee attend to both work and social life effectively.  The National Police Service has put in place various programs to enhance work-life balance but there was a dearth of empirical knowledge on their effect work performance of police officers.   The main intention of the research was therefore, to assess the effects of work life balance on the performance of National Police Service officer in Kwale County, Kenya. This research was anchored on Work-Family Border Theory and used descriptive survey research design to establish the effect of the work life balance on the performance of police officers. The target population under study was 748 police officers in Kwale County. The study adopted multi-stage sampling involving clustering sub divisions, stratifying as per rank and proportionate random sampling to select 261 officers for the study. The sample size was calculated using Yamane (1967) sampling formula that generated a sample size of 261 officers who filled in the questionnaires. The main data for this research was collected using structured questionnaires both open and close ended. To analyze data, the study employed both descriptive and inferential statistics (mainly regression) using SPSS version 20 for windows. The findings of the study revealed that the work life balance has influence on work performance in the National Police Service (NPS) in Kwale (R² 0.767). Based on this finding the study recommends that top leadership of the National Police Service should embrace sound work-life balance practices and give prominence to work-life balance strategies such as leave; to enhance performance, in the National Police Service. Further, that policy maker to develop training policies aimed at equipping officers with relevant self-management skills and knowledge to enhance self-management for effective work performance.

Keywords: Work Life Balance, Leave, Performance, National Police Service

DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-5-09

Publication date:June 30^th 2021