RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK HOURS

AND MANAGEMENT SUPPORTS

TOWARDS WORK-LIFE BALANCE
SYARIFAH RABIYAH AL ADAWIAH BT SYED BADRUL HISHAM (MH 132049)
SUPERVISORS:
DR. EBI SHAHRIN SULEIMAN
DR. KHAIRIAH BT SOEHOD

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The need to have employee with improved WLB (Naithani, 2010).

Nature of work and physical and psychical demands is among the key factors
in emerging WLB (Hymann and Summers, 2004).

Long WH can jeopardized employees well-being and stress (OECD).

Globalization has resulted in indirect-work hour (Lingard and Francis, 2009)

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Nature of job in construction industry (Tan and Pheng, 1996)

Discontinuous

Dispersed

Diverse

Distinct

WLB consist of (i) time, (ii) behaviour, (iii) strain and (iv) energy (Fisher, 2001)

Time squeeze for dual earner family.

Female entrants mostly face disadvantaged.

High and excessive job demands in the industry.

Inability to provide regular and reasonable hours of employment.

Project team managements support and flexibility of working hours are other way to demolish
barrier in WLB.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES & QUESTIONS

To identify the level of WLB received by the employees. (RO1)

To identify the relationship between working hours and WLB in the construction
organizations. (RO2)

What is the level of WLB received by the employees? (RQ1)

What is the relationship between working hours and WLB in the construction
organizations? (RQ2)

To identify the relationship between management supports and WLB in the

construction organizations? (RO3)

What is the relationship between working hours and WLB in the construction
organizations? (RQ3)

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS
WORK-LIFE
BALANCE

State of equilibrium whereby the demands of job and

personel are equal

WORK HOUR

MANAGEMENT
SUPPORT

Personal control of time

Spending too much time on nature of many form of
contemporary work.

Social support- Transaction of interpersonal which may

derived from co-workers and supervisors in the
workplace.

CHAPTER 2: WORK-LIFE BALANCE

AUTHOR

WLB CONCEPTS

Gropel (2005)

Referred WLB as;

-

The degree where an individual is able to simultaneously balance the temporal demands of both paid work and family
responsibilities.

Krichmeyer (2000)

Defined balance life;

Achieving satisfying experiences in all life domains which requires personal resources like energy, time and
commitment to be well distributed across domains

Fisher (2001)

Source of WLB;
-

Lockwood (2003)

Time: Compared amount of time spent at work with non-work activities.

Behaviour : Work goal accomplishment
Strain : third source of inter-role conflict
Energy : as a limited resource and relevant to employee being able to accomplish work and/or non-work related
goals

Employees defined WLB as;

Dilemma of managing work obligation and personal/family obligation.
Employers defined WLB as;
A challenge of creating a supportive company culture where employees can focus on their jobs while at work.

THEORY ON WLB
WORK-FIT MODEL

Occur when the individual perceives that they has the resources required in
order to meet the demands such that role performance is effective.

Capacity to views the person as whole and emphasis the work-life experience
rather than work-family experience.

WORK HOURS
AUTHOR
Turner et al., (2009)

WORK HOUR CONCEPTS

Workers at direct construction activity:
Reported to work on higher average week of 63 hours compared to employees who work in site office and at company head or
regional office.

Collinson and Collinson (2004)

Defined working hours as;

-

Ken Robert (2007)

Stated that:
-

Van den Broek et al., (2002)

Major management policy on leadership

Informal form of work disciplines
Tool to assess and control workers ability on job performance.
Way to show their power and high commitment when they can work long hours and outside the normal working hours.

There are difference hours on the actual work hours employees claim to work and actual work hours they have been work.
Globalization is one of the factors as the employees are easily reachable through email, telephone and so forth.
Demand from other country also plays a role as the organization needs to open up for markets, customers or suppliers especially
in trading

Reason to work on extending hours (evening, night times and weekends):

-

Industrial demands; whereas the production side need to be on-going basis

Shift- work time basis is used to cope with the demands.
To gain maximum returns from the expensive capital requirement before it become vulnerable

THEORY ON WORK HOURS

Discrepancy theory
This theory is a theory of satisfaction that emphasizes on the individual differences (Lawler,
1973).

Reciprocity

Reason 3

Different
desired in
term of
preferred
number of
WH.

Reason 2

WH as
important
aspects of
work and
life.

Reason 1

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORK HOURS

AND WLB
Albertsen et al. (2008)
(-ve) relationship
between non-standards
WH on WLB

Cooper (1999)
Adverse effect on
relationship between
WH and WLB
measurements.

Fujimoto (2006)
Contrary, showed strong
preferences to work
constantly and reluctant
to take leave.

Wise et al.(2007)
Nurses; (-ve) impact on
WLB.

MANAGEMENT SUPPORTS
Watt and Edmenson

STRONG SUPPORT SYSTEM TO ACHIEVE BETTER EMPLOYMENT

Management supports is vital in order to set the career planning for the employees as it will resulted in
strong emotional intellligence in their work
Employees know their career path.

Turner et al., (2009)

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

The importance to show and execute the idea of balance by the senior management in order to shape WLB culture amongs the employee.

Dunne (2004)

BENEFITS OF MANAGEMENT SUPPORTS

a) Ability to attract higher level of skills worker

b) Reduce the recruitment cost
c) Increase worker morale and job satisfaction
d) Increase customer satisfaction (as result of c)
e) Improved employee relations
f) Improved competitiveness

THEORY ON MANAGEMENT SUPPORTS

EQUITY THEORY

Tool
to
motiv
ate:
FAIRN
ESS

Employ
ee
input:
Persone
l
sacrific
e,
Time
and so
forth

Employ
ee work
input
=
work
outcom
es
Employe
es work
outcomes
:
Salary,
employe
e
benefits,
job
security

THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
UNDERPINNING MANAGEMENT SUPPORTS
* Suggested:
Greater
demands and
having lesscontrol at work
is related to
greater work to
family conflicts.
Karasek and Theorell (1990)

* * Proposed :
Work social
supports
strengthens the
negative effects
of work-family
facilitation and
family-work
facilitation on
exhaustion.
Karatape (2010

House (1981)

Types of social
support:
1)Emotional
2)Instrumental
3)Information
4)Appraisal

WLB initiatives
can improve
the quality of
employees
experience at
work.

MS has positive
impact on WLB

RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN
MANAGEMENT
SUPPORT AND
WLB

Employee shows high level

of commitments and strong
work ethics in project that
have less flexibility and
greater management control

MS vital to the
success of WLB
initiatives.

Change in nature
of workforce
demographic.

FACTORS
LEAD TO
WLB
Change in family
structure and
dynamic.

Globalization

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

MANAGEMENT
SUPPORT

WORK HOUR
-VE

WORKLIFE
BALANCE

+VE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Population:
500

Sample: 200
Location: Iskandar
Region, Johor Bahru
Company

No. of Staff

No. of sample picked

UMLand Berhad

100

50

UEM Sunrise Berhad

200

50

TNH Holdings

100

50

SP Setia

100

50

TOTAL POPULATION: 500

SAMPLE: 200

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH QUESTION

DATA ANALYSIS

RQ1:
What is the level of work-life balance received by the employees in the
construction organization?

Descriptive analysis (Mean)

RQ2:
What is the relationship between working hours and work-life balance in the construction organization?

Pearson correlation
Regression correlation

RQ3:
What is the relationship between management supports and work-life balance in the construction organization?

Pearson correlation
Regression correlation

THANK YOU.