| dc.description.abstract | The challenge of balancing work and family demands is of concern to individuals and
organizations. In recent years, global competition, downsizing, and technology that keep
workers constantly connected to work have intensified employees‘ work demands
(Cappelli, 1991; Valcour& Hunter, 2005). Organizations now offer family-friendly
programs in response to a changing work force (Loysk, 1996). The last few decades have
seen rapid and unprecedented changes. Changes in the composition of the workforce,
together with a growing population of workers in nontraditional family roles, have
focused attention on the conflict employees experience when looking to balance the
demands of work and home (Greenhaus &Parasuraman, 1986).The purpose of the study
was to examine how employees perceive their organization‘s family-friendly policies as
they relate to achieving a positive work-life balance. The study used descriptive research
design. The target population was all the employees of Gulf African Bank, who are 820
in total. Stratified random sampling technique was used as it ensured that all the
departments were represented. The target population was stratified into the 3
management levels: senior, middle and lower management levels, and non- managerial
employees. Random sampling was used within each stratum to reduce bias. The study
used primary data that was collected using semi-structured questionnaires. Both
quantitative and qualitative data was collected in this research. The targeted sample size
was 164 participants. Those filled and returned questionnaires were 150 respondents
making a response rate of 91.5%The response rate for this study was excellent and
therefore enough for data analysis and interpretation. The study showed that respondents‘
organization has family supportive supervisor. The respondents‘ organization gives
emotional support to employees and supervisors set example themselves on how to
integrate work and family. The study shows those respondents‘ organization offer
flexible work arrangements to help employees balance work and family demands. The
study further showed that telecommunicating in an organization improves productivity
for the organization. The organization allows employees to choose when and for how
long they engage in work-related tasks and also allows differing starting and finishing
schedules for each day as well as allows for variation of the length of the week worked.
The study recommends that organizations should embrace family supportive programs
that will allow employees to live their normal lives when not at work. These will in turn
increase work productivity. Organizations should not be very strict on work timelines but
offer working arrangements based on flexibility and availability of the employee.
Flexible working hours offers a competitive advantage to an organization. | en_US |
