EFFECTS OF WORKPLACE CHARACTERISTICS ON WORK LIFE BALANCE OF WOMEN IN NIGERIA PUBLIC SECTOR

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The public sector in Nigeria refers to all organizations that exist as part of government machinery for implementing policy decisions and delivering services that are of value to citizens. It is a mandatory institution under the Nigerian Constitution of 1999. Chapter VI of the Constitution, Executive, Part 1 (D) and Part II (C) provides for a public service at the federal and state levels of government. The Public Sector in Nigeria is made up of the Civil Service, which is often referred to as the core service and is composed of line ministries and extra-ministerial agencies and the Public Bureaucracy, which is composed of the enlarged public service, including the following: (a) Services of the state and national assemblies; (b) The judiciary; (c) The armed forces; (d) The police and other security agencies; (e) Paramilitary services (immigration, customs, prisons, etc); (f) ‘Parastatals’ and agencies including social service, commercially oriented agencies, regulatory agencies, educational institutions, research institutes, etc. Work-life balance has always been a concern of those interested in the quality of working life and its relation to broader quality of life. Yet work-life balance has come to the fore in contemporary debates largely because in developing societies the excessive demands of work are perceived to present a distinctive issue that needs to be addressed. Many developing nations are poor and working women are the receiving end. The number of women working outside home setting is on the increase. This is due to changes in their roles as helpers and even breadwinners in some instances.

The situation, where the fathers used to work and the mother stays at home to care for the home and children, has changed. However, despite this tremendous changes most workplaces are still guided by traditional company polices that were fashionable when only fathers were sole providers of family finances. Such arrangements are no doubt clearly distant from the reality of today’s diverse workplace that is increasingly populated with mothers, single parents, and dual- career couples. Married women in developed nations enjoy work-life policies which include flexible work scheduling, family leave policies allowing periods away from work for employees to take care of family matters, and childcare assistance (Burke & Cooper, 2002). All these are absent in Nigeria and this is a double tragedies for working women, poverty with unfavorable working conditions. Women in Nigerian public sector are expected to perform the same way as their male counterparts without taking into cognizance their dual roles as family keepers and employees. Though the Nigerian public service has undergone changes and transformation over the years, unfortunately, successive reforms have not made significant impact on welfare of women. Ezeigbo (1996) observed that most Nigerian women live under stress because of the responsibilities at home and work. This situation is referred to as work-family conflict. Work family conflict has been defined as a “mutual incompatibility between the demands of the work role and the demand of the family role” (s).

One of the first studies documenting the extent of work family conflict was Michigan Quality of Employment survey (Quinn and Staines, 1997). Quinne and Staines found that 38% of men and 43% of women who were married and who had jobs and children reported that job and family life conflicted “somewhat” or “a lot”. Workplace characteristics can also contribute to higher levels of work-family conflict. Researchers have found that the number of hours worked per week, the amount and frequency of overtime required, an inflexible work schedule, unsupportive supervisor, and an in hospitable organisational culture for balancing work and family all increase the likelihood that women employees will experience conflict between their work and family role (Galinsky, Bond, and Friedman, 1996, Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Thompson, Beauvais and Lyness, 1999; Frone, Yardley, and Markel, 1997). Baruch and Barnett (1997), for example, found out that women who had multiple life roles (e.g., mother, wife, employee) were less depressed and had higher self-esteem than women who were more satisfied in their marriages and jobs compared to women and men who were not married, unemployed, or childless. Baruch and Barnett (1987), however, argued that it is the quality of role rather than the quantity of roles that matters. That is, there is a positive association between multiple roles and good mental health when a woman likes her job and likes her home life, this research however will examine the effects of workplace characteristics on work life balance of women in Nigeria public sector.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

To manage the rift between family and work obligations is an important issue. The demands of family and work pose critical challenges to women especially, various researchers, and organizations. Because of the openness of the economy, political changes, and changes in societal values, the balance of job and family obligations has shied dramatically. In Nigeria, men traditionally played the role of breadwinner in the family. With the shifts in family and work domains, individuals must face and adapt to the inter-role conflict (Frone and Rice, 1987). Family-work conflict a source of pressure, and can cause problems with health, work performance, and so on. The major problem married women working in public sector in Nigeria is to combine work and family responsibilities. They experience pressure from conflicting roles. Participation in office work is more difficult because family and work responsibilities conflict, which tends to affect their work performance and social interactions.