INFLUENCE OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE ON EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY IN GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS: A CASE OF THE SUPREME COURT, NAIROBI
Abstract
Pressures from an increasingly competitive work environment are leading to conflicting priorities for employers and employees creating considerable stresses for employees trying to cope with work and family responsibilities. Interference between work and non-work responsibilities (work-life conflict) can indicate serious implications including lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Implementation of work life balance policies (WLB) at the Judiciary has not been effective. This study sought to establish the influence of work-life balance on employee productivity in the government institutions, with special focus on Supreme Court. The study adopted a descriptive survey. The population for the study was 106 employees of Supreme Court at their office in Nairobi. Data was collected using structured questionnaire. The study used both quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The study found that flexible work arrangement and family leaves positively influenced the employee productivity. Work life balance enabled the employees to have balance between work and personal responsibilities and thus strengthened employee loyalty and productivity. Flexible work arrangements was found to enable employees improve their job performance as well as empowering and motivating the employees. Family leaves allow employees to be away from the workplace for a particular period of time in order to deal with family responsibilities as well as improving employees commitment to the organization. The study recommends that different forms of flexible work arrangement to be adopted by the government institutions from basic flextime programs to innovative child-and elder-care programs to have maximum productivity of employees in the institutions. Government institutions should therefore see to it they have different forms of family leave support services to include all cadres of employees. The government through the ministry of labour should formulate policies that are geared towards ensuring that all the government institutions have work-life balance programmes since it was found to positively impact employee productivity.
Key Words: Flexible Work, Family Leaves, Work-Life Balance, Employee Productivity
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v3i4.343
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