1. Work-Life Balance Giving it the Nigeria Flavour
Prof. Chantal Epie
Lagos Business School
and
Institute for Work and Family Integration (IWFI)

2. The Context for our Work and Family Lives

3. Difficult environment “Family” needs
Competitive pressure
Productivity
High commitment
Delegation down
Cost Containment
Downsizing
Work intensification
Quality
Continuous improvement
Problem solving
Pressure on
Individual
Time and energy
Difficult environment
Bad road, water and
electricity shortages etc.
“Family” needs
Children, elders
Community, private life
Adapted from L. Bailyn, Breaking the Mold, 1993

4. Organizational Benefits of Work-Family Balance a) Overview of the literature b) Results from Nigeria

5. Did you know…? Long hours of work lead to: Lower productivity
Increased workplace injuries and errors
Increased levels of ill health
Work-family conflict
Ref. Burke (2006) Research Companion to Working Time and Work Addiction

6. Did you know…? Outcomes of work-family conflict: negative impact on
job satisfaction,
organizational commitment,
turnover intentions
stress
(Poelmans & Sahibzada, 2004)

7. Did you know…? Outcome of work-life policies:
reduce absenteeism, lateness, turnover, work-family conflict and stress
increase job satisfaction, productivity, morale and organizational commitment
(Poelmans & Sahibzada, 2004)

8. The more unfriendly the organizational work-family culture, the lower the organizational commitment tends to be.
(Nigerian research)

9. Times Times New RomanNew Roman
The more unfriendly the organizational work-family culture, the more the employees think of changing jobs.
(Nigerian research)

10. The more unfriendly the organizational work-family
culture, the lower the employees’ trust in Management.
(Nigerian research)

11. Insights into the work life of Nigerians in Lagos

12. Hours worked per week
In a typical week: 30 to 91 hours. Mean: 53.5 hours
14% never or seldom work more than official hours
69% work more than 48 hours per week
Of these, 44% work in the banking/finance/ insurance sector
And 10% in manufacturing
The rest in a wide range of sectors: telecom, shipping, education, services, IT etc.

13. Reasons for working long hours
25% do it because they enjoy their work, but it is the main reason for only 4%
44% choose to do so for the same circumstances that make others feel obliged to work long hours

14. Circumstances requiring long hours
Volume of work 65%
Need to meet deadlines 69%
Only time to think 25%
Part of organizational culture 21%
Pressure by management 13%
Necessary to get ahead 10%
Fear of job loss 4%

15. Commuting time and stress
47%: 3 to 6 hours on a typical day
7%: less than an hour
For 35%, commuting adds greatly to the stress of the day
For 42%, it adds slightly to it.

16. Excessive work hours and health
68% of those working more than 48 hours had suffered from stress-related illnesses in the past 12 months.

17. Stress-related ill-health
Fatigue: 52%
Migraine: 37%
Series of persistent minor ailments: 31%
Irritability: 25%
Sleeplessness: 20%
Anxiety attacks: 19%
Lack of concentration: 17%
Loss of appetite 12%; depression 12%

18. Work-to-Family Conflict among those working more than 48 hours
38%: high score in all four measures of time-based work-family conflict
9%: stress-based conflict
59% and 37% respectively score high in at least 3 of the measures

19. Time-based Work-to-family conflict
80% wish they had more time for their family
77% feel they do not have enough time for themselves
48% find their time off work does not match well other family members’ schedule

20. Stress-based Work-to-family conflict
74% habitually feel physically drained
43% emotionally drained
by the time they get back home from work.
Can they recover overnight???
Substantial agreement with spouses’ perceptions

21. Feeling in control of one’s life
Of all respondents, only 29% felt habitually in control of their life.
Others felt out of control sometimes (29%), often (38%) or even most of the time (4%).

22. Where does help come from?
Of those who felt out of control at least sometimes:
51% seek help from outside the organization, mostly from doctors, and this help is generally considered effective
9%, from their line manager or some other senior manager rather than from HR, and a small majority find this help effective
40% try to draw only on their own internal resources

23. How to achieve work-life balance (1)
Personal effort on the part of each employee, yes.

24. Strive for successful family life
Strategic, financial, “HR” planning
Goal setting: SMART goals
Priority setting
Time management
Team work

25. How to achieve work-life balance (2)
But also organizational support in the form of family supportive or family-responsible policies
Cf. Evbuoma (2007)
Fayankinu and Alo (2007)

26. Family-responsible HR practices (time flexibility)
Individual timing of working hours or staggered hours
Flexible hours
Compressed working week
Part-time jobs or reduced hours
Job sharing
Flexibility in leave and short vacations

27. Family-responsible HR practices (space flexibility)
Occasional working from home
Tele-office at home

28. Family-responsible HR practices
Part-time careers
Extended maternity leave without pay
Paternity leave (a few days)
Childcare leave
Childcare assistance (financial or logistic)

29. Others Stress management training Time management training
Training on combining work and family

30. Top Priorities for Lagos Managers
1st: Flexible hours
2nd: Individual timing of working hours
3rd: Possibility of a career break
4th: Flexibility in leave and short vacations
5th: Stress management training
6th: Time management training
7th: Compressed work week
8th: Possibility of extended maternity leave without pay

31. The Way Forward Organizational diagnosis
Why are employees working excessively long hours? Take corrective measures
Adoption of family-responsible policies
What policies could help them manage their work-family interface? Ask them and see what can be implemented.

32. Be creative! Let us generate ideas!
Extended full-time maternity leave may be bad for the organization. What about extended part-time maternity leave? For example: 4 weeks full time, then 16 weeks half-time
An in-house creche may be too costly. What about joining forces with other organizations in the same area?
Let us generate ideas!

33. Sources of the data
Epie, C., and Ituma, A. (forthcoming, 2014). Working Hours and Work-Family Conflict in the Institutional Context of Nigeria. In Z. Mokomane’s (Ed.) Achieving family supportive workplaces and communities in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of social policy. Springer
Epie, C. (2011). Facing the Challenge of Work-family Integration in Lagos – Employee Strategies and Preferences for Work-family Policies. Business & Management Journal, Vol.1 No. 1, 89-99
Epie, C. (2011). The Business Case for Family-Responsible Management. Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing, (Doctoral thesis, 2008, Business School Lausanne).

34. Other cited sources
Evbuoma, I.K. (2007). Influence of Women and Family-Friendly Support Services on Women’s Work Performance in Organizations. Gender and Behaviour, 5(1),
Fayankinnu, E.A. & Alo, O.A. (2007). Globalisation and Work: An Insight from the Ghanaian and Nigerian Women Experience. Gender and Behaviour, 5(1),