A Study of Work Life Balance of Women Employees with Reference to Garment Sectors in Tirupur

 

Dr. S. Kamalaveni¹, B. Suganya²

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Dr. N.G.P Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Coimbatore

²Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, Dr. N.G.P Arts and Science College (Autonomous), Coimbatore

 

ABSTRACT:

Work life balance is defined as the integration between the work and life and not interfering with each other. Most of the women are working to support their family. The biggest challenges of women are how to balance their family and work. In this study, this paper reveals the various problems faced by the women employees and their satisfaction in their work. This article provides the information regarding the separate policy framed by the organization to balance the women employee work life.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Many of articles have provided the importance of work life balance. This paper reviews the current concern within the society and organization about the multiple roles regarding to work and family performance by the women employees in Tirupur. Tirupur is the textile town in Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu and is popularly known as banyan city or Knit city. In Tirupur, 62% of women in the ages of 16-55 years are working in the production department, quality department and so on.  Historical data from employment survey indicates that 3.6% of women employment has been increased from 1991-2001. After 18^th century there was a tremendous change in the work Life balance which gives new dimension .But it does not give good relationship. Nowadays there are many women want to make carriers in their own. Work life balance is the interaction between Work and Life style (career and ambition) .Here work becomes a hobby and Co-Worker become Family. To make these, women should give sufficient time to both career and family.

 

Work Life Balance has been treated as more important when both men and women equally share their responsibilities for the betterment of family. There is an increasing number of women in the workplace are having work burden. Thus this paper reveals how changes in work routines and structures affect women’s Work Life Balance. According to ISO study in 1970, only 17% of women are professional and technical workers. Recent Research results that more than 60% respondents are not able to balance their professional and personal life. This leads to more stress and lack of concentration in work and increase in absenteeism and attrition rate.

 

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

Madula Sherwani (1984) in her study “Why More Women Entering Work Force” focus that Indian women still works under creation limitation and hardship. Main common problem faced by her was the dual role. The married working women with small children have dual responsibilities that lead to great mental and physical strain.

 

J. Sudha Dr. P. Karthikayan (2014) titled “Work Life balance of Women Employee” in Literature review, have identified the various aspects such as work stress, carrier advancement, carrier aspiration work family conflict and family work conflict ,child care in context with Work life Balance. This paper also reveals the issues and various challenges faced by the women employees to achieve Work life Balance and also the role of women in balancing the Work. Vijayamani (2013) titled “work Life Balance of Women Employees  have examined the factors influencing the WLB of women employment in India such as role conflict, lack of recognition, gender discrimination, child care issues, problems in time management and  lack of proper social support.  

 

K. Santhana Lakshmi and S.Sujatha Gopinath (2013) in their titled “Work Life Balance of Women Employees with Reference to Teaching Facilities “Focus on the importance of work life Balance of   teaching faculties. It reveals the effects of family life on women’s job performance and work attitude. It explains the three aspects of Work life balance (i.e.) Time, Involvement and Satisfaction.

 

G. Delina and Dr. R. Prabhakar Raja (2013) in their titled “A Study on Work Life Balance in working women “attempt to explore the tough challenges faced by women in maintaining a balance between their works and family. The various factors affecting the Work Life Balance of married women have been examined in this study.  

 

R. Balaji (2014) in his titled “Work Life Balance of Women Employees “revealed the Work life Balance of women in IT Sectors. It explains Family Work Conflict, Work-family conflict, Work Pressure and its effects. It focuses on the multiple role, Quality and Quantity role of women. This article is to study various factors which could explain in depth knowledge about Work life balance and stress undergone by women employees. S. Rajesh,

 

Dr. P.K .Manoj (2015) in their titled “Women Employee work- life and Challenges to Industrial Relations: Evidence from North Kerala” focus on problems of women employees in industrial sector of the northern region of Kerala and show how their predicament can pose challenges to the concept of industrial relationship. This article suggests the measures to improve satisfaction level of women employees by factors adversely affecting cordial industrial relations.

 

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

·         To study the Work-life balance of women employees with reference to garment sectors in Tirupur.

·         To find out the barriers of women employees to achieve work life balance.

·         To identify the factors affecting the Work-life balance and family commitments.

·         To analyze the support rendered by the employers to improve the knowledge of work life of their workers.

 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Research study is descriptive study type of research service. This type of research deals with quality of responses from the respondents, attitudes, interest, beliefs and values, etc. Primary data was collected by questionnaire survey method. The secondary data was collected from journals and articles to support research.

 

PERCENTAGE ANALYSIS:

The percentage method was extensively used for analysis and interpretation. It is calculated as follows:

 

                 Number of Respondents favorable    × 100

                                Total No. of Respondents

 

The study reveals the following information about the personal information of respondents,

 

Table -1 Age of The Respondents

Age	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Below 25 years	34	34
26-30 years	26	26
31-40 years	19	19
41 and above years	21	21
Total	100	100

 

Inference: From the sample collected from out of 100 respondents, 34% of the respondents belong to the age group of below 25 years, 26% of respondents belong to the age between 26-30 years, 21% of the respondents belong to the age group of more than 41 years and 19% of respondents belong to the age between 31-40 years. It is concluded that maximum (34%) of respondents belong to the age group of below 25 years.

 

Table -2 Marital Status

Marital status	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Married	67	67
Unmarried	33	33
Total	100	100

 

Inference: From the sample collected from out of 100 respondents, 67% of the respondents are married and 33% of the respondents are unmarried .It is concluded that maximum (67%) of respondents are married.

 

Table -3 Monthly Income of The Respondents

Monthly Income	Number of Respondents	Percentage
Below  Rs.3000	0	0
Rs.3001-Rs.5000	8	8
Rs.5001-Rs.7000	33	33
Above  Rs.7000	59	59
Total	100	100

 

From the sample collected from out of 100 respondents it is concluded that majority (59%) of respondents monthly income is more than Rs.8000.

 

Table -4 Educational Qualification of The Respondents

Educational Qualification	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Illiterate	23	23
Below 8th  std	14	14
8th -12th  std	44	44
Under graduate	19	19
Total	100	100

 

Inference:

It is concluded that maximum (44%) of respondents are belong to 8^th -12^th Std qualification.

 

Table-5 Work Experience In Garment Sectors

Experience	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Less than 1year	25	25
2-5 years	65	65
6-10 years	8	8
More than 10 years	2	2
Total	100	100

 

Inference:

It is concluded that majority (65%) of respondents work experience is 2-5 years

 

Table -6 Satisfaction of Working Hours

Satisfaction of Working Hours	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Yes	72	72
NO	28	28
Total	100	100

 

From the sample collected out of 100 sample respondents ,72% of respondents satisfied their working hours and 28% of respondents are not satisfied their working hours. It is concluded that maximum (72%) of respondents are satisfied in their working hours.

 

Table -7 Employees Opinion about Balancing Work life

Opinion	Number of respondents	Percentage (%)
Yes	69	69
No	31	31
Total	100	100

 

Inference: It is clear from table that out of 100 sample respondents who agree that 69% of women balancing their work life and 31% of women feel that not able to balance their work life.

 

Table -8 Employees Opinion about Separate Policy Provided By the Organization To Balance Work life

Opinion	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Yes	72	72
No	16	16
Not Aware	12	12
Total	100	100

 

Inference: It is clear from the above table, out of 100 sample respondents 72% of respondents told their organization is providing separate policy to balance their work life, 16% of respondents said that organization is not providing separate policy to balance their work life and 12% of respondents are not having awareness of separate policy provided by organization.

 

Table-9 Separate Policy provided By the Organization To Balance Work life

Factors	Number of Respondents	Percentage (%)
Flexible Starting Hours	14	14
Flexible Finishing Hours	26	26
Flexible hours in General	28	28
Job sharing	15	15
Time off for Family Events	17	17
Total	100	100

 

Inference:

From the above table 3, we can know that separate policy provided by the organization to balance the employees work life. In that we conclude that 28% of employees are satisfied on Flexible hours in general.

 

CHI-SQUARE ANALYSIS:

The chi-square test is used to indicate whether the two factors are independent or other one factor has influence over the other. For this purpose chi-square test is applied between the factors of each group and to identify the suitable hypothesis for the analysis. In this study, it was decided to use X² (chi-square) statistical test which was carried out at 5% level of significance to test the statistical significance of the framed hypothesis. The statistic X² defined by

X² = (O-E) ² / E

Where,

O-Observed frequency and E-Expected frequency

Degree of freedom = (R-1) (C-1)

When,

R = Row Total

C = Column Total

 

Table -10 Work Satisfaction and Workers

Work Satisfaction	Agree	Neutral	Disagree	Total
Working Hours	48	22	30	100
Challenging Opportunities	42	30	28	100
Aware of WLB Policies	20	31	49	100
Total	110	83	107	300

 

Hypothesis:

Null Hypothesis (H₀): There is no association between Work Support and women employees.

Alternative Hypothesis (H_a):  There is association between Work Support and women employees.

Degree of freedom =(r-1) (c-1)

                               = (3-1) (3-1)

                               = (2) (2)

                              = 4

Level of Significance = 9.488

Calculated value = 15.4224

 

Table value 9.488 is lesser than the calculated value 15.4224. So the null hypothesis is rejected. Therefore it is concluded that the workers and the work satisfaction are not independent.

 

Table- 11 Workplace Support and Women Employees

 

Null Hypothesis (H₀) = There is no association between Work Support and women employees.

Alternative Hypothesis (H_a) = There is association between Work Support and Women Employees.

Degree of freedom =(r-1) (c-1)

                               = (3-1) (3-1)

                               = (2) (2)

                              = 4

Level of Significance = 9.488

Calculated value = 43.6341

 

Table value 9.488 is lesser than the calculated value 43.6341. So it is concluded that here is significance difference between the Women Employee and the Support of the workplace. Therefore, the women Employees are support to workplace.

 

Important Factors to Balance Employees work life according to rank:

This following table explains that factors ranked by the employees which satisfied them to balance their work life.

 

Table -12 Importance in balancing work life

 

Inference: Table 5, Explains above list of factors which helps to women employees to satisfy and balance their work life in their organization and personal life. It is clear from that table 132 respondents are satisfied on “Work from home”.

 

CONCLUSION:

Work life is treated as most important since one person manages their personal life and work life. Work life balance should be improved in all organization and if it is not ir shows the poor performance of the organization. This article found that women employees are mostly dissatisfied with the maternity leave provided by the company. Many of organization are not providing maternity leave to the women employees. It has been found that most of the companies were helpful to manage the work life balance of women employees in organization. Mostly the women employees are satisfied with the separate policies provided by the organization to balance their work life. In this study it is concluded that women employees are able to balance their work life and personal life. To achieve work life balance women should plan her professional and personal schedules well so that both are equally balanced and satisfied.

 

Annexure-Questionnaire:

 

A Study of Work Life Balance of Women Employees With Reference to Garment Sectors in Tirupur

 

18. How far factors affect the work life balance and family commitments?

Factors	Doesn’t affects	Affects sometimes	Affects many times	Always effects
a)Working  Hours
b)Work from home after office hours
c)Work on holidays
e)Excessive household work
f)Often I face problem in my family due to my job

 

19. Rank according to your importance in balancing Work life:

FACTORS	RANK
a)More Flexible Hours
b)Work from home
c)Time Off during School holidays
d)Support from family members
e)Time off during emergencies and Events

 

20. Give your opinion about Workplace support.

SCALE:

A – Agree  

N – Neutral

DA – Disagree

 

 

Workplace support	A	N	DA
a) All the employees are treated equally if they request assistance with work and family related matters.
b) I can give my attention for urgent family or personal issues immediately.
c) I have good understanding with my team members.

 

21. Give your opinion about Work satisfaction

Work Satisfaction	A	N	DA
a) I feel satisfied with my working hours
b) I am satisfied with the challenging opportunities I get in the organization
c) I satisfied an aware of the WLB policies created in the organization.

 

REFERENCE:

1.        Mani V. Work Life Balance and Women Professionals. Global Journal of Management and Business Research Interdisciplinary 2013; 13(5): 2013.

2.        Shiva G. A study on Work Family Balance and Challenges faced by working women. IOSR Journal of Business and Management 2013; 14(5): 1-4.

3.        Gayathri N, Karthikeyan P. A Review on Green Human Resource Management with Exclusive Allusion to Green Work Life Balance. International Research Journal of Business and Management 2013; 5: 40-45.

4.        Padma S, Sudhir Reddy M. Impact of Child care responsibility on Work Life Balance (WLB) of School Teachers. International Journal of Advanced Research in Business Management and Administration 2013; 1(1).

5.        Gayathri N, Karthikeyan P. Work life balance in India–A social responsibility or a competitive tool. International Research Journal of Business and Management 2013; 1: 103- 109.

6.        Singh S. Work Life Balance: A Literature Review. Global Journal of Commerce and Management Perspective 2013; 2(3): 84-91.

7.        Vijayalakshmi, Navneetha. Work Life Balance of Women Faculty working in Educational Institutions: issues and problems. International Journal of Research in Commerce, Economics and Management 2013; 3(4): 73-75

8.        Santhana Lakshmi K, Sujatha Gopinath S. Work Life Balance of Women Employees with reference to teaching faculties. International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research in Management and Technology 2013; II.

 

 

 

Accepted on 10.04.2016          © A&V Publications all right reserved