Work-Life Balance and Employee Performance: A Study of Selected Deposit Money Banks in Lagos State, Nigeria

Work-life balance is one of the prevailing issues in many organizations. Inability of workers to balance work and family could lead to increased rates of absenteeism, stress, employee turnover, job dissatisfaction and poor work performance. It is therefore essential for employees to maintain stability between work and their private lives. This research examined the effect of work-life balance on employee performance of selected deposit money banks in Lagos State, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted. The target population was 54,028 employees, which consisted of all employees of the six selected Deposit Money Banks in Lagos State, Nigeria. A sample size comprising 520 employees were selected using random sampling technique. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and simple regression analysis. The findings revealed that job stress significantly affects quality of work of employees (F= 33.500, p< 0.05); and long working hours significantly affects motivation of employees in the selected deposit money banks in Lagos State (F= 8.716, p< 0.05). However, the study reveals that role overload has no significant effect on job satisfaction of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State (F= 0.011, p> 0.05). This study concludes that work-life balance has significant effect on employee performance in the selected deposit money banks in Lagos State, Nigeria.


Introduction
Work-life balance is an essential and serious issue in today's organizations. It is an area of growing importance to both employees and the employers (Bardoel et al., 2008;Gregory, 2009). Competition in the modern marketplace is now more intense than ever. Businesses are competing globally in order to meet the demands and expectations of customers and other stakeholders. Central in this challenging and undulating development are the employees of the business who must be available at the right time to do the right jobs for the organization to remain in business. The resulting changes in the business environment have compelled employees to increase their productivity and consequently demand flexibility in the work they perform (Chan, 2007). It is in this light that work-life balance has become an emerging phenomenon in research.
Work-life balance is generally associated with equilibrium between the amount of time and effort an employee devotes to work and personal life, with the intention of maintaining an overall sense of harmony in life (Clarke et al., 2004). It is therefore an issue that pertains to every individual in paid work (Department of Trade and Industry, 2000). Employees are vital assets to organizations and it is necessary for employers to understand that employees need to balance their life with their work to achieve personal congruence. This is because research have shown that work-life imbalance can influence employee performance, satisfaction, turnover, health, organizational loyalty and longevity in career (Hye, 2014;Khan and Khurshid, 2017).
Work-life balance as an area of research is becoming more prevalent as the workforce continues to change. This growing interest in work-life balance has been driven by demographic changes in the workforce and by recognizing that work-life issues are highly relevant for people generally (Chan, 2007;Orogbu et al., 2015). There has been a steady increase in dual-earner couples, single parent families, and employees who have elderly care responsibilities. Pressures from work and family can have negative impacts on employees and how well they perform (Kossek, 2005). However, Anderson et al. (2002) add that a balance in work and family life can improve both the performance and quality of life of employees in organizations.
Developing economies like Nigeria are largely faced with serious economic challenges such as high unemployment rates, poor social infrastructures, labour market pressures, poverty, and corruption. These conditions make it difficult for employees to experience a workable balance between work commitments and family responsibility (Akpa et al., 2018;Fapohunda, 2014). Most workers in deposit money banks in Lagos State, Nigeria experience work inflexibility, unrealistic targets from management and long working-hour culture; a situation that negatively affects work-life balance practices, and ultimately, job performance and productivity. There is growing concern that the quality of work and family life of employees is declining, and this could lead to poor performance at work (Fapohunda, 2014;Orogbu et al., 2015).
Job stress has been identified as a major issue for business operations, and its negative impact on work performance has been of grave concern both to the employer and employees. Work-life imbalance is a major cause of job stress that many employees suffer today (Babatunde, 2013). Job insecurity and increasing workload, have propelled many employees to work longer hours and taking on a lot, which lead to role-overload on the part of employees (Hassan et al., 2011). Although many employees seek to achieve work-life balance, their concern for success takes them into positions where they work for long hours and thereby experience insufficient balance between work and home (Chandra, 2012). Role overload, resulting in longer hours of work, has been linked with decreased job satisfaction and continued complaints about work-life related stress which could in turn affect performance (Shah, 2014).
The pressure on employees to work longer hours under rigid work schedules is always increasing (Department of Trade and Industry, 2000), Goveas (2011), adds that many workers are fatigued at the end of each working day, due to challenged responsibilities and the culture of long working hours. These forms of work-related discomforts result in absenteeism, poor quality work and work output. A vast number of studies exist that have recognized the importance of Human Resources Management (HRM) practices as intangible assets and estimate their effect on productivity (Bloom and Van Reenen, 2011;Fapohunda, 2014). However, Kato and Kodama (2015) have observed that there is scarcity of rigorous evidence on the efficacy of HRM policies and practices at the micro (firm) level, especially Work-Life Balance (WLB) practices in Japan. It can also be inferred that in Nigeria there is limited empirical studies in this area of knowledge.
Deposit money banks in Lagos State, Nigeria are known for their long and extended hours working culture and heavy work load on employees which result in neglect of other areas of the employees' life. Majority of the employees are unable to achieve reasonable work-life balance (Ojo et al., 2014). In light of the above, this study investigated the effect of work-life balance on employee performance of selected deposit money banks in Lagos State, Nigeria.

Literature Review
This section discusses work-life balance and factors that affects employees such as: job stress, role overload and long working hours; and employee performance and factors that affect employees such as: quality of work, job satisfaction and motivation.

Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance refers to employees' ability to meet their work and family commitments, as well as other nonwork tasks and activities in a manner that brings congruence and balance to their lives. It is, according to Khan and Agha (2013), the equilibrium state in which a person's professional and family life is equally balanced. Rajesh and Prasad (2013), defined work-life balance as satisfying, healthy and productive life that includes work, play and love. World at Work (2008), defined work-life balance as a specific set of organizational practices, policies, programs, and a philosophy, which actively supports efforts to help employees achieve success both at work and home. Grzywacz and Carlson (2007), add that work-life balance is the global assessment that work and family resources are sufficient to meet work and family demands such that participation is effective in both domains.
Work-life balance was first used to describe the trend of individuals spending more time on work and less time on other aspects of their lives (Khan and Agha, 2013). The concept have gained prominence in recent times as a result of emerging developments and changes in the workplaces that put increasing pressures on employees and thus require quick response (Guest, 2002;Hye, 2014). It became clear that people were not really able to cope with the fast tracked changes and undulating business landscape that came with intense pressure and competition. The shift from traditional family to an increasing appearance of single parent families and greater participation of women in organizations signify a greater need for work-life balance among employees (Guest, 2002).
Work-life balance refers to manageability of the different aspects of one's work and life in such a way that they complement rather than contend with each other. Juggling responsibilities to work, family and community, as well as requirements for physical health and psychological wellbeing can create competing priorities in people's lives (Timms et al., 2015). Where ever the individual is unable to satisfactory resolve the pressure caused by these contending priorities it results into what has now been accepted and known as work-life conflict. Work-life conflict is associated with exhaustion and psychological tension (Brough et al., 2005). This could lead to deadly health consequences, absenteeism and high turnover (Timms et al., 2015). Nathani and Jha (2009), grouped factors influencing work and family life domains into three: work-related factors (long hour culture and unpaid overtime, increase in part-time workers, and changing work time); family and personal life related factors (increasing participation of women in workforce, dual career couples in workforce, single-parent households, child-care/elder care burden on employees and health and well-being considerations); and other related factors. Employees' failure to balance work and family responsibilities can lead to higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, decreased productivity, increased job dissatisfaction, and rising healthcare costs (Amber et al., 2012;Khan and Khurshid, 2017) and performance of employees (Bloom et al., 2006). The consequences of work-life imbalance for employers result in poor organizational performance, high incidents of absenteeism of workers, higher turnover rate of staff, and costs related to recruitment and training (Department of Trade and industry, 2001). This paper however focuses on job stress, role overload and long working hours as variables for measuring work-life balance.
Moderate amount of stress can be beneficial to employees however, high level of stress can lead to poor productivity, low employee morale, and increased job dissatisfaction (Lockwood, 2003). Job stress is a worker's feeling of job-related tension, anxiety, emotional exhaustion frustration, and distress. It is also the dangerous physical and emotional responses that occurs when the requirements of the job does not match capabilities, resources, or needs of an employee (Griffin et al., 2010). Especially as a result of decreased attention to certain activities that require certain mental skills such as making a judgment or decision.
Role overload ensues when an employee participates in multiple roles with unlimited demands which could cause role strain and role conflict (Shah, 2014). Willow (2006), affirms that role overload happens when the level of demand on an employee exceeds available resources or when an employee has too many tasks that require his/her attention. Duxbury et al. (2010), add that role overload occurs when an individual has several role statuses, to meet the demands of each status to the satisfaction of all the role partners and the satisfaction of self. Role overload is also a direct predictor of work-life conflict and a strain-based predictor because having too much to do and too little time could possibly to lead to emotional distress and it negatively affects performance and satisfaction of employees (Frone et al., 1997).
Long working hours has become a practice in many countries worldwide (Lee et al., 2007). A substantial amount of research showed that work demands such as number of hours worked, work shift and workload are positively and strongly associated with work-family conflict. They also have negative effect on employees' performance (Burke, 2002;Holly and Mohnen, 2012;Orogbu et al., 2015). Working overtime is associated with high levels of work-life imbalance in both males and females (van Hoof et al., 2007). According to Guest (2002), time pressures at work and long working hours result in unmotivated employees. Increase in weekend and evening work leads to less quality time with family members. Employers could increase flexibility in employees' hours such as part time, flexitime and Job sharing. When management makes working hours more flexible for employees, it brings about a balance which is a motivator in carrying out tasks in organizations.

Employee Performance
Employees are vital assets to organizations and it is necessary for employers to help balance work and life of their employees because lack of balance can affect employee performance, satisfaction, health and organizational loyalty (Khan and Khurshid, 2017). Employees are real assets of organizations and are vital to the functioning and success of the business. In an organizational context, performance is the extent to which employees contribute to achieving the goals and objectives of the organization (Uddin et al., 2013;Zhang, 2012). According to Nyokabi (2014) employee performance is a rating system used in many corporations to decide the abilities and output of an employee.
Improved employee performance could increase organizational performance as well (Macky and Johnson, 2000). Organizations can gain competitive edge through its employees especially those who are front-line employees, who create first impressions to customers and potential customers about the organization and its brand (Alo, 1999). Organizations need highly performing employees so as to meet their goals, deliver their products and services, and mostly attain competitive advantage which is what organizations strive for Sonnentag and Frese (2002). This paper focuses on quality of work, job satisfaction and motivation as variables for measuring employee performance.
Quality of work is an essential factor for goal achievement businesses and this can be attained when organizations have effective work-life balance policies. Regular improvement in quality of work should embody an organization both within the organization's climate and in the organization's products and services (Goveas, 2011). Quality of work in an organization emphases not only on quality products but also on attaining corporate excellence because it makes such organization stand out from competitors. Employees who display satisfactory work quality regularly meet quality expectations for products or services; their works are generally error free; and they complete product or service efficiently (Goveas, 2011). It is very important that business owners and managers ensure that employees are well motivated and empowered to achieve excellence in the quality of work they do.
Work-life balance influences how well employees perform and the quality they provide to customers. Organizations are realizing that an employee with well-balanced work and personal life is very essential. The quality of employees' personal life has an impact on the quality of work they produce at work and organizations need to encourage the incorporation and blending of work and non-work activities in such a way that the employees are encouraged to strike a balance and enabled to achieve excellence in both areas of life (Fapohunda, 2014).
Job satisfaction, according to Spector (1997) is one of the most studied variables in organizational research. This is because job satisfaction can influence job performance and employee turnover (Judge et al., 2001). Consequently, keeping workers satisfied with their careers should be a foremost priority for every employer (Gregory, 2009). Job satisfaction is multi-dimensional and is predisposed by a number of features within the job itself (Bender et al., 2005), as well as by internal employee features such as personality traits (Williamson et al., 2005) and values (Cohrs et al., 2006).
Employees become attached to organizations when their expectations are met and this could influence job satisfaction and employees' loyalty to that organization. Being satisfied with one's job positively influences productivity, commitment and customer satisfaction (Robbins and Judge, 2007). Job satisfaction is influenced by a blend of organizational and individual factors: job demands; career worries and job insecurity (Doble and Supriya, 2010). Employees struggle to juggle the challenging demands of work and family, and the extreme pressure and paucity of free time badly affect their ability to cope (Anafarta, 2011). This conflict influences job satisfaction, which influences employees' decisions to stay or leave their jobs, thereby affecting their performance. Apparently, organizations that take care of their employees by providing work-life balance facilities usually have a greater number of satisfied employees (Malik et al., 2010a).
Motivation has to do with the forces either inside or external to an individual that arouse zeal and willpower to pursue a certain course of action (Akpa, 2010). It is also a psychological process that gives a person's behaviour direction and purpose (Kreitner, 2007). Motivated employees according to Daft (2010) are needed in today's fast moving workplaces, because they help organizations to adjust, grow, and stay alive. On the other hand, lack of motivation in the leads to poor performance, underutilized ability, and failure to reach individual and organizational goals (Daft, 2010). Workers who are highly motivated are more satisfied with their jobs and are eager to work harder (Weakliem and Frenkel, 2006). Organizational policies that support work-life balance help in improving motivation of employees, which is an added advantage to organizations because it leads to improved employee performance, thus putting organizations in a better position to compete in today's competitive market.

Research Conceptual Model
The study presents a theoretical model based upon the review of literature. As shown by the model in figure 1, the independent variable is work-life balance, measured by job stress, role overload and long working hours, while the dependent variable is employee performance, measured by quality of work, job satisfaction and motivation. The model shows the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable.

Spillover Theory
Spillover theory defines the conditions which could result in either positive or negative spill over work micro system or the family micro system (Lakshmypriya and Rama, 2016). Spillover theory examines the influence of the work domain on home domain and the transference of work related emotions from the employee to others at home. Spillover has to do with the transmission of states of well-being from one domain of life to another. This process happens at intra individual level, within one person but across different domains (Bakker et al., 2009;Westman, 2002). The experiences that are transferred from one domain to the other can be either negative or positive (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000).
Positive spillover means that satisfaction and achievement in one domain may bring along satisfaction and achievement in another domain while negative spillover refers to the fact that complications and depression in one domain may bring along the same emotion in another domain. Work overload, unfavourable work schedules, and emotional job demands can result in negative work life spillover while family issues, lack of support from spouse and ill health result in family work spillover. If work-family interactions are inflexibly structured in time and space, then spillover in terms of time, energy and behaviour is generally negative. However, work flexibility, helps to incorporate several factors of time and space between work and family ensuing in positive spillover. This is helpful in achieving healthy work and family balance (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000;Xu, 2009).
This theory recognizes the impact of the two domains on each other; the experience in one role affects experiences in the second role. The theory also asserts that increase in satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) at work could lead to increased satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) at home. This could mean that the behaviour, skills, mood and values from one role can spill over to the second role (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000). Spillover theory is essential for this research because it explain the joint relationship between work and personal lives of employees and how both roles affects performance of employees either positively or negatively. Although the focus of many work-family studies has primarily been on negative spillover, also indicates that positive spillover is also possible (Greenhaus and Powell, 2006;Wayne et al., 2004).

Methodology
This study adopted a descriptive research design. According to Saunders et al. (2012), descriptive research design is undertaken in order to portray an accurate profile of persons, situations and events by describing the features of the variable of interest situation. The design provides the researcher with relevant information to describe the relevant aspects of the variables of interest. This type of design is used to present data in a manner that is meaningful. Descriptive research design can include two or more variables for analysis, unlike other methods require one variable. Data for the study was from heads of various departments as managerial and non-managerial staff from Operations, Marketing and Customer Care departments of the selected banks; namely, Access Bank Plc, Eco Bank Nigeria Plc, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTB), United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), and Zenith Bank Plc in Lagos State.
The total population under consideration was 54,028. Of this, the sample size of Four Hundred (400) was obtained using Yamane's Statistical Distribution Formula. To make room for challenges which include incomplete questionnaires, non-return of questionnaires and non-response in some cases, 30% was added to 400 which totalled 520. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed in arriving at definite strata of the respondents. Multi-stage sampling required the researcher to choose samples in stages until required population was gotten (Asika, 1990). Random sampling method was utilized in selecting each respondent.
The tool for data collection was a self-administered, six-point Likert scale questionnaire to the employees of the selected deposit money banks. The validity of the instrument was ascertained by experts with know-how in the design of administrative sciences questionnaire. Hence, senior academics from the Department of Business Administration of Babcock University evaluated the questionnaire. These people were chosen due to their expansive experience and therefore, they have the credibility in validating the questionnaire items. In order to determine the reliability of the instrument, internal consistency method was adopted, using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The standard minimum value of alpha of 0.7 is recommended (Amin, 2005) for item loadings. In this study, for all the tested variables, the Cronbach's alpha coefficients, ranging between 0.803 and 0.956, were greater than 0.7. These were acceptable and demonstrated the reliability of the compound variables (George and Mallery, 2003) presents the details. Copies of the questionnaire were administered among the banks with help of two research assistants, using the proportionate method based on the population of selected banks. Data analysis procedures involved both qualitative and quantitative procedures. Using the SPSS version 21.0, data were analysed through percentages, frequencies, and linear regression analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Analyzed data were then presented tabular forms.

Data Analysis, Results and Discussion
A total of five hundred and twenty (520) copies of questionnaire were administered to employees of selected deposit money banks and three hundred and sixty-eight (368) copies were retrieved representing about 70.8% response rate. The analysis of the hypothesis was based on the number retrieved.    2 presents the results on the effect of the independent variable (job stress) on the dependent variable (quality of work). The result of the regression analysis revealed that job stress has significant positive effect on quality of work (β = 0.352, t = 2.578, p<0.05). As shown in Table 2, a strong positive correlation exists between job stress and quality of work in deposit money banks in Lagos State. Further, the coefficient of determination R 2 is 0.980, implying that 98% of the change in attaining quality of work is explainable via the change in the job stress. The remaining 2% of the variation may be explain by other factors including chance. The low standard error (0.037) confirms that the coefficient is not equal to zero. The Durbin Watson (DW) value of 1.910 signifies the absence of autocorrelation since the value is high and very close to 2. This implies that job stress significantly affects quality of work of employees in terms of products or services offered to their customers or potential customers. The decision criterion would lie on the non-acceptance of the null hypothesis (H 01 ). Therefore, it can be concluded that Job stress has a significant effect on quality of work of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State, Nigeria.

Test of Hypotheses
This finding is in agreement with previous studies on job stress and quality of work (Sabuncuoglu and Tuz, 2001;Yilmaz, 2006). According to Wallace (2005) and Wong (2007), job stress is detrimental to an organizations performance. High levels of job stress have been linked to decreased performance, which affects quality of work of employees and leads to unsatisfied customers and as a result customers are unlikely to make repeat purchase and this has consequential effect on profitability and stakeholders' value.

Hypothesis Two
H 02 : Role overload has no significant effect on job satisfaction of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State.  (2019) The second hypothesis was formulated to determine whether role overload has significant effect on job satisfaction The result in Table 3 shows that role overload has positive but insignificant effect on job satisfaction of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State (β = 0.041, t = 1.362, p<0.05). The correlation coefficient is 0.604 (R = 0.604), showing a positive linkage between the variables. Further, the Table shows R 2 value of 0.366 which reflects the ratio of variation in employee job satisfaction, explainable by role overload, implying that 36.6% of job satisfaction of employees' variability is elucidated by the role overload. The remaining 63.4% of the variation may be explained by other factors including chance. The significance level is 0.918 which is above 0.05 (p> 0.05), implies a statistical confidence of below 95%. To ensure that serial correlation between the residuals do not impair the analysis, a Durbin Watson (DW) was used, yielding 1.758, which indicates no serial correlation in the model. This study finds that role overload has no significant effect on job satisfaction of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State. Thus, the decision would be to accept the null hypothesis (H 02 ).
This finding is in line with that of Sobia et al. (2011) who pointed out that role overload has less impact on employee job satisfaction in private deposit money banking sector of Karachi, in Pakistan. Some of the identified reasons may be uncertain working conditions, high inflation and unemployment rate in Pakistan. The findings of the study reveals that role overload does not have much impact on employee job satisfaction and some factors such as employee intention to leave job, work pressure and long working hours have negative relationship with employee job satisfaction. In a similar study, Malik et al. (2010b) found no significant effect of role overload on job satisfaction.

Hypothesis Three
H 03 : Long working hours have no significant effect on motivation of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos state.  Table 4 shows results for hypothesis three to determine if long working hours have significant effect on motivation of employees. The results in Table 4 show that long working hours have significant positive effect on motivation of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State (β = 0.321, t = 5.893, p<0.05). Further, the correlation coefficient (R = 0.808) is showing a positive linkage between the variables, whereas the coefficient of determination was (R 2 = 0.653) which implies that 65.3% change in attaining employee motivation is explainable via the change in long working hours. The Durbin Watson statistics (1.933) shows a non-autocorrelation of the residuals. As can be observed from the results, long working hours significantly affect motivation of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State. Thus, the decision would be to reject the null hypothesis. Hence, the study concludes that long working hours have significant effect on motivation of employees in selected deposit money banks in Lagos State.
This finding corroborates past results of studies on the relationship between long working hours and employee motivation. Hanglberger (2010) found that long working hours have an effect on motivation of employees and the same was analyzed by Gash et al. (2010), whose findings supports Hanglberger study. These authors concur that long working hours have effect on motivation of employees. A considerable amount of research shows that work demands such as number of hours worked, workload and shift work have negative effect on motivation (Higgins et al., 2007;Holly and Mohnen, 2012;Saltzstein et al., 2001). However, the finding contradicts the finding by Guest (2002) that long working hours and time pressures at work results in unmotivated employees. When employees work long hours they do not have time for other areas of their lives and it affects their level of motivation in achieving organizational goals and objectives.

Conclusion
This study is on work-life balance and employee performance in selected Deposit Money Banks in Lagos State, Nigeria. Based on the findings from the analysis of the data collected, the study concludes that work-life balance has significant effect on employee performance of selected Deposit Money Banks in Lagos State, Nigeria. In in order to achieve a successful work-life balance, management should provide a conducive work environment and flexible work hours as well as consider job sharing options. Also, the unsupportive work-life cultures such as long working hours that exist in the banking sectors in Lagos State Nigeria should be discouraged in order to minimize work-life imbalance among employees of the banks.