IMPACT OF WORK LIFE BALANCE ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR EFFICIENCY

(Case Study of Selected Women Entrepreneur’s in Ilorin)

BY

AMBALI ABDULGANIU OLAMIKEN

MATRIC NUMBER

17/37EE169

SUPERVISOR

MR. PHILIP ADEBAYO

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

In today’s competitive and knowledge oriented environment, men alone are not
responsible for the economic health of the family, as women are also engaging their self in
entrepreneurship to foster the well-being of the family. This set of women are also categorized as
women entrepreneurs, they are also known as wealth creator, employment generator, and also
provides various solutions for the society related problems. The last two decades have witnessed
phenomenal changes as regards to the status and work of women in Nigeria. Nigeria among other
African traditional societies believes women are only relevant in domestic affairs and
management, while African Men are expected to be the income earners. For a long time, the
African culture has restricted the activities of women to a place and positioning in the home
(Kayode-Adedeji, Ige, & Ekanem, 2016). This notion is changing today, as many more women
are going into entrepreneurship (Uzuegbunam, 2106). Traditional roles played by women are
changing as a result of changes in family configuration. This has given women the opportunity to
take more practical and functional roles in the society (Mordi, Simpson, Singh & Okafor, 2010).
From the late 20th Century, Nigeria women intensified their participation in entrepreneurial
activities. This came as a result of economic downturn, the high cost of living, low per capita
income, desire to support the family (Uzuegbunam, 2106).
Despite the fact that the role of women entrepreneurs has undergone a paradigm shift in
the past years in terms of better access to higher education, employment, political empowerment
and economic independence. Women entrepreneurs still face a lot of life challenges. These
include child care, household duties. Besides this, women entrepreneurs have to contend with
business challenges although women have succeeded in overcoming all these hurdles that
hampers their growth prospects but their role and position in terms of parenting and homemaking
remains unchanged (Winn 2004). The time and energy required for playing domestic roles often
creates conflicts between the women domestic and entrepreneurial role. Many studies have
revealed that family life had a dramatic impact on the progress of female entrepreneurs
irrespective of their job profile in the corporate or non-corporate sectors as there is need for them
to balance their work life and personal life.
 In the current scenario it is very difficult for working women to maintain balance
between both, the family and work place. The rapidly changing of the work environment has
been creating huge pressure on working women. Work life balance encourages employees to
divide their time on the basis on priorities and maintain a balance by devoting time to family,
health, vacations etc. along with making a career, business travel etc. Work place is continuously
changing and growing. Balancing work life and personal life has being a major concern for
women entrepreneurs. The term work life balance is the effective combination of professional
life with personal obligations with perfect harmony (Tomazevic, Kozjek & Stare, 2014). It also
means lack of conflict between personal and professional life (Tomazevic, Kozjek & Stare,
2014). The result of work-life imbalance may be stress (work and family), depression, burnout,
strains, lack of job satisfaction, etc. (Allen, 2000; Hutcheson, 2012).

Work-life balance among women entrepreneurs is perceived to be more of women

concern as a result of the traditional mindset, where an average woman is seen to be primarily
responsible for running the daily affairs of the home irrespective of what her job entails.
Therefore, managing home affairs and career is understood to be more difficult for women than
men (Sigroha, 2014). The multidimensional roles played by women at home and workplace
coupled with frustration and stress lead to work-life imbalance. Therefore, an average woman
entrepreneur has to find the right balance between personal life and business life (Ionescu &
Ionescu, 2015). In many societies, men are considered to be breadwinners while women are
expected to be responsible for family duties (Brush, 1992). Women can only take up business
opportunities after they have taken care of responsibilities relating to household, children
upbringing and education (Costin, 2012). It is on this note that this research work tilted impact of
work life-balance on women efficiency is been conducted to brush up and also to change the
mindset of the traditional African man that women entrepreneurs goes a long way in affecting
the economy performance as the organizational success and satisfaction of women entrepreneurs
depends on the capability of facing and coping with the continuously changing business
environment.

1.2 Statement of Research Problem

Various problem has been highlighted to be the causes of inefficiency on women
entrepreneurship such as lack of work flexibility, high work pressure and longer working hours
are stressing out many women entrepreneurs, reducing their job performance and productivity as
well as causing broken homes. In the community, there is growing concern that the quality of
home and work life is deteriorating. These have resulted to poor input and performance at their
job place, because they finds it difficult to properly balance their family life, and tends to also
have difficulties managing tasks at their workplace, therefore resulting in poor performance.
Moreover, there is a view, widely promoted by some management professionals but not strongly
supported by sound empirical evidence, that workers are less willing to display unlimited
commitment to the organization. One reason offered for this is the changing nature of the
psychological contract at work; turbulence in organizations has made it less feasible to offer
secure progressive careers and therefore to justify why workers should be committed. It is on this
note that this research work titled impact of work life balance on women entrepreneurship
efficiency is conducted to proffer solution to the issue of work life balance and women
entrepreneurship.

1.3 Research Questions

This research is borne out of the effort to evaluate the Impact of work life balance on women
entrepreneurship efficiency. Therefore, the research questions is based on the following question.
i. Does Work Place Flexibility has any significant effect on the Market share?
ii. To what extent does Work Place Flexibility affects the Increased Work Quality of
women entrepreneurship?
iii. To what extent does compressed work week affects the Market share of women
entrepreneurship?
iv. Is there any impact of compressed work week on Increase Work Quality of women
entrepreneurship?

1.4 Research Objectives

The aim of this research is to investigate the Impact of work life balance on women
entrepreneurship efficiency, while other objectives are to;
 i. Explore the impact of Work Place Flexibility on the Market share of women
entrepreneurship.
ii. Determines the extent in which Work Place Flexibility affect the Increased Work Quality
of women entrepreneurship.
iii. Examine the extent to which Compressed work week affect the Market share of women
entrepreneurship.
iv. Identify how Compressed work week affects the Increased Work Quality of women
entrepreneurship.

1.5 Research Hypotheses

An hypothesis is a tentative statement about the relationship that exists between a tow or among
many variables. It is a conjectural statement about a relationship and need to be tested
subsequently accepted or rejected. In view of the research question that this study seeks to
answer, the following hypothesis will be tested.
H1: There is no significant effect of Work Place Flexibility on the Market share of Women
entrepreneurship.
H2: There is no significant effect of Work Place Flexibility on the Increased Work Quality of
Women entrepreneurship.
H3: There is no significant effect of Compressed work week on the Market share of Women
entrepreneurship.
H4: There is no significant effect of Compressed work week on the Increased Work Quality
of Women entrepreneurship.

1.6 Significance of the study

The present study has great significance. First of all, the study findings will provide an
idea about work life balance on women entrepreneurship efficiency in order to provide key
information to further research work in such areas. In the same way, the study will provide
knowledge and guidelines to reveal if work life balance goes a long way in affecting the
performance of women entrepreneurship.

1.7 Limitations of the study

 This study is limited to the issue of Impact of work life balance on women
entrepreneurship efficiency. The study did not consider all the aspects business areas, but is
limited to women entrepreneurship only. The reason for this restriction is due to the limitation of time
and unavailability of resources such as data and finance.

1.8 Scope of the Study

This research work evaluates the Impact of work life balance on women
entrepreneurship efficiency. With a particular focus to selected women entrepreneurs in Ilion
Kwara State from the period of 2013-2018. The major reason selected women entrepreneurs
were chosen among hundreds of small business is based on their easy means of data, originality
in the data to be collected for further studies and also to make this research work more relevant
and original.

1.9 Outline of Chapters

This study comprises of five chapters where Chapter 1 consists of the background of
study, statement of research problems, objectives of research, research questions, research
hypothesis, significance of study, sources of data, limitations of study, scope of study,
operationalization as well as the definition of terms. Chapter two focus on the conceptual review,
theoretical review, empirical review and the gap analysis of the researcher.
Chapter three comprises of methodology adopted in carrying out the research which will
include the research design, population of study, sampling techniques, research instrument,
validity of research instrument, and ethical issues.
Chapter four discussed the presentation of data, data analyses, empirical results and
interpretation of results, test of questionnaire, test of hypothesis, and discussion of result and
finally, chapter five will discuss the summary, findings, conclusion and recommendations for
institutions, industry regulators, and government and for future recommendations,
references/bibliography and appendices.

1.10 Operationalization
Topic: Impact of Work-Life Balance on Women Entrepreneurship Efficiency. There for we have
two constructs (X & Y)
Work-Life Balance (X) Women Entrepreneurship Efficiency (Y)
X=f (Y)
Where X= (x1,x2,x3,x4......xn) Y=(y1,y2,y3,y4.......yn)
X= Independent Construct Y= Dependent Construct
Work-Life Balance (X) Women Entrepreneurship Efficiency (Y)
x1 = Work Place Flexibility y1 = Increased Market share
x2 = Compressed Work Week y2 = Increase Work Quality
x3 = Part Time Work y3 = Reduced Turnover
x4 = Job Sharing y4 = Increased Output
Selected Variables

X= Independent Construct Y= Dependent Construct

Work-Life Balance (X) Women Entrepreneurship Efficiency (Y)
x1 = Work Place Flexibility y1 = Increased Market share
x2 = Compressed Work Week y2 = Increase Work Quality

1.11 Definition of Terms

WORK LIFE BALANCE:

Work life balance is a term used to describe the balance between the domestic responsibilities
and entrepreneurial role

WOMEN ENTREPRENUERS:

Women entrepreneurs may be defined as a woman or a group of women who initiate, organise
and run a business concern.

WORK PLACE FLEXIBILITY:

It is considered to be the most practical solution for maintaining an effective work life balance.

COMPRESSED WORK WEEK:

Compressed Work Week is a concept by adopting which employee can make arrangements with
long working hours in trading for a reduction in the number of days of working in their work
cycle on a weekly basis.
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 PREAMBLE
This section examines previous literature related to the impact of work life balance on
women entrepreneur and it is divided into four sections and they are; conceptual review,
theoretical review, empirical review and gaps in literature.

2.1 CONCEPTUAL REVIEW

2.1.1 Work Life Balance

Work life balance is a term used to describe the balance between the domestic
responsibilities and entrepreneurial role. It was coined to denote the unhealthy lifestyle that
people are living and way they were choosing their work over their personal life thus ignoring
other relevant areas of life such as friends, families and hobbies etc. In other words it is all about
efficiently managing the juggling act between the job and other responsibilities that are important
to us. Clark (2000) has defined balance as “satisfaction and good functioning at work and home
with a minimum of role conflict.” Further visualizing that although it is difficult to alter several
aspects of work and home, but an individual can make some efforts to manage the balance and
minimizes the gap between them in order to create a desired balance. work-life balance is
commonly used as a more comprehensive expression to describe policies that have been
previously termed 'family-friendly', but are now extended beyond the scope of the family. Work-
life balance refers to the flexible working arrangements that allow both parents and non-parents
to avail of working arrangements that provide a balance between work responsibilities and
personal responsibilities (Redmond Valiulis and Drew, 2006).
 A review of the work-life literature reveals that Work Life Balance initiatives can be
broadly divided into four dominant categories which include flexible working arrangement
(home working, compressed hours); leave arrangement (annual leave, Parental leave); dependent
care assistance (Child care arrangements and Crèche) and general services (Employment
assistant programs) (De Cieri, Holmes, Abbott and Pettit, 2005; De Cieri and Bardoel, 2009).
Work life balance are practices that are meant to help employees better manage their work and
non-working times are called in the literature as work-family policies, family-friendly or family-
responsive policies. In recent years, the term “work-life balance” has replaced what used to be
known as “work-family balance” (Hudson Resourcing, 2005), there are other life activities that
need to be balanced with employment may include study, travel, sport, voluntary work, personal
development, leisure or eldercare. Work life balance in its broadest sense, is defined as a
satisfactory level of involvement or ‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s life.

2.1.2 MEANS OF WORK-LIFE BALANCE

2.1.2.1 Work Place Flexibility:

It is considered to be the most practical solution for maintaining an effective work life
balance. For majority of the employees time is nearly as important as money, that’s why
employees are requesting work flexibility including telecommuting from home, flextime, and a
compressed work week. Benefits obtained from balanced work life in organization include
increased productivity, improved recruitment, and retention of employees and enhanced
company reputation. Work – life balance also includes child care, elder care facilities and special
leave schemes which provide employees with the freedom to respond to a domestic crisis
without jeopardizing their employment status (Kumar and Mohd, 2014).
2.1.2.2 Compressed Work Week:
Compressed Work Week is a concept by adopting which employee can make
arrangements with long working hours in trading for a reduction in the number of days of
working in their work cycle on a weekly basis. That can be significant for employees as they can
add more days off work and take long weekends. This will reduce commuting time as well and
the employer can extend routine operational hours without any requirement of overtime.
Compressed workweek positioning may be specifically beneficial for employees, who wish to
deduct the number of working days per week at the workplace. Compressed workweeks are often
initiated by both the employee and the employer. The employer initiates the choice of the
compressed workweek to improve the operational efficiency, reduces routine cost, maximize the
production and to develop longer business hours that can make customer services much better.
The arrangement for 40 working hours a week, working 8 hours for 5days, can be compressed to
4days by working 10hour daily. This will give 3days on the weekend (Yeandley et al, 2002).

2.1.2.3 Part-Time Work

Part-Time Work arrangements can also permit employees with poor health problems,
disabilities, limited disposable time (like as students) to participate and enhance their skills and
acquire work experience. Individuals who have had career breaks, this way, they can facilitate
re-entry into the work environment (specifically mothers or fathers who have dropped to visit the
working place and stayed at home to taken care of their children). It seems as a provision for
employees who are nearing to retirement for their gradual exist. In case of the employer’s point
of view, part-time workers are beneficial (where and whenever feasible) by providing additional
coverage during peak working period to maximize the use of human resources and increases
operational flexibility. Part-time employment contemplated as unsatisfactory for those who
prefer long working hours to ensure higher living standards for their families and also interested
in increasing their income. People with less working hour can balance their lives much better.
Furthermore, employees who work parttime or less than 35 hours a week reported better physical
and mental health. Part-time work is a frequent strategy attain by workers who are interested in
to better balance their work and family life. Promotion at a much higher level is required in case
of part-time work or jobs (Clarke, et al, 2004).
2.1.2.4 Job sharing
Job sharing is an organized pattern which allows two (or sometimes more) individuals to
mutually fill one fulltime job, with responsibilities and working time shared or divided between
them. Business organizations with less or limited part-time job opportunities or other
arrangements, job-sharing is appropriate in such cases. Apart from this, there is the advantage of
allowing employees much more for other liabilities, including family responsibilities; job sharing
also facilitates the enhancement of cooperation, where job sharers develop learning from one
another with a provision of mutual support. Employers can get benefits from that as well by
improving staff retention, increasing productivity and collaboration of a wider range of skills and
experience in a single job. In some of the cases, such kind of arrangement can also facilitate
additional coverage during busywork spans, while ensuring continuity of coverage when one
partner is on leave/absent or holidays. For business firms, it can be problematic to offer flexible
working conditions when there are substantial numbers of administrative, maintenance or
customer-facing employees. Where the working hours customer-driven, organizations are facing
lacking flexibility for employees, but it is most beneficial in the case of family-friendly programs
such as child care. A positive change in this matter is that now various business organizations are
providing onsite day-care centres for childcare to benefit employees.

2.1.3 IMPORTANCE OF WORK LIFE BALANCE

Working on a job in any company and making a desired career can be an extremely time
consuming responsibility for any employee. Employees are busy at their offices throughout the
day and sometimes even on weekends. This gives them very little time to interact with their
family. Because of high work pressure and organizational responsibilities, most commonly
family members get neglected. Also, stressful jobs cause the health of employees to deteriorate.
This is where work life balance comes into the picture. Work life balance helps an employee to
maintain
a fine balance in the time he or she gives to work as well as to personal matters. By having a
good balance, people can have a quality of work life. This helps to increase productivity at
workplace as the employee is relaxed about his personal commitments. It also helps the
employee to give quality time with family e.g. spend vacations, leisure time, work on his/her
health etc. So, Work life balance is very much important for employees and increases their
motivation to work for the company. The value of work life balance is more to the Women
Entrepreneur than that of male entrepreneur.

2.1.4 BARRIERS IN ACHIEVING WORK-LIFE BALANCE

There are various barriers in achieving Work life balance, which are mention below:
2.1.4.1 Managerial support:
Management plays an important role in the success of work/life programs because the managers
are -to encourage or discourage employees’ efforts to balance their work and family lives
whereas supervisors actively support the employees and employees will be more likely to take up
available work-life programs.

2.1.4.2 Career consequences:

The second factor associated with a barrier to the successful implementation of work-life
practices is the perception towards negative career consequences. (Cunningham, 2001), This is
the general
perception that using work-life balance practices will have a negative impact on their career
prospects appears to be a powerful demotivator for employees' .

2.1.4.3 Work place Time Utilization:

Another factor that influence the uptake and overall supportiveness of work-life policies is
organizational time utilization i.e. how they use their time or how much time employee spend on
the work place (e.g.,whether employees are expected to take work home); mainly long working
hours have been identified as a signal of commitment, productivity and motivation for
advancement. For significant contribution, productivity alone is not enough.

2.1.4.4 Genders perceptions:

It is general perceptions that work-life policy is developed only for women rather than men. This
thinking against women creates barrier for organizational effectiveness. Women also as much
competent and capable to handle responsibility as that of men rather than this women can handle
family responsibility in much better way.

2.1.4.5 Co-worker support:

More commonly the workers who make use of work-life practices suffer negative perceptions
from colleagues and superiors. In conclusion such perceptions, it is not surprising why work-life
practices tend to be underused by male employees, single employees and career-oriented
mothers; and that apprehension of negative career consequences for using practices has been
associated with increased levels of work-life conflict.
2.1.5 Suggestions for maintaining the work-life balance:-
 Women entrepreneurs should do proper time management among their personal and
professional life;
 Women entrepreneurs can delegate responsibilities among their competent employees;
 Encouraging and supporting employees through effective communication and development
programs which helps them to maintain a healthy work environment and their personal life;
 Women entrepreneurs should enhance technical competence of employees as well herself to
facilitate the pace of work;
 Women entrepreneurs should influence family members to take active participation in their
entrepreneurial venture so that they get enough time to spend with their family;
 They should not bring back office work to home or vice versa;
 They should spend their vacation time with family members to prevent stress;
 Women should hold work and family responsibilities on proper time schedule to avoid
procrastination; and
 They should improve their personal (self-confidence, self-control, personal goals, stress
management, and listening skills), social (communication, effective relations, change
management, responsibility, flexibility, and development skills), and professional (planning,
problem solving, information gathering, analytical thinking, creativeness, and time
management

2.1.6 Steps to improve work life balance

There are various guidelines which can helps in maintaining a proper work life balance, these
are:-
2.1.6.1 Creating a work plan: When an individual has scheduled his tasks, and divide time
accordingly his career development goals and personal development will influence.

2.1.6.2 Leave activities that waste time and energy: Individual should avoid wasteful activities
i.e time and energy and in return not output received.
2.1.6.3 Outsourcing of work: it relates to Delegation or outsourcing of time consuming work to
other individuals

2.1.6.4 Take time to Relax: Relaxation provides better work life balance, and tends to improve
productivity.

2.1.6.5 Priority work: generally employees do not give importance to work. Better planning can
help in saving time which can be utilized by employees for personal work.

2.1.7 Benefits of work life balance

There are several advantage of work life balance:-
 Work life balance increases the recognition and confidence of employees which helps them
to perform better at work place.
 It helps people to reduce their stress so that they can spend quality time with their family and
friends.
 Companies can maximize productivity from an employee who is recharged and refreshed as
compared to a over worked employee
 Healthy lifestyles can be maintained by proper work life balance. This includes a healthy
diet, regular exercise etc
 Employees who are highly motivated can help the business in more competitive way.

2.1.8 Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs are different from small business owners. While small business owners are
majorly concerned with obtaining income to solve immediate problems, the entrepreneurs are
pre-occupied about innovation. Entrepreneurs have the tendency to higher achievement in
motivation and ability to take a greater risk while at the same time providing employment to
others (Matthew & Panachanatham, 2011). Entrepreneurship has come up as a global concept
and contribute to the economic development of a country. Career women go through the problem
of WLB. To surmount these WLB problems, there is need to resolve work and personal life
issues. Women through their entrepreneurial activities contribute to the economic development
of their nation through innovation, and job creation (Agarwal, & Lenka, 2015). Entrepreneurs
put together Labour, Materials, and land to start a venture. The term "entrepreneur" was first
mentioned by Richard Cantllon (1680-1734, as cited by Landstrom, 1999). He defined
entrepreneur "as a person who identifies opportunities and takes risks to maximize firm's
monetary returns."

2.1.9 Women Entrepreneurship

The term women entrepreneurship was first mentioned in literature in the 1960’s and 1970’s but
has since gained ground in the 1980’s and 1990s (Uzuegbunam, 2016). The research about
women entrepreneurship became popular from the 1980s (Sumitha, & Souza, 2016). Women
entrepreneurship started even before the amalgamation of the North and South in 1914 by Lord
Lugard (Adekola, Olawole-Isaac, Ajibola & Salau, 2015). The role of women includes that of a
wife, mother, daughter, managing home activities serve the society, take a risk by starting and
running a business. Women are also expected to take care of their parents and other dependent
relatives. All these responsibilities women are saddled with, lead to work-life balance issues
(imbalance). (Uddin, & Chowdhury, 2015). According to International Labour Organization
(ILO, 2006), “A woman entrepreneur is defined as a woman who has started or inherited a
business alone or with one or more partners and is willing to bear financial, administrative and
social risks and responsibilities, and involve herself in the day to day management affairs of the
business”. Women who delve into the realm of entrepreneurship must be determined and
motivated to implement a creative personal idea (Matthew & Panachanatham, 2011). Garba
(2011), noted that women are seen as main.

2.1.10 Women Entrepreneur and Work Life Balance

The personal and professional life of women can be simply termed as the two sides of the same
coin. In our Indian traditional culture women by birth play variety of roles such as being a sister,
daughter etc, while after being grown up when she is married it is the traditional fact being
followed in India that a women not only marries from a man but his entire family and she is
expected to handle all the domestic/household chores in an efficient manner apart from their
professional responsibilities even if she is into some business or job profile. But as we all know
that “Life is not a grand harmony; conflicts do arise. The role conflict arises since they have to
perform numerous tasks in at least three capacities i.e. being an employee or owner, a wife and a
mother. Besides managing their job work/business work they have to look after the domestic
responsibilities too e.g. looking after the husband, parents and children too. Especially married
women had to play a much responsive role in by devoting equal time in order to satisfy all the
parties. If they are unable to discharge their duties in an efficient manner their family will be
unhappy. Such a disparity between an individual and her surrounding environment will results in
stress when there is alleged failure to face the constraints or demand encountered which will
further cause imbalance, violent behaviour and coping mechanism. Thus coping mechanism is
the ultimate resort to remove the stress which can often be termed as work life balance in other
context.

2.2 THEORETICAL REVIEW

2.2.1 SPILL OVER THEORY
This study is anchored on spill over theory by Guest (2002). It postulates the conditions under
which spillover between the work micro system and the family micro system occurs. It can either
positive or negative. If work- family interactions are rigidly structured in time and space, then
spill over in term of time, energy and behavior is negative. When flexibility occurs which
enables individuals to integrate and overlap work and family responsibilities in time and space
lead to positive spill over which is instrumental in achieving healthy work life balance.
According to Guest (2002), the determinants of work life balance are located in the work and
home contexts. Contextual determinants include demands of work, culture of work, demands of
home and culture of home. Individual determinants include work orientation (i.e. the extent to
which work (or home) is a central life interest), personality, energy, personal control and coping,
gender and age, life and career stage. The variables of the study are under the contextual
determinants, which are leave policy and service delivery. The leave policy is the culture of
work, while the service delivery is the demand of work. The nature of work life balance was
defined both objectively and subjectively. The objective indicators include hours of work and
hours of uncommitted or free time outside work. Subjective Indicators refer to the states of
balance and imbalance. He also noted that balance may be reported when equal weight is given
both to work and home or, when home or work dominates by choice. Spill over occurs when
there is interference of one sphere of life with other. Also, numerous outcomes of work life
balance which include personal satisfaction and wellbeing at work, home and life as a whole,
performance at work and home, impact on others at work, family and friends. The relevance of
this theory to the study is that organizations are expected to adopt positive work life balance
policies that will enable employee have a positive work life balance in which will make them be
effectively committed to achieving the organization’s goals.

2.2.2 Role Theory

There have been several studies that explore and apply role theory to work life balance in order
to help explain the construct (Graham, Sorell, & Montgomery, 2004; Jang & Zippay, 2011). The
theory posits that individuals impress upon themselves personal and social expectations related
to the myriad roles that they might hold (e.g., employee, parent, caretaker) (Graham, Sorell, &
Montgomery, 2004). In fact, researchers have maintained that, “everyday life is increasingly
mediated through formal roles in organizational settings” (Ashforth et al., 2000, 472). In 1936,
Ralph Linton, a prominent anthropologist proposed that there was a definite difference between
an individual’s status or position and their role. He wrote that a status was “simply a collection of
rights and duties” whereas “a role represents the dynamic aspect of status” (Linton, 1936, p.
113). Thus, a role is performed when the rights and duties that comprise the position or status are
carried out. However, Linton (1936) goes on to write that the two constructs, status and role, are
inseparable, that one does not exist without the other. Moreover, he establishes that the term role
has a duplicitous meaning. Linton informs that, “every individual has a series of roles deriving
from the various patterns in which he participates and at the same time a role, general, which
represents the sum of these roles and determines what he does for his society and what he can
expect from it” (1936, p.114). This theoretical foundation comprising both position and role is
one has been adopted by social scientists (Biddle & Thomas, 1966). Additionally, there is
underlying implication in the notion that one’s behavior can be

2.3 EMPIRICAL REVIEW

Another study by Kumari & Devi (2012), titled impact of demographic variables on
work-life balance of women employees (with special reference to Bangalore City) finds out that
today we see women working in almost all types of professions demonstrating that there is no
gender difference in work. In fact many organisations say that women are playing a major role in
uplifting the organization. This is a positive development that women are making their presence
felt in different walks of life. On the other hand, for every woman there is one more background
to manage. That is home and personal life. Today with increasing demands at work place, the
interface between work life and personal life assumed significance which demands more
attention. Different factors affect work –life balance and one set of factors could be demographic
variables. The present study is undertaken to determine the relationship between the
demographic variables and work life balance. Women employees in various professions like IT,
BPO, Marketing, Insurance, Banking and Education at Bangalore constitute the universe for the
study and a sample of 340 employees is chosen using stratified random sampling method. The
hypothesis is tested using chi-square test and it has revealed that there is significant relationship
between demographic variables and work life balance.

In view of Divina (2013), which paper aims to explore the innovative strategies by which
women entrepreneurs integrate their work demands with their personal responsibilities and
family needs to create value for their sustainable business and at the same time live a meaningful
and happy life. As an exploratory study, it used the survey and case study approaches. Some 140
women entrepreneurs in the Philippines were interviewed to established common patterns and
eight selected cases from among the samples were used to substantiate more the findings. Results
showed that the positive spill over effects of work on family needs and personal needs of the
women entrepreneurs is having good reputation in the community while negative spill over is
having to do with health problems/physical exhaustion/stress due to long work hours and
workload. The top three strategies done by women entrepreneurs to integrate work and life
demands are on engaging in activities to manage stress, having the business located at home or
near residence and planning work and household chores ahead of time. Moreover, the personal
entrepreneurial competencies of the Filipinas which they use to integrate work-life demands are
information seeking, goal setting, and systematic planning/monitoring. To ensure work-life
balance, women entrepreneurs, are encouraged to adopt innovative work-life balance strategies
like strengthen support from spouse and family, engage in stress management activities, and
redesign work structure to make it more flexible.
In view of Seenivasan (2014), Empirical relationships that exist between gender and
entrepreneurship still pose many unanswered questions. We provide a launch point for further
research on women’s entrepreneurship. Through extensive research on available global
databases, we: 1) highlight the continued importance of empirical research in this domain, 2)
establish a base point of past research on issues related to women’s entrepreneurship, 3) provide
an overview of available country-level data sources for researchers to utilize, and 4) discuss the
limitations of multilevel, global research that currently exist in entrepreneurship and propose
future directions.
Mahi & Mustafa (2015), opines that women are increasingly recognizing the difficulties
and constraints to maintain balance between their work and family life. Taking this importance
into consideration, the study examined the issues towards WLB using a quantitative research
technique. 185 women entrepreneurs were randomly selected from Chittagong. The result
indicates that there are five factors of WLB namely role overloads, health related issues,
dependent care, time management, and family and social support which are accountable for
around 65 percent variance. Out of these five factors, work overload and dependent care issues
are negatively related with WLB, whereas, health related issues, managing time, and family and
social support have a positive relationship with WLB of women entrepreneurs. This finding
implies that women entrepreneurs can focus on to reduce their workloads and managing
dependent care issues, and improvement of their health, managing time properly and ensuring
family and social support to maintain a balance between work and family life to survive,
compete and make their business a success one. Therefore, result brings out implication for
HRM practitioners, management consultants, and policy makers, association of women
entrepreneurs, and academicians to use the dimensions of WLB to enable them to have a
satisfactory level of WLB.(196 words)

Rama & Lakshmypriya (2016), through their study finds out that there has been quite a
lot of research being done to understand the effects of negative work life balance on health and
well being of employees and their family. (annink, 2011)Individuals are increasingly looking to
balance their responsibilities at work and in their personal life. Especially women do not view
their job as a justification for attending less to their families, household work, and other social
activities (Tausig, 2001)Entrepreneurship is the alternate route that people opt for in this
situation, as self employment has no specific or defined boundary between work and home
compared to organizational employees. They are responsible for dividing their time and energy
between work and life domains themselves, and have no boss who determines their working
hours. To most women becoming self-employed means having flexible work schedules, which
offers possibilities to stay active, take care of the children and other family commitments at the
same time have economic independence and discover their potential. Work-life is integrated
when there is no distinction and mental boundary between work and home but segmentation
occurs when there is a clear-cut mental boundary separating work and home. In between
segmentation and integration lies a range. An individual can be at either ends of segmentation or
integration or can be at any point of the range, actively engaged in mentally defining the
boundaries. (Thomas kalliath, 2008) Investigated if entrepreneurship provided a better chance for
achieving work–family balance than paid employment. Found that women entrepreneurs employ
flexible work practices but entrepreneurship does not necessarily provide a perfect work – life
balance. The present study tries to find out the effects of work-family spill over and family work
spillover effects on work life balance of women entrepreneurs.

Rincy & Panchanatham (2016), conducted a study in India, which finds out that
entrepreneurship has traditionally been considered a male prerogative. However, in tandem with
a changing socio-cultural environment and an increase in educational opportunities, women have
started recognising their inherent talents and business skills. With the help of various
governmental and non-governmental agencies, growing numbers of women are joining the ranks
of entrepreneurs. However, in the existing familial and societal setup, entrepreneurial women are
overburdened and find it increasingly difficult to balance their work and life roles. Therefore, the
major objective of the present study was to develop and validate an appropriate tool to illustrate
the work-life balance (WLB) issues faced by women entrepreneurs of South India. We also
sought to understand the important factors influencing the WLB of these women entrepreneurs.
To achieve this end, data were collected by area sampling (cluster-random) paired with semi-
structured interviews and a questionnaire. The generated data were subjected to standard
statistical procedures, such as factor analysis, regression analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA)
and student's t-test. The five-point psychometric tool developed consisted of 39 statements
related to five factors. Each of the statements possessed adequate reliability and validity. This
study revealed that role overload, dependent care issues, quality of health, problems in time
management and lack of proper social support are the major factors influencing the WLB of
women entrepreneurs in India. Furthermore, even though the vast majority of the entrepreneurs
examined in this study suffers from WLB issues, there are significant differences in the level of
WLB issues faced by the various categories of women entrepreneurs. The present study provides
recommendations for human resource professionals, management consultants, academicians and
women entrepreneurs themselves to deal with the major WLB issues faced by Indian women
entrepreneurs.

Furthermore, Adikaram (2016), conducted a study which core purpose of this study is to
analyze the impact of work life balance on employee job satisfaction in private sector
commercial banks of Sri Lanka. The data is collected keeping in consideration of demographic
factors and factors affect for job satisfaction. Factors involved are job satisfaction and work life
balance with respect to Working hours, Working conditions, work life balance programs,
employee intention to change of job and work pressure. Data is collected using both primary and
secondary sources. Primary data is collected through questionnaires where secondary data is
collected through past research, journals and online web-sites. In primary date collection a total
of 150 questionnaires are distributed among the employees of different commercial banks. The
data is analyzed using SPSS, tests applied is correlation and regression. The findings suggest that
work life balance has a significant impact on employee job satisfaction in private sector
commercial banks of Sri Lanka. This research can be beneficial for the private sector commercial
banks to improve their policies, benefits programs and work distribution and in making job
changes inside the organization. This research can be utilized as a light for banks to pay attention
to such factors, because their benefits are not only for employees but can benefit banks in the
long run especially in maintain work force of the institution.
In Inida, Minal, Sachin & Sangeeta (2016), conducted a research study which was able to
find out that society mainly has deep rooted close connection of family system, where Indian
women has the role to play as nurturers and caretakers of whole family. India, in her transition
phase, post independence faced lot of challenges at all levels of the society. With modernization
and globalization, India people were worried with future and culture shocks. It was big paradigm
shift for Indian closed mindsets. Out of the need of the hour, situations and circumstances, and
many reasons led Indian women to go out for work for living. Soon, the concept of egalitarian
society and women empowerment at every stage from Indian girls to Indian women reach the
horizon of their career. But it was found that even after reaching to top, Indian women have to
work wholly on her family roles. Stages comes into life of women – from marriage to children to
care takers and other extremes situations, where she has to compromise in career. Hence it is the
need to examine the phenomenon of the work-life balance of Indian women professionals in
greater depth. The key research question: To identify the core reasons and challenges Indian
women face for effective work life balance? To determine the work life balance and its related
factors influence the Indian women professionals? To develop the strategies to apply for
satisdfying work-family balance. First the emerging themes must be understood in the light of
the literature on work-family balance. Then conclusions to be drawn on how women
professionals in India manage their lives.

Neeraja (2017), finds out that the role of working women has changed throughout the
world due to economic conditions and social demands. This has resulted in a scenario in which
working women have pleasure to develop a career as robust as sustaining active management in
personal life. Work-life balance has become one of the major challenges in women’s life which
has a larger influence on human capital development. A Likert scale based questionnaire for
collecting information on the work-life balance of women was administered with 50 respondents
by survey method. The data was analyzed using SPSS. This study revealed the statistically
significant factors responsible for work-life balance of women under Indian conditions

Sumita (2017), conducted a research study Women’s Entrepreneurship can make a strong
contribution to the economic well-being of the family and communities, poverty reduction and
women’s empowerment. According to Government of India, a women entrepreneur is defined as
“An enterprise owned and controlled by a woman having a minimum financial interest of 51%
capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated by the enterprise to woman”. This
qualitative study is carried out with the aim to identify several policies and schemes which are
already existing, what further can be done for the women to become a successful entrepreneur
and achieve a satisfactory Work Life Balance while defining Work Life Balance, it is defined
that “In a broader sense, Work- Life Balance can be described as the ‘fit between multiple roles
in a person’s life’ (Mc Cartney, 2002). A woman entrepreneur finds difficult to schedule their
time properly between their business work and family work because of the multiple role she has
to play in both spheres of life. Different literature of various researchers and statistical report
gives us a true picture about Government efforts, Civil Society’s effort for women’s
entrepreneurship development. Some factors which affects the Work Life Balance has also been
referred. Thus several challenges they face and several remedial process to overcome is also
mentioned. Secondary data is collected for this research purpose through various survey reports,
journals, newspaper & websites.

In a study by Monika (2017), opines that Some women are encouraged to establish
entrepreneurial business by factors which are similar to male counterparts unlike majority of
men, many women opts entrepreneurship to manage both the domestic and business chores
simultaneously along with earning capability with family commitment. Despite of the increasing
number of women obligations little attention has been paid towards the actual expectations and
true picture of entrepreneurship along with the extent to which entrepreneurship offers an
improved work life balance. So the present paper endeavors on the journey of 80 women
entrepreneurs as to how they maintain a balance between the household and entrepreneurial work
through the questionnaire and offers the reality of their experiences.
Neha & Kirti (2018), find out through their research titled Work life balance- women
entrepreneurs finds out that in today’s competitive business environment it is very difficult to
maintain balance between working life and personal life. Work life balance is defined as the
balance between personal life and professional life of an employee or an individual. A sound and
healthy working life is necessary for the growth of an individual and a company as a whole. It is
quite difficult to manage and maintain a proper equilibrium in personal and professional life
especially for the working women. It is very problematic for women entrepreneurs to maintain
healthy balance between work and personal life. In this article we will analysis and reviewing the
various factors which affects and creates the gap between personal and professional life of
Women Entrepreneurs.
In another study titled Measuring work-life balance among female owners of community
pharmacies in Nigeria by Olufemi (2018), finds out that traditionally, men are associated with
entrepreneurship in Nigeria. However, with the increase in civilization, educational pursuits by
women and business skills and talent shown by women a lot of women entrepreneurs have
emerged including women community pharmacy owners. The main objective of this study was
to examine the impact of work-life balance (WLB) on Female community pharmacy owners in
Nigeria. To achieve this objective data was collected through questionnaire from 123 community
pharmacy owners. The data gathered was analyzed using the SPSS software. The five Likert
points 39 statements consisted of five areas. Overall WLB of Female pharmacy owners was
generally below average. Role overload and Dependent care issues are major challenges faced by
these female pharmacy owners. Time management, effective human resource management, and a
strong support network can help female pharmacy owners improve on their WLB rating. This
research study will be of great use to female owners of community pharmacy, academicians,
researchers, Government agencies, and human resources practitioners, to understand and help to
address the WLB issues confronting Nigerian women entrepreneurs.

Sumathil & Velmurugan (2020), In this machine-driven world women have a multi-facet
role in their day to day life as homemakers; they have to discharge their family responsibilities at
home and perform their official duties at the work place. Irrespective of gender, work-load is
equal for all faculty at Arts and Science Colleges. As a result, they may find it difficult to
balance their work and private life. As a result, they suffer from stress. Hence, an attempt has
been made to identify the impact of Stress and Work Life Balance (WLB) on job satisfaction.
The result of the study shows that WLB and Stress significantly influence Job Satisfaction.

2.4 GAPS IN LITERATURE

This research work impact of work life balance on women entrepreneurs tends to cover the gap

of inefficiency on work and life towards the on performance of women entrepreneurs. This

research work will be useful and will also help to bridge the gap between work life balance and

women entrepreneurs, since it has been identified that lack of work flexibility, high work

pressure and longer working hours leads to the inefficiency of women entrepreneurs.

With the identification of the above variables, it will be in the advantage of the entrepreneurs to

cover this gap by implementing these variables towards the goals and objective of the

organization.
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