Examining the Relationship Between Work-Life Balance and

Motivational Theories: Perspectives of Female Academicians in

Private Universities

Madhu Bala Kaushik

, Poonam Rajharia

, Renu Pareek

and Ritu Dixit

Manipal University Jaipur, India

JECRC University, Jaipur, India

Keywords: WLB, Motivation Theories, Female Faculty Members.

Abstract: Bringing satisfaction through performance or rewards offered is a challenge faced by human resource

department on daily basis and it is crucial factor in retention of employees and also economic for the

organization in terms of hiring new persons and once again to invest lot of effort and money on new work

force and there is no guarantee whether the new birds are going to stay in this nest for a longer time period.

With them no one can look forward to succession planning. On contrary, WLB is also important aspect in

today’s life for everyone who is employed. Employees in education sector also are under lot of pressure

specially faculty members as they are nurturing the future of the nation so it is very important to give them a

healthy and balanced life and to make them motivated for constructive work and innovation in their field as

they will impart the values and legacy to the students. This paper investigates the relationship between work

life balance of faculty members in private universities and their motivation level and the other contributing

factors which are directly or indirectly contributes to the motivation and work life balance of them. Also, we

will study the previous theories of motivation and will try to establish their connection with the work life

balance.

1 INTRODUCTION

One cannot walk a single step without motivation and

the word human is a key element of any organization.

It is like oxygen supply for any organization to

survive. That’s why it is very important to treat them

as an asset but the big words like performance,

satisfaction, reward and motivation are incomplete

alone and their existence and role cannot be denied in

achieving goals of the organization and productivity.

There is a new entrant to the club of above words

which is work life balance and bears some

relationship with these words which is still not been

exactly explored by the researchers or lot of scope is

yet to explain and explore. In simple words if we start

explaining this then performance indicates the

difference between your past and present activities. It

tells us about your achievements with in these two

periods.

The requirements of role assigned to an employee

at his /her workplace can be defined as job

performance. Job performances is categorized in to

Figure 1: Key Factors of WLB.

two i.e., contextual and task. Task performance is

based on aspects of mental functioning or in other

words the cognitive ability of an individual while

contextual performance is related to the personality of

an individual. The behavioral roles of an employee

are mentioned in job description and under reward

system comes under task performance. Achievement

of organizational goals is dependent on task

performance of all employees. It is related to job

Kaushik, M., Rajharia, P., Pareek, R. and Dixit, R.

Examining the Relationship Between Work-Life Balance and Motivational Theories: Perspectives of Female Academicians in Private Universities.

DOI: 10.5220/0013405500003882

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR-2 2023), pages 1703-1709

ISBN: 978-989-758-723-8

1703

content, whereas contextual performances are never

compensated or written under job description but

plays an important role in formation of culture of any

organization. The word reward is refers to all

monetary and non-monetary compensation given to

employee in return of the services which are enlisted

in his/her job description.

Employee satisfaction is an evaluation of

employees delight with his/her job or it is the answer

to the question how he/she feels about his/her job

whether they like a particular thing about the job or

overall job. It is also defined as the state of emotions

by Locke which is directly connected with one’s job

experiences.

To move ahead one should have needs, desire and

willingness for the same or in other words one should

look forward to satisfaction of the needs and desires.

The lifestyle, culture, society or surrounding

instigates needs and wants in an individual and the

internal and external factors decides the level of

motivation in the individual for moving further.

Now work life balance is defined as the person’s

ability to draw boundaries between the personal and

professional sphere and avoid and prevention of

overlapping of the two. Balance of the two lives

depends on self-management and time management

skills of the employees.

2 PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

This research is aimed to provide answers to the

following queries: What is it that drives workers to do

their best? Does having motivation alone propel you

to perform, and will it be enough to make you an

excellent performer? Will motivation stay high and

performance improves when incentives are in place?

So, how does a healthy work-life balance relate to

intrinsic motivation? Are employees who are able to

strike a good work-life balance also highly motivated,

or is there no correlation between the two?

Hypothesis

• Motivation has significant relationship with

WLB of female employees in universities.

• Reward has significant relationship with

WLB of female employees in universities.

• Performance has significant relationship

with WLB of female employees in

universities.

• Competencies of Female educators have

significant relationship with WLB of female

employees in universities.

• Emotional Support of Female educators has

significant relationship with WLB of female

employees in universities.

3 MOTIVATION THEORIES

Motivation theories are broadly classified in to three

groups i.e., content theories, process theories and

contemporary theories of motivation. The content

theorist advocated the needs and desires as one of the

reason of motivation where Abraham Maslow in his

hierarchy of need theory told us about classification

of need in to five categories and arrangement of them

in to pyramid shape to reflect that we have to go

on this ladder like arrangement one by one. Once a

given level of need is satisfied then it no longer serves

to motivate a person and in order to motivate him we

have ignite a spark for the next level need .This model

is about need fulfillment where the basic needs and

safety needs occupying the bottom of pyramid are

existence needs, the social needs fall in to category of

relatedness or psychological needs and the two

uppermost needs are growth or self-fulfillment needs

as per ERG model of Clayton Alderfer. If we

implement these two models in real life of an

employee then you will find that his career starts with

looking for amenities at workplace, adequate salary

and work but once again employee starts looking for

the job security, healthy policies and appraisals as the

needs perspective is changing with the growth of the

employee and also it is due to surrounding and

competition around him motivates to look forward.

Under social need category employee give weightage

to work environment, work culture and interpersonal

relationships. In self-esteem category one can look

forward to status, job redesigning, innovations,

appraisals, and recognitions. At highest level

realization of potential is must from the self-

actualization point of view. At this level person looks

forward to achievement for which he is made and to

make his professional and personal life meaningful.

At this stage his personal and professional life is

balanced due to the quality achieved in work life

which was not possible in starting of your career.

Another content theorist Herzberg’s two factor

theory of hygiene and motivators advocates that

hygiene factors are related to job context and prevents

dissatisfaction but never motivates an employee but

the hygiene factors like HR policies, facilities

provided by the organization like transport, crèche,

rest room, flexible working hours, work from home

and medical benefits etc are proved very important

by many researchers in balancing your professional

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and personal life. These factors are very important to

improve workplace and hence work life. The

motivators like recognition at workplace, employees’

profile or work itself, role and responsibilities of an

employee related to job content and directly helps in

measuring the job satisfaction among employees and

later which decides the further motivation level of

employees.

Further the process theorist showed us the other

side of the mirror where it was clearly explained that

motivation is not self-sufficient for performing well.

Employee’s performance is dependent on the abilities

and traits along with motivation. Vroom explained

the relationship of valence, instrumentality, and

expectancy to maintain the motivation of an

employee whereas Porter & Lawler model explained

that employee’s perception about the reward

received by him and the difference between his

expectation and reality of rewards will decide the

further motivation level of him at work place. So to

make employees effective at work it very essential to

review the reward and compensation policy which

brings satisfaction in employee’s life? Again, these

process theories proved compensation & job

satisfaction as balancing factors in personal and

professional life. So if employees are remained

motivated it means their work life balance is good.

Figure 2: Porter & Lawler model.

4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Descriptive research designs are typically employed

in this study to establish a relationship between the

work-life balance of female educators and the five

variables of the Porter-Lawler model. The

information for this study was gathered through a

survey administered to female educators affiliated

with private universities. A random sampling

technique was employed to select a sample of 300

respondents for the purpose of this study. The

information was collected via questionnaire with the

following variables considered: motivation, reward,

performance, individual competencies, and emotional

support. Each of these variables was examined for its

correlation with work-life balance.

Table 1: Reliability and Validity.

Factors Cronbach’s Alpha Items

Motivation .859 3

Rewards .762 3

Performance .812 3

Individual competencies .677 3

Emotional support .715 3

Work life balance .725 3

Six factors, which are responsible for 71.150

percent of the variation, were identified by the

exploratory factor analysis performed using the 18

independent variables.

Table 2: Demographic Details of the Respondents.

Age Percentage

20-30 10%

30-40 44%

40-50 30%

50 & Above 16%

Total 100%

Married/Single Percentage

Single 44%

Married 56 %

Total 100%

Occupation Percentage

Guest Lecturers 12%

Assistant Professor 54%

Associate Professor 22%

Professor 12%

Total 100%

Educational Qualification Percentage

Post Graduate 46%

M.Phil 24%

Ph.D 30%

Total 100%

Monthl

Income in INR Percenta

Lessthan1,00,000 10%

1,00,000-3,00,000 20%

3,00,000–5,00,000 50%

5,00,000 &Above 20%

Total 100%

Examining the Relationship Between Work-Life Balance and Motivational Theories: Perspectives of Female Academicians in Private

Universities

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KMO and Bartlett's Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling

Adequacy.

.813

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity

Approx.

Chi-Square

949.950

149

Sig.

.000

The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Test checks how

well the data meets the requirements for factor

analysis. The above table shows that the KMO

measure is 0.813. This means that the test checks

whether the samples are big enough for each variable

in the model and for the whole model.

The Bartlett's Sphericity Test checks whether the

identity-matrix null hypothesis for the correlation

matrix is true. An identity matrix is one in which all

the elements on the diagonal are one and all the

elements that are not on the diagonal are zero. These

tests should be done at least once before you do a

factor analysis (also called a principal components

analysis).

Communalities

Initial Extraction

Rewards are the primary driving force behind my motivation at work 1.000 .758

Recognition and incentives significantly contribute to boosting my motivation levels. 1.000 .763

I believe that the prospect of receiving rewards enhances my commitment to achieving higher

performance levels..

1.000 .628

My personal drive and ambition significantly influence my overall motivation at work. 1.000 .696

I believe that a challenging work environment boosts my motivation to perform better. 1.000 .781

The clarity of goals and expectations significantly impacts my motivation levels at work. 1.000 .804

A good work-life balance is crucial for my overall job satisfaction. 1.000 .736

I believe that flexibility in work hours positively impacts my work-life balance 1.000 .779

A supportive work environment significantly contributes to achieving a satisfactory work-life

alance.

1.000 .718

WLB helps me in acquiring new competencies. 1.000 .537

Acquiring new competencies are necessary for sustainabilitiy in education sector 1.000 .695

Competencies are necessary for performing well. 1.000 .665

I believe that factors WLB boost the performance potential of female educators. 1.000 .685

I believe that factors WLB boost the motivation of female educators 1.000 .740

I believe that factors rewards boost the WLB of female educators 1.000 .741

Job performance is an important factor for WLB

1.000 .831

Appraisals are directly connected to performance

1.000 .744

WLB is necessary for enhancing competencies

1.000 .724

xtraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

A table of communalities is the next item in the output. It displays how much of the variance (i.e., the

communality value) should be considered for further analysis, which should be more than 0.5. The

extracted factors have adequately explained the variables; otherwise, these variables will not be

considered further in the factor analysis process.

Total Variance Explained

Component Initial Ei

envalues Extraction Sums of S

uared Loadin

s Rotation Sums of S

uared Loadin

Total %of Variance Cumulative % Total %of Variance Cumulative % Total %of Variance Cumulative %

9.676 37.214 37.214 9.676 37.214 37.214 3.941 15.156 15.156

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2.302 8.855 46.069 2.302 8.855 46.069 3.489 13.418 28.574

1.569 6.033 52.102 1.569 6.033 52.102 2.984 11.478 40.053

1.449 5.573 57.674 1.449 5.573 57.674 2.358 9.068 49.120

1.301 5.004 62.678 1.301 5.004 62.678 2.235 8.598 57.718

1.141 4.387 67.066 1.141 4.387 67.066 2.061 7.927 65.646

1.062 4.085 71.150 1.062 4.085 71.150 1.431 5.505 71.150

.885 3.402 74.553

.806 3.100 77.653

.686 2.640 80.293

.658 2.531 82.824

.593 2.280 85.104

.508 1.954 87.058

.494 1.898 88.957

.448 1.723 90.679

.385 1.481 92.160

.345 1.326 93.487

.280 1.079 94.566

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

The three parts that comprise the Eigenvalue table are the Original Eigen Values, the Extracted Sums of Squared

Loadings, and the Rotation of Sums of Squared Loadings. When it comes to analysis and interpretation, we only

use Extracted Sums of Squared Loadings. The first factor in the above table explains 37.2147% of the variance,

followed by 8.855%, 6.033%,.573%, 4.533%, 5.004%, 4.387, and 4.085% in that order. The remainders of the

factors are all insignificant. As with the number of factors employed in the factor analysis, the initial number of

variables remains constant. But not all twenty-two components (six variables) will be kept. Only eighteen criteria

will be kept in this survey.

Rotated Component Matrix

Component

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Rewards are the primary driving force behind my motivation at work

.791 .171 .191 .214

Recognition and incentives significantly contribute to boosting my

motivation levels.

.800 .149 .311

I believe that the prospect of receiving rewards enhances my commitment

to achieving higher performance levels.

.732 .162 .160 .126 .124

My personal drive and ambition significantly influence my overall

motivation at work.

.681 .108 .400 .190

I believe that a challenging work environment boosts my motivation to

erform better.

.411 .185 .600 .428 .151

The clarity of goals and expectations significantly impacts my motivation

levels at work.

.268 .119 .818 .138 .141

A good work-life balance is crucial for my overall job satisfaction.

.223 .767 .138 -.185 .146 .153

I believe that flexibility in work hours positively impacts my work-life

alance

.652 .141 .129 .475 .297

A supportive work environment significantly contributes to achieving a

satisfactory wor

-life balance.

.320 .231 .211 .704 .121

WLB helps me in acquiring new competencies.

.135 .650 .144 .187 .176

Acquiring new competencies are necessary for sustainabilitiy in education

secto

.200 .192 .191 .756

Competencies are necessary for performing well.

.348 .466 .369 .388 .135 -.144

Examining the Relationship Between Work-Life Balance and Motivational Theories: Perspectives of Female Academicians in Private

Universities

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I believe that factors WLB boost the performance potential of female

educators.

.230 .744 .206 .153

I believe that factors WLB boost the motivation of female educators

.486 .438 .431 .140 .152 .290

I believe that factors rewards boost the WLB of female educators

.138 .747 .386

Job performance is an important factor for WLB

.567 .417 .270 .127

Appraisals are directly connected to performance

.395 .353 .253 .244 .161 .398 .329

WLB is necessary for enhancing competencies

.336 .312 .220 .114 .746

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

Correlation table

Factors Work life Balance

Motivation Pearson Correlation

Sig (2-tailed)

0.354

0.674

149

Rewards Pearson Correlation

Sig (2-tailed)

0.513

0.000

149

Performance Pearson Correlation

Sig (2-tailed)

0.363

0.000

149

Individual competencies Pearson Correlation

Sig (2-tailed)

0.378

0.000

149

Emotional support Pearson Correlation

Sig (2-tailed)

0.471

0.000

149

From the figures it is clear that all five factors

have relationship with work life balance and some

have strong and rest have feeble or moderate

relationship.

After collection and interpretation of data it can be

easily analyzed that all the factors are relevant and

connected with work life balance of female educators

in private universities. These factors become the

reason of switching over to new jobs and even

disturbing their WLB and above all the cause of

demotivation at workplace. For females’ growth

opportunities are limited as due to many factors they

remain stick to one place and try to search out best out

of that only.

5 CONCLUSION

It is very important to take care the motivation of

female faculty members as they nurture saplings of

future of any nation and work life balance is again

important but as we have seen from the interpretation

of the above data that Porter Lawler model factors are

even connected to work life balance and the female

faculties who attains the work life balance are more

productive and motivated as compared to others.

Institutes or universities must focus on improving

their quality of work life so that they should enjoy

their work and feel motivated and as all the

motivation theories suggested that fulfilling their

needs is important but improving the reward and

compensation policies. Hygiene factors or balancing

factors and motivators is equally important because

these things are directly or indirectly helping them in

achieving the work life balance and makes them more

dedicated towards their job.

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