Page 1 of 16
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 10
October 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 59
The Status of Work Life Balance among Post Graduate
Students: Eastern Province, Sri Lanka.
R.Kishokumar & K.Lakshika
Faculty of Commerce & Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka
kisho767@gmail.com & klakshika90@gmail.com
1. Introduction
1.1 Background of Study
Increased emphasis on competition and
radical technological advancements has
resulted in organizations to be more
competitive, agile, and flexible and customer
focused. Consequently, organizations
require, empowered employees possessing
higher competencies and multitasking skills
in order to ensure sustained growth at
minimum operational costs. Employees
working in organizations of the modern era
most often encounter eternal challenge of
performing well and are forced to devote
most of their time at work in this enhanced
competitive work setting. However,
commitment towards self-development,
allegiance to family and social life in order
to fulfil the demands and duties along with
organizational obligations are imperative
for any individual employee. The balancing
act of an individual in this three dimensional
aspects of life namely organizational,
societal and employee’s personal life as
depicted in the diagram is termed as work
life balance (WLB).
Understandably, any imbalance between
organizational and personal commitments
and the inefficient management of life
priorities can lead to serious consequences
in each or all of these domains. The
consequences may in general manifest as
diminished job satisfaction, poorer
productivity and performance, lower
organizational commitment, inferior career
ambitions & success, increased absenteeism
& intention to leave, as well as employee
burnout, job stress, poorer physiological and
psychological health, and diminished
performance in personal life & family. Thus,
WLB and employee perception of wellbeing
have come to be recognized to be vital for
the organizational growth and effectiveness.
Human resource management practices in
modern organizations emphasize effective
strategies that ensure employee well-being
reflected in terms of organizational
Page 2 of 16
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 10
October 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 60
commitment through initiatives referred to
as employee engagement. The importance of
work life balance of the employees and the
parameters that influence WLB in modern
work and life settings cannot be over
emphasized in this era of acutely
competitive business environment and
dwindling skilled manpower combined with
ever increasing costs of employment. It is no
wonder that this area of HR management
has received great deal of focus from
researchers, management, government and
the media over the past few decades. This
paper attempts to bring together salient and
notable contributions on WLB and influence
of different parameters influencing WLB in
different organizational sectors not only
towards presenting better conceptual
understanding of work life balance through
various, theories propounded and the
measurement scales used in a range of
studies, but also to identify possible
directions for further.
1.2 Problem Statement
Work life and personal life are two sides of
the same coin. Creating and managing a
balance between the work and personal life
is considered to be a work life balance issue.
Increasing work pressures, globalization and
technological advancement has impact on
balancing professional life and personal life.
With increasing demands and pressures of
work-life, conflicts between work and
personal roles seem to be increasing.
Changed demographics of the workforce
have been the primary force for the
increased focus on family-work issues.
Work-life balance is a term that is always
used in context of employees, but nowadays
students are also overburdened due to their
academic work load and career issues. All
this adds to the stress among Post Graduate
students leading to imbalanced work- life
equations. Thus, there is a need to study
work-life balance issues regarding students.
There is certain research gap in this study.
Most of studies were found that there exist a
number of researches on stress among
students but very few have focused on
specific dimensions of work life balance of
students (Young et. al. 1994). Most of the
studies on students’ work life balance have
been conducted in western countries (e.g.
Warren 2004; Robotham 2001; Clark, Raffe
& Schullar 2006; Theaker et.al 2007). In Sri
Lankan Context, lack of research has been
undertaken to study about Work Life
Balance among Students. To fulfil this gap,
this research was conducted to show about
Page 3 of 16
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02 Issue 10
October 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 61
Status of Work Life Balance among Post
Graduate Students in Eastern Province, Sri
Lanka. Hence, researcher has selected the
Post Graduate Students in Eastern Province,
study about the Work Life Balance with job
related factors.
1.3 Research Questions
1. To what extent the work life balance
among post graduate students in
Eastern Province, Sri Lanka?
2. Whether the work life balance
among post graduate students in
Eastern Province are differ in terms
of age, gender, experience and
educational qualifications?
1.4 Research Objectives
Based on the literature, following objectives
were considered for the study:
1. To identify the level of work life
balance among post graduate
students in Eastern Province, Sri
Lanka.
2. To assess the work life balance of
post graduate students in Eastern
Province are differ in terms of age,
gender, experience and educational
qualifications.
1.4 Significance & Scope of the Study
The scope of the study was limited to the
postgraduate students from Universities in
Eastern Province regarding the challenges
that they face in balancing professional life
and personal life.
One of the noteworthy features of the Sri
Lankan higher education system is
‘accessibility’ to education for all
irrespective of ethnicity, gender, caste, class,
religion or social background. However, for
the purpose of this study the higher
educational sector was chosen because it is
more structured and has a stronger union
representation who addresses worker’s
welfare which is what WLB practices are
centered around.
The concept of balancing work and life is
important in more than one way. There can
be many factors affect the balance of work
and life, which may be social factors,
psychological factors, Working
Environment, Type of job, Job satisfaction,
Family background, schedule at home and
life stage. Work-life balance is an issue of
strategic importance to organizations and of
significance to employees especially for
postgraduate students. Organizational
awareness and action with respect to
implementing work life balance strategies
