MANGAL RESEARCH JOURNAL Received: 06-08-2023 ISSN: 2773-7802 MANGAL RESEARCH JOURNAL

Volume 4, December 2023, pp: 51-60 Vol. 4, December

Accepted: 16-12-2023 2023
https://doi.org/10.3126/mrj.v4i01.61720
A PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL 51

Work-Life Balance and Job Burnout of Female Staff

in Private Commercial Banks in Kathmandu
Sudarshan K. C.

Lecturer, Shahid Smarak College, Kirtipur, Kathmandu

Email: [email protected]

Abstract
The increasing presence of women in the modern workforce poses several
challenges to businesses, employees and their families. Female employees of banks
play the most critical role in the delivery of quality services to customers. However,
they are in stress due to the workload and diversity of customers. Female employees
experience various obstacles in their professional life as well as personal life. It is a
huge challenge for them to satisfy the individual needs and expectations of the
organization. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of work-life balance
on job burnout among female employees in private commercial banks in
Kathmandu. It is based on a quantitative research approach with the structured
questionnaire for the survey. SPSS version 25 was used to analyze the data collected
from 399 respondents among 8543 female employees. The result of the study shows
that surveyed female bank employees have high work-life balance with low job
burnout problem. It further reveals that work-life balance has a negative impact on
job burnout.
Keywords: female employees, work-life balance, job burnout, commercial banks,
Nepal

Introduction
Commercial banks are larger organizations which are responsible for providing financial
products and service. They have considerable impact on Nepalese economy. They have
become one of the attractions of employment in Nepal. Although commercial banks are
providing carrier opportunities to women, they are recognized for long working hours and
intensely stressful work environment. Unexpected high-performance target like deposit,
credit target and service delivery target in Nepalese commercial banks create high
occupational pressure among employees (Gautam & Gautam, 2022). Their hectic work
schedule has a negative impact on their work-life balance. Being a service industry,
banking involves a great deal of interpersonal tension, which causes employees to lose
energy over time. Job burnout will result if this stress is not effectively managed. It is
widely accepted that banks perform better when employees maintain a healthy work-life
balance.
52 K. C.: Work-Life Balance and Job Burnout of Female Staff in Private Commercial Banks

In a bank, there is huge transaction in daily basis. A minor error in their transaction
process can create huge consequence. On the other hand, employees have to deal with
people with different behavior and emotion. Front line female employees of banks play
the most critical role in the delivery of quality services to customers. It is a huge
challenge for them to satisfy individual needs and expectations by delivering customized
service. Female employees are emotional labor. They even need to suppress their
negative feelings. Hence such employees are prone to suffer from burnout (Yavas et al.,
2012). They are in stress due to work load and diversity of customers. But the ability of
manager to properly understand the emotion and feeling of its employees can minimize
stress (Kunnanatt, 2004).
Women's job engagement in banking sector is influenced by a variety of factors,
including their own educational achievement, their husband's education and employment,
the ability to work, the family's economic situation and a variety of other cultural
influences (Kafle, 2015). With more women working for pay, there is a tendency for them
to spend less time with their families.
If there is work -life balance (WLB) among women, it means they are moving towards
achieving their personal as well as professional goals. They can live a life that is happy,
healthy and successful (Bataineh, 2019). These workers are more likely to feel satisfied at
work if they are content and experience less stress both at home and at work. They will
work in effective and efficient way. Their retention at work place will be high. They
display higher organizational citizenship behavior.
Work-life balance is widely acknowledged as one of the most important emotional and
psychological indicators of whether employees are dedicated and motivated in the face of
global variety and intense competition (Panda & Sahoo, 2021). Greenhaus et al. (2003)
define work life balance as composed of three essential and interrelated elements, time
balance, involvement balance, and satisfaction balance. Contrary to this, unbalanced
work-life balance negatively impacts a person's health on both a physical and mental
level (Yadav & Yadav, 2014). Lower productivity, more absenteeism, low employee
morale and ineffective teamwork and more employee turnover are all indicators of poor
work-life balance (Dabhade & Yadav, 2013).
Work life balance and job burnout relationship is the issue of this study. The term
"burnout" describes the loss of interest and job satisfaction brought on by demanding
working conditions. Those who are burnt out feel emotionally and physically unable to
react positively to their obligations and professional prospects. It is the condition of
mental and physical fatigue due to work stress for a long period of time (Marpaung et al.,
2022). It is an array of deterioration between what people do and what they actually want
to do (Adilogullari, 2013). It is precisely the antithesis of the pleasant, engaged, and
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meaningful life (Iqbal & Abbasi, 2013). Burnout occurs when people experience stress
from their jobs' diverse conditions and are unable to handle it (Khattak et al., 2011).
This study has sought to explore acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis whether life
balance has negative impact on job burnout of female staff of commercial banks in
Kathmandu.
Methods
The purpose of this study is to examine the status of work-life balance and job burnout
and their influence in private commercial banks in Kathmandu.
The study is quantitative in nature and deductive in approach. It follows cross sectional
survey and tries to find the impact of work-life balance on job burnout of female
employees in commercial banks in Kathmandu. According to Nepal bank supervision
department of Nepal Rastrya Bank (personal communication, January 14, 2023), there are
8543 female employees in private commercial banks in Kathmandu. Sample size has been
determined based on Yamane (1967).

n= = ≈383
where e=0.05
N = total population
n = sample size
So, for further analysis, the sample size arrived at is 383.
This research is based on primary data gathered through a structured questionnaire
survey. The items of the questionnaires for work-life balance has been adapted from
Kumarasamy et al. (2016) and Manandhar (2021). Similarly, the items of the
questionnaires for job burnout were adapted from Ford et al. (1983). Judgmental
sampling was employed in the study. The researcher followed five point Likert scale
anchored by "Strongly Disagree"='1' to Strongly Agree"='5'.
The questionnaire used in this study contains three parts, the demographic of the
respondents, the independent variable (work-life balance) and dependent variable (job
burnout). Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 25 was used to carry out
for further investigation and analyze results.
Results and Discussion
Following data collection, the researcher used regression analysis to test the hypothesis
and descriptive statistical analysis to summarize the characteristics of the respondents.
54 K. C.: Work-Life Balance and Job Burnout of Female Staff in Private Commercial Banks

Table 1
Demographic characteristics of respondents
Variable Description Frequency Percentage
Marital Status Single 109 27.3
Married 290 72.7
Education +2 16 4
Bachelor 214 53.6
Master or above 169 42.4
Post Assistant 169 42
Supervisor 38 10
Officer 137 34
Manager 55 14
Number of Children Single Child 236 81.38
Two Children 46 15.86
No Children 8 2.76
Age up to 30 275 68.9
31 to 40 103 25.8
Above 40 21 5.3
Table 1 reveals that most of the respondents are married (72.7%). Majority of them have
attended bachelor degree (53.6%). Respondents holding assistant post are 42%. Majority
of those respondents have singe child (81.38%). Young and energetic employees hold
68.9%.
Reliability Analysis
To ensure that the variables are consistent, a reliability test is crucial. A scale can only be
considered reliable if respondents consistently provide closely related answers to the
questions, as stated by Hair et al. (2006). According to Helms et al. (2006), scales are
considered credible if all of their Cronbach's Alpha scores are more than 0.7. Cronbach's
Alpha has been computed for the internal consistency of the study's variables in order to
assess the instruments' dependability.
Table 2
Reliability of Items
Variables Code Items Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient
Work –Life Balance WLB 6 .770
Job burnout JB 7 .858
Before performing analysis of collected data, reliability of questionnaires has been
tested. Since the value of Cronbach’s Alpha of each summated scale is greater than 0.7,
summated scales are reliable for further analysis. They are far higher than thresholds
recommended by scholars. Reliabilities of each summated scale have been shown by
table 2.
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Table 3
Mean Value of Work-Life Balance
Work-Life Balance Mean SD
WLB1 I can manage my personal and professional life. 3.74 0.98
WLB2 My job does not interfere my personal life. 3.79 0.99
WLB3 I do not miss personal activities due to my job. 4.03 0.95
WLB4 I can overcome the difficulties between job and family. 3.93 0.96
WLB5 I do not experience psychological and health problems due to conflict 3.89 0.99
between work life and personal life.
WLB6 I do not feel tired at office due to household work. 3.76 1.08
The items in the questionnaire require respondents to indicate their response base on 1 to
5 point Likert scale. In this study, respondents’ responses with a mean score of 1.00 to
1.80 are considered as very low, 1.81 to 2.00 are considered low, 2.0 to 2.60 are
considerate, 2.61 to 3.40 are considered as enough, 3.41 to 4.20 are considered as high
while responses with mean score of 4.21 to 5.00 are considered as very high (Kurniawati
& Siahaan, 2021).
The displayed means in table 3 are all above the threshold, indicate that the surveyed
female bank employees have high work-life balance.
Table 4
Mean Value of Job Burnout
Job Burnout Mean SD
JB1 My work is characterized by intense pressure and deadlines on the 2.34 1.23
job.
JB2 No matter what I do, things on the job don’t seem to get better. 2.15 1.22
JB3 I feel emotionally drained on my job. 2.39 1.35
JB4 I feel a sense of isolation from the rest of my peers, coworkers, 2.46 1.38
etc.
JB5 Efforts to make progress at my job are fruitless. 2.17 1.25
JB6 I am tired of trying. 2.39 1.26
JB7 My workload is impossible to catch up. 2.14 1.26
The displayed means in table 4 are all below 3 as the threshold, indicate that the surveyed
female bank employees have low job burnout.
Correlation between Work Life Balance and Job Burnout
The following result describes correlation of work life balance with job burnout.
Table 5
Correlation between Work Life Balance and Job Burnout
WLB JB
WLB 1 -.610**
JB 1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
56 K. C.: Work-Life Balance and Job Burnout of Female Staff in Private Commercial Banks

Table 5 presents that based on 399 respondents, there exists negative correlation between
work-life balance and job burnout. It is found to be significant at 1% level of significant
as p value is 0.000.
Regression between Work life balance and job burnout
The relationship of work life balance and job burnout is described here.
Table 6
Model Summary related with Job Burnout
R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate
0.610 .372 .371 5.283
Predictors: (Constant), WLB
Table 6 shows that 37% of the job burnout is explained by Work Life Balance.
Table 7
ANOVA related with Job Burnout
Sum of Df Mean Square F Sig.
Squares
Regression 6573.367 1 6573.367 235.491 .000
Residual 11081.631 397 27.913
Total 17654.994 398
a. Dependent Variable: JB
b. Predictors: (Constant), WLB
Table 7 reveals that the model is significant at 1% level of significance as p-value (0.00)
is less than level of significance (0.01). The model is suitable for forecasting the impact
of work-life balance on job burnout. So, multiple linear regression model can be used to
analyze the data.
Table 8
Coefficient related with Job Burnout
Unstandardized Standardized T Sig. VIF
Coefficients Coefficients
B Std. Error Beta
(Constant) 39.150 1.528 25.616 .000
WLB -.999 .065 -.610 - .000 1.000
15.346

Dependent Variable: JB
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The table 8 highlights that work- life balance has negative impact on job burnout as P
value 0.000 is less than alpha 5%. Further when work life balance increases by one point
then job burnout is expected to decrease by -0.999 point. The table also shows that VIF is
less than 10. So there is no problem of multicollinearity.
JB= ß − ß1WLB+ ei
Therefore, regression in job burnout=39.150- 0.999 (work life balance)
This result significantly supports the hypothesis that work life balance has negative
impact on job burnout of female staff of commercial banks in Kathmandu. This is
statistically proven with a coefficient value of -.999 at p < 0.01. This result is consistent
with the finding reported in several previous studies (Kant & Shanker, 2021; Mahendran
et al., 2019). Furthermore, women working in the banking sector who maintain a WLB
are then able to look after their spouse, their children, and other social family
responsibilities on a financial level. According to Amazue and Onyishi (2015) stress
coping strategies are significant predictor of work–life balance. Such strategies are
support to relieve stress and job burnout.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The objective of the research was to identify the impact work-life balance on job burnout
of female employees in private commercial banks in Kathmandu. The study found that
those female employees were able to balance their personal life and professional life with
lower job burnout. So, the study further concluded that work-life balance has a negative
impact on job burnout
Hence, work-life balance is crucial in the modern business environment since it
encourages employees and promotes their loyalty to the organization (Ifran et al., 2021).
It involves being aware of both personal and professional obligations. It means
individuals should take responsibility for managing personal fulfilment, work fulfilment,
fulfilment of one’s role as spouse and parent and fulfilment of one’s role as a responsible
citizen (Chandra, 2012). To take meaningful steps toward achieving work-life balance,
employees can also formulate their own type of strategies (Rony et al., 2023).
If work-life balance and stress management strategies are effective, employees will be
more satisfied since they received what they had hoped for (Yadav &Yadav, 2014). When
they receive great supervisory support in both work and personal matters, employees feel
heard, appreciated and cared for. In order to enable employees to balance work and
personal duties and so increase loyalty and productivity, a business must establish and
maintain supportive and healthy work environments (Anila & Krishnaveni, 2016). So
strategically strong companies engage in work-life balance initiatives for enhancing bank
productivity, providing high-quality service, and assuring excellent financial results. It is
58 K. C.: Work-Life Balance and Job Burnout of Female Staff in Private Commercial Banks

important for commercial banks to develop strategies and align their work-life balance
initiatives with their organizational vision, mission and objectives.
The findings of the study should contribute to the research on work-life balance and job
burnout and suggest practical implications in banking sectors. Similarly, the findings of
this study should make it easier for bank employees to understand the negative impacts of
a work-life imbalance on both their personal and professional lives, such as mental
exhaustion, mistrust in the family, a decline in self-confidence, a lack of dedication at
work, and poor customer service.
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