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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 1
Publication Date: January 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/assrj.91.11554. Omar, M. K., Mohd, I. H., Ahmad, M. F., & Dahalan, N. A. (2022). Work-Life Balance Among Working Mothers in Malaysia. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(1). 494-501.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Work-Life Balance Among Working Mothers in Malaysia
Muhamad Khalil Omar
Faculty of Business and Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Selangor
Kampus Puncak Alam, 42300, Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Idaya Husna Mohd
Faculty of Business and Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Selangor
Kampus Puncak Alam, 42300, Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Mohamad Fahimi Ahmad
Faculty of Business and Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Selangor
Kampus Puncak Alam, 42300, Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Noor Azura Dahalan
Faculty of Business and Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Selangor
Kampus Puncak Alam, 42300, Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Employees especially working mothers are struggling to accommodate employer’s
expectations and fulfilling the demands of their family needs. Achieving work life
balance is the dream and hope of almost every working mother. Though many
factors affected work life balance, factors like stress management, work culture and
employer’s role are believe to be significance variables. A study conducted in the
National Sport Council of Malaysia on 100 working mothers reveals the truth of this
relationship.
Keywords: Work-life balance, stress management, work culture, employer’s role
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, life is a constant battle between profession and personal commitment, with the
economic distress making living more challenging in many ways. A recent study conducted by
the Center for General Studies, University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), revealed the possibility
that parental work conditions such as work-time, job demands, job supervision, job satisfaction
and wage level may affect worker’s life satisfaction, their family life, and children’s educational
achievement. This scenario had been supported by studies made by many psychologists
(Gottfried, Gottfried and Bathurst, 1995; Bronfenbrenner and Crouter,1982; Lerner, 1994).
Related to this issue, Hughes and Galinsky (1988) in their research pointed out, “the effect of
job on individual health and well-being are found to be a potential source for workers and their
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Omar, M. K., Mohd, I. H., Ahmad, M. F., & Dahalan, N. A. (2022). Work-Life Balance Among Working Mothers in Malaysia. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 9(1). 494-501.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.91.11554
families. Workers must accommodate their time and schedules to do their jobs more than their
families”.Work hours affects parents’ involvement with their family, depending on the size of
the family, whether is a single or dual family, the number and ages of children, gender of
children and parental occupational status (Baruch and Barnett, 1987).
Based on the situation, actions have to be taken to examine the work culture, stress
management and also the roles of employer towards work-life balance achievement. This
research was based on questionnaires distributed to working mothers in National Sports
Council of Malaysia, Bukit Jalil, Malaysia. The finding from the research offers 7 suggestions and
recommendations that could be highlighted towards influencing the working mothers towards
achieving work-life balance. The objectives of the research was to determine the relationship
between employer’s role and work-life balance among working mothers in National Sports
Council of Malaysia, to examine the relationship between work culture and work-life balance
among working mothers in National Sports Council of Malaysia and to investigate the
relationship between stress management and work-life balance among working mothers in
National Sports Council of Malaysia. A theoretical framework to illustrate the dependent and
independent variables was constructed to clarify the study.
Fig.1. The Relationships Between Family and Career-related Factors and Organisational
Commitment: A Malaysian Case)
METHOD
A quantitative approach was used to conduct the study. Data collection using a set of
questionnaires was carried out in June 2015 from a representative sample of population.
According to Malhotra (2004), the basic data analysis provides valuable insight and guides the
rest of the data analysis as well as interpretation of the results. From the 100 sample size, all
questionnaires distributed were returned. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 to determine the reliability analysis, descriptive
statistics, and correlation analysis. Frequency analysis was utilized for analyzing the
respondents’ demographic characteristics. The statistical method of Pearson Correlations was
used to determine the existence of any relationships between the independent variables and
dependent variable.A regression analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between
the variables.
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 1, January-2022
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
FINDINGS
The objectives of this research are to examine the relationship between work culture, stress
management and employer’s role (IV) with work-life balance (DV) among working mothers. A
demographic profile portrays the age, ethnic, education level, duration of service, income and
other relevant information pertaining to working mothers. The analysis shows that work
culture does influence work-life balance. An analysis method using Pearson’s Correlation was
conducted showing that work culture has a significant relationship with work-life balance with
an r-score of 0.416. The analysis also shows that there is a relationship between stress
management and work-life balance among working mothers. The result of the pearson’s
correlation shows that stress management is highly correlated with work-life balance (r-scores
stated at 0.543). The finding also reveals the relationship between the employer’s role and
work-life balance among working mothers. The researcher analyzed that there is a significant
relationship between the employer’s role and work life balance (r scores stated at 0.268). The
findings also revealed that the reliability test are very good and acceptable as the Cronbach’s
Alpha for all variables are more than 0.50.
According to Table 1, most respondent are below 30 years old. 35% are between 30 to 40 years
old and the remaining are above 40 years old. Majority are Malays. 50% have diploma
qualifications, 29% are degree holder, 11% are STPM level and the remaining 10% are SPM
level. None of the respondents are master holder. Many have worked between 5 to 10 years and
some even worked for more than 10 years. Most of them earn an income between RM 1501 to
RM 3000, some earn RM 3001 to RM 5000. A few earn less than RM 1500.The remaining 3%
earns more than RM 5001. Most work on contract basis while the remaining are permanent
workers. Majority has 1 to 3 children(s) and the remaining 13% of the respondents have 4 to 6
children. None have disable children. 66% of the respondents send their children to child care
center, 21% hire maid to take care of their children and 10% send their children to their
parents. A few are being cared by the respondent’s spouse. Most work 5 days per week.
Table 1. Demographic profile of respondent
Frequency
Percent
Valid
Percent
30 years and
Age of below 54 54 54
Respondents 31-40 years 35 35 35
Over 40 years 11 11 11
Ethnic of
Malay 95 95 95
Chinese 3 3 3
Respondents
Indian 2 2 2
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Omar, M. K., Mohd, I. H., Ahmad, M. F., & Dahalan, N. A. (2022). Work-Life Balance Among Working Mothers in Malaysia. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 9(1). 494-501.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.91.11554
SPM 10 10 10
Education Level
STPM 11 11 11
Diploma 50 50 50
of Respondents
Degree 29 29 29
Master 0 0 0
Less than 1 year 2 2 2
Duration of 1-5 years 30 30 30
Working/Servic 5-10 years 48 48 48
es More than 10
years 20 20 20
Less than RM
1500 11 11 11
RM1501 -
Income of RM3000 69 69 69
Respondents RM3001 - RM
5000 17 17 17
More than RM
5001 3 3 3
Employment Contract 79 79 79
Status Permanent 21 21 21
Number of 1-3 children 87 87 87
Children 4-6 children 13 13 13
Spouse 3 3 3
Status of Parents 10 10 10
Children Care Maid 21 21 21
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 1, January-2022
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Child Care Centre 66 66 66
Number of
Less than 5 days 0 0 0
5 days 99 99 99
Working Day
6 days 1 1 1
per Week
7 days 0 0 0
Table 2. Reliability Test
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha N of Items
Work Life Balance 0.919 11
Work Culture 0.895 8
Employer’s Role 0.729 4
Stress Management 0.659 2
Table 3. Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Work Life Balance 100 3.5673 .63815
Work Culture 100 3.7453 .63437
Employer’s Role 100 2.4475 .78841
Stress Management 100 2.9667 .63121
Respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions and agreement towards the statement in
the questionnaires by using the five points Likert Scale answers. The scales were ranged
between 1= strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. As mentioned before, an even numbered
scale would not have a mid-point and thus, forced respondents to make a choice. Based on Table
3, the overall mean for Work Life Balance is 3.5673 (SD =0.63815), Work Culture is 3.7543 (SD=
0.63437), Employer Role is 2.4475 (SD= 0.78841) and Stress Management is 2.9667 (SD=
0.63121). The mean lets the researcher know the approximate number per attempts, it can help
predict the number that the researcher expect for and it also enables to predict the probability
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Omar, M. K., Mohd, I. H., Ahmad, M. F., & Dahalan, N. A. (2022). Work-Life Balance Among Working Mothers in Malaysia. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 9(1). 494-501.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.91.11554
that something will happen at a particular time. In this study, under the descriptive statistics,
the researcher calculates the mean to know the probability of scale that was answered by the
respondents. Standard Deviation measures how spread out the data are in relation to the
average. For instance, in this study the average for all factor is 100 (Number of Respondents)
with a standard deviation gained from SPSS results.
Table 4. Correlation Analysis between Independent Variable and Dependent Variable
Work
Work Employer’
Stress
Life Manageme
Culture s Role
Balance nt
Pearson
Work Life
Correlatio 1 .416” .268” .543”
n
Balance
Sig. (2-
0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
tailed)
Pearson
Work
Correlatio .416** 1 0.365 0.365
n
Culture
Sig. (2-
0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
tailed)
Pearson
Employer’s
Correlatio .268** 0.365 1 0.15
n
Role
Sig. (2-
0.000 0.000 0.000 0.002
tailed)
Pearson
Stress Correlatio .543** 0.365 0.15 1
Manageme n
nt Sig. (2-
0.000 0.000 0.002 0.000
tailed)
Note. (N=100) Diagonal entries indicate Cronbach Alpha values **Correlation is significant at
the 0.01 level (2-tailed), *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 1, January-2022
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Correlation analysis
Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients were run to examine the associations between independent
and dependent variables. Table 4 shows the correlations between the independent variables
(work culture, employer role and stress management) and the dependent variable i.e., work- life balance. Based on the results, all the independent variables have significant correlations
with the dependent variable. Correlations between the variables ranges from r =0.268 to r =
0.543 (p< .01)
Regression Analysis
Regression Analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between the variables. Table 4
shows that there are significant and positive relationships between the independent variables
i.e. work culture, stress management, employer role with work-life balance. A positive
relationship is also obtained between all variables, though significant. The F value is the statistic
which tests the overall significance of the regression model.
Table 5. Model Summary of Regression
Std. Error of the
R R Square Adjusted R Square Estimate
.494a .810 .898 .56360
Note. Predictors: (Constant), Stress_Management, Work_Culture,
Employer_Role
Table 6. Coefficients Analysis
Standardize
Unstandardized d
Independent Variable
Coefficients Coefficient t-value p-value
s
Std.
B Error Beta
(Constant) 2.054 .462 4.442 .000
Work Culture .381 .090 .379 4.218 .000
Employer Role .204 .073 .251 2.782 .000
StressManagement .140 .091 .138 1.529 .000
Note. Dependent Variable: Work_Life_Balance
CONCLUSION
Based on the output result, the Anova model is significant whereby the value of p is equal to
0.000 which is less than the maximum significance value which is 0.01.R2 is the coefficient of
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Omar, M. K., Mohd, I. H., Ahmad, M. F., & Dahalan, N. A. (2022). Work-Life Balance Among Working Mothers in Malaysia. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 9(1). 494-501.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.91.11554
determination and represents the extent of changes in the dependent variable that can be
explained by the independent variables. It determines how well all the regression line fits the
data. It is a number ranging from 0 to 1 (1 > R2 > 0) and it represents the proportion of the total
variation in the dependent variables that is explained by the regression equation.The model
summary table shows that R, regression of three independent variables is equal to 0.810. The
inter-correlation R square (R2) generated is 0.898; which when translated, refers to about
89.8% of the three independent variables can explain the dependent variable. By referring to
the rule of thumbs, the remaining 10.2% cannot be explained by the regression analysis.It could
be inferred here that there could be other factors that could have influence on work life balance.
A larger sample size could contribute to better results.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research was funded by Universiti Teknologi MARA, file no 600-TNCPI 5/3/DDF (FPP)
(002/2020).
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