An investigation into the policies and initiatives for work-life balance within selected construction companies in Nigeria

Dang, Moses (2020) An investigation into the policies and initiatives for work-life balance within selected construction companies in Nigeria. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University.

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Abstract

Work-life balance is considered as an individual’s ability to balance between two different roles which are work and family. The ability to attain such balance brings satisfaction to the life of the individual. However, the experience of imbalance is usually related to an individual’s inability to balance the two domains, or they lack the strategies and resources to manage demands from either domain. This study investigates work-life balance and the experiences of construction workers within selected construction companies in Nigeria. The study addresses three research questions focused on the factors and drivers of work-life imbalance, the organisational initiatives for work-life balance and workers’ coping strategies and coping resources in managing the challenges associated with working in the Nigerian construction industry.

Field work was completed at construction sites across the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja, and Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. A mixed-method approach is utilised in collecting the data reported in this study. The results from questionnaires and semi-structured interviews show that low pay, long working hours, stressful job roles, job insecurity and lack of flexibility, alongside family caring responsibilities are significant drivers of work-life imbalance among construction workers. Secondly, this research reports that workers’ access to organisational work-life balance initiatives were limited. The workers adopt a range of coping strategies and make use of coping resources in responding to the challenges associated with working in the Nigerian construction industry. This study extends the existing knowledge on the drivers of imbalance in the Nigerian construction industry. This study also extends our knowledge and understanding on the range of coping resources which workers make use of, and sources of support available to workers that has not been reported in the literature yet.

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