The Relation of Work-life balance: Counterproductive Work Behaviour and Turnover Intention among Malaysian employees

Tan Ting Ying^a and Ngu Shy Yi

^aDepartment of Psychology and Counselling, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Perak, Malaysia.

Email: tantingy@utar.edu.my

The Relation of Work-life balance: Counterproductive Work Behaviour and Turnover Intention among Malaysian employees

Background. Work-life balance (WLB) is defined as the extent to which a person is engaged in and equally satisfied with their roles, both work role and family role. WLB is receiving continuous interest for organisations and individuals because individuals will be having better health and wellbeing if they have a balance between work and non-work. However, WLB has not received sufficient focus and remain as one of the least studied concepts in work-life research. Women is perceived to have low work-life balance than men due to societal gender stereotypes. Also, women reported not having work-life balance compared to men. In contrast, some research found that men had lower work-life balance as they are the financial providers for their families and cause them to work longer hours to meet the obligations. Also, men and women differs in the working arrangements, where flexibility leads to a decrease in work-life balance for men. This study aims to examine the relationship of counterproductive work behaviour with work-life balance and the relationship of turnover intention and work-life balance. This study also aims to explore the gender difference in work-life balance.
Methods. A total of 399 participants were recruited. They are working employees with aged range from 18 to 57. Quantitative research design and cross-sectional design was being used. The questionnaire consists of four sections, incorporated three existing questionnaire and demographic data of participants. The Industrial Society’s Work-Life Balance Checklist is used to measure participants’ work life balance with total 10 items. The participants are required to choose from “Agree”, “Sometimes”, and “Disagree”. Counterproductive Work Behaviour (CWB) Checklist is to assess counterproductive work behaviour such as aggression, sabotage, and theft. The checklist consists of 32 items, the participants is asked to rate based on 5-point Likert scale by answering “How often have you done each of the following things on your present job?” with 1 is Never and 5 is Every day. Turnover intention scale consists of 3 items. Participant were asked to rate based on 5-point Likert scale with 1 is Strongly Disagree and 5 is Strongly Agree. The data analysis used were Pearson Correlation to find out the relationship between work-life balance and counterproductive work behaviour as well as the relationship between work-life balance and turnover intention. T-test was used to identify the differences in work-life balance among males and females.

Results. There was a negative correlation between the two variables, r = -.26, n = 399, p < .001, with high level of work-life balance associated with lower level of counterproductive work behaviour. There was a negative correlation between the two variables, r = -.30, n = 399, p <.001, with increasing level of work-life balance correlate with decreasing level of turnover intention.

Table 1 showed the correlation coefficient of the three variables.

Table 1

Correlations between Work-Life Balance, Counterproductive Work Behaviour and Turnover Intention

Scale

Work-life balance

Counterproductive work behaviour

Turnover intention

Work-life balance

1.00

-.258**

-.296**

Counterproductive work behaviour

-.258**

1.00

.207**

Turnover intention

-.296**

.207**

1.00

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

There was no significant difference in scores for males (M = 19.22, SD = 4.85) and females (M = 20.45, SD = 4.84); t (401) = -2.55, p = .98. Males and females do not differ in the level of work-life balance as presented in Table 2.

Table 2

T-test Results Comparing Males and Females on Work-Life Balance

Female

Male

M

SD

M

SD

t-test

Work-life balance

20.45

4.84

19.22

4.85

-2.55

p = 0.98

Conclusions. From the research result, the participants with work-life balance will not display counterproductive work behaviour, at the same time, their turnover intention is low. This showed the importance of fostering work-life balance in organisation. Furthermore, there is no gender difference in work-life balance.

Added-Values. Work-life balance can help to reduce counterproductive work behaviour and turnover intention. The research results able to contribute to work-life balance research, future intervention should be focus on policy or programme that focus on fostering work-life balance among employees. Furthermore, there is no gender differences in work-life balance. Thus, the work-life balance programme can be used for both genders, regardless of their work roles and family roles.

Keywords: word; work-life balance; counterproductive work behaviour; turnover intention;

working employees; Malaysia

Word count: 692 words