Empirical analysis of factors affecting work life balance among employees in viet nam banking

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
After two years study in International School of Business (ISB) with MBUS program and the
time of doing this thesis, I had great chances to work with professionals come from both
internal and oversea. Those specialists had to equip me not only knowledge, skills and
experience of economy and management, but also provide us valuable information of many
aspects of social life.
Firstly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and deepest appreciation to all my
professors, especially, my research supervisor, Dr. Nguyễn Quỳnh Mai, for her support,
suggesting, guidance during time of my dissertation.
Secondly, I also have got a very nice friendship who have interacted and helped me so much in
studying and shared with me both joys and difficulties during the course, encouraged me so
much in doing this thesis. I would like to send my appreciation to all of them.
Last but most important, I would like to send my deepest thank to my Dad, my Mom, my
brother and my special friend who always stand by my side to encourage and support my spirit
when I’m in the most difficulty.

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Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to identify influence of family responsibility and work pressure on
work life balance of employees in banking sector, to find out the effects of male and female
employees on work life balance and analyze the different between male and female toward
work life balance.
Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative analysis by survey was conducted involving
145 employees working in Vietnam banking sector. Multiple regression analyses were
performed to identify the impacts of family responsibility, working environment and work load
on work life balance of employees in banking sector. Moreover, a multiple regression analyses
were also test to discover the control role of gender variable.
Findings – The results showed that two determinants which are working environment and
work load negatively influence employees’ work life balance. Gender variable plays a control

role in the relationship toward the impacts of family responsibility, working environment and
work load on work life balance. Furthermore, male and female have different influence on
work life balance.
Keywords: Family responsibility, work pressure, work life balance, employee

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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................................ 1
Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 2
LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ 5
LIST OF FIGURE AND CHART ................................................................................................. 6
1.1 Background of the research ................................................................................................. 7
1.2 Research problem, research objective, and research questions ........................................... 8
1.3 Scope of study ...................................................................................................................... 9
1.4 Significance.......................................................................................................................... 9
1.5 Structure of the thesis statements......................................................................................... 9
CHAPER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORITICAL MODEL ........................................ 10
2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 10
2.2 Work—life balance concepts: ............................................................................................ 10
2.3 Factors influence Work—life balance ............................................................................... 12
2.3.1 Work life balance and family responsibilities: ............................................................ 12
2.3.2 Work life balance and work pressure: ......................................................................... 13
2.3.3 Work life balance and gender ...................................................................................... 15
2.3.4 The Vietnam banking context ..................................................................................... 16
2.4 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................ 18
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 18
3.2 Research design process: ................................................................................................... 18

3.2.1. Measurement of variable: ........................................................................................... 19
3.2.2 Questionnaires design:................................................................................................. 21
3.2.3 Sample ......................................................................................................................... 22
3.2.4 Data analysis ................................................................................................................ 23
3.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS .............................................................................................. 25

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4.1 Introduction: ....................................................................................................................... 25
4.2. Sample description: ........................................................................................................... 25
4.2.1 Final sample ................................................................................................................. 25
4.2.2 Demography Statistics: ................................................................................................ 25
4.3 Refinement of measurement scale: .................................................................................... 27
4.3.1 Cronbach’s Alpha results of each measurement ......................................................... 27
4.3.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)............................................................................. 30
4.4 Adjustment of hypotheses and research model ................................................................. 35
4.5 Hypotheses testing ............................................................................................................. 36
4.5.1 Model 1: Regression analysis between dependent variable (WLB) with independent
variables (FR; WE; WL) ...................................................................................................... 36
4.5.2 Model 2: Relationship between FR, WE, WL and WLB and moderating effect of
gender ................................................................................................................................... 39
4.6 Testing assumptions of Multiple Regressions ................................................................... 45
4.7 Hypotheses result ............................................................................................................... 45
4.8 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 47
CHAPTER 5: FINDING, LIMITATION AND FURTURE RESEARCH................................. 48
5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 48
5.2 Findings.............................................................................................................................. 48
5.3 Managerial implications and recommendation .................................................................. 49

5.4 Limitations and future research direction .......................................................................... 52
References ................................................................................................................................... 54
APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................. 58
QUESTIONAIRE (English version) ........................................................................................... 58
APPENDIX B.............................................................................................................................. 62
BẢNG CÂU HỎI ........................................................................................................................ 62
APPENDIX C.............................................................................................................................. 66
APPENDIX D ............................................................................................................................. 69
APPENDIX E .............................................................................................................................. 81

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Measurement .............................................................................................................. 20
Table 4.1 Demographic Statistics of the Respondents ............................................................... 26
Table 4.2 Reliability Statistics of Family responsibilities variable............................................ 29
Table 4.3 Reliability Statistics of Work pressure variable ......................................................... 30
Table 4.4 Reliability Statistics of Work life balance variable ................................................... 31
Table 4.5 KMO and Barlett’s Test ............................................................................................. 32
Table 4.6 Rotated Component Matrix ........................................................................................ 35
Table 4.7 Model Summary ......................................................................................................... 38
Table 4.8 ANOVA ..................................................................................................................... 38
Table 4.9 Regression analysis of Work life balance .................................................................. 39
Table 4.10 Model Summary and ANOVA of work life balance with moderating effect of
gender ......................................................................................................................................... 40
Table 4.11 Regression analysis of work life balance with moderating effect of gender ........... 42
Table 4.12 Regression analysis of gender variable – female only ............................................. 44
Table 4.13 Regression analysis of gender variable – male only ................................................ 45
Table 5.14 Questionnaire for working environment pressure .................................................... 51

Table 5.15 Questionnaire for work load..................................................................................... 53

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LIST OF FIGURE AND CHART
Figure 2.1 Hypotheses Model .................................................................................................... 17
Figure 3.1 Research design process ........................................................................................... 18
Figure 4.1 New Hypotheses Model ............................................................................................ 36
Figure 4.2 Testing models .......................................................................................................... 37
Chart 4.1 Impact of family responsibility on work-life balance of Male and Female ............... 42

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the research
Each organization has its own asset which contains two main components – labor
and capital. Capital is so important to the achievement of the business, while labor is vital to it.
The labor does everything daily and the whole existing time of the organization. The reality of
working life today is that employees are frequently trying to manipulate their work and
personal lives.
Two important points of adult life are family and work. However, the role expectations
of these two domains are not always compatible, creating conflicts between work and
family life (Netemeyer, Boles, and McMurrian, 1996). In recent years, research on balance
between the different role fields of work and family has dramatically increased.
To balance between the family responsibilities and work responsibilities has become a
challenge for the people in many professions. Felstead, Jewson, Phizacklea and Walters (2002)
defined the work life balance strategies as those strategies which enhance the independence of
employees in coordinating with the work and non-work aspects of their lives. Balancing the

demands of work and family roles has become a principal daily task form any employed adults,
imparts result of changes in employee demographic characteristics and societal attitudes about
work and family (Zedeck,1992).
The spirit of employees is so important which is absolutely necessary for the success of
each organization in any field, including business. According to The international labor
organization, labor productivity of Singapore is 15 times the productivity of Viet Nam.
Therefore, in doing business today, beside the instability of financial sector, one of the biggest
problems for Vietnamese that have been discussed so much on media is productivity of
Vietnamese labor is low. This problem is agreed by both Vietnamese government officials and
employees. And many foreign managers who have worked with Vietnamese people also reveal
that Vietnamese labor is intelligent and has good skills, but the output is quite low compare to

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labor of other neighbor countries, this problem could relate to the motivation aspect that
requires reasonable answer and solutions.
Moreover, the fact is that not many managers in Vietnam consider carefully
about factors that motivate their employees in doing works, encourage them to perform better.
Many companies in Viet Nam have policies to motivate their employees but almost of them
only focus on working environment and policies related to compensations, training or
promotion, not to help their employees dealing with the conflict between work and life
responsibilities. Therefore, improving work-life balance of employees is one of important
factors that must to be concerned when planning encourages policies which help strengthen the
human resource of Vietnamese companies.
Understand the importance of employees’ work life balance and implement reasonable
policies are so important to each manager for the Vietnam banks and the whole Vietnamese
economic system in competing with foreigners. In this study, work life balance will be
investigated to find out the factors effect work life balance and the differences of gender
toward work life balance.

1.2 Research problem, research objective, and research questions
Research problem
How do family responsibilities and work pressure effect on work-life balance of employees in
Vietnam banking? What are the differences of those impacts on gender?
Research questions
 What is the factors effect work life balance of employees working in Viet Nam banks?
 How do the gender factor influence on the work life balance?
Research objective
The overall objective of this research is to identify the factors effect work life balance of
employees working in Viet Nam banking sector and to find out the differences of gender
toward work life balance. Specific objectives in this research are as follows:
 Identify factors influence work life balance of employees banking sector

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 Investigate effects of moderators of gender on work life balance.
1.3 Scope of study
 This study will be mainly undertaken on the employees in Vietnam banking sector only
which should be considered as a specific economy - developing economy with
the speed of changing so fast, therefore the result of this research may not appreciate
with other sector.
 The sample of surveying is quite small within Ho Chi Minh City which has the biggest
banking business, so the result may not totally relevant to the whole country, etc.
1.4 Significance
Research results will measure the effects of the work life balance of employees. Since
then HR managers have plan to develop policies that based on gender and specific status of
employees to enhance their performance.
1.5 Structure of the thesis statements
The structure of this research report consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the

overview of the research topic. Chapter 2 presents the theoretical basis of the concepts
involved, theoretical modeling with the proposed hypothesis. Chapter 3 presents the research
methodology to test the scale and theoretical models offered. Chapter 4 presents the results of
the implementation of the testing and analysis of information and data from which to
draw conclusions for the research hypotheses proposed in Chapter 2. Chapter 5 summarizes
the main results of the study, the contribution of management theory and practice and
also mentioned the limitations of research to guide subsequent studies.

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CHAPER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW & THEORITICAL MODEL
2.1 Introduction
There are number of investigates about work life balance that has demonstrated in many
studies worldwide. Those include determinants effect from both internal and external of each
organization, each individual employee, and from tangible or intangible. Each determinant
could have positive or negative effect on work life balance of employees with different levels
that depend on each specific situation and each kind of organization. This study only looks at
work life balance that have considering in previous studies to have a general knowledge about
their influence on employees, compare the difference impacts on gender and on groups of age,
from that find out hypothesizes to build a model for analyzing.
2.2 Work—life balance concepts:
This section will review previous studies about causes of work life balance to see how
they impacts together, and finding hypothesizes for analyzing.
The concepts ‘Work-life balance’ and ‘Work-life conflict’ have received much attention
in academic literature (Hayman, 2005; Moore, 2007; Pocock, 2005). We do not consider
balance to be a work–family linking mechanism because it does not specify how conditions or
experiences in one role are causally related to conditions or experiences in the other role
(Edwards & Rothbard, 2000).
Work-life balance refers to people having enough time to have balance in their job and

home life. Karakas and Lee, (2004) explain work life balance issues as spending good time
with family members, getting free time to be able to relax for passionate welfare and health of
family members, having good communication and support from the associated colleagues,
obtaining high quality child care and education; and being satisfied with the work load.
According to the study of Kinman (2001), the strongest element of psychological distress and
job dissatisfaction is related to work life balance. He find out that over half of the academics
survey complained that they have to regularly work at home during the evenings which cause

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stress. Netemeyer, Boles and McMurrian (1996) investigates that mainstream of the employees
reported that they remained worried about work issues even after leaving the workplace and
feel difficulties in sleep at home.
Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) defined work life balance as “a form of inter role conflict
in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in
some respect”. According to their model, work life balance is composed of three dimensions:
time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based. Time-based work life balance decreases when
the time demands from one role make it considerably impossible to meet the requests of
another role, and when obsession with one role’s requirements occurs, even when physically
involved in meeting the requirements of another role. Work-related sources of include hours
worked and commuted per week, quantity and frequency of overtime, strictness in the work
schedule and irregularity of transference work. Family related sources include number of
children, younger children, and family size including older relatives (Greenhaus and Beutell,
1985; Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams, 2000).
Strain-based work life balance is originated from role-produced strain, when tension
from one role interferes with achieving responsibilities in another role (Greenhaus and Beutell,
1985). Work related sources of strain-based balance include work-role obscurity, low levels of
leader support, intra-role work conflict, and high physical and psychological demands. Family
related sources comprise husband-wife distinction in career coordination, husband-wife

dissimilarity about family roles, lack of spousal support, child care arrangements, and husbandwife difference in attitudes towards a wife’s employment status (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985;
Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams, 2000; Wallace, 1999).
Behavior-based work life balance arises when behavior in one role may be compatible
with expectations for behavior in another role. Work-related experiences embrace work
obscurity and work contribution, and family related problems include family - role ambiguity,
intra-family role conflict, family role association and social support (Greenhaus and Beutell,
1985; Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams, 2000).

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2.3 Factors influence Work—life balance
2.3.1 Work life balance and family responsibilities:
Elliott (2003) explained that major problem faced by the working parents of children,
aged six or younger, is to afford high quality child care which is costly and consumed a large
portion of income and reduces the likelihood that the mother will be employed. The double
burden of child care and elder care puts more emotional burden on female than on male. In
reality, it is still female who keep hold of the major responsibilities for childcare and are much
more likely to work part-time, sparing time for family responsibilities (Daly and Lewis, 2000).
It is concluded that child care arrangements is a source of strain-based conflict (Wallace, 1999).
Both female and men are reported to spend almost one-half of their time at work
unproductively due to childcare problems (Fernandez, 1986). Satisfaction with childcare
support leads to higher levels of work life balance (Bedeian, Burke, and Moffett, 1988), as well
as better concentration at work and enhanced job performance and satisfaction (Aryee and Luk,
1996). Greenberger et al., (1989) showed that married female often spend a lot of time and
energy in taking care of their in laws, especially the parents of their husbands, in short the
principle care givers for the elders are female, and who provide care in their roles as wives,
daughters and daughter in laws. In addition, because many female who care for the elders also
care for the children as primary caregivers they become more accustomed to care giving as
compared to men (Blair and Litcher 1991). In short, it is proposed that there is difference in the

work life balance of male and female with respect to the elder dependency.
Like child care, eldercare can adversely impact employees personally, and
professionally as well as emotionally, and financially. The impact of elder care on professional
lives of employees includes increased absenteeism, sluggishness, a reduction in work hours,
unavailability for overtime work, a shift from full-time to part-time work, and in some cases
early retirement. (Ross and Mirowsky, 1988). Not only the elder care responsibilities have
affected the employed workers but also prevented some people to enter the work force (Frone,
Russell and Cooper, 1992). The cost of elder care manifests not only in economic and financial
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terms but also in terms of caregiver’s overall health. Caregivers report feelings of depression,
isolation, loneliness and stress due to their care giving obligations (Kossek and Lambart, 2004).
Moreover, increased spousal support is shown to be associated with lower levels of
work life balance (Aryee et al.,1999; Burke and Greenglass, 1999; Erdwins, Buffardi, and
Casper, 2001; Rosenbaum and Cohen, 1999), and particularly influential in arising work life
balance (Adams et al., 1996; Thomas and Ganster, 1995). In particular, it is expected that there
is difference in the work life balance of male and female employees in banks with respect to the
partner support.
H1: Family responsibilities have negative impact on work life balance of employees in Viet
Nam banking sector.
2.3.2 Work life balance and work pressure:
According to the study by Thompson et al. (1998), it is a general perception that
organizations with higher level of work life balance possess supportive organizational culture.
Kossek, Dass and DeMarr (1994) explained that one of the reasons of the work life strain is a
lack of integration between the employee’s life and organization’s goals. He further asserted
that negative culture, poor working environment and bad attitudes of supervisors create barriers
to the implementation of work life balance. Gilbert (2002) stated that longer working hours
though reduces general family satisfaction, but workers who are more committed to their work
reported significantly higher family satisfaction as compared to the workers who are less

committed to their work. So it is not only the work timings that affect family but the behavior
of workers towards their jobs that affect their family life. Greenhouse and Powell (2003) have
suggested that certain working conditions, such as time flexibility can mitigate the negative
effects of work demands on family life.
According to the study by Thompson et al. (1998), it is a general perception that
organizations with lower level of work life conflict possess supportive organizational culture.
Kossek, Dass and DeMarr (1994) explained that one of the reasons of the work life strain is a
lack of integration between the employee’s life and organization’s goals. He further asserted

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that negative culture, poor working environment and bad attitudes of supervisors create barriers
to the implementation of work life balance. Therefore, it is proposed that there is difference in
the work life balance of male and female with respect to the job resources.
Lease (1999) examined the stress experienced by tenure-track faculty at three
universities, and found that satisfaction with salary, working hours, and perceived support of
colleagues directly influence the level of stress and indirectly affects satisfaction. Roehling and
Moen (2001) predicted that earnings (salary), schedule flexibility, family friendly work
policies, and supportiveness of colleagues are related to work and life strain. Non
supportiveness of colleagues affects the employee loyalty negatively. They further found that a
partner with unstable or low income increases the financial burden on other partner. Therefore,
there is difference in the work life balance of male and female with respect to the colleague
support.
Kinman and Jones (2008) conveyed that work related stress has increased. They
reported heavy workload and resource and time limitations as the most nerve-racking aspects.
Smith et al., (1995) studied stress on faculty, they differentiated role-based stress (resulting
from unclear responsibilities and criteria for evaluating success), task-based stress (resulting
from work overload), and person/system-based stress (resulting from high self-expectations and
pressure to compete). In accordance with the study on Australian university employees

conducted by Winefield et al., (2003), academics are generally contended with intrinsic factors
such as the degree of intellectual inspiration they experience while supervising and teaching
their students, and with the opportunities to take initiative; while they are less satisfied with
extrinsic factors of the job such as salary, promotion prospects and working hours. Thus, it is
wonder that these factors will be happened in banking sector. In short, there is difference in the
work life balance of male and female with respect to the unfair criticism.
H2: Work pressure have negative impact on work life balance of employees in Viet Nam
banking sector.

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2.3.3 Work life balance and gender
Gender’s effect on work life balance also has been considered in previous studies. While
some studies report few differences between men’s and female’s level of work life balance
(Blanchard-Fields, Chen, and Hebert, 1997; Duxbury and Higgins, 1991; Frone and Rice,
1987; Wallace, 1999), other studies have found that female experience higher levels of workfamily conflict than do male (Duxbury, Higgins and Lee, 1994; Frone et al., 1992;
Gutek, Searle,and Klepa, 1991; Simon, 1995), some other studies found that no difference
between male and female regarding work-to-family and family -to-work (Janzen, Muhajarine,
and Kelly, 2007; Kinnunen and Mauno, 1998). Apperson et al. (2002) found that female
managers experienced higher levels of work-life balance and work role overload. However, the
levels of work life balance were unexpectedly similar between female and male managers.
Cinamon and Rich (2002) also found that female were lower in level and frequency of work
life balance and ascribed more importance to family - work conflict than men. The explanation
commonly given for differences in levels of work life balance is that female view family as
their primary obligation and attaches more meaning to their parenting role than to their work
role (Simon, 1995). Because female tend to emphasize their family roles to a greater extent
than men do and have more difficulty making the trade-off between family obligations and
work obligations, it is expected that gender will moderate the work life balance. Accordingly,
there is difference in the work life balance of male and female Viet Nam banking employees.

H3: There is moderation effect of gender on work life balance of employees in Viet Nam
banking sector.
From these determinants above the model of the research was created. All of those
determinants have effect on work life balance and there are the differences between male and
female with the respect those determinants. However, there was no information which shows
how strong of each element affect the work life balance and the difference of these impacts by
gender. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a survey and run regression as follow chapters in

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order to find out that information to help author of the research and readers understand clearly
about those problems and apply to reality.
2.3.4 The Vietnam banking context
Viet Nam is a South East Asia country geographically, as well as culturally. The country
is in a state of economic and cultural transition. According the survey about labor and job
investigated by The Vietnam labor statistic department, the population of Vietnam is nearly 90
million people, including 52.838 million people employed, in which participation rates of
female labor force are 48.7%. Viet Nam varies in social and cultural structure, with
‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ life styles co-existing simultaneously within the society. Family
ties are still strong and influential in the formation of values, attitudes, aspirations, and goals.
With the increasing involvement of women in the workforce, cultural values and norms with
respect to gender roles have been undergoing a rapid transition. Women and men in
professional jobs are trying to adjust to the “modern” norms of gender roles while keeping the
traditional values of family and collectivism intact. There is less research on Viet Nam workfamily balance; some earlier research had noted that both men and women all owed greater
interference from work – life than from life – work and women experienced less work life
balance than did men. Recent research developed and tested a model to investigate the effects
of work life balance and also examined in the study was the role of gender as a moderator of
the relationships in the model. Authors found that gender moderates the work life balance.
2.4 Conclusion

The following research hypotheses have been developed to analyze data. The conceptual
framework has been adopted from Elliott (2003) to test these hypotheses.
 H1: Family responsibilities have negative impact on work life balance of employees in
Viet Nam banking sector.
 H2: Work pressure has negative impact on work life balance of employees in Viet Nam
banking sector.

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 H3: There is moderation effect of gender on work life balance of employees in Viet Nam
banking sector.

Figure 2.1 Hypothesis Model

Family Responsibilities

H1

WORK LIFE
BALANCE

H2

Work Pressure

17

GENDER

H3


CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter will highlight how the research problem will be explained. How the
participants will be selected and the procedure followed to collect the data. It starts with the
research design process, questionnaire design and provides information about the sample
demography. Furthermore, the measuring instruments to gather the data will be discussed. This
chapter will conclude with the statistical techniques applied for the data analysis.
3.2 Research design process:
In this research, quantitative method is used, the study employs the following research
methodology to examine the impact of family responsibilities and work pressure on work life
balance of employees in Vietnam banks context and compare those impacts by gender and
groups of age.
Figure 3.1 Research design process
Literature

Questionnaire

A survey of 150
responses

Initial

Revision

Reliability
analysis
EFA

Regression
18

Result

Back-translated
questionnaire

Delete low item-total
correlation item (<0.30),
and low cronbach’s anpha
(<0.60)
Delete low factor loading
items (<0.4)


3.2.1. Measurement of variable:
In the current research, work life balance is treated as dependent variable whereas
family responsibilities and work pressure are taken as independent variable. Selected work
related factors that may cause stress are included in the framework i.e., work load, colleague
support and unfair criticism. Likewise selected family related factors that may cause stress are
identified as partner support, elder dependency and childcare responsibilities. Besides,
demographic factor gender is treated as moderator variable to find out the differences in the
relationship with the impacts on work life balance.
The questionnaire in this study was modified from previous studies and was used two
factors to measure work life balance namely family responsibilities and work pressure.
Questions about three determinants were developed from Elliott (2003) and Ahmad and
Skitmore (2003), including 18 questions as table below.
Table 3.1 Measurement

Factor

Measurement

Sources

1. I am not able to share the family
responsibilities with my spouse.

- Elliott (2003)

2. I have to spend a lot of my time to take
care of my illness parent/ dependents
Family
responsibilities

3. I have to attend to all my children
school activities whenever required.
4. I always have to take time off from
work and be with my children if they
are sick.
5. I have to do all house works with no or
little support from others.

19

- Ahmad and
Skitmore (2003)

1. I do not have availability of adequate
resources at work place to fulfill my

- Elliott (2003)

responsibilities.
2. My colleagues do not support anything

Skitmore (2003)

for my work at all.
Work pressure

- Ahmad and

3. I get the unfair criticism at work from
my boss.
4. I have to work beyond conditioned
hours to keep up with my workload
5. I often get stressed when there is not
enough time to complete the assigned
work.
1. I am satisfied with the hours I work
2. I can meet the requirements of my job

- Elliott (2003)

without working long hours
3. I still spend productive time with my
family even when I spend overtime at

work or working over the weekend.
4. I am confident that my family
Work life balance

understands my working situation/
demands.
5. I can adjust my role easily at work or
with my family.
6. I always have time for my hobbies
7. I always plan regular vacation to enjoy
myself with my family
8. I have a balance life between

20

- Ahmad and
Skitmore (2003)


responsibilities of family and work
without hindering my career
progression

Totally, there were 18 scales in the questionnaire. This questionnaire was produced in English
and Vietnamese versions. In the questionnaire a 5 points Likert scale was used which range
from 1 – strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree scale to express agreement or attitude of
respondents on issues related to the observed variables. See appendix A and B at the end of this
thesis.
3.2.2 Questionnaires design:
All references are English but interviewees are Vietnamese so it is necessary to translate

the reference questionnaire from English into Vietnamese. To prevent misunderstanding or
uncertain meaning, the Vietnamese version questionnaire (that just translated from English)
was translated into English again by other person to ensure similar meaning with the original
questionnaire.
The questionnaire was designed to let the researcher gather the relevant information to
test proposed model. Twenty eight questions were combined into the questionnaire for the
purpose of this study. Detail is in Appendix A
PART A: This part has purpose to choose standard participants. There are three questions in
this section. The employees will be chosen base on the answer of questions, in which the
chosen interviewees must work for a bank longer six months and they are fulltime employees.
The interview will be cancelled if one of question does not meet requirement.
PART B: Demographic Profile is in this part. This data helps the author understand about their
interviewees and classify them to be suitable with research objective. They include age, gender,
education and position.

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PART C is about main questions for measurement. This part is based on designed Likert scales
that show the action and attitude of employee about their work life balance such as family
responsibilities, work pressure and work life balance also.
3.2.3 Sample
The research target population included both single and married male and female of both
junior, senior and manager who are currently working in banks mainly in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam. Participants were contacted in person and surveys were given individually. Upon
arrival at their work sites, and following the researcher’s self-introduction, the purpose of the
study was explained. Participants were also informed that participation in the study was
voluntary. After attaining their agreement, the survey packet, which topics read and completed
on their own, were distributed, and then researchers collected all surveys once they were
completed. None of the contacted individuals refused to participate.

The survey was conducted from July to September 2014. A total 200 questionnaires
were distributed to potential respondents chosen from all banks. Expected sample size is 140,
this size was determined based on the number of variables in this study. There are18 variables
in the research model, therefore the sample of 140 units is 8 times larger than the number of
questions, while the minimum requirement is five times.
Data Collection: Convenience sampling method has been used to get the responses from
employees working in all banks in Ho Chi Minh City, both domestic banks and foreign banks.
Directly: The instruments used to gather data was hand delivered to the employees that
identified for this study. Author was responsible for delivering and collecting the questionnaire
then returned for coding and analyzing.
Indirectly: Email to the personal email of the participants who accepted to take part in this
survey, but they couldn’t response the questionnaires immediately so they wanted to response
by email.

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3.2.4 Data analysis
Data was entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).
The study tested the scales specific to make sure that they were suitable for the Viet Nam
banking sector context.
Testing reliability of scales by using Cronbach’s Alpha and Coefficient:
This study tested the Cronbach’s Alpha of each scale of each factor as well as the beta of the
factor loading in the model. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient is a statistical test of correlation of
the questions in the scale relative to each other. So with this method of analysis, the author
could remove unsuitable variables, limit junk variables in the research process and evaluate the
reliability of the scale through the Cronbach Alpha coefficient. To ensure the reliability of the
scale, this research removed the ladder measure which Cronbach's alpha coefficient is less than
0.7. In addition, retaining only those variables had correlation coefficient greater than 0.3.
Exploratory Factor Analysis:

This was in order to explore the relationship between allvariables. Factor analysis was used
when the KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) value was greater than 0.7 and it was inadequate if less
than 0.5 (Nancy L, Leech, Karen C. Barret, GeorgeA. Morgan, 2005), the transmission
coefficient variables (factors loading) was less than 0.5 or the difference between the two
factors less than 0.3 would be excluded. Moreover, factors with a total eigenvalue of 1 or
greater will take into account; hence any factors with an eigenvalue of less than 1 were
discounted (Kim & Mueller, 1978, cited in Lee & Hooley, 2005, p.376). Based on these
studies, any factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 would be retained while any factor loadings
of 0.3 or higher on a factor were counted. Besides, method "Principal Axis Factoring" and
rotation "Varimax" is used in the scale analysis of independent variables.
Multiple regression analyses:
This was in order to test the relationship between the independent variables and dependent
variable. Linear Regression was run in order to compare different impact of independent
factors on dependent factor. To test the role of the important factors in assessing the

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relationship between family responsibilities, work pressure and work life balance, we run the
regression. The variables included in the same time to select based on the selection criteria
variables with a significance level of <0.05. The coefficients in the model used to check how
important of each independent variable impact to the dependent variable. Through the Beta
coefficient show in the results of regression analysis, we knew the importance of each factor
affecting the work life balance of employees.
Regression analysis with moderation variables
Regression analysis with moderation variables was also run separately gender with independent
variables and dependent variable order to examine the different effects on employees’ work life
balance of independent variable when moderated by gender variable.
3.3 Conclusion
This chapter provided an overall explanation of research design, population of the

research, the procedure used to collect the data, addressed issues concerning confidentiality, the
description of the adopted measuring instruments and statistical techniques (SPSS) engaged to
test the research hypotheses with three steps: factors analyzing and scale reliability, correlation
analysis, multiple regression analyses that used for this study. The development of the
instruments for data analysis was described. Following chapter 4 will report the results of main
survey base on methodologies.

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CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction:
In chapter 3 the research method was introduced in order to reveal that in chapter 4, an
overview of the results achieved in the study are presented and discussed. All questionnaires as
mentioned in chapter 3 after collected from participants were tested and analyzed. The purpose
of this chapter is to analyze the data from survey and find out information about family
responsibilities and work pressure effect on work life balance in general by running regression,
and after that the Linear Regression will be run in order to compare differences of genders
toward the impacts on work life balance.
4.2. Sample description:
4.2.1 Final sample
There were 200 questionnaires that have sent but only 160 questionnaires were collected (rate
about 80 percent). Among 160 collected questionnaires, there were 145 valid questionnaires
(90 percent). This sample size is qualified for quantitative analyses. The reasons of invalid
questionnaire were missing data, interviewer's mistake in interview part time employee,
company owner, employees that do not work in banks…
Although data collecting and typing was very careful but the data collected in this study had
missing data scattered randomly throughout the data background. All missing data were treated
with list wise deletion. Factor analysis was best suited to identifying the interrelationships
among a set of items in a scale, all designed to measure the same construct.

4.2.2 Demography Statistics:
Participants in this survey were variety in term of ages, educational levels, positions
number of children and genders in total 7 different banks that could help to avoid bias. As can
be seen in Chart 4.1, gender gap was too significant, with 30.3% of male and 69.7% of female.
Out of 145 respondents in term of age, labor force in banks was quite young with 51.7%
respondents within 18-29 years old, 42.8% of respondents were from 30 to 40 and 5.5% of

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