Impact of work-life imbalance on job satisfaction and quality of life among hospital nurses in Japan

Abstract

This study investigated the status of work-life imbalance among hospital nurses in Japan and impact of work-life imbalance on job satisfaction and quality of life. A cross-sectional survey of 1,202 nurses (81% response rate) was conducted in three Japanese acute care hospitals. Participants were divided into four groups for actual work-life balance (Group A: 50/50, including other lower working proportion groups [e.g., 40/50]; Group B: 60/40; Group C: 70/30; and Group D: 80/20, including other higher working proportion groups [e.g., 90/10]). We also asked participants about desired work-life balance, and private and work-related perspectives. Satisfactions (job, private life, and work-life balance), quality of life, and stress-coping ability were also measured. All data were compared among the four groups. Most nurses sensed that they had a greater proportion of working life than private life, and had a work-life imbalance. Actual WLB did not fit compared to desired WLB. When the actual working proportion greatly exceeds the private life proportion, nurses’ health could be in danger, and they may resign due to lower job satisfaction and QOL. Simultaneous progress by both management and individual nurses is necessary to improve work-life imbalance.

Investigating nurses’ quality of life and work‐life balance statuses in Singapore

“…This can be supported by the study that was conducted in Japan by Makabe et al. (), which found that job satisfaction and QoL were unsatisfied in nurses who spent more time on work than on their private lives. These results are similar to other studies, which found that WLB has an impact on the QoL of nurses in hospitals (Abraham & D'Silva ; Milosevic et al.…”

“… A demographic data consisting of 18 items that asked for background information and general job information such as age, gender, working status and shift rotation. A measurement of WLB was adopted from the WLB Charter by the Japanese Cabinet (Makabe et al. ). WLB in this study was determined by the balance between the actual percentage of time spent on work and the percentage of time spent on private life.…”

“…In several studies, WLB refers to an employee's satisfaction with their working life and the balance of time spent between work and one's private life (Makabe et al. ; Mullen ). Several studies stated that nurses often experienced a lack of balance between work and their life outside work or private life (He et al.…”

“…However, Japan and Malaysia have published their results regarding nurses’ QoL (Makabe et al. ; Nurumal et al. ).…”

Health, workforce characteristics, quality of life and intention to leave: The ‘Fit for the Future’ survey of Australian nurses and midwives

“…Psychosocial work factors such as skill level, job strain, work‐life balance, psychological job demand, decision latitude, decision authority and job control can also influence QoL. Psychosocial work factors as a whole affected the QoL of male Malaysian automotive factory workers (Edimansyah, Rusli, Naing, Mohamed, & Winn, ); other studies linked QoL with specific aspects, such as job strain (Lerner, Levine, Malspeis, & D'Agostino, ; Tzeng, Chung, & Yang, ), job control (Liang, Hsieh, Lin, & Chen, ), social support (Jönsson, ; Liang et al., ; Tzeng et al., ), work‐life imbalance (Makabe, Takagai, Asanuma, Ohtomo, & Kimura, ), occupational stress and role overload (Wu, Li, Wang, Yang, & Qiu, ) and imbalanced effort/reward (Teles et al., ). However, promotion of work ability can benefit QoL in physical, psychosocial, social relationship and environmental domains (Milosevic et al., ; Sörensen et al., ) and positive correlations between QoL domains and job satisfactions have also been revealed (Cimete, Gencalp, & Keskin, ; Ibrahim et al., ).…”