The experiences of work-life balance, stress, and coping lifestyles of female professionals: insights from a developing country

Abstract

PurposeGiven the limiting conditions of the gender roles confronting professional working women and drawing on spillover theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of work-life balance with an emphasis on the causes of the imbalances, perceived stress, and coping techniques experienced by female medical doctors in an African context – Nigeria, a geographical location that is considered under-researched.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative data is based on one-to-one in-depth interviews with 52 Nigerian female medical doctors.FindingsBased on the findings of the thematic analysis, it is clear that time squeeze, as a well-known factor in the medical profession, exacerbates negative work-home interference. However, other themes, such as patriarchal proclivities and task-pay disparity, that affect female doctors but are rarely considered in studies on work-life balance also emerged as sources of stress and work-family conflicts, leaving these doctors to devise individual coping methods as mitigating strategies.Research limitations/implicationsThe study relies on a limited qualitative sample size, which makes the generalisation of findings difficult. However, the study contributes to the limited literature on the implications of stress and work-family incompatibilities facing women in a society that is not particularly egalitarian, with an extremely pronounced culture of masculine hegemony that is contrary to western cultures. The article unveils the socio-cultural difficulties of the work-life demands facing women specific to the Nigerian society and experienced with a different level of intensity.Originality/valueThe majority of the research on work-life balance has been undertaken in western countries and has focused on various professional groups and organisations, including the health sector. Nevertheless, work-life balance is a novel concept within the Nigerian work environment, where female medical doctors, as a professional group, are rarely studied. The article also provides valuable insights into the macro-contextual features influencing the work-life balance of Nigerian professional women.

Being stressed in the family or married with work? A literature review and clustering of work-family conflict

“…This is the third most numerous cluster, mostly related to a negative conception of suffering. In this case, we observe the coexistence of two different ways to consider worklife balance (Carlson et al, 2006;Arjmand et al, 2012;Weale et al, 2019;Akanji et al, 2020;Boiraha et al, 2020;Dixon et al, 2020;Haar and Brougham, 2020), following the role theory (Mcclosey, 2016;Piszczek et al, 2018). Role interaction can be defined through its positive way of mediation (Brown and Pitt-Catsouphes, 2016;Soomro et al, 2018) between the work and family domains (Boyd et al, 2016) and the negative way, which results in emotional exhaustion (Nauman et al, 2020) and burnout (Curnoyer, 1988;Westman et al, 2004;Haar, 2006;Innstrand et al, 2008;Lambert and Hogan, 2010;Dai et al, 2014;Gholitabar et al, 2020;Kao et al, 2020).…”

“…This is the second most numerous cluster. It recalls the gender topic (Yavas et al, 2008;Mauno et al, 2012;Cloninger et al, 2015;Akanji et al, 2020;Liu and Fan, 2020) because psychological distress is usually related to women due to role conflict (Posig and Kickul, 2004;Aaltion and Huang, 2007;Edwards, 2008;Battistelli et al, 2013;Buehler and O' Brien, 2011;Ma et al, 2014). Most cultures around the world are used to excluding or inflicting stress upon women more than on men (Noor, 2003;Raskin, 2006;Wang et al, 2010;Ren and Foster, 2011;Beigi et al, 2012;Janasz et al, 2013;Huffman et al, 2014;Hassan et al, 2017;Scott, 2018), thus expecting a woman to be more bound by family roles in the management of the house and children.…”

Working with emotions: cultural employee perspectives to service management expectations

“…As such, these shared views describe emotions as interactive experiences that relegate personal aggrandisement (Cheung and Irene, 2010). A major part of the fabric of the Nigerian society is its collectivist system (Akanji et al, 2020b) that emphasises obligations to others in terms of their aspirations and well-being and where deference and "lower selfhedonism" are strongly supported:…”

Exploring cultural values in conflict management: a qualitative study of university heads of departments

“…Other normative features of the Nigerian culture include high respect for the elderly, diverse religious beliefs, and acceptance of gender inequality and status differentials, particularly in organisational settings (Ituma et al , 2011). These cultural values are often perceived as framing interpersonal relations and behaviour in Nigeria (Akanji et al , 2020).…”