In Search of Work-Life Balance: Organizational and Economic Challenges Confronting Women in Banking and Management Consulting Firms in Southwest Nigeria
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East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 12-2019 In Search of Work-Life Balance: Organizational and Economic Challenges Confronting Women in Banking and Management Consulting Firms in Southwest Nigeria Oluwafisayo Ogundoro East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Anthropology Commons, Applied Ethics Commons, Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Feminist Philosophy Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, and the Human Resources Management Commons Recommended Citation Ogundoro, Oluwafisayo, "In Search of Work-Life Balance: Organizational and Economic Challenges Confronting Women in Banking and Management Consulting Firms in Southwest Nigeria" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 3674. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3674 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. In Search of Work-Life Balance: Organizational and Economic Challenges Confronting Women in Banking and Management Consulting Firms in Southwest Nigeria _______________________________________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the School of Continuing Studies and Academic Outreach East Tennessee State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Liberal Studies ____________________________________ by Oluwafisayo Ogundoro December 2019 _________________________ Dr. Marie Tedesco, Chair Dr. Jill LeRoy-Frazier Dr. Martha Copp Keywords: Organizational Work Culture, Economic Challenge, Ethics of Care, Women, Management Consulting, Banking, Nigeria, Work-Life Balance ABSTRACT In Search of Work-Life Balance: Organizational and Economic Challenges Confronting Women in Banking and Management Consulting Firms in Southwest Nigeria by Oluwafisayo Ogundoro Married women in the banking and management consulting firms in Nigeria encounter challenges that affect their commitment to their families while working long hours in demanding jobs. This study explores the challenges married women encounter and the impacts they have on women’s family lives, social lives, and health. I analyze primary and secondary sources to understand how organizational work culture such as long working hours, work competitiveness, and Nigeria’s unstable economy negatively affect the work-life balance of married women in banking and management consulting firms. Although participants shared the belief that their workplaces practiced “equality,” their descriptions of daily life activities indicate that women did not enjoy egalitarian conditions at work or at home. This study brings to light the challenges faced by married women and suggests how the Nigerian government can promote gender equality in the workplace through the review and amendment of the Nigerian Labor policy. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank every member of my thesis committee for their productive feedback, aptitude, patience, and assistance through the writing and editing process of this study. I am deeply grateful for your immense support and valuable responses throughout my stay as a graduate student at ETSU. Thank you to all the participants who volunteered and disclosed information for this study. Your stories are valued, and I do not take your energy, time, and effort for granted. Your contribution to the gender work-life balance discourse is indispensable and it serves as an opportunity to shed more light on the travails of career women in Nigeria. I say a ‘BIG’ thank you to my siblings and parents for their unwavering support. Importantly, I am grateful to God Almighty for his constant guidance over my life. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................2 LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................7 LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................9 Gender and Work in Nigeria .................................................................................................. 11 Gender and Development in Nigeria. ..................................................................................... 15 Definition of Work-life Balance ............................................................................................ 21 Banking and Management Consulting in Nigeria ................................................................... 24 Research Questions ............................................................................................................... 27 Rationale of the Study ........................................................................................................... 28 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................................... 28 Limitations of the Study ........................................................................................................ 29 Chapter Structure ................................................................................................................... 29 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................................... 30 Work-Life Balance Theories .................................................................................................. 30 Work-Life Balance Predictors ................................................................................................ 41 Work-Life Balance Policies and Practices .............................................................................. 47 3. ETHICS OF CARE AS A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO WORK-LIFE BALANCE DISCOURSE ............................................................................................................................ 53 Ethics of Care as Business Ethics........................................................................................... 59 Toward a Caring Business Practice in a Neoliberal Society .................................................... 65 How Does Ethics of Care Illuminate Gender Work-Balance Discourse? ................................ 67 4. METHODOLOGY: APPROACH AND DESIGN ................................................................. 70 Rationale for Research Design ............................................................................................... 70 Qualitative Research Approach .............................................................................................. 72 Phenomenological Research .................................................................................................. 74 Phenomenological Interviewing ............................................................................................. 75 Interdisciplinary Research Methodology ................................................................................ 77 Recruitment and Data Collection ........................................................................................... 80 Ethical Issues ......................................................................................................................... 82 4 Coding Procedures................................................................................................................. 83 Methodology for Analyzing Public Documents...................................................................... 84 5. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ................................................................................................ 85 Banking Sector Participants’ Experiences .............................................................................. 85 Beliefs of Equal Treatment in the Workplace ..................................................................... 86 Role-Gendering in the Home .............................................................................................. 87 Time Challenges ................................................................................................................ 88 Economic Challenges ......................................................................................................... 90 Evaluation of the Effects of Work-Life Conflicts on Women in Banking ............................... 92 Impact on Family ............................................................................................................... 92 Impact on Health ................................................................................................................ 94 Impact on Social Life ......................................................................................................... 96 Coping Mechanisms for Banking Sector Participants ............................................................. 96 Support System .................................................................................................................. 96 Boundary Creation ............................................................................................................