Work-Life Balance and Employee Performance: A Literature Review

Abstract

This paper is a review of literature on work life balance and employee performance in Nigeria as an attempt at knowledge building. This is a secondary research which sought to review literature in assessing work life balance in Nigeria and suggest suitable solutions for overcoming the problem of work life imbalance and its associatednegative spill over in order to enhance employee performance for optimum organizational output. We posit that employees who have balanced work and non-work roles are more likely to perform better, thusit is essential for employers to promote policies and structures that enhance work life balance of employees in their organisations.We conclude that there are systemic barriers that hinder the implementation of work life balance policies in Nigeria, such as leadership failure which has birthed political, economic and social challenges that are the primary sources of work life conflict, they include corruption, weak institutions that lack the capacity to monitor and enforce employment standards, high unemployment ratios, poverty, inflation and a plethora of others. We recommend that organisations provide flexible work arrangements to be enforced by government legislations that will statutorily empower employees to request for atypical work patterns, that the awareness of organisations be raised to the advantages of protecting workers’ rights to various leave initiatives that will improve employee wellbeing and managerial training to ensure managerial support for the demands of these policies.