Impact of Work-Life Balance on Career Advancement of Female Employees in Apparel Industry: A Study Based on Two Leading Apparel Firms in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The apparel industry holds an important place in Sri Lanka’s economy and has become Sri Lanka’s largest export industry. It has been one of the most female dominated industries in the world. As many women are engaged in the apparel industry, work-life balance is the predominant issue for every female employee, and it has become a major problem for them to advance their career while having a proper balance between work and family roles. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to find out the impact of work-life balance on the career advancement of female employees in the apparel industry. Furthermore, this study emphasized to finding solutions to improve the balance between work and family to better career advancement. In the study, career advancement was the dependent variable whereas work-life balance was the independent variable. This was conducted as a cross-sectional, quantitative field study among a sample of 104 female employees selected from two (02) main apparel firms in the Colombo district. The study was conducted by using a simple random sampling method and the unit of analysis was at the individual level. A standard measurement scale was used to collect primary data which was developed by using a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and simple regression were applied to analyze the data. The findings revealed that there was a moderate positive relationship between work-life balance and career advancement. Furthermore, there was a 40.4% significant impact of work-life balance on the career advancement of female employees in the apparel industry.