Impact of Flexible Work Arrangements on Work-Life Integration of Middle-Level Employees in the Apparel Industry, Sri Lanka

Abstract

This study intends to investigate the variables influencing work-life integration and the function of flexible work arrangements in the work-life integration process. Employers are now beginning to prioritize both work and family and have begun to recognize that work and personal life are inseparable and that neither would be completed without the other. Employees use flexible work arrangements to control their working hours, location of work, and quantity of work to meet job requirements. In today’s context managers view flexible work arrangements as a mode of increasing employee satisfaction, retention, commitment, engagement, and motivation towards work. Majority of studies have focused on flexible work arrangements and work-life balance and have placed little consideration on work-life integration, and most of them are focused solely on one organization in the western context. As we are in a post-pandemic era with an ongoing economic crisis within the country moving to flexible work arrangements to maintain an efficient integrated system between work and personal life is becoming an emergent need. As a result, the purpose of this research study is to assess the impact of flexible work arrangements on work-life integration. Hence this research was carried out as a quantitative, cross-sectional field study among a sample of 136 middle-level employees in the apparel industry. Primary data were collected using a standard questionnaire through online mode and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used as the data analysis tool. Accordingly, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics namely regression and correlation analysis were used to analyze data. Results generated through the study indicates that there is a significant impact of flexible work arrangements on work-life integration.