Work-life balance and health of women: A Qualitative Study of a Mining Company in Ghana
Master thesis
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/1956/8209Utgivelsesdato
2014-05-13Metadata
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Sammendrag
Background: Both work and non-work activities are crucial to living and hence there is a need for balance and integration of career and other demands of life (Sturges & Guest, 2004). In many African countries after the Beijing conference in 1995, employers are aiming to increase the number of female employees and integrate them in their businesses. This has opened new opportunities for many professional women but also the challenge of juggling the demands of a career and life outside work, which has health dimensions necessary to explore. Mining is among the demanding and task driven jobs worldwide with gradual increasing in the number of women (Jones, 2006). The study was framed within the context of Antonovsky's Salutogenic theory, exploring the stressors which were encountered and the resources which contributed to achieving health and wellbeing of women in mining in the course of balancing work and other demands and aspects of life. Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used as the main method of collecting data from 10 fulltime women employees in a Mining Company in Ghana. The data were analyzed using thematic network analysis by systematically coding and identifying patterns with the aid of a Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software called Open Code Software 4.02 which assisted in the organization of self-generated codes and retrieval of data. Results: All the women irrespective of marital status complained of work taking most part of their productive life. Many stressors such as perpetual breaks in relationships, eating at night, inadequate time with family, inability to honour invitations, over demanding tasks at work, bad road network to and from work and inadequate sleep were encountered. Resources however, were perceived to be few, and included salaries for their hard labour at the end of the month, onsite health promotion programs, understanding partners and the hiring of nannies. Such resources contributed to the thriving, health and wellbeing of women in mining. Conclusion: Companies and employers should consider certain stressors that abound in the workplace with the provision of resources that can mitigate much of the stress encountered by employed women. This would enhance the health of employees. Individual employed women can consider making good use of the available company facilities in order to reduce stress. The life situation confronting the women did not deter most of the participants from combining both demands of work and other aspects of life. Analysis against the Salutogenic theory supported that women's Sense of Coherence (Korn, 2000) seems to propel them towards positive health and wellbeing