Work-life balance among medical doctors in Nigeria: a gender perspective

Abstract

This exploratory study examined the perceptions and realities of work life balance among medical doctors in Nigerian Public Hospitals. The study aimed to investigate the coping strategies adopted by medical doctors to manage work life balance and finally to examine the gender differences in the lived experiences of male and female medical doctors in Nigeria. The literature revealed that conceptualising work life balance models or employee flexibility in an African work setting is problematic when juxtaposed with primordial African cultural values where work and life are an indissoluble existential unit. The transition from an agrarian economy to new capitalist workplaces in many African countries is still relatively new. This study fills the gap by unveiling the implications this narrative has for understanding contemporary WLB. Forty-one semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted for this study. It involved male and female doctors from public hospitals across three geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The sample of doctors interviewed were specifically resident doctors with a wide range of specialties. Thematic method of data analysis was adopted to provide major themes which were used to discuss the findings of the research investigations. The findings reveal that work in the Nigerian medical sector is notoriously intense as it underscores challenges of long working hours, intense work demand and staff shortage. The findings further suggest women must tread a ‘delicate balance’ between subordination to male authority, domestic responsibilities and ambition/achievement in a professional career. This study makes two key contributions to knowledge. Firstly, the study contributes to existing literature on work-life balance in the Nigerian context, elaborating the situation with work-life balance initiatives and how medical doctors in Nigeria manage to cope with the shortcomings of the organisations. Secondly, the findings fostered a useful extension of the work-family border theory. The border theory explains how individuals navigate between life domains and boundary management. However, the theory has provided little information on the factors that affect how employees manage and negotiate between the domains. This led to the development of the work spiritual life balance model.