Organizational Climate and Work Life Balance of Public-School Heads of the Province of Marinduque: Basis for Well Being Program for Public Education Leaders

Organizational Climate and Work Life Balance of Public-School Heads of the Province of Marinduque: Basis for Well Being Program for Public Education Leaders

Melanie dela Rosa Carpio*, Dorothea C. Dela Cruz

Centro Escolar University, Manila, Philippines

*Corresponding author

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.917PSY0009

Received: 02 February 2025; Accepted: 12 February 2025; Published: 13 March 2025

ABSTRACT

In recent years, organizational climate and work-life balance have been the subject of studies investigating their relationship and how they impact the workers and the organizations. Several researchers have cited that organization climate as perceived by employees, including norms, values and processes that direct the workers on how they do their jobs and make them adapt to their work environment. On the other hand, the meaning of work-life balance has evolved over the years and now includes work and non-work aspects of a worker’s life including leisure and socialization.

In education, the school leaders, specifically the school heads, have gargantuan responsibilities in running and managing schools.  They are prone to stress, burnout, fatigue and other mental health issues. Their degree of work-life balance may be affected or related to how they perform their duties as directed by the climate of the educational organization.

This study aims to investigate the organizational climate as perceived by the school heads of Marinduque province.

This study used the quantitative – descriptive method of research.

The standardized Organizational Climate Questionnaire and Work-Life Balance Scale were used to measure elements of organizational climate and the degree of work-life balance. The data gathered was analysed using statistical analysis such as frequency distribution in categorizing their demographic profile while t-test, Mean, Pearson Product Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression were used to interpret the results of the questionnaires.

Based on the results, there is a significant relationship between most of the dimensions of the organizational climates and work life balance except the aspect of Managing Self. Lastly, it was established in this study that organizational climate is a predictor of work life balance.

The results can useful in designing a wellbeing program that would be beneficial to public education leaders.

Keywords: Organizational Climate, Work Life Balance, Public School Heads, Wellbeing Program

INTRODUCTION

The role of the organizational climate in employee’s work performance, job attitude, work engagement and other aspects of a worker’s life has been the subject of research and studies in recent years, with some of them aimed at investigating how it can be improved for the benefit of the workers.

Organizational climate as defined by dela Cuesta and Abdurahim-Salain (2021), is a concept that includes institutional attributes and in reference to school organization, climate includes norms, values and expectations. They cited Lindahl’s conclusion that successful organizations understand the behaviour, needs and desires of the employees and that they work to create a positive environment where employees can thrive.

In educational settings, a growing interest in school climate and how it contributes to student’s academic performance has been the focus of several types of research. The same amount of interest has been the subject of studies on teachers’ performance and engagement as some researchers examined if school climate affects their level of performance.

The importance of a positive school climate not only contributes to the learning progress of the students and the work performance of the teachers but also has a relationship with the instructional leaders who are the school leaders and administrators of the school, Akram, et al. (2018).

In the study of Morales and Sapin (2020), they mentioned that one of the major problems that our country’s school leaders have to deal with is the management and the administration along with the new trend of the learning arena and composition of the teaching force. They elaborated that the changes in expectations by the education system have added to the demands of the role which the school heads have been facing on a daily basis. Their role has become more challenging and multifaceted. They also recommended that the government should consider the effects of work-related factors as a matter of duty of care and should be genuinely committed to looking after their well-being.

Citing Republic Act No. 9155, Lapuz and Pecajas (2022) mentioned that the school heads of public schools in the country have the authority, responsibility and accountability in managing all affairs of the school. The school heads are accountable for the pupils’ learning outcomes, teachers’ personal and professional development, establishing a conducive learning environment and maintaining networking and linkages of both internal and external stakeholders, and so as the overall performance of the school. Such is the importance of their role that the success and failure of the school depends on them.

With this great responsibility, it is noteworthy to study the factors that may contribute to fulfilling their roles in the workplace by examining the organizational climate as it may have an effect on their work-life balance and to investigate how they manage their lives outside their work as having a healthy balance between work and personal responsibilities as well as social lives could be the determinants of maintaining their overall wellbeing.

Work-life balance is defined as the ability to effectively manage multiple responsibilities at work, home and in the community, Joseph (2018).  It is being able to do one’s duties and responsibilities at work, in the office, in a hospital, bank or any work setting and still able to perform their role as a mother, wife, husband, father and any other role in life as well as being an active member of the community.

In one of the studies conducted by Akpa et al. (2019), work-life balance is seen as one of the major factors that can affect worker’s performance and job satisfaction as they concluded that “employees are vital assets to organizations and it is necessary for employers to help balance work and life of their employees because lack of balance can affect employee performance, satisfaction, health and organizational loyalty.”

Not only do employees benefit from having a balance between their work and personal lives but the organizations or companies as well. In fact, organizations are also concerned with solving work-life balance conflict and as such it is now taken as part of organizational development.

In the study of Irfan et al. (2021), they stated that if an organization is supportive of providing work-life balance to employees, the workers presumably strive to create harmony and unity in working behaviours by utilizing their knowledge and skills.

Such is the importance of providing an organizational culture that supports work-life balance that creates a harmonious workplace for workers and thereby results in success for the organization.

With the important role of the school heads in a school’s overall success it is of utmost importance to investigate how the school climate may influence the school leaders’ functions at work which could affect their work-life balance and ultimately their wellbeing. Due to the rising cases of mental health issues among teachers and school heads, several studies have been conducted on the wellbeing of educators. Josep et al. (2020) in their research findings on public school heads in Asturias, Cebu, stated some academic leaders are unable to cope with the pressure of their jobs and display symptoms of stress including sleeping difficulties, loss of appetite, poor concentration, emotional outbursts and anger, high blood pressure, depression and restlessness.  This statement was substantiated by Marsh et al. (2022) when they mentioned that the school heads’ work overload, administrative demands and working conditions increase burnout and mental illness.

As such, there is a need for wellbeing programs specifically for school heads. Senate Bill No.2258, or “The Teacher Mental Health and Wellness Act of 2023” is being pushed for approval with the aim of establishing and promoting programs and services for the welfare and well-being of teachers and this research will be in support of this.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Several local and foreign studies conclude that an organizational climate of reward, motivation, inclusive decision making and group spirit or team commitment (Obeng, A. F., Zhu, Y., Azinga, S. A., & Quansah, P. E., 2021) is the key to attaining good performance and achieving work results (Platania et al. 2022) as well as being significant in determining organizational commitment from employees (Berberoglu, 2018). The effect of organizational climate on worker performance was also mentioned by Pradoto et.al and Rozaman and Strukeli (2020) citing that positive organizational climate has a significant effect on employee performance, brings positive environment (Rizqui and Qamari 2022) and improve the quality of life (Trisnayante and Agoes (2019) although its importance has not been given much attention and not much research has been conducted specifically on its relation with workers’ work life balance.

Having work-life balance encompasses all aspects of a person’s life (Guha and Srividhya, 2018) and having balance between work and personal life means that the worker has the ability to effectively manage and integrate all his responsibilities at home, work, family and community as well as his leisure time (Harim et al. (2021).  It is not only beneficial to the individual but to his company or organization as well as it affects his performance at work (Bustamam 2020) and that it is essential in developing a high level of commitment to the company (Sanchez et al, 2020) as well necessary in balancing work and life as lack of balance can affect employee performance, satisfaction, health and organizational loyalty as proposed by Akpa, et, al. (2019) and corroborated by Dwivedi and Khan (2019) and Irfan, et al. (2021.

In a school setting, Abun et al. (2023) concluded that organizational climate significantly affects work performance and that if it is unfavourable, it could hinder the productive performance of the organization.  The current educational system in the country with heavy workloads, job changes, and government mandates, among others, creates challenges for education leaders and causes high levels of stress (Club 2023) and these problems of Philippine educational leaders are due to the challenges arising from the complex nature of their job, managing people, educational policy, insufficient resources as well as lack of parental and community resources (Tintore, et. al (2020). As such, school leaders, should have a balance between their work and personal lives as it impacts psychological well-being (Rahim et al. ,2019) and that there should be a nurturing school climate and work-life balance to support school leadership against burnout, (Kim, 2022), mental illness (Marsh et.al, 2022) and minimize the ill effects of job pressure such as symptoms and stress which include sleeping difficulties, loss of appetite, poor concentration, emotional imbalance and physical illnesses such as high blood pressure which affect  the wellbeing of educators and school heads, (Josep et al., 2020).

Backed up by these previous studies, the relationship between organizational climate and work life balance can be established and that organizational climate may be a predictor of work life balance. This being so, there are not many local studies and research conducted on the organizational climate and work-life balance of public-school leaders in the country and that there is very limited research on the organizational climate and work-life balance of public-school heads aiming to establish a well-being. This research will be an essential and significant addition to ignite interest in the study of the organizational climate and work life balance specifically to the public educational setting in the country and to the body of knowledge aiming towards awareness on the importance of work-life balance and wellbeing of public educational leaders.

RESEARCH METHODS

This research used the quantitative descriptive method of research to determine the organizational climate and work life balance of the public-school heads of the Province of Marinduque. It is designed to gather information by collecting and analysing numerical data to describe characteristics and correlations.

Study Area

The study was conducted in the province of Marinduque.

Marinduque province is an island province located In the Southwestern Tagalog Region or MIMAROPA. It is located between Oriental Mindoro and Quezon Province. It was formerly designated as part of Region IV-B along the provinces of Mindoro, Romblon and Palawan currently named as MIMAROPA Region. It is called the “Heart of the Philippines” due to its shape resembling a human heart and due to its location in the archipelago as it sits where the heart sits in a human body.

Marinduque has six (6) municipalities namely Boac, Gasan, Buenavista, Torrijos, Sta. Cruz and Mogpog.

Data Collection

 Before the administration of the Organizational Climate and Work-Life Balance questionnaires, the researcher requested permission to conduct the study from the Office of the School Superintendent of Public Schools of the Department of Education in the Division of Marinduque.

The consent to conduct this study was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Review Committee (IERB) of the Centro Escolar University prior to the actual, onsite administration of the questionnaires.

In gathering the data on organizational climate, the validated Organizational Climate Questionnaire modified by Nicolas, et al. (2023) was used.  This questionnaire measured the climate of the organization on the elements of clarity, standards, responsibility, flexibility, reward and recognition and team commitment. Clarity described how the respondents understood the vision and mission as well as the direction of the organization. Standards climate describes how the respondents view the standards and objectives of the organization. Responsibility climate is the element of the organization which refers to the delegation of authority and autonomy. Flexibility climate reflected the organization’s system of encouraging creativity, independent thinking and openness to new ideas. Questions on reward and recognition climate queried the organization’s method of motivating the employees to improve their performance and team commitment climate was the indicator of how the respondents viewed their belongingness to the team and their contribution to the organization’s performance. Each question on the different elements of climate was answered by crossing 5 for Strongly Agree, 4 for Agree, 3 for Somewhat Agree, 2 for Disagree and 1 for Strongly Disagree. The participants were able to complete the questionnaire in fifteen (15) to twenty (20) minutes.

In determining the degree of work-life balance of the respondents, the standardized Work Life Balance Scale developed by Sianguita DAD & Laguador, JM (2017) was used.

The Work-Life Balance Scale has four (4) factors: Managing Self, Managing Time, Managing Stress and Managing Leisure. Each factor has ten (10) questions which were answered by circling the numbers 4,  3, 2 or 1, whichever is true to their views and experiences on given questions. The descriptive equivalent of 4 is Always, 3 is Sometimes, 2 for Seldom and 1 for Never. The participants were able to complete the questionnaire in fifteen (15) to twenty (20) minutes.

This instrument aimed to determine the degree of work-life balance of employees in terms of managing self, managing time, managing stress and managing leisure. The scores for each factor were then analysed using statistical treatment to determine the degree of their work-life balance.

Sample Size and Sampling Technique

This study used total population sampling which is a type of purposive sampling.

Total population sampling is a type of purposive sampling where a researcher chooses to examine the entire population and, in this study, the sixty-nine (69) elementary school heads and twenty-two (22) school heads of public schools of the province of Marinduque were the proposed respondents.

Method of Data Analysis

The data of this study were processed using SPSS using the following statistical treatment after which the results were then interpreted through presentation of tables and narrative descriptions.

The following statistical method was used; Frequency and percentage distribution, used in analysing the demographic profile, Arithmetic Mean to gather and assess the organizational climate elements of clarity, standards, individual responsibility, flexibility, reward and recognition and team commitment as perceived by the respondents and in determining the degree of work-life balance on the aspects of Managing Self, Managing Time, Managing Stress and Managing Leisure, T-test was used to determine if there is a significant difference in the aspects of organizational climate as perceived by the respondents when grouped according to demographic profile and to determine if there is a significant difference between the work-life balance of the respondents when grouped according to demographic profile, Pearson Product Moment Correlation to determine if there is a relationship between the organizational climate and work-life balance of the respondents and to determine the probability of organizational climate as predictor of work life balance, Multiple Linear Regression was used.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This study aimed to identify the relationship of organizational climate and work-life balance of the principals of the public elementary and high schools in the Province of Marinduque on the aspects of managing self, time, stress and leisure as the basis in developing a wellbeing program for public school leaders. There are sixty-nine (69) school heads in public elementary schools and twenty -two (22) school heads in public high schools in the province for school year 2023-2024. Eighty-four (84) participated in the research and responded to the questionnaires.

Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Sixty-one (61) of the school heads are in the Gen X generation with age ranges from 44 to 59, sixteen (16) are Baby Boomers who are 60-69 years old and only six (6) are millennials. One respondent did not reveal his/her age.  Forty-six (46) of them are female and thirty-eight (38) of them are male. Although it is now common to have other sexual orientation than a male or female with some people identifying themselves as members of LGBTQIA+ or non-binary, thirty-eight (38) of them identified themselves as male and forty-six (46) as female. Sixty-nine (69) of them are married with some of them being widowed, separated, or in de facto relationships but they are still categorized as married and fifteen (15) of them are single. With regards to their length of service, the highest number of them, (25, 29.76%) have been in their position as public-school head for twenty-one (21) years and above, nineteen (19) have been serving for  five (5) years and below, twelve (12) have been serving for 11-15 years with same number (12) have been serving for sixteen to twenty (16-20) years and fifteen (15) have been serving for 6-10 years. One respondent has not answered.

Organizational Climate of the Institution in Terms of Clarity, Standards, Responsibility, Flexibility, Reward and Recognition Term Commitment

Table 1 shows the overall response of the respondents in all the elements of the organizational climate as presented by the statements enumerated on the Organizational Climate questionnaire, is Strongly Agree. The high mean scores in all the elements elicited from the responses of the respondents established their perception and strong agreement that the Department of Education has high degree of climate of Clarity, Standards, Responsibility, Flexibility, Rewards and Recognition and Team Commitment. This is a good indication that the Department of Education

particularly in the Division of Marinduque has a positive organizational climate which equates to a more motivated workforce which ultimately results in an effective and productive workplace.

The presence of a positive school climate promotes a healthy working environment and this is often cultivated by the school head as reported by Veletic et al. (2023). They further stated that by establishing and maintaining a positive school climate and healthy working environment, the school leaders develop teacher and student outcomes hence representing effective leadership. This is substantiated in the study of Prastiawan et al. (2020), who stated that school achievement is influenced by the type of leadership and strong school climate and that a positive school climate increases effective teaching and student learning performance, Ozgenel (2020).

Table 1. Summary of the Organizational Climate of the Respondents

Degree of Work-Life Balance in the Aspects of Managing Self, Managing Time, Managing Stress and Managing Leisure

Table 2 shows the overall score for the aspect of Managing Self is 3.18 Mean score with interpretation to the statements under this aspect as being experienced or perceived is  “Sometimes.” For the aspect of Managing Time, the overall response elicited from the statements on how the respondents manage their time is “Sometimes” with a Mean score of 3.24. The respondents also presented an overall mean score of 3.48 with verbal interpretation of “Sometimes” to the statements that describe situations and practices on managing stress that they can relate to or have experienced doing. Similarly, the overall response to statements that refer to managing leisure is also “Sometimes’’ with mean score of 3.20. As presented by the overall scores of all the responses on the different aspects of work-life balance of the respondents, it can be interpreted that they are occasionally capable of managing both their personal life and work but not all the time.

As mentioned in the study of Su-Keene and DeMatthews (2022) on managing stress, there are factors such as time constraints and inconsistent schedules that make some self-care strategies hard to practice. Hence, there are situations when they cannot manage their personal life and work.

Time management poses a challenging aspect of the role considering the demands of the job. This has been substantiated in the study of Skaalvik (2020) who stated that due to the expanded role of school heads in the last decades, they experience overwhelming high work pressure which results in emotional exhaustion that is closely associated with time pressure as cited from the study of Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2017). In their findings, they mentioned that the school heads identified job demands of frequent and unnecessary meetings which take their time and further increase the experience of time pressure. Job demands and expectations also put so much pressure on them as they are expected to be always available to solve problems as concluded in the study of Aravena and Gonzalez (2021). Their findings suggested that the school heads consider their work to be challenging and demanding which made them feel stressed identifying the stressors as work-related, relationship and time-related factors.

It is also evident in the overall response of the participants that they don’t have the opportunity to frequently engage in leisure activities, rest and recreation. They do sometimes manage to spend time and socialize but not on a regular basis. In the results of the study conducted by Elomaa, et.al (2023), they also identified school heads’ workload as one of the work-related stressors having “countless number of roles” to fulfill. Along with identifying stressors, the researchers also presented the coping strategies of the respondents and one of them is through socializing as more than half of them mentioned social coping such as spending time with family and friends, leisure time with family and friends help them to cope with the stress of work. They concluded that more attention should be given to the social aspects of the school head’s occupational well-being which will consequently improve not only their own physical and emotional well-being but also teachers’ and students’ wellbeing as well as the overall functioning of the school.

Table 2. Summary Results on Work-Life Balance of the Respondents

Difference in the Responses on the Six Dimensions of Organizational Climate When Grouped According to Profile

When grouped according to age generation, there is no significant difference in how the respondents perceive the different elements of the organizational climate. Whether they belong to the generation of Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers, their age doesn’t influence how they view the organizational climate of the Department. They all “Strongly Agree” with all the elements of the climate.

When grouped according to gender, there is no significant difference in the elements of Clarity Climate, Standard, Rewards and Recognition as well as Team Commitment for both male and female participants. However, there is a significant difference in the Responsibility Climate and Flexibility Climate between the male and female. Male respondents have higher scores in Responsibility Climate than female respondents.

When grouped according to gender, the result of the responses on the comparison of Flexibility Climate reflected a significant difference between male and female respondents with the male respondents scoring highest on this climate while the female respondents a much lower score compared to their male counterparts. There is also a significant difference in the Responsibility climate with male respondents giving higher ratings than the female respondents. It implies that the male respondents have a higher perception and stronger belief that the Department of Education, Division of Marinduque gives them the freedom to exercise their authority and initiatives in managing their school assignments allowing them to take calculated risks to successfully lead their team. They believe that they can practice autonomy and the department allows them to practice their management skills with less interference from their immediate superiors who are the District Supervisors. This concur with the previous studies that male principals view their schools as being more positive and inviting than female principals do (Hayes 2013, as cited by Jaarsveld and Mentz 2021), successful leadership image are close to the ‘’male image” (Dwiri and Okatan 2021) and that men were found to have higher career aspirations than women hence they value autonomy and freedom to exercise their authority so they can maximize and exhibit their full potential as leaders for recognition or promotion (Hartman and Barber, 2020).

 When grouped according to civil status, there is a significant difference between the responses of single and married respondents on the Rewards and Recognition Climate and Team Commitment. In the Rewards and Recognition, the married respondents have higher scores than the single respondents. Similarly, the married respondents also posted higher ratings on the Team Commitment climate than the single respondents.

When grouped according to their length of service, there is no significant difference. All the respondents belonging to the different brackets of years of service have the same degree of perception of the different dimensions of the organizational climate.

Difference in the Degree of Work-Life Balance When Grouped According to their Profile

There is no significant difference in the work-life balance of the respondents when they are grouped according to age, gender, marital status and length of service. Work-life balance does not differ significantly by gender, age, years of service, civil status, children, and income level and that it implies that the different age group levels might have different ways of maintaining their work-life balance, but all of them experience work-life conflict (Borreba and Potane 2024).

Relationship Between Organizational Climate and Work Life Balance

Table 3 shows that there is a significant relationship between all the elements of organizational climate as presented in this research which are Clarity Climate, Standards Climate, Responsibility Climate, Flexibility Climate, Rewards and Recognition Climate and Team Commitment and work-life balance in general and when taken singly, in the aspect of Managing Stress as statistical data has shown that when correlated with all the dimensions of climate, the p-value is less than .05 level of significance.

Table 3. Relationship Between Organizational Climate and Work-Life Balance

On the other hand, the work-life balance of the respondents on the aspect of time management has a significant relationship with Standards and Rewards and Recognition Climate. Meanwhile, the aspect of Managing Leisure has been found to be significantly related to Clarity, Standards, Flexibility, and Rewards and Recognition climates.

Interestingly, as shown in the results of this study, the organizational climate in all its elements has no significant relationship with the aspect of work-life balance in Managing Self. As this aspect elicited an overall rating of 3.18 (Mean Score) with a verbal description of “Sometimes”, it implies that organizational climate has negligible effect on the respondents’ practices of self-management. This result is corroborated by the findings of Wheeler et al. (2019) who propounded that employees practice self-management which includes the concept of goal setting on a moment-to-moment basis and approaching work with better understanding of their abilities.

Figure 1 summarizes the results of the quantitative data on the significant relationship between the organizational climate of the respondents on the dimensions of Clarity, Standards, Responsibility, Flexibility, Rewards and Recognition and Team Commitment with the work-life balance on the aspects of Managing Time, Managing Stress and Managing Leisure.

Figure 1. Concept Map Summarizing the Results of Quantitative Data

Organizational Climate as Predictor of Work Life Balance

The organizational climate predicts the work life balance of the respondents on the aspects of self-management, time management, stress management and leisure management. These aspects of their work life balance are determined by the organizational climate.

Table 4 shows that the overall organizational climate is a significant predictor of the work life balance of the respondents as noted from the p-value of 0.001 which is less than the 0.05 level of significance. Furthermore, the organizational climate can predict the work life balance by 13.30% as obtained by the R square. The equation suggests that the work life balance would be affected by .590 for every point increased/decreased in the organizational climate. To predict the value of work life balance, the formulated equation is y = .590x + .410 where x is the value of the organizational climate.

Table 4. Organizational Climate as Predictor of Work Life Balance

This means that the degree of work life balance of the respondents on the aspects of managing self, managing time, stress management and managing leisure is determined by the overall organizational climate of the institution.

There is very limited literature and studies which investigated and deduced the organizational climate as predictor of work life balance hence the result of this research has addressed this gap in research and contributes to the available knowledge on the role of organizational climate to workers.

However, this finding is substantiated by the result of the study of Pradoto, et.al (2022)   who concluded that organizational climate is a predictor of work stress and that a conducive organizational climate will reduce the level of work stress. They also cited the results of the study of Hemingway and Smith (1999) who generalized that organizational climate is one of the causes of stress at work.

Notably, organizational climate has been found to be a predictor of well-being of employees. In the study of Janiukstis, et.al (2024), their findings revealed that there is a moderately strong positive correlation between the organizational climate and the well-being of the employees. Referring to the wellbeing constructs of several researchers such as Osmani, et.al, Rimabayana et.al and Xu, et.al (2022), they generalized that when the degree of organizational climate changes, the state of employee wellbeing also changes.

The organizational climate’s effect on work life balance was also mentioned in the study of Hariri et.al (2024), who elaborated that a supportive organizational climate and supervisors can amplify the effects on work life balance and employee satisfaction, emphasizing the need for organizations to train supervisors on how to provide necessary support to employees. Citing Rahim, et.al (2019), they proposed that a positive organizational climate enhances the beneficial effects of work life balance on an individual’s wellbeing.

Likewise, in the study of Abadi and Antonio (2024), the effect of organizational climate on work life balance was established with organizational climate factors such as standards, rewards and commitment among other factors. Furthermore, the authors concluded that implementing work life balance practices can contribute significantly to employee retention by attracting and retaining good employees who possess valuable skills and competencies thereby increasing the overall effectiveness and productivity of the organization. The importance of positive organizational climate has been emphasized in this research.

As organizational climate has been established as the predictor of work life balance in this study, similarly, its direct impact and relationship to work life balance has also been reported in the recent local study of Miranda (2024) which results became the basis on planning a strategic action plan towards improving the organizational climate and work life balance of the respondents.

Specific Wellbeing Program Developed Based on the Results

The specific wellbeing program developed based on the results of this study is focused on improving the different aspects of work life balance of the respondents as the overall result on the degree of their work life balance indicated that management of self, time, stress and leisure is “Sometimes”, hence needs improvement. This proposed program aims to improve the wellbeing of the public-school heads in areas of physical, mental, social, spiritual and intellectual aspects with strategies and activities to promote improved work life balance which will then result to sound overall wellbeing.

CONCLUSION

In the light of the foregoing findings, the following conclusions were drawn:

1. The respondents are mostly middle-aged and belong to the Gen X generation, with almost equal number of single and married individuals with the greatest number of them (25, 29.76%) having been in their position as public-school head for twenty-one (21) years and above. These demographics show that several of them are in the peak of their career as leaders juggling work and family as well as individual aspirations.
2. The high organizational climate score reflects the strong confidence of the school heads in the management system, vision and mission as well as how they are being implemented in the Division of Marinduque.
3. Based on the result on the degree of work-life balance which is average or fair it is indicative that they can balance their work and life outside work in a moderate manner therefore needs improvement. The researcher concurs with the result of the studies knowing the dedication and commitment of public educators and school leaders could make them sacrifice some personal and family time to meet their numerous duties and responsibilities. This could pose some challenges especially with the young married school heads who will need to properly manage their time between their work and their family.
4. The perception of the respondents on their organization’s climate and how they experience and view the different aspects of their work-life balance are similar regardless of their age, gender, marital status and years in service. This researcher agrees with the result that whatever is the age, young or old, married or not and regardless of gender and length of service, the responsibilities of being a school head could affect work life balance. However, the lower score of single and female respondents on the Rewards and Recognition climate, Flexibility Climate and Team Commitment from the male and married counterparts indicates the need for enhanced gender equality seminars.
5. The shared perceptions of their organizational policies and procedures as well as their work environment taken contextually as organizational climate affect the respondents’ work-life balance on the specific aspect of how they manage stress.
6. The work life balance of the respondents on the aspects of managing self, time management, self-management and leisure managements is determined by the climate of the organization and it is the predictor of the work life balance.
7. The researcher is in agreement with this result and recognizes that due to the strong commitment to their profession and position, the school heads’ work life balance is determined by the climate of the organization.
8. The wellbeing program focused on improving the different aspects of work life balance could positively promote better self-care practices and activities which will be regularly monitored and evaluated by the responsible team of the Department of Education, Division of Marinduque.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the findings and conclusions drawn from the study, the following recommendations were made:

1. The organization needs to examine the workloads of the respondents as one of the possible causes of stress and design some systems and methods to manage them which can be beneficial to their work-life balance.
2. There is a need for the Department through the Regional, School Division Superintendent as well as District Supervisors to implement and seek solutions on how the government policies and procedures as well as standards can be enhanced to improve the work-life balance of the public-school school heads recognizing the importance of their role for the advancement of the public education of the country.
3. Implementation of the proposed wellbeing program focused on mental health strategies for all ages and gender and will incorporate activities such as capacity building and stress management which are necessary to improve the manner the respondents manage stress both in their work life and personal lives.
4. It is recommended that needs assessment be done prior to implementation of the well-being program through the cooperation of the Human Resources Division as well as the School Governance and Operations Division who will be the implementors to determine who would benefit most from the program.
5. Regular monitoring and evaluation on the implementation and results of the program is recommended to assess its effectiveness and for improvement purposes.
6. It is also recommended that more studies focusing on work-life balance of public education leaders from other regions or different educational settings using qualitative method and interview to provide richer context-based insights into how organizational climate specifically impacts work life balance be conducted.
7. A longitudinal study is further recommended to help track changes over time in the relationship between organizational climate and work life balance providing a more dynamic understanding of the issue.

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