12/1/2020 Impact of Long Working Hours on Job Satisfaction of Employees Working in Services Sector of Karachi.

Impact of Long Working Hours on Job Satisfaction of

Employees Working in Services Sector of Karachi.
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Geographic Code: 9PAKI
Date: Jun 30, 2014
Words: 6524
Publication: Journal of Business Strategies (Karachi)
ISSN: 1993-5765

Byline: Hina Mubeen and Muhammed Zaki Rashidi

Employees are often found complaining about prolonged working hours and relating it to the fact that it
abnormally cannibalizes their personal life. Working hours are less often taken as a prime substantive
concern in Pakistan. The aim of this research is to assess the working hours of employees and to
validate the reasons of long working hours identified by Kodz et al (2003) and to gauge its impact on job
satisfaction of employees working in service sector of Karachi. The respondents are permanent full-time
managerial and professional employees working in private services sector organizations. The study
specifically focuses three service sub-sectors banking IT and media are focused. Two organizations
from each sub-sector were selected. The respondents are engaged in non-manual jobs namely
professional services. Both males and females were included in the study. Data is collected through
personally administered five- point Likert questionnaires. It consists of 32 items adapted from previous
research done by International Labour Organization on Decent Working Time (2006) and J. Kodz et al.
(2003) on working time. The study proposes that employees associated with working in banking IT and
media firms of Karachi are experiencing long working hours where they end up working more than 48
hours a week. Job Strain is the most significant factor influencing long working hours. Organizational
culture and job insecurity also play an important role in promoting long-hours culture. Long working
hours Job strain Job insecurity Organizational culture Personal choice and Rewards and Recognition
adversely affects Job Satisfaction of employees.

Keywords: Long working hours managerial employees services sector job satisfaction.

Introduction

In the 21st century employers have been able to realize that employees are the most important assets
for any organization. The employment relationship is regulated through an agreement between the
employer and the employee. According to this agreement employees are bound to fulfill certain
responsibilities for a specified time. Hence working time is one of the most important elements of the
employment relationship (Rubery Ward and Grimshaw 2006). Working hours can be fixed or may be
unspecified. At times the working hours are not specified by the employer nor are they agreed upon by
the employee (Rubery et al. 2006). The concept of long work hours in organizations have been
introduced quite long time back and one the example of this Robert Owen (Golden 2009) who was the
first one to argue for required working hours. Most researchers started analyzing the working hours
trends with the start of the industrial revolution especially in European and North American countries.

According to the International standards with few variations across different countries Generally
standard working hours are up to eight hours per day and up to 40 hours per week. Standard working
hours plus overtime must not exceed certain thresholds - namely 10 hours per day and 50 hours per
week respectively". Under some circumstances standard daily working hours may be extended up to 9
or 10 hours. For example this can be done to create longer breaks (like statutory holidays or weekends)
or mutually agreed reduced working week. There has been a growing concern worldwide to assess the
compliance with the core standards delineated for working time (Widner 2010). Excessive working
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hours is one of the major occupational stressors for employees (Spector et al. 2004; Trimpop Kirkcaldy
Athanasou and Cooper 2000). Unlike men female employees who work more than 55 hours per week
have an increased risk of depression and anxiety as compared to those employees who work 35 40
hours (Trimpop et al. 2000)

Long working hours are most common among managers professionals and operative and assembly
workers. Both men and women on managerial grades work over 60 hours a week and in most cases
they are not being compensated in any form. People between 30 to 49 years of age are most likely to
work long hours. The trend of long working hours is more evident in private sector than public sector
(Kodz et al. 2003). Extended working hours for both genders are usually found to be coupled with high
educational attainment white-collar jobs self- employment shift work and multiple job holding (Shields
1999). (Shields 1999)

According to Kodz et al. (2003) the biggest charm for manual workers is that they are paid overtime. So
they prefer to work longer hours for increased earnings. While for the managerial and professional
workers the overtime" is not paid usually. They work longer hours to get better evaluations and improve
their promotion chances and job security. Hence they aim to increase their earnings in the future.
Another core reason for long hours is the workload / job requirement / volume of work. Recent research
suggests that reduced working hours might increase employee productivity along with employment
(Kodz et al. 2003).The ever increasing workload during these days can be attributed to radical changes
within organizations like: decentralization flat hierarchy shortage of workers cost cutting increased focus
on customer needs meeting culture excessive commuting for work related tasks advancement in
technology and email overload (Kodz et al. 2003) and other types of communication overload. Kodz et
al. (2003) argued that long working hours can lead to decline in productivity lower employee motivation
and morale impaired work performance and efficiency potential increase in error rates and health
problems. It is also detrimental to social behavior like abrupt mood swings impatience intolerance
incomplete statements speaking slowly more repetitive mispronunciations relationship with colleagues
etc.

The previous researches clearly indicate that due to adverse effect of long working hours the frequency
of health and safety incidences increase (Kodz et al. 2003). This risk for occupational injuries
substantially increases due to hectic work schedules that involve long hours or overtime. Tight work
schedules with less rest breaks causes fatigue or dysfunctional stress(Dembe Erickson Delbos and
Banks 2005). Kodz et al. (2003) argued that long working hours trend negatively affects motivation
while it positively affects absences and employee turnover. Numerous researches have revealed a
positive correlation between long working hours and employee turnover. Extended working hours are
reported to increase number of sickness absences too. (Ala-Mursula et al. 2006)

Long working hours negatively affects both physiological and psychological health. It often causes
fatigue and stress which plays an important role in stimulating cardiovascular diseases and mental
health disorders working hours (Spurgeon Harrington and Cooper 1997). Duration of overtime is a
negative risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in male employees (Nakanishi
et al. 2001). Increased working hours may act as a risk factor for hypertension. The root cause of
hypertension is stress particularly work related stress. Inadequate time for sleep might be associated
with disruption of physiological processes (Yang Schnall Jauregui Su and Baker 2006). Extended
working hours result in unhealthy lifestyle such as retarded physical activity sleep disorders eating
disorder smoking drinking and fewer chances for medical examinations (Shields 1999). Besides being
definite cause of hypertension long working hours also increases body mass index (Wada et al. 2006).
Women are more prone to undergo health related problems than men if they work long hours (Kodz et
al. 2003). These adverse effects surface with working hours exceeding 50 hours per week (Spurgeon et
al. 1997). Shield (1999) highlighted that long working hours is a pressing issue for Japanese workers
and employers. An increasing number of workers are dying in their most productive years from various
cardiovascular causes. Japanese have named such deaths as Karoshi meaning death from overwork".

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Working hours are a significant factor in managing work-life balance. Excessive working hours can
create an imbalance which negatively affects personal and social life of an individual (Bielby 1992).
Overall job satisfaction of women as compared to men usually decreases with the increase in working
hours. Therefore women are more likely to have an urge to reduce their working hours. Working for
long hours may increase job satisfaction as far as the promotion panorama is concerned. This is
especially true for women (Kodz et al. 2003). Although the recent national survey of labor force
indicates a slight decline in the number of employees working 50 hours and above but the decline is not
satisfactory according to the ILO standards (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2014).

Job satisfaction is studied in many researches in Pakistan but working hours is less often a prime
substantive concern. The aim of this research is to assess the working hours of employees and to
validate the reasons of long working hours identified by Kodz et al (2003) and to gauge its impact on job
satisfaction of employees working in service sector of Karachi.

Literature Review

Reasons given for long hours working

Organizations vary widely in cultures due to diversity in their norms values and practices (Schein 1985).
According to Kodz et al. (2003) the literature and the evidences form various case studies indicate that
workload is a major reason for working long hours and this is attributable to ever increasing workload
due to the initiatives of restructuring of organizations. Flattening organizational structure leads to
multitasking greater customer focus shortage of workforce meeting culture greater commuting
requirements IT/email overload etc. The author also asserts that the attitude and expectations of
managers and/or workgroup are also sometimes significant in promoting a long hours culture. In such
culture presence at workplace is considered as a precursor of commitment. Unlike manual workers this
cultural pressure is more rampant amongst non- manual workers where the attitude of coworkers
pushes them for unpaid overtime (Kodz et al. 2003). Job insecurity career advancement personal
preference career commitments are some other reasons given for working long hours. Usually
employees have multiple reasons to do so which cannot be unscrambled easily particularly in an
organization having a long hours culture (BoulinLallement and Michon 2006). Another motive cited for
working long hours was personal satisfaction. Also employees prefer to work longer hours to bring
quality in their work promotions pride and at times out of personal choice. Particularly at higher
positions some employees find their work so interesting that it becomes fun for them. So they are least
bothered about increased working hours (Kodz et al. 2003).

Happy OverworkingBosch (2006) argues that usually employees do not prefer working long hours.
Regardless of potential negative effects on health there are people who work long hours without
expressing any offense. This phenomenon is known as happy overworking". It is more common for
employees working in countries having long hours culture like the United States Australia and the
United Kingdom as compared to many other European countries.

Happy overworking" is sometimes used as a caution against policy intervention to discourage long
hours. Unreasonably long working hours have been expansively debated in Australia. It was observed
that working long hours (more than 48 hours per week) is positively related to job quality. Therefore
considering that employees themselves prefer to work long hours. Subsequent research indicates that
employees often are willing to work longer hours as a rule of the game" and actively participate in the
rat race" because they know that the working hours are used to gauge their performance and even
promotions are based on this criterion. Employees who work shorter hours are penalized in one way or
the other (Bosch 2006).

Gauging Long HoursIt is difficult to know as to what extent employees take on long working hours
around the world. This can be attributed to the reason that it is a matter of perception as to how many
hours are considered long enough to root problems. Therefore working long hours is a relative concept
(Lee and McCann 2006).
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There are three possible way to evaluate long hours. Since statutory working hours are assumed to be
the socially acceptable echelon of working hours hours exceeding this standard can be considered as
long working hours. Another way is to consider the number of working hours as long; which exceed the
normal working hours and when negative consequences on employees start surfacing. The third
approach to examine long hours is to measure it according to the perception of employees. Hours
beyond employees preferred working hours can be recognized as long hours (Lee McCann and
Messenger 2007).

Long Hours and Managerial Positions

By working faithfully for eight hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a
day." Robert Frost (Natti et al 2006 p.291). Working hours may vary across different professions and
professional status. Often a manager's job responsibilities are not clearly defined with numerous
ambiguities. The activities are usually disjointed taking place at remorseless pace. Time pressure like
having short deadlines unannounced meetings invariable interruptions and dealing with numerous
issues simultaneously is inherent to a manager's job. A comparative research of five countries indicated
that many managers do not prefer to work long hours to carry out their responsibilities. The same study
revealed that full-time employees typically work 40 hours a week while managers work 5 additional
hours which accumulates their average weekly working hours to 45. Managerial working hours also
vary slightly according to the gender. Female managers work lesser number of hours as compared to
their male counter parts. Unmarried male managers possessing achievement motivation and with less
interest in hobbies are likely to work long hours. Married male managers with children are likely to work
long hours. The same is true for single female managers and without children (NAtti Anttila and
VAisAnen 2006).

Long working hours and soaring demands come as a part and parcel of managerial work. Managers
can have multiple reasons behind stretching their working hours. There could be individual factors like
attitude personality family status and demographic factors. Besides individual factors there can be
organizational and economic reasons as well. Good career prospects can also be secured through
working long hours. Hence managers who are highly committed to their work do so to achieve the most
sought after reward like a high-status job (NAtti et al. 2006).

The statutory provisions regarding working hours and overtime are not applicable to certain hierarchical
levels e.g. managerial personnel with material management functions are exempted from working time
provisions. An employer is not violating any such provision by expecting and making managerial
employees work beyond normal working hours. Employers would have been heavily fined for violating
the working hours provision if this manager ' exception is not there. Therefore it is obligatory to
specifically define the post of a manager in terms of job grade. First-line and second-line managers
(even third-line managers in some cases) are considered as managers'. Other features of a manager'
are the authority to direct subordinates discretion over personal working hours (can even work lesser
number of hours if they like) and above average compensation (Widner 2010).

Culture': influence of managers and colleaguesA long hours culture is defined as being characterized
by long hours working being valued within an organization and interpreted as a sign of commitment"
(Kodz et al. 2003 p.81). Literature identifies that there are various factors that contribute to the culture
of long working hours. One such contributing factor is the attitude and behavior of colleagues and
managers within organization where working long hours or being present is valued and often perceived
as a sign of organizational commitment. This is in fact one of the most influential factors. At times
managers themselves work long hours which reinforces such culture as they were considered as role
model to be followed. Many employees do not consider this attitude of managers as a good example to
be set for subordinates. Peer pressure past trend within the organization organizational norms rat race
amongst employees to see who can put more hours and inability to decline unreasonable deadlines
also fosters long hours culture. Long-hours culture or presnteeism culture is the one where working
extended hours is like a norm for employees as they are expected and accepted to adapt to this culture.
Other contributing factors include performance appraisal fear of being penalized competitive
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environment pay incentives personal choice customers coworkers boss assembly line or machine
(Kodz et al. 2003). Economic factors faced by the organization like declining profitability downsizing and
job insecurity may also adversely affect working time (NAtti et al. 2006).

Long working Hours and Services SectorIn terms of the nature of economy there has been a dramatic
and noteworthy increase in the size of services sector in the past 30 years. Therefore this sector is
influencing the working time patterns greatly and perhaps working as a driving force. Generally working
hours in the services sector are longer as compared to the manufacturing sector. In certain services
subsectors like transport communication wholesale retail trade storage hotels restaurants the average
weekly hours are usually higher as compared to other subsectors. The lowest average working hours
were most typically observed in the education subsector social services and public sector employees
involved in governmental functions. In other subsectors such as real estate renting and business
activities the working hours vary radically across countries (Lee et al. 2007).

Differences in Working HoursThe issue of working time continues to be a pertinent since its inception.
There has been no comprehensive global analysis to compare working time rules and regulations
across various countries up till now (Widner 2010). People have been optimistic since quite long about
the working hours to be reduced or limited through legal provisions but significant variation still exists in
the actual working hours between the developed and developing countries. Also countries vary in
statutory norms regarding working hours. There isn't any evident mark of working hours being abridged.
Many people argue that 40-hour and 48-hour working week are only seen on papers and not practiced
in real due to poor enforcement of stipulated working hours laws. Workers in developing countries like
China as well as unexpectedly in some industrialized countries too are consistently complaining about
long working hours (Lee et al. 2007).

Concept of Decent Working Time' by the ILOInternational Labor Organization (ILO) has been
continuously focusing on the central issue of working time for the past many years. Besides
establishing international standards to limit working hours ILO has addressed numerous working time
related topics like providing for minimum weekly rest periods paid annual leave protections for night
workers and equal treatment for part time workers (J.-Y. Boulin 2006).

Profound changes in the nature of working time and employment relationship witnessed in the past one
or two decades were highlighted in the ILO's Ninth International Symposium on Working Time. The
economy has now shifted to 24-hour and 7-day economy due to excessive use of results-based
employment relationships. This has significantly increased business requirements the
operating/opening hours decentralization neck to neck competition between businesses and workers.
This Symposium assisted the ILO in further developing and refining the proposed policy framework for
advancing decent working time" (J.-Y. Boulin 2006).

Dimensions of ILO's Decent Working TimeCurrently long working hours is one of the major concerns for
the International Labor Organization (ILO) and it is taking initiatives at international level and pushing
member states to curb this trend (Pakistan Bureau of Statistics 2012). ILO has suggested five crucial
inter-connected dimensions of decent working time". The first dimension relates to the protection of
health and safety of workers. The second dimension talks about family friendly working hours that help
employees effectively manage both their work and family life. Third dimension promotes gender
equality. Fourth dimension considers working time options like working hours record sabbaticals and
lifelong training schemes could prove to be instrumental in enhancing productivity and firm' overall
competitiveness. The last dimension argues for workers' control over working hours where an
employee has choice to make individual decisions regarding managing his/her working hours (Anxo
Boulin and Fagan 2006).

Following are the hypotheses of the study based on the theoretical model:H1: Employees are
experiencing long working hours.H2: Job strain is the driving force for longer working hours.H3:
Employees work long hours due to the culture of late-sitting in organization. H4: Job insecurity is the
driving force for longer working hours.H5: Employees work long hours out of personal choice.H6:
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Employees prefer to work long hours for rewards and recognition. H7: Long working hours adversely
affects job satisfaction.

MethodThis study is quantitative in nature and follows pragmatic paradigm. Data is empirically collected
through a cross-sectional survey using deductive approach.

A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire (1=strongly disagree and 5=strongly agree) is developed based on
literature review and personally administered on the factors mentioned in the theoretical framework to
test the hypotheses developed. The average weekly working hours of employees will be quantitatively
calculated by multiplying the number of daily work hours with the number of working days per week.
Weekly working hours greater than 48 hours would be considered as long working hours. The most
common reasons for long working hours would be identified through pre-specified reasons given in the
questionnaire and would seek for respondents agreement or disagreement with them.

The respondents are permanent full-time managerial and professional employees working in private
services sector organizations. Three services sub- sectors specifically banking (banks and financial
institutions) IT (contains businesses involved in development of software manufacturing of electronics
computers or products and services relating to information technology) and media (print and electronic
content providers) are focused. Two organizations from each sub-sector were selected. The
respondents are engaged in non-manual jobs like professional services. Both males and females were
included in the study. A sample size of 350 (same number of respondents from each of the three
sectors) is selected at 95% confidence interval 5% margin of error by using quota sampling. Out of 350
questionnaires 297 were returned after being filled. Response rate was 85%. 39 questionnaires were
discarded due incomplete responses. The final sample size is 258.

The study has one intervening variable Long Working Hours" and one dependent variables Job
Satisfaction" and five independent variables namely: Job strain Organizational culture Job insecurity
Personal choice and Rewards and recognition.

Descriptive analysis correlation analysis regression analysis and chi-square test is done to verify the
hypothesis. SPSS is used for statistical analysis and MS Excel for charts and graphs

Results and Discussion

The aim of this study is to analyze the trend of long working hours and assess its impact on job
satisfaction of employees.

Profile of Respondents

71% of the respondents of the study are males and 29% are females.

Majority of the respondents (59.3%) belong to the age group of 24 34 years 26% are between 35 to 50
years 8.5% are less than 24 years and 6.2% are above 50 years of age. 58% participants are married
while 42% are either single divorced or separated.

46.5% respondents have children while the remaining 53.5% do not have children.

Out of 258 respondents of the study 134 are from the banking 73 from IT and 51 from the media sector.

Reliability of ScaleThe overall reliability of scale is high (cronbach's alpha = 0.848). The reliability of Job
Strain is also good (0.804) Rewards and Recognition (0.703) and Job Satisfaction (0.645) is acceptable
while reliability of Long Working Hours (0.534) Organizational Culture (0.506) and Job Security (0.594)
is low.

Descriptive Analysis of all ConstructsExamining the descriptive statistics report of all dependent and
independent variables it shows that their means are very similar and above 3 which is towards the
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agreement side of five-point Likert scale with the exception of Job Satisfaction which is 2.79
(SD=0.98668).

Correlation of VariablesAll correlations are statistically significant at 0.01 level and since the
significance value is 0.000 (which is less than 0.01) we can say that there is a significant correlation
among all the variables. The data also reveals that there is a strong positive correlation between Long
Working Hours and Job Strain (0.664). Whereas the correlation of Long Working Hours with
Organizational Culture Job insecurity Personal Choice Rewards and Recognition is found to be positive
but weak. Job Satisfaction is negatively correlated to all variables. There is a strong positive correlation
between Job Strain and Job Insecurity (0.649) and among Personal Choice and Rewards and
Recognition (0.655).Regression

Regression analysis is done to test the significance of the model. The adjusted R2 of the model is 0.470
which shows that independent variables are explaining Long Working Hours 47% and remaining
variation is unexplained. The model is significant as the p value is 0.000 (F = 46.574). The independent
variable job strain is significant as t = 7.934 and the coefficient is 0.494 which shows that change in
independent variable will effect dependent variable by 0.494 units with change in one unit. The results
indicate that Job Strain is one very strong independent variable in the model while the rest (namely
organizational culture job insecurity personal choice rewards and Recognition) are not significant. So
then regression was checked by removing job strain to analyze the significance of other constructs.
After removing job strain from the model the adjusted R2 of the model is 0.340 which shows that
independent variables are explaining Long Working Hours 34% and remaining variation is unexplained.

The model is significant as the p value is 0.000 (F = 34.125). Two independent variables organizational
culture and job insecurity comes out to be significant. Organizational culture is significant as t = 3.431
and the coefficient is 0.213 which shows that change in organizational culture will effect Long Working
Hours by 0.213 units with change in one unit. Job insecurity is also significant as t = 5.264 and the
coefficient is 0.337 which shows that change in job insecurity will effect Long Working Hours by 0.337
units with change in one unit. However Personal Choice and Rewards and Recognition still remain
insignificant (t less than 2).

Gauging Long Working HoursAs identified in the literature Long Working Hours can be measured in two
ways. Firstly employees serving more than the statutory working hours delineated in the labor laws of
Pakistan would be considered as long working hours. Therefore average weekly working hours are
numerically calculated by multiplying the number of working days per week with the average number of
hours served per day.

Results indicate that 54% of the employees are working more than 48 hours a week and around 13%
employees are working up to 60 66 hours per week. The mean of weekly working hours is 49.0.

Another way to assess long working hours is through the four items in the 5 point Likert questionnaire.
The mean value of long working hours is 3.11 which statistically prove that employees are experiencing
long working hours. To further probe cross tabulation between numerical and statistical data regarding
long working hours. The chi-square statistic value is 15.89 and p-value is 0.000 there is statistically
significant association between perceived Long Working Hours and Actual Long Working Hours. It is
observed that employees serving 48 hours a week or less even 85 out of 119 (71.4%) perceive that
they are working long hours.

Split correlation Gender wiseAt 1% level of significance there is a correlation among all the variables.
The data also divulge that the positive correlation between Long Working Hours and Job Strain is
comparatively stronger for males (0.686) than for females (0.611). On the other hand the correlation
between Long Working Hours and Organizational Culture is greater for females (0.501) than for males
(0.451). Similarly correlation between Long Working Hours and Personal Choice is also higher for
females (0.459) than for males (0.300). In case of relationship of Long Working Hours with Job
Insecurity the value is greater for females (0.571) as compared to males (0.518). Correlation between
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Long Working Hours and Rewards and Recognition is same for both males and females. As far as the
relationship between Long Working Hours and Job Satisfaction is concerned correlation value is lesser
for males (-0.514) than for females (-0.470).

Split correlation Sector wise

For all the three sectors (Banking IT Media) correlation between Long Working Hours and Job Strain is
statistically significant at 0.01 level and the significance value is 0.000 (which is less than 0.01). As
compared to the media sector the correlation between Long Working Hours and Job Satisfaction is
stronger in the Banking and IT sectors. There is a strong positive correlation between Job Strain and
Job Insecurity in the Banking and Media sector.In the Banking sector significant correlation of
Organizational Culture with Job Strain (0.591) Job Insecurity (0.580) Personal Choice (0.358) and
Rewards and Recognition (-0.419) is observed at 1% level of significance. In the other two sectors
Organizational Culture is not correlated to Personal Choice (0.196 significance value 0.168). It is also
not correlated with Rewards and Recognition

Summary of AnalysisThis section encapsulates the major findings of the study. There are 7 hypotheses
of the study based on the theoretical framework.

All correlations are statistically significant at 0.01 level and since the significance value is 0.000 (which
is less than 0.01) we can say that there is a significant correlation among all the variables. Job
Satisfaction is negatively correlated to all variables while all other correlations are positive.

The overall reliability of scale is high (cronbach's alpha = 0.848). The reliability of Job Strain is also
good (0.804) Rewards and Recognition (0.703) and Job Satisfaction (0.645) is acceptable while
reliability of Long Working Hours (0.534) Organizational Culture (0.506) and Job Security (0.594) is low.
The adjusted R2 of the model is 0.470 which shows that independent variables are explaining Long
Working Hours 47% and remaining variation is unexplained. The model is significant as the p value is
0.000 (F = 46.574).

The numerical results regarding actual working hours indicate that 54% of the employees are working
more than 48 hours a week and around 13% employees are working even up to 60 66 hours per week.
The mean of actual weekly working hours is 49.0. The mean value of perceived long working hours is
3.11 which statistically prove that employees are experiencing long working hours. To further probe
cross tabulation between numerical and statistical data regarding long working hours. The chi-square
statistic value is 15.89 and p-value is 0.000 there is statistically significant association between
perceived Long Working Hours and Actual Long Working Hours. It is observed that employees serving
48 hours a week or less even 85 out of 119 (71.4%) perceive that they are working long hours.
Therefore we accept H1 as the findings suggest that employees are experiencing long working hours.

Job strain is the driving force for longer working hours as the Pearson Correlation value is 0.664 and it
is significant. Gender-wise and Sector-wise analysis also indicates that Job Strain is more significantly
correlated to Long Working Hours as compared to all other variables. As per the regression analysis
Job strain is significant as t = 7.934 and the coefficient is 0.494 which shows that change in
independent variable will effect dependent variable by 0.494 units with change in one unit. The results
indicate that Job Strain is one very strong independent variable in the model. We can say that the data
support our hypothesis. Hence H2 is also accepted.

The Pearson Correlation value is 0.532 (p-value 0.000) shows significant correlation between Long
Working Hours and Job Insecurity. Regression results also report that Job insecurity is significant as t =
5.264 and the coefficient is 0.337 which shows that change in job insecurity will effect Long Working
Hours by 0.337 units with change in one unit. We say data support our hypothesis. Hence H3 is
accepted that Job Insecurity is the driving force for longer working hours.

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Employees reported that they work long hours also due to the culture of late- sitting in organization. The
Pearson Correlation value is 0.465 and it is significant (p-value 0.000) we can say that there is
significant correlation between Long Working Hours and Organizational Culture. Regression results
also report that Organizational Culture is significant as t = 3.431 and the coefficient is 0.213 which
shows that change in organizational culture will effect Long Working Hours by 0.213 units with change
in one unit. Therefore H4 is accepted.

Positive but weak correlation is found between Long Working Hours and Personal Choice as correlation
value is 0.353 and p-value 0.000. But regression results indicate that Personal Choice insignificant as
tless than 2. Hence H5 is rejected as data does not support it. So we can say Personal Choice is not
the driving force for Long Working Hours.

Similarly positive but weak correlation is found between Long Working Hours and Rewards and
Recognition (correlation value is 0.363 p-value 0.000). But regression results indicate that Personal
Choice insignificant as t less than 2. Hence H6 is also rejected and Rewards and Recognition is not the
driving force for Long Working Hours.

Long working hours adversely affects job satisfaction as both these variables are significantly and
negatively correlated. As compared to the media sector the correlation between Long Working Hours
and Job Satisfaction is stronger in the Banking and IT sectors.

ConclusionThe aim of this research was to assess the working hours of employees and to validate the
reasons of long working hours identified by Kodz et al (2003) viz.

Job strain Job insecurity Organizational culture Personal choice and Rewards and Recognition and to
gauge impact of long working hours on job satisfaction of employees working in services sector of
Karachi. The study proposes that full- time managerial employees associated with services sector
working in banking IT and media firms of Karachi are experiencing long working hours where they end
up working more than 48 hours a week. The results of this study are in accordance to the findings of
Kodz et al (2003). Job Strain is the most significant factor influencig long working hours which is also
reported by Kodz et al (2003) and organizational culture and job insecurity also play an important role in
promting long-hours culture. Long working hours Job strain Job insecurity Organizational culture
Personal choice and Rewards and Recognition adversely affects Job Satisfaction of employees.

RecommendationsTaking into account the findings of the study it is proposed to the management and
human resource professionals to further investigate the issue of long working hours in their
organizations and its severity too. Long working hours is inversely related to job satisfaction and this
study confirms that job strain organizational culture and job insecurity are some of the prevalent
reasons which pressurize employees to work more than the regular working hours. So organizations
require some organizational development interventions to tackle with these factors effectively. Also strict
abidance should be ensured at the governmental level as long working hours is not merely an
organizational issue rather it is a major social concern as well. If this problem is not addressed as a
sustentative concern its numerous negative implications on the social behaviour of individuals and
overall society will be devastating.

Areas for Further StudyThis study can be extended to other parts of the country to analyze the
differences among various regions. Furthermore research needs to be done on other services
subsectors of Karachi as well as the manufacturing sector to investigate the overall trend of long
working hours in the city. An in-depth analysis of all the individual factors contributing to long working
hours is required to have the insights regarding each factor.

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