BALANCING WORK AND LIFE: HOW PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL HARMONY AND JOB ENGAGEMENT SHAPE WORKFORCE EFFECTIVENESS IN PAKISTANI ORGANIZATIONS EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYEES (2022–2026)

Abstract

Effectiveness in workplace is actually the result of a mix of personal, interpersonal, and organizational factors. Among these, from the point of view of the employee, two factors are the main ones: first, the capability of drawing healthy boundary between work and personal life, and second, the extent to which one is so into one's work that he/she almost doesn't notice the time passing and at the same time is motivated. This paper is about how personal-professional harmony usually referred to as work-life balance (WLB) and job engagement usually referred to as employee engagement (EE) can together predict the performance of a worker. Various samples of employees were selected from a combination of the public and private sector organizations of Pakistan for structured questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. Then some sort of descriptive statistics, reliability testing, Pearson correlation, standard multiple regression, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) were used for analyzing the collected data. Hypothesis formulation and results interpretation were facilitated by theoretical framework based on Social Exchange Theory, the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, and the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory. Findings support the idea that WLB and EE are great indicators of self-rated performance, with EE being the better predictor (β =.597, p <.001 vs. β =.181, p =.016 for WLB). In total, the two factors explain 54.5% of the variation in performance. Besides, PLS-SEM shows that EE is a partial mediator between WLB and performance, indicating that balance and engagement are not separate paths but closely linked and help each other. HR experts, team leaders, and government policy makers can take some practical cues from this study.