The role of job satisfaction as mediator between work-life balance and organizational commitment among lecturers

Lecturer profession is regarded as high-pressured in which lecturers find it difficult to divert their attention from working life to personal life outside working hours. This balance of personal-work life is found to influence employee attitudes, perceptions, and performance. The aim of this study is to find the effect of the work-life balance on lecturers' organizational commitment with job satisfaction as a mediator. The subjects in this study were 110 permanent lecturers from five universities in Padang City, Indonesia, who were selected based on purposive sampling and required to complete a questionnaire consisting of Work-life Balance Scale, Job Satisfaction Survey, and Organizational Commitment Scale. A simple mediation analysis was conducted using PROCESS macro. The results show that there was a positive significant effect of work-life balance on job satisfaction, job satisfaction on organizational commitment, and work-life balance on organizational commitment. In addition, job satisfaction was found as a partial mediator in the relationship between work-life balance and organizational commitment. This study provides important implications for higher education institutions to consider the work-life balance among lecturers to improve their job satisfaction and organizational commitment.