International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-4, Issue-5, May-2018 http://iraj.in Role Demand and Work Life Balance Experiences in Sri Lankan Women Employees in Different Ethnic Groups: A conceptual Framework 1 ROLE DEMAND AND WORK LIFE BALANCE EXPERIENCES IN SRI LANKAN WOMEN EMPLOYEES IN DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 1 INDUMATHI WELMILLA, 2 ARUNA S. GAMAGE University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, University of Sri Jayewardenapura, Sri Lanka E-mail: Iwelmilla8@gmail.com, arunasgamage@gmail.com Abstract - The objective of the study was to develop a conceptual framework fordetermining effect of role demand and work life balance (WLB) of Sri Lankan women academics. This study was qualitative in nature. The data for the present study were collected from a total of 30 women academics based in Sri Lanka. The result of the study identified main dimensions for role demands (work –family) and WLB. A variable ethnicity identified as moderating variablebased on the extensive review of the literature. Moreover, developed conceptual framework is significant to provide information regarding an association between role demands (work and family), satisfaction (work and family) and interferences (work- interfere and family interfere) Hence, a research framework has been propounded to determine the relationships between the constructs in a future study.In addition, the conceptual model will serve as additional literature on the role demand and WLB experiences among women employees in Sri Lanka that has not been explored. Keywords - Ethnicity, Family, Role Demands, Work life balance (WLB) Experiences, Work. I. INTRODUCTION The global trend of women participation in their career/ occupation is increased considerably [1]. There has been a steady increasing in dual-career earners and single parent families [19]. In other words more employees are now playing dual role as an employee and a parent. As well, they are now combining to the work and family roles. Crompton et al.,[10] stated that the question of work–family balance consideration has increased in both national and international level. Presently, this phenomena is a largely consequence of increasing in the employment of women. Most of the research of work-family balance experiences, carried out under the Western country contexts [19],[20],[21]. Those researches have directly addressed to ethnic group of Western world and identified the effects of the work and family life balance only. All above studies have concluded that employees of different ethnic groups’ work-family experiences are slightly different because of the several reasons. Cohen and Kirchmeyer [19] have identified that different ethnic groups do different work-family experience and different work-related activities. Reviewing the literature, it was identified that there was no research studies have been conducted on role demand and work- family balance among the women academics of different ethnic groups in Sri Lankan context. Therefore, the current study is trying to fill this gap which is developing a conceptual framework to determining the impact of role demands on work- family balance experience of women employees in different ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. The current study is attempted to develop a conceptual model which can be applied for empirical studies of work life balance in different ethnic groupsin Sri-Lanka. Moreover, this study spreads the ethnicity work-family research in to Asian context by expanding the existing knowledge of work- family balance experience among the different ethnic groups in Sri Lanka. This study was conducted to find out the suitable conceptual framework which can be applied for determine the effect of role demands on Work-life balance experience among the women employees in different ethnic groups in Sri lanka. Therefore, this study was intended to answer the research question, “Whatis the most appropriate conceptual framework for determining the relationships between role demands (work and family) and work life balance among the women employees in different ethnic groups in Sri Lanka?” The overall purpose of this study was to develop a new conceptual framework for determine the relationships between role demands (work and family) and work life balance experience of Sri Lankan women. II. THEROTICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Literature Review The concept of WLB has been defined by many scholars in different way. Some researchers have suggested a more comprehensive definition of WLB considering of several work and family dimensions [5].[13]. Minority of them have founded that this concept has not received extensive research attention [15]. However considerable research has highlighted the WLB definition with popular models of WLB, but the definitions are not entirely consistent with one another [16],[15]. Following are some illustrated of definitions as examples.