Inspiring work-life balance: responsible leadership among female pharmacists in the egyptian health sector

Objective: The aim of the research was to investigate the effect of responsible leadership on female pharmacists’ work-life balance/imbalance forms in public hospitals in Menoufia province, Egypt. Research Design & Methods: This is a quantitative study and a total of 350 female pharmacists were contacted. After four follow ups, a total of 230 responses were collected with a response rate of 65.71%. Findings: The findings highlighted only an aggregate of virtues and is not considered a strong statistical predictor for any of the three work-life balance/imbalance forms (time-based balance/imbalance, strain-based balance/imbalance and behaviour-based balance/imbalance) while the other three dimensions (stakeholder involvement, the model of leader’s role and the principles of ethical values) of responsible leadership had a significantly high effect on work- life forms. Implications & Recommendations: Dependent and independent variables were collected from the same source, and this may have led to an inflation of statistical relationships. Public organisations like hospitals have to treat female pharmacists responsively as one of the main stakeholders who requires flexible work hours, active participation in decision making, and clear empowerment in the workplace. Contribution & Value Added: This article contributes by filling a gap in management and organisation literature, in which empirical studies on the relationship between responsible leadership and work-life balance/imbalance have so far been quite limited in the literature. For future studies, the author suggests testing the same propositions with physicians, nurses, and other categories of employees in Egyptian public hospitals.