Abstract:
The study was conducted in Akoro and Jirapa in the Upper West Region
of Ghana. The aim of the study was to find out how Dagaaba households in the
rural and urban settings use their time to accomplish their goals.
It was hypothesized that:
HOi. There is no significant difference between the time management practices
of rural and urban Dagaaba households.
H02 There is no significant difference between the time management practices
of Dagaaba households who work in the formal and informal sectors.A proportionate sample of seventy-five households representing three
communities from Jirapa town and a simple random sample of seventy-five
households from Akoro village were interviewed using structured interview
schedules. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS/PC) software to generate frequency and percentage
distributions. The presentation of the data is mainly descriptive using tabies
where appropriate. The chi-square statistic was used to test the two Null
hypotheses.
The results revealed that homemakers from both study areas operated
with mental plans. Homemakers started their day by 4.00 a.m. and ended late at night around 11.00 p.m. Daily responsibilities of household members were
carried out at different times of the day. For the purposes of this study the day
was divided into four time blocks. Household chores were normally carried out
during the morning and evening time blocks while the afternoon time blocks were
used for economic and occupational activities. Domestic work was performed
solely by homemakers and female children or relatives, while spouses spend
much of their time for occupational or leisure activities. Homemakers hardly had
any labour saving devices, rest or leisure. Funerals were major interruptions to
household time use. However, household members used such strategies as
mental planning, dovetailing and division of work to facilitate their time
management.The chi-square analyses revealed a significant difference between the
time management practices of rural and urban Dagaaba households; hence the
null hypothesis (HOi) was rejected. Similarly, there was a significant difference
between the time management practices of Daggaba households who work in
the formal and informal sectors, therefore the Null hypothesis (H02) was rejected.
It is recommended that extension work be intensified to educate homemakers on
how to organize and use their time, so that they can make time for leisure and
rest.
