REVIEW OF LITRETURE

Introduction

Quality of work life refers to the favorableness or unfavorableness of a job environment for people. It refers to the quality of relationship between employees and the total working environment. It is concerned with increasing labour management cooperatives to solve the problems of improving organisational performance and employee satisfaction.

Concept

In the concept of Walton (1974: 12), quality of work life is defined as the meaningful life of the employees with better living conditions or economic, social, and spiritual satisfaction which can be measured by applying the 8 indicators of quality of life which are as follows:

Adequate and fair compensation Safe and healthy working conditions Development human capacity Growth and security Social integration Constitutionalism Total life space Social relevance.

Werther and Davis (1982) said that the factors influencing the quality of work life are composed of three factors, which includes

Personal behavioral factor(age, experience, perception, attitude) Organisational factor(goals & objectives, management, job characteristic) Environmental factors(economic, social, cultural, administrative, technological)

Efraty and Sirgy (1990) conceptualized QWL in terms of “need satisfaction.” In their later research, Sirgy et al. (2001, p. 242) define QWL as “employee satisfaction with a variety of needs through resources, activities, and outcomes stemming from participation in the workplace.” They proposed that QWL be measured in terms of employees' needs. Specifically, seven dimensions of needs were suggested:

Health and safety needs (protection from ill health and injury at work and outside of work, and enhancement of good health);

Economic and family needs (pay, job security, and other family needs); Social needs (collegiality at work and leisure time off work);

Esteem needs (recognition and appreciation of work within and outside the organization); Actualization needs (realization of one's potential within the organization and as a

professional); Knowledge needs (learning to enhance job and professional skills); and Aesthetic needs (creativity at work as well as personal creativity and general aesthetics).

Hackmann and Suttle (1997: 7-14) suggested that quality of work life affects the job satisfaction and feeling of affiliation towards the organisation while reducing the absenteeism and attrition rate in the work place.

Quality of work life is important because it is considered as a supportive factor in motivating employees to work (Promsuwan, S. 2000:32).

Definitions

Quality of work life is defined as “a process of joint decision making, collaboration and building mutual respect between management and employees”.

D.S.Cohan

Quality of work life is “a process of work organization which enables its members at all levels to actively participate in shaping the organisation’s environment, methods and outcomes. This value based process is aimed towards meeting the twin goals of enhanced effectiveness of organization and improved quality of life at work for employees”.

American Society Of Training And Development

Quality of work life is “the extent to which employees can enhance their personal lives through their environment and experiences.”

BNET Business Dictionary

“Quality of work life is the degree to which work in an organisation contributes to material and psychological well being of its members.”

Harrison

Measuring Quality of Work Life

The following indices may be used to judge the quality of work life in an organisation:

Job involvementJob satisfactionSense of competenceJob performanceProductivity

Job involvement:

It represents the degree of an individual’s identification with or ego

involvement in the job.

Job satisfaction:

It implies the worker’s satisfaction with the environment of his job

environment consisting nature of work, quality of supervision, pay,

coworkers, opportunities for promotion, etc.

Sense of competence:

It refers to the feelings of confidence that an individual has in his

own competence. Sense of competence and job involvement reinforce

each other.

Job performance:

When an individual’s job involvement, job satisfaction and sense

of competence increase, there is a rise in job performance.

Productivity:When the level of job performance increases the output per unit of

input goes up. Thus match between job characteristics and productivity

traits of employees generally result in higher productivity.

Dimensions of Quality of Work Life

Adequate and fair compensationSafe and healthy working conditionsOpportunities to use and develop human capacitiesOpportunity for career growthSocial integration in work forceConstitutionalisation in the work organizationWork and personal lifeSocial relevance to work

Principles of Quality of Work Life

The principle of securityThe principle of equityThe principle of individualismThe principle of democracy

Techniques to Improve Quality of work life

Fair and equitable remunerationReasonable stability of employmentEmployee health and safety programmesAlternative work schedulesParticipative management or self-managed teamsRecognition of employees as human beings Congenial worker supervisor relationsGrievance procedures and effective leadershipSound promotion policy and career developmentManagement of employee stressJob redesign and enrichment.

PAST RESEARCH

Jean M. Twenge & Laura A. King (2004) conducted a research in relationship fulfillment

and work fulfillment in judgments of life quality. The samples of college students and

community adults are taken for this study. An experimental design varied a target’s sex, work

fulfillment, and relationship fulfillment .The results indicate that the relationship fulfillment is

the most important part of the lay concept of a good life.

Anusha Parshotam (2005), examined the quality of work life and career change among

online technical advisors. The study was exploratory in nature and was investigated through the

qualitative method of interview. The author concluded that all the technical advisors who were

interviewed found great satisfaction in making the change in career and this satisfaction spilled

over into their personal lives, be it with their family or their personal demeanor.

Kalayanee Koonmee, Anusorn Singhapakdi, Busaya Virakul & Dong-Jin Lee (2010),

investigated the association between institutionalization of ethics, quality of work life, and

employee job-related outcomes in the Thai work place. The data were collected by means of

questionnaires mailed to human resource managers of 514 Thai companies listed on the Stock

Exchange of Thailand. The findings of this research are generally consistent with those from

previous studies on institutionalization of ethics that implicit institutionalization of ethics is

shown to positively related to quality of work life and different job-related outcomes.

Thapelo Jacob Moloi (2007), conducted a research to test the Job Characteristics Model

(JCM) developed by Hackman and Oldham towards enhancing quality of work life. He selected

15 secondary schools with 12 educators, examined the level of the five core job dimensions (skill

variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback) also to establish the level of the

three critical psychological states (experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced

responsibility for outcomes of the work and knowledge of the actual results of the work

activities), as well as the personal and work outcomes (only motivation and work performance),

all these in relation to race and gender. He found that the core job dimensions of educators’ job

be improved especially with regard to autonomy and feedback, which they should know whether

it is negative or positive.

Harry C. Katz, Thomas A. Kochan, Mark R. Weber (1985), accomplished a research to

assess the relationships among characteristics of industrial relations systems, efforts to improve

the quality of working life, and selected measures of organizational effectiveness. He has done

this study in 25 manufacturing plants belonging to one company. The empirical results proved

(1) strong evidence of an association between measures of the performance of industrial relations

systems and economic performance, and (2) evidence that efforts to improve quality of working

life have little impact on economic performance.

Mitchell w. Fields, James w. Thacker (1992), examined changes in union and

organizational commitment after the implementation of a joint union-management quality of

work life program. They noticed that the company commitment increased only when participants

perceived the quality of work life effort as successful, but union commitment increased

irrespective of the perception of quality of work life success.

Boas Shamir, Ilan Salomon (1985), as the emergence of innovations and developments in

the telecommunications technology there is a high possibilities of doing jobs in home itself

instead of going to office/work place. Implications of work-at-home arrangements for the

individual's quality of working life are researched and revealed several major aspects of the work

experience relevant to quality of working life. The differences along these aspects between

working at home and working at a normal workplace, and speculation about the possible

consequences for the individual of the transfer of jobs from employers' premises to employees'

homes.

Barry A. Macy, Philip H. Mirvis (1976), they developed a methodology (Standardized

definitions, measures, and costing methods) to assess the quality of work life in and

organizational effectiveness in behavioral economic terms. for behavioral outcomes. They were

utilized industrial engineering, accounting-work measurement, and behavioral concepts, also

identified and quantified the cost components of certain behaviors and arrives at a dollar figure

per incident and an estimated total cost over three years of measurement.

George Graen, James F. Cashman, Steven -Ginsburg, and William Schiemann (1977),

they were assessed the Effects of Linking-Pin Quality on the Quality of Working Life of Lower

Participants. They investigated over a period of 10 months and a panel of 103 managerial dyads

employed in service organizations were assessed at different times regarding the quality of their

upward linking pin the perceived effectiveness of the leader-member exchange between the

incumbents of linking-pin positions with their immediate superior and the behavior, attitudes,

and treatment of the lower participants. Finally they concluded that the state of the system may

determine where resources become invested.

Adrienne E. Eaton, Michael E. Gordon, and Jeffrey H. Keefe (1992), they investigated a

study pertinent to Quality of work life programs and grievance system effectiveness on union

commitment. Based on an analysis of data from a 1987 survey of four different bargaining units

within the same local union, the authors concluded that union members who participated in

quality of Work Life programs were less likely than nonparticipants to view quality of work life

as a threat to the union and also more loyal to the union. However, is that the perceived

effectiveness of the grievance procedure was a much powerful determinant of attitudes toward

the union than was participation in quality of work life programs leading and to speculate that

one way for unions to strengthen their ties with their members might be to improve the

effectiveness of the grievance procedure.

Prof. Rajib Lochan DHAR (2008), he divulged a qualitative study on quality of work

life: a study of municipal corporation bus drivers. Under his study he considered the quality of

work life of the bus drivers and the factors that lead to an imbalance, causing high probability of

road accident. He conducted this study with the help of fifteen bus drivers from four different

Pune Municipal Corporation bus depots, India. Finally he given some suggestions to quality of

work life of the drivers could be improved, thus, ultimately leading to better transport service to

the citizens and a reduction in the rates of accidents.

Mark H. Conklin, Shane P. Desselle (2007), conducted a research on Snapshot of

Pharmacy Faculty quality of Work Life and Productivity. Due to less literature on this area they

were revealed this study with the help of pharmacy faculties. They have identified that the

pharmacy faculties has less confidence on research and indicated areas of teaching. They

identified that the faculty reported only modest levels of commitment, satisfaction, and support,

with relatively high consensus among department colleagues on a number of teaching and

research issues. Finally they have concluded that much of the research productivity done by

minority of faculty and there must be a need for formalized mentoring programs, particularly for

females and pharmacy practice faculty.

Tung-Chun Huang, John Lawler, Ching-Yi Lei (2007), had conducted a research work on

The Effects of Quality of Work Life on Commitment and Turnover Intention. They had

examined the impact of quality of work life on auditors’ career and organizational commitment

in Taiwanese public accounting firms, and how those commitments, in turn, affect turnover

intention. Finally, revealed that different dimensions of quality of work life result in distinctive

effects on organizational and career commitments and turnover intentions.

Joanna E.M. Sale (2007), conducted a qualitative study on Perceptions of a Quality of

Work-Life Survey from the Perspective of Employees in a Canadian Cancer Centre. She

explored the perceptions of a quality of work-life survey from the perspective of 10 employees

from a variety of departments in a Canadian cancer centre. Also she has revealed the following

themes are emerged from the analysis: (1) talking about the survey triggered discussions of

quality of work life issues most of which were not captured in the survey; (2) the impact of the

survey was more important than the survey itself; and (3) participants were concerned that

departments or groups of employees were labeled based on the survey results.

Andy Danford, Mike Richardson, Paul Stewart, Stephanie Tailby and Martin Upchurch

(2008), they measured the effects of workplace partnership and selected high performance work

practices on four different dimensions of employee experience. At the same time as the

partnership–high performance work systems centers seems to have little impact on employees’

job satisfaction or sense of attachment, it does, however, have a negative impact on both

workplace stress and employee evaluations of union performance. Finally they had a questions

and common assumptions about the inevitability of ‘mutual gain’ and the necessity of

employer/union partnership.

Jean-Pierre Martel, Gilles Dupuis (2006), was presented a historical overview of the

concept of quality of work life. They consensus pertaining to the solutions that have been

developed to date, a new definition of quality of work life is suggested, inspired by the research

on a related concept, general Quality of Life (QOL) which, as the literature shows, has faced the

same conceptualization and definition problems as quality of work life. Based on the suggested

definition of QOL, a definition of quality of work life is provided and the measuring instrument

that results there from (the Quality of Working Life Systemic Inventory – QWLSI) is presented.

Finally, they given measuring instrument provided for the above-mentioned problems.

Alison M. Konrad, Robert Mangel (2000), examined the adoption of work-life programs

and the impact of work-life programs on firm productivity. They have collected the sample of

658 organizations provided survey data on firm characteristics and work-life programs. In these

658 organizations, the percentage of professionals and the percentage of women employed were

positively related to the development of more extensive work-life programs. Finally they have

seen that a significant interaction effects indicated in 195 firms out of 658 firms work-life

programs had a stronger optimistic impact on output when women comprised a larger percentage

of the workforce and when a higher percentage of professionals were employed.

Tom Koch (2000), considered the assumptions underlying prospective quality of life

instruments in an historical and contemporary context. It argues that as a tool in health planning

and in clinical decision making life quality as a measurement It concludes that to the degree now

current prospective instruments reflect a purely physical perspective of ``disease burden''

irrespective of social conditions they create a context that works against life quality, and in some

cases, the continuance of persons with physical differences.

Guna Seelan Rethinam (2008), reviewed the meaning of quality of work life, analyses

constructs of quality of work life based on models and past research from the perspective of IT

professionals in many countries and in Malaysia. The constructs of quality of work life discussed

are health and well-being, job security, job satisfaction, competency development, work and non-

work life balance. It has been concluded that quality of work life from the perspective of IT

professionals is challenging both to the individuals and organizations.

Cynthia A. Thompson (2002), designed to focus on the concerns that

employees and organizations have about employees’ ability to balance work-life demands. The

participants are asked to describe current or anticipated work-family or work-life balancing

concerns. It is concluded that, however, is that employee needs and interests are not necessarily

in opposition to the organization’s interests and that working together to resolve work-life

conflict can benefit both the employee and the organization.

Zeenobiyah Hannif, John Burgess & Julia Connell (2009), highlighted the concerns that

have surfaced regarding the quality of call centre work alongside the rapid expansion of this

market over the past decade. Finally, a qualitative research paradigm utilizing a job

characteristics approach to measuring job quality is put forth as the most appropriate means of

investigating the quality of work life, and addressing key gaps in the literature moving towards a

research agenda.

Kawai Chan & Thomas a. Wyatt(2007), examined quality of work life in China in terms

of how their work lives satisfy eight basic needs of employees and how the satisfaction of each

individual need in their work life affects employees’ job satisfaction, affective commitment,

turnover intention, life satisfaction and general well-being. A total of 319 questionnaires were

collected from eight organizations in Shanghai, China. The study makes a contribution to the

quality of work life literature in understanding the needs satisfaction at work in the Shanghai

area of China.

Una Byrne(2005), discussed the development of the concept of the ‘work-life balance’ as

a means of tackling the problem of increasing amounts of stress in the workplace as people try to

juggle a wide range of factors in their life/work environment, including: work, family, friends,

health, and spirit/self.

Elise Dallimore and Amy Mickel (2006), examined obstacles working professionals face

in their efforts to enhance quality of life including a discussion of the advice and employer

assistance they desire. A category of general-life issues (which bridge work and non-work

domains) also emerged from the data.

John W.Beasley, Ben-Tzion Karsh, Francois Sainfort, Mary Ellen Hagenauer & Lucille

Marchand (2004), conducted a survey in the quality of work life of family physician in

Wisconsin’s health care organisation. The survey was designed based on a literature review and

augmented by focus group data. The sample size was 1482 physicians. It was concluded that

some of Wisconsin’s health care organisations are doing better than others at working with their

family physicians to maximize their satisfaction with their organisation, reduce turnover and

enable them to reach their professional goals.

Raduan Che Rose, LooSee Beh, Jegak Uli and Khairuddin Idris (2006), examined to

predict quality of work life in relation to career-related dimensions. The sample consists of 475

managers from the free trade zones in Malaysia for both the multinational corporations and the

small-medium industries. The result indicates that three exogenous variables are significant:

career satisfaction, career achievement and career balance, with 63% of the variance in quality of

work life.

Hanita Sarah Saad, Ainon Jauhariah Abu Samah and Nurita Juhdi (2008), reviewed to

find out about the employee’s perception of their work-life quality in the university. 251

employees in the university are taken as sample for the research. Ten variables to measure

quality work life are examined namely support from organization, work-family conflict,

relationship with peers, self competence, impact on job, meaningfulness of job, optimism on

organizational change, autonomy, access to resources and time control. All these variables are

tested the relationship with job satisfaction. The test indicated that each of the quality work life

variables on its own is a salient predictor of job satisfaction.

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