Quality of Work Life free essay sample

Employees at any level many time experience a sense of frustration because low level of wages, poor working conditions, unfavourable terms of employment, inhuman treatement by their superiors the like whereas managerial personnel feel frustrated because of alienation over their condition of employment , interpersonal conflicts, role conflicts, Job pressure , lack of freedom , absence of challenging work, etc. QWL means different things to different people, J. Richard J. Loy define QWL as the degree to which members of a work organization are able to satisfy mportant personnel needs through their experience in the organization. In the search for improved productivity, manager executives alike are discovering the important contribution of QWL. Hackman suttle describe QWL from varied viewpoints. From a professional view point , it refers to industrial democracy, increase workewrs participation in corporate decision making , or culmination of the goals of human realations. In terms of management perspective, it relates to a variety of efforts to improve productivity through improvements in the human , rather than he capital or technological inputs of production. We will write a custom essay sample on Quality of Work Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page From standpoint of the characteristics of individual workers , it refers to the degree to which members of a work organization are able to satisfy important personal needs through their experience in the organization. From the unions, perspective , it is a more equitable sharing of the income and resources of the work of organization, and more human healthier working conditions. DIMENSIONS OF STUDY : Quality of work life improvement are defined as any activity which takes place at very level of organization which seeks greater organizational effectiveness through enhancement of human dignity and growth a process through which the stockholders in the organization management, union and employees- learn how to work together to better to determine for themselves what actions, changes improvements are desirable and workable in order to achive twin simultaneous goals of an improve quality of life at work for all members of organization greater effectiveness for the company and unions. Trade union claim that they are responsible for the improvements in various facilities to workers hereas management takes credit for improved salaries, benefits facilities. However, HR manager has identified specific issues in QWL. Klott Mundick Schuster suggested major QWL issues. They are: (1) Pay Employment on permanent basis: Good pay still dominates most of the other factors in employee satisfaction. Various alternative means for providing wages should be developed in view of increase in cost of living index , increase in levels rates of income tax profession tax. QWL must be build around an equitable pay programs . in uture more workers may want to participate in the profits of the firm. Employment of workers on casual, temporary, probationary basis gives them sense of insecurity. On the other hand , employment on the other basis gives them security leads to higher order QWL. (2) Occupational Stress : Stress is a condition of strain on ones emotions, thought process physical condition . stress is determined by the workers abilities nature and match with the Job requirements. Stress is cause due irritability, offering prestigious designation to the Jobs, providing well furnish amp; decent work places, offering membership in clubs or association , providing vehicles, offering vacation trips, or means to recognize the employees hyper- excitation or depression unstable behaviour, fatigue, stuttering, trembling psychometric pains, heavy smoking drug abuse. Stress adversely effects on employees productivity. The HR manager, in order to minimize the stress has to identifiy, prevent tackle the problem. He may arrange the treatment of problem with the health unit or provide some stress buster activities during the hectic work schedule. 3) Organizational Health programs : Organizational health programs aim at educating employees about health problems means of maintaining improving health etc. These programme covers drinking and smoking cessation ( if it is affecting the productivity of employee ) , hypertension control , other forms of cardiovascular risk reduction, family planning etc. Effective implementation of these progrme results in reduction in absenteeism, hospitalization ,disability, excessive Job turnover premature death. It should also covers relaxation, physical exercise , diet control etc. 4) Alternative work schedule : Alternative work schedule including work at home , flexible working hours, staggered hours , and reduced work week, part time employment which may be introduced for the convenience comfort of the workers as the work schedule which offers the individual the leisure time , flexible hours of work is preferred. 5) Participative Management control of work : Trade unions and workers participation in management and decision making improves QWL . workers also feel that they have control their work, use their skills make a real contribution to the Job if they re allowed to participate in creative and decision making process. (6) Recognition : recognizing the employee as a human being rather than as a labourer increases the QWL . Participative management , awarding the rewarding systems , congratulating the employees for their achievement , Job enrichment, offering prestigious designation to the Jobs, providing well furnish and decent work places,offering membership in club or associations , providing vehicles , offering vacation trips, or some means to recognize the employees . (7) Congenial Worker- supervisor Relation : Harmonious supervisor- worker relations give the worker essence of social association , belongingness, achievement of worker results etc. This in turn led to better QWL. 8) Grievance procedure : workers have a sence of fair treatement when the company gives them opportunity to ventilate their grievances and represent their case succinctly rather than settling the problems arbitrarily. (9) Adequacy of resources : Resources should match with stated objective ; otherwise , employee will not be able to attain them . This results in the employee dissatisfaction and lower QWL. 10) Seniority merit in promotions : seniority is generally taken as the basis of promotion in case of operating employees . Merit is considered as the basis for advancement for managerial people whereas seniority cum- merit is preferred for promotion of ministerial employees. The promotional policies activities should be fair 7 Just in order to ensure higher QWL. (11) Welfare Benefits : Since workers are now better organized , educated vociferous, they demand social security welfare benefits as a matter of right which were once considered a part of bargaining process. Quality of Work Life free essay sample I got support from many people without their help I would not have got success. I wish to record sincere appreciation and thanks to them. First of all I would like to thanks Mr. SRINIVASA SASTRY garu, principal, MALLA REDDY INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT for undertaking this project work. I am also thankful to N. V. SHARMA, MBA faculty for Human Resource, Malla Reddy Institute of Management. Who helped me throughout my study and helped me in analysis and interpretation of data preparing the final draft. I am thankful to Mr. J. RAVI KUMAR, head of the department of master of business administration for his encouragement and help throughout the M.B. A course. I am very grateful to Mr. V. V. NAIDU, Senior HR Manager for helping me in various steps and encouraging me for having me an opportunity to work in their organization on a project. Finally, I am very thankful to all of my friends whose cooperation and suggestions have helped me in successful complete of this project. We will write a custom essay sample on Quality of Work Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ABSTRACT In the era of Globalization of market economy, hyper competition and uncertainty of rapidly changing environment the success of an Organization depends on the strategies adopted to improve the Quality of Working life of employees. A growing number of todays Oranizations recognized that Quality of Work Life is one o the human resource strategies to promote and maintain an orderly atmosphere for employees to work effectively. Quality of Working Life refers to the quality of relationship between employees and total work environment of an organization. QWL is a collective responsibility of the management, employees, leaders of the union, Government and behavioral scientists. Quality of Working life in an Organization is a function of management practices that are valued by customers. Quality of work life denotes all the organizational inputs which aim at the employee’ satisfaction and enhancing organizational effectiveness. By the globalization the modern employees are experiencing distress. To meet the challenges posed by present standards, organizational must focus their attention in bringing a balance between work life and personal life. The underlying assumption is that work life balance will ultimately ensure Quality of work life. Sigmund Freud is considered to be the father figure of Psycho analysis. His prescription for a healthy person is a combination of â€Å"Lieben und Arbeiten† that is Love and Work. In present working environment the workers are looking for quality of life as a superior human endeavor. Such endeavor calls for a trade off between work life and family life. Today an employee desires work to be more meaningful and challenging because quality is the acid test. A Quality of work life gives an opportunity for deep sense of fulfillment. Employees seek a supportive work environment that will enable them to balance work with personal interests. Such balance contributes to superior human existence in ample measure. Quality of work life provides a more humanized work environment. It attempts to serve the higher order needs of workers as well as their basic needs. Quality of Work Life indicates that the work should not have excessively negative conditions. It should not put workers under undue stress. It should not damage or degrade their humanness. It should not be threatening or unduly dangerous. Finally it should contribute to, or at least leave un paired, workers abilities to perform in other life roles. Such as citizen, spouse and parent. That is work should contribute to general social advancement. Employees in several companies that instituted Quality of work life experienced better health and greater safety on the job. Other benefits included improved employee satisfaction, morale, job interest, commitment and involvement ; increased opportunity for individual growth ; greater sense of ownership and control of the work environment development of managerial ability for circle leaders, improved communication in the organization and greater understanding and respect between management and workers. The term Quality of work life has been applied to a wide variety of organizational improvement efforts. The common elements seem to be,has good man indicates, an â€Å"attempt to restructure multiple dimensions of the organizational and to institute a mechanism which introduces and sustains changes overtime . Aspects of the change mechanism are usually an increase in problem solving between the union and management Responsiveness to employee concerns. In every organization, people and their behaviour assumes vital role in determining the performance and effectiveness . hile many studies concentrated on physical and financial performance of organization. Studies on behavioural aspects seems to be inadequate. So, the attempts must to understand the human side of the enterprise. In the present scenario, where the world is moving from traditionalisation to modernization, computerization and globalization there is an intense competition. The situations are becoming more complex and the modern employees are experiencing distress. To meet the challenges posed by present standards organization must focus their attention in bringing a balance between work and family life. The Quality of work life movement provides a value frame work and a philosophy which has a long term implication for the human development and enrichment. It tries to balance both the work and family life. Hence integrated approach with regard to Quality of work life is required for the success of an individual and an organization. This underlines the necessity of searching studies on the nature of human relations and the problems of human relations and the problems of human behaviour in the organization and suggest measures to cope with the problems. Hence, an in depth on aspects like Quality of work life can throw light on many non-identified aspects of human behaviour which may help in understanding the issues involved and improving the overall performance of these organizations. There it is found that there is need to study in greater detail about the topic. NEED AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY Quality of work life includes the following features: ? Voluntary involvement on the part of employees. ? Assurance of no loss of jobs as a result of the programs ? Training of employees in team problem solving. ? The use of Quality circles where employees discuss problems affecting the Performance of the work and job environment. ? Encouragement of skill development. ? Skill training ? Responsiveness to employee concerns. APPROACH TO QUALITY OF WORK LIFE The Quality of work life involvement traditionally has been closely identified with the job redesign efforts based on socio-technical systems approach. However during the 1980’s the concept of Quality of work life has been broadened to include a number of approaches aimed at join decision making. Collaboration and mutual respect between management and employees, increased autonomy at work place, and self management. Thus the Quality Circles adopted by Japanese and Indian industries as well as democratization of work process though self-regulating autonomous groups in the Scandinavian countries and USA are all considered part of this movement. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To evaluate and analyse the Quality of work life in ECIL. 2. To study the factors/determinants of Quality of work life. 3. To examine the impact of welfare measures on Quality of work life. 4. To evaluate the aspects of quality of work life and suggest measures in improving quality of work life. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The term Quality of work life in its broader sense covers various aspects of employment and non-employment conditions of work. The present study will aim at studying various factors which influence Quality of work life in ECIL. Although the important components of Quality of work life were comprehensively discussed. The study is dependent on the opinion expressed by the managers and staff of all the departments of the Components Division that are working at Electronic Corporation of India Limited(ECIL). Quality of work life Quality of work life refers to favorable or ungovernableness of the job environment for people . The basic purpose is to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent for people as well as for the organization. Quality of work life includes Walton proposed eight conceptual categories that together make up the quality of work life ? Adequate and fair compensation ? Safe and healthy working conditions ? Immediate opportunity to use and develop human capacities ? Social integration in the work organization ? Constitutionalisation ? Work and total life space ? Social relevance of work life ? Promotion and career planning Adequate and fair compensation This refers to against to just and fair balance between efforts and reward. The compensation helps in manufacturing helps in maintaining a socially desirable standard of life. In India such labour legislations are payment of wages act, 1936 and minimum wages act, 1948 ensure adequate and fair compensation to the employees. Safe and healthy working conditions In order to improve quality of work life the work environment should be free from hazards or other factors determined to healthy and safety of the employees in the work place in India is ensured in the factories act, 1948, which lies down minimum standards of protection from machine and other hazards (noise, pollution, gases etc.. at the place of work. Immediate Opportunities to use and Develop Human Capacities The work today has become repetitive and fragmented. Quality of work life can be improved if the job allows sufficient autonomy and control, uses a wide range of skills and abilities, provides immediate feed back to workers to take corrective action is seen as a total activity and provides opportunity to plan, implement by himself. Social integration in the work organization One of the effectiveness of quality of work life is to generate satisfying identity with the organization and develop a feeling as self esteem. The variables that inculcate these are absence of hierarchical status, opportunity for upward mobility, openness and trust, a sense of community feeling on the job and freedom from prejudice based on sex, caste, race, creed and religion. Constitutionalisation in the work organization Constitution guarantees as right to personnel privacy, free speech, equitable treatment and governance by the â€Å"Rule of Law† are necessary to upload to improve quality of work life Work and the Total life Space The demand of the work, like late hours, frequent travel, quick transfer are oth psychologically and socially very costly to the employee and his family such phenomena Accruing o a regular basis necessarily depress the quality of work life. Social relevance of work life The organization lack of concern for social causes like waste disposal, low quality product, over-aggressive marketing. Employment practices make workers depreciate the value of their work and career, which in turn affec ts their self-esteem. The social responsibility of the organization is an important determinant of quality of work life. The basic concept underlying the quality of work life is â€Å"Humanization of Work†. It involves basically the development of an environment of work that stimulates the creative abilities of the workers ,generate co operation and interest in self growth. Promotion and Career Planning Promotion A promotion takes place when an employee moves to a position higher than the one firmly occupied . His/Her responsibility, status and pay also increases. Promotions are of two types. 1. Vertical promotions:- under which the employees are promoted from one rank to the next higher rank in the same department. 2. Horizontal promotions:- under which employees may be promoted to higher ranks on the other departments. The advantages of having promotion schemes ? They provide an opportunity to the present employees to move into jobs that provide greater satisfaction and prestige. ? They generate within on organization motivational, conditions for better work performance and desired behaviour of all its members. ? Finally, they save as an orderly, logical and prompt source of recruitment for management to fill vacancies as they arise. Career Planning If an organization wants to retain its employees it must satisfy their aspirations for growth and development of advancement in their career . A career plan is a blue print in which the entire career of employees is mapped out from the point of their entry in to the point of their retirement from the organization. Career planning is mostly done for supervisory and managerial positions. Career planning is an integral part of manpower planning. ADVANTAGES OF CAREER PLANNING 1. It motivates employees to avail of the training development facilities. They are convinced that promotions will not fall in their laps merely by luck or through connection. 2. It increases employees loyalty to the organization. By this they can easily integrate their goals with organization goals. . It encourages employees to remain in the organization. By this the labour turnover is reduced. 4. It creates organizations better image in the employment market which helps organization to attract competent people. 5. It contributes to manpower planning as well as to organizational development and effective achievements of corporate goal. The basic concept underlying the Quality of work life is what has come to be known as â€Å"humanization of work†. It involves basically the development of an environment of work that simulates the creative abilities of the workers generates co-operation and interest in self growth. † HERRICK AND MACCOBY (1975) have identified four basic principles which Summaries humanization of work. These principles are 1. The principle of security:- Humanization of work implies freedom from anxiety, fear and the loss of future employment. The working conditions should be safe and there should be no fear of economic want. These pre-conditions will guarantee at most development of skills and ideas. 2. The principle of Quality:- The equity principle requires that there is a just way of revaluating the conditions of an employee. Another aspect of quality refers to paying for knowledge and skills to carry out the task. If work has to be humanized equity would also require sharing in the profits of the organization according to the individual or group contribution. 3. The principle of individual:- Individual refers to the work environment in which employees are encouraged to develop themselves to their almost competence , a system of work that facilitates blossoming of individual potential. A basic precondition for this is the availability of freedom and autonomy in deciding their own pace as activity and design of operations. 4. The principle of democracy:- Meaningful participation in decision-making also guarantees the ‘Right of citizenship. ’ Quality of work life is a complex and multifaced concept implying a concern for the members of an organization irrespective of the level the belong to. It includes job factors like wages and hours of work and also the nature of work itself. With the encouragement of international labour organization achieve lead taken by National of labour, Delhi, the Quality of work life as a movement has started attracting the attention of both academicians as well as practioners in India. In India, the concept of Quality of work life seems to manifest itself in a variety of operational Systems like workers participation, job enrichment, Quality Circle etc. Quality of work life is a broader concept. By time to time that Quality of work life includes Some other factors in it. JOB DESIGN Job design include job enlargement, job rotation job enrichment a. Job enlargement:- Job enlargement as a concept deals with expansion of the job contents by allowing Employees inspect their work , affect minor repairs on the work and quipment and select their own work methods or ‘set-ups’. These refers as to vertical enlargement. ’ Another is ‘horizontal enlargement’ under this scheme one simply adds a larger numbers of some what similar tasks to the present job. b. Job rotation:- It refers to systematically moving employee from one job to another. From the point of view of an organization job rotation helps develop a comman culture because of wide and common exposure and at the same time infuses â€Å"fresh-blood† in the task. c. Job enrichment:- It refers to the process of making jobs more interesting and satisfying, adding to that sense of achievement, increasing responsibility and providing opportunities for advancement and growth. JOB SATISFACTION The attitude of an individual is his general back ground by feeling against which he views many factual events, men and things. A ‘specific subset’ of this general back ground feeling against which the individual appraises the various dimensions of his job is called job satisfaction. Some dimensions are nature of work ,supervisor, pay, promotion and co-workers. There are Three major theories of job satisfaction a) Hertzberg’s motivation:- hygiene theory b) Need –fulfillment theory and c) Social reference-group theory In summary the three theories respectively tell us that:- †¢ Job satisfaction is a function of or is positively related to the degree to which one’s personnel needs fulfilled in the job satisfaction; and †¢ Job satisfaction is a function or is positively related to the degree which the characteristics of the job meet with approval and the desires of the group to which the individual looks for guidance in evaluating the world and defining social reality. AUTONOMOUS WORK TEAMS An autonomous work team is one which can plan, regulate and control its own work world. The management only specifies the goals that too in collaboration with the team. The team organizes the contents and structure of its job, evaluates its own performance, establishes its speed and chooses its production method. It makes its own internal distribution of tasks and decides its own membership. Autonomous team approach increases satisfaction and reduces turnover and absenteeism.