Term Paper

Quality of Work Life

Submitted to Mr. Gagandeep

Submitted by: Mayank Jolly Roll no-16 Btech (H)-Mtech (IT)

Content Acknowledgement Introduction Companies view on QWL Review on QWL Critical appraisal Need and Scope Bibliography

Acknowledgement
The completion and submission of this term paper could not have been possible without the help of my teachers, my friends and last but not the least the internet. The topic given to me was one of the best and latest and it made me to find out some special things about the topic. First and foremost, to my much respected teacher Mr. Gagandeep, for making me realise about the content of this report and for truly understanding what this all is about. I cannot fully express my gratitude to Head of Department, Mr. Rajeev Sobti for their generosity, faith and superb guidance. I would like to thank him really who believed in this from the start. For their generous assistance in the research of the project. My gratitude also to all my friends who provided me with all kind of help they could be.

THANK YOU

Introduction
QUALITY OF WORK LIFE (QWL) It is almost impossible today to pick up a newspaper of news-magazine without finding a reference to quality of work/working life. In the search for improved productivity, manager and executives alike are discovering the important contribution of QWL. QWL entails the design of work systems that enhance the working life experiences of organizational members, thereby improving commitment to and motivation for achieving organizational goals. Most, often, this has been implemented through the design of jobs that afford workers more direct control over their immediate work environment. According to J. LIoyd Suttle, Quality of work life is the degree to which members of a work organization are able to satisfy important personal needs through their experiences in the organization.? More specifically, QWL may be set into operation in terms of employees perceptions of their physical and psychological well-being at work. It includes virtually every major issue that labour has fought for during the last two decades. Major Issues in QWL Jerome M Rosow, president of the Work in American Institute, has identified seven critical factors which will affect the quality of work life during the years ahead. These are pay, employee benefits, job security, alternative work schedules, occupational stress, participation and democracy in the workplace. Pay QWL must be built around an equitable pay programs. In future more workers may want to participate in the profits of the firm. Benefits Since workers are now better organized, educated and vociferous, they demand more from the employers all over the world-apart from the pay-in

the form of social security and welfare benefits as matter of right which were once considered a part of the bargaining process. Job Security Conditions in the work environment must be created by the employer which will give all the employees freedom from fear of losing their jobs. A system must be created in which there are healthy working conditions with optimum financial security. The points stressed above are essential to improve the QWL in organizations. Alternative Work Schedules With a view to tackle job boredom, modern organizations have been experimenting with several forms of alternate work schedules such as four-day work week, flexi-time and part-time work. Compressed work week is a work schedule in which a trade is made between the number of hours worked per day, and the number of days worked per week, or order to work the standard length hours-four days, 10 hours each day or three days, 12 hours each day are examples of the QWL schedule. In India this is being implemented by a few companies successfully. Managers of large manufacturing organizations report substantial savings by reducing start-up time and increasing energy conservation as well as the savings typically gained from increased employee morale, where the four-day work week, the oldest alternative work schedule, is utilized. With the condensed workweek, the employees gain no control over when he will work. In contrast, flexible working hours or a flexi- time schedule gives such control to an employee. Typically, the organization defines a core time (10 a.m-3p.m) during which all employees are expected to work, and then allows a range of time before and after this core period from which employees can decide their own arrival and quitting times, thus offering a real opportunity to reconcile personal and organizational demands. The reported success rate of flexi-time programs is impressive. Increased productivity, lower unit labor costs, and improved morale have been attributed to flexi-time. In the past decade, part-time work-especially in developed countries-has become a very popular innovative work scheduling alternative. The tremendous influx of women into the job market has increased the supply of part-timers as have family members looking for second incomes to keep pace with inflation. At the same time, managers have begun to realize the benefits-higher enthusiasm and lack of boredom which part-time employees bring to specialized jobs.

If quality of life at work could be improved, it would benefit and reward not only the individual employee but also the company, its customers and society as a whole. What impact would it have on the populations quality of life and the business worlds creation of real value if all people thought that their job was exciting and a challenge, and tackled the problems head-on? There is no doubt that to prosper and expand at work is beneficial to both national health and the balance of payment. If quality of life at work can be improved it will benefit and reward not only the individual employee but also the company, its customers and society as a whole. That is why we find it necessary to talk about working-life quality. You have working-life quality when you: 1. Burn for your work, because it is an extension of what you want to do with your life. 2. Develop and become master in your chosen field. 3. Experience fellowship with colleagues and management and is proud of your place of work, and 4. Create real value for customers and the surrounding world by producing products and services of high quality. Many people think that striving for the good life is selfish, but you cannot be something for others if you do not feel good in yourself. Think of your partner, for instance: how can you be loving, inspiring and delightful if you are depressed and in despair, or always tired, dull and without energy? How can you co-operate with your colleagues if you do not have the energy to look at things from their point of view, or do not have what it takes to shoulder your part of the responsibility? Without personal development you cannot count on developing professionally, i.e. at work. Good quality of life is a prerequisite for the following, mastery, fellowship and creation of real value To become a master means developing your abilities and skills to perfection. Everybody can become extremely good at what they do. To become a master is not a question of outdoing others. You conquer yourself, your inertia, your fear and incompetence. But obviously you do not become a master if your work is uninteresting. It has to be something that you find really exciting, and which urges you to practise, to learn more and to improve. You will not become really good without being challenged, without having something to struggle with, or pitting yourself

against exciting and difficult tasks. A lot of work seems to be completely uninteresting and without challenge. "My work is a bit tedious", you may think. "There is no challenge." But your superior does not provide the challenges. You discover them for yourself in life and at work. Likewise, you cannot expect to be given exciting tasks automatically. You have to find out for yourself what really interests
you, and you must make demands at your place of work for tasks, which develop and interest you. It is your responsibility. It was only when we were children that we were spoon-fed.

Finding the challenges and developing your commitment is crucial to obtaining mastery. The fellowship, which forms an important part of working life-quality, includes everybody at work, employees, directors and management. Fellowship is found when people pool their efforts to accomplish something they would not be able to do on their own. It is natural that a certain division of labour will take place as different people have different interests and skills. It therefore follows that if the division of labour is to succeed the members of the group have to co-operate. In such a group it will gradually become obvious that one or several persons work harder, have more initiative and general knowledge than the rest, and consequently they have to help those others to do their best. Such persons form the management of the group.

COMPANIES VIEW OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE

All companies strive to create real value for the surrounding world (customers, clients, users and society as a whole). Creating real value is not a matter of just money. It starts with the individual person. Creating real value means becoming more valuable to yourself and your surroundings. How do we become more valuable as human beings? We can start by asking how valuable we are to ourselves, our partner, children and friends. We are valuable if we are able to create a good life for our nearest and dearest, for ourselves and people in general. How valuable are we to our place of work and to the customers? Many may find that you cannot ask such a question. Most people will probably feel that it is their duty to give their children a good childhood, i.e. to be good and valuable parents, but that they do not have the same responsibility to their place of work or the companys customers. But is work not a unique opportunity to create real value in the world? Is it not part of our responsibility as human beings to be valuable at work? If you owned part of the company you work for, it would be far easier to think that you have to be valuable at work. But even if joint ownership does not exist, employees can have great influence on the work, the way a task is solved, the quality of the product, the sales to the customers, etc. You can be responsible for influencing the company in such a way that your work will result in the greatest possible value The companies use a tool, which we have developed for this purpose. Before and after use working- life quality is measured with instruments in such a way that an effect can be documented. How then do you improve working-life quality? It is a good idea to use a strategy that focuses on personal development, because quality of life at work is especially about a persons personality and not just the professional parts. We can all improve. When that happens, you will find that life gets better year by year. Many think that they are improving, but they are just adapting to changing environments. We leave school, get an education, get married, have children; watch them leave home and retire with a pension. Have we developed on the way?

Real development is about being happier with life and getting better at living it. Ask yourself: was life better, more vigorous and existentially richer when I was 30 than when I was 20? Was it better at 40 than at 30? At 50? And so it goes on. And then think about it, have you really developed or have you come to a standstill in life and at work? Personal development is about two things: to develop the way youre think of life, i.e. your philosophy of life, and to improve the way you actually live, i.e. your practice of life. These two things are interconnected. If, for instance, you believe that life is a big machine with a lot of cogs where you can get in trouble, then you will also typically be a person who in life gets into trouble and is unable extricate yourself from difficult situations. If, on the other hand, you look at life as containing an abundance of exciting opportunities, you will very likely also be good at seizing the challenges and improve yourself. Our experiences confirm our view on things. If deep down we do not believe in teamwork we will experience again and again that teamwork does not work we were right! Similarly, the good and constructive opinions are self-affirmative: if we have confidence in our own capacity to take the initiative and complete difficult tasks, this will generally sees us through and we grow ever more self-confident. Therefore, personal development is about changing your life-restraining views on life and your inappropriate practice of life, which benefits yourself, your place of work and society as a whole.

Review of QWL
H. J. Sutherland1, 2 and J. E. Till2, 3 (1) Division of Epidemiology and Statistics, Ontario Cancer Institute/Princess Margaret Hospital, 500 Sherbourne Street, M4X 1K9 Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2) Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada (3) Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Received: 15 December 1993 Accepted: 26 January 1994 Abstract the relationship between quality of life (QOL) assessments and decision making, in relation to the delivery of health services, is subjected to critical appraisal. Three levels of decision making in the health care system are taken into account in the analysis. Criticisms of opinion polling provide the basis for the appraisal. Examples of criticisms considered are: Might the use of QOL information be manipulative? Could the interviews or questionnaires used to obtain QOL data influence personal opinions? Are the methods used sometimes defective and/or superficial? Will QOL information always be used in decision making in ways that are ascertainable and justifiable? It is concluded that the time has come for the main focus of critical appraisal in QOL research to shift, from an emphasis on evaluation of the quality of methods used for assessments of QOL, toward an emphasis on the practical usefulness of QOL data.

Critical Appraisal of QWl

Job quality and the economics of New Labour: a critical appraisal using subjective survey data Andrew Brown, Andy Charlwood, Chris Forde and David Spencer*
*

Leeds University Business School (Brown, Forde and Spencer) and Warwick Business School (Charlwood) This paper assesses the record on job quality during the early term of office of the New Labour government by interpreting, from a political economy perspective, changes in a variety of subjective measures of job quality taken from several different data sources. We find some improvements in job quality over the period 19982004; however we argue that these improvements have arisen not because of New Labour's policies towards the workplace but because of low and falling rates of unemployment. Despite recent improvements, a large number of workers in Britain remain in low quality jobs and, without a radical change of policy direction, sustained and substantial progress in the quality of work will remain elusive. JEL classifications: B50, I31, J8, J28

Need and Scope

The term QWL was introduced in the late 1960s as a way of focusing on the effects of employment on health and general well-being and ways to enhance the quality of a persons on the job experience. QWL is much broader and more diverse than organizational development, in ensuring adequate and fair compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, opportunities for personal growth and development, satisfaction of social needs at work, protection of employee rights, compatibility between work and non-work responsibilities and the social relevance of work-life [4,11]. Meaningful and satisfying work is said to include: (1) an opportunity to exercise ones talents and capacities, to face challenges and situations that require independent initiative and self-direction (and which therefore is not boring and repetitive work); (2) In an activity thought to be of worth by the individual involved; (3) In which one understands the role ones activity plays in the achievement of some overall goal; and (4) Take pride in what one is doing and in doing it well. This issue of meaningful and satisfying work is often merged with discussions of job satisfaction, however, the author believed this favourable estimate to QWL instead.

Bibliography
www.managementparadise.com www.icmrindia.org www.google.com www.britanica.com www.wikipedia.com