Abstract

Quality of Work Life (QWL) is the key factor which attracts and holds the people in the
organization to perform better in the working environment. Effective implementation of
QWL leads to improved performance motivation, job satisfaction, commitment etc. This
paper focuses on the study of work life of the management faculties working in various
colleges. The research concludes that their there is a positive correlation between QWL and
employee job satisfaction level. The sample consists of 50 faculty respondents of different
private management institutions. The questionnaire was designed based on the vital
components of QWL and job satisfaction. The correlation analysis clearly reveals that QWL
and job satisfaction of faculty members are positively correlated

Introduction
INTRODUCTION
The Quality of Work Life (QWL) has assumed increasingly interest and importance in all the
countries of the World. It is very significant in the context of commitment to work,
motivation
and job performance. It is also means to facilitate the gratification of human needs and goal
achievement. Work life naturally means the life of workers, physical and intellectual, in their
work environment in office or factory or field-working. What is expected of the worker?
What
are the conditions of the work place? What is the compensation that the worker gets? What
are
the incentives offered to him? How about his contentment with the work environment and the
compensation? These are the questions to be tackled by the Researcher in any study of work
life. Quality of work Life is referred to as humanizing the working life and emphasizing the
human factor. It mostly refers to favorableness or unfavourableness of a job environment for
the people involved in it. The basic objective is to develop jobs that are excellent for people
as well as for production. So we can see the basic questions of Quality Work Life.


What is Quality? Quality is the ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed
customer expectations. What is work? Work can be defined as the application of discretion
within limits in order to produce a result. What is work life? Work life does not merely means
the facilities provided to the employees during office hours. It comprises of all the collusive
feelings, which reside in the mind of the employee while he works in the organization, he is
in the office or away from it.


ORIGION OF THE CONCEPT
After Industrial Revolution, the importance of human factor reduced because of the vast
mechanization. Various problems like job dissatisfaction, boredom, absenteeism, lack of
commitment etc came up. Most management theories give emphasis on production,
manipulating the skills of employees. Tavy stock Institute of Human Relations me research
on workers problems in Industrial world and they produced a study approach called Socio-
technical system in which they gave great importance to job design to satisfy human needs
adequately and the need for Q.W.L. in an organization was emphasized.






WHY NEED QUALITY OF WORK LIFE?
In current scenario every organization wants more output in comparison of less input, it can
be possible when working employee find its working place comfortable as per the job
requirement. So its very important for an organization to make a Quality relationship between
its employees and working environment. Now-a-days, there is no balance between the family
and work life due to job pressure and conflicting interests and over-socialization that lead to
too much of interest about the co-workers for satisfaction of their ego, creating problems in
the minds of neighbors. The work-norms impose on workers too much of burden and control
by their bosses. And the rules are for workers or employees. They have to follow, and the
employer has right to layoff the worker due to marketing and technological factors. The
Indian workers and their Unions are now on the defensive. They are now more interested in
the question of how to retain their jobs than in the question of how to improve their Quality
of Life in the work place. It is therefore not difficult to understand why the question of
improving Quality of Work Life has lost its importance in our country. The Quality of Work
Life movement which draws attention to workers need for meaningful and satisfying work
and for participation in decisions that affect their work situation. And work is a major
formation experience which can either promote or limit a mans growth in ways which affect
the whole man and which therefore shape his life outside the job as well as within it.


Introduction
Origin of Quality of work life is dated back in industrial revolution. When higher productivity is
emphasized to such an extent that workers were considered as machines or we can say human factor
is totally misplaced. Soon the negative results of this practice became prevalent in the form of
absenteeism, low turn over, poor morale and occasional sabotage, boredom, fatigue, accidents
resulting from inattention, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc. Therefore In early 20th century Legislation
was enacted to avoid job-injuries and dangerous working conditions. Job security was stressed in the
unionization movement (1930- 1940), mainly because of the production process and economic gains
for the workers. During 1950s and 1960s, various theories were developed by psychologists
suggesting a positive relationship between morale and productivity, and the possibility that
improvement in human relations would lead to enhancement of both. The term Quality of Work Life
has appeared in 1970s in the Research Journals and press in USA. Louis Davis coined the term
quality of work life. In 1972, the first International QWL conference was held in Toronto and in the
same year, the international council for quality of work life was established.
Meaning of QWL
Quality of Work Life refers to the favorableness or unfavorableness of a job environment for people1.
QWL means the sum total of values, both material and nonmaterial, attained by a worker throughout
his career life. QWL includes aspects of work-related life such as wages and hours, work
environment, benefits and services, career prospects and human relations, which is possibly relevant
to worker satisfaction and motivation2. One way equates QWL with a set of objective organizational
conditions and practices (e.g., promotion from within policies,












INTRODUCTION
The success of any organization is highly dependent on how it attracts, recruits, motivates,
and
retains its workforce. Today's organizations need to be more flexible so that they are
equipped to develop their workforce and enjoy their commitment. Therefore, organizations
are required to adopt a strategy to improve the employees 'quality of work life'(QWL) to
satisfy both the organizational objectives and employee needs. The term (QWL) refers to the
favorableness or unfavourableness of a total job environment for people. QWL programs are
another way in which organisations recognise their responsibility to develop jobs and
working conditions that are excellent for people as well as for economic health of the
organisation. The elements in a typical QWL program include - open communications,
equitable reward systems, a concern for employee job security and satisfying careers and
participation in decision making. Many early QWL efforts focus on job enrichment. In
addition to improving the work system, QWL programs usually emphasise development of
employee skills, the reduction of occupational stress and the development of more co-
operative labour-management relations. The recent definition by Serey (2006) on QWL is
quite conclusive and best meet the contemporary work environment. The definition is related
to meaningful and satisfying work which emphasizes 4 C's i.e. Concern, consciousness,
capacity and commitment. It includes (i) an opportunity to exercise one's talents and
capacities, to face challenges and situations that require independent initiative and self-
direction; (ii) an activity thought to be worthwhile by the individuals involved; (iii) an
activity in which one understands the role the individual plays in the achievement of some
overall goals; and (iv) a sense of taking 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, and believed to be more favourable to QWL. This review on the definitions of
QWL indicates that QWL is a multidimensional construct, made up of a number of
interrelated factors that need careful consideration to conceptualize and measure. It is
associated with job satisfaction, job involvement, motivation, productivity, health, safety and
well-being, job security, competence development and balance between work and non work
life as is conceptualized by European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions
(2002). There is an all round demand for developing the humanised jobs which can satisfy
workers higher needs, employ their higher skills and make them better citizens, spouses and
parents. The jobs need to be excellent both from the point of view of technology and human
needs. The traditional job design needs to be replaced by enriched job design. This demand
for redesigning of jobs has come to be known as Quality of Work Life. It enjoins
management to treat workers as human resources that are to be developed rather than simply
used.
Background
The term QWL gained importance in the late 1960s as a way of concerns about effects of
job/work on health and general well-being and ways to positively influence the quality of a
persons work experience. Up until the mid-1970s, employers concern was on work design
and working conditions improvement. However, in the next decade of 1980s, the concept of
QWL included other aspects that affect employees' job satisfaction and productivity and these
aspects are, reward systems, physical work environment, employee involvement, rights and
esteem needs (Cummings and Worley, 2005).









However the radical changes in the world of business, like factors such as globalization,
information technology, world business competitiveness and scarcity of natural resources
have changed employee's outlook of how a good company is defined. The trend in past was
to include financial figures in defining a good company. Latest trends like, ethics, quality
of work life (QWL) and job satisfaction are now considered important predictors of
sustainability and viability of business organizations. Bagnara, Mariani and Parlangeli (2001)
found in their survey that people working in high technology enabled and uncertain working
environment are more vulnerable to stress than others. Martinsons and Cheung (2001)
concluded from their research that frequent changes in work environment directly or
indirectly influence the performance and productivity of IT professionals. Indeed the changes
in working conditions result in stressful conditions and the employees are still expected to
perform under stress. Now the organization needs to have effective coping strategies in place;
to handle the after effects of performance under stress. A high quality of work life is essential
for organizations to continue to attract and retain employees. QWL is a process in which
organizations recognize their responsibility to develop job and working conditions that are
excellent for the employee and organization.
Affect of QWL on Organizational Performance
Quality of work life is a concept of behavioral scientist, and the term was first introduced by
Davis in 1972 (Mathur, 1989; Hian and Einstein, 1990). According Robins (1990) QWL is a
process by which an organization responds to employee needs by developing mechanisms to
allow them to share fully in making the decisions that design their lives at work. The key
elements of QWL in the literature include job security, job satisfaction, better reward system,
employee benefits, employee involvement and organizational performance (Havlovic, 1991;
Scobel, 1975). For the purpose of this study, QWL is defined as the favorable condition and
environment of employees benefit, employees welfare and management attitudes towards
operational workers as well as employees in general. Therefore, quality of life is sociological
and psychological phenomenon, but sociologists are not putting their interest in industrial
sector, where the workers are the core potential resource for organizational performance. In
the workplace, the term QWL is work in excellence and working conditions such as
standards of living, life styles. Now the term has developed with the introduction of social
compliance (SC) in the workplace. In the past decade, there was a trend to introduce ISO
9001, and ISO 14000, with the emphasis on product quality. Blishe and Atkinson (1978) have
shown that there are two kinds of indicators for defining quality of life. One is an objective
indicator, for example money and the other is subjective indicator, such as financial status,
living standard, job etc. In a nutshell, objective indicators define as quality of life in terms of
goods and while subjective indicators are defined as quality of life as perceived by
individuals. Hankiss (1978) stated that quality of life is not a sum of its component units.
Quality of life is more than interaction, attitude, aspiration, fears, satisfaction or
dissatisfaction thus it creates cross cultural similarities and dissimilarities. The behavioural
scientist Abrams (1973), Hall (1976), Andrews and Withey (1976), Campbell et al., (1976)
and Blishen et al., (1975) believe and state their views of quality of work that it is the
combination of statistical and psychological factors. They assessed responsibility as
subjectivity and the other people well-being as objective indicators. Stone (1978) has stated
in his paper on organic solidarity and life quality indicators that quality of life has been
accepted by psychological factors. That has been considered as an individual satisfying or
frustrating factors. Later, Mishra (1985) found in his study that age and length of service did
not affect QWL. It was a function of income of the employees, income leads to high QWL,
and higher level of education higher level of QWL.
QWL and organizational factors
QWL practice involves acquiring, training, developing, motivating and appraising for the best
performance of the employees as per organizational objectives. Indeed, core elements of
QWL are of working conditions, employee job satisfaction, employees behavioral aspects,
and employees financial and non-financial benefits, growth and development, and
supervision (Lau & May, 1998; Hackman & Oldham, 1975; Taylor & Bowers, 1972). Job
satisfaction can be understood by explaining people want to come to work. Locke (1976)
defined job satisfaction as a positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job
or job experiences. Though various researchers identified it in different ways and conclude
that its a combination of physiological, psychological and environmental circumstances, the
result of this combination is a persons job satisfaction. Job satisfaction has significant affect
on organizational performance in terms of wages, salary, incentives, boss-subordinate
relationships, company policy, promotion, job itself, co-worker relationship (hygiene factors)
(Nash, 1985). Job satisfaction in recent year has become associated with quality of work life
movement. It is well known that employee intrinsic motivation has an impact on
organizational performance and Herzberg et al. (1959) had shown that motivated employees
tend to performs better. Company need to find out the factors that influence employees
satisfaction and to ensure their quality of work life (Gilgeous, 1998).














































1. Introduction
Their have been divergent views at to what really is QWL. It has become an umbrella
term for a host of activities and has been defined differently by different people at
different times. Glasier (1976) thinks that the term QWL more than job security, good
working conditions, adequate and fair compensations, more even than an equal
employment opportunity. Furthermore, the concept of QWL is considered as
multidimensional (Davis and Cherns, 1975 Lee and Kanungo, 1984 Mirves and
Lawler , 1984) .Walton ( 1982 ) provides eight conceptual categories for analyzing
the features of QWL . They are
1. Adequate and fair compensation.
2. Safe and Healthy working conditions
3. Immediate opportunity to use and develop human capacities
4. Future opportunity for continual growth and security
5. Constitutionalism
6. Total life span
7. Social relevance of worklife .

1.1 Component and Dimensions of QWL
The QWL can be defined as the quality of relationship between the employees and
the work environment which is such that employees have a significant influence in
shaping organizational environments in methods used to increase not only their own
motivations and job satisfaction but also the productivity and profits of the company
.QWL covers a number of areas like adequate fair compensations , eliminations of
health hazards in employment , employees benefit , job security , alternative work
schedules ,profit sharing , work place participation and the like .


2.1 Job Satisfaction
It refers to the set of attitudes that employees have about their jobs. It is a
psychological disposition of people towards their jobs and how they feel about their
work and this involves a collection of numerous attitudes and feelings. It is an
established fact that job satisfaction usually leads to qualitative and quantitative
improvement in performance. Satisfaction in the job induced motivation and interest
in work. When work becomes interesting, the worker gets from a job of his choice
gives him tremendous psychological satisfaction .Job Satisfaction is defined as an
emotional state resulting from the appraisal of ones job as achieving or facilitating
the achievement of ones job value (Locke, 1976).


3.3 Concept and Operationalization
Quality of work life ( QWL) has been conceptualized and defined by various
researchers of which the views of Yousuf ( 1996) , Gani ( 1993) and Velayudhian
and Venkatachalam ( 1997) were consulted to operationalize QWL .






















Objectives of the Study


To identify the critical factors affecting QWL and nature job satisfaction among
faculty members.

To find out the interrelationships between the various dimensions of QWL and faculty
member job satisfaction in the private colleges of Bangalore.



































Table 1. Respondent Profile
Employee Type Number Percentage
Male 36 72%
Female 14 28%
Total 50 100%

Table 2. Correlation between Job satisfaction & Quality of work life Parameters





Table 3. Percentage Values of Job Satisfaction across Gender








Table 3. Regression result showing the relationship between QWL and organizational
performance
Model R R
Square
Adjusted
R square
F Change Std. Error of the
Estimate
Sig
1 .686 .521 .496 48.129 .21565 .000



QWL and Job Satisfaction

Coefficient of Correlation
Work Environment 0.68
Personal Growth Opportunities 0.83
Self-Identity 0.95
Flexibility 0.80
Respect 0.98
Ownership 0.68
Equality 0.84
Support 0.76


QWL and Job Satisfaction

Male Female
Work Environment
Personal Development
Self-Identity
Flexibility
Respect
Ownership
Equality
Support

Table 4. Regression result showing the relationship between QWL and Job
Satisfaction
Model R R
Square
Adjusted
R square
F Change Std. Error of the
Estimate
Sig
1 .686 .521 .496 48.129 .21565 .000