Research Proposal

A comparative study on Quality of Work life of the Employees of Foreign and

Private of Selected Banks in Gujarat

A Research Proposal to be submitted

To
Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad,
For
Short Term Course on Research methodology

By:
Dr. Ashok D.Gaur
B.J.Vanijya Mahavidyalaya (BJVM), Vallabh Vidyanagar
Introduction:

The quest for improved productivity through human resources has its beginning in the early
1900’s. F. W. Taylor’s scientific management principles created a new awareness regarding
human resources , who were earlier considered as mere instruments of production ready to work
from dawn to dusk under whatever conditions and being motivated by the lure of money. From
then – onwards research and experiments have been undertaken to understand human beings at
work and the ways to improve their job satisfaction, balanced with the aim of the organizations
to combine better productivity with job and employee satisfaction. The concept of Quality of
Work-life (QWL), has originated from the continuous research process. The term QWL was
introduced by Louis Davis (1972) at the first International Quality of Work-Life Conference held
in Toronto. it made its appearance in India around mid 70’s .

The quality of work life(QWL) is a wide term covering an immense variety of programmes,
techniques, theories and management styles through which organizations and jobs are designed
so as grant employees more autonomy, responsibility and authority than is usually done. It is a
comprehensive, department- wide program designated to improve employee satisfaction,
strengthening workplace learning and helping employees (Anonymous, 2005).A high quality of
work life is essential for organizations to continue, to attract and retain employees (Sandrick,
2003). Many factors contribute to QWL which includes adequate and fair remuneration, safe and
healthy working conditions and social integration in the work organization that enables an
individual to develop and use all his or her capacities; it holds that people are the most important
resource in the organization as they are trustworthy, responsible and capable of making valuable
contribution and they should be treated with dignity and respect. (Straw, R.J. and C.C.
Heckscher, 1984).

Creating better jobs and a better quality of work are key elements of the social model. This
includes areas such as the organisation of work and work activities; training, skills and
employability; health, safety and wellbeing; as well as working time and work–life balance.’
However, improving the quality of work and working conditions is a new concept incorporate in
Employment Strategy, which previously concentrated mainly on quantitative measures such as
increasing employment and reducing unemployment. Improving the quality and productivity of
work could lead to more, as well as better, jobs. In the recent time, a strategy for smart,
sustainable and inclusive growth, the focus, is on increasing employment, but a more innovative
climate should, according to the strategy, also contribute to good-quality jobs. Skill-raising and
vocational training is the preferred method to reach the targets in the strategy, and social partners
are seen as key actors in contributing to this, through the use of social dialogue.

Resent requirement is to link between social dialogue and working conditions and their impact
on performance. This research will focus on links between the quality of work and performance.

Quality of Work:

A complex and dynamic image of the new economy is emerging. If this image remains opaque in
spots, it is because we know little about how men and women actually experience working
conditions, the expectations they take with them into workplaces, and the possibly different
impacts of information technology. These additional dimensions of what may or may not define
a ‘good job’ are the missing pieces in our understanding of the issues of convergence or
divergence discussed above.

Here, rather than focusing on the big ‘structural’ forces that are transforming work, researcher
view the rise of the new economy from the vantage point of workers. This offers a multifaceted
assessment of the quality of work at the start of the 21st century for employee. To fully grasp the
implications of the knowledge economy for women and men, we must account for a wide range
of job and workplace features. A logical starting point is to ask: “What do employee want in a
job?” Answers to this question provide a benchmark for judging whether the ‘new economy’
trends of recent years are meeting the needs of employee and whether there is convergence or
divergence on these subjective dimensions of work.

This approach has several advantages for human resource management practices and public
policy. Many employers are striving to become knowledge-based organizations and, at the same
time, are facing the challenges of succession, recruitment and retention that will only increase as
the baby boom generation retires. We believe that a better understanding of how employee
experience work – in short, the quality of their jobs – has direct implications for achieving the
goal of becoming a ‘workplace of choice’. It is not enough to set goals for attracting and
retaining skilled knowledge workers, if males and females in this talent pool are seeking
different things in a job.
Both employers and policy makers have directly linked innovation and productivity to the
quality of human capital available. We are simply extending this argument to include factors,
such as employment relationships and work rewards, which can help or hinder the development
and use of human capital. From a policy standpoint, information on male-female differences (or
similarities) in the quality of working life enables more effective responses to issues such as
work-family balance or workplace training and learning.
Employers will also need to position themselves to retain valued workers already on staff.
Currently, almost one-quarter of individuals employed in professional and administrative
occupations in business and finance are 50 years of age or older. The age profile is even older in
other sectors, such as education, where more than 25 percent of teachers and professors are now
50 plus. Offering older workers job characteristics they value may be one way to persuade them
to remain on the job. In addition to remuneration, factors such as flexible schedules, interesting
work assignments, work-life balance, and an opportunity to contribute to the community may be
ways to entice them to stay.
Again, this underscores the importance of assessing what it is individuals value in their job and
what could be ‘played up’ to make those jobs more attractive. Furthermore, determining what
employees want in a job and offering it to them can have an impact on organizational
performance and the bottom line. Employees whose jobs meet their expectations will likely be
more satisfied.
Review Of Literature:
Both employers and employees now better appreciate the importance of the Quality of work life
in an organization. Quality of worklife is important to organizational performance (Grayson,
1973). Quality of work life is an important factor that affects motivation at work (Ghosh, 1992).
Quality of work life programmes has two objectives: to enhance the productivity and the
satisfaction of employees (Gardon, 1984). Quality of work life is the quality of the content of
relationship between employees and their total working environment with human dimensions
added to the usual technical and economic ones. Glasier (1976) thinks that quality of work life
implies job security, good working conditions, adequate and fair compensation, more even than
equal employment opportunity all together. In their excessive literature review Katzell et. Al
(1975) viewed quality of work life more broadly as an individual’s evaluation of the outcome of
the work relationship. They observed that a employee may be said to enjoy a high quality of
working life when he has positive feelings towards his job and its future prospects, is motivated
to stay on the job and performs well and feels his working life fits well with his private life to
afford him a balance between the two in terms of his personal values. Walton (1973) suggested
eight major conceptual areas for understanding quality of work life. These were adequate and
fair compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, development of human competencies,
growth and security, social integration, constitutionalization and total life space and social
reliance. Various other studies conducted on quality of work life include employment conditions,
employment security, income adequacy, profit sharing, equity and other rewards, employee
autonomy, employee commitment, social interaction, self- esteem, self- expression, democracy,
employee satisfaction, employee involvement, advancement, relations with supervisors and peers
and job enrichment ( Chander and Singh, 1993).
Runcie (1980) remarked that should an employee have positive perception of the quality of
worklife in the company, he would further probably strive to further improve the working
conditions, increase production and quality products. The experiences of a fair number of
organizations indicate that a number of specific roles and structures and the support systems,
must be in place and functioning effectively in order that the quality of work life programmes
remain viable grow, involve, permeate the organizational culture and produce long term success
and benefits.The cross nation experiences amply demonstrate that improvement in quality of
work life has definite potential and scope in improving productivity (Ledford and Lawler, 1982)
and overall organizational effectiveness ( Buchanan and Boddy, 1982) as also reducing
grievances, turnover and absenteeism ( Goodman, 1980) and industrial accidents (Havolovic,
1991). Yet inspite of the plethora of research on the subject, the efforts on the part of researchers
to identify the factors of quality of work life in the Indian context have not been encouraging.
Thompson indicated quality of work life programs a movement toward greater engagement with
the cooperation, knowledge and tactic skills of the work force. Delamotte and Walker (1974)
indicated that the number of emphasis have been made in the humanization of work including:
the need to protect the worker from hazards to health and safety, the wage work bargain, the
protection of workers from hazards of illness and unemployment and the protection of the
worker from arbitrary the authority of management.
Rational for taking this research:
Most companies apply a bundle of measures to improve different dimensions of quality of work.
Therefore it is difficult to single out how one specific measure affects performance. The report
further shows that in some companies the chain of links from improvement of quality of work to
increased performance is not fully recognized by themselves. Also, in a number of cases the
positive relationship between quality of work and performance is anticipated, but not in any
sense verified. Employers need to position themselves to retain valued workers already on staff.
Currently, almost one-quarter of individuals employed in professional and administrative
occupations in business and finance are 50 years of age or older. The age profile is even older in
other sectors, such as education, where more than 25 percent of teachers and professors are now
50 plus. Offering older workers job characteristics they value may be one way to persuade them
to remain on the job. In addition to remuneration, factors such as flexible schedules, interesting
work assignments, work-life balance, and an opportunity to contribute to the community may be
ways to entice them to stay.
Again, this underscores the importance of assessing what it is individuals value in their job and
what could be ‘played up’ to make those jobs more attractive. Furthermore, determining what
employees want in a job and offering it to them can have an impact on organizational
performance and the bottom line. Employees whose jobs meet their expectations will likely be
more satisfied. One should work on relating working condition and job satisfaction of employees
and hence its impact on their performance. Present research work is an attempt in the same
direction.
Objectives of the study:

The purpose of this study is to

1) Know the quality of work life in selected private and Foreign banks in Gujarat
2) To compare quality of work life between gender, age groups and banks
Problem of the study:
The present study will mainly focus on quality of work life in the selected banking units of
Gujarat. Researcher wants to find out a model / relationship between quality of work life, job
satisfaction and performance of the employee in selected banking units. Here mutual comparison
of selected variables between banks will also make.
Scope of the research:
Present study will be done on selected Foreign and private banks of Gujarat State. It may be
generalized for the universe (West zone or India). Through this work, researcher will try to
obtain a predictive model which will be useful for the future.

Developing the hypothesis:

1) Quality of work life is same in selected Foreign and Private banks

2) There is no difference in quality of work life between gender, age groups and banking
units
Primary Data:

The data for this study will be collected from employees of selected Foreign and Private banks
from Gujarat state. The data will be collected on the basis of personal interviews and/or
questionnaire by personal visit of the researcher. The information collected on this basis will be
both qualitative as well quantitative.

Research Tool:
Pre – tested questionnaire will be used to collect the necessary information related to the present
study.
Sampling and Population:
Researcher collect data from metropolitan cities of Gujarat Four branches of foreign banks and
branches of private banks will be selected for the study. Thus for the present research, total 32
Branches of Foreign and Private banks will be selected and hence the sample size becomes 320
(32x10) employees from selected banks. The data collection procedure will be purely
randomized.
Foreign Banks
1. DBS Bank Ltd. Singapore
2. HSBC Ltd Hong Kong
3. Citibank N.A. USA
4. Standard Chartered Bank United Kingdom
Private Banks
1. Axis Bank – Mumbai
2. HDFC Bank – Mumbai
3. ICICI Bank – Mumbai
4. Yes Bank – Mumbai
The study has population of all banking units of Gujarat.
Statistical Data Analysis:
Collected information will be entered in Excel sheet and analyzed using standard statistical tools.
The basic information will be present in terms of Frequency and Percentage form. The
descriptive statistics like mean, median, mode, Standard Deviation (S.D.) will be obtained
depending on the necessity. Probable statistical tests applied for the data analysis are ANOVA, t-
test, chi-square test and correlation.
Limitations of the study:
Each research study has its own limitations. It might be economic or time or non-response.
Below the researcher has mentioned several limitations of his study.
1. The study is targeted on only Gujarat state.

2. The answers given by the respondents are subjective and hence it may cause the result.

3. As a study is going to done in a particular region, the results obtained from this study
may not be taken granted for all employees in the universe.

4. The data collection is a very tough task and it requires passion, money and time. Due to
some limitations of the researcher, it is not possible to collect information from other
regions.
References:
1) Anonymous (2005). Quality of Work Life Task Force looks to integrate home and work.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, House Organ. Available from http://
www.Quality20%of/20%work/20% life. htm.
2) Buchanan, D. A., & Boddy, D. (1982), Advanced technology and the quality of Work
Life” Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol.55, 1-11.
3) Chander, Subash and Singh, parampal (1983), ―Quality of work life in a University: An
Empirical Investigation, Management and Labour Studies, Vol.18, No.2, pp. 97-101.
4) Delamotte, Y. and Walker, K. F., (1974) "Humanisation of Work and the Quality of
Working Life — Trends and Issues", International Institute for Labour Studies Bulletin ,
Vol. 11, , pp. 3-14
5) Gardon, Herman (1984), ―Making sense of Quality of work life programmes, Business
Horizons.
6) Glasier, E (1976), ―State of the Art, Questions about Quality of Work Life, Personnel.
7) Goodman, P.S. (1980), ―Quality of Work Life Projects in 1980’s Industrial Relations
Research Association: pp-487-494
8) Gosh, Subratesh (1992), ―Quality of Work Life in Two Indian Organizations Decisions,
Vol.19, No.2, pp- 89- 102. Grayson, C.J (1973), ―Management Science and Business
Practice, Harvard Business Review, Vol.51, No.4
9) Havolovic, S.J. (1991), ―Quality of Work Life and Human Resource Outcomes
Industrial Relations, Vol.30, No.3, pp.469-479
10) Katzell, R.A., Yankelovich, D., Fein M., Ornate, D.A. & Nash, A. (1975), ―Work
Productivity and Job Satisfaction, The Psychological Corporation, New York.
11) Ledford, G. E. and Lawler, E. E. (1982). ―Quality of work life programs, coordination,
and productivity, Journal of Contemporary Business, Vol. 11, 93-106
12) Louis, Davis and Cherns Albert, B (1975), ―The Quality of working Life, Vol. 1, Free
Press, New York.
13) Runcie, J. F. (1980), ―Dynamic Systems and the Quality of Work Life, Personnel, Vol.
57(6): 13–. 24.
14) Sandrick k (2003). Putting the emphasis on employees as an award. Winning employer,
Baptist health care has distant memories of the workforce shortage, Trustee., pp. 6-10.
15) Straw, R.J. and C.C. Heckscher, 1984. QWL: New working relationships in the
communication industry. Labor Studies J., Vol. 9: 261-274.
16) Walton, R. (1973), ― Quality of Work life Indicators- Prospects and Problems- A
Portigal Measuring the Quality of working life, pp-57-70, Ottawa.