A

Minor Project Report

on
Quality of work life
Submitted in the partial fulfillment of degree of

Bachelor of Business Administration

( 2013-2016)

Under the guidance of

Ms. Gurpreet kaur
ASST.PROF. FIMT

Submitted by
SHER SINGH
Enrolment No. 06990101713
BBA (G) 3rd Semester

FAIRFIELD INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University , Delhi
Kapashrera, New Delhi - 110037
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 STUDENT DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project entitled QUALITY OF WORK LIFE under the
guidance of Ms.Gurpreet kaur submitted to the department of management in the partial
fulfillment of the degree of bachelor of business administration from “Fairfield institute
of management & technology New Delhi, this is my original work and this project work
gas not formed the bases for the award of any degree to the best of my belief and
knowledge.

SHER SINGH ( 06990101713)

SIGNATURE OF STUDENT

Place: New Delhi

Date:

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 CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project entitledQuality of Work Life is an original work of
SHER SINGH of Bachelor of BusinessAdmiration, 3rd Semester and has been daily
completed under my guidance and supervisionThis work has been done in partial
fulfillment of the requirementforth award of the degree of BBA from Fairfield Institute
of Management and Technology affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha
University, Delhi and has not been submitted anywhere in any other university for the
award any degree to thebest Of my knowledge.

.
Gurpreet Kaur
Assistant Professor
Department of Management
FIMT, Kapashera, New Delhi

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 Acknowledgment

It is a pleasure to acknowledge many people who knowingly & unwitting helped the, to
complete any project. First of fall let me praise god for all the blessing, which carried me
through those year.

I am particularly indebted to, Dr. R.K. Garg, Director of College, which inculcated in me
almost values and Groomed me up in the field of management to take on the challenges of
any competitive world.

Iwould also like to empress my iambuses gratitude to towards all the lecture of our colleges
for providing the invaluable knowledge, guidance encouragement entered during the
competition of this project. I entered any sincere gratitude to all my teachers and guide who
made unforgettable contribution. Due to there sincere efforts I was able to excel in the work
entrusted upon me.

Last but not the lest, I am grateful to my presents, my siblings and my friends and all well-
wishers for their moral support and encouragement during the entire period of time.

SHER SINGH

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 CONTETNS

S.No Topic Page No

1 Cover page
-
2 Student Declaration i.

3 Certificate ii.

4 Acknowledgements iii.

5 List of Table -

6 List of Figure -

7 List of Abbrevations -

8 Executive Summary -
9 Introduction -

10 Chapter 1. Concepts of Quality of Work Life 7-16

11 Chapter 2. Dimensions of Quality of Work Life 17-20

12 Chapter 3. Principal and Strategies of Quality of Work 21-30

Life

13 Chapter 4. Benefits and Potential Difficulties of Quality 31-33

of Work Life

14 Chapter 5. Examples of QWL Programmes 34-35

15 Chapter 6. Case Study 36-38
16 Chapter 7 Conclusion 39-40

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table No Title Page No

1.1 Difference between Quality of Life and Quality of Work Life

3.2.1 Benefits of work-life balance

LIST OF FIGURES

Table No Title Page No

1.2a A conceptual model of Quality of Work Life

3.2a A strategies approach to work-life balance

4.a Benefits of QWL

LIST OF ABBREVATIONS

S. No Abbreviated Name Full Name

1 QWL Quality of work life

2 WLB Work life Balance

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 Executive Summary

Quality of work life (QWL) is viewed as an alternative to the control approach of

managing people. The QWL approach considers people as an ‘asset ‘to the
organization rather than as ‘costs'. It believes that people perform better when they
are allowed to participate in managing their work and make decisions.

This approach motivates people by satisfying not only their economic needs but
also their social and psychological ones. To satisfy the new generation workforce,
organizations need to concentrate on job designs and organization of work. Further,
today's workforce is realizing the importance of relationships and is trying to strike
a balance between career and personal lives.

Successful organizations support and provide facilities to their people to help them to
balance the scales. In this process, organizations are coming up with new and
innovative ideas to improve the quality of work and quality of work life of every
individual in the organization. Various programs like flex time, alternative work
schedules, compressed work weeks, telecommuting etc., are being adopted by these
organizations.

Technological advances further help organizations to implement these programs

successfully. Organizations are enjoying the fruits of implementing QWL programs
in the form of increased productivity, and an efficient, satisfied, and committed
workforce which aims to achieve organizational objectives. The future work world
will also have more women entrepreneurs and they will encourage and adopt QWL
programs.

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 CHAPTER 1

CONCEPT OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE

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 INTRODUCTION OF QWL

Quality of work life has become one of the important issues in manufacturing enterprises.
Quality of work life is a philosophy or set of principal which holds that people are trustworthy,
responsible and capable of making a valuable contribution to the organization. It also involves
treating people with respect. The elements that are relevant to an individual’s Quality of work
life include the task, the physical work environment, the social environment within the
organization, administrative system and a relationship between life on and off the job.

Quality of work life is the major issue for employees, and how organization deal with the issue
is both of academic on and practical significance. Therefore, it is no wonder that thousand of
studies have revolved around the concept of job satisfaction and stress and as core concepts.
Quality of work life QWL and the relationship with employee’s health and performance has
become an explicit objective for many of the human resources policies in modern organization.

The aim of this chapter is to present an outline of the origin and development of the concept
Quality of work life Awl, the definitions of Quality of work life, the determinations of QWL, and
the measurement of QWL to the organization. From this framework an attempt will be made to
identify the QWL dimensions that will have an impact on an individual’s mental health.

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Research Methodology

Achieving accuracy in any research requires in depth study regarding the subject. As the prime
objective of the project to quality of work life. The research methodology that is adopted is
basically based on the primary data via which is the most recent and the accurate piece of the
first-hand information could be collected. Secondary data has been used to support the primary
data whenever needed.

Data Collection

Primary data

Primary data source as new facts and figures are being collect from the project. There are a
number of different filed research methods a business can use. Questionnaires, personal
interviews, postal survey, observation, focus group. Each of these can find out what consumers
want and need from the business. Field research is also called primary data.

Secondary data

Secondary research can also be called ‘desk research’ these could be

 To find out the job satisfaction of employee.

 To analyze the organizational effectiveness.

 To know the courses of quality of work life.

 To study the providing conditions in a quality of work life.

 Commercial publications.

 General publications.

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The term quality of work life (QWL) has different meanings for different people. Some consider
it industrial democracy or codetermination with increased employee participation in the decision
making process. For others, particularly managers and administrators the term denotes
improvements in the psychological aspects of work to improve productivity. Unions and
workers interpret it as more equitable sharing of profits, job security and healthy and humane
working conditions. Others view it as improving social relationships at workplace through
autonomous workgroups. Finally, others take a broader view of changing the entire
organizational climate by humanizing work, individualizing organizations and changing the
structural and managerial systems.

Definition

Quality of Working Life is a term that had been used to describe the broader job-relate
experience an individual has introduced the term Quality of Work Life aims at changing
the entire Organizational climate by humanizing work, individualizing organizations and
changing the structural and managerial systems. It takes into consideration the socio-
psychological needs of the employees. It seeks to create such a culture of work
commitment in the organizations which will ensure higher productivity and greater job
satisfaction for the employees. Quality of work life refers to the favorableness or UN
favorableness of the job environment of an organization for its employees. It is generic term which
covers person’s feelings about every dimension of his work e.g. Economic incentives and rewards, job
security, working conditions, organizational and interpersonal relationships etc. The term QWL
has different meanings for different people.

According to Harrison
QWL is the degree to which work in an organization contributes to material and
psychological wellbeing of its

According to D.S.Cohan
QWL is a process of joint decision making, collaborations and building mutual
respect between management and employees.

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‘According to the American Society of Training and Development’
QWL is a process of work organization which enables its members at all levels to
participate actively and effectively in shaping the organizations environment, methods and
outcomes. It is a value based process which is aimed towards meeting the twin goals of
enhanced effectiveness of the organization and improved quality of life at work
for the employees´.

QWL is the degree to which employees of an organization are able to satisfy their personal
needs through experience in the organization. It main aim is to create a work
environment where employees work in cooperation with each other and contribute
to organizational objective The concept of QWL is based on the assumption that a job is more
than just a job. It is the center of a person’s life and a worker has a whole individual rather than a
half human and half machine personality of Jekyll Hyde type. In recent years there has been
increasing concern for QWL due to several factors:

(a) Increase in education level and consequently job aspirations of employees,

(b) Association of workers.

Quality of Life

QOL is the general well-being of individual and societies. QOL has a wide range of context
including the fields of international development, healthcare, politics and employment. In
general Quality of Life id the perceived quality of individual’s daily life i.e. an assessment of
their well-being or lack thereof. This includes all emotional, social, and physical aspects of the
individual’s life.

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 Difference between Quality of Life and Quality of Work Life

Categories Quality of Life Quality of work life

Individual Collective Individual Collective

Physical Provisional Environmental Provisional Environmental

Products & Conservation and Compensation Work esthetics
Services recycling Benefits Chemical and
Technologically Pollution abatement Guaranteed biological
Developments Community employment exposures
Employment services and Employee social Human factors
Efficiency facilities services engineering
Structures/environ- Mechanical
mental harmony ambiance

Social Interactive Interactive Interactive Interactive

Stable employment Community Social Two-way

Contributions to renewal and interactions communication
Community planning Human relation Employee/
Activity Open constituent Status mobility organizational
Employee rewards communication Flexibility for goal congruence
for community Governmental outside Participative
participation regulations involvement decision-making
Facilities-com- National independence Collective rewards
-unity integration

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Psychological Developmental Consistency Developmental Consistency

Education Representative Knowledge & skill Equity of reward

Arts & culture employment development systems

Science Constituent Enriched jobs Representative

Development of representation Advancement promotion of

consumer Minority business opportunity groups

sophistication transactions Acceptance of Accommodation of

Promotion of Individuality disadvantaged

national groups
democracy
Work democracy
and constitutionalism
(Source: Rich Strand, “A Systems Paradigm of Organizational Adaptations to the Social Environment”.

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 Measure /Indicators of Quality of Work Life

A new measure of QWL was developed based on need satisfaction and spillover
theories. The measure was designed to capture the extent to which the work
environment, job requirements, supervisory behavior, and ancillary programs in an
organization are perceived to meet the needs of an employee. We identified seven major
needs, each having several dimensions. These are: (a) health and safety needs (protection
from ill health and injury at work and outside of work, and enhancement of good health),
(b) economic and family needs (pay, job security, and other family needs) , (c) social
needs (collegiality at work and leisure time off work) , (d) esteem needs (recognition and
appreciation of work within the organization and outside the organization) , (e)
actualization needs (realization of one's potential within the organization and as a
professional ) , (f) knowledge needs ( learning to enhance job and professional
skills), and (g) aesthetic needs ( creativity at work as well as personal creativity
and general aesthetics). The measure's convergent and discriminate validities were
tested and the data provided support to the construct validity of the QWL
measure. Furthermore, the measure’s homological (predictive) validity was tested
through hypotheses deduced from spillover theory. Three studies were conducted – two
studies using university employees and the third using accounting firms. The results
from the pooled sample provided support for the hypotheses and thus lent some
support to the homological validity to the new measure.

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

1. Job Involvement. It represents the degree of an individual’s identification with or ego

involvement in the job. The more central the job is to the individual’s life, the
greater is his involvement in it. Therefore, the individual spends more time and energy
on the job. People with high job involvement are better motivated and more productive.
Research reveals that skills variety, achievement and challenge help to improve job
involvement.

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2. Job Satisfaction. It implies the worker’s satisfaction with the environment of his
job environment consisting of nature of work, quality of supervision, pay, co-
workers, opportunities for promotion, etc. job satisfaction is related to job
involvement and people involved in their jobs are satisfied with their jobs and vice-
versa.
3. 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. An
individual acquires a greater sense of competence as he engages himself more and more
in work activities. When he feels more competent he becomes more involved in his job
and becomes better motivated. When both sense of competence and job involvement are
high, the level of job satisfaction also increases.

The following figure shows the interrelationship between job characteristics, job
satisfaction, sense of competence and motivation.

Job Characteristics
Job
Significance, Involvement
Autonomy, Variety,
Challenge, etc.
Job Satisfaction
Low Absenteeism Productivity
Low Turnover
Personality Traits
Sense of
Need Patterns, Competence
Growth Need,
Work Ethic, etc.

A Conceptual Model of Quality of Work Life

(Source: CB Gupta (2010), Human Resource Management)

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4. Job Performance. When an individual’s job involvement, job satisfaction and sense of
competence increase, there is arise in job performance.

5. 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 results in higher productivity.

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 CHAPTER 2
DIMENSIONS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE (QWL)

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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 .

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 one’s job as
achieving or facilitating the achievement of one’s job value (Locke, 1976).

Factors which influence job satisfaction

Personal Characteristics
1. Age,
2. Sex,
3. Intelligence
4. Job Experience,
5. Personality
Quality of work life is a multi-dimensional concept implying concern for the members of an
organization. The basis underlying QWL is the humanization of work which means
developing a work environment that ensures dignity to the employee, stimulates his
creative abilities and facilitates self-growth. “ What constitutes a high quality of working

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life may vary in relation to both the worker’s aspirations and the objective reality of his
work and society. It is ultimately defined by the worker himself.”

According to Richard Walton, the main aspects of QWL are as follows:

1. Adequate and Fair Compensation. There should be a just and equitable balance
between effort and reward. The compensation should help the employee in maintaining
a socially desirable standard of living and should be comparable to the pay for
similar work elsewhere. Several factor must be considered for determining such
compensation , e.g., ability of the organization to pay, demand and supply of labor,
cost of living, productivity of labor, job valuation, etc.

2. Safe and Healthy Working Conditions. Quality of work cannot be high unless the
work environment is free from all hazards detrimental to the health and safety of
employees. Reasonable hours of work, cleanliness, pollution free atmosphere, risk free
work, etc. are the main elements of a good physical environment for work.

3. Opportunity to Use and Develop Human Capacities. The job should contain
sufficient variety of tasks to provide challenge and to ensure the utilization of
talents. Today work has become repetitive and mechanical so that the worker has
little control on it. Quality of work life can be improved if the job allows
sufficient autonomy and control, provides timely feedback on performance
and uses a wide range of skills.

4. Opportunity for Career Growth. The work should provide career opportunities for
development of new abilities and expansion of existing skills on a continuous
basis.
5. Social Integration in Work Force. The worker should be made to feel a sense of
identity with the organization and develop a feeling of self-esteem. Openness, trust,

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 sense of community feeling, scope for upward mobility, equitable treatment is
essential for this purpose.

6. Constitutionalisation in the Work Organization. QWL provides constitutional

protection to the employees. Management action can be challenged. Constitutional
protection is provided to employees on such matters as free-speech, equity and
due process.

7. Work and Personal Life. There should be proper balance between work life and
personal life of employees. The demands of work such as late hours, frequent travel,
quick transfers are both psychologically and socially very costly and detrimental
to quality of work life.

8. Social Relevance of Works. Work should not only be a source of material and
psychological satisfaction but a means of social welfare. An organization that has
greater concern for social causes like pollution, consumer protection, national
integration, employment, etc. can improve the quality of work life.

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 CHAPTER 3

PRINCIPLES AND STRATEGIES OF QUALITY OF

WORK LIFE (QWL)

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 Principles of Quality of Work Life

According to N.Q. Herrick and M. McCoy there is four basic principles, which will humanize
work and improve the QWL:

1. The Principle of Security

Quality of work cannot be improved until employees are relieved of the anxiety,
fear and loss of future employment. The working conditions must be safe and fear of
economic want should be eliminated. Job security and safety against occupational
hazards is an essential precondition of humanization of work.

2. The Principle of Equity

There should be a direct and positive relation between effort and reward. All types
of discrimination between people doing similar work and with same level of
performance must be eliminated. Equity also requires sharing the profits of the
organization.

3. The Principle of individualism

Employees differ in terms of their attitudes, skills, potentials etc. Therefore, every
individual should be provided the opportunities for development of his personality
and potential. Humanization of work requires that employees are able to decide
their own pace of activities and design of work operations.

4. The Principle of Democracy

This means greater authority and responsibility to employees. Meaningful participation
in decision making process improves the quality of work life.

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 Strategies for Improving Quality of Work Life

The concept of quality of work life has been operationalised through various systems such as job
enrichment, workers’ participation in management, organization development, quality circles,
employee welfare, etc. while some of these schemes have been successful in improving
the quality of work life, others are still to show results.

In1981 the National Productivity Council organized a national seminar on quality of work
life. The seminar made several suggestions and pointed out the responsibilities of different
groups in improving the quality of work life. These responsibilities are summarized below.

1. Responsibilities of employers: These include the following:

(a) Provision of physical amenities at the work place, health and safety and welfare
provisions.
(b)Involving workers in decision-making on all matters.
(c)Initiating suitable forms of work design.
(d)Formalization of QWL experience for future use.
(e)A re-examination of policies of work.
(f)Developing an appreciation of changing environment.

2. Responsibilities of unions and workers:

(a) Educating and making workers aware of QWL.
(b) Search areas of collaboration with management.
(c) Identifying ways and means to satisfy workers’ needs through non-monetary alternatives.
(d) Organizing labor in the unorganized sector and specially making them are of QWL.
Encouraging workers to participate in QWL activities.

3. Responsibilities of professional organizations :

(a) Organize workshop and seminars to bring about great awareness of QWL.
(b) Initiate specific research projects in this field.
(c) Provide professional assistance to organizations to help generate internal competences.

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(d)Developing state-of-art profiles on QWL.
(e) Developing special programmers for various classes of workers.
(f) Developing a network for collection, storage and dissemination of information on QWL.

4. Responsibilities of the Government:

(a) Legislating standards and norms in newer areas.
(b) Change in policy to provide greater autonomy to experiment with QWL.
(c) Executive action to ensure implementation of legislated facilities.
(d) Finding projects on QWL.
(e) Suitably modifying the structure and scope of education in the country.

The quality of work life movement is of recent origin and has a long way to go individual as well
as organized efforts are required to improve the quality of work life for millions of workers in
the country. Some of the techniques used to improve the QWL are as given below.

1. Flexible Work Schedules

There should be flexibility in the work schedules of the employees. Alternative work schedules
for the employees can be flexi time, staggered hours, compressed work week etc. flex time is a
system of flexible working hours, staggered hours schedule means that different groups of
employees begin and end work a different intervals. Compressed work week involves longer
hours of work per day for fewer days per week.

2. Job Redesign
Job redesigning or job enrichment improves the quality of the jobs. It attempts to provide a person
with exciting, interesting, stimulating and challenging work. It helps to satisfy the higher
level needs of the employees.

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3. Opportunity for Development
Career development is very important for ambitious and achievement oriented employees. If the
employees are provided with opportunities for their advancement and growth, they will
be highly motivated and their commitment to the organization will increase.

4. Autonomous Work Groups

Autonomous work groups are also called self-managed work teams. In such groups
the employees are given freedom of decision making. They are themselves responsible for
planning, organizing and controlling the activities of their groups. The groups are
also responsible for their success or failures.

5. Employee’s Participation in Management

People in the organization should be allowed to participate in the management decisions affecting their
lives. Quality circles, Management by objectives, suggestion system and other forms of employee’s
participation in management help to improve the QWL.

6. Job Security
Employees want stability of employment. Adequate job security provided to the employees
will improve the QWL to a large extent.

7. Equitable Justice
The principle of equitable administrative justice should be applied in disciplinary actions,
grievance procedures, promotions, transfers, work assignments etc. Partiality and biasness
at any stage can discourage the workers and affect the QWL.

8. Quality Circles. Quality Circles are relatively autonomous units(ideally 5 to 10

workers), usually led by a supervisor or a senior worker and organized as work units. The
workers, who have a shared area of responsibility , meet periodically to discuss, analyze,
and propose solutions to ongoing problems.

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 Work-Life Balance

The phrase work-life balance also known as family friendly work arrangement (FFWA) was
coined in1986 in the US. Post 2000, work-life balance (WLB) has gone main stream, with
hundreds of dedicated Internet sites helping spread its usage. There has been legislation enacted
in many countries making work-life balance crucial to the functioning of a corporation.

If a person works too much sacrificing quality family time, he might reach top of the corporate
ladder quickly, but the achievement and material gain will not commensurate the price. He’
forced to pay in the long run. On the other hand, being in this competitive world, one has to
priorities one’s business or professional career to financially support one’s family, as well as
maintain a steady growth curve.

While more and more employees are attempting to strike a balance between work and family,
there are still myriad ways for technology to intrude on personal time. E-mail, voicemail, mobile
phones and laptops allow employees to take their work home. Many do this on a regular basis,
which means they may be away from the office but are connected by the umbilical cord of
technology to the server. Work-life balance is in the interests of both the employee and the
employer. WLB does not mean an equal balance. It is not constant but varies overtime. There is
no perfect one size fits all balance. Some guidelines for achieving work-life balance are given
below:

1. Lean to say no if it affects your schedules.

2. Don’t carry your office at home.
3. Distress.
4. Be a child.
5. Share the load.
6. Reduce sped.
7. Don’t postpone.
8. Take care of your health.
9. Have a positive outlook.
10. Take charge.

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 Strategies for Improving Work Life Balance -

1. Think daily. Meditate. Call it what you will but spend time each day alone with your
thoughts. This surely isn’t the first time you’ve heard that advice, there’s a reason for that!
There’s also a reason that this is the first step in the list Doing the other things in the remaining
nine suggestions without taking some time to reflect almost negates any benefit gained
elsewhere.

2. Get in the zone. Not only will these be your most productive moments in life (the 20%
of the time where you accomplish 80% of the results) but it will be a boost to your confidence
that will alter the decisions you make elsewhere in life.

3. Make it a point to do something bold every day. Step out of your comfort zone; leave the
routine even if for only a second. This might mean talking to someone that you generally
wouldn’t talk to or starting a project that you feel intimidated by. There is no need to plan it in
advance–though that might help at times, usually though you’ll find a point during the day
when ‘two paths diverge in the woods’ and you have the change to take the one less travelled by.
Take it.

4. Learn something new. Pick a topic, preferably something you know nothing about and
learn something about it. A good source of inspiration for this can be the newspaper or
Wikipedia. It helps to retain it if you have time to make a note of what you learned or explain it
to someone else, but even if you don’t get the chance to do that, your brain will thank you for
the new patterns you introduce as you learn something new every day.

5. Debate something. If you think you know about something, nothing will prove it like
arguing it with someone who’s smarter or more informed than you. Find a friend you can
debate with who has ideas that are different from your and who won’t be offended by beating
them–this is easier said than done, but it can provide you with some of the best mental
stimulation possible.

6. Spend time with a child. If you have one, consider yourself lucky, if you don’t, I bet you
have friends who would be happy to let you borrow theirs for a few minutes (or hours). It

28
doesn’t matter what age they are, children see the world entirely different. Look at it from their
eyes. Be their hero. Appreciate what they appreciate. Enjoy the simple things again. You’ll love
it and they’ll love you for it.

7. Go outside. If you don’t naturally spend time outside, make it a point to do it more. There’s
something about the expanse of the sky that will bring out your inner philosopher.

8. Recognize what makes you happy. Reflect on the parts of your day that bring you real
satisfaction. Everyone is working towards something, but what makes you happy now? Rate
your overall satisfaction with your quality of life for each day on a scale of 1 to 10, focus on the
things that happened that pushed the number higher rather than what made it lower. Try to
incorporate more of what made you happy yesterday into today.

9. Stop broken thoughts. Broken thoughts are those subtle patterns that aren’t quite big
enough to fall into the bad habits category. This means that despite their harmful effect they
often escape under the radar. Broken thoughts often take the form of justifications. Examples-
I’m just going to leave my dish here by the sink, I’ll wash it later (when you know your spouse
will end up washing it). I’m bookmarking this article to read later (how often do you ever go
back and read old bookmarked articles). I’ll hang my shirt up later (when you know it will be
there or a week before you touch it)

10. Don’t stress about it.

Most people struggle hard to get a decent degree and get a good job. Once they get a job it
becomes the centre of their lives. In the struggle to go ahead in career, they often neglect their
families. They lose health and happiness to get money in youth and lose money to regain health
in old-age. No CEO or company can ignore it in view of dual-career couples, single parents,
nuclear families extreme levels of stress.

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 Jack Welch has suggested the following guidelines for achieving work-life balance:

1. Keep your head in whatever game you are at-Be focused on where you are and when you
are with. In other words, compartmentalize.
2. Have the mettle to say no to requests and demands outside your chosen work-life
balance, plan-saying no is hard especially for business people who have gotten ahead
because they have said yes so often. If you say yes to everything. You cannot get
balance.
3. Make sure your work-life balance plan does not leave you out.

DIAGRAMTIC REPRESENTATION OF STRATEGIC APPROACH OF QWL

Undertake WLB Assessment and

Needs Analysis

Evaluate Effectiveness Develop a Strategic

of WLB Initiates Approach to WLB

Review Needs and

Strategic Approach

Plan and Implement

WLB Programmed

A strategic Approach to Work-Life Balance

(Source: CB Gupta (2010), Human Resource Management)

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 Benefits of Work-Life Balance

Benefits to Company Benefits to Staff

1. Creating value the staff 1. By promoting sense of loyalty

2. Reduced sickness 2. Improving life at home
3. Healthy workforce 3. Ownership
4. Good employer 4. Positive attitude
5. Open style 5. Feeling of value

31
 CHAPTER 4

BENEFITS AND POTENTIAL DIFFICULTIES OF

QUALITY OF WORK LIFE (QWL)

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 Benefits of Quality of Work Life

QWL leads to humanization of work and its influence can be observed in terms of
the following parameters:

1. Increased Job Involvement. Job involvement indicates the extent of people’s

identification with the job. Job involved people spend more time on job and turn out
better performance. Challenging jobs which have skill variety influence employees to
get involved with their jobs. Similarly, people with high need for achievement and high
work ethic feel involved in their jobs.

2. Higher Job Satisfaction. The workers feel higher job satisfaction which improves their
performance and results in decreased labor turnover, absenteeism and grievances.

3. Sense of Competence. QWL affects sense of competence i.e., the feeling of confidence
that one has in one’s own competence. By engaging in a work that calls for a variety of
skills, abilities, and talents, individuals gain mastery over their work environment. As they
engage themselves more and more in work activities, they acquire a great sense of
competence and experience and higher level of job involvement. This job involvement
further adds to sense of competence. Thus, sense of competence and job involvement
mutually reinforce each other.

4. Better Performance and Productivity. As shown in Fig., job involvement, job

satisfaction and sense of competence affect job performance and productivity of
employees. When the level of job performance and productivity factors is high, there
is fit among the predisposition of employees and the type of jobs they are assigned to
do. Since there is congruence between the employee and the job, there is higher level of
job performance.

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 QWL

Productivity
Job
Involvement
Sense of
Job
Competence
Satisfaction

Benefits of Quality of Work life

(Source: A.K. Singh, B.R. Dug gal (2003), Personal Management and Industrial relations)

Potential Difficulties of Quality of Work Life

Notwithstanding potentially powerful mechanisms, QWL programmers in their collaborative

forms (involving joint union-management activities) are fraught with difficulties. At least
potentially, both union and management open themselves to substantial risks. The union may
perceive joint activities (undertaken at the initiative of the management) as a means by which it
intends to ‘do them in’. Likewise, the management may perceive joint activities (initiated at the
instance of the union) as an intention of diluting its ability to manage and a means by which the
union will acquire more power. Particularly, the middle management may find it hard to believe
the benefits of QWL, and may perceive that the management is ‘becoming soft and giving into
union dominance’

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 CHAPTER 5

QWL PROGAMME

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 The General Motors Programmed

The programmed took place in the Buick division of general motors. This division specialized
in large and luxurious automobiles, with poor mileage. In conjunction with very poor labor
Relation and a poor record of product quality, it was hard hit by the energy crisis of the 1970’s.
Therefore, it was agreed upon by both the union and the management that some kind of
dramatic change programmed should be undertaken. Accordingly, a QWL programmed was
visualized to improve the quality of work life of employees and quality of the company’s
Products.

Employee’s ideas were solicited in participative forums to improve production methods and
product quality. Autonomous groups were formed with responsibility for both assembly and
inspection of the finished product. Workers were trained to perform a wide variety of jobs
required in the group. Both managers and workers were also trained in listening skills, goal-
setting and resolving conflicts in groups. The above measures led to an increase in sales by
77percent and a dramatic improvement in product quality. Labor unrest disappeared in the
division and absenteeism declined to 2 percent (as compared to the GM average of 5 percent).

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CHAPTER-6

Case study

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Mr. X aged 25, who had been working in the large-scale textile unit in Madurai, referred to the social
worker by the labor Relations Department for social investigation of the defiant behavior exhibited by
him in the work place. He had absented himself from work many a time due to certain disturbing.

Mr. X has committed serious sets of misconduct of riotous and disorderly behavior during working
hours on 10th January, 2005 as:

1. He came to the mill in a drunken state and quarreled with his co-workmen, and
2. Abused the supervisor using foul language.

On a cursory perusal of the past records of the defiant worker, the social worked came to know that
Mr. X has absented himself continually for 176 days during 2004. In addition he had availed himself of
21 days medical leave and 22 days casual leave. As a result of his indiscipline behavior, the company had
taken the following disciplinary action against him:

1. He was suspended three times for 30 days by the labor relations department for absenting
himself from work for more than six consecutive days on two occasions, and once for omitting a
serious act of misconduct.
2. He was suspended as many as five times for being absent from the work spot.
3. Once he was fined ½ maximum for carelessly allowing the cotton to wrap on the cylinder roll.
4. He was given a final warning on 27.8.2004 regarding his habitual absence.

In order to know more about the socio-cultural background of Mr. X the factors which had driven him to
indulge in alcoholism and the courses of his indiscipline behavior at the workplace? The social worker
paid visits to his house many a time and conferred with his family members. In the course of an interview
he had with the eldest brother of Mr. X the social worker gathered information about Mr. X life history
right from the schooling. This class revealed that Mr. X was never interested in schooling and frequently
absented from the class. He was associated with the gangs of friends who used to take him to films
regularly when Mr. X was the fifth standard.

During his youth, Mr. X seemed it take active interested in politics and ultimately fell under the
influence of gangsters, though whom he had developed certain vices such as consuming alcohol, ganja
and gambling. Sealing the deteriorating morale and social life of Mr. X his brother procured a job for him
in the total textile unit so that Mr. X could settle down and assume certain responsibilities in life. As years
rolled by Mr. X got married but in course of time he started developing a feeling of hatred towards his
wife inasmuch as he did not like her physical appearance. His marital life lasted for only three months

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after which the nuptial bondage had broken, once and for all dissatisfied with the kind of life he was
lading, and Mr. X began to consume alcohol regularly only to become an addict. He started playing ducks
and drakes with all his savings and the income derived from his land too. His eldest brother began to
reject for him he was beyond redemption and finally drop him out of the house.

Understandably, the factors contributing to the deviant behavior of Mr. X might be the lack of
parental care during his childhood, his association with gangsters, marital disagreement due to
dissatisfaction in his sexual relations, failure on the part of the management to discover the problem at an
early stage and control at the same, etc. and this might lead us to assume that Mr. X had developed
disturbing habits, such as alcoholic addiction and chronic absenteeism owing to various factors indicated
above. When the social worker pleaded with the labor explained that though Mr. X was given the absolute
final warning, the letter had absented him for about 45 days even after receiving the same and, therefore,
he asserted, that he had no other option but to dismiss Mr. X from service.

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CHAPTER-7
Conclusion

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QUALITY OF WORL LIFE(QWL) is not a concepts that deals in a limited arena but its
seen as incorporating a hierarchy of concepts that not only includes work-based factors
but also broadly focuses on life happiness and general feeling of well-belong to retain a
good talent in the organization, it is important for the organization that the employees
should have low stress and high quality of work life. The study demonstrate that QWL
should not be researched in terms of initatives designed to improve work life of
employees but also stress of many associated potential factors that can impact QWL.
Commitment to professionalism can that impact both quality of work life.

Quality of work life (QWL) excercises a significant influence an produtavity of

employees research has established that QWL leads to physically and phycholocally
healthier employees with positive feelings. Quality of work life employees at the glass-
root level experience a sense of flustrauow because of low level of weges, poor working
conditions , unfavorable terms of employment in human treatment by their superioss and
the like managerial personal feel frustrate because of alienation over their conditions of
employment interpersonal coufects role conflicts job pressure, lack of freedom in work
absence of challenging work etc.

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 Reference/Bibliography

Books:

1. A.K. Singh, B.R. Dug gal (2003),Personal Management and Industrial

relations,

2. CB Gupta (2010), Human Resource Management.

3. Dwiwedi R. S. (2003), Human Relations and Organizational Behavior-A

Global Perspective, Macmillan India Ltd.

Links:

1. http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/Quality of working life

2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/50515942/67/PRINCIPAL-OF-QWL

3. http://findarticles.com/p/aticles/mi_7076/is_2_2/ai_n2839654/

4. http;//www.springerlink.com/content/h285240016047467/

5. www.stat.ee/documented/51852

Website:

1. www.qualityofworklife.com

2. www.humanresources.com

3. Www.ask.com

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