2. Quality of Work Life
• A multi-faceted concept
• It means having a work-environment
where an employee’s activities become
more important by implementing
procedures or policies that make the work
less routine and more rewarding for the
employee
• There exists a relationship between Q.W.L
and productivity
3. Quality of Work Life
• The people involved get a sense of satisfaction
in their work. Work then becomes not a burden
but a means by which the abilities of a person
can find expression
• Mass-production technology has made worker’s
job monotonous and it is of little meaning to him
• Results of low Q.W.L are absenteeism, low
performance, poor morale and occasional
sabotage. Ultimately it is the organization that
suffers.
4. Quality of Work Life-Origin 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 mgt theories gave emphasis on production,
manipulating the skills of the employees
• Tavi Stock Institute of Human Relations, London
conducted some 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.
5. Meaning and definition of Q.W.L
• Q.W.L is any conscious effort for improving working
conditions, work content, and its safety, security, wages
and benefits, etc.
• Q.W.L can be said to be all the original inputs which aim
at improving the employees’ satisfaction and enhancing
organizational effectiveness
• Q.W.L is a concern not only to improve life at work, but
also life outside work
• It is nothing but having a work environment where an
employees activities become more important. This
means implementing procedures or policies that make
the work less routine and more rewarding for the
employee. These procedures or policies include
autonomy, recognition, belongingness, development and
external rewards
6. Quality of Work Life
• Simply speaking, through Q.W.L the
people involved get a sense of satisfaction
in their work. Work then becomes not a
burden but a means by which the abilities
of a person can find expression
• Q.W.L is just humanizing the work
• Q.W.L = The sum total of physical
(working conditions), psychological and
economic factors which affect the job.
7. Objectives of Q.W.L
• To improve the standard of living of the
employees
• To increase the productivity
• To create a positive attitude in the minds
of the employees
• To increase the effectiveness of the
organization (Profitability, goal
accomplishment etc.)
8. Factors affecting Quality of Work
Life
Some people consider Q.W.L as the existence
of a certain set of original conditions and
practices. They agree that high Q.W.L exists
when
• Democratic management practices are prevalent
in the organization
• When employees’ jobs are enriching
• They are treated with dignity and safe working
conditions are present
Others equate Q.W.L with the impact of working
conditions on the employee's well-being
9. Countries that practiced Q.W.L
initially
• Sweden
• Denmark
• Holland
• Switzerland
• Australia
• USA
10. Companies practicing Quality of
Work Life
• General Motors
• Ford Motors with UAW
• XEROX
• IBM
• BHEL, Hardwar
• TISCO
11. Measuring of Q.W.L
Questionnaires and interviews are relevant
here. In General Motors the management
gives a questionnaire of 16 critical
dimensions of Q.W.L to its employees
each year. The responses are then used
to measure the employees’ perception of
their work life.
12. Implementation of Q.W.L
• Management and Employees’ co-operation- A
worker-Mgt committee on work improvement can
function effectively to increase co-operation
• Action plans developed must be followed to
completion
• Support ot middle-managers by top
management and bottom-level employees to
implement the programme
• The objectives of Q.W.L should be a joint one,
i.e., for workers it is to improve Q.W.L; for
management it is to improve organizational
efficiency
13. Barriers to Q.W.L
• Resistance to change both by mgt and
employees
• There is a general perception that Q.W.L
implementation will cost much to the
organization
• Continuous increase in Q.W.L may result
in less productivity, i.e., after a certain
level the productivity will not increase in
proportion to the increase in Q.W.L
14. Barriers to Q.W.L in India
(According to Dr. S.K. Chakraborty of IIM-C)
• Widespread unhappiness due to comparison with
colleagues
• Skepticism about the performance appraisal system and
promotion criteria
• Division into camps and cliques hampering fruitful
communication
• Frequent fits of anger of top level officials
• Regional prejudice
• Glorification of speed and excitement as against serenity
• Unreasonable personal expectation
• Limitless addiction to lower-order material needs
Source: The Hindu, November 29, 1990, p 18
