QUALITY OF WORK LIFE

AMONG NURSES

Quality of Work Life is the existence of a certain set of organizational

conditions or practices. This definition frequently argues that high quality of work
life exists when democratic management practices are used, employee’s jobs are
enriched, employees are treated with dignity and safe working conditions exist. In
recent years the phrase “Quality of life” has been used with increasing frequency to
describe certain environmental and humanistic values neglected by industrial
productivity and economic growth. Within business organizations attention has been
focused on the Quality of human experience in the work place. At the same time
many firms have questioned their viability in increasingly competitive world markets.
These dual concerns have created a growing interest in the possibilities of redesigning
the nature of work. Many current organizational experiments seek to improve both
productivity for the organization and the quality of working life for its members.

Quality can be assessed by factors like performance, reliability, aesthetics, and

complying with customer requirements. Quality refers to “freedom from wastage,
freedom from trouble and freedom from failure”. Quality of Work Life refers to the
level of satisfaction, motivation, involvement and commitment individuals experience
with respect to their lives at work.

Quality of Work Life is the degree to which individuals are able to satisfy their
important personal needs while employed by the firm. Companies interested in
enhancing employees Quality of Work Life generally try to instill in employees the
feelings of security, equity, pride, internal democracy, ownership, autonomy,
responsibility and flexibility. They try to treat employees in a fair and supportive
manner, open communication channels at all levels, offer employees opportunities to
participate in decisions affecting them and empower them to carry on with their
assignments. It has also been associated with organizational task flexibility) and job
enrichment (greater vertical task flexibility including the taking on of new
responsibilities including those formerly undertaken by supervisory or managerial
personnel). Crucially, the idea is that of attaining higher levels of involvement and
thereby motivation by improving the attractiveness of the work itself rather than
through improving the terms and conditions of work (Hertzberg). Quality of life
phenomena explored in early studies included job satisfaction (measured by employee
turnover, absenteeism or attitude surveys), organizational climate and the learning of
new tasks.

Nursing

Nursing is very demanding career. In nursing work nurse’s work not only has
tons of things to get done, but also forced to make some decisions. Most of nurses
have a lot of things they are responsible for, and to make quick decisions about patient
care and well-being.

In order to improve quality of care of patients it’s important to improve quality

of working life of the staff especially nurses. Quality of working life affecting
different faces of nurses such as their productivity, patient satisfaction, commitment,
and quality of their life (Rai, 2013). There are man predictors for nursing quality of
working life such as; shift working, managerial support, interpersonal relationships,
workload, job tension (Vagharseyyedin et al. 2011). Many authors and researchers
have proposed models for quality of working life among healthcare especially nurses,
which include a wife range of factors that affecting the quality of working life.

Definition

Van Laar, Edwards & Easton (2007) defined Quality of Working Life as “that
part of overall quality of life that is influenced by work, the widest context in which
an employee would evaluate the influence of work on their life” (p 325). According to
them, there are six factors related to QWL, which are: Job and career satisfaction,
general well-being, stress at work, control at work, home-work interface and working
conditions.

Hospitals are complex organizations that provide Services to the patients

seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Doctors and nurses are the main human resources
that spend a significant part of their time at the hospital. They have to do regular
work overnight, in emergency situations with an exclusive work load and stress which
can negatively affect their performance and quality of working life (QWL). Therefore
it is very important to improve their quality fo work environment. Quality of working
life is normally considered as the real work situations including employee salary,
facilities, health and safety issues, participating in decision making, management
approach and job diversity and flexibility. Special registrars or residents play an
important role in health care delivery in govt. hospitals. They should regularly stay
and work overnight, their job is very critical and complicated and they normally face
a variety of difficulties such as sleep deprivation, stress, workload and fatigue, which
could have negative effects on their behavior communication, learning ability
decision making and quality life. Several studies have shown that stress, workload,
tiredness, impatience and inadequate communication are the main factors responsible
for the majority of adverse events and medical errors in health care. Therefore, it is
widely accepted that a major task of any hospital director is to explore and promote
the quality of employees working life by accessing their work environment and
identifying their possible short comings. Previous studies have assessed the quality of
working life in nurses, family physicians and so on, but there is no comprehensive
research which evaluates the quality of working life in residents working hospitals.

Quality of work life is a multifaceted concept. The premise of the quality of

work life is having a work environment where an employee’s activities become more
important and relevant to the society. This means implementing procedures or policies
that make the work less routine and more rewarding for the employee. These
procedure or policies include autonomy, recognition, belonging, progress, and
development, and external rewards. QWL is a comprehensive, department – wide
program designed to enhance DLF REAL ESTATE service to the public by
improving employees satisfaction, strengthening work place learning and helping
employees better manage change and transition.

Autonomy deals with the amount of freedom that employees can exercise in their job.
Recognition involves being valued by others in the company. An individual’s
contribution in the organization is noticed and appreciated.
Belonging refers to being part of the organization. Closely tied to recognition, on
individual who belongs to an organization is one who shares the orgnaization’s values
and is regarded as being a valuable part of the firm.

Progress and development refers to the internal rewards available from the
organization; challenge, and accomplishment.

External rewards which are usually in the form of salary and benefits but also,
include promotion, rank and status taken together, these components provide for the
quality of work life is lacking, and then worker’s productivity may suffer.

Objectives of QWL

 To improve the standard of living of the employees.

 To increases the productivity
 To create a positive attitude in the minds of the employees
 To increase the effectiveness of the organization (profitability, goal,
accomplishment etc.)
 To increase in individual productivity, accountability and commitment.
 For better teamwork and communication.
 For improving the morale of employees.
 To reduce organizational stress.
 To improve relationships both on and off the job.
 To improve the safety working conditions.
 To provide adequate Human Resource Development Programms.
 To improve employee satisfaction.
 To strengthen workplace learning
 To better manage on-going change and transition.
 To participate in management at all leves in shaping the organization.

Theoretical perspective

 Empowerment
 Job design
 Job enlargement
  Job enrichment
 Autonomous work groups

EMPOWERMENT

It is the cutting-edge “technology” that provides both the strategic advantage

companies are seeking advantage companies are seeking and the opportunity people
are seeking. While giving people the authority and responsibility to make important
business decisions is a key structural aspect of empowerment, it is not the whole
picture, as is usually thought to be. The real essence of empowerment comes from
releasing the knowledge, experience and motivational power that is already in people
but is being severely underutilized.

JOB DESIGN

The concept of job design is not new. It has roots back to the beginning of the
industrial era. Job design defines and delineates the tasks, duties and responsibilities
of a job. This information is then used to write job description.

JOB ENLARGEMENT

It involves enlarging a job by horizontally increasing the number of tasks or

activities required. The rationale behind the theory is that an enlarged job will
increase job satisfaction and productivity. The process of job enlargement is relatively
simple and can be applied in a variety of situation. Job enlargement will motivate
employees to increase productivity. The motivation will occur from the relief of
boredom, since the diversity of change is stimulation in and of competence since
additional abilities are utilized.

JOB ENRICHMENT

Job enrichment stress job content and structure as the critical issue in job
design similar to enlargement job enrichment increases the tasks and duties of job, but
included more responsibility for decision making, planning and control. It entails
more self monitoring and more planning and controlling decisions.
AUTONOMOUS WORK GROUPS

It is an expansion and combination of the first two behavioral approaches. The

autonomous work group uses the principles of both job enlargement and job
enrichment, but rather than concentrating on a Single job it covers a project worked
on by a group of people.

Conceptualization of quality of working life (QWL)

Quality of work life is a complex entity influenced and interacting with, many
aspects of work and personal life. Brooks argued that QWL has two goals: improving
the quality of the work experience of employees and simultaneously improving the
overall productivity of the organization. Form a nursing perspective, brooks defined
the QWL as “the degree to which registered nurses are able to satisfy important
personal needs through their experiences in their work organization goals”.
Therefore, the concept of employee satisfaction is about more than simply providing
people with a job and salary. It is about providing people with a place where they feel
accepted, wanted and appreciated. What is the importance of QWL? It ha been
argued that QWL influences the performance and commitment of employees in
various industries, including health care organizations. A high QWL is essential to
attract new employees and retain work force. Consequently, health organizations are
seeking ways to address issues of recruitment and retention by achieving a high QWL.
Focusing on improving QWL to increase the happiness and satisfaction of employees
can result in many advantages for the employee and organization. These include
strengthening organizational commitment, improving quality of care and increasing
the productivity of both individual and the organization.

Reviewing previous studies of QWL identified differing numbers of factors

that have an impact on the QWL of nurses. One such factor was the lack of work life
balance. In a number of recent research studies among nurses in the USA, Iran and
Taiwan, rotating schedules were found negatively and affect their lives so they were
unable to balance work with family needs. Additionally nurses thought, on-site child
care and day care for the elderly were important for their QWL. The nature of
nursing work was another factor that affects the QWL of nurses indicated
dissatisfaction of nurses in terms of heavy workload, poor staffing, and performing
non-nursing tasks.

Another facto that influences the QWL of nurses is the work context,
including management practices, relationship with co-workers, professional
development opportunities and the work environment. Potential sources of
dissatisfaction with management practices include lack of participation in decisions
made by the nurse, manager, lack of recognition for their accomplishments and lack
of respect by the upper management. Reported findings regarding to co-workers and
the QWL of nurses are inconsistent. While some studies found that the nurses are
satisfied with their co-workers including physicians, but others reported the opposite.
A study of nurses in Saudi Arabia found they were dissatisfied with the relationship
with their co-workers, especially physicians, were they experienced low levels of
respect, appreciation and support. Additionally, they had poor communication and
interaction with physicians. Prior research also indicated the impact of professional
development opportunities such as the promotion system, access to degree programs
and continuing education on the QWL of nurses. In terms of work environment,
results from a wide variety of studies found that nurses were dissatisfied with the
security department with resultant concerns about safety in the work place.
Additionally inadequacy of patient care supplies and equipment is related to
dissatisfaction of nurses and other health professionals. A number of health care
studies in Saudi Arabia indicated insufficiency of patient supplies, especially in
primary health care facilities.

Quality of Work Life Involves Three Major Parts:

1) Occupational health care :

Safe work environment provides the basis for people to enjoy his work. The
work should not pose health hazard for the employees.

2) Suitable working time :

 Companies should observe the number of working hours and the standard
limits on over time, time of vacation and taking free days before national holidays.

3) Appropriate salary :

The employee and the employer agree upon appropriate salary. The
government establishes the rate of minimum salary; the employer should not pay less
than that to the employee. Work represents a role which a person has designated to
himself. On the one hand, work earns one’s living for family; on the other hand, it is a
self realization that provides enjoyment and satisfaction.

Work-life quality defined as, the balance between an employee’s work

demands and outside interests or pressures is a long standing but ever evolving area of
corporate social responsibility. Some organizations view QWL as important, but do
not formally link it to their strategic or business plans.

Nature and scope of quality of working life

Quality of work life is the quality of relationship between employees and total
working environment. A great place to work is “you trust the people you work for,
have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with” Quality of work life
represents concern for human dimensions of work and relates to job satisfaction and
organizational development.

The following aspects improve the QWL:

1) Recognition of work life issues

Issues related to work life should be addressed by the board and other important
officials of the company like why people are not happy, do they made training, why
employee morale is poor and numerous other issues. If these are addressed properly,
they will be able to build, “people-centered organizations”.

2) Commitment to improvement.

QWL can be improved if the staff is committed to improvement in productivity and

performance. This issue can be taken by the board through staff recognition and
supported programmes. Board should prepare QWL reports on periodic basis to boost
the system. They can also introduce reward system which will be of help to them.

3) Quality of work life teams.

Board members should form the combined team of managers and orkers and
all the issues and common themes must be identified..

Work life teams managers staff.

All issues must be addressed like loss of morale, lack of trust, increased
intensity of work, reward, recognition etc and commonly, managers and staff should
arrive at solutions.

4) Training to facilitators

Both the leader and staff can access the job requirement and decided jointly
what type of training is required to improve the quality of work life.

5) Conduct focus groups

Formation of focus groups can affect the QWL and discuss the questions in a
positive way.

6) Analyze information from focus group

After the information of focus group and their discussion on different issues
and collection of information, the information should be analayzed to give right
direction to organizational activities.

7) Identify and implement improvement opportunities

It is important to identify and implement improvement opportunities like

communication, recognition and non-monitory combination. Improving support
structure, constant review of reward and recognition system etc. would help in
formulating communication strategies, focusing on linkages between manager and
staff.
8) Flexible work hours

The diverse work force to day doesn’t want to work for fixed hours or days.
They want flexibility in their work schedule so that professional and personal life can
be managed together.

Flexibility can improve the QWL in the following ways:

I. Work for longer hours in a day with less number of working days in a week.
II. Going to office for fixed hours but in different time slots rather than fixed
working hours.

9) Autonomy to work.

Delegation is an essential element of organization structure people want

freedom to work in their own way, in terms of forming teams and making decisions.
If they are allowed to do so, it enhances the QWL an organization with high quality of
work life is “an organization that promotes and maintains a work environment that
results in excellence in everything it does by ensuring open communication, respect,
recognition, trust, support, well being and satisfaction of it members, both personally
and professionally”.

Importance of quality of work life

Many companies find that paying attention to the needs of employees can
benefit the companies in terms of productivity, employee loyalty and company
reputation. QWL is important because of the following reasons:

1) Enhance stake holder relations and credibility.

A growing number of companies that focus on QWL improve their

relationships with the stake holders. They can communicate their views, policies and
performance on complex social issues and develop interest among their key stake
holders like consumers, suppliers, employee etc.
2) Increase productivity

Programmes which help employees balance their work and lives outside the
work can improve productivity. A company’s recognition and support through its
stated values and policies of employee’s commitments, interests and pressures, can
relieve employee’s external stress.

This allows them to focus on their jobs during the workday and helps to
minimize absenteeism. The result can be both enhanced productivity and strengthened
employee commitment and loyalty.

2) Attraction and retention

Many job seekers prefer flexible working hours as the benefit they would look
for in their job. They would rather have the opportunity to work flexible hours
than receive an additional increment in annual pay.
a) More employees may stay on a job, return after a break or take a job with one
company over another if they can match their needs better with hose of their
paid work.
b) This results in savings for the employer as it avoids the cost of losing an
experienced worker and recruiting someone new.
3) Reduces absenteeism.

a) Companies that have family friendly or flexible work practices have low
absenteeism. Sickness rates fall as pressures are managed better. Employees
have better methods of dealing with work life conflicts than taking unplanned
leave.

b) Workers (including the managers) who are healthy and not over-stressed
are more efficient at work.

c) Employers who support their staff.

4) Reduces absenteeism.

a) Companies that have family friendly or flexible work practices have low
absenteeism, Sickness rates fall as pressures are managed better. Employees have
better methods of dealing with work life conflicts than taking unplanned leave.

b) Workers (including the managers) who are healthy and not over-stressed are more
efficient at work.

5) Improve the quality of working lives.

a) Minimizing work life role conflict helps prevent role overload and people have a
more satisfying working life, fulfilling their potential both in paid work and outside it.

b) Work life balance can minimize stress and fatigue at work enabling people to have
safer and healthier working lives.

c) Work place stress and fatigue can contribute to injuries at work and home.

6) Job involvement

Companies with QWL have employees with high degree of job involvement.
People put their best to the job and report good performance. They achieve a sense of
competence and match their skills with requirements of the job. They view their jobs
as satisfying the needs of achievement and recognition.

While job satisfaction is generally considered to be the primary indicator of

the QWL, job involvement has also been identified as important attitudinal outcome
reflective of the internal career and of the goodness of QWL (Davis and chems, 1975:
Loscocco and Roschelle, 1991). Job involvement has been defined and
operationalized in a variety of ways across studies.

 Kaanunege (1982) defined it as” a belief descriptive of the present job and
tends to be a function of how much the job can satisfy one’s present needs.
  Lodahl and Kejner (1965) defined job involvement as “the degree to which a
person is identified psychologically with his work or the importance of work
in his total self image”.

 According to Saleh and Hosek (1976) job involvement is :the degree, to which
the person identifies with his/her job, actively participates in it and considers
his/her Performance important to his/her self-worth”.

7. Job satisfaction

Job involvement leads to job commitment and job satisfaction. People whose
interests are protected by their employer’s experience high degree of job satisfaction.
This improves output. Job Satisfaction is a psychological factor, which cannot be seen
and quantified but its expression in human mind is understandable. When an
employee is satisfied with his assigned task and can discharge his functions
satisfactorily, it is called job satisfaction. Job satisfaction has been defined in several
ways and a definitive designation for the term is unlikely to materialize. A simple or
general way to define it therefore is as an attitudinal variable. Job satisfaction is
simply seen as how people feel about their jobs and different related aspects. It is the
extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs
(Specter, 1997). Job satisfaction is generally defined as an employee’s affective
reaction to a job based on comparing actual outcomes with desired outcomes (Cranny
et al, 1992). It is generally recognized as multi faceted construct that includes
employee feelings about a variety of both intrinsic and extrinsic job elements
(Howard and Frink, 1996). A classic reference for defining job satisfaction is Locke
(1976), who defined it as a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the
appraisal of one’s job or job experiences. Job satisfaction is also defined as an
individual’s general attitude regarding his or her job (Robbins, 1999). A person may
be relatively satisfied with one aspect of his or her job and dissatisfied with one or
more other aspects. The overall job satisfaction depends on what one expects and
what he or she receives. An employee will remain satisfied with receiving les
provided he or she expects less. A high level of receiving is required for an employee
to be satisfied whose expectation is high (Nimalathasan & Mohammad 2010). A brief
examination of the definitions of satisfaction shows that it corresponds to a
psychological state resulting from the difference between the situation in which a
person finds himself or herself and the situation in which that person wishes to be.

Job Satisfaction Theories

The various theories of job satisfaction are briefly explained in the text
following:

Affect Theory.

Affect Theory (Loeke, 1976) is arguably the most famous job satisfaction model. The
main premise of this theory is that satisfaction is determined by a discrepancy
between what one wants in a job and what one has in a job. Further, the theory states
that how much one values a given facet of work (e.g. the degree of autonomy in a
position) moderates how satisfied/dissatisfied one becomes when expectations
are/aren’t met. When a person values a particular facet of a job, his satisfaction is
more greatly impacted both positively (when expectations are met) and negatively
(when expectations are not met), compared to one who doesn’t value that facet. This
theory also states that too much of a particular facet will produce stronger feelings of
dissatisfaction the more a worker values that facet.

Dispositional Theory

Another well-known job satisfaction theory is the Dispositional Theory which

suggests that people have innate dispositions that cause them to have tendencies
toward a certain level of satisfaction, regardless of one’s job. A significant model that
narrowed the scope of the Dispositional Theory was the core self-evaluations model,
proposed by Timothy in 1998. Timothy argued that there are four core self
evaluations that determine one’s disposition towards job satisfaction; self-esteem,
general self-efficacy, locus of control, and neuroticism. This model states that higher
levels of self-esteem (the value one places on his self) and general self-efficacy (the
belief in one’s own competence) lead to higher work satisfaction. Having an internal
locus of control (believing one has control over her/his own life, as opposed to outside
forces having control), leads to higher job satisfaction. Finally, lower levels of
neuroticism lead to higher job satisfaction.
Two-Factor Theory (Motivator-Hygiene Theory)

Herzberg’s (1959) two factor theory (also known as Motivator Hygiene TheorY)
attempts to explain satisfaction and motivation in the workplace. This theory states
that satisfaction and dissatisfaction are driven by different factors – motivation and
hygiene factors, respectively. Motivating factors are those aspects of the job that make
people want to perform, and provide people satisfaction, for example achievement in
work, recognition, promotion opportunities. These motivating factors are considered
to be intrinsic to the job, or the work carried out. Hygiene factors include aspects of
the working environment such as pay, company policies, supervisory practices, and
other working conditions.

Job Characteristics Model

Hackman & Oldham (1976) proposed the job characteristics model, which is widely
Used as a framework to study how particular job characteristics impact job outcornes,
including job satisfaction. The model states that there are five core job characteristics
(skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) which impact
three critical psychological states (experienced meaningfulness, experienced
responsibility for outcomes, and knowledge of the actual results), in turn influencing
work outcomes (job satisfaction, absenteeism, work motivation, etc.). The five core
job characteristics can be combined to form a motivating potential score (MPS) for a
job, which can be used as an index of how likely a job is to affect an employee’s
attitudes and behaviors.

The literature on the subject indicates that many different aspects of job, such as pay,
promotions, supervision, fringe benefits, one’s co-workers support and excessive
working hours, etc. are examined as determinants of job satisfaction and have been
found associates with levels of satisfaction (Waston et al., 2003).

8) Company reputation

Many organizations, including governments, NGOs, investors and the media,

consider the quality of employee experience in the work place when evaluating a
company. Socially responsible investors including some institutional investors, pay
specific attention to QWL. When making investment decisions.
Significance of good work-life quality

1) Decrease absenteeism and increase turn over.

2) Less number of accidents

3) Improved labour relations.

4) Employee personification.

5) Positive employer’s attitudes towards their work and the company.

6) Increased productivity and intrinsic motivation.

7) Enhanced organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage.

8) Employees gain a high sense of control over their work.

Strategies for Improving QWL

All over the world, people are craving for their human dignity and respect.
Besides, their aspirations and expectations are rising along with rapid changes in
times and technologies. There is growing significance attached to human resources.
Therefore, it is necessary to ensure quality of work life for all-round peace and
prosperity. Quality of work life is all about the conducive and congenial environment
created at the work place as it is one of the main reasons for better performance and
productivity. Only when the right ambiance is provided to the employees they will be
able to deliver their goods effectively and efficiently (Rao,2010). Research witnesses
such endeavors either on the part of the organization or the people involved. Such
efforts at the work place can be categorized as job specific or employee specific.
Under the first category some of the coping up strategies can be described as job
enrichment, job security, flexible hours, establishment of communication board,
visibility of administration, and support for creative and challenging job, attendance
management, self scheduling, humanized vision and working conditions with respect
to job context. Similarly, some of the attempts in this direction can be viewed as
employee specific and includes; recreational facilities, industrial housing scheme,
autonomy, opportunity to interact with each other, employee oriented work system,
professional development strategies, investment in human resource management, staff
information sessions, leadership education and recognition programmes, health and
knowledge needs, promoting work life balance, shared governance, discretionary
employee benefits, stress management techniques, family friendly arrangement
policies, motivating for physical exercise, employee assistance programmes etc.

Problem in improving the QWL

Though every orgnaizaiton attempts to improve the employer-employee

relations and through it, the quality of work life of employees, problems may occur in
effective implementation of QWL programmes. These problems may occur because
of :

1) Poor reward and recognition.

People will not do their best when they feel that employer’s commitment in
terms of reward and recognition is lacking. Commitment is a mutual phenomenon.
When employers want to get the best from employees but do not give them reward
and recognition, people will not be committed to work.

2) Decd – end jobs

Work which does not offer opportunities for growth and promotion is one of
the greatest reasons for employees demotivation and non commitment. Jobs which
deprive employees of self development and growth opportunities lead to high
dissatisfaction and disloyalty.

3) Negative working environment

Non-acceptance by colleagues, non-cooperation, too much politics, and

negative behavior by colleagues, supervisors and other people in the company also
hamper commitment. At the end of the day people want peace fo mind; this if not
available in the work environment will discourage them to show total support to the
company.
4) No job security

One of the major needs of employees is job security. If the employee feels that
he can lose his job any time, he would not be committed towards company’s goals.

5) Negative attitude

Some people by nature are not committed to anything and anyone and as such
they would not be committed to their employers also. Commitment is an attitude and
those who lack it will not be committed to their jobs.

Quality of life is the general well-being of individuals and societies, outlining

negative and positive features of life. It observes life satisfaction, including
everything from physical health family, education, employment, wealth, religious
beliefs, finance and the environment.

Factors affecting QWL

1) Job Satisfaction
2) Family- responsive culture
3) Employee motivation
4) Organizational support
5) Organizational Climate
6) Rewards and benefits
7) Compensation
8) Career development & growth
9) Flexible work arrangements
10) Emotional supervisory support
11) Organizational Commitment
12) Communication

1) Job Satisfaction
The relationship of job satisfaction with work life quality is another aspect of
working life that is often investigated by researchers. Job satisfaction is one of the
 central variables in work and is seen as an important indicator of working life
quality determining the extent to which the employee is satisfied or is enthusiastic
or having sense of enjoyment in one’s work reflective of Herzberg’s Hygiene
factors in his theory of motivation.

2) Family – responsive culture

In addition to providing flexible work arrangement and emotional supervisor
support, the organizations culture toward combining work and family roles is
atleast as important for employees seeking working- family balance. A supportive
work environment provides the employee with emotional resources, such as
understanding, advice and recognition. When organisations have an understanding
attitude toward employees who combine work and family roles, employees are not
likely to worry about career opportunities if they reduce their working hours due
to family responsibilities, In line with the conflict approach, we expect that a
family – responsive culture is only relevant for employees who have substantial
family responsibilities, such as parents and couples. The enrichment approach,
expected to be most effective for employees with the fewest a family resources, is
less applicable in this case, because singles do not need this particular resource.

3) Employee Motivation.

The general perception is that people leave organisation to higher pay. This
hypothesis, through intuitively quite appealing, is often not sufficient in describing
the entire pictures with regard to sales force turn over. QWL involves a focus on
all aspects of working life that might conceivably be relevant to worker
satisfaction and motivation, and that QWL is related with well- being of
employees.

4) Organizational Climate.

Various factors of organizational climate have measured and used in previous

research on QWL. Literatures suggests three of them primarily viz, affective,
cognitive and instrumental. The affective fact of organizational climate primarily
comprise of the quality of relationships in the organizational climate primarily
 comprises of the quality of relationships in the organisation. This is a critical
component of the social relations aspect of climate and has been used in the past
climate studies. The cognitive climate facet consists of a sense of deriving
intrinsic rewards from one’s work comprising of meaningfulness, competence,
self-determination, impact and work-family interference Cognitive climate
suggest that if employees do not experience these cognitive elements of their
work, they may become dissatisfied along with the level of work-family
interference which describes the extent to which an employee's work demands
interference with family responsibilities. The instrumental climate facet is defined
as follows: work processes, structure, and extrinsic rewards including access to
resources and time control.

5) Organizational Support:

Besides, organizational climate, the level of support offered by the organization is

also an indication of the work-life quality in organizations. Organizational
Support is defined as the extent to which employees perceive that the organization
values their contributions and cares about their wellbeing. This is a key factor in
influencing employee commitment to the organization, job satisfaction, and
general quality of work life. Many researchers have studied the relationship
between perceived organizational support and work-life quality of workers and
have found it to have a positive impact on organizational commitment, employee
performance as well as job satisfaction.

6) Rewards & Benefits:

Hackman and Oldhams (1980) highlighted the constructs of QWL in relation to

the interaction between work environment and personal needs. They emphasized
the personal needs are satisfied when rewards from the organization such as
compensation, promotion, recognition and development meet their expectations,
which will lead to an excellent QWL.
7) Compensation:

Besides rewards and benefits the level of support created by the compensation
structure is also an indication of the work-life quality in organizations. Many
organizations claim to base pay raises on performance, but that is not actually the
case. Some companies try to emphasize a team environment, but continue to
reward people for individual achievement. These inconsistencies can cause
frustration and cynicism by employees. It is especially difficult when employees
are not seeing significant pay raises, yet company leaders are richly rewarded. The
entire organization must buy into the culture of employee development.

8) Career Development & Growth:

The purpose of career planning as part of an employee development program is

not only to help employees feel like their employers are investing in them, but
also help people manage the many aspects of their lives and deal with the fact that
there is a clear promotion track. Employers can no longer promise job security,
but they can help people maintain the skills they need to remain viable in the job
market.

9) Flexible Work Arrangements:

These are thought to contribute to job motivation and dedication. They also enable
the employee to use time more efficiently by scheduling activities in a way that
suits his or her situation best. Telecommuting actually saves the employee time, as
it saves time commuting that cannot be used for work or family activities.

10) Emotional Supervisory Support:

It has been suggested that emotional support at work helps balance work and
family roles because it contributes to the employee’s energy level. A supportive
supervisor may help boost an employee’s energy level by discussing family-
related problems, reinforce the employee’s positive self-image by giving
 feedback, and reduce stress by showing understanding approach. We therefore
expect that employees with the fewest resources at home profit from supervisor
support.

11) Organizational Commitment:

The relationship of organizational commitment with work life quality is another

aspect of working life that is often investigated by researchers. Studies have
concluded that committed employees’ remains with the organization for longer
periods of time than those which are less committed have a stronger desire to
attend work, and a more positive attitude about their employment. Commitment
has a significant and positive impact on job performance and on workforce
retention. The underlying belief is that a more committed employee will perform
better at their job.

12) Communication:

Achieving some level of personal growth may be quite related to the quality of
communication in the organization. Proper communication plays a pivotal role to
achieve results in this priority area. The organizations could improve the quality
of working life through improving the nature and quality of communication of the
mission and vision through the use of team briefings as a first step in the process
of employee participation. Besides the traditional methods of information sharing
through house journals, notice boards, shop campaigns, etc.,

Important Scopes of the Quality of Work Life.

1) Adequate and fair compensation

2) Safe and healthy working conditions
3) Opportunity to use and development human capacities.
4) Opportunity to growth and security
5) Social integration in the work organisation
6) Constitution in the work organisation
7) Work and total life span
8) Social relevance of work life.

1. Adequate and fair compensation.

The salary structure of employees should be just, fair and equitable. It should
ensure reasonable wages to employees so that they can keep a desirable standard
of life. Payment of wages Act, 1936 and minimum Wages Act 1948 safeguard
the interests of the workers regarding payment of wages.

2. Safe and Healthy Working Conditions

In India, Factories Act 1948 contains a number of provisions relating to safety
and health of employees. Employers are increasingly trying to provide better
working conditions to their workers as compared to their competitors. Flexi-
hours of work, zero risk physical conditions of work and safety against noise,
pollution, fume, gases etc. go a long way in effecting the quality of work life.

3. Opportunity to use and develop human capacities.

The QWL will be better if the jobs allow sufficient autonomy and control to its
employees. The workers must be given an opportunity to use their skills,
abilities and initiative in planning and implementing the work. The senior
persons can keep a watch and a constant control and also provide immediate
feedback to the workers. Corrective measures can be taken immediately in the
light of this feedback.

4. Opportunity to growth and security

When employees are offered opportunities to grow in an organisation by
providing promotion ladder, it helps in improving the QWL. There is an inner
desire in every employee for career progression. If the job is dead-end, it must
be made clear to the employee at the outset.

5. Social integration in the work organisation

An employee develops a sense of belongingness to the organisation where he
works. Discrimination among the employees on the basis of age, gender, cast,
creed, religion etc, can act as a hindrance in the way of social integration and it
improves the quality of work life.
6. Constitution in the work organisation
Every employee should be entitled to some privileges such as personal privacy,
right to expression, right to equitable treatment etc. These should be governed by
certain rules and regulations. In short, there should be the ‘Rule of Law’ as per
the constitution of the enterprise.

7. Work and Total life span

Certain employees are required to work for late hours or are frequently
transferred or have to do a lot of travelling as a. part of their duty. This definitely
affects their QWL as they remain away from their families for a long period of
time.

8. Social Relevance of Work life

Those business enterprises which are engaged in discharging their social
responsibilities contribute to QWL. If a concern does not care for social
obligations, the employees of such organisation cannot expect a better QWL.
Low quality products, no control on pollution, bad employment practices are
indicators of low QWL. Problems of implementing Quality of Work Life
programmes:

Bohlander has identified three common problems of implementing Quality of

Work Life programme. The three areas are:

 Managerial attitudes
 Union influence
 Restrictiveness of industrial engineering

Factors Associated to Quality of Work Life among Nurses

The Major influencing factors for dissatisfaction among nurses were unsuitable
working hours, lack of facilities for nurses, inability to balance work with family
needs, inadequacy of vacations time for nurses and their families, poor staffing,
management and supervision practices, lack of professional development
opportunities, and an inappropriate working environment in terms of the level of
security, patient care supplies and equipment, community’s view of nursing, an
inadequate salary and recreation facilities. Besides, the fairness of an organization’s
compensation system that rightfully rewards their efforts have less intention to leave
their organization

The nurses dissatisfaction with their own work life can cases problems such as job
dissatisfaction burn act and job turnover. These factors would in turn affect the
quality of case provided by nurses. The organization’s success in achieving in goal
depends on the quality of response. Therefore, attention should be paid to the nurse’s
physical and emotional needs.

Theoretical Origins of Quality of Nursing Work Life

The socio-technical systems (STS) theory gives rise to many theoretical antecedents
of QNWL Developed in the 1950. STS posits that organizations fully engaging
employees in work design promote employee fulfilment while simultaneously
achieving organizational goals. The term, quality of work life (QWL), was coined in
settings using the STS approach to work design STS theory has emerged as a
significant approach to designing organizations, especially at the interface of
technology and people. Productivity is improved and humans are enriched through a
design process that focuses on the interdependencies among people, technology and
the environment, in contrast to both traditional and behavioural approaches, which
emphasize individual motivation rather that organizational features, STS theory
recommends simultaneous modification of technical and social systems to create work
designs that can lead both to greater task productivity and to increased fulfilment of
organization members.

The concept, quality of work life, arose from the theoretical underpinning of the
socio-technical systems theory. The quality of work life is improved by allowing
employees to assume more responsibility for their efforts while providing
opportunities to fulfil important psychological needs, two assumptions underlying
STS theory.

Such premises may be extrapolated to the health care setting in which nurses are
employed. The concept then becomes the quality of nursing work life (QNWL) and
includes both social and technical aspects of health care work environments. Aspects
that address social issues of concern to nurses who work in hospitals may include
supervisory-subordinate relationships, nurse-physician relationships, skill levels of
employees, and workers’ attitudes and expectations of the work environment.
Technical aspects of work may include procedures, skills, knowledge, technology and
equipment.

A Quality of Nursing Work Life Framework

Further synthesis and reconceptualization resulted in the proposed frame work for
QNWL Quality of nursing work life is the degree to which registered nurses are able
to satisfy important personal needs through their experiences in their organization’s
goals. The four dimensions are further defined by a synthesis of referents from prior
work in STS, the QWL, and QNWL. The first is termed the work life-home life
dimension or the interface between the nurse’s work and home life. Since nurses are
primarily female, this dimension reflects the role of mother (child care), daughter
(elderly parent care), and spouse (family needs, available energy). The work design
dimension is the composition of nursing work, or the actual work nurses do. Here are
items that define nurses’ immediate work environment such as workload, staffing, and
autonomy. The practice settings in which nurses work and the impact of the work
environment on both nurse and patient systems is the work context dimension.
Closely aligned to the work design dimension, the work context dimension is broader.

It includes relationships with supervisory personnel, co-workers, inter-disciplinary

health team colleagues, the provision of resources to do the job, and promotion of
lifelong learning by the institution. The fourth dimension, the work world, is defined
as the effects of broad social influences and change on the practice of nursing. The
image of the profession, economic issues, and job security are concerns of most
employees, regardless of role or setting.

Organization of items in such a fashion permits exploration of the phenomenon from

the perspective of RNs as well as documentation of the empirical referents underlying
the framework. Validation is also possible via instrument development using the
dimensions and items.

Comparing and Contrasting QWL and QNWL

Empirical referents for QWWL have been reported and QNWL is a closely related
concept. Some may find that the concepts are so closely related that they are
identical. However, even though occupation-specific conceptualizations have the
disadvantage of limiting comparisons across occupations, they have the important
advantage of better delineating the items most relevant to the particular occupation,
Occupation-specific conceptualizations that lead to questionnaires which include
subscale and items that are specifically tailored to a particular profession can provide
valuable information in a particular setting