Report Sushmita

Dissertation Project - QWL

Alliance Business School Page 1

Executive Summary:

IT/ITES industry is one of the most dynamic industries in terms of the work

environment as well as the diversity of workforce employed both in terms of demographics

as well as talent. Hence, the quality of work life becomes very crucial in such organizations

where work life has become the most important part of human lives with the increasing level

of stress and decreasing level of job satisfaction. Also the rising number of two-income

households is heightening the concern for employees’ quality of work life. Given that female

participation at work is increasing, it is apparent that males and females independently will

need to take care of both work and home. Therefore, quality of work experience rather than

work per se became the focus of attention and workplace wellness is crucial in promoting

healthier working environments.

The purpose of choosing the topic is to understand how the quality of work life

can affect the productivity of employees as well as their decision to stay with the

organization. Thus, the main objective of the research is to determine the extent to which the

quality of work life influences the level of employee engagement and also study its effect on

employee retention. The quality of work life is defined using four dimensions namely Health

and well being, Job security, Skills and competency development and Work life balance.

The findings of the survey carried out on a sample of 100 IT/ITES professionals

revealed that the most crucial dimensions of quality of work life are Skills and competency

development and work life balance. Also a positive correlation has been found between

quality of work life and employee engagement and also with employee retention. Apart from

this, workplace stress has also come up as an area of concern for the professionals. The

suggestions that have been provided on the basis of findings mainly included providing

health and wellness programs, stress management programs and introducing flexible

working options. Also emphasis has been laid on designing program that should improve the

other aspects of work life such as enhancing the skill set of the workforce according to their

requirements as well as introducing compensation and benefits based on equity.

Hence the study helps in providing a platform for the organizations to initiate the

design of work systems that enhance the working life experiences of organizational

members, thereby improving commitment and motivation for achieving organizational goals.



Chapter 1.

INTRODUCTION



1. INTRODUCTION

In today's high tech, fast-paced world, the work environment is very different than it

was a generation ago. According to the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the world’s largest

professional society dedicated solely to the support of the industrial engineering profession

and individuals involved with improving quality and productivity, it is not uncommon for a

person to change careers an average of six times in his or her lifetime. It is now rare for a

person to stay with a single company his or her entire working life. Because employees are

often willing to leave a company for better opportunities, companies need to find ways not

only to hire qualified people, but also to retain them.

Unfortunately, many employees these days feel they are working harder, faster, and

longer hours than ever before. Job-related employee stress can lead to lack of commitment to

the corporation, poor productivity, and even leaving the company; all of which are of serious

concern to management. Many employees bring work home with them on a regular basis,

especially now that it is so easy for them to do that. With the wide availability of cell phones,

pagers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and computers, employees find it harder to get

away from the office.

One of the more stressful professions today is in the Information Technology (IT)

field. Not long ago, IT professionals were extremely well respected and in demand. As

technology advanced rapidly, there was a high demand for programmers and engineers.

Most had their choice of high-paying jobs as technology companies competed to recruit the

best of them.

The recent recession has resulted in the companies acknowledging morale problems

among their IT staffs. Perhaps this is because the information technology sector experienced

widespread layoffs during this period. In general, when layoffs happen the remaining

employees are forced to pick up the workload of those who were laid off. This leads to added

responsibility and longer work hours, often without additional compensation. This in turn

leads to stress, burnout, and resentment. Other causes of employee dissatisfaction include

low wages, lack of challenges, insufficient resources, unrealistic expectations, pressure to

produce, willfully blind management, unreasonable policies and procedures, difficulty

balancing family and work, and increased health benefit costs.



As employers try to address employee turnover and job satisfaction issues, they must

first determine what the issues are. Several companies have convened focus groups and

conducted employee-satisfaction surveys to find out how their employees feel and to

determine what they can do to make their employees happy.

Many researches have found that supportive work-life policies and practices, such as

flexible work arrangements, when available, employees exhibit more positive work

outcomes, such as job satisfaction, commitment to employer, and retention, as well as more

positive life outcomes, such as less interference between job and family life, less negative

spillover from job to home, greater life satisfaction, and better mental health.

In the search for improved productivity, manager and executives alike are discovering

the important contribution of Quality of Work Life (QWL). QWL entails the design of work

systems that enhance the working life experiences of organizational members, thereby

improving commitment and motivation for achieving organizational goals.

This dissertation project is aimed towards identifying those dimensions of Quality of

work life that are crucial and influences the engagement level of employees in an

organization as well as help in their retention, especially in the IT/ITES sector of India.

1.1 Who are the IT Professionals?

One of the fastest growing workforces in the present work environment is the group

of information technology (IT) professionals. Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) estimated

that 1.64 million new IT jobs would be created within the period of 2004 to 2016 (BLS 2007).

According to the bureau, one out of four new jobs will be IT related. IT professionals are

involved in acquisition, processing, storage of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical

information which demand extensive use of IT skills. The nature of jobs enables the IT

professionals to work independently with multinational teams round the clock regardless of

their locations throughout the world (Evans and Wurster, 2000). This flexible work

arrangement creates new employment trends that make it possible for the sharing of work

around the time zone. On the other hand it allows the organizations to capitalize on skills and

the expertise of some highly competent workforce residing across the world to work

remotely with multiple superiors at lower costs (Industrial Relations Services, 2000; Merill,

2000). This shapes the organization to a smaller or lean structure. Such a working



environment exposes the IT professionals to high task complexity that possibly leads them to

high strain, uncertainty, and lack of proper personal development opportunities as well as a

greater imbalance of work with non-work activities. Robbins (2001) argued that such work

scenarios will lead the IT professionals to experience poor QWL.

No doubt, all other occupations have a capacity to influence the work and non-work

life balance, but some occupations are potentially more influential than others. Bagnara,

Mariani and Parlangeli (2001) have reported that work within the high technology and

continuously facing uncertainty is potentially more stressful than others. Martinsons and

Cheung (2001) further argue that continuous changes in work related factors directly or

indirectly affected the IT professionals. Indeed these changes demand them to perform thus;

an effective measure to handle its consequences is the responsibility of the organizations.

Therefore, one of the ongoing concerns among the IT industries is to mitigate the effects of

changes in work environment on job satisfaction, work performance, reliability, health and

comfort. Understanding the constructs of QWL among the IT professionals is essential to

provide substantial strategies to counteract such surges (De Jonge et al., 2000; Andries et al.,

2002) especially in the technologically emerging societies.

1.2 QUALITY OF WORK LIFE (QWL) -

The term QWL refers to the favorableness or unfavourableness of a total job

environment for people. QWL programs are another way in which organisations

recognize their responsibility to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent

for people as well as for economic health of the organisation.

As the work culture changes drastically in the recent years, the traditional concept of

work to fulfill humans’ basic needs are also facing out. The basic needs are continued to

diversify and change according to the evolution of the work system and standards of living of

a workforce. Thus a definition by Suttle (1977) on the QWL as the degree to which work are

able to satisfy important personal basic needs through their experience in the organization is

no longer relevant. Generally jobs in the contemporary work environment offer sufficient

rewards, benefits, recognition and control to employees over their actions. Although to some

extent contemporary workforce are compensated appropriately, their personal spending



practices, lifestyles, leisure activities, individual value systems, health and so forth can affect

their levels of need.

The recent definition by Serey (2006) on QWL best meets the contemporary work

environment. The definition is related to meaningful and satisfying work. It includes (i) an

opportunity to exercise one’s talents and capacities, to face challenges and situations that

require independent initiative and self-direction; (ii) an activity thought to be worthwhile by

the individuals involved; (iii) an activity in which one understands the role the individual

plays in the achievement of some overall goals; and (iv) a sense of taking pride in what one is

doing and in doing it well. This issue of meaningful and satisfying work is often merged with

discussions of job satisfaction, and believed to be more favorable to QWL.

The definition of QWL indicates that it is a multi-dimensional construct, made up of a

number of interrelated factors that need careful consideration to conceptualize and measure. It

is associated with job satisfaction, job involvement, motivation, productivity, health, safety and

well-being, job security, competence development and balance between work and non work life

as is conceptualized by European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Conditions (2002).

1.3 Constructs of QWL

The selected constructs of QWL that we use in this research are derived from the

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Condition (EWON) (2002)

who have used the dimensions widely in their QWL studies. These factors are believed to be

appropriate and reliable in the context of Asia. The dimensions of QWL selected are health

and well-being, job security, skills & competence development and the balance between

work with non-work life. The following section discusses each of the constructs of QWL from

the perspectives of IT professionals.

1. Health & Well Being:

Health and well-being of QWL refer to physical and psychological aspects of an

individual in any working environment. Asakura and Fujigaki (1993) examined the direct

and indirect effect of computerization on workers health and well-being and found that

higher job demand leads to higher strain work environment; hence, it affects their health and

well being. An unstrained work environment ensures good health and psychological



conditions which enable the employees to perform job and non-work related functions

without inhibitions. Thus, it leads to an unstressful work environment providing comfortable

work life.

There are many definitions of stress as it is deemed as a subjective phenomenon of

QWL. Carayon, Smith and Haims (2001) revealed that stress arises in the process of

interaction between a person and the work environment that threatens the individual’s

physical, psychological and physiological homeostasis. Physical illness and psychological

disorders increase when pressure at work increases. The nature of IT professions reflect a

similar situation that continuously demanding and monotonous work environment that

affects the brains resulting in exhaustion and decreasing in some of IT professionals’

cognitive abilities. Depression and anxiety are also another form of stress that contributes

towards the deterioration of health. IT related jobs have been associated with repetitive

strain as well as problems related to excessive exposure to video display terminals. Routine

work, badly designed instruments such as computers and furniture in ICT work environment

have significantly increased work related disorders.

Jobs in IT work environment have become a critical factor because they involve a new

set of stressors that are also physically demanding. Many researchers highlight technostress

concept when discussing stress that is related to IT (Bradley, 2001). Technostress includes

the pressure of mastering the IT revolution, the daily frustrations and sudden interruptions

of software bugs or system crashes, resulting in work intensification and workplace stress.

The symptoms of technostress are related to physical and psychological conditions such as

backache, uncertain tempers, ulcers, acne, insomnia, low morale and job-hopping. On the

other hand, resistance to learn and keep up with IT or rejection of the technology due to

individual ambivalence, reluctance or fear of IT also causes stress particularly among

seasoned IT professionals.

Although, the health and well-being of workforce has improved due to the

disappearance of harsh and hazardous work in the last century, workforce are again at risk

because of the nature of contemporary work especially in IT industries is psychologically

demanding. Therefore, job demands that cause strain can be detrimental to individual health,

thus leading to psychological distress and health complaints. Hence, IT workplace should



focus on prevention strategies from poor health and wellbeing in order to provide a good

QWL.

2. Job security:

A dramatic change of workforce in contemporary work environment has revealed a

significant amount of organization change. Organization change such as downsizing,

rightsizing and outsourcing have adversely affected employees’ loyalty, morale, motivation

and perceived job security. Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

(1996) highlighted that job security is the most controversial issue in contemporary work

environment. Job security, the central aspect of QWL represents strength of the

organizations to provide permanent and stable employment regardless of the changes in

work environment. Hence, providing a sense of security is important especially in the work

environment where many facets of jobs can be outsourced.

The increase in industry wide unemployment and outsourcing trends have made it

evident that job security cannot be taken for granted. Jobs in IT industries such as computer

programming, software development, system analysis are highly paid but the chance to

extend the contract is uncertain. Therefore, it is observed that IT industry has practiced high

employment rate but low job security which has led to the intrinsic insecure work

environments that lead to poor QWL. The emergence of outsourcing and IT automation

concept also has significantly fuelled the sense of job insecurity among IT professionals. As a

conclusion, the unstable work nature and the way working culture are being diversified,

point to a considerable impact on the job security among the IT professionals.

3. Skills & Competency Development:

There was a strong consensus that IT professionals would need to continuously

enhance their skill sets in order to remain employable in the IT industry. Work associated

with greater task variety; task discretion and skill development opportunities foster the

competency development among the workforce. The nature of IT related jobs are expected to

stimulate growth in skills and knowledge. This is seen as an important aspect of competency

development that enhances QWL. Therefore competency development is operationalized as



the nature of the job that provides opportunities and stimulates growth in skills and

knowledge either for career or organizational development.

Career development opportunity will provide essential training that will help the

individual employees to equip with the new skills to spearhead in their career. Most

contemporary organizations do not limit themselves to just training an employee for a job,

but they go beyond to furnish them with a support system that encourages workplace

learning. Empirical research portrays that IT profession is associated with higher skill levels,

greater employee responsibility and greater task complexity that lead to higher utilization of

individual capabilities. Hence, individuals in such work scenario, which use more advanced

technological infrastructures, are exposed to greater competency development (Wall,

Cordery and Clegg, 2002).

Learning opportunities and skill discretion have also proven to have a positive effect

on job satisfaction and reduced job stress that will lead to better QWL. The opportunity to

develop and the use of skills are associated with learning mechanisms. This applies

especially when the job requires employees to deploy cognitive skills. With respect to

learning, greater autonomy on job enhances the acquisition and utilization of knowledge

whilst greater participation is held to promote cognitive growth via increased knowledge

transfer among employees (Scully, Kirkpatrick and Locke 1995). Such a job environment

expands knowledge base, leads to a better understanding of how the job is related to other

organizational practices and a greater ability to solve problems. In such a situation,

employees gain the cognitive and behavioural repertoire to predict, control or cope with

uncertain demands thus reducing the likelihood of poor QWL. In contrast, high job demands

with inadequate control reduce the ability and opportunities to develop new skills and

knowledge and thus enforce negative attitudes and anxiety which deteriorate QWL.

Therefore, lack of career progression and professional’s development in such a working

environment may cause IT professionals to experience poor QWL. Thus, understanding the

constructs of QWL in terms of job environment that provides essential competencies for the IT

professionals to excel in their careers will ensure good QWL.



4. Work life Balance

A major component of QWL, which is important for both the employees and the

employers, is the relationship between work and home life. In an increasing competitive

environment, it is difficult to separate home and work life. Employees today are more likely

to express a strong desire to have a harmonious balance among career, family life and leisure

activities. This has been suggested at the international level the need for national policies in

many countries. An ILO convention that was adopted in 1981, states that it is necessary for

organizations to help employees to balance their work and non-work demands (Lewis,

1997).

The advantage of being able to work anywhere and at anytime has blurred the

boundaries of work and leisure hours. Ironically, with IT revolution and intensified virtual

communications, workload and working hours among the workforce have increased. The

extended function of IT as a communication tool necessitates employees to distinguish

between significant and insignificant information. This could increase the intensity of work

because the information overload through e-mail consumes a considerable amount of time.

Therefore, IT professionals to some extent are required to work long hours; hence

compromising their personal time will lead to an imbalance between work with non-work

life.

The threat of imbalance in work and non-work life has implications not only on the

employees but also on organizations, governments and society. This relationship is bi-

directional because previous studies have indicated that less conducive environments in the

workplace have a greater impact on home life than vice versa. Another important factor that

creates an imbalance work condition was a commitment to the work activities. The IT work

environment is widely assumed to be a high-commitment workplace that forces the IT

professionals to sacrifice their personal leisure hours to meet their work demand. The

flexible scheduling of work hours which supposedly contribute to balance work and family

relationship, which may create a conflict. Such a work arrangement demands the IT

professionals to be committed with work whenever possible and hijack them from joining

non work related activities.



Allen et al. (2000) emphasized that problems associated with family responsibilities

are additional sources that may diminish QWL among IT professionals. They additionally

assert that when an employee has higher work responsibility there will be more spillover of

negative work outcomes on family life. The demands of managing higher responsibility at

work and home are also a potential source of stress because it allows a spillover to family life

thus creating an imbalance working environment.

Traditional human resource policy practices that require the IT professionals to work

long hours at the expense of personal time are believed to generate poor work family

relationship. Working long hours consistently reflect poor health both physically and

psychologically. Most studies on hours of work and health re-affirm that consistent long

hours at work do reflect itself in employees’ ill health, both physical and psychological.

Competitive work pressures among IT professionals to boost productivity with

skeleton resources make it difficult to achieve a balanced work-life. The work pressures

affect the employee’s social environment, and if no corrective action taken, it may result in a

poor social life. The balance is important particularly among the IT professionals in order to

nurture and develop the sustainable human resource practices in the IT work environment.

Therefore, balance between work and non-work life is suggested as one of the measures of

QWL.

1.4 Employee Engagement

There has been a lot of coverage of employee engagement in the business media over

the past few years, but many of us are still wondering exactly what employee engagement

actually is and why it is such a hot topic. Although many regard the phrase as mere “buzz

words”, there is in fact a whole management philosophy underpinning it, and one which

many HR practitioners and organisation leaders are seeing as a solution to a whole range of

business challenges.

Simply put, employee engagement is about getting your workforce to “go the extra

mile” and deliver great service to your clients. This in turn drives customer advocacy and can

lead to a significant impact on the bottom line. And it is when we start looking at the bottom

line figures that suddenly top executives are starting to sit up and take notice.



Engagement is not just about increasing turnover, however. Other advantages of

engaged workforces include better talent retention, lower turnover, reduced recruitment

and training costs, higher motivation, better life/work balance and a more productive,

positive and enjoyable work environment. Engagement also acts as a differentiator in a

competitive market, as clients will gravitate towards suppliers where high employee

engagement levels are in evidence. And the principles of engagement apply to all companies,

no matter what their size or market sector. By the same token, all companies can benefit

from the many and varied advantages improved engagement can offer.

1.5 The Construct – Employee Engagement

Kahn(1990) describes engagement as “the simultaneous employment and expression

of a person’s preferred self in task behaviours that promote connection to work and to

others, personal presence (physical, cognitive, emotional) and active, full role performances.”

Descriptions of positive affectivity such as: adaptive, energy and enthusiasm (Macey &

Schneider, 2008), focus and absorption (Rothbard, 2003), cognitive vigilance (Kahn, 1990),

vigour, energy and dedication (Shirom, 2003), are also consistently used to define the

construct of engagement, and to differentiate it from other similar construct such as job

satisfaction and organisational commitment (Macey & Schneider, 2008). Macey & Schneider

(2008) provided an exploration of the construct of engagement, reviewing the academic and

practitioner literatures and providing a conceptual model. Macey & Schneider (2008) offer a

model of engagement that they define as an “aggregate multidimensional construct”, as well

as multi dimensional in nature.

For the purpose of the research, engagement will be conceptualized as a three-

dimensional concept in which people can be cognitively, affectively and behaviourally

engaged. This conceptualization specially takes the notions of state behavioural engagement

from the Macey & Schneider (2008) model. In addition, it separates out the cognitive and

affective components of the “state” engagement, consistent with Kahns (1990)

conceptualization of engagement and treats them as two distinct dimensions. The following

section will deal with each of the dimensions in terms of their role in the overall model of

engagement the model used in the research.



1. Cognitive Engagement:

The term ‘cognitive’ refers to an information processing view of an individual’s

psychological functions (APA, 2006). Research conducted by employee research consultancy

firm, ISR (2008), revealed that the “cognitive” engagement of employees – whether they

support and understand the company’s strategy and the direction it is taking – was as

important to organizations as was affective engagement and specially, that it was an equally

strong a driver of financial performance.

Cognitive (rational) engagement appears to be largely an individual’s understanding

of their role in the context of the organizational goals and objectives. Cognitive engagement

as defined in terms of understanding of how to contribute to the organization’s objectives is

arguably consistent with employees understanding of why their contribution matters or how

it affects others i.e. task significance. Employees who understand how to contribute to an

organization’s strategic goals are more likely to feel a sense of belongingness. This suggests

that cognitive engagement is instrumental to employee performance and retention. Thus,

cognitive engagement for the purpose of this research is goal and role clarity, contextualized

as a clear line of sight to the organization’s overall goals and objectives.



2. Affective Engagement:

Affective engagement is the second important component of the engagement

construct. Affective engagement refers to the experience of feeling or emotional connection

to one’s organization; or something or someone within it. The term “affective” infers an

instinctual reaction to stimulus. Many theorists (e.g. Lazarus, 1982) consider effect to be

post-cognitive: In this view, an affective reaction, such as liking, disliking, trust or

commitment, is based on a prior cognitive process in which a variety of content

discriminators are made and features are identified, examined for their value, and weighted

for their contributions.

Affective engagement can be seen as a broad multi-dimensional construct embracing

a family of related and more specific constructs focussed on individuals’ relationship with

their work roles. In particular it overlaps conceptually (and significantly) with organizational

commitment; job involvement, and job satisfaction. The key difference for the construct of

engagement, is how it is extracted as “positive attachment to the organization entity and

measured as a willingness to exert energy in support of the organization” (Macey &

Schneider, 2008). Although the construct of engagement overlaps with other constructs, its

composition, its style of extraction and application, justifies its place as a distinct and unique

construct, consisting of cognitive and emotional components, and distinguish it from other

related constructs most obviously; organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Macey &

Schneider, 2008).

Hence, affective engagement, while it overlaps with other constructs, for the purpose

of this research is seen as a distinct and unique construct and as distinguishable from other

related constructs such as organizational commitment, job involvement and job satisfaction.

Further, it is postulated to be post cognitive that is occurring after cognitions have taken

place.

3. Behavioural Engagement

Macey & Schneider, 2008 describes behavioural engagement as “adaptive behaviour

intended to serve as an organizational purpose”. This dimension of engagement is seen as

directly observable behaviour in the work context and includes innovative behaviours,

initiative, proactive behaviours and going above and beyond what might otherwise be

expected.



In this dissertation the objective is to see the extent to which the Quality of Work life

influences the engagement level of employees in an organization measured w.r.t the three

components of engagement.

1.6 Employee Retention:

One of the most pressing challenges facing today’s executives is keeping their best

people. In today’s knowledge and service based economy, companies differentiate

themselves by their talent—the people with specialized skills and knowledge who walk

through their doors every morning, and walk out every night. Given that new products and

innovative strategies can be quickly copied by competitors, an organization’s only source of

sustainable competitive advantage is its human capital.

Employee retention is a process in which the employees are encouraged to remain

with the organization for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project.

Employee retention is beneficial for the organization as well as the employee. Employees

today are different. They are not the ones who don’t have good opportunities in hand. As

soon as they feel dissatisfied with the current employer or the job, they switch over to the

next job. It is the responsibility of the employer to retain their best employees. If they don’t,

they would be left with no good employees. A good employer should know how to attract and

retain its employees.

Most employees feel that they are worth more than they are actually paid. There is a

natural disparity between what people think they should be paid and what organizations

spend in compensation. When the difference becomes too great and another opportunity

occurs, turnover can result. Pay is defined as the wages, salary or compensation given to an

employee in exchange for services the employee performs for the organization. Pay is more

than "dollars and cents;" it also acknowledges the worth and value of the human

contribution. What people are paid been shown to have a clear, reliable impact on turnover

in numerous studies.

Employees comprise the most vital assets of the company. In a work place where

employees are not able to use their full potential and not heard and valued, they are likely to

leave because of stress and frustration. In a transparent environment while employees get a



sense of achievement and belongingness from a healthy work environment, the company is

benefited with a stronger, reliable work-force harboring bright new ideas for its growth.

The aim is to identify the impact of quality of work life in employee retention as well as to see

how the quality of work life can be improved so as to reduce employee attrition.

1.7 Quality of Work Life and the Role of HR Department:

Human resource departments are involved with efforts to improve productivity

through changes in employee relations. QWL means having good supervision, good working

conditions, good pay and benefits and an interesting, challenging and rewarding job. High

QWL is sought through an employee relations philosophy that encourages the use of QWL

efforts, which are systematic attempts by an organization to give workers greater

opportunities to affect their jobs and their contributions to the organization’s overall

effectiveness. That is, a proactive human resource department finds ways to empower

employees so that they draw on their “brains and wits,” usually by getting the employees

more involved in the decision-making process.

The role of human resource department in QWL efforts varies widely. In some

organisations, top management appoints an executive to ensure that QWL and productivity

efforts occur throughout the organisation. In most cases, these executives have a small staff

and must rely on the human resource department for help with employee training,

communications, attitude survey feedback, and similar assistance. In other organisations, the

department is responsible for initiating and directing the firm’s QWL and productivity

efforts.

Perhaps the most crucial role of the department is winning the support of key

managers. Management support – particularly top management support appears to be an

almost universal prerequisite for successful QWL programs. By substantiating employee

satisfaction and bottom-line benefits, which range from lower absenteeism and turnover to

higher productivity and fewer accidents, the department can help convince doubting

managers. Sometimes documentation of QWL can result from studies of performance before

and after a QWL effort. Without documentation of these results, top management might not

have continued its strong support.



The department also has both a direct and indirect influence on employee motivation and

satisfaction.

As the above figure illustrates, the department makes direct contact with employees and

supervisors through orientation, training and development, career planning, and counselling

activities. At the same time, these activities may help a supervisor do a better job of

motivating employees.

The policies and practices of the department also influence motivation and

satisfaction indirectly. Rigorous enforced safety and health programs, for example, can give

employees and supervisors a greater sense of safety from accidents and industrial health

hazards. Likewise, compensation policies may motivate and satisfy employees through

incentive plans, or they may harm motivation and satisfaction through insufficient raises or

outright salary freezes. The motivation and satisfaction of employees act as feedback on the

organisation’s QWL and on the department’s day-to-day activities.



Chapter 2.

QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AS HR STARTEGY



2. QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AS HR STARTEGY –AN ANALYSIS:

In the modern scenario, QWL as a strategy of Human Resource Management is being

recognised as the ultimate key for development among all the work systems, not merely as a

concession. This is integral to any organisation towards its wholesome growth. This is

attempted on par with strategies of Customer Relation Management.

Strategy and Tactics: Over the years, since industrial revolution, much

experimentation has gone into exploiting potential of human capital in work areas either

explicitly or implicitly. Thanks to the revolution in advanced technology, the imperative need

to look into QWL in a new perspective is felt and deliberated upon. Major companies are

tirelessly implementing this paradigm in Human Resources Development (some call it

People’s Excellence).

Globalisation has lowered national boundaries, creating a knowledge-based economy

that spins and spans the world. Major economies are converging technologically and

economically, and are highly connected at present moment. The new global workplace

demands certain prerequisites such as higher order of thinking skills like abstraction system

thinking and experimental inquiry, problem-solving and team work. The needs are greater in

the new systems, which are participative ventures involving workers managed by so-called

fictional proprietors.

Men Counted: In simple terms, all the above requirements can be easily achieved by

providing improved quality of work life to the workers available on rolls. Workers are often

referred to as teams or groups in general parlance and whatever they do go to the credit of

the teamwork.

The concept of teamwork has evolved from the organised toil that has its own social

dimensions. Good teams usually occur as an indigenously at the workplace and nurturing

the same over time is the responsibility of management. Here, it may also be discerned that

the composition of available workers in no more a local phenomenon as in the past. Mobility

is caused by migration beyond culture barriers and isolation, relocation and globalised

deployment. This phenomenon has become universal and is causing great changes in the

work environment at factories as well as offices.



Money Matters: For good QWL, cash is not the only answer. Today, the workers are

aware of the job requirements and also the fact that the performance of the same is

measured against the basic goals and objectives of the organisation and wages are paid

according to the larger picture specific to the industry and the employer’s place in the same.

The increased share of workers in wages and benefits through legislation as well as

competitive interplay of superior managements in various fields of industry and business on

extensive levels has reshaped the worker’s idea of quality of work life. Moreover, other

things being equal, the employers are increasingly competing with their rivals in providing

better working conditions. Doubtlessly, the increased tendency of recruiting knowledge

bases is giving the modern managements payoffs in myriad ways. Some of them are

intended potentials for product innovations and cost cuttings. Talking of product, it may

appear far-fetched to some that product is being assessed in the market for its quality and

price by the environment created in the areas where workers and customers are dealt and

transact, like ambience in facilities / amenities as also the company’s pay scales. This goes to

prove that QWL of manufacturer / service provider is synonymous with the quality of

product.

Non economic – ‘Job Security’: The changing workforce consists of knowledge

workers who expect more than just money from their work life. Their idea of deliverance

lies in the respect they obtain in the work environment, like how they are individually dealt

and communicated with by other members in the team as well as the employer, what kind of

work he is entrusted with, etc. Some of these non-economic aspect are: Self respect,

satisfaction, recognition, merit compensation in job allocation, incompatibility of work

conditions affecting health, bullying by older peers and boss, physical constraints like

distance to work, lack of flexible working hours, work-life imbalances, invasion of privacy in

case of certain cultural groups and gender discrimination and drug addiction. One or more of

the problems like above can cast a ‘job-insecurity’ question, for no direct and visible fault of

the employer. Yet, the employer has to identify the source of workers problems and try to

mitigate the conditions and take supportive steps in the organisation so that the workers will

be easily retained and motivated and earn ROI. The loss of man-hours to the national income

due to the above factors is simply overwhelming.



Employer should instil in the worker the feeling of trust and confidence by creating

appropriate channels and systems to alleviate the above shortcomings so that the workers

use their best mental faculties on the achievement of goals and objectives of the employer.

To cite some examples, employers in certain software companies have provided

infrastructure to train the children of workers in vocational activities including computer

education, so that the workers need not engage their attention on this aspect. Employee care

initiatives taken by certain companies include creation of Hobby clubs, Fun and Leisure Clubs

for the physical and psychological well-being of workers and their families. After all, the

workers are inexorably linked to the welfare of their families, as it is their primary concern.

Dual income workers, meaning both spouses working are the order of the day. The

work life balance differs in this category and greater understanding and flexibility are

required with respect to leave, compensation and working hours in the larger framework.

Alternative Work Schedules: With a view to tackle job boredom, modern

organizations have been experimenting with several forms of alternate work schedules such

as four-day work week, flexi-time and part-time work. Compressed work week is a work

schedule in which a trade is made between the number of hours worked per day, and the

number of days worked per week, or order to work the standard length hours-four days, 10

hours each day or three days, 12 hours each day are examples of the QWL schedule. In India

this is being implemented by a few companies successfully.

With the condensed workweek, the employees gain no control over when he will

work. In contrast, flexible working hours or a flexi- time schedule gives such control to an

employee. Typically, the organization defines a core time (10 a.m-3p.m) during which all

employees are expected to work, and then allows a range of time before and after this core

period from which employees can decide their own arrival and quitting times, thus offering a

real opportunity to reconcile personal and organizational demands. The reported success

rate of flexi-time programs is impressive. Increased productivity, lower unit labor costs, and

improved morale have been attributed to flexi-time. In the past decade, part-time work-

especially in developed countries-has become a very popular innovative work scheduling

alternative. The tremendous influx of women into the job market has increased the supply of

part-timers as have family members looking for second incomes to keep pace with inflation.



At the same time, managers have begun to realize the benefits-higher enthusiasm and lack of

boredom which part-time employees bring to specialized jobs.

Teamwork: Teamwork is the new mantra of modern day people’s excellence strategy

especially in the IT sector. Today’s teams are self-propelled ones. The modern manager has

to strive at the group coherence for common cause of the project. The ideal team has wider

discretion and sense of responsibility than before as how best to go about with its business.

Here, each member can find a new sense of belonging to each other in the unit and

concentrate on the group’s new responsibility towards employer’s goals. This will boost the

morale of members in the positive environment created by each other’s trust. Positive

energies, free of workplace anxiety, will garner better working results. Involvement in

teamwork deters deserters and employer need not bother himself over the detention

exercises and save money on motivation and campaigns.

Boss Factor: Gone are the days when employers controlled workers by suppressing the

initiative and independence by criticizing their brilliance and skills, by designing and

entrusting difficult and monotonous jobs and offer mere SOPs in terms of wages and weekly

off. Trust develops when managers pay some attention to the welfare of the workers and

treat them well by being honest in their relations. The employer should keep in mind that

every unpaid hour of overtime the worker spends on work is an hour less spent with the

family.

New performance appraisals are put into trend to assess a worker’s contribution vis-

à-vis on employer’s objectives and to find out the training and updating needs and levels of

motivation and commitment. In some companies, the workers themselves are drawing their

benefits by filing appraisal forms and drawing simultaneously the appropriate benefits by

the click of the mouse directly from their drawing rooms, courtesy e-HR systems. In

addition, there are quite a number of channels for informal reviews. Feedback on worker’s

performance, if well interpreted and analysed, could go a long way in improving ethics at

workplace.

Involvement and Communication: Multi-skilling and exposing workers to

different lines of activity in the unit indirectly leads to the greater involvement and better job

security of worker in the organisation. The employer too, can make use of the varied skills to



any altered situations of restructuring and other market adaptations. Thus, the monotony of

work life can be alleviated. The employer, armed with the depth of cross-trained human

resources, need not go hunting for new talent and thus save on the unspent pay packets,

which can be spent usefully on the amenities for workers.

The change should be apparent in mutual trust and confidence towards effective

understanding of the needs of worker and employer. The new knowledge-based workers are

mostly young in the fields of technology and management. They are more forthcoming in

trusting the boss and older peers. Now, all modern managements are cognisant of the innate

desire of workers to be accepted as part of the organisation for identity and other social

reasons.

Effective dialogue is put into play between management and those who execute

through well-organised communication channels paving the way for improved co-operation

and participation on emotional level. Unless the team is behind and involved with

commitment, the manager cannot implement the new tasks in production, distribution,

people’s excellence, customer relations, etc., Team effort plays an important part in cost

efficiency. Successful managers are those who listen to their workers.



Chapter 3.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES



3.1Statement of Problem:

The primary objective is to identify the extent to which the quality of work life

influences the engagement level of employees in the organization as well as their affective

commitment to the organization in the IT/ITES industry. The secondary objective is to

analyze the ways in which the quality of work life can be improved in an organization so as to

gain the highest level of employee engagement which in turn would reduce the attrition rate

and increase employee productivity.

3.2 Research Objectives:

A careful review of the problem areas leads to the identification of the following specific

research objectives:

To identify the crucial dimensions of quality of work life.

To identify the extent to which quality of work life influences the engagement level of

employees in an organization.

To identify the impact on employee retention as well.

3.3 Scope of Study:

The scope of the project is limited to the dimensions of quality of work life as derived

from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Condition

(EWON) (2002) who have used the dimensions widely in their QWL studies. These factors

are believed to be appropriate and reliable in the context of Asia. The dimensions of QWL

selected are health and well-being, job security, skills & competence development and work

life balance. Also the construct of employee engagement is based on the multidimensional

model proposed by Macey & Schneider (2008) that includes the cognitive, affective and

behavioural engagement. The study is limited to the employees in the IT/ITES sector mainly

in the metros and may not hold true for employees in other sectors/areas.

3.4 Significance of Study:

The study will help to identify those crucial elements of work life in the IT/ITES

sector. This in turn will provide a base to the companies in this sector to provide quality

work life to its employees which will not only enhance their engagement level but also retain

them for a longer period of time.



Chapter 4

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



4. Research Methodology:

4.1 Research Framework:

The research is aimed at identifying the crucial dimensions of Quality of Work Life

and the extent to which the quality of work life affects the engagement level of the employees

as well as their retention in the organization for a longer period of time. The framework used

in the research assesses each of the three aspects – Quality of Work Life, Employee

Engagement and Employee Retention, on the basis of certain parameters sourced from the

literature review done on the topic.

Below is the pictorial view of the framework used in the research. The basic idea is

how the various dimensions of quality of work life drive employee engagement which in turn

increases employee retention.

The various dimensions being used in the research along with their operational

definition are as under:

Quality of work Life: “It is defined as the degree of personal satisfaction experienced at

work. Quality of working life is dependent on the extent to which an employee feels valued,

rewarded, motivated, consulted, and empowered”.



The dimensions of quality of work life being used in this research are derived from

the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Condition (EWON)

who have used the dimensions widely in their QWL studies. They are as follows:

Health and well-being: It refers to physical and psychological aspects of an individual in

any working environment. The aspects of workplace stress and the safety and health

conditions of the workplace are taken into consideration for the study.

Job security: It represents strength of the organizations to provide permanent and stable

employment regardless of the changes in work environment. A stable income is also

considered as a part of job security for the purpose of this research.

Skills & Competency Development: This dimension of QWL is operationalized as the

nature of the job that provides opportunities and stimulates growth in skills and knowledge

either for career or organizational development. The aspects of job rotation, job enrichment,

job enlargement, adequate training and career development opportunities are taken into

consideration within this dimension.



Work-life Balance: Work life balance is defined as the working practices that

acknowledge and aim to support the needs of staff in achieving a balance between their

homes and working lives. The aspects such as excess time spent at work and the extent to

which professionals can maintain a balance between their work and home, are assessed in

order to measure the dimension.

Employee Engagement: The following definition from Jesuthalen (2003) is the one that

will be used to guide the research: “Employee engagement is an employee’s attitudinal

attachment to his or her job or company, intention to act in company’s best interests and

willingness to invest discretionary effort in achieving business goals”.

Employee engagement has been defined as a three dimensional construct, with

cognitive, emotional and behavioral components, (Macey & Schneider, 2008; Kahn, 1990;

Saks, 2006) and will be so defined for the purpose of this research.

Cognitive Engagement: The cognitive dimension of employee engagement refers to

employees who are cognitively vigilant and contextually aware of their roles and goals within

their organization, and possess an understanding of the organization and its overall goals

and objectives.



Affective Engagement: The emotional (affective) component refers to how emotionally

connected to others – such as managers and co-workers, how employees feel about the

organization, its leaders, working conditions and whether they have positive or negative

attitudes towards the organization and its leaders.

Behavioral Engagement: The behavioral dimension of engagement consists of the

discretionary effort engaged employees bring to their work in the form of extra time, energy

and cognitive vigilance.

Employee Retention: Employee retention is a systematic effort by employers to create

and foster an environment that encourages current employees to remain employed by

having policies and practices in place that address their diverse needs. For the purpose of

this research, pay has been considered as the most important factor to determine the

intention of an employee to stay with the organization. Also the feasibility to find new

opportunities in the market with current compensation and benefits is taken as a criterion to

determine the retention of employees with the organization.

4.2 Details of Research employed:

Both descriptive and analytical type of research design has been used for his research

study. The main objective of using descriptive research is to describe the state of affairs as it

exits at present. It mainly involves surveys and fact finding enquiries of different kinds.

Descriptive research also includes demography characteristic of the professionals under

survey. Analytical research design is used to analyze the existing facts from the data collected

from the IT/ITES employees.

Research Instrument:

An online questionnaire is used as the research instrument for the study. The

questionnaire framed for the research study is a structured questionnaire in which all the

questions are predetermined before conducting the survey. The form of question is of closed

ended. The questionnaire for the research was framed in a clear manner such that it enables

the respondents to understand and answer the question easily. The questionnaire was

designed in such a way that the questions are short and simple.



The Scales Used To Evaluate Questions Are:

Dichotomous scale (Yes or No)

Likert 5 point scale (Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree)

4-Point Scale (Very Likely/Very Easy, Somewhat likely/Somewhat Easy,

Likely/Difficult, Not at all likely/ Very Difficult)

Stages of the Research:

The whole research methodology would be subdivided into the following five stages:

1. Gathering preliminary and secondary data

2. Preparation of questionnaires.

3. Collection of primary data through questionnaires.

4. Data Analysis.

5. Proposing recommendations on the basis of findings.

Sample Size & Profile:

Sample size=100 samples

Sample profile consists of professionals in the IT/ITES sector in the metros in India.

Sampling Technique:

Convenience sampling technique has been adopted for the study.

Sources of Data:

Primary Sources of Data: Employees currently working in IT/ITES companies.

Secondary Sources of Data:

1. Company Portals

2. Books

3. Magazines & Journals

4. Reports & Newspapers

Methods of Data Collection:

Self-Administered Questionnaires: Self-Administered Online Questionnaires helped

gather a lot of data and information faster from a large sample and involved minimum cost.



4.3 STATISTICAL TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES:

Statistical tool, SPSS is used for the analysis along with MS EXCEL. The techniques being used are:

Percentage Analysis:

Percentage = (No. of respondents/ total no. of respondents)*100

Non-Parametric Correlation:

Nonparametric correlation techniques are designed to estimate the correlation or association

between variables measured on nominal and/or ordinal scales, or metric variables that have

been reduced to nominal and/or ordinal scales.

Spearman Rank-Order Correlation Coefficient: (rho)

= 1 - (6D2)/ [N (N2 – 1)]

Where, D = the difference between the rank position of each case in both variables.

N = the number of paired observations, cases

Cross-Tabulation

A cross-tabulation (often abbreviated as crosstab) displays the joint distribution of

two or more variables. They are usually presented as a contingency table in a matrix format.

Whereas a frequency distribution provides the distribution of one variable, a contingency

table describes the distribution of two or more variables simultaneously. Each cell shows the

number of respondents that gave a specific combination of responses, that is, each cell

contains single cross tabulation.

4.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. Time factor can be considered as a main limitation.

2. The findings are limited to the IT/ITES professionals in the metros in India.



Chapter 5.

DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS



5. Data Analysis & Findings

The data analysis is being done in three phases. In the first phase the various

dimensions of Quality of Work life are being analyzed in order to identify the most crucial

dimensions. In the next phase, the parameters of employee engagement are assessed and

relation between Quality of work life and employee engagement is measured. Similarly in the

last part, correlation is established between employee retention and quality of work life.

The items in the questionnaire are analyzed below according to the dimension in

which they are categorized into.

5.1 QWL – Health and Well Being:

The pie chart shows that 41% of the professionals agree that they find their work

stressful and another 20% strongly agree with this fact.

Combining the two figures we can infer that around 60% people do associate stress

with their work.



As regards the safety and heath conditions, 51%agree and 17% strongly agree with

the fact that the safety and heath measures taken by their employers are quite

satisfactory. Whereas only close to 18% of the people do not agree with the same.

Thus overall, we can infer that the safety and health conditions provided by the

companies in the IT/ITES industry are good.

Correlations

Quality of work life

Health & Well Being

Spearman's rho Quality of work life Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .378(**)Sig. (2-tailed) . .000N 100 100

Health & Well Being Correlation Coefficient .378(**) 1.000Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .N 100 100

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The above table shows the non-parametric correlation between the quality of work life and

the health and well being of the professionals with a confidence level of 99%.

The correlation coefficient of 0.378 with p-value= 0.000 shows that the correlation is

significant. Thus the correlation between QWL and Health & Well Being is 0.378,

which on squaring and multiplying by 100 gives 14.28%.

This shows that QWL shares 14.28% of its variability with Health & Well being. Thus,

health & well being of an individual affects his/her QWL to an extent of 14.28%.



5.2 QWL - Job Security:

37% of the professional said that they do worry about the job security, whereas

another 24% said otherwise.

The chart above shows that 55% of the professional disagree and 17% strongly

disagree that their post is likely to be made redundant in the near future, which

provides a positive implication towards job security. A meager 7% of the people are

concerned about their job security.

Thus job security seems to be quite high with the employers in this sector, except for

the meager 7-8% people who are concerned about job security.



Talking about unstable pay/salary packages, it has

been found that greater number of people i.e. close to 74% people do not agree or

strongly disagree with the likeliness of their income being unstable and uncertain.

This signifies that professionals also feel quite secure

about their income level with their employers.

Correlations

Quality of work life Job Security

Spearman's rho

Quality of work life Correlation Coefficient1.000 .276(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) . .005N 100 100

Job Security Correlation Coefficient .276(**) 1.000Sig. (2-tailed) .005 .N 100 100


From the above correlation table between Job security and QWL it can be inferred

that there is a significant positive correlation of 0.276 (p-value=.005) that exists

between the two variables.

Also 7.6% of the variability in QWL can be explained by job security.



5.3 QWL - Skills and Competency Development:

From the view of the above pie chart shows that 37% of the professionals feel that

they are given a lot of freedom to take decisions regarding their work. Also 18%

people strongly agree with the same, which is a good number. But round about 28%

of professionals feel otherwise.

Talking about employee participation in decision making, we see that 43% of the

people agree and 12% strongly agree with the fact that they do take part with others

in decisions that affect them.

This signifies a good level of employee participation in the organizations. 24% people

are indifferent about it whereas very few people strongly disagree with the same.



The above chart shows the extent to which job rotation is encouraged in the

organizations. From employee’s point of view, we see that 44% of the professionals

feel that they get to do a number of different things on their jobs and another 16%

strongly agree with this. 26% are neutral whereas nearly 14% disagree with the

same.

This shows that job rotation is prevalent in the IT/ITES sector.

From the chart we can see that 49% of the professionals feel that they are given

opportunities of self development, which is an important factor for the career

development of individuals. Moreover, a significant 19% do not agree with the same.



As regards the chances of promotion the chart above shows that 40% of the

professionals find good and fair chances of promotion in their organizations.

However another significant figure close to 40% people fell otherwise.

The above chart shows that only about 46% people are satisfied by the training

opportunities being provided to them, whereas round about 40% people feel that the

training opportunities being provided to them are not enough to help them perform

their jobs safely and competently.



Correlations


Skills & Competency Development


Skills & Competency Development

Correlation Coefficient.515(**) 1.000

Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .N 100 100


Combining the scores of the above aspects of skills and competency development and

correlating with quality of work life, we can see that the correlation coefficient of

0.515 is significant (p-value=0.000) with a confidence level of 95%.

This signifies that Quality of work life shares 26.5% of its variability with skills and

competency development for an individual. Hence it can be inferred that Skills &

Competency Development is an important determinant of Quality of work life.

5.4 QWL- Work life Balance



From the above two charts we can see that most of the professionals i.e. 71% though

work in day shift but also 64% of the professionals do spend more hours than they

would like at work.

The chart above shows that 44% of the professionals agree that the demands of their

job interfere with their family/social life and another 14% strongly agree with the

same. Moreover 22% of the people disagree with this fact as well as 7% strongly

disagree with the same.



Correlations

Quality of work life Work Life Imbalance

Spearman's rho Quality of work life Correlation Coefficient 1.000 -.635(**)Sig. (2-tailed) . .000N 100 100

Work Life Imbalance Correlation Coefficient -.635(**) 1.000Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .N 100 100


From the table above, we can see that the correlation coefficient between Quality of

work life and work life imbalance is negative and is significant (rho= -0.635, p-value=

0.000) with a confidence level of 99%.

This signifies that work life imbalance causes a negative variability of 40.3% in the

quality of work life and thus is a determinant for the same.

5.5 Overall Quality of Work life:

A majority of the professionals i.e. 49% are not too satisfied with the quality of their

work life. A meager 3% are highly satisfied and 25% are somewhat satisfied with

their work life.



The following section deals with the analysis of the demographic variances on the basis of

gender, marital status and age group w.r.t the Quality of Work life.

QWL – Gender:

Gender * Quality of work life Cross-tabulation

Quality of work life Total

Very SatisfiedSomewhat Satisfied Neutral

Not too Satisfied

Not at all satisfied

Gender Male Count 3 20 8 28 10 69% within Gender

4.3% 29.0% 11.6% 40.6% 14.5% 100.0%

Female Count 0 5 1 21 4 31% within Gender

.0% 16.1% 3.2% 67.7% 12.9% 100.0%

Total Count 3 25 9 49 14 100% within Gender

3.0% 25.0% 9.0% 49.0% 14.0% 100.0%

67.7% females and 40.6% males are not too satisfied with their quality of working

life. Thus satisfaction level is low in both the sexes.

Hence it can be inferred that the quality of work life should be improved depending

on the needs of the professionals in both males and females.

QWL – Marital Status:

Marital Status * Quality of work life Cross-tabulation

Quality of work life TotalVery

SatisfiedSomewhat Satisfied Neutral

Not too Satisfied


Marital Status

Married Count1 7 0 12 5 25

% within Marital Status

4.0% 28.0% .0% 48.0% 20.0% 100.0%

Unmarried Count 2 18 9 37 9 75% within Marital Status

2.7% 24.0% 12.0% 49.3% 12.0% 100.0%

Total Count 3 25 9 49 14 100% within Marital Status

3.0% 25.0% 9.0% 49.0% 14.0% 100.0%

Around 49% of the people from both the categories are not too satisfied with the

quality of work life. Same is true with other satisfaction levels.

Thus from the above it can be inferred that there is not much difference in the

perception of married and unmarried professionals.



QWL – Age Group:

Age Group * Quality of work life Cross-tabulation

Quality of work life Total

Very SatisfiedSomewhat Satisfied Neutral

Not too Satisfied


AgeGroup

less than 25 yrs

Count1 10 4 23 5 43

% within Age Group

2.3% 23.3% 9.3% 53.5% 11.6% 100.0%

25-30 yrs Count 1 11 5 21 6 44% within Age Group

2.3% 25.0% 11.4% 47.7% 13.6% 100.0%

more than 30 yrs

Count1 4 0 5 3 13

% within Age Group

7.7% 30.8% .0% 38.5% 23.1% 100.0%

Total Count 3 25 9 49 14 100% within Age Group

3.0% 25.0% 9.0% 49.0% 14.0% 100.0%

In all the three categories of age groups, majority of people are not too satisfied with

their quality of work life. 53.3% professionals within the age group of less than 25 yrs

are not satisfied.

Only around 25-30% people are somewhat satisfied within each category.

5.6 Employee Engagement & Quality of Work Life

Employee engagement as mentioned in the research framework has been measured on the

following three aspects:

Cognitive

Affective, and

Behavioral

Cognitive Engagement:

The following items in the questionnaire are intended to measure the cognitive aspect of

employee engagement:



The above chart shows the percentage of people who are clear about how their role in

the organization is related to their organization’s overall goals, objectives and

direction.

From the chart we can see that 46% of the professionals agree and another 18%

professionals strongly agree with the same. 24% people are indifferent where nearly

12% people disagree that they are clear about the relation between their role and the

organizational goals and direction.

As regards the contribution of the team, 54% people agree and 22% strongly agree

that they are clear about how their team/department contributes to the success of the



organization. 14% people are indifferent whereas only around 10% of the

professionals do not agree with the same.

Hence it can be inferred that the degree of communication of the organizational goals

and their relationship with the individual goals is quite high in the IT companies.

Affective Engagement:

For the affective element of employee engagement, the following items were present in the

questionnaire:

38% of the professionals would recommend their organization to their friends and

another 11% strongly agree with the same. Whereas a significant 20% either disagree

or are neutral with the fact that they consider their organizations as a good place to

work for and would recommend their friends to join the organization.



From the chart we can see that 37% professionals agree and another 14% strongly

agree with the fact that they feel proud to tell others about their company. But

another 20% are neutral and the rest disagree with the same.

Hence it can be inferred that about 50% of the people are not too impressed by the

brand image of the firm as an employer of choice.

Behavioral engagement:

The following items measured the behavioral aspect of employee engagement:

The above chart shows that 11% professionals strongly agree and 53% agree that

they are willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond what is normally expected to



help their organization succeed. 27% of the people are neutral and a meager 6-10%

does not agree with the same.

Talking about motivation level of employees, it can be seen that around 56% of the

professionals are personally motivated to help the organization succeed. 10% people

strongly agree with the same, where as around 20% people disagree that they are

personally motivated to help the organization being successful.

5.7 Overall Employee Engagement:



The above chart shows that 62% people i.e. majority of the professionals are engaged.

Where as a significantly lower 14% people are disengaged and 15% are neutral.

This signifies that engagement level of professionals in the IT/ITES sector is quite

satisfactory. But at the same time efforts should be taken to improve the engagement

level of the rest.

Correlations

Quality of work life Employee Engagement


Employee Engagement Correlation Coefficient .565(**) 1.000Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .N 100 100


The above table shows the correlation between engagement level of employees and

their quality of work life. The correlation coefficient of 0.565 (p-value=0.000) signifies

that there is a significant positive correlation between the two variables with a

confidence level of 99%.

Hence, employee engagement level shares 32% of its variability with the variable

quality of work life.


gender, marital status and age group w.r.t the Employee Engagement Level.

Employee Engagement - Gender

Gender * Employee Engagement Cross-tabulation

Employee Engagement TotalHighly

Engaged Engaged Neutral Disengaged

Highly Disengaged

Gender Male Count 5 43 11 8 2 69% within Gender

7.2% 62.3% 15.9% 11.6% 2.9% 100.0%

Female Count 2 19 4 6 0 31% within Gender

6.5% 61.3% 12.9% 19.4% .0% 100.0%

Total Count 7 62 15 14 2 100% within Gender

7.0% 62.0% 15.0% 14.0% 2.0% 100.0%



There is not much difference in the engagement level of professionals within the two

genders. Both the categories have around 62% people as engaged employees.

Employee Engagement – Marital Status:

Marital Status * Employee Engagement Cross-tabulation


Engaged Engaged Neutral DisengagedHighly

DisengagedMarital Status

Married Count2 18 3 2 0 25

% within Marital Status

8.0% 72.0% 12.0% 8.0% .0% 100.0%

Unmarried Count 5 44 12 12 2 75% within Marital Status

6.7% 58.7% 16.0% 16.0% 2.7% 100.0%

Total Count 7 62 15 14 2 100% within Marital Status

7.0% 62.0% 15.0% 14.0% 2.0% 100.0%

72% people in the married category are engaged while it is 58.7% in unmarried

category. This shows that the engagement level is higher in married people as

compared to the unmarried ones.

Employee Engagement – Age Group:

Age Group * Employee Engagement Cross-tabulation


Engaged Engaged Neutral DisengagedHighly

DisengagedAgeGroup

less than 25 yrs

Count2 25 7 7 2 43

% within Age Group

4.7% 58.1% 16.3% 16.3% 4.7% 100.0%

25-30 yrs Count 4 26 7 7 0 44% within Age Group

9.1% 59.1% 15.9% 15.9% .0% 100.0%

more than 30 yrs

Count1 11 1 0 0 13

% within Age Group

7.7% 84.6% 7.7% .0% .0% 100.0%

Total Count 7 62 15 14 2 100

% within Age Group

7.0% 62.0% 15.0% 14.0% 2.0% 100.0%



84.6% people in the age group of more than 30 yrs are engaged. And around 60%

people in the remaining two categories are engaged.

This shows that engagement level is quite high in case of professionals with more

than 30 yrs of age.

5.8 Employee Retention & Quality of Work Life:

The analysis of the items in the questionnaire intended to measure the employee retention

aspect of the research are as follows:

32% people are happy with the compensation and benefits they are receiving. This is

a very small number of the population who agree that their compensation is good and

fair. The rest of the population is either neutral or disagree with the fact.



52% professionals find it somewhat easy and another 18% find it very easy to find

another job with the same income and benefits.

This shows that there is a high risk that majority of people can leave there current job

if they find another job with the same offerings.

When asked about the possibility of making a genuine effort to find a new job, 32%

professionals said that it is somewhat likely and another 24% said it very likely of

them to make the same effort. Another 28% said it’s likely.

Hence it can be inferred that there is again a high probably of majority of people to

leave there current employer if they find a good opportunity within next year.



Correlations


Employee Attrition

Spearman's rho

Quality of work life Correlation Coefficient1.000 -.582(**)

Sig. (2-tailed) . .003N 100 100

Employee Attrition Correlation Coefficient -.582(**) 1.000Sig. (2-tailed) .003 .N 100 100


The above table shows the correlation between Employee Attrition and the quality of

work life. The correlation coefficient of -0.582 (p-value=0.003) signifies that there is a

significant negative correlation between the two variables with a confidence level of

99%.

Thus it can be inferred that employee attrition is negatively related to quality of work

life and a significant 33.8% of the variability in quality of work life can be attributed to

employee attrition.


gender, marital status and age group w.r.t the Employee Attrition.

Employee Attrition – Gender:

Gender * Employee Attrition Cross-tabulation

Employee Attrition

TotalVery high high low very lowGender Male Count 4 26 34 5 69

% within Gender 5.8% 37.7% 49.3% 7.2% 100.0%Female Count 5 14 9 3 31

% within Gender 16.1% 45.2% 29.0% 9.7% 100.0%Total Count 9 40 43 8 100

% within Gender 9.0% 40.0% 43.0% 8.0% 100.0%

Attrition level is lower within males i.e. majority of males show a low intention to quit

(49.3%) as compared to females where the intent to quit is in majority of females

(45.2%).

Also 16% of the females show very high attrition intent.



Employee Attrition – Marital Status:

Marital Status * Employee Attrition Cross-tabulation

Employee Attrition

TotalVery high high low very lowMarital Status

Married Count 0 11 12 2 25% within Marital Status .0% 44.0% 48.0% 8.0% 100.0%

Unmarried Count 9 29 31 6 75% within Marital Status 12.0% 38.7% 41.3% 8.0% 100.0%

Total Count 9 40 43 8 100% within Marital Status 9.0% 40.0% 43.0% 8.0% 100.0%

Within married category, the attrition intent is high in 44% people and low in 48%.

Within unmarried category the figures are 38.7% and 41.3% respectively.

Hence there is not much of a difference in attrition intent of the professionals on the

basis of their marital status.

Employee Attrition – Age Group:

Age Group * Employee Attrition Cross-tabulation

Employee Attrition Total

Very high high low very lowAgeGroup

less than 25 yrs

Count9 16 16 2 43

% within Age Group 20.9% 37.2% 37.2% 4.7% 100.0%25-30 yrs Count 0 19 19 6 44

% within Age Group .0% 43.2% 43.2% 13.6% 100.0%more than 30 yrs

Count0 5 8 0 13

% within Age Group .0% 38.5% 61.5% .0% 100.0%Total Count 9 40 43 8 100

% within Age Group 9.0% 40.0% 43.0% 8.0% 100.0%

Attrition intent is high in the category of less than 25 yrs i.e. 37.2% (high) and 20.9%

(very high). Also within the age group of 25-30 Yrs its 43.2%. But the attrition intent

is low in the age group of more than 30 yrs of age i.e. 61.5% of people.

Hence it can be inferred that the professionals in the age group of less than 25 yrs to

30 yrs are more prone to leave the organization as compared to the senior people.



5.9 Summary of Findings

Health and well being:

Stress level is high – close to 60% agree with the fact that they experience higher level

of workplace stress.

Safety and health conditions are good as stated by majority of the professionals.

Health & Well being is positively correlated with Quality of Work Life and shares

14.28% of its variability with the same.

Job security:

45% of the professionals worry about their job security

Stability in income is agreed upon by 46%

Though very low but significant variability of 7.6% in Quality of Work life is explained

by Job Security.

Skills and Competency development:

Employee involvement in decision making has to be improved as only 37% feel that

they are given enough freedom to take decisions related to their work

Employee participation in decision making is also agreed upon by only 43%

professionals.

Job rotation is comparatively higher; to an extent of around 60% professional agree

that they are given opportunities to perform variety of tasks in their job.

Around 55% professionals agree that they are provided with appropriate career

development opportunities at work.

Promotion chances are perceived as fair by about 40% employees only.

Adequate training opportunities provided are agreed upon by 46% of the surveyed

professionals.

Quality of work life shares a significant 26.5% of its variability with skills and

competency development



Work life balance: 64% of the professionals do spend more hours than they would like at work.

58% agree that the demands of their job interfere with their family/social life

Work life imbalance shares a negative variability of 40.3% in the Quality of work life

Overall Quality of Work Life:

49% are not too satisfied with the quality of their work life. A meager 3% are highly

satisfied and 25% are somewhat satisfied with their work life.

Satisfaction level is low in both the sexes w.r.t. their Quality of work life.

There is not much of a difference in the perception of married and unmarried

professionals. Both are not too satisfied with their quality of work life.

Majority of professionals within each age group are not too satisfied with their work

life.

Cognitive Engagement:

Role clarity is agreed upon by 64% professionals.

Also the understanding of team contribution to the overall organizational goals is

agreed by 76% professionals.

Hence, the degree of communication of the organizational goals and their relationship

with the individual goals is quite high in the IT companies.

Affective Engagement:

49% agree that they would recommend their work place to others as a good place to

work for.

51% said that they are proud to talk about their organization.

But another significant 50% of the people are not too impressed by the brand image

of the firm as an employer of choice.

Behavioral Engagement:

64% of the professionals agree to put extra efforts than what is expected of them.

And 66% professionals are personally motivated to help their organization succeed.

Hence the behavioral component of engagement is quite high with the professionals.



Overall Employee Engagement:

That engagement level of professionals in the IT/ITES sector is quite satisfactory, 70%

of the professionals feel so.

There is not much difference in the engagement level of professionals within the two

genders. Both the categories have around 62% people as engaged employees.

Engagement level is higher in married people (72%) as compared to the unmarried

ones (59%).

Engagement level is quite high in case of professionals with more than 30 yrs of age

(84.6%).

Employee retention:

Only 32% people are happy with the compensation and benefits they are receiving.

There is a high risk that majority of people can leave there current job if they find

another job with the same offerings - 52% professionals find it somewhat easy and

another 18% find it very easy to find another job with the same income and benefits.

There is again a high probably of majority of people to leave there current employer if

they find a good opportunity within next year.

Employee attrition is negatively related to quality of work life and a significant 33.8%

of the negative variability in employee attrition can be attributed to quality of work

life.

Attrition level is lower within males i.e. majority of males show a low intention to quit

(49.3%) as compared to females where the intent to quit is in majority of females

(45.2%).

Within married category, the attrition intent is high in 44% people and low in 48%.

Within unmarried category the figures are 38.7% and 41.3% respectively. Hence

there is not much of a difference in attrition intent of the professionals on the basis of

their marital status.

The professionals in the age group of less than 25 yrs to 30 yrs are more prone to

leave the organization as compared to the senior people.



Crucial Dimensions of Quality of work life:

From the analysis of correlation coefficients, we find that all the four constructs are

significantly correlated to quality of work life. Though the ones that are most crucial

parameters of quality of work life as revealed by the research are:

Skills and Competency Development (shares 26.5% variability with QWL), and

Work life balance (shares 40.3% variability with QWL)

QWL and Employee Engagement:

Also by correlating employee engagement and Quality of work life, we find that

Employee engagement level shares 32% of its variability with quality of work life. Hence we

can infer that quality of work life positively influences the engagement level of employees to

an extent of 32%.

QWL and Employee Retention:

As regards the affect of quality of work life on employee retention, it has been found

that employee retention has a significant 33.8% variation due to quality of work life.



Chapter 6.

SUGGESTIONS



6. Suggestions:

IT workplace should focus on prevention strategies from poor health and wellbeing in

order to provide a good QWL. Professionals should be trained on stress management

techniques. Yoga and meditation classes could be organized. Counseling sessions

could be provided to employees as and when needed by them. The prevention

strategies should focus on the relationship between the individual job context,

working conditions and the changes in the workplace. Health and wellness programs

should be carried out on a regular basis such as healthy diet plan and work-life

programs to ensure good health of employees.

To ensure job security at the work place the employer should build an open culture in

the organization. The employees should be made aware of the company’s financial

position in the market and its changing requirements. Also employees should be given

career development opportunities so that they feel connected to the organization as

well as gain required skills in order to perform efficiently.

Employees should be given more authority to take decisions regarding their job as

well as participate in decision making process for those issues that directly affect

them. This would ensure trust and respect among the professionals and hence

increase their satisfaction level.

Employees should be given more opportunities to enhance their skills according to

their job demands as well as their interests. Sponsorships for higher education,

subsidized education loans, opportunities to attend relevant seminars and workshops

and management development programs are mostly looked for by the IT

professionals now-a-days.

Also proper training need analysis should be carried out before providing training to

the employees so that the training should be made more effective and relevant to the

actual requirements.



The process of promotions and IJPs should be made very fair and transparent so that

employees do not hold any negative view about the same as this may affect their

commitment level to their job and the organization as well.

In order to improve the work-life balance, organizations should include more flexible

working plans as well as reduce excess working hours. Also employee helpdesk could

be introduced wherein they could get their routine work done for their families. Work

from home, sabbaticals, employee assistance programs, family & childcare networks

are some of the programs being undertaken by companies in order to ensure work-

life balance. Also programs to recognize the achievements of children company

parties will help increase socialization among employees.

Alternate work schedules such as four-day work week, flexi-time and part-time work

could be introduced. Compressed work week is a work schedule in which a trade is

made between the number of hours worked per day, and the number of days worked

per week, or order to work the standard length hours-four days, 10 hours each day or

three days, 12 hours each day are examples of the QWL schedule. Job sharing could

also help in reducing the working hours for professionals.

All quality work life programs should be designed by taking into consideration the

demographic profile of the workforce, their varied preferences on the basis of their

gender, marital status and age group. Employee satisfaction surveys should be

conducted periodically so as to determine the existing and changing requirements.

As regards the compensation, equity should be established in designing the pay

packages in terms of maintaining internal equity, external equity and team equity as

well as establishing procedural justice. As far as possible flexible benefits should be

provided to employees specific to their requirements.



Chapter 7.

CONCLUSION



6. Conclusion

While there are many advantages to having a quality work life, there are also several

disadvantages that the employer must consider. These include problems maintaining

adequate staffing coverage, difficulty scheduling meetings, lack of interpersonal dynamics,

and concerns about safety and security (for flextime and alternate schedule employees that

come in early or leave late). It is up to the employer to weigh the advantages against the

disadvantages to determine if any of these alternatives will work.

To improve the quality of work life and eliminate job stress, employers can also make

efforts to be more aware of the workload and job demands. Employers need to examine

employee training, communication, reward systems, coworker relationships, and work

environment. Employees often are able to give employers the best advice on reducing work

stress.

Employees in the future will likely be looking for corporations that have a new work

environment, one that encourages each employee to work toward improvement in the

product or service; gives employees the responsibility and authority to make decisions,

provides timely feedback, and rewards employees based upon the quality of the product and

efforts. Team effort will assume central importance especially that of self-directed works

teams. Employees will choose employers who have aims and values that match theirs and

who value balance in their employees' lives. Employees want to learn and advance, so

opportunities for professional growth will attract employees.

Companies will seek employees with technical skills, vision, and the ability to organize

and persuade in presentation of ideas and information. Strong communication skills and the

ability to learn will be high on employers' demand list for employees. There are a great

number of common elements between the employee list and the employer list. To attract and

retain employees, companies need to be exploiting those points of convergence and

continuously work with employees to redesign the work, eliminate job stress, increase job

autonomy, provide learning and training opportunities, and improve the quality of work life.



References:

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APPENDIX: QuestionnaireDear Sir/Madam,

This questionnaire has been designed for educational purpose. The information provided by you will not be disclosed to anyone and will be kept strictly confidential. This will act as a tool to study the various HR policies and practices.

Please provide your honest feedback for effective analysis.

1. How long have you worked in your present job for your current employer? Less than 1 Year 1-5 years More than 5 years

2. Which of the following best describes your usual work schedule? Day shift Irregular shift/ on-call Night shift Rotational shift

3. I spend more hours than I would like at work. Yes No

Mark the following statements in a scale of [1-5], where 1 signifies ‘Strongly agree’; 2- ‘Agree’; 3- ‘Neutral’; 4-‘Disagree’ and 5-‘Strongly Disagree’, that applies to you themost.

4. I often find my work stressful.5. I understand how my role in the organization is related to my organization’s overall

goals, objectives and direction.6. I understand how my unit/department contributes to the success of the organization7. The safety and health conditions where I work are good 8. I worry about my job security.9. I often feel there are not enough people or staff to get all the work done.10. My post is likely to be made redundant in the near future.11. My income is likely to be unstable and uncertain.12. I am given a lot of freedom to decide how to do my own work.13. Chances of promotions are good and fair in my organization.14. I am given opportunities to develop my own special abilities relevant to my job. 15. I have the training opportunities I need to perform my job safely and competently. 16. I understand how my role in the organization is related to my organization’s overall

goals, objectives and direction.17. I understand how my unit/department contributes to the success of the organization.



18. I would recommend my organization to a friend as a good place to work for.19. I am proud to tell others I work for my organization.20. I am personally motivated to help my organization be successful.21. I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond what is normally expected to help my

organization succeed.22. My compensation and benefits are good and fair. 23. In my job, I often take part with others in making decisions that affects me. 24. I get to do a number of different things on my job.25. Often the demands of my job interfere with my family/social life.

Please mark the option in the scale provided, that applies to you the most.

26. How easy would it be for you to find a job with another employer with approximately the same income and fringe benefits as you have now? 1. Very easy2. Somewhat easy3. Difficult4. Very difficult

27. Taking everything into consideration, how likely is it you will make a genuine effort to find a new job with another employer within the next year. 1. Very likely 2. Somewhat likely3. Likely 4. Not at all likely

28. All in all, how satisfied would you say you are with your work life? 1. Very satisfied2. Somewhat satisfied3. Neutral4. Not too satisfied 5. Not at all satisfied

Thank You

Report Sushmita

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