Concept of quality of work life management essay

Introduction

The range of this assignment is to investigate and understand of how work procedure is ordered, at the same time comprehending the emerging issues of work organization and the nature of working life or which is more familiar to be called as quality of work life (QWL). We are required to conduct a small survey towards the Legenda Education Group’s Staff by using questionnaire as data collection method. We had use 2 set of questionnaires and managed to receive feedbacks from 20 respondents. Further are the detailed discussions and explanations on our findings and progress.

Details of Assignment Task

1. 0 Concept of ” Quality of Work Life (QWL)”

According to Seed and Leord (1997) quality of life means the enjoyment in an individual’s life. Generally it depends on many factors. While quality of work life referred to Rossi et al. (2009) it can be more specific and can be defined and more related to the level of the happiness of someone for his work or career. Each individual has distinctive needs regarding their jobs. The quality level of their work life can be determined by whether those requirements are being met. While some individuals may be substance with a basic least wage work provided that it assisted to pay the bills, others might discover this work to be too repetitive or include a lot of physical work and might discover this position to be highly unsatisfactory. Subsequently, the basics need to have a high ” quality of work life” varies from an individual to another. Regardless of their standards, those with a high quality of work life usually make enough to live comfortably, find their work to be engaging or interesting and achieve a level of personal satisfaction or fulfillment from the job that they do. In the other word, those employees that are generally happy with their job are said to have a high quality of work life, while for those that are unhappy or unfulfilled by their job are said to have a low quality of work life. To achieve a high quality of work life, it is important to choose a suitable job that can fulfills our needs and not to be forced to do the jobs. An important thing that we need to determine is what those needs are. If we want a job that is challenging and engages our mind, it is important to consider that in future you still might be able to handle it and you have the strength and qualification which allow you to obtain such a job. Further is the discussion on Quality Work Life model that might be helpful to understand a job needs that you are interested in.

2. 0 QWL Model and Its Dimensions

Quality of Work life ModelSource: Zigu (2012) Quality of Work Life (QWL) | Definition and Concept | HR | MBA Skool-Study. Learn. Share.. [online] Available at: http://www. mbaskool. com/business-concepts/human-resources-hr-terms/2390-quality-of-work-life-qwl. html [Accessed: 17 Apr 2013]. Various dimensions as shown in the model above are defined to understand how each of the factors can be measured on these dimensions. These dimensions is open communication, career growth plan, flexible work timing, rewards and recognition, job enrichment, providing job security, and increased of employee participation. Firstly is the open communication. The quality of communication in organization related to the achievement of the personal growth. Thus, a proper communication plays an important role in this area. King (1992) stated that by improving the nature and quality of communication can enhance better quality of working life in an organization. For instance, using methods of giving briefing and evaluation encourages the participation process of the employees. The next one is career growth plans. This plan help people manage the aspects of their lives as well as helping the employees create an understanding that their employers are participating taking care of them. Through this, organizations have an understanding attitude toward employees who has both work and family roles, thus the employees will not have to worry on the career opportunities when the working hours are reduce for family responsibilities. Flexible work timings contribute to job motivation and dedication. Employees can reschedule their time for work or activity properly that suit them best (Hill, Ferris, & Martinson, 2003). For example, when employee facing an unexpected problem in home, they can reduce the working time for that day and replace it in another day. Personal needs are fulfilled when rewards such as bonuses, promotion, recognition and salary’s increment are given by the organization. Thus, rewards and benefits are important as a motivational approach which will contribute to a quality work life of the employees. Besides, by giving out rewards, employee will feel that the employers appreciate and acknowledge their work done. Job security is where the employees have the probability in keeping their job; high job security level enable the employees having low chance of becoming unemployed. Factors that giving impact on employee’s job security can be identified as the employee’s working experience, his work industry, working location, job functional area and so on. Thus, individuals that have the demanded factors by employers can enjoy high level of job security. Job enrichment is an effort to motivate employees through giving the opportunity to use the series of their abilities. This was developed by the American psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s. It can be differentiated to job enlargement which simply increases the number of tasks without changing the challenge. Besides, the benefit of job enrichment is it helps people achieve high productivity and quality by the work itself. (Armstrong, 2001)Lastly is increasing employee’s participation. Employee’s participation defined as involvement of worker in helping the organization in fulfill the mission or goals by using their own ideas and efforts in problem solving and making decision. To increase the participation of employee, company should give authority for employee in making decisions. Besides, employees should be given the training or experience that related to decision making skills to enhance their skills.

3. 0 Findings and Evaluation of Quality Work Life Issue in Legenda

As for our survey, we designed two set of questionnaires which is Set A and Set B. Each set consist of multiple questions about quality work life aspect and some questions are similar in both set. (Sample of both set is shown in appendices 1 and appendices 2). There are 10 copies for each set. The questionnaires were distribute to the Legenda Staffs as follows: 5 copies were distributed in Credit Control Department, 5 copies in SOBM department, 5 copies in Zero Trauma department and another 5 copies distributed to other departments such as the Library department and Education Facilitator department. Profile of the Total Respondents InvolvedTotal 20 staffs of Legenda’s College were involved as respondents in a small survey related with the topic of quality of work life. The respondents were consists of temporary staffs, permanent staffs, contract staffs and on call staffs. Figures below showed the summary of the demographic profile of the respondents. Figure 1. 1In Figure 1. 1, it is clearly showing the 60% of female staffs were involved as the respondents in this survey are higher than 40% of the male staffs. In the other words, it can be concluded that there are more female staffs employed in Legenda compared to male staffs. Figure 1. 2The bar chart in Figure 1. 2 shows that 45% of the total respondents are Malay, 35% are Chinese, 15% are Indians and other race such as Sudani made up 5% based on their races. We can see that the highest percentage of respondent is the group of Malay’s respondents as shown in Figure 1. 2 which indicates that most of the staffs in Legenda are Malays. While the lowest percentage made up from other race such as the Sudani. It also shows that Legenda have a diverse workforce where the employees consist of varies races. Evaluation on Questionnaires Set AIssue on Fair Reward and RecognitionFigure 1. 4In this context, rewards and recognition is seen as a factor which contributes to a Quality Work Life because by giving such benefits, employees will be more motivated and work hard on doing their job. However, Legenda is not really applicable to the idea to give such benefit as shown in the Figure 1. 4. There were 9 out of 10 respondents stated that they do not receive extra salary after working overtime. This is consider as an issue because without showing any appreciation to the staffs, the work productivity and quality might be reduce after some time which is also will become a big problem for Legenda to overcome in future. Evaluation of Set B QuestionnairesIssue on Work and Total Life SpaceFigure 1. 5Work and total life space is important for employees to have a free time to spend with their family or having the time to take a break while working. Giving space for the employees to have their own time will ensure their needs as an individual are fulfilled. When doing so, employees also feel determinant and motivated after having some leisure time to relax. However, Legenda is not really into giving the opportunity for their staffs to have some time for their own which may affect the staff’s enjoyment to work in Legenda. The staffs were given a lot of work to be done in a short time which may cause excessive stress and tension to the staffs and affecting their work done. Furthermore, staffs may lose track on their objective which resulting as poor work performance. Evaluation on Both Set of QuestionnairesSatisfaction Issue on the Working EnvironmentFigure 1. 7There were 16 valid responses received on the feedback regarding this issue and 11 out of the 16 feedbacks are positive response. Good working environment is important for the employees because it contributes to employee’s satisfaction and happiness while doing their work Gefma and Ifma, 2005). Most staffs agree that they are satisfied with the working environment but still there are small number are disagree on this matter. In relation with the issue, some respondents suggesting that Legenda should be improve in terms of giving staff’s benefit and create an interesting working environment. There was also an opinion arise about the lacking of formality in the working place and stating that all department are not well-arrange their work. They even have issue in poor facility of the workplace such as air-conditioner not functioning and causing uncomfortable environment for the staffs to work. Staff’s point of view emphasize on creating good working environment for good Quality Work Life. Thus, Legenda should consider on improving on this are although the impact is not too obvious but it is Legenda responsibility to provide safe and healthy working environment for their staffs. Comparison Analysis among the Legenda Staffs in Zero Trauma Department and School of Business Management DepartmentFigure 1. 8Figure 1. 8 shows that the staff in Zero Trauma Department earn at a range of RM2000-RM3000. While the lecturer earns the highest income range which ranging at RM3000-RM4000. We can see that the salary earn by the staff differs by each department from the lowest which is in Zero Trauma Department to the highest which is in the SOBM department. The salary earn by the staff will also determine by the personal need of the employees and Quality Work Life of the staff during their working time in Legenda as some staffs planned and determine to earn higher than their current salary. This analysis shows that the QWL of staff in the Zero Trauma Department and SOBM Department differs from one another based on the income range in each department. The top management of Legenda Education Group should try to lessen the overall differences of Quality Work Life to all employees regardless of their department. However, it can be concluded that the staff in SOBM department earning more than the other 2 department mostly because SOBM department consist of academic lectures. Different job design contributes to different range of salary paid. Academic lectures can be categorized as a higher level of job design in Legenda which is to teach and to guide the younger generation to be more knowledgeable and qualified for any career. A web article titled as Study@ Legenda and gains UK Degrees in Malaysia (2009) stating that most of the staff undergone staff training in order to develop related teaching methods which improve their quality of effective teaching skills and learning methods. Furthermore, another QWL can be identified in the article is by providing reward and recognition for the academic staff as they are encouraged in pursuing to any postgraduate qualification and also doctorate. This motivates the academic staff and also increases the recognition from the management to give higher return to the staffs. In other words, the job enrichment plays as an important role in determine a Quality Work Life for the academic staff as well as the reason why they earning more than other staffs in ZT department.

4. 0 Organizational Tool and Techniques Used in Collecting Primary Data.

As we conduct this research our purpose was to learn and to gather evidence on quality work life among of the Legenda staff. There are different ways of conducting a research; a research can be done through collecting secondary data or primary data. While conducting this research, our group uses primary data to collect information among Legenda staff. The technique used in collecting data of this research is questionnaire which is a series of written question where a researcher supplies to subjects, requesting their response on what a researcher ask on the question. Usually the questionnaire is self-administered in the sense that it is posted to the subjects, asking them to complete it and post it back. In other words, we can say questionnaire is a self-report instrument used for collecting information needed for the survey. It consists of a number of questions or items on paper that respondents read and gives answers in written formIn this research questionnaire were distributed among of Legenda staff asking them question about their quality work life in Legenda University. There are two different types of questionnaires, namely the mail, and self-administered questionnaires. In this survey, we used the self-administered questionnaire in conducting the small survey. Firstly, the objective of the survey is explained to the respondent, and then questionnaires are given to them to complete, which may be collected later. This method assure as a high response rate, accurate sampling, and minimum of bias, providing necessary explanation and giving the benefits of personal contact. Questionnaires methods are impersonal which means that it may be difficult to understand the answers and how to act on them. Also there is a chance that the question may be misinterpreted, rendering the answer useless. Questionnaire also invites people to lie and answer the question very vaguely which they would not do in face to face interview. Open question can take a lot of time to collect data and analyze in the sense that sometimes the questions used are too standardized or some preferred answers may not be included, and this also does not contribute for much detail. Peer pressure of embarrassment and sensitivity may cause people do not want to answer certain questions, or if they did, they may just want to impress the researcher and fabricate the truth by filling in untrue answers, making questionnaires unreliable and sometimes invalid.

5. 0 Conclusion

As a result, we managed to understand and analyze how working process is organized. Also, in relation with the small survey conducted among Legenda’s staffs, we are able to found out that Legenda actually having issues concerning their employee’s quality work life which should be taken into consideration in order to maintain good QWL among his staffs to promote good public image and reputation. Furthermore, Legenda can achieve high productivity and positive growth if the staff’s well-being and needs are being taken care of responsibly.