TOPIC 5: QUALITY OF WORK LIFE Flashcards
Quality of Work Life can also be defined as the degree to which a job or a position can
meet the career anchor needs of individuals at various stages of career development.
People define QWL differently, depending on the perspectives from which they operate.
Example
• For an assembly-line worker, QWL could mean fair remuneration, a safe work
environment and a fair supervisor.
• For the junior manager, it could mean participation in decision making, opportunities
for advancement, and a structured career path.
It clearly follows that the design of an environment that will allow people to experience
their work environment positively will have to be based on individually assessed needs.
THE CONCEPT OF CAREER ANCHORS MEANS THE FOLLOWING:
• Technical/functional competence refers to a person who qualifies as an expert in a
particular field of work.
• General managerial competence: refers to the interest a person may have in working
in a general management capacity.
• Security/stability refers to the need to function in a stable and predictable
environment.
• Entrepreneurial creativity: refers to the spirit that some people exhibit to be creative
and to build new organisations.
• Sense of service and dedication to a cause: refers to some people’s attitude of wanting
to change the environment in some way, to make it better by living according to basic
human values.
• Pure challenge: defines the “can do” person who believes that he/she can conquer
everything. Situations that are ever more difficult to deal with spur this person to
greater effort.
• Lifestyle refers to the person who wants to integrate career, family and personal life
issues so that they form a harmonious whole.
• Autonomy/independence refers to the need people have to construct their own work
environment
A career anchor is the complete structure of talents, motives and values that guide a
person’s career. Individuals will have one outstanding career anchor, which will allow
them to fit some jobs better than others.
The following elements will determine a person’s QWL:
• Sufficient and fair compensation
• Safe and healthy work conditions
• Development of human resources
• Security and continued growth
• Social interaction and integration in the workplace (does the employee fit into the
culture of the organisation).
• Legalized labour relations.
• The balance between private and work-life
• The social relevance of the job
• Participation in the structuring of the work environment through involvement in
problem-solving.
• Congruence between the goals of individual persons and those of the organisation.
• The generation of the feeling of pride, satisfaction and accomplishment derived from
tasks performed.
• A climate of respect, fairness and co-operation.
• Control of or autonomy in the work environment. This means that the employee has
discretion over the expenditure of his/ her time and effort
• Recognition as a contributor to the business of the department or organisation.
• Belonging to a social unit and sharing the goals and values of the group. It is converse
of recognition, which implies that individuals are singled out in a crowd.
• Internal rewards to be derived from the work, such as adequate compensation,
promotion opportunities and positions of authority.
• Decent physical working conditions which are safe and healthy, and which provide
good basic infrastructure to do the job
• Being treated with respect and dignity, particularly if there is a discrepancy between
the social and educational levels of employees. Lower-skilled workers should not be
looked down upon.
The dimensions that make up QWL can be categorised into a number of clusters of
variables. A QWL consists of a list of qualities that describes QWL for two samples of
employees in a cross-cultural study. The steps in the process were as follows:
• Individuals were asked to think and reflect on a specific job and to describe the
different elements that made up the job.
• While bearing in mind the job they had described, the respondents had to consider
how they felt about themselves in the work situation and how others see them in the
job.
• Reflecting on the total work experience as described above, the respondents had to
list adjectives, phrases and words that would describe their workplace experiences.
• In small groups, the respondents had to share their constructs or work elements, and
in this way, they were informed of others‟ opinions.
• Finally, the respondents had to reconsider their lists of constructs with a view to adding
or subtracting from them.
General Elements to job satisfaction include:
• Opportunity for action
• Freedom to work in one’s own way
• Goal involvement
• Learning opportunities
• Suggesting new ways
• Promotion opportunities
• Problem-solving
• Mental effort
• Authority to do things Responsibility
• Performance feedback
Studies that sought to determine characteristics that identify the QWL of well-performing
organisations revealed the following:
• The first was that the successful companies did not tolerate low productivity as a fact
of life that needs to be accepted. This is particularly relevant for South Africa where
mediocre standards of service, health, safety and production are so often taken for
granted. If productivity is properly managed it could be lifted and maintained on a high
level.
• The second was that a participative leadership style was used, which meant that
people’s opinions were sought, and they were asked to contribute to the solution of
problems in the workplace.
• Communication was high on the agenda, particularly in terms of performance
feedback. Employees knew how they performed and what changes they needed to
make in order to increase their productivity.
• Appropriate use was made of technology within the framework of what was affordable
and what was necessary. High technology, which was not utilized properly, was
frowned upon. The technology was used functionally.
• Job security was fairly strong. People did not work under the constant threat of losing
their jobs and could therefore focus on the job at hand.
Each organisation should assess approaches to productivity and quality of work-life
enhancement that relate to making the most effective use of its own work setting. There
is no universal and sure way to succeed. If one has the conviction that success can be
achieved, various experimental approaches will be tried, evaluated and refined-and
success will be achieved.
AN ORGANISATIONAL MODEL FOR QWL
THE VISION STATEMENT – PHILOSOPHY AND CORE VALUES
All effective organisations have a clear vision of where they want to be in the future and
how they want to conduct their business, which includes the values on which the business
practice will be based. Values are the essential building blocks of organisational culture.
A business that cannot articulate these variables will not be able to instil pride and
commitment in its employees.
MANAGEMENT STYLE
The management style that characterises organisations with a high QWL is built on an
equal commitment to caring about the needs of both internal and external customers.
Such a management style will be characterized by support, communication, employee
development, openness to being most influenced by teamwork. This report on a survey of the globally admired companies found that these companies were characterised by
teamwork, customer focus, and fair treatment of employees, initiative and innovation.
Average companies were characterised by the minimisation of risk, respecting the chain
of command, supporting the boss and making the budget.
ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS
The role of trade unions, particularly in the South African context, has traditionally been
one of antagonism to management. This antagonistic role may be attributable to past
injustice and victimisation but, be that as it may, in a QWL organisation there should be
a constructive relationship between all the stakeholders and a joint commitment to
working towards the common good. The primary focus of trade unions has always been
on improving the QWL of their members. It will be important that they achieve the
improvement they seek through constructive engagement rather than destructive
disengagement.
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
The typical QWL organisation has a flat hierarchical structure. Flat structures promote
quick decision-making and short lines of communication, which are necessary to react
quickly to the changing needs of the customers. Keeping contact with the customers is
the way to keep the organisation at the cutting edge of development and innovation.
JOB DESIGN
Motivation and satisfaction with what one do are important goals of job design. The
effectiveness of job design will depend on the nature of the job. If it involves a task that
a person can complete from beginning to end, it is better to empower that person to do
it alone. If the task requires various processes that one person can hardly be expected to
perform adequately, it may be better to form a team that will take responsibility for the
task. Motivation and satisfaction will only be achieved if people feel that they are doing
meaningful work, that they have responsibility for the work and that they get feedback
about how they are performing on the job.
TEAMWORK
Teamwork can provide a very useful breeding ground for employees to learn about all the
business processes involved in the production of a product range. Responsibility can be
allocated to the team to look after a few processes, or the team’s assignment can be
extended to cover a wide range of processes stretching from human resource
management and marketing to procurement of raw materials and other resources. The
members of such a team will have a diverse range of responsibilities and they will also be
able to acquire a range of skills that would not have been possible in any other situation.
Making employees members of teams is the antithesis of individual job design, but it can
be equally motivational and satisfying.
PROBLEM-SOLVING GROUPS
Perhaps the best-known example of the problem-solving group is the quality circle.
Quality circles or task groups can be very effective in the solution of problems, provided
that the culture of the organisation will support the functioning of such groups and the
implementation of the solutions it comes up with.
INFORMATION SYSTEM
Intelligence in the form of facts and information is important to make good business
decisions, and it is imperative that QWL organisations possess adequate computer
infrastructure to make this possible. The computer systems are bound to be very effective
if they are set up with the cooperation and input of the people that will use the data.
PHYSICAL AND TECHNICAL DESIGN
One of the key elements of the QWL organisation is the physical layout of the plant, which
should be safe and healthy within the constraints imposed by the nature of the
organisation. It was found that noise pollution is the single most common physical
problem-affecting workers. Not nearly enough is done to combat the problem because
effective countermeasures are regarded as too expensive and there seems to be no
culture of hearing protection in the local industry.
The physical layout should also not be divisive and the separation of employees by status
symbols such as car parking areas or different dining areas should be discouraged. Intel,
the most admired company in the computer industry, has none of the traditional status
symbols. Average companies often pay lip service to teamwork and then they reward
only individual managers for the achievements of their departments.
HARMONISATION
This element promotes the establishment of a classless society in an organisation. It is
sometimes difficult to understand how the differences between top management and
the shop floor in terms of salaries or fringe benefits can be justified. In some countries
like New Zealand, the pay differential between management and other levels is
negligible. This is a characteristic of the wider egalitarian society. In other countries such
a Venezuela the pay differential is very large, which leads to worker dissatisfaction and
protest.
A system, particularly used in the EU, whereby the blue-collar workers and the white-
collar workers in an organization have similar status and any former differences in terms
and conditions of employment are levelled.
REWARD SYSTEMS
Reward systems that promote the remuneration of employees in accordance with the
overall performance and output of the organisation appear to be the most effective
means of generating motivation and commitment to outstanding performance.
Examples of such systems are skill-based pay; gainsharing; profit sharing; employee share ownership; flexible benefits; an all–salary workforce and open participative performance
appraisal. In QWL- oriented organisations divisive pay systems such as individually based
remuneration would be counterproductive because they would lead to dissatisfaction
and protest.
PERSONNEL POLICIES
Personnel policies should be developed that fit the type of culture promoted by the QWL
organisation. It will be beneficial to involve the employees in such actions and to make
them responsible for the measures that they introduce. A very important element of QWL
is the stability of employment. Employees who are constantly under threat of
retrenchment will not perform as expected. They will be so worried about their own
positions that they will lack the capacity to be innovative and responsible.
CAREER SYSTEM
The career system changes dramatically in the QWL organisation. The traditional career
paths no longer exist because of the flatter structures. Instead, we find that people have
to engage in life-long learning with the aim to acquire new skills all the time. Sought-after
skills will ensure that career progression can occur. Employees also have to be content to
move horizontally rather than vertically to be exposed to new work environments.
SELECTION SYSTEM
The QWL organisation will seek to employ people with an orientation towards career and
work; learning, growing and developing as human beings; responsibility for their own
behaviour; and good interpersonal skills. The involvement of employees from the work
area that the new entrant will have to work in will help to make the selection process
more reliable.
TRAINING ORIENTATION
In QWL organisations there is a commitment to training and the improvement of
employees‟ skills. This is another form of looking after the needs of internal customers
because the learning of new skills will motivate them to increase effort and output.
ASSESSMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF QWL IN ORGANISATIONS
It has been noted that QWL should place emphasis on every aspect of the processes and
procedures of an organisation that impact people’s needs and that will influence their
capacity to be productive. Programmes will include a form of needs analysis and
suggestions on how to provide the missing elements. These programmes constitute events where employees and managers can meet to discuss problems concerning specific
work areas, where the employees can play an active role in the design of problem-solving
interventions, and where they can display a certain degree of autonomy. A case in point
is the labour-management committee or the quality circle, which is more of a problem-
solving group.
• Suggestion boxes are used to collect grievances and suggestions for workplace
improvement. The practice of maintaining suggestion boxes enables employees to be
heard and meets their recognition needs.
• General opinion surveys or climate assessments are ways to get the employees to
identify the issues they are not happy with. They open up the issues for management’s
attention and these measures can be very useful if management responds to them
with constructive feedback to employees.
• The feedback is very important otherwise the employees may become suspicious and
the process will be tainted.
• Another useful measure takes the form of large employee meetings, or what are also
called town meetings where all the employees in a department or an organisation are
periodically brought together to discuss issues of mutual concern. On a smaller scale,
there are representative communication councils. These are groups of employees who
may have certain characteristics in common and who are brought together to facilitate
communication.
• The central theme here is that the employees are given a voice and an opportunity to
make them heard. The personal recognition factor is again relevant here.
The management style known as Management by Objectives (MBO), is a method
whereby the manager and the employee come together to set certain objectives that the
employee will have to meet in a specified/agreed time. If handled correctly it can be a
good way to get employees to win their goals, which will, in turn, improve intrinsic
motivation. However, MBO can also be handled in a top-down fashion, which will then
be detrimental to employees‟ motivation and productivity.
Other measures that can be used to improve the QWL in an organisation are:
• Organisation development through the change of attitudes and the improvements
of interpersonal skills and organisational climate
• Team building
• Sensitivity training leads to greater sensitivity to people and their needs
• Behaviour modelling either through observation of models or mentoring
programmes
• Quality circles
• Job enrichment and job redesign
• Participative management
• Effective leadership and supervision
• Elimination of all forms of pollution (air, noise, etc.) and a well-managed
environmental management system such as ISO 14000
• Ergonomically designed work areas
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QWL AND MOTIVATION IN THE WORKPLACE
An environment that requires social interaction and optional interaction will elicit a high
degree of motivation from people. It was found that people react differently to the same
set of environmental variables because they have different need structures and their
perceptions of the environment are determined by their needs. This is the Hierarchy of
Needs Theory of Maslow. Suffice it to say here that to determine what the impact of QWL
on employee motivation will be, attention should be paid to both sets of variables,
namely task and people characteristics. If these characteristics are in synergy employees
can be expected to be motivated at high levels
INEFFECTUAL TQM IMPLEMENTATION
Following factors appear to influence the eventual success of TQM improvement
programmes:
A quality strategy: which is necessary to provide the goals and guidelines which help keep
the TQM programme heading in a direction that is appropriate for the achievement of
the business/organization/institution’s other strategic aims? The quality strategy should
address the competitive priorities of the organization and how the TQM programme is
expected to contribute to achieving increased competitiveness, the roles and
responsibilities of the various parts of the organization in quality improvement, the resources that will be available for quality improvement, and the general approach to and
philosophy of quality improvement embraced in the organization
Top management support; their full understanding, support and leadership are crucial
factorsfor successful TQM implementation. The importance of their support goes beyond
the allocation of the resources to set the priorities for the whole organization. The
personnel of the business/organization/institution will only understand and support the
TQM programme if senior management understands or shows full commitment to it. To
demonstrate their support top management needs to understand and believe in the link
between doing things right and the overall mission of the business/
organization/institution. They also need to understand the practicalities of quality and
show some proficiency in dealing with quality principles and techniques, and they must
be able to participate in the total problem-solving process to eliminate errors. Moreover,
they must formulate and maintain a clear idea of what quality means for the whole
organization.
A steering group: their first task is to plan the implementation of the TQM program (I.e.
planning the overall direction in terms of what should it achieve as the programme
gathers momentum to ensure that the knowledge and experience gathered in the
process, deciding where the program starts and who to involve, monitoring the program.
Group based involvement: Successful TQM programmes are based on teams because
they are most familiar to employees who work with the actual operating processes
(usually in groups). Quality circles and improvement groups are valuable contributors to
quality improvement efforts
Success is recognized: TQM program must respond to the efforts of the quality
improvement teams, and success must be marked in some way, such as formally stressing
the importance of the quality improvement process and rewarding effort and initiative.
Training is the heart of quality improvement: TQM programs have training managers as
one of the prime drivers of the whole initiative. TQM requires an attitudinal change in the
way many employees view quality and its strategic importance for the whole business.
TQM LOSES EFFECTIVENESS
TQM gradually loses its effectiveness, it should be recognized that although TQM may be
successfully implemented there is no guarantee that it will continue to bring long-term
improvement.
The following prescriptions can be followed to reduce the risk that impetus will lose over
time and quality:
• Quality in TQM should not be narrowly defined.
• Relate efforts to performance objectives.
• TQM is not a substitute for good management.
• TQM is not a bolt-on attachment TQM is not a fashionable slogan
• TQM can be adapted for different circumstances.
CONCLUSION
This discussion dealt with the issue of QWL and how it relates to TQM. One of the main
principles of TQM is the care of both internal and external customers. The discussions of
QWL have shown that it is mainly focused on meeting the needs of the internal
customers, namely employees. Without happy and productive internal customers, the
external ones will suffer. The business will not meet its production or sales target and the
circle will become tighter and tighter. QWL will ultimately affect the bottom line.
The key elements for success are:
• Top management support
• Business-driven
• Strategy drives technology
• Change strategies are integrated
• Invest in people and technology
• Manage technology as well as people
• Everybody must be on board
• Clear, explicit objectives
• Time framed project management
