Employee’s Perception of Quality of Work Life:
The concept of the ‘Quality of Working Life’ is imprecise and thus problematic to operationalize. Historically, it can be traced back to the quality of working life movement that largely consisted of a number of industrial psychologists in response to a perceived disenchantment with the organization of work in the late1960s and early 1970s (Walton, 1973; Stjernberg, 1977; Littler and Salaman, 1984).
QWL has also been associated with organizational changes aimed at increasing the levels of job enlargement (greater horizontal task flexibility) and job enrichment (greater vertical task flexibility including the taking on of new responsibilities including those formerly undertaken by supervisory or managerial personnel). Crucially, the idea is that of attaining higher levels of participation and thereby motivation by improving the attractiveness of the work itself rather than through improving the terms and conditions of work (Herzberg et al, 1959: 52).
Walton (1973) has given focus on the following factor of QWL:
· A just rewards system with minimum guarantees;
· A safe and healthy physical and psychosocial work environment;
· Job design based on the needs of both workers and their organisations;
· Employment security with prospects for internal career advance;
· A working climate with a positive social atmosphere and social integration;
· Clearly articulated individual right;
· Worker participation in decision marking;
· Due limits to the encroachments of one’s working life on one’s life beyond the workplace;
· Social relevance – an instilling of employee conviction that the organization would act with social responsibility and honesty in its dealings externally. Organizations adopting such an integrated approach to workplace design, it has been argued, lay the foundations for achieving higher