QWL

DECLARATION
PREPARED BY

ASHISH SARNA: ROLL NO 11

We Ashish Sarna, Jagdeep, Priya Gupta and Shilpa Students
JAGDEEP: ROLL NO 23
of JIMS KALKAJI have completed the Module on
PRIYA GUPTA: ROLL NO 38
‘Quality
SHILPA:
of Work Life’:ROLL
A Perspective
NO 53
for the Trimester 2.

The information given in this Module is true to the best of

my knowledge.
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Jagannath International Management School,

Kalkaji, New Delhi

Certificate

This is to certify that

Mr. Ashish Sarna (Roll No. 11)

Ms. Jagdeep (Roll No. 23)

Ms. Priya Gupta (Roll No. 38)

Ms.Shilpa.A.Kumar (Roll No.53)

The students of P.G.D.M. Trimester II “A” have worked on the Presentation under
my supervision and this is their own work.

It is a part of their academic curriculum and is not intended for any other purpose.
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Date: 28th October 2010 Aditi Midha

New Delhi

CONTENTS
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WHAT IS QWL?

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

environment for people. QWL programs are another way in which organisations
recognise their responsibility to develop jobs and working conditions that are
excellent for people as well as for economic health of the organisation. The elements
in a typical QWL program include – open communications, equitable reward systems, a
concern for employee job security and satisfying careers and participation in decision
making. Many early QWL efforts focus on job enrichment. In addition to improving the
work system, QWL programs usually emphasise development of employee skills, the
reduction of occupational stress and the development of more co-operative labour-
management relations.

Vigorous Domestic and International competition drive organisations to be more

productive. Proactive managers and human resource departments respond to this
challenge by finding new ways to improve productivity. Some strategies rely heavily
upon new capital investment and technology. Others seek changes in employee
relations practices.

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
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rewarding job. High QWL is sought through an employee relations philosophy that
encourages the use of QWL efforts, which are systematic attempts by an organisation to
give workers greater opportunities to affect their jobs and their contributions to the
organisation’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.

A Rationale

Job specialisation and simplification were popular in the early part of this century.
Employees were assigned narrow jobs and supported by a rigid hierarchy in the
expectation that efficiency would improve. The idea was to lower cost by using
unskilled workers who could be easily trained to do a small, repetitive part of
each job.

Many difficulties developed from that classical job design, however. There was
excessive division of labour. Workers became socially isolated from their co-
workers because their highly specialised jobs weakened their community of
interest in the whole product. De-skilled workers lost pride in their work and
became bored with their jobs. Higher-order (social and growth) needs were left
unsatisfied. The result was higher turnover and absenteeism, declines in quality
and alienated workers. Conflict often arose as workers sought to improve their
conditions and organisations failed to respond appropriately. The real cause was
that in many instances the job itself simply was not satisfying.

Forces for Change

A factor contributing to the problem was that the workers themselves were
changing. They became educated, more affluent (partly because of the
effectiveness of classical job design), and more independent. They began reaching
for higher-order needs, something more than merely earning their bread.
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Employers now had two reasons for re-designing jobs and organisations for a
better QWL:

Classical design originally gave inadequate attention to human needs.

The needs and aspirations of workers themselves were changing.

Humanised Work Through QWL

One option was to re-design jobs to have the attributes desired by people, and
re-design organisations to have the environment desired by the people. This approach
seeks to improve QWL. There is a need to give workers more of a challenge, more of a
whole task, more opportunity to use their ideas. Close attention to QWL provides a
more humanised work environment. It attempts to serve the higher-order needs of
workers as well as their more basic needs. It seeks to employ the higher skills of workers
and to provide an environment that encourages them to improve their skills. The idea is
that human resources should be developed and not simply used. Further, the work
should not have excessively negative conditions. It should not put workers under undue
stress. It should not damage or degrade their humanness. It should not be threatening
or unduly dangerous. Finally, it should contribute to, or at least leave unimpaired,
workers’ abilities to perform in other life roles, such as citizen, spouse and parent. That
is, work should contribute to general social advancement.

Job Enlargement vs. Job Enrichment

The modern interest in quality of work life was stimulated through efforts to
change the scope of people’s jobs in attempting to motivate them. Job scope has two
dimensions – breadth and depth. Job breadth is the number of different tasks an
individual is directly responsible for. It ranges from very narrow (one task performed
repetitively) to wide (several tasks). Employees with narrow job breadth were
sometimes given a wider variety of duties in order to reduce their monotony; this
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process is called job enlargement. In order to perform these additional duties,

employees spend less time on each duty. Another approach to changing job breadth is
job rotation, which involves periodic assignment of an employee to completely different
sets of job activities. Job rotation is an effective way to develop multiple skills in
employees, which benefits the organisation while creating greater job interest and
career options for the employee.

Job enrichment takes a different approach by adding additional motivators to a

job to make it more rewarding. It was developed by Frederick Herzberg on the basis of
his studies indicating that the most effective way to motivate workers was by focusing
on higher-order needs. Job enrichment seeks to add depth to a job by giving workers
more control, responsibility and discretion over hoe their job is performed. The
difference between enlargement and enrichment is illustrated in the figure on the next
page.

Difference between job enrichment and job enlargement

Job enrichment Jon enrichment

and enlargement

Routine job Job

enlargement

Higher-order
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Lower-

order

Few Many

Number of tasks
(Focus on Breadth)

In the above figure we see that job enrichment focuses on satisfying higher-order
needs, while job enlargement concentrates on adding additional tasks to the worker’s
job for greater variety. The two approaches can even be blended, by both expanding the
number of tasks and adding more motivators, for a two-pronged attempt to improve
QWL.

Job enrichment brings benefits, as shown in the below figure.

Benefits of job enrichment emerge in three areas

Individual:

 Growth
 Self-actualisation
 Job satisfaction

Organisation:
JOB
ENRICHMENT  Intrinsically motivated employees
 Better employee performance
BENEFITS  Less absenteeism and turnover;
fewer grievances
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Society:

 Full use of human resources

 More effective organisations

Its general result is a role enrichment that encourages growth and self-actualisation.
The job is built in such a way that intrinsic motivation is encouraged. Because
motivation is increased, performance should improve, thus providing both a more
humanised and a more productive job. Negative effects also tend to be reduced, such as
turnover, absences, grievances and idle time. In this manner both the worker and
society benefit. The worker performs better, experiences greater job satisfaction and
becomes more self-actualised, thus being able to participate in all life roles more
effectively. Society benefits from the more effectively functioning person as well as from
better job performance.

Core Dimensions: A Job Characteristics Approach

How can jobs be enriched? And how does job enrichment produce its desired
outcomes? J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham have developed a job characteristics
approach to job enrichment that identifies five core dimensions – skill variety, task
identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. Ideally, a job must have all five
dimensions to be fully enriched. If one dimension is perceived to be missing, workers
are psychologically deprived and motivation may be reduced.

The core dimensions affect an employee’s psychological state, which tends to

improve performance, satisfaction and quality of work and to reduce turnover and
absenteeism. Their effect on quantity of work is less dependable. Many managerial and
white-collar jobs, as well as blue-collar jobs, often are deficient in some core
dimensions. Although there are large individual differences in how employees react to
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core dimensions, the typical employee finds them to be basic for internal motivation.
The dimensions and their effects are shown in the following figure and discussed in
greater detail here.

The Human Resource Department’s Role

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.

Motivation
Motivation is a complex subject. It involves the unique feelings, thoughts and
past experiences of each of us as we share a variety of relationships within and outside
organisations. To expect a single motivational approach work in every situation is
probably unrealistic. In fact, even theorists and researches take different points of view
about motivation. Nevertheless, motivation can be defined as a person’s drive to take
an action because that person wants to do so. People act because they feel that they
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have to. However, if they are motivated they make the positive choice to act for a
purpose – because, for example, it may satisfy some of their needs.

Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is the favourableness or unfavourableness with which employees
view their work. As with motivation, it is affected by the environment. Job satisfaction is
impacted by job design. Jobs that are rich in positive behavioural elements – such as
autonomy, variety, task identity, task significance and feedback contribute to
employee’s satisfaction. Likewise, orientation is important because the employee’s
acceptance by the work group contributes to satisfaction. In sort, each element of the
environmental system, can add to, or detract from, job satisfaction.

Rewards Satisfaction and Performance

A basic issue is whether satisfaction leads to better performance, or whether
better performance leads to satisfaction. Which comes first? The reason for this
apparent uncertainty about the relationship between performance and satisfaction is
that rewards intervene as shown in the figure below.

A Reward Performance Model of Motivation

Rewards

Reinforcement

 Job itself
 Small groups
 Organisation
 External
environment
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SATISFACTION
Performance

Employee

1 SELF-IMAGE
MOTIVATION
SELF ESTEEM
INNER DRIVES

SELF-EXPECTATION

Whether satisfaction is going to be improved depends on whether the rewards

match the expectations, needs and desires of the employee as shown at the bottom of
the above figure. If better performance leads to higher rewards and if these rewards are
seen as fair and equitable, then results in improved satisfaction. On the other hand,
inadequate rewards can lead to dissatisfaction. In either case, satisfaction becomes
feedback that affects one’s self-image and motivation to perform. The total
performance-satisfaction relationship is a continuous system, making it difficult to
assess the impact of satisfaction on motivation or on performance, and vice-versa.

Major Issues in QWL

Jerome M Rosow, president of the Work in American Institute, has identified critical
factors which will affect the quality of work life during the years ahead. These are pay,
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employee benefits, job security, alternative work schedules, occupational stress,

participation and democracy in the workplace.

Pay
QWL must be built around an equitable pay programs. In future more workers may want
to participate in the profits of the firm.

Benefits
Since workers are now better organized, educated and vociferous, they demand more
from the employers all over the world-apart from the pay-in the form of social security
and welfare benefits as matter of right which were once considered a part of the
bargaining process.

Job Security
Conditions in the work environment must be created by the employer which will give all
the employees freedom from fear of losing their jobs. A system must be created in
which there are healthy working conditions with optimum financial security. The points
stressed above are essential to improve the QWL in organizations.

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.
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QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AS HR STARTEGY – AN ANALYSIS

Today’s workforce consists of literate workers who expect more than just money from
their work.

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
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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 the do go to the credit
of the teamwork.
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The concept of teamwork has evolved from the organised toil that has its own
social dimensions. Good teams can hardly be imported from outside. They usually
occur as an indigenous incidence 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. The new influx of skilled workers
seeking greener pastures is even questioning the skills of new employers and thereby
restructuring the new environs on par with those of best in the world, unwittingly
though.

Money Matters

For good QWL, cash is not the only answer. Today, the workers are aware of the
job requirements of job as also the fact that the performance of the same is measured
against the basic goals and objectives of the organisation and more importantly, 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 vying with their
rivals in providing better working conditions and emoluments. This may be owing to
many reasons besides the concern for the human angle of workers, like the employer’s
tendency to climb on the bandwagon, to reap to the desired dividends or to woo better
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talent into their fold as skill base addition and other non-economic inputs like
knowledge bases. 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 literate workers who expect more than just
money from their work life. Their idea of salvation 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.
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Employer should instill 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-beingness 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.

Teamwork

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

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
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the coziness and 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 berating their brilliance and skills, by designing and
entrusting arduous 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 vogue 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. As observed in some advanced 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

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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. No doubt, rivals
should be envying him for this edge.

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. The decision making level is nose diving
to the floor level manager, where the poor guy has to think of n number of quick
decisions on behalf of the organisation. Unless the team is behind and involved with
commitment, the manager cannot implement the new tasks in production, distribution,
peoples excellence, customer relations, etc., thanks to the ‘e’ factor prefixed to the
names of majority of departments. Logically, harmony plays its part in cost efficiency.
Successful managers are those who listen to their workers.
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Influences

Overwork is tolerated in emerging industries unlike government departments as

part of the game and work culture. This is so, what with the soaring competition among
the tightly contested players. The point is empowerment of workforce in the area of
involvement.

All said and one, the workers are considered as the invisible branch ambassadors
and internal customers in certain industries. It is evident that most of the managements
are increasingly realising that quality alone stands to gain in the ultimate analysis.
Restructuring the industrial relations in work area is the key for improving the quality of
product and the price of the stock. Without creating supportive environment in
restructured environment, higher quality of work cannot be extracted. It is already high
time the older theories of industrial relations should be unlearnt.

Benefits of improving work-life balance

Aiding employee recruitment and retention

 More employees may stay on in a job, return after a break or take a job with one
company over another if they can match their other needs better with those of their
paid work.

 This results in savings for the employer – avoiding the cost of losing an experienced
worker and recruiting someone new.

 Employers who support their staff in this way often gain the bonus of loyalty from
those staff.
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 The British Work-Life Balance Study 2000, including a representative survey of 2500
workplaces, found that 58 per cent of employers thought that work-life balance
practices had improved staff motivation and commitment, and 52 per cent thought
labour turnover and absenteeism were lower, and that they helped retain female
employees. The Australian 2002 Benchmarking Study found that organisations
implementing work-life strategies and evaluating them observed reduced turnover,
absenteeism, and increased return from parental leave.

Reducing absenteeism

 Many companies that have introduced family-friendly or flexible working practices

have seen benefits through reductions in absenteeism. Sickness rates may fall as
pressures are managed better, while employees may have better methods of dealing
with work-life conflicts than taking unplanned leave.

 Workers (including their managers) who are healthy and not over-stressed may be
more efficient.

Improving the quality of people's working lives

 Minimising work-life role conflict can help prevent role overload and help people
have a more satisfying working life, fulfilling their potential both in paid work and
outside it.

 Work life balance can minimise stress and fatigue at work, enabling people to have
safer and healthier working lives. Workplace stress and fatigue can contribute to
injuries at work and at home.

 Self-employed people control their own work time to some extent. Most existing
information on work-life balance is targeted at those in employment relationships.
However, the self-employed too may benefit from maintaining healthy work habits
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and developing strategies to manage work-flows which enable them to balance work
with other roles in their lives.

Matching people who wouldn’t otherwise work with jobs

 Parents and careers, people with disabilities and those nearing retirement are among
those who may increase their workforce participation if more flexible work
arrangements are possible. Employment has positive individual and social benefits
beyond the financial rewards.

 Employers may also benefit from a wider pool of talent to draw from – this is
particularly to their benefit when skill shortages exist.

 The Baseline Study of Work-Life Balance Practices in Great Britain found that there
was strong demand amongst lone parents, carers and disabled people for flexible
working time arrangements.

Benefiting families and communities

 In a situation of conflict between work and family, one or other suffers. Overseas
studies have found that family life can interfere with paid work, and the reverse. At
the extreme, if family life suffers this may have wider social costs.

 Involvement in community, cultural, sporting or other activities can be a benefit to

community and civil society at large. For instance, voluntary participation in school
boards of trustees can contribute to the quality of our children's education. While such
activities are not the responsibility of individual employers, they may choose to
support them actively, since community activities can demonstrate good corporate
citizenship, as well as helping develop workers' skills which can be applied to the
workplace.
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Introduction
A qualitative study was conducted with the help of fifteen bus drivers from four different
Pune Municipal Corporation bus depots, India. In-depth interviews were conducted and
through observation method, data was collected. Some suggestions are also being made
so that the quality of work life of the drivers could be improved, thus, ultimately leading
to better transport service to the citizens and a reduction in the rates of accidents.

This paper discusses the quality of work life of the Pune municipal corporation bus
drivers (also called PMT). It is concerned with exploring the work life issues experienced
by the drivers and the circumstances under which they perform their duties. The findings
in this study are significant in that they provide insight into the
Complexity of work in PMT bus driver’s work life. Furthermore, they show that there are
many factors that can potentially impact the quality of work life of the drivers. This study
also supports the idea that the well-being of the drivers merit serious consideration by
Municipal Corporation decision-makers. The objective of Pune Municipal Transport is to
provide an efficient, economic and reliable transport service with in Pune and its
suburbs.But the objective of PMT is not being achieved properly. There are some
deficiencies that have been found such as untimely service, road accidents etc.

Purpose of The Study

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The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of bus drivers with
respect to the quality of their work life. Specifically, this study addressed the following
research questions:

1) How do staff members experience their work environment in terms of

Stress, work load, time pressure, and work-life balance?
2) What is the experience of staff relating to Quality of work life initiatives?

Research Findings
The research findings from fifteen interviews conducted with the drivers at
four different bus depots of Pune Municipal Transport are presented as under. Analyses
of the interviews uncover four main themes:
(a) Work Demands and Quality of work life.
(b) Coping strategies to reduce stress.
(c) Organisational initiatives to reduce stress and
(d) Humor, Team work and Work life Balance

Description of Participants
All the fifteen participants work as drivers with four different depots of Pune
Municipal Transport. All the participants are male, as no females are employed as
drivers. Eleven participants work as full time employees and four participants work as
Part time. Having representation of drivers traveling for different routes, their experience
and views on their quality of work life was obtained. Drivers were invited to
participate in this study via personally contacting them after explaining them the cause
and importance of this study.

The quality of their life at work was mainly hampered due to time pressures,
deteriorating condition of the buses and increasing pollution. All these are reflected in
the participant’s comments.
“There are a lot of personality clashes amongst the employees in this
organisation. No one respects our identity. At any point of time, we have to face
the
criticism. We are referred to as “Yamraj” (lord of death) by the citizens.
Whenever an
accident takes place, by default, we are always to be blamed.”

“Sometimes I get the feeling that my head is a top and it’s spinning like a
wheel. Rise in number of vehicles, traffic congestion and deteriorating condition
of the
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roads is an issue. The increasing noise and air pollution adds fuel to it. When I
reach
home, my entire body starts aching. My limbs get cramp. It’s very painful.”

Coping Strategies to Reduce Stress

Coping strategies vary from participant to participant, but they often involve
some form of past-time that is personally enjoyable or rewarding to the individual.
Participants described spending time socializing with others, engaging in physical
activity, and spending quality time with family members in order to take their minds
off work and its accompanying stressors. Furthermore, participants seem to select
experiences that will provide them with an element of escape, both mentally and
physically, from the demands of work

Organisational Initiatives To Reduce Stress

When the researcher initially asked about the quality of work life initiatives,
many participants responded by saying that there is nothing, or next to nothing,
happening within the organisation to improve the quality of work life. There is a
definite separation in the minds of the participants between the programs and special
events that are being scheduled for staff and the realisation that these programs are
considered to be quality of work life initiatives. Their responses are more of a
reflection of a lack of awareness with how the initiatives are categorised and why they
are provided than they are a reflection of a lack of awareness about the programs
themselves. Communication does seem to be an issue since for the most part each
participant felt that they receive adequate communication about the quality of work life
initiatives through notice boards, but in fact they did not recognise the events are
something offered to enhance work life balance.

“I’m not really aware of a lot of programs. There was once a

meditation
Programme conducted for a selected few. I know they had one
recently.” (Participant No. 3)

“Yeah, to be honest, I’m not familiar with anything. The organisation

is least bothered about anything as such.” (Participant No. 15)

“We don’t know about anything called as Quality of work life

initiative. And I say ‘we’ because I don’t ever remember hearing any
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one of the staff that I work with saying anything as such.”

(Participant No. 8)

Responding To The Research Questions

As stated in the beginning, this study was designed to address the following
questions:

1) How do staff members experience their work environment in terms of

stress, work load, time pressure, and work-life balance?

2) What is the experience of staff related to Quality of work life initiatives?

While addressing the first research question, it was discovered that the work
environment can be characterised as one in which work demands are often time
consumptive and stress inducing. The bus drivers were going through heavy amount of
work stress causing deterioration in their quality of life at work. Acute shortage of
staff, deteriorating conditions of the buses and bad roads were found to be the
prominent factors responsible for this.
Through responding to the second research question, the data helped to reveal
that though quality of work life initiatives can provide staff with much needed
opportunities for humour and balance during their work day, not many efforts have
been taken by the organisation to improve the quality of work life of the drivers.

MANAGEMENT GAME

“Discovering the
others”
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Goals: discover and respect the others, in order to build a friendship

Materials: a list of words with the qualities a friend should have
Methodology: Groups of 4 ( 10 min) / debate (30 min)
Procedure:
1. Students work in groups of 4 and think about the
characteristics a good friend should have
2. Each group share its list of words/qualities and the teacher
writes them down on the board
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3. The teacher then share his/her list of words and the groups
compare the findings
4. Students write the best ideas, beginning a sentence by:
A friend is …
someone …
the person who …

THANK YOU
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