Work life programs definition

The employees need to be assigned to the jobs suitable for them. The management must look into conditions of work, type of work, abilities of workers to perform, etc.

More autonomy at work with a sharing approach in the process of participation helps employees to be more involved in the process. They involve themselves more in the process if properly treated and recognized at the workplace.

The process of integration, through treatment of employees, as partners of the production system, enriches the work life. It should not interfere with their family life and their leisure time. Family life is equally important to the workers and needs proper care. Quality of work life affects job involvement, sense of competence, job satisfaction, and job performance. A favourable quality of work life results in positive consequences of these factors. Let us see how quality of work life affects these.

Job involved people spend more time on job and turn out better performance. Challenging jobs influence employees to get involved with their jobs. Similarly, people with high need for achievement and high work ethic feel involved in jobs.

These are the elements of quality of work life. Effect 2. Sense of Competence:. Sense of competence denotes the feelings of confidence that an individual has in his own competence. By engaging in a work that calls for a variety of skills, abilities, and talents, individuals gain mastery over their work environment leading to better feeling towards quality of work life. This leads to development of sense of competence. Effect 3. Job Satisfaction:. Job satisfaction is a set of favourable or unfavourable feelings with which employees view their jobs and the environment in which these are performed.

Favourable feelings lead to job satisfaction while unfavourable feelings lead to job dissatisfaction. Better quality of work life makes both jobs and the environment in which these are performed favourable resulting in high job satisfaction. Effect 4. Job involvement, job satisfaction, and sense of competence affect productivity of employees. When the level of these factors is high, productivity of employees tends to be high. In the alternative case, it tends to be low.

Greater growth and development of the individual as a person and as a productive member of the organization;. Decreased absenteeism and turnover and fewer accidents; and. Higher quality and quantity of output of goods and services. Despite many advantages QWL programs also face several difficulties:.

Both union and management open themselves to substantial risks. The management may perceive joint activities as an intention of diluting its ability to manage and a means by which the union will acquire more power. Whether initiated at the instance of the management or the union, or a third party, QWL programs have been successful in varied settings and a number of ways. Lehrer depicts certain measures that help over the difficulties of QWL programs.

An understanding that joint activities will, in fact, be joint and supportive of the continuing integrity of both parties;.

Acceptance of QWL concepts as the norm by the top management, by union leadership and by middle management and supervision;. An administrative structure to provide guidance for the QWL project activities;. An established charter for the QWL committee and project activities, specifying ground- rules, responsibilities, authorities, etc.

A clear-cut understanding that joint ownership of the entire QWL is a reality and open acknowledgement of what each party expects to receive as benefit; and. A mechanism for involvement; handling substantive issues; worthwhile participation in personal terms and in influencing affairs of the organization and a provision for knowledge and skills to deal with such problems effectively. Flextime serves as a work-scheduling scheme allowing individual employees, within establishing limits, to control and redistribute their working hours around organizational demands.

In staggered work-hour schema, group of employee begin and end work at different intervals. Strategies for Improving Quality of Work Life:. QWL is the shared responsibility, not only of the management and workers but also of the union leaders, government officials and behavioral scientists. Hackman and Suttle outline six strategies which can be used for improving QWL in organizations.

Design and maintenance of group and inter-group relationships,. Career refers to a sequence of positions occupied by an individual during the course of a lifetime. It involves issues like career counseling, charting career paths, career information systems, human resource planning, periodic skill assessment, training and help for disadvantaged groups. Three conditions are needed for effective performance of activities concerning to development of career paths of employees in organizations.

Coordination of these activities with other activities in HR management;. Active involvement of line supervisors in designing and implementing them; and. Provision for equal access to the benefit of all employees. Work design influences employee satisfaction, motivation and productivity. These factors relate to individual differences and inter-personal and organizational factors. As there is no universally good work design, there are varied job-design options to improve QWL.

Depending upon situational requirements, management may choose the relevant strategies for specific design alternatives. Whatever work design options management uses, the following strategies for planned personal and organizational change seem to be relevant for effective introduction of QWL through work redesign in organizational settings-.

Diffusing knowledge about work-redesign theory and practice;. Paying more attention to the jobs of first level managers; and. Paying more attention to the role of unions in work-redesign efforts. The reward systems motivate employees in organizations.

Workers do what satisfy their needs. Before doing anything, they look for the reward in terms of salary increases, benefits, desirable job assignments etc. These organizational rewards may be direct or indirect, financial or non-financial and distributed on individual or group basis. Whatever the type of rewards, they influence every other aspect of the organization and must be used as an integral part of any program of organization at change. There exists group dynamics in formal and informal situations.

In conjunction with different characteristics of intra- group behavior there are systematic characteristics of inter-group relationships in organizations. There arises a complex set of behaviors, emotions, attitudes and beliefs when groups tend to have interdependent relationships.

As a strategy to improve QWL, efforts may be made to take into account the dynamics of intra-group and inter-group relations in designing and maintaining them in organizations. Different behavioral science interventions can be applied to reduce the destructive effects of inter-groups conflict and improve QWL. Such interventions aim to increase communications and interactions between work-related groups, reduce the amount of dysfunctional competition and replace a parochial, independent point of view with an awareness of the necessity for interdependence of action calling on the best efforts of these groups.

The prevailing management practices in an organization influence the quality of work life in it. Specifically, the role of supervision and management is of utmost significance in improving the QWL. Internal and External Strategies for Change:.

A set of internal and external strategies is used to introduce five strategies aimed at improvement of QWL in an organization. Before sticking to this set of strategies, there is a need to make a number of choices between centralized-de-centralized strategies, power-based and collaborative strategies, fast and slow-paced strategies, and individual and structure oriented strategies.

Often, three general strategies are used to introduce QWL programs. Strategies arising internally in the organization, such as OD, or management and union strategies;. Strategies originating with political and special interest groups, such as community action approaches; and.

Societal level strategies, such as use of legislation involving integration of internal and external programs. Article Shared by. Related Articles. Personal Selling. We use cookies We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

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Development and initial evaluation of an enhanced measure of boundary flexibility for the work and family domains. Ilmarinen J. Dolbier C. Similarly, teach your managers to be grateful leaders. Not only with this naturally encourage greater work-life balance, but it will also create better leadership and accountability. Explore ways to let your employees have more scheduling flexibility.

You might want to go so far as to change into a results-oriented work environment, where people can work as many or as few hours as necessary to complete their projects. One other thing to consider is a job share or part-time options. Some employees may be unable to commit to a full-time job but are able to contribute half-time. Look into whether that makes sense for your company. Regardless, looking for ways to become more family-friendly is another great work-life balance initiative.

Some organizations offer to sponsor childcare. Others might offer after-school programs. Others might just have occasional outings where families are welcome to join! Paid or even unpaid family leave is also an option for employees who might need to take time off to care for a family member. When you're going through a major change at your company, your employees may experience significant upheaval. Some might end up working overtime, while others may have to change their roles, and everyone is likely to get overwhelmed.

In this case, apply best practices for change management , including training your leaders on how to best support their teams during times of change. While cash bonuses are always welcome, research has indicated that employees may get more value from other incentives. Look for ways to offer other tangible bonuses to your team, such as vacation vouchers or extra time off. If you can't offer entire vacation days, offer afternoons or mornings off so people can have long weekends.

You might want to consider offering tuition assistance for people pursuing ongoing education. Or, reimbursing employees for attending development sessions. The words fun and committee might not seem to go together, but this is another effective work-life balance initiative you'll want to consider! These days, companies provide insurance plans and also various types of leaves to support the employee in the time of need or otherwise as well.

These can keep employee secure in terms of unexpected events. These are some of the examples through which quality of work life is getting better. Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over business concepts from 5 categories. What is MBA Skool?

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