QUALITY OF WORK LIFE OF TEACHERS IN GOVERNMENT COLLEGES

AND GOVERNMENT AIDED COLLEGES

Baijumon.Pa

Dr.Rajeev Thomasb

“Research Scholar, Research Centre in Commerce,Mar Thoma College Chungathara”a

“Associate Professor,Research Centre in Commerce,MarThoma Collge Chungathara”b

Abstract

Quality of Work life is an essential criterion for a favourable environment in any organisation.

A teacher has a very important role in the modern society. Teachers in Higher Education sector

can transform student’s cognition and intellectual dimensions. Teachers who perceive good

quality of work life can develop and direct student’s perception. The present study attempts to

inquire into the quality of work life of teachers working across different academic streams in

different colleges in different administrative and organisational set up in Malappuram district.

250 College teachers from various administrative set up are selected for the study. The research

found a positive and significant relationship between the age groups of teachers and various

dimensions of quality of work life. The result and implications are discussed.

Key words: Quality of work life, Work Environment, Organisation culture and Climate, Welfare

activities, Job satisfaction.

1. Introduction

A teacher has a very important role in the modern society. He can transform a student into a

patriot and at the same time a terrorist if the ideas and thoughts of the teacher are transcended

through the pupil.A group of highly committed teachers are the real asset of any educational

Institution. Moreover, if quality of work life is good it will result in the quality of teachers as

well as improved student behaviour.

Taking into account the National Agenda of any nation, Education stands first and it will help to

transform its citizen and will help in Nation growth and enhancing the Economic wealth of the

country. Education is the backbone of any country and education industry works as a supplier

for other industries. From the time of Independence itself, Nation builders are very keen to

formulate policies of education; especially Higher Education. Attracting and retaining quality

teachers in higher Education sector will help to transform the Higher Education Sector. In order

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to retain High quality Professionals in the Higher Education Sector, and to extract the best out

of them, knowledge about the factors affecting Quality of Work life is inevitable. Quality of

Work life is the most important factor that affects Teachers Job satisfaction, Productivity and

overall growth and development of the employees.

Due to Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation, which are the order of the day from 1991

onwards, gave an impetus to the Educational Employees also. Like in many other field their life

becomes more challenging and they have to upgrade themselves and prepare the future

generations to meet the demands of the economy. As a result of this challenge, a better and

flexible working environment needs to be provided to the employees, in order to extract the

maximum out of them. After the analysis of Hawthorne Studies, they concluded that it was the

complex human variable which caused the increase in the productivity of the experimental group.

(Steven L McShane, 2012)

Considering the importance of every QWL components, and the need to identify each of them

separately, it is recommended that the relation and effect of each component with other

organizational aspects and concepts including performance, effectiveness, efficiency etc. be

evaluated and analyzed. (Sayed Mohammed Mirkamali, 2011)

2. Purpose, Objectives and Significance of the study

Quality of Work life gives an opportunity to the employee to become creative and worthwhile

for the organisation. Good Quality of Work Life helps to reduce attrition rate, increases job

satisfaction, enhances creativity, better management of personal and professional life, reduces

stress and promotes an environment where the individual attains his self actualisation goal in his

life.

OBJECTIVES

1. To analyse the factors influencing Quality of Work Life of teachers in Government Colleges

and Government Aided Colleges

2. To identify the influence of demographic variables on Quality of Work Life of teachers of

Government Colleges and Government aided colleges.

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In teaching profession, it is essential to be more efficient and effective there by attaining job

satisfaction which consecutively ensures successful moulding of student community (Vandana

Punia, 2013)

3.Literature Review

Quality of work life is the degree of satisfying important personal needs of the members of an

organisation through organisational experiences. The term Quality of Work Life has appeared in

the Research Journals and Press in USA only n 1970s. This term was first introduced by Louis

Davis. The First International Quality of Work Life Conference was held in Toronto in 1972.

The International Council for QWL was established in 1972. The year 1950s and 1960s

witnessed the development of many theories by psychologists and these theories emphasised the

importance of the relation between morale and productivity. Increased morale and satisfaction

of workers lead to improvement in productivity and it helps in giving advantages to both the

employer and employee.

Many argue that Quality of Work Life is similar to Job satisfaction but actually job satisfaction

is limited to the work place domain and where as Quality of Work Life covers the entire aspects

of the work of an employee. Organisations which give prominence to Quality of work Life,

considers employees not as costs, but as assets of the organisation and for the entire society.

Robbins (1989) defined QWL as a process by which an organization responds to employee needs

by developing mechanisms to allow them to share fully in making the

decisions that design their lives at work and Quality of work life is specifically related to the

level of happiness a person derives for his career. Walton attributes the evolution of QWL to

various phases in history. Legislation enacted in early 20th century to protect employees from

job injury and to eliminate working conditions, followed by the unionization movement in the

1930’s and 1940’s were the initial steps.

Richard E Walton Proposed eight broad conditions of employment which measures desirable

quality of work life of an Individual. (R.E, 1975) They are:-

1. Adequate and Fair Compensation

2. Safe and Healthy Working Conditions

3. Opportunity to Use and Develop Human Capacities

4. Opportunity for Career Growth

5. Social Integration in the Work Force

6. Constitutionalism in the Work Organization

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7. Work and Quality of Life

8. Social Relevance of Work

Many researches have been carried out during the 1980s to 2018 in the field of Quality of Work

life.

(Jabeen, 2018) Quality of work Life was found to have a significant relationship with all

variables in the model, and was found, as hypothesized, to have a positive effect on job

satisfaction and a negative effect on turnover intention. QWL and its influence on Job satisfaction

and turnover (leaving the job) were studied using partial least squares and structural equation

modelling.

(Augustine Acheampong, 2016)There is significant positive relationship between University

staff perceived Quality of work life and work performance. Those employees who positively

perceived QWL shows higher and better performance than those employees who negatively

perceived QWL. Moreover organisational commitment acts as a mediator for employees with

good perception on Quality of Work life to perform better in organisations. Only committed

workers will show high level of performance.

(Ayse Canon Centinkanat, 2016) The research results show that teachers displayed negative

perceptions in the salary and additional benefits and involvement and responsibility at work sub

dimensions of the Quality of Work Life scale, while they had positive perceptions in the other

sub dimensions. Teachers’ highest Quality of Work Life perception was found to be related to

relationships with work colleagues, followed by communication, decision making and job

security, support from manager/supervisor, job satisfaction, challenge, use of skills, freedom

from work related stress, involvement and responsibility at work and salary and additional

benefits.

(Blackford, 2015)Employee’s non financial reward and benefits are token of recognition rather

than intrinsically motivating in them. Adverse working conditions of the employees stimulate

job dissatisfaction. Clarity and visibility of opportunity to employees is of prime importance. It

also highlights the importance of training and development in enhancing Quality of Work Life.

(DR.A.JAYAKUMAR, 2012)QWL views people as assets contributing skills, knowledge,

experience and commitment rather than ‘cost’, which are merely extension of the production

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process. QWL helps to enhance productivity and makes better use of Human resources in an

organisation. An assured QWL will helps to make improved performance. It will help to attract

young talents into the organisation and at the same time helps to retain existing talents in the

organisation. Countries like Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, India, Australia and USA

are practising QWL and Companies like General Motors, Ford Motors, BHEL and TISCO are

applied this in their organisation to reap maximum benefits.

To sum up, faculty members are very important to higher education institutions and universities,

therefore it has high value to pay more attention to their QWL, and their work conditions. In

addition, it is recommended to use QWL improvement programs to take advantage of their

benefits. (Sayed Mohammed Mirkamali, 2011) Few studies have examined the QWL

dimensions among Arts and Science Colleges in Kerala. This study attempts to penetrate into

extend of Quality of Work life prevailed in such Colleges.

4. Methodology

4.1 Sample

The statistical group for the present research includes the teachers of Government colleges and

Government aided Colleges in Malappuram district during the academic year 2018-19.

Table: 1 Population and Sample framework

Nature Population Sample Percentage

Government College 242 80 32

Government Aided College 523 170 68

Total 765 250 100

The Raosoft online sample size calculator is used for calculating sample size from among the

population of faculty members. The researcher selected 80 faculties from Government Colleges

and 170 faculties from Government aided Colleges and thus totalling 250 faculties from both

administrative setups.

The gender composition of the samples was as follows:-

Table: 2 Gender Composition of the sample

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 144 57.6

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Female 106 42.4

Total 250 100

4.2 QWL Measure

The chosen sample for this research answered the Quality of Work Life Questionnaire. This

Questionnaire was based on “Quality of Work Life – Scale Development and

Validation”(Swamy.TS,2015).The Questionnaire was modified and rewritten by the researcher

based on faculties of government and government aided colleges and are basically revolved around

three basic dimensions of Quality of work life covering work environment, Organisation culture

and climate and Welfare measures. These dimensions are framed based on the 8 dimensions of

Quality of Work Life by Richard Walton’s factors. (1975)

5.Results

5.1 Cronbach’s alpha test

To examine the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, the same was put under relevant

statistical analysis. In order to test the validity of questionnaire, the value of Cronbach’s alpha

was tested for all the twenty scaled items contained in the questionnaire and was found to be

0.846 and is considered as a good and reliable factor.(Hair et.al.,1998). This suggests that the

items have high degree of internal consistency

5.2 ANOVA Test

The findings of the present research are examined in frame of the propounded objectives.

1. To identify the influence of demographic variables on Quality of Work Life of teachers of

Government Colleges and Government aided colleges.

Hypothesis 1

Null Hypothesis: There is no significant difference between age groups (demographic variables)

with respect to the various dimensions of Quality of Work Life.

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To test this hypothesis, “there is no significant difference among age groups with respect to

various dimensions of Quality of Work Life ANOVA was done using F test.

The five age groups considered in the present study were below 35, 35-40, 41-45, 46-50 and

above 50

The mean scores of the various age groups were found out along with standard deviation. Based

on this, the F value was computed. The results are summarised as follows:-

Table 3: ANOVA for significant difference among age groups with respect to factors of

Quality of Work Life.

Quality of Work

Life Factors Age Group Mean Std. Deviation F Value P Value

Work Environment lessthan_35 3.6806 .27221

35-40 3.5735 .27229

41-45 3.6552 .50184 9.877 0.000**

46-50 3.3988 .41342

above_50 3.3250 .22787

Total 3.5370 .34981

Organisational

Culture and

Climate

lessthan_35 3.0463 .42141

35-40 2.8490 .46832

41-45 3.2011 .63211 9.825 0.000**

46-50 3.1468 .64413

above_50 2.5917 .39032

Total 2.9413 .53742

Welfare factors lessthan_35 3.2778 .74589

35-40 2.8437 .71109

41-45 3.3596 .75941 11.475 0.000**

46-50 3.1327 .85737

above_50 2.4214 .50321

Total 2.9783 .78163

Since P value is less than 0.01, the null hypothesis is rejected at 1 percent level of significance

with regard to Work Environment (0.000), Organisational culture and climate (0.000) and

Welfare factors (0.000).

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Hence it is concluded that there is significant difference among age groups with respect to these

factors affecting Quality of Work Life.

Chi Square Test and Correlation analysis are examined in frame of the propounded objective

“To analyse the factors influencing Quality of Work Life of teachers in Government

Colleges and Government Aided Colleges”

5.3 Chi Square Test

Hypothesis 2

Null Hypothesis: There is no significant relationship between opinion regarding sufficient

training opportunities and type of training required for the teachers.

Table: 4 Opinion regarding sufficient training opportunities

Opinion Frequency Percent

No 169 67.6

Yes 81 32.4

Total 250 100.0

The above table indicates that 67.6 % teachers are of the opinion that they do not get sufficient

training opportunities to perform their job efficiently and only 32.4% teachers have the opinion

that they got sufficient training for the efficient performance of their jobs.

Table: 5 Type of Training required for teachers

Frequency Percent

Technical 19 7.6

Skill enhancement 75 30.0

Personality Development Session 156 62.4

Total 250 100.0

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The above table shows that 62.4% of the people demands personality development session for

improving their teaching effectiveness and 30% teachers demand for skill enhancement training

for the efficient performance of their jobs and only a few percentages (7.6%) of teachers demand

Technical Skill for the enhancement of their teaching effectiveness.

Cross tabulation of Table 4 and Table 5 yield the following results

Table 6 Training Needed x Type of Training

Type of Training

Training Opportunities

Total No Yes

Technical 6 13 19

Skill enhancement 29 46 75

Personality Development Session 134 22 156

Total 169 81 250

Chi-square test

Chi-square test is used to test whether there is any relation between training required and type

of training demanded by the teachers. (For testing Hypothesis 2)

Table: 7 Result of Chi Square test

Value df Asymptotic Significance (2-sided)

Pearson Chi-Square 63.768a 2 .000**

Likelihood Ratio 64.212 2 .000**

Linear-by-Linear

Association 56.991 1 .000**

No. of Valid Cases 250

From the above table, it is clear that there is statistically significant relationship between

training required and type of training required by the teachers. Since the p value is less than 0.05

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these results are highly significant and Pearson chi-square value and Likelihood ratio is very

closely associated. Better type of training opportunities should be provided to teachers to enhance

their quality of work life.

5.4 Correlation Analysis

Hypothesis 3

Null Hypothesis: There is no significant relationship between work environment and welfare

factors prevailing in colleges.

Correlation between work environment and

welfare factors prevailed in colleges

Pearson correlation co-

efficient .545**

Significance (2-tailed) .000

N 250

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The above correlation table shows the association between work environment and

welfare factors prevailed in colleges.

The resulting correlation co-efficient is 0.545. This shows that there exists a high degree of

positive correlation between them. Hence the work environment contributes to the welfare

factors. This correlation gave thrust to the concept that all the factors contributing to quality of

work life are interdependent. Work environment contributes to the welfare factors and it is most

likely to contribute to the organisational culture and climate.

6. Discussion and Conclusion.

The aim of the current research is to analyse the factors influencing the Quality of Work life of

teachers in Government colleges and aided colleges and to identify the influence of demographic

variables on Quality of work life of teachers. The research is mainly oriented around the three

major dimensions of Quality of work life, namely work environment, organisational culture and

climate and welfare factors. It was proved beyond doubt that these factors have a considerable

influence on the Quality of work life of teachers in colleges. Each of these factors are

complementary to each other. The absence of one factor will leads to the absence of other factor

also. There is significant relationship between age group of teachers and the three dimensions of

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quality of work life. Experience and age of teachers considerably influence their quality of work

life in organisation. Like in case of any organisation, more skill enhancement training should be

provided to teachers to enhance their quality of work life.

7. Suggestions

The leaders of every organisation have to state their shared values or more precisely the

organisation culture in order to make the employees or faculties well acquainted with the

organisation. (Steven L McShane, 2012). In order to improve the quality of work life of faculties

in college’s, college authorities must provide necessary environment for the full participation of

faculties in each and every aspect of the organisation. The following suggestions are put forward

for the improvement in Quality of Work life of faculties and to avoid dissatisfaction of faculties

in colleges:

The work environment of the college should be motivating and must be capable to extract

maximum good from the faculties.

There should be no information asymmetry for the efficient discharge of the duties for

faculties.

No discrimination should be made against any faculties, what so ever which will

adversely affect the efficient performance of their duties.

Faculties should be provided with sufficient training for the efficient discharge of their

duties.

Experienced and mature faculties should be selected for the efficient discharge of their

duties.

8. Study Limitations and directions for future research

The statistical group for this research is limited to the college teachers of government and

government aided colleges in Malappuram district. The research implications can be applied to

similar types of colleges throughout the country. But in different administrative set up and self

financing colleges the results may differ and separate research should be carried out with regard

to self financing colleges of the country and should be submitted to concerned authorities for

improving the Quality of work life of those faculties.

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