November 9, 2011
School of Business, Coimbatore
In October 2011, the Great Place to Work Institute released a list of multinational companies said to be the most successful at keeping their employees happy.
Microsoft was placed in the first spot followed by software firm SAS and data management company NetApp.
The institute highlighted how employees in certain Microsoft divisions get 40 hours of paid vacation every year for engaging in community service. Also highlighted was the fact that NetApp Vice Chairman Tom Mendoza calls about 30 employees each week to thank them for their work.
More and more companies around the world are beginning to understand the value of keeping employees satisfied and happy. Indian firms and multinational firms operating in India are no exception.
A paper recently published in the International Journal of Contemporary Business Studies examined this issue in the Indian context; the paper was titled Quality of Work Life, Organizational Commitment and Psychological Well-Being: A Study of Indian Employees.
Dr. Neerpal Rathi, Assistant Professor, Amrita School of Business, Coimbatore, the lead author of the paper collaborated with co-authors Dr. Renu Rastogi and Dr. Santosh Rangnekar, both from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, on the study.
“A variety of studies have been carried out to explore the relationship between quality of work life, organizational commitment and employee well-being,” noted the authors. “However, most of these studies have been conducted in Western and European countries. There is a lack of empirical research conducted in India to investigate the relationship among these variables.”
“Participants of this study were 232 employees working in various organizations in India. Initially, 400 employees were asked to fill up the questionnaires. Of these 232 returned the completed questionnaires. Our response rate was thus 58 per cent. The mean age of the sample was found to be 43.81 years with 22 years as the minimum and 58 years as the maximum.”
The authors measured the quality of work life with the help of a Quality of Working Life Scale developed by researcher McDonald in 2001. “This scale measures employees’ perception of their work and the working environment on five facets including support from manager, freedom from work-related stress, salary and additional benefits, relationships with work colleagues and involvement at work.”
Participants responded on a 5-point scale that varied from 1 for ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 for ‘strongly agree.’ Similarly organizational commitment and psychological well-being were also evaluated.
The results of the study indicated that quality of work life was positively and significantly related with organizational commitment and psychological well-being.
These ideas, elaborated upon and further developed, were also included as a separate chapter in a book titled Organizations in the New Millennium: Challenges and Opportunities published by Macmillan Publishers, New Delhi.
The chapter titled Influence of Well-Being on Organizational Commitment was co-authored by Dr. Neerpal Rathi.
