International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.

49 (2015)
© Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm

A Study on Quality of Work life among Nurses in

Health Care Sectors in Dindigul.
(Quality of Work life among Nurses)

Mrs.J.Jeya sunitha Dr.S.Manimaran, Dr.P.S.Venkateswaran

PhD Research Scholar, Professor & HOD, Professor,
Anna University, Department of Management Studies, Department of Management Studies
Dindigul, Tamilnadu. PSNACET, PSNACET, Dindigul, Tamilnadu.
Dindigul, Tamilnadu. Venkatespsna07@gmail.com

Abstract -This paper illustrates the relationship between quality of work life of nurses and their job satisfaction due to it. The effect of
work performance of an organization depends on the strength of the overall employee’s welfare and satisfaction. After a brief review of
the quality of work life literatures, a number of propositions are developed concerning organizationally-induced quality of work life
concerned variables that are promote job satisfaction. Therefore, the underlying research hypotheses were tested using responses to 258
survey questionnaire from nurses of six Hospitals. Study findings are based on responses of nurses from six hospitals in Dindigul.
Results may not be representative of all nurses. Results indicate that in addition to job satisfaction, supervisor’s support, group
cohesiveness, and promotion opportunities are the best predictors of good quality work environment.
Keywords: quality of work life, nurses, satisfaction, hospital
I. INTRODUCTION
According to the World Health Organization, quality of equipment and supplies in the work place. The quality of
life (QOL) is defined as “individuals’ perceptions of their nursing service also depends on the opportunities available for
positions in life in the context of the culture and value systems enhancement of professional education and incentives for
in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, promotions, etc.
standards, and concerns”. Schmidt DR (2008) opines that Majority of the hospitals are operating with less number
quality of work life (QWL) describes the satisfaction of of nurses. But the nurses are not sharing their problems with
workers in safe work environments that are characterized by their co-nurses or spouse. The most affected nurses are woman
mutual respect and opportunities to perform the required nurses because of their dual role. Child care, elder-care, family
functions. Quality of work life also refers to the favorableness care responsibilities also rest on the shoulders of the women
or unfavourableness of a job environment for people. It is a nurses. All these affect the potential source of life satisfaction.
generic phase that covers person’s feelings about every The ultimate aim of hard work is defeated by work-pressure. It
dimension of work including economic rewards and benefits, not only affects the family life but also work-life.
security, working conditions, organization and interpersonal
relationship and its intrinsic meaning in a person’s life. The
basic purpose of quality of work life is to develop work II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
environment that are excellent for people as well as for Winter et al., (2000) viewed QWL for attitudinal response
production. It aims at healthier, more satisfied and more among the nurses which includes role stress, job
productive nurses and more efficient, adaptive and profitable characteristics and supervisory, structural and social
organization. characteristics to directly and in directly shape academicians’
The nurses or workers are the pivotal force behind the experiences, attitudes and behaviours.
successful functioning, of an organisation. So, workers need to Hackman and Oldhams (2000) highlight the constructs of
be understood in the proper perspective and utilized QWL in relation to the interaction between Work environment
effectively to attain the goals of an organisation. Management and personal needs. The work environment that is able to
of work force is a challenging and intricate task. It is basically fulfill nurses’ personal needs is considered to provide a
made up of four levels-procuring them, preparing them, positive interaction effect, which will lead to an excellent
stimulating them and retaining them. This can be handled QWL. They emphasized the personal needs are satisfied when
successfully by maintaining and improving the quality of work rewards from the organization, such as compensation,
life. Quality of work life is concerned with individual promotion, recognition and development meet their
relationships, their physical, social and economic expectations.
environment. It is also influenced to a certain extent by the set Raudan et al., (2006) analysed the quality of work life and
behavioural patterns of the society. career-related variables. They identified that the profile of the
The working and living conditions of nursing personnel nurses are significantly associated with their perception on
have a direct bearing on the status of nursing services. The QWL. The QWL have a significant positive impact on nurse’s
quality of nursing care depends on the number and quality of career satisfaction, career achievement and career balance.
nursing manpower. It is also related to working conditions,

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.49 (2015)
© Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm
Lawler (2002) defines QWL in terms of job Lau. et al., (2001) operationalised QWL as the favourbale
characteristics and work conditions. He highlights that the working environment that supports and promotes satisfaction
core dimension of the entire QWL in the organization is to Analysis and Interpretation by providing nurses with rewards,
improve nurses’ well-being and productivity. The most job security and career growth opportunities. Indirectly the
common interaction that relates to improvement of nurses definition indicates that an individual who is not satisfied with
well-being and productivity is the design of the job. Job design reward may be satisfied with the job security and to some
that is able to provide higher nurse satisfaction is expected to extent would enjoy the career opportunity provided by the
be more productive. organization for their personal as well as professional’s
Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (2007) defined QWL as growth.
the feelings that nurses have towards their jobs, colleagues and
organizations that ignite a chain leading to the organizations III. RESEARCH METHODS
growth and profitability. A good feeling towards their job The research design for the study is descriptive. The
means the nurses feel happy doing work which will lead to a methodology of the study is based on the primary data as well
productive work environment. as secondary data. The data were collected through a
Serey (2006) on QWL is quite conclusive and best structured questionnaire to obtain the opinions of the
meet the contemporary work environment. The definition is respondents from Dindigul. In total 300 questionnaires were
related to meaningful and satisfying work. It includes (i) an distributed purposely to nurses in the six hospitals in Dindigul.
opportunity to exercise one’s talents and capacities, to face These questionnaires were given to nurses and they were
challenges and situations that require independent initiative asked to report their judgments on the quality of work life.
and self-direction; (ii) an activity thought to be worthwhile by The sampling design used for the study is purposive sampling
the individuals involved; (iii) an activity in which one method. The number of fully completed questionnaires was
understands the role the individual plays in the achievement of 286. After the scrutiny 28 questionnaires were rejected due to
some overall goals; and (iv) a sense of taking pride in what incomplete responses. Finally, 258 completed questionnaires
one is doing and in doing it well. This issue of meaningful and were used for the study.
satisfying work is often merged with discussions of job
satisfaction, and believed to be more favourable to QWL.
Table 4.1 Socio Economic details
S.No Variable Attributes No. of respondents Percentage
1 Age 21-30 140 54.264
31-40 78 30.233
41-50 32 12.403
51 and above 8 3.1008

2 Gender Male 14 5.4264

Female 244 94.574
3 Marital Married 102 39.535
status Unmarried 156 60.465
4 Monthly income Below 7000 78 30.233
Level (rupees) 7001-14000 143 55.426
14000 and above 37 14.341
Source: Primary Data
The above table shows the socio economic variables of the of the respondents are unmarried. 55.42 percent of the
respondents. 54.26 percent of the respondents are in the age respondents are in the 7001-14000 rupees monthly income
group of 21-30 years. 94.57 percent are female. 60.46 percent group.
Table 4.2 –Factor Analysis and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Test

As presented in table 4.2, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO)
measure of sampling adequacy was higher than the
recommended value of 0.6 and above while the Bartlett’s test
of sphericity was significant at p 0:000, thus indicating that the
sample size was adequate for factor analysis. Reliability
coefficients are at acceptable levels and fall between 0.843 for
the Career growth scale and 0.942 for Training and
Development. Principal component method was used with
Varimax rotation for the QWL scale Items with factor
loadings above 0.6 (Hair et al., 1998), From the table Career
growth factor was the most important QWL dimension, which
account for 21.461% of explained variance followed by
Training and Development (19.213%). The lowest factor
(3.71%) is the Interpersonal relationship dimension of the
QWL scores.

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© Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm
Bartlett's
KMO Test -
Factors Eigen % of Sampling Chi-
S.No Variable loading values Variance Adequacy Square Sig.
I Career growth (Cronbach's Alpha 0.843)
1 Career planning and development 0.854 9.210 21.461 0.860 927.291 0.000
2 Inside promotional chances 0.825
3 Autonomy 0.960
4 Self-improvement opportunities 0.836
II Training and Development (Cronbach's Alpha 0.942)
1 Provision to take independent 7.306 19.213 0.730 2161.052 0.000
0.897
decisions
2 Provision of training in technical
0.928
development
3 Wages based on training 0.882
4 Higher number of training
0.833
programmes
III Recognition (Cronbach's Alpha 0.869)
1 Rules are common to all 0.769 5.692 15.755 0.704 590.120 0.000
2 Recognition of work 0.749
3 Appreciation of suggestion 0.824
4 Equal treatment to all 0.654
IV Work nature(Cronbach's Alpha 0.876)
1 Apt work load as per the
agreement 0.949 2.635 9.782 0.639 1097.377 0.000
2 Flexible work schedule 0.956
3 Continuous work without rest 0.713
4 Work scheme is similar with
0.906
other organisation
V Inter-personal Relationship(Cronbach's Alpha 0.917)
1 Better relation with top 1.247 3.710 0.653 1452.359 0.000
0.675
management
2 Better work group relations 0.970
3 Inter-personal openers 0.973
4 Better relation with boss 0.770
Overall Percentage of variance 69.921
Table 4.3 – Pearson Correlation
Null hypothesis (H0): There is no relationship between Service quality and nurse Satisfaction
H0: r = 0; there is NO actual correlation: Ha: r = 0; there is a correlation
Career Training and Work Inter-personal Nurse
Variables growth Development Recognition nature Relationship Satisfaction
Career growth 1
Training and
0.827* 1
Development
Recognition 0.713* 0.628* 1
Work nature 0.758* 0.659* 0.728* 1
Inter-personal
0.724* 0.613* 0.752* 0.631* 1
Relationship
Nurse Satisfaction 0.693* 0.648* 0.622* 0.607* 0.556* 1
*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

A correlation analysis was conducted on all the variables correlation procedure was subject to a two tailed of statistical
to explore the relationship between variables. The bivariate significance with significant (p<0.01). Table 4.3 shows that

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 International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol. 10 No.49 (2015)
© Research India Publications; httpwww.ripublication.comijaer.htm
correlation matrix contained most correlations above 0.50 and indicates that components of QWL scale converge on a
all correlations are significant at p<0.01; furthermore, each of common construct, thereby providing evidence of convergent
the components also highly correlated (0.50 and above) with validity.
the overall measure of QWL. The pattern of correlations

Table 4.4 –regression Analysis

H1: Nurse's perception of QWL has a positive effect on their satisfaction.
Dependent Independent variable R2 Beta t- sig. F- sig
variable
Nurse satisfaction QWL 0.879 0.927 0.000 0.000

QWL Variables Career growth 0.824 0.495 13.055 0.000

Training and Development 0.179 1.232 0.023
Recognition 0.214 4.561 0.018
Work nature 0.165 3.050 0.044
Inter-personal Relationship 0.449 7.945 0.000

The results in Table 4.4 show that all models were
significant (p: 000). All dimensions of QWL were significant
in explaining nurse satisfaction. These finding supports H1,
which predicted that nurse's perception of QWL has a positive
effect on their satisfaction.
FINDINGS
From the study, QWL is a vital determinant of nurse
satisfaction. Study indicated that all five dimensions of QWL
were significant in explaining nurse satisfaction. Therefore,
QWL can improve nurse satisfaction in Hospitals. According
to this result we suggest, that nurse satisfaction can be realized
by attending to Career growth, Training and Development,
Recognition, Work nature and Inter-personal Relationship in
the hospital environment. Hospital managers can use the
current findings to develop service marketing strategies that
extend and improve nurse satisfaction. Service provider,
nurses must be made aware and free from anxiety that a
hospital is taking very special care of them. In order to
successfully satisfy nurse needs, healthcare provider should
properly diagnose the problems. Our results indicate that
although healthcare providers’ expertise may be necessary for
the development of nurse satisfaction. Hospitals need to
conduct a study on managers/doctors/staff perceptions of
hospitals' services. It is possible that perceptions of nurses are
not matched by the perceptions of managers/doctors/staff.
Thus, when hiring staff, managers should also screen for
social competence and emotional intelligence. These traits are
likely to lead to a high level of courtesy, friendliness, and
responsiveness in nurse –hospital staff relationships.

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