Quality of work life and job satisfaction: an exploratory study among factory workers in Jammu city of union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India

INTRODUCTION

Working is considered as one of the major things that guide individual life, because of the vitality of work in the daily life of individuals; work must be understood across economic, cultural and social domains.¹ The organizational pattern, mode of operation and the related factors contribute to numerous diseases among workers.² Psychosocial factors like work organization, working condition, work type, level of competence, type of work and facilities available at working place all exert effect on the workers wellbeing and quality of life.³

QWL is the degree to which work in an organization contributes to material and psychological well-being of its members. It is the process of work organization which enables its members at all levels to participate actively and effectively in shaping the organizations environment, methods and outcomes. It is a value-based process which is aimed towards meeting the twin goals of enhanced effectiveness of the organization and improved quality of life at work for employees

Quality of working life (QWL) is associated with satisfaction with wages, hours and working conditions, describing the "basic elements of a good QWL" as safe work environment, equitable wages, equal employment opportunities, opportunities for advancement, opportunities to learn and grow, protection of individual rights.⁴ The lack of QWL is due to a variety of factors like inappropriate placement, less recognition and inadequate health and insurance programs.

Occupational stress is believed to be increasing due to change in occupational environments. Occupational Stress is an evidence-based risk factor for various non-communicable and psychosomatic diseases. It can also occur if the employees feel burdened through lack of stimulus or social contact. Other work stress contributors include role ambiguity, conflicting performance, expectation, political climate of the organization and poor relationships with other co-workers. Extreme stress can lead to decreased productivity and can have a negative impact on the organization itself. People with a higher percentage of occupational stress may not be satisfied with their job. Therefore, it is very important for employer and employees to realize the stress and the stressor that impacts the work negatively. Job satisfaction is related to the psychology of an employee. A happy and content employee at a job is always motivated to contribute more. On the other hand, a dissatisfied employee is lethargic, makes mistakes and becomes burden to the company.

During review of literature, it was found that although a few studies have been conducted on occupational health of workers engaged in different types of industrial set ups at national and international level, but there was paucity of literature in northern India and Jammu and Kashmir UT in particular. So, it is in this context the present study was planned to assess the QWL, job satisfaction and associated factors among the factory workers working in the industrial areas of Jammu district.

METHODS

The present cross-sectional study was conducted among factory workers in industrial Estate Gangyal, Jammu which has 256 industrial units and about 7000 workers. The study period was one-year WEF 1^st November 2021 to 31^st October 2022.

Using a two-step simple random sampling technique (SRS), a sample of 300 factory workers was chosen considering the number of work days and study period available with the researcher. In the first step of SRS, the authors selected 30 industrial units out of the total of 256. In the second step of SRS, ten workers each from the selected 30 industrial units were chosen for the study purpose. Each of the selected worker was briefed about the study purpose and informed written consent was taken before the start of interview.

Inclusion criterion

Those who were working for more than six months in Industrial Estate Gangyal, those who had attained the age of 18 years, those providing written informed consent were included in the study.

Exclusion criterion

Those who were working for less than six months in the Industrial Estate Gangyal, those who were less than 18 years of age and those not providing written informed consent were excluded from the study.

The ethical approval for this study was granted by institution ethical committee (IEC) Government Medical College Jammu vide order no: IEC/GMC/2022/884.

The questionnaires used for the present study had two parts: part A and B.

Part A consisted of socio-demographic variables of the respondents while part B was Quality of work life questionnaire. Quality of work life questionnaire developed by national institute of occupational safety and health was modified and questions relevant to the local needs were incorporated. This questionnaire was used to determine wide assortment of work organization and job satisfaction.

Data was analysed using Open Epi Info version 3.0. Logistic regression was used to screen the independent variables. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS

A total of 300 workers were interviewed from the industrial area for assessing the job satisfaction and it’s association with various socio demographic and other variables was deliberated. Mean age of the participant was found to be 37.29±11.95 years. Majority (99.33%) of the workers were males and most (87%) of the participants belonged to Hindu religion. Majority of study participants were married (77.33%) and around half of the participants were from rural areas (Table 1).

Among various socio demographic factors, only age was found to be a significant predictor of job satisfaction (p<0.05). As the age of the workers increased, it was found that their job satisfaction also increased. Those who were married also had a higher level of job satisfaction than the unmarried co-workers (Table 2).

Among job-related indicators, only climate/culture at workplace was found to be significantly predicting the level of job satisfaction among workers (p<0.05). Further, factories where management was concerned about the health and safety of workers also showed higher levels of job satisfaction among workers. On the other hand, factories where workers reported higher levels of stress, constant supervision by managerial staff and adequate promotions were found to have lower levels of job satisfaction among workers (Table 3).

*Female gender, Christians, unmarried workers, rural residence and graduates were taken as reference.

DISCUSSION

The current research is aimed at exploring the relationship between job satisfaction and work related QOL among factory workers in Jammu city of UT of J&K, India. It was found that 96.3% of the total respondents were males and 44.33% were in 31-45-year age group. Further 61.6% of the respondents were illiterate and 20% of them were using alcohol and cigarette. Rabanipur et al in a study conducted in Iran also reported results similar to the current study where in 91% of the respondents were males.⁵ However, in a study conducted among quarry workers in Nigeria by Stanley et al 66.9% respondents were males and 49.6% of them had secondary level of education.⁶

Based on the results, only age among the socio-demographic variables was found to be significant predictor of job satisfaction, and with increasing age, the job satisfaction also increased. This finding is in line with other studies that reported similar results for less experienced participants.^7,8

Among other socio-demographic variables, married respondents too had a higher level of job satisfaction then un-married co-workers but it was not significant statistically. Also, workers residing in urban areas reported higher level of job satisfaction than rural workers. Rabanipur et al in a study among the Iranian industrial workers using latent class regression indicated that lower age, being male were significantly associated with job satisfaction.⁵

The quality of life of workers is of paramount important in the management of an organization since it has a bearing on both growth as well as productivity of the organisation. In the present study, culture at workplace was found to be significantly predicting the job satisfaction among workers. Among other indicators of QOL, work life balance was also reported as related to job satisfaction, albeit statistically not significant. Low quality of life was reported by many authors like Stanley et al, Asante et al, Cacciari et al, Szemik et al and Tesla et al.^6,9-11

The approaches to improve workers well-being include adequate social support, proper working conditions, good remuneration and psychological support.¹¹

Stanley et al noted that age, type of work, monthly income level of pain, work design etc. were independent variables significantly associated with QOL.⁶

Rostami et al also reported a positive and statistically significant relationship between work related QOL and Job satisfaction.¹³ The author further on regression analysis, reported overall QWL and job career satisfaction as the most important predictors of job satisfaction. It has been widely reported that the most important aspect of job satisfaction is in fact the work itself.^14-16

Limitations

Since job satisfaction and WRQOL and the contributing factors thereof are dependent on socio-cultural milieu of the participants which usually vary from region to region; the results thus lack generalizability. convenient and small sample size are the other limitations. Night Shift workers not included which may have led to some bias in the observations.

CONCLUSION

Factory workers in Jammu region were found to have age as the predictor of job, satisfaction, which increased with the passage of time. It is beyond doubt that work related QOL has a significant influence on job satisfaction. It is imperative for the policy makers to lay emphasis on programs to enhance QWL and resultant job satisfaction among the factory workers.

Funding: No funding sources

Conflict of interest: None declared

Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee Government Medical College, Jammu vide order no: IEC/GMC/2022/884

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