QUALITY OF WORK LIFE PROGRAMME AND JOB ATTITUDES AMONG EMPLOYEES IN SELECTED ORGANISATIONS IN BENIN CITY, NIGERIA

Abstract

Aggressive drive towards increased productivity and profit maximisation often compromise employees‟ welfare, satisfaction and commitment. Quality of work life programme (QWLFP) such as occupational health and safety (OHS), training and skill development (TSD), teamwork, employee involvement (EI), employee recognition (ER), flexible working hour (FWH), long service award (LSA) health care and wellness (HCW), and child educational benefit (CEB) can promote employees‟ job attitudes, while enhancing organisational performance. Previous studies on QWLFP focused more on reducing counter-productive behaviours than the enhancement of employee job attitudes (Job satisfaction and Organisational commitment). This study, was, therefore, designed to examine employees‟ benefit from QWLFP, factors that influence benefit from QWLFP, Satisfaction with QWLFP (SQWLFP), Employees‟ Job Satisfaction (JS) and Organisational Commitment (OC), QWLFP influence on employees‟ JS and OC and challenges with QWLFP implementation. Expectancy and Social Exchange theories provided the framework, while cross-sectional survey design was adopted. The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited (NPDC) and Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC) were purposively selected due to their implementation of QWLFP. A sample size of 536 (NPDC; 274 and NBC; 262) was selected using Yamane‟s (1976) formula. Respondents were systematically and randomly sampled from departments. A semi-structured questionnaire elicited information on socio demographic characteristics, benefit from QWLFP, factors influencing benefit from QWLFP, SQWLFP, JS, OC, QWLFP influence on employees‟ JS and OC and challenges encountered. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted with employees (13) and Trade Union officials (3) and three key informant interviews were conducted on Human Resource Managers. The SQWLFP, JS and OC were respectively measured as low ≤49.9% or high ≥50%. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics at p ≥ 0.05, while qualitative data were content analysed. Respondents‟ age was 35 ± 2.3 years; males constituted 72.2%; those with tertiary education had 86.8% and those who earned above N170,000 monthly ( 31.7%). Respondents in NPDC (86%) and NBC (74.6%) benefited from teamwork, OHS, TSD, EI, FWH, HCW and CEB. Employees‟ benefit from QWLFP was influenced by age (β=8.164), employment status (β=5.464), sex (β=3.854) and staff cadre (β=3.535) in NPDC and highest educational qualification (β=63.521), income (β=53.558), employment status (β=48.300) and age (β=19.343) in NBC. Employees in NPDC (89.1%) and NBC (57.6%) were satisfied with QWLFP. In NPDC, employees‟ JS (88.3%) and OC (88.7%) were high; in NBC, JS (40.8%) and OC (40.5%) were low. There was a positive influence of QWLFP on employees‟ JS and OC. Specifically, QWLFP significantly influenced employees‟ JS; EI [β= 6.043], ER [β=4.560] and LSA [β=3.398] in NPDCand JS; ER [β=15.480], LSA [β=13.314] and FWH [13.925] in NBC. Also, QWLFP significantly influenced employees‟ OC in NPDC; EI [β=4.121], HCW [β=5.005], and in NBC; ER [β=16.239], LSA [β=14.340] and FWH [β=13.007]. Challenges encountered in the implementation of QWLFP included inadequate technological infrastructure, lack of resilience in the pursuit of QWLFP by trade unions, cost considerations and poor Management attitude. Quality of work life programme leads to positive job attitudes. Organisations should overcome managerial challenges and increase efforts towards implementing the programme to improve employees‟ job attitudes