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CHAPTER – I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION A bank is a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those
deposits into lending activities, either directly or through capital markets. A bank
connects customers with capital deficits to customers with capital surpluses.
Banking is generally a highly regulated industry, and Government restrictions on
financial activities by banks have varied over time and location. The Banking Industry
was once a simple and reliable business that took deposits from investors at a lower
interest rate and loaned it out to borrowers at a higher rate.
According to section 5(b) of the Banking Regulation Act the term banking is
defined as accepting for the purpose of lending or investment of deposits of money from
the public, repayable on demand or otherwise and withdrawable by cheque, draft and
order or otherwise.
However deregulation and technology led to a revolution in the Banking
Industry. Banks have become global industrial powerhouses that have created ever more
complex products that use risk and securitization in models. Through technology
development, banking services have become available 24 hours a day, 365 days a week,
through ATMs, at online banking.
Banking services include transactional services, such as verification of account
details, account balance details and the transfer of funds, as well as advisory services that
help individuals and institutions to properly plan and manage their finances. Online
banking channels have become highly popular in the last 10 years.
1.2 THE ROLE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN THE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT Banking industry is a very important tool in the construction of economic
structure of any country and it plays a significant role in the economic development of a
developing country. Economic development involves investment in various sectors of
economy.
The major function of a financial institution is to provide the maximum financial
convenience to the public. There are three major responsibilities that such institutions
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have. First, they are responsible for promoting overall savings by making banks more
accessible to the public. Second, they distribute savings in a more efficient manner to
those who need it more, from an economic and social perspective. Third, banks are
responsible for creating credit and facilitating the transaction of business and trade which
ultimately affect the growth of the economy. (Desai, 1987). Thus the banks collect
savings from the people and mobilize saving for investment in industrial projects. The
investors borrow from banks to finance the projects. Special funds are provided to the
investors for the completion of projects. The banks provide a guarantee for industrial
loan from international agencies. The foreign capital flows to developing countries for
investment in projects.
Besides normal banking, the banks perform agency services for the client. The
banks buy and sell securities, make rent payments, receive subscription funds and collect
utility bills for the Government departments. Thus these banks save the time and energy
of busy people. Banks arrange foreign exchange for the business transactions with other
countries. The facility of foreign currency account has resulted in an increase of foreign
exchange reserves. By opening a letter of credit the banks promote foreign trade.
The banks not only collect funds from the customers but also serve as a guide to
them in investing their funds. The policy of banks is an instrument in wide dispersal of
credit in the country.
Banking sector plays a positive role in augmenting the progress of a country as
repositories of community’s savings and as purveyors of credit. It is the heart of financial
structure since it has the ability to add to the money supply of the nation and thus creates
additional purchasing power. Lending, investing and related activities of banks facilitate
the economic processes of production, distribution and consumption.
In a developing country like India banks also have social responsibilities like
uplifting the weaker sections and financing the social projects. Banking industry in India
has been playing a pivotal role in rebuilding the Indian economy by extending its
network to the backward and rural areas, small industries and weaker sections of the
society etc., in addition to providing finance to industry and business.
In a way commercial banks have emerged as the key financial agencies of rapid
economic development today than ever before.
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1.3 IMPORTANCE OF WOMEN IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Participation of women in economic activity is common in all the developed
countries but the extent of participation is different in every country. The economic
development of a nation depends much on the quality of its human resources. Women in
India by tradition and culture have for generations taken a self-effacing role. The women
are expected to look after the home and health, be it her fathers’ home before marriage or
husbands’ home later. Due to the growth of industrialization, urbanization, liberal
education and the democratic system in the country, the tradition-bound society is now
undergoing a slow change. Today women have not only safely encoded themselves in
the job situations but also proved themselves as professionals and executives in many
fields and have found acceptance in the society.
1.4 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF BANKING SECTOR IN
INDIA In a developing country like India, the importance of the banking industry is even
more critical because the availability of capital is limited and the task of mobilizing
resources to certain sectors of the economy is a challenging one. In a general sense,
financial institutions have been charged with the task of accelerating economic growth
and revitalizing the industrial and agrarian sectors of the country. (Chawla, 1987).
From the early Vedic period the giving and taking of credit in one form or the
other have existed in Indian Society. The bankers are the pillars of the Indian society. In
the early days bankers were called as indigenous bankers. The development of modern
banking has started in India since the days of East India Company. These banks mostly
had no capital of their own and depended entirely on deposits in India.
The evaluation and growth of banking industry can be reviewed into two stages
i.e Pre – Nationalization (prior to 1969) and post – Nationalization (1969 onwards)
The first bank in India, General Bank of India was established in 1786. From 1786
till today, the journey of Indian banking system can be segregated into three distinct
phases. They are as follows
Early phase from 1786 to 1969 of Indian Banks.
Nationalization of Indian banks and up to 1991 prior to Indian banking sector
reforms.
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New phase of Indian banking system with the advent of Indian Financial and
Banking sector Reforms after 1991.
The Government of India felt a need for central bank of the country to regulate
the banking system in the country which took the form of RBI. It was declared as Central
Bank of India under Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
The banking industry in India is heavily regulated to ensure its smooth operation
as a partner of the Government. In 1949, the Government of India passed a
comprehensive Banking Regulation Act to clarify among other things what constituted a
banking company (Desai, 1987). This piece of regulation also mandated that banks play
a crucial role in growth and development.
On July 19, 1969 the banking industry again faced a significant Government
intervention that transformed its very nature of operation and fourteen major commercial
banks were nationalized. Banks were expected to expand banking facilities, improve
deposit mobilization and allocate proper credit where needed. However with the growing
agricultural sector and its improved performance due to breakthroughs in technology, the
banks focused on meeting the changing expectations of the public. The intent of the
nationalization step was to decrease the disparities between the wealthy and poorer
sections of the economy and to reach both the advanced as well as remote regions of the
country. In 1980 six additional banks were nationalized bringing more than 85% of the
banks under public control.
The changes in the banking structure have resulted in three major benefits. First
they have increased the geographic coverage of the banks and increased accessibility to
rural areas. Second, they have increased the mobilization of deposits and thirdly they
have redistributed bank credit to people with limited means and to previously neglected
sectors (Morris, 1985).
The banks of India have been divided into scheduled and non-scheduled banks to
distinguish the extent to which the institution satisfies the Reserve Bank requirements.
The most important part of the financial structure is the commercial banks. These banks
represent the typical branch banking type of institutions. The following figure shows a
diagram of the structure of the banking industry in India.
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CHART 1.1
CHART SHOWING BANKING SECTOR OF INDIA
Banks of India
Scheduled Banks Non-Scheduled Banks
State Cooperative Commercial Central Cooperative Commercial Banks Banks (86) Banks and Primary Banks Credit societies
Foreign Banks (40) Indian Banks(46)
Public Sector Banks (26) Private Sector Banks (20)
State Bank of India Nationalized Old Private New Private
and its Associates (6) Banks (20) Sector(13) Sector (7)
Structure of Banking Industry in India
Source : Chawla .A.S.(1987)
Figures in brackets indicate the number of institutions at March end 2012
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TABLE 1.1
COMMERCIAL BANKS IN INDIA – MARCH 2012
Number of Banks Number of Branches
All Scheduled Commercial Banks 86 83229
Public Sector Banks 26 69498
SBI and its Associates 6 19485
Nationalized Banks (Including IDBI) 20 50013
Private sector Banks 20 13408
Old private sector 13 5555
New Private Sector 7 7853
Foreign Banks 40 323
Notes : Data on number of offices include administrative offices.
Source : Master Office File (Latest Updated) on commercial banks, Department of
Statistics and information Management, RBI.
Above table 1.1 shows the offices of commercial banks in India as on March
2012. As on that that there are 86 scheduled commercial banks in India of which 26 are
public sector banks, 20 are private sector banks and the remaining 40 are foreign banks.
TABLE 1.2
SCHEDULED COMMERCIAL BANKS AND THEIR BRANCHES IN INDIA,
TAMIL NADU AND COIMBATORE – MARCH 2012
PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS NATIONALIZED BANKS
S.No Name Of the Bank Year of Establishment
Number of
branches in India
Number of
branches in Tamil
Nadu
Number of branches
in Coimbatore
1. Allahabad Bank Ltd 1865 2572 53 3 2. Andhra Bank Ltd 1923 1712 85 8 3. Bank of Baroda Ltd 1908 3992 162 20
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4. Bank of India Ltd 1906 4021 190 17 5. Bank of Maharashtra Ltd 1935 1632 30 3 6. Canara Bank Ltd 1906 3631 624 55 7. Central Bank of India
Ltd 1911 4134 206 22
8. Corporation Bank Ltd 1906 1454 154 21 9. Dena Bank Ltd 1938 1281 29 2 10. IDBI Bank Ltd 1964 972 65 5 11. Indian Bank Ltd 1907 1993 822 42 12. Indian Overseas Bank
Ltd 1937 2676 1041 57
13. Oriental Bank Of Commerce Ltd
1943 1814 48 5
14. Punjab and Sind Bank Ltd
1908 1021 12 2
15. Punjab National Bank Ltd
1895 5739 147 8
16. Syndicate Bank Ltd 1925 2707 192 28 17. UCO Bank Ltd 1943 2389 95 8 18. United Bank of India Ltd 1950 3329 24 4 19. Union Bank of India Ltd 1919 1599 207 22 20. Vijaya Bank Ltd 1931 1345 85 8
STATE BANK AND ITS ASSOCI1036ATES 21. State Bank of Bikaner
and Jaipur Ltd 1944 1036 7 3
22. State Bank of HyderabadLtd
1941 1343 32 5
23. State Bank of India Ltd 1806 14316 867 83 24. State Bank of Mysore
Ltd 1913 785 45 6
25. State Bank of Patiyala Ltd
1917 1111 15 3
26. State Bank of Trivancore 1945 894 108 7 OLD PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS
27. Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd
1920 384 57 11
28. City Union BankLtd 1904 303 200 15 29. Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd 1927 294 39 7
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30. Federal Bank Ltd 1931 956 81 6 31. ING Vysya Bank Ltd. 1930 541 42 5 32. Jammu and Kashmir
Bank Ltd 1938 555 4 1
33. Karnataka Bank Ltd 1924 527 36 5 34. Karur Vysys Bank Ltd 1916 479 247 25 35. Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd 1926 310 189 19 36. Nainital Bank Ltd 1912 103 - - 37. Ratnakar Bank Ltd 1943 103 - - 38. South Indian Bank Ltd 1929 711 121 25 39. Tamilnad Mercantile
Bank Ltd 1921 289 228 17
NEW PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS 40. Axis Bank Ltd 1994 1657 166 12 41. Development Credit
Bank Ltd 1995 114 6 -
42. HDFC Bank Ltd 1994 2186 176 14 43. ICICI Bank Ltd 1996 2780 285 21 44. IndusInd Bank Ltd 1994 397 39 5 45. Kotak Mahindra Bank
Ltd 2003 363 21 3
46. Yes Bank Ltd 2005 356 8 1 Note : 1. Data is as per information reported by banks.
2. Data on the number of offices including administrative offices
Source : Master Office File (Latest updated version on banks), DSIM, RBI.
The above table 1.2 shows the list of scheduled commercial banks, their year of
establishment and offices in India, Tamil Nadu and Coimbatore as on March 2012.
Thus Indian banking sector comprises of players who include public sector
banks, State bank of India and its associates, private sector banks, both of old and new
sectors, both of old and new generations, scheduled banks, cooperative banks, regional
rural banks, foreign banks etc.
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1.5 HUMAN RESOURCES The Economic, social and cultural development of any country mostly depends
upon the human resource it has. According to Arthur Lewis , “there are great differences
in development between countries which seem to have roughly equal resources, so it is
necessary to enquire into the difference in human behavior”. As such though the
countries are endowed with same level of natural resources, technology and international
aid etc., their productivity and development mostly depend upon the availability of
efficient human resource and more importantly, commitment of such resource.
Internationalization of both public and private sector organizations has rapidly
changed the complexion of human resource management. The internationalization of
organization makes human resource management more challenging because it raises a
number of new issues like cross – cultural training, compensation and benefits etc. As
such the human resource should be viewed with an international perspective
(Terry.L.Leap) .
Another recent development that has taken place is shifting importance from
manufacturing to service–oriented organizations which has resulted in growing
importance of the human resource. Without predicting human behavior at a particular
point of the time and guiding them in proper direction, service organizations cannot
survive and prosper.
Efficient human resource and their commitment is essential for effective
management of organization. The management of four Ms i.e., Money, Materials,
Machines and Men is essentially carried on by human resource of the organization.
Stressing this point of view, McGregor observed that effectiveness of organizations
would be doubled if managements could discover how to tap unrealized potential present
in their human resources.
The depreciation that results in all other factors of production in the long run
doesn’t result in case of human resource. In fact, the vice versa is true. Human resources
with proper organization and motivation can grow and develop their potential in the long
run. There is no depreciation value for human resource. Stressing this, Peter.F.Drucker
remarked that man, of all resources available to man, can grow and develop. As such
deriving maximum potentialities from this resource largely depends upon proper
management of it.
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It is said that, “behavior of human beings differs widely. It is in turn very
difficult to predict their behavior, especially in organizations where they work in groups.
Their behavior is neither consistent nor predictable. Thus the manager should recognize
that individuals not organizations, create excellence (P.Subba Rao and V.S.P.Rao) .
Most of the complexities in modern organizations arise from human behavior. It
is human resource which can make a difference and which can have an everlasting
impact on the survival of any organization. In this context, Oliver Sheldon observed that,
“no industry can be rendered efficient so long as the basic fact remains unrecognized that
it is principally human. It is not a mass of machines and technical processes but a body
of men. It is not a complex of matter, but a complex of humanity. It fulfills its functions,
not by virtue of some impersonal force, but by human energy. Its body is not an intricate
maze of mechanical device but a magnified nervous system”. Human resources should
be handled carefully by predicting the behavior to the possible extent, in view of the
complexities involved in managing them.
Directing human resource of an organization is guiding the entire organization
towards standard objectives. Because organizing any functional area is in turn organizing
and leading human resource of that functional area, organization is nothing but a
collection of human resource who takes up various functions to attain set objectives.
“Thus all executives must unavoidably be personnel managers” ( Edwin B.Flippo).
Although the human resource is a sub–system of an organization, it affects all
other sub–systems and the entire organization in turn. Wendell L. French rightly puts it,
“Personnel management is a major pervasive sub –system of all organizations”
1.6 HUMAN RESOURCES IN BANKING Banks are basically human organizations. They employ large number of people
of the society so as to fulfill their own organizational and national objectives. In order
to face the challenges of competition in global economy, banks must focus on the
human capital. The human resource in a bank is the one that produces most profit.
Human capital must be treated as human values and not as just pieces of an impersonal
economic tool. In the banking system, the human capital and the moral or ethical values
stand above all. Placing the bank employees in the human resource category, next to the
capital, the technology, the know – how, etc implies a management based on strict
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economic criteria. But from the ethical point of view, people cannot be treated as
simple means or resources.
In the service sector like banking along with other resources, the performance of
banks depends on the quality of human capital as they are the main product and service
delivering assets. Thus in banks human capital is the one that assures the development
of banking activities, bringing the bank performance and prestige.
Besides, the efficiency of the banks can be achieved when the personal growth
and well being of the employees is taken care of and impediments and irritants are
removed which would create a facilitating and congenial environment and foster a
feeling of pride and belongingness. Thus the principal task before bank management is
utilization of its human resources to the optimum for better results and to meet the new
challenges of its employees.
In a competitive scenario as of today, the knowledge work force influences the
identification and socialization process of employees and the work force may also
indirectly act as a complement to improved technologies, business models, work
culture, conventions and sentiments that determine the performance of any organization
in general and the banking sector in particular. Therefore banks are aligning their
human capital with their strategic objectives and it has been recognized as a vital and
forceful factor in the banking sector.
Bimal Jalan, the formerly Governor of Reserve Bank of India rightly pointed out
that, “Capital and technology are replicable but not human capital which needs to be
viewed as a valuable resource for the achievement of competitive advantage even in the
banking sector”.
In the wake of liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) of the
economy, the banking philosophy, objectives, priorities, targets and human resource
management policies have also been drastically changed from time to time. As a result
the mind set of the employees and employers have also changed. The socio economic
compulsions and internal and external environment of the banking sector as well
witnessed drastic changes. For instance, introduction of computers, downsizing of the
employees, proposals to mergers and acquisitions, disinvestments policy of the
Government have, indeed affected the bank employees. Besides all this the problem of
mounting overdues on one side and increasing NPA’s, also affected the feelings of the
bank employees.
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Winds of liberalization have brought fresh air and with the entry of foreign banks
in India, greater needs are felt for better customer service and creating a competitive
edge to overcome competitors strategy. The development of competitive strategies and
the labor market seems to have affected the psychological work environment and as a
consequence the employees’ health as well.
Growing competition, complex economic environment, rising labor costs, etc
compel organizations to espouse proactive strategies towards employee contribution. In
the present competitive business environment, Indian organizations are feeling
compelled from within to reorient their employment relationships (Budhwar, 2000)
Sodhi, 1999). After years of organizational restructuring and work re-engineering,
management comes to recognize that a Productive workforce is increasingly important to
attain sustainable competitive advantage for business organizations on a global basis.
(Bohl et al., 1996.)
TABLE : 1.3
BANK GROUP AND POPULATION GROUP WISE DISTRIBUTION OF
EMPLOYEES OF SCHEDULED COMMERCIAL BANKS ACCORDING TO
CATEGORY – MARCH 2011
Total Employees
Bank group Officers Clerks Subordinates Total
SBI and its Associates 1,13,222 1,31,903 55,503 3,00,628
Nationalized Banks 1,97,739 1,81,634 95,687 4,75,060
Foreign Banks 22,207 1,543 490 24,240
Regional Rural Banks 29,869 31,811 18,206 79,886
Private Sector Banks 1,07,107 55,630 8,334 1,71,071
All Scheduled
Commercial Banks 4,70,144 4,02,521 1,78,220 10,50,885
Source : Basic Statistical Returns on Scheduled Commercial Banks In India.
The above table 1.3 shows the bank group and population group wise distribution
of employees of scheduled commercial banks according to category as on March 2011.
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TABLE 1.4
STATE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES OF SCHEDULED COMMERCIAL
BANKS ACCORDING TO CATEGORY MARCH 2011
Total Employees
Region Officers Clerks Subordinates Total
Northern Region 91,688 62,842 30,489 1,85,019
North Eastern Region 9,868 9,361 4,656 23,885
Eastern Region 64,341 65,940 33,997 1,64,278
Central Region 70,651 65,198 31,659 1,67,278
Western Region 1,05,947 89,064 32,790 2,27,801
Southern Region 1,27,649 1,10,116 44,629 2,82,394
Total 4,70,144 4,02,521 1,78,220 10,50,885
Source : Basic Statistical Returns on Scheduled Commercial Banks In India.
The above table 1.4 shows the state wise distribution of employees of scheduled
commercial banks according to category as on March 2011. In southern region there are
1,27,649 officers, 1,10,116 clerks and 44,629 subordinates in commercial banks. Total
number of employees are 2,82,394.
TABLE : 1.5
STATE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF EMPLOYEES OF SCHEDULED
COMMERCIAL BANKS IN SOUTHERN REGION MARCH 2011
Southern Region Officers Clerks Subordinates Total
Andhra Pradesh 36,826 27,520 12,787 77,133
Karnataka 32,585 27,590 12,237 72,412
Kerala 22,401 20,935 7,195 50,531
Tamil Nadu 35,135 33,346 12,149 80,630
Lakshadweep 28 32 16 76
Puducherry 674 693 245 1,612
Source : Basic Statistical Returns on Scheduled Commercial Banks In India.
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The above table 1.5 shows the state wise distribution of employees of scheduled
commercial banks in southern region as on March 2011. Totally there are 80,630
employees in Tamil Nadu of which 35,135 are officers, 33,346 are clerks and 12,149 are
subordinates.
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN
BANKING SECTOR Human resource management is a very vast area which covers almost all aspects
of employee’s work-life in an organization right from the time when he enters into the
organization (recruitment) till he leaves it (retirement). Human resource management
takes care of employee’s economic, social and psychological needs. It also influences the
social, political and cultural aspects of employee’s life as organizational life is a major
part of the employee’s life. The economic, social and cultural difference between
developed and developing countries can mostly be attributed to the difference in human
resource in those countries. In this context, Meier and Baldwin rightly points out,
“Development does not occur spontaneously as a natural consequence when economic
conditions are in some sense ‘right’, a catalyst, or agent is needed, and this require
people with vision and drive”.
Recruitment, selection, induction, training and development, transfers,
promotions, demotions, compensations package, working conditions that prevail are all
part of human resource management. Human resource management takes care of
inducting suitable human resource into the organization through recruitment and
selection, sharpens and enriches their capabilities and skills through training and
development, motivates and provides welfare through compensation and maintains good
relations and atmosphere inside the organization through maintaining good industrial
relations in the organization.
Many new concepts and trends are taking place in Human Resource Management
and are gaining importance. One such important concept is ‘Quality of work life’.
Though the importance of quality of work life was realized long ago, its practice is being
stressed upon and specific title is being given only recently. Since then, this term is being
used extensively by employees, employers, Government and academicians.
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Therefore organizations are in need to adopt a strategy to improve Quality of
work life to satisfy both the organizational objectives and employee needs. As the
composition of workforce continues to change, organizations focusing on Quality of
Work Life of employees are expected to gain leverage in hiring and retaining valuable
people. The banking industry like many other industries is adjusting to the multiple
changes in the market place over the past two decades. These sustained changes can be
instructive only by prompting greater interest in employee involvement.
At the outset, quality of work life is one of the comprehensive programmes
designated to create a sense of fulfillment in the minds of the employees and contributes
toward greater involvement, improving productivity and overall effectiveness of the
organization. In the service sector, banking industry is the major player which involves
public for mobilizing funds and it is the secured place for the public to keep their wealth
safe. Maintaining good quality of work in banking industry is of great relevance which
may construe the overall quality of work life of service sector.
1.8 PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN THE BANKING INDUSTRY Indian banking system has not only made rapid strides in network expansion but
it itself has undergone a complete and never–dreamt of transformation in its very
objectives, approaches and scale of operation. Technology has indeed played a
significant role in this sea change. Nationalization of banks in two spells in 1969 and
1980 was a watershed in the annals of banking sector in India. With the stupendous
change in the outlook of the Indian society, girls were allowed to pursue education,
resulting in turnout of not merely graduates and post graduates, but even technical
graduates. This resulted in women seeking jobs to supplement their family income and to
enjoy more comforts of life. In short increasing women literacy, growing economic
pressure and the burning desire to gain economic and social independence are pushing
womenfolk to take up gainful career.
The banking industry is unique in that it has been attracting women employees
for over two decades. Several studies indicate that there is an increase in the participation
of women in the banking industry and even in the executive classes
(Bhatnagar, 1988). Working women, in a 1977 study conducted by Blumberg and
Dwaraki (1980), were asked what type of jobs they would prefer to the ones they
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currently held. The most frequent alterative chosen by 20% of the respondents was
working in a bank.
Bank services came to be preferred by women because most of the banks are
located in cities and towns and the other reason for women taking bank jobs lies in their
economic need. Employment contributes to the upgradation of status in the family as
well as in the society. They prefer banking services because of the professional nature of
the jobs. Many women take up employment in banks with a view to achieve further
progress through passing bank examination held for higher posts. They consider their
future prospects promising in bank services. As banks are functioning in their own city
or town, they would not be required to stay away from their homes and families.
Presently banks have women working on different posts and performing their
duties as efficiently as their counterparts. Women may be found holding posts of higher
responsibility in the banking sector.
Thus economic needs, wish to raise their status, supplementing of family income,
shouldering family’s responsibilities thrust upon them, utilization of their educational
qualifications and professional nature of job are the main reasons which have induced
women towards services in banks.
1.9 BANK BRANCHES WITH EXCLUSIVELY WOMEN
EMPLOYEES The banking industry has experimented with several bank branches that employ
only women at all levels, from the clerical workers to the management staff. These
branches provided many Indian women, who felt uncomfortable working closely with
men, an opportunity to work in an office setting free from the pressure of dealing with
men. These types of branches also gave a wider opportunity for women to work at all
levels of the bank without competing with them.
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TABLE 1.6 BANK GROUP AND POPULATION GROUP WISE
DISTRIBUTION OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES OF SCHEDULED COMMERCIAL
BANKS ACCORDING TO CATEGORY – MARCH 2011
Female Employees
Bank group Officers Clerks Sub – ordinates Total
SBI and its Associates 13,754 38,708 5,082 57,544
Nationalized Banks 24,618 43,056 11,085 78,789
Foreign Banks 6,927 781 25 7,703
Regional Rural Banks 1,004 2,688 789 4,481
Private Sector Banks 21,655 15,796 846 38,297
All Scheduled
Commercial Banks 67,958 1,00,999 17,827 1,86,784
Source : Basic Statistical Returns on Scheduled Commercial Banks In India.
The above table 1.6 shows the bank group and population group wise distribution
of female employees of scheduled commercial banks according to category as on March
2011. Totally there are 1,86,784 women employees in all scheduled commercial banks.
TABLE 1.7
STATE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES OF SCHEDULED
COMMERCIAL BANKS ACCORDING TO CATEGORY MARCH 2011
Female Employees
Region Officers Clerks Sub – ordinates Total
Northern Region 13,728 14,647 3,557 31,932
North Eastern Region 1,010 2,045 425 3,480
Eastern Region 5,806 9,042 2,426 17,274
Central Region 5,620 10,255 2,070 17,945
Western Region 19,540 28,475 2,868 50,883
Southern Region 22,254 36,535 6,481 65,270
Total 67,958 1,00,999 17,827 1,86,784
Source : Basic Statistical Returns on Scheduled Commercial Banks In India.
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The above table 1.7 shows the state wise distribution of female employees of
scheduled commercial banks according to category as on March 2011. In southern region
there are 22,254 officers, 36,535 clerks and 6,481 subordinates. Totally there are 65,270
women employees in Southern region.
TABLE 1.8
STATE WISE DISTRIBUTION OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES OF SCHEDULED
COMMERCIAL BANKS IN SOUTHERN REGION MARCH 2011
Southern region Officers Clerks Sub – ordinates Total
Andhra Pradesh 5,074 6,709 1,938 13,721
Karnataka 5,601 9,744 1,552 16,897
Kerala 5,183 8,490 1,230 14,903
Tamil Nadu 6,281 11,358 1,713 19,352
Lakshadweep 1 11 3 15
Puducherry 114 223 45 382
Source : Basic Statistical Returns on Scheduled Commercial Banks In India.
The above table 1.8 shows the state wise distribution of female employees of
scheduled commercial banks in southern region as on March 2011. In Tamil Nadu there
are 6,281 officers, 11,358 clerks and 1,713 subordinates. Totally there are 19,352 women
employees in Tamil Nadu.
1.10 PROBLEMS FACED BY WOMEN IN BANKING SECTOR A team of Bulgarian experts, headed by Professor Ivanovich, Department Head at
the National Centre of Public Health Protection, conducted a survey on working
conditions in the banking sector, aimed at determining risk levels based on employees’
self-evaluation. A case study was carried out in 2004 in a large bank that has branches
throughout the country in Bulgaria. Findings of the study indicated that Female
employees experience more physical pain and discomfort than their male counterparts.
The feeling of fatigue appears earlier and increases more quickly among women
(particularly after the fourth hour at work) than their male counterparts.
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Constant exposure to computer terminals and the radiation there from has an
adverse effect on the pregnant women. Sedentary nature of bank jobs make the women
employees more vulnerable to severe headache, pains in fingers and wrists, backache and
waist problems, pain in neck and shoulders and eye strain. Most of the women
executives in private and public sector banks forgo promotion out of the fear of causing
dislocation in the family though they have fully qualified themselves with CAIIB and
other officer cadre exams conducted by the respective banks. The thought of attending to
a new born baby, toddlers, children returning from school, etc., distract the attention of
women executives in their thirties.
Since executives like cashier, teller, accountant, loan officer, portfolio managers,
FOREX officer, assistant branch manager, etc., cannot leave the bank without tallying
the account, the family members of female executives suffer more and the executives
concerned, experience more mental stress than the male counterparts which has an
adverse effect on the psychological health of the women executives.
Most of the public and private sector banks are located in prime locality of the
town or city and in the case of reaching branches located in far off places, women
executives experience more physical strain in commuting to the work spot. This travel
leaves an adverse impact on the physical and mental health of women respondents. In
view of hectic work schedule and heavy workload, women executives find it challenging
to strike work life harmony.
In other words the inability to give up conventional domestic obligations as a
home maker cast additional strain on women officers across banks. Besides women
executives across the bank have to be away from the family on account of official
meeting, inspection, assignment, etc. This widens the gap in the relations between the
women executives and the family members. All the inconvenience and discomfort
suffered by the women executives in their professional journey as cited above have the
potential to influence the work efficiency of the subjects thereby striking the quality of
work performance.
The women executives unlike their male counterparts find difficult to take up
leadership roles in their path. Though they are on par with the male counterparts in terms
of age, education, talent, skill, competence, knowledge, the conventional duties cast on
women on domestic front, the natural love and affection towards the family members,
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physical debility in undertaking tours etc., militate against their desire to climb up the
career ladder.
Number of research studies conducted on the factors preventing women
executives from even aspiring for top slots in the organization hierarchy have unearthed
a number of inhibitive factors. Some of the factors often reported to be barriers have
been sieved from the literature survey. The factors such as taking care of the family
(Siew Kim, J.L., and Seow Kim, C. 2001), combining domestic work and office work
leaves no time for making us fit for higher posts Parveen, S., (1984) , physical strain
necessitating longer hours of stay in the office (Adams, G.A., King, L.A., and King,
D.W. 1996), difficulty of better judgment and quick decision-making required in higher
posts (Burke, R.J. and Mattis, M. 2005), strain of frequent tours and field visits
(Sivakumar 2010) and fear of transfer which disturbs family life and domestic peace
(Azhar, R., 1978) are taken into consideration to find out the major factors curbing the
desire to aspire for higher end positions in the banking hierarchy.
1.11 QUALITY OF WORK LIFE-INTRODUCTION Quality of Work Life (QWL) has become one of the most important issues these
days in every organization. Employees are the force that is behind every successful
organization. No organization can become successful with technology only because for
the use of technology also, organizations need to have a strong work force. Quality of
Work Life was the term actually introduced in the late 1960s. From that period till now
the term has been gaining more and more importance everywhere, at every work place.
The term ‘Quality of Work Life’ appeared in research journals only in 1970s.
Initially quality of work life was focusing on the effects of employment on the
general well being and the health of the workers. But now its focus has been changed.
Every organization needs to give good environment to their workers including all
financial and non financial incentives so that they can retain their employees for the
longer period and for the achievement of the organization goals.
It is not only monetary aspects that a modern employee concerns himself with. It
is also concerned with conditions of employment, interpersonal conflicts, role conflicts,
job pressure, lack of freedom of work and absence of challenging work etc. As the style
of management has changed from paternalistic to democratic, so as the expectations of
employees with an impending need to achieve more and more productivity efficiently,
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employees look forward to the conducive and congenial working conditions and
favorable terms of employment. As such productivity and efficiency of an organization
largely depends upon the quality of work life provided by the organization.
“Blessed is he, who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessedness. It is
work and only work which changes the individual, the society and nation” (Mahaveer
Jain), was the comment of Caryle in his ‘Past and Present’ such is the importance of the
work in one’s life. Work is a major aspect of life that it influences one’s life–style
tremendously.
Rosow (1974) explains the importance of work more in detail and relates it to
success and failure of a man in his society. According to him, “Work is the core of life
considering the deeper meaning of work to be individual and to life’s values; work
means being a good provider; it means autonomy; it pays off in success, and it
establishes self–respect or self-worth. Within this frame work, the person who openly
confesses active job dissatisfaction is virtually admitting failure as a man, a failure in
fulfilling his moral role in society”.
1.12 MEANING AND DEFINITION OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE. Though the concept ‘Quality of work Life’ appeared in print only in 1970 in the
USA, the concept had been given potential importance since 1950s. But is was not very
clear and was ambiguous, ‘Quality of Work Life’ is interpreted and viewed in different
ways. The term continues to be vague though many people tried to define it in specific
terms. A few among them are presented below.
Richard Walton (1979) who had taken up extensive research on Quality of Work
Life made significant contribution for the conceptualization of the term Quality of Work
Life. In fact measuring QWL has become easy and practicable with the factors/elements
that he proposed. According to Walton, “Quality of Work Life is the work culture that
serves as the corner stone”. Hence, Life is the work culture of an organization which
should be recognized and improved to improve Quality of work Life of that
Organization.
According to Nadler and Lawler (1983) “Quality of working life is a way of
thinking about people, work and organizations.” Thus, the focus of quality of working
life is not only on how people can do the work better, but on how work may cause people
to be better. It is a concern that is different from other productivity or organizational
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enhancement efforts, because of its focus on the outcome for the individual, opinioned
the authors.
Robert F. Craver, a senior executive at AT and T on the other hand views “
QWL is more than a fad, more than an attempt to pacify the growing demands of
impatient employees. For the manager, QWL can offer new challenges, opportunities for
growth and satisfaction”.
Robert H. Guest, a noted behavioral scientist talks about feelings of an employee
about his work while defining Quality of Work Life. He further points out the effect of
QWL on person’s life. According to him “QWL is a generic phrase that covers a
person’s feelings about every dimension of work, including economic rewards and
benefits, security, working conditions, organizational and interpersonal relationships, and
its intrinsic meaning in a person’s life”, and “It is a process by which an Organization
attempts to unlock the creative potential of its people by involving them in decisions
affecting their work lives.”
In the development process, the term QWL has acquired many different
definitions creating confusion. Nadler and Lawler (1983) brought out this confusion
thus,
First definition 1969-1972 QWL = Variable
Second definition 1969-1975 QWL = Approach
Third definition 1972-1975 QWL = Methods
Fourth definition 1975-1980 QWL = Movement
Fifth definition 1969-1982 QWL = Everything
Whatever may be the interpretation, QWL is the most debated topic both by the
employers and the employees. One of the reasons for its growing importance could be
the realization on the part of employees about their rights and growing unionism.
Workers are no more illiterate. They do not completely depend upon the mercy of
management for their existence. Most of the lower level workers also have atleast
primary education. Thanks to the efforts of the Governments in this regard, each and
every worker tends to join some union or the other for his own protection and well-
being. Unions put all their efforts to educate their members to realize their rights and as
to what they expect from management in return of what they contribute. Though still
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monetary benefits occupy the first place in the list of elements of QWL , other elements
like physical working conditions, job restructuring and redesign, career development,
promotional opportunities etc., are gaining importance rapidly. As such the workers
expect management to improve QWL by providing all these facilities.
The Management on the other hand, has ceased to adopt paternalistic approach as
it used to be earlier. They do not take care of the employee as a parent takes care of his
child. There is no more understanding between employer and employee, except a
constant struggle for their own end. Employer always sees the employees as a factor of
production just like other factors. He always tries to extract as much production as
possible from this factor, where as the employees always expect more facilities and
comforts from employer in return to what they contribute. This situation has resulted in
constant struggle between employees and employers.
QWL emerged to end such exploitation and injustice on the part of the
employers. As De (1976) pointed out, “QWL is an indicator of how free the society is
from exploitation, injustice, inequality, oppression and restrictions on the continuity of
growth of man, leading to his development to the fullest”.
Because of poor design of socio-technical system, employees also experience
alienation. Alienation is a feeling of powerlessness, lack of meaning, loneliness, and
boredom, lack of ego involvement and lack of attachment to job (Keith Davis). This job
discontent and job pressures may in turn affect employees health giving way to general
unhappiness. Hence, it is viewed that QWL should be designed along with all activities
of Human Resources Amusement as given in the following examples.
HR activity Effect on QWL
Job Analysis Analyze the job in such a way that
human needs like freedom,
challenging work, autonomy can be
satisfied.
Selection Selecting the right man and placing
him in the right position. This
satisfies his needs for regard,
interesting work etc.
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Job Enrichment Satisfy higher order needs like pride
and ego.
Job Evaluation Equitable wages.
QWL has its roots in scientific management advocated by F.W. Taylor in the
sense that, the mechanical / quantitative approach that the scientific management
assumed gave way to frustration of the workers which led to human relations movement
and later socio-technical movement which was the basis for today’s Quality of Work
Life.
1.13 EVOLUTION OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE (QWL) Thus the evolution of the concept QWL was mainly in 3 phases—scientific
Management movement, human relations movement and finally socio-technical
Movement .
1.13.1 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT MOVEMENT Federick W. Taylor (1947) was the advocate of scientific management
Movement. As a result of industrial revolution, there aroused a great need to increase
productivity of work organizations. Taylor, in an attempt to achieve this, came up with
the idea of scientific management, time study and work study. He viewed that the burden
of planning and designing the work should be removed from the shoulders of workers.
They should be given specific tasks and clear instructions as to how a particular job,
should be done, before hand. He also advocated ‘Division of Work’ which means that
instead of assigning a worker entire job, divide it into parts and assign each part to a
different worker. As such each worker will have to do only a part of total job, thus
specializing in that work. Taylor hoped that such specialization would quicken the
production process. He further advocated various incentive schemes which would enable
a worker who achieves a particular level of production, to earn certain per centage of
incentive.
With the help of time, work and motion studies, Taylor viewed that workers can
be briefed exactly on what is to be done, when, where and how, leaving practically
nothing to their discretion. Taylor had put his thoughts in point in his work “The
principles of scientific management” in 1911 which was the most popular work of that
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period and influenced not only the American industry, but the industry all over the world
for at least a quarter of the century.
Taylor, through his time and work study, division of labour, and incentive
schemes, tried to improve work life of employees. Through incentive scheme and
division of labour Taylor contributed towards Quality of Work Life.
Fayol was another pioneer of similar approach with his 14 principles. But he
concentrated on general management unlike Taylor who concentrated his research only
on shop floor management. Fayol tried to improve QWL through some of his principles
like division of work, unity of command and direction, remuneration and esprit de corps.
Taylor’s work was most popular as well as most criticized one. Production levels
started increasing with the application of principles of scientific management. But
elimination of human element by Taylor started showing its effect soon. Industrial unrest
began to rise as a result of repetitive work and rigid standards prescribed to the workers.
The general feeling among workers was that the best judges on to how and when to do
their work is they themselves and not supervisors or managers. They further felt that
with their sole objective of increasing the production, the managers tend to set up strict
and rigid standards which cannot be reached always by an average worker. Lack of
empathy on the part of employers drove workers to think that they were being cheated
and exploited. The application of incentive schemes only worsened their human
relations. A quick and skilled worker could earn more whereas a below average worker
couldn’t even earn normal wages as there are standards to be reached to earn normal
wages. This resulted in groupism and back-biting, and spoiled the general environment
of the Organization. The workers attributed all this to scientific management.
Not only was Taylor targeted to the criticism of workers, but also, other groups
like academicians, researchers, and anthropologists. They felt that Taylor considered
human beings as just another factor of production. He fixed standards, time limits and
work schedules to workers as they do to machines. As such Taylor’s was mainly a
mechanical approach. This negative approach towards human beings was criticized.
As the realization of human potential grew, criticism on scientific management
grew. This resulted in researches in thinking more about human approach in the industry.
The industrial unrest and constant bickering among management and workers also
stressed the need to think of different approach which can overcome the drawbacks of
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scientific management and give due recognition and importance to human element,
which finally resulted in ‘Human Relations Movement’.
1.13.2 HUMAN RELATIONS MOVEMENT
Human relations movement was mainly concerned with inter-personal and group
relationships among workers and advocated a participatory and democratic style of
supervision to achieve work effectiveness. Maslow(1954), Herzberg(1959) and Mc
Gregor (1960) were all important members of Human Relations school who contributed
towards this view.
Quality of work life has its roots in the theories of Maslow, Herzberg and Mc
Gregor. The need for fulfillment as that of Abraham Maslow’s motivational theory of
need hierarchy is comparable with those of the factors of QWL. Basic needs like
monetary benefits come first, followed by good working conditions. Later comes career
planning, growth and development of human capabilities to satisfy. Maslow’s esteem
needs are comparable with opportunity to use and develop human capabilities. Lastly
challenging work is advocated by Walton to satisfy self-actualization need in need
hierarchy. Quality of work life concerns itself with satisfying both hygiene factors and
motivators as identified by Herberg to improve the work life of employees. The
assumptions of McGregor can be divided into two sets i.e, those under, “Theory X’ and
those under “Theory Y’ gave realization of changing attitudes, values and work culture
of employees basically belongs to ‘Theory Y”. Thus, it is evidence that the QWL has had
its origin in these theories of motivation.
1.13.3 SOCIO – TECHINICAL SYSTEM
As improved school of thought from Human Relations movement is socio-
technical system which forms actual basis for present Quality of Work Life.
The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (1947) conducted a series of studies
in coal mines. There was a subsequent research in Calico Textile Mills in Ahmedabad
which was conducted by Prof. A. K. Rice. These two studies form the basis for socio-
technical movement.
The basic feature of socio – technical system is –“The design of the organization
must be compatible with its objectives. In order to adopt to change and be capable of
using the creative capacities of the individual, a system should be provided to the people
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that gives an opportunity to participate in the design of the jobs they are required to
perform” as Cherns (1979) puts it.
The objectives should be specific. But specification of tasks, allocation of tasks to
jobs or jobs to roles, specification of methods of obtaining them should be minimum.
The employees, given specific objectives, should be able to plan and design their own
activities. There should also be variance control i.e., the employees should be able to
recheck and inspect their own work. This enables them to learn from their own mistakes.
The role of supervisors is confined to boundary activities like ensuring resources
to the employer, coordinating with other departments and forecasting likely changes and
informing them to the employees etc.
The organizational design should ensure high quality of Work Life. The six
psychological requirements of working people, which were advocated by Emery and
Thorsord (1969), should be taken in to account while designing an organization. These
factors are.
(i) The need for variety of content of a job (not necessarily novelty).
(ii) The need for being able to learn on the job and to go on learning.
(iii)The need for some minimal area of decision – making that the individual can call
his own.
(iv) The need for some minimal degree of social support and recognition in the
work place.
(v) The need for individual to be able to relate what he does and what he produces to
his social life.
(vi) The need to feel that the job leads to some sort of desirable future.
No organization has independent social or independent technical system.
Organization is an interdependent social and technical system. Socio – technical system
requires social and technical system to be jointly optimized. It is from this notion of
socio- technical that the ‘ Quality of Work Life’ emerged.
1.14 ORIGIN OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE Legislation enacted in early 20th century to protect employees from job injury
and to eliminate hazardous working conditions, followed by the unionization movement
in the 1930 and 1940s were the initial steps. The 1950s and the 1960s saw the
development of different theories by psychologists proposing a “positive relationship
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between morale and productivity”, and the possibility that improved human relations
would lead to the enhancement of both. Attempts at reform to acquire equal employment
opportunity and job enrichment schemes also were introduced. Finally, in the 1970s the
idea of QWL was conceived which, according to Walton, is broader than these earlier
developments and is something that must include ‘the values that were at the heart of
these earlier reform movements’ and ‘human needs and aspirations’. The theories of
motivation and leadership provided a sound base for the concept of QWL.
If the lower order needs are satisfied, people seek satisfaction for the higher order
needs. QWL activity gained importance between 1969 and 1974, when a broad group of
researchers, scholars, union leaders and Government personnel developed interest in how
to improve the quality of an individual through on the job experience.
The term quality of work life was introduced by Louis Davis. The first
International QWL conference was held in Toronto in 1972. The international council for
quality of work life was established in 1972. From 1980 onwards QWL was increasingly
placed on employee centered productivity programs.
In India, QWL offers a value frame and the social technology of organizational
change leading to task effectiveness of micro entities through utilization and unfolding of
human potential. Some evidence of the rising tide interest in the quality of work life
issue is the fact that the second International Conference on quality of work life held in
Toronto in 1981 attracted 1,500 participations. The 200 unionist and 750 management
people combined, outnumbered the academicians, consultants and Government officials
in attendance.
Quality is no more a specialized word but has become a necessary and a must
work for the best survival. In this era, Quality of human inputs is the greatest asset to any
organization. Maintaining the quality of such human inputs raises from maintaining the
quality of work life perfectly. A perfect quality of work life would help the organization.
Rise in the quality of work life would help employees’ well being thereby the well being
of the whole organization. This is an attempt to capitalize the human assets of the
organization.
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1.15 QWL IN ABROAD AND IN INDIA Experiments are being conducted in industrially advanced countries to find
out the cause of general frustration among employees and resulting misunderstanding
between management and employees and the ultimate industrial sickness and unrest.
The famous Tavistock studies from which socio–technical system emerged
provided answers to most of these questions. In brief, this system advocated industrial
democracy, participative management, minimum involvement of management in the
tasks of employees and improved interpersonal relations to overcome the labour
problems. Managements, especially in industrially developed countries were quick to
react to these suggestions. As such they had taken up research and experimental studies
in their organizations. With good results showing up in no time, these organizations
started practicing the same.
The employees also, being more educated and more informed through unions,
grew more logical and demanded for increased involvement in the management.
Though the studies conducted in Calico Mills Limited. Ahmedabad by Ric found
basis for QWL along with Tavistock studies, India is slow in adopting socio-technical
system and improving QWL. The reasons are:
(i) The people in India generally are unadoptive to anything which is new. Initial
resistance is evident in adopting anything which is new, no matter how it
improves the ability of the organization. The management tends to stick on to the
traditional methods of getting work done from the employees. As such they did
not take any measures to improve QWL for a long time.
(ii) The employees of the workers in India are also not educated in general. They do
not have much logical power. There is also a tendency as said earlier to stick on
to the old rather than adopt something new. Some of the unions even felt the
measures for improving quality of work life by the management is nothing but
getting more work done by the worker with no major costs.
(iii) Improving Quality of Work Life also involves considerable amount to be spent
by the management. The employers were initially hesitant to spend. This has
given negative attitude to employees.
But the scene has changed. Now, both the management and workers are realizing
the importance of QWL. In fact, QWL has become a buzzword in the industries these
days and even laymen talk about it. Let us examine the practices of QWL, in some of the
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industrially advanced countries and proceed to discuss the present situation in India in
this regard.
1.15.1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Quality of work life is sometimes referred to as humanizing the working
life and emphasizing the human factor. USA can be said as pioneer in
developing thoughts, ideas and identifying various dimensions of QWL. Richard E.
Walton, an American professor played a major role in developing the concept of
Quality of Work Life. In fact, the eight factors that he proposed to measure QWL made
the task easy worldwide. Still these factors are mostly used in measuring QWL.
1.15.2 THE UNITED KINGDOM The very basis of QWL is in UK in the sense that the Tavistock Institute of
Human Relations, U.K., carried out research into what they called as socio-technical
system from which the concept of QWL emerged.
Shell UK Ltd. launched QWL programmes in its microwave department to
overcome impending labour problems like lowmorals, high cost and poor maintenance.
Restructuring of job tasks was done and more decision-making power was given to the
employees. This had provided for improvement of QWL which paid back in terms of 50
per cent decline in absenteeism, 75 per cent reduction of plant testing line and 70
per cent increase in output.
The sales level was increased by 18 per cent in ICI with the introduction of a
system of more autonomy and responsibility for sales representatives in areas like
reporting, complaint handling, refund and pricing.
Many other major organizations in UK have also started practicing QWL
improvement programmes for the general betterment of their Organization.
1.15.3 SWEDEN The decision-making power in Sweden mostly lies with management as they
have a right to ‘hire and fire’ and ‘to distribute and manage jobs’. But with the increase
in manpower problem, the managements are taking steps recently towards participative
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management. According to Ageavold, an academician, efforts were made in redesigning
work and making workers participation effective.
1.15.4 ITALY Italy is a scene of high attention paid towards QWL in early 1970s then a
decline in attention during later years of, as they perceived QWL as a ‘peripheral
problem’. And in recent years, the Government of Italy is again taking all steps to
increase QWL consciousness among organizations with setting up of organizations like
‘Kstitue de studi Lavora ‘ and ‘Istituto di Ricerca Intervento Svi Sistemi Organiativi’.
Organizations like ‘ Olivetti’ , ‘ Fiat’, ‘Proctor and Gamble ‘, IBM’, ‘Italidev’
and ‘Philips’ are practicing QWL improvement programmes.
1.15.5 WEST GERMANY West Germany like many other countries had become concerned about working
conditions and other labour problems due to decreased productivity and industrial unrest.
As a measure towards improving quality of work life that Federal Ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs introduced a research programme on humanization of work in
1974. The concentration was on problems of industrial workers, particularly those from
basic and metal processing industries. After 1976 the attention was on future orientation
of the programmes and the priority was on the contents of such programmes.
1.15.6 JAPAN Japan has always been first in introducing labour welfare programmes,
maintaining sound labour management relations and practicing any new concept which
ensures good industrial atmosphere. In case of QWL, Japan can be said as the torch-
bearer in introducing QWL—improvement programmes.
Their success in implementing QWL –improvement programmes can be mostly
attributed to the positive attitudes of both management and employees and also extensive
support from Government in all possible ways.
The Japanese have a two-way approach towards QWL improvement programmes
i.e., flexible employment of work force and employees general acceptance to
technological changes.
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Many other western and some of the Asian countries are also contributing
towards QWL-improvement programmes.
1.15.7 INDIA India is a country with various culture, value systems and varied interests. As
such it is difficult to assess the impact of a particular concept in the country as a whole.
For example, Lahiri and Srivastava (1976) had found out from their study that in one of
the industries extrinsic rewards are more important to the workers, whereas Dayal and
Sharma (1975) in another similar study carried out in another industry concluded that
intrinsic rewards are more important to the workers. In another study, Dayal says that
Indian labour prefer paternalistic approach of management while Srivastava
contradictorily says that workers would like to participate in decision-making given an
opportunity, based on one of his studies.
Thorsrud, a researcher in this context, says “Even within the same country, there
may be important cultural differences with regard to relative importance of motivating
factors, and, therefore, there is a need to find local solutions to QWL problems, rather
than applying uniform principles which cannot be adopted to local requirements”.
As such, in India, the order of preference in improving various aspects of QWL
should change from place to place, depending upon the preference of the workers and
their attitudes at that place. In fact, QWL improvement was not considered as important
factor in India until recently. Because there were more impending factors like resource
deficiency, environmental threats, serious financial problems and lack of consciousness
among employees in this regard can also be considered as one of the reasons for delayed
improvement of QWL. Though Trade Union was playing an important role, their part is
more of a destructive one. Their negative attitude towards management did not in any
way help the improvement of QWL. In fact, worker selected for bipartite committees for
decision-making are viewed by the Union as their rivals.
There are also differences among the views of managements regarding QWL.
Some have come to a stage, where they see human resource as a critical one in the
developmental process and thus striving to take all steps to improve it, whereas the other
organizations still did not realize the improvement strategies, confine themselves to
increasing pay scales and introducing some welfare measures. They ignore the other
aspect i.e., the higher order needs of the employees. This is so, especially in case of small
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and medium scale industries in backward states, whereas large-scale industries and
multi-nationals are fast realizing the need for improvement of QWL.
The Government’s intervention in this regard is minimum. The inclusion of the
concept of workers participation in Management did not in any way influence the
improvement of QWL. The ministry of Human Resource Development is taking active
steps to implement some of the Human Resource Development programmes to which
QWL correlates.
What is important in India at this stage is developing consciousness among all
section of industry i.e., workers, union and management. Once these parties view QWL
with a positive approach, the improvement programme can be effectively planned and
implemented. Because a positive relationship between improved QWL and increase in
worker’s satisfaction is almost already established.
1.16 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Service organizations play a vital role in our economy in terms of the creation of
employment potential and contribution to the national income. Commercial banks are an
important part of service organizations in countries like India. One of the most important
problems of a developing economy is that of capital formation. There is a good deal of
difference between hoarding and saving and the people in the countryside have to be
made to realize the difference. This can be easily done by banks. Banks play a very
useful and dynamic role in the economic life of every modern state. A well-developed
banking system is essential for the economic development of a country. In case of
developing countries like India, the commercial banks are considered to be the backbone
of the economy. Commercial banks are considered not merely as dealers in money but
also the leaders in economic development. They are not only the store houses of the
country’s wealth but also the reservoirs of resources necessary for economic
development.
Fourteen major banks were nationalized in 1969, and some more were
nationalized a few years later. Since then banks have come to play a major role in the
socio-economic life of the country. They are no longer merely instruments for credit-
mobilization and money-lending. They are no longer merely institutions for the benefits
of a few individuals. They are now powerful instruments of economic growth and social
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justice. The role of the banks has changed. The commercial banks have to face
challenges due to the liberalization policy.
The success of any organization and institution depends on the synergy created
by its human resources. An Organization’s prime resources consist of men, machine,
money and material. Of all the prime resources human resource is accepted as the most
vital and valuable because other resources depreciate in value with the passage of time
and use. The human resources appreciate in value through increased knowledge,
experience and efficiency. As such the banking industry needs motivated personnel with
entrepreneurial flair, financial wizard, technical brilliance, administrative efficiency etc.
Human resource consists of men and women. We can not isolate women’s position as
they constitute half of this human resource. The expansion of banks, opened new
avenues of employment for young men and women and today women in sufficient
numbers are working in banks along with men.
In fact sound QWL enables the bank management to have such human resources.
The study of Quality of work life of women employees in commercial banks assumes
greater significance in view of economic liberalization and need for qualitative human
resources. As such an attempt is made to conduct a study on QWL of women employees
in commercial banks.
1.17 SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study is exclusively made to understand, analyze and measure quality of
Work Life among the women bank employees of Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu. As
for banks are concerned all the three kinds of banks – Public sector, Private sector and
new generation private sectors are surveyed. The present study intends to survey only
women employees who confront challenging situations which demand skills of a higher
order for meeting them successfully. To measure quality of work life in these banks ten
components were considered. They are Nature of job, Compensation of employees, Safe
and healthy working conditions, Opportunity for growth and development, Social
integration in the work force, Constitutionalism in the banks, Occupational stress,
Participation in management, Grievance handling and Social relevance of work.
This study seeks to shed some light on how employees can manage the ever
increasing demands of work and personal life. Further this study also aims at finding out
the stress level of bank employees.
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1.18 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM It may be worthwhile to mention here that enormous changes have taken place in
the whole structural pattern of banking in the last three–four decades. Class banking
yielded place to mass banking.
The phenomenal growth of Banks has created massive employment opportunities
for the educated youth of our nation. The women job seekers find jobs in banks more
attractive and more suitable to their nature. Thus the humongous increase in job
opportunities in banks and the abundant availability of qualified women who get selected
in job tests paved the way for the large number of women occupying positions in all
cadres today not only in public sector and private sector banks but even in new
generation banks.
The banking industry has gone through a paradigm shift and one can clearly see
the stress level rising. Now the banking industries are under constant pressure of
changing their policies, technologies and working styles so as to face the increasing
competitive spirit of the global village. The implications of new policy reforms have
affected the social, economical and psychological domains of the bank employees and
their relations.
Now the bank employees have to work under tremendous pressure to compete
with the rivals. There is mismatch between nature of work and competency. Banking
hours is now increased in order to cope up the increased expectation of services of
customers. The bank employees are dealing with money and pertaining to more stress
and less quality to their working life in the bank. The responsibility of bank employees
has been increasing day to day due to policy changes. Now they are facing the challenges
of high work load when it is beyond their expertise and limit.
Apart from this women bank employees find it very difficult to manage male
subordinates and have a tough time in extracting work from them. They are not getting
adequate support from the superiors in their work accomplishment and dissemination of
functional duties.
In view of hectic work schedule and heavy workload, women executives find it
challenging to strive work life harmony. All the inconvenience and discomfort suffered
by the women employees in their professional journey as listed above have the potential
to influence the work efficiency of the subjects thereby striking the quality of work
performance.
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Both employers and employees now better appreciate the importance of the
Quality of work life in an organization. Quality of work life is important to banking
business organizational performance. Quality of work life is an important factor that
affects motivation at work and paves the way for poor work life quality. Quality of work
life has two objectives: to enhance the productivity and the satisfaction of employees.
Quality of work life is the quality of the content of relationship between employees and
their total working environment with human dimensions added to the provision of
services. Bank employees expect several monetary and non-monetary benefits from the
bank. Hence this study makes an attempt on the factors influencing on quality of work
life of bank employees in the light of current realities.
1.19 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Objectives of the study are framed as follows.
1. To measure the overall quality of work life of women bank employees in private
sector and public sector.
2. To study about the relationship between the various factors of QWL and stress.
3. To investigate the factors those affect the work life balance of women employees
in the banking sector.
4. To analyze the problems faced by women employees in the banking sector.
5. To study the impact of QWL and the attitude of the women employees in the
banking sector.
1.20 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 1. This study is limited to Coimbatore district only. Hence the inferences and
findings of the analysis may not symbolize the actual perception of the bank
employees regarding QWL in the context of entire employees.
2. An academic study of this nature has had limitation in view of restricted access to
research and the general confidential nature of working of banks. This limitation
however was reduced to a great extent through interview method.
3. There were problems in soliciting views of employees through structured
questionnaire as many employees tend to avoid extremes and take neutral stand
regarding many aspects. Reaching at a conclusion becomes difficult in such case.
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This limitation was however reduced through informal discussions with the
employees.
4. Apart from the constraint of time, money and effort, a major limitation was that
some of the employees were hesitant to answer the questions. The respondents
tend to be biased in answering the questionnaire.
5. It generally analyzes on the various factors relating to Quality of Work Life and
the constraints faced by them, as analyzing Quality of Work Life is highly
qualitative in nature and the factors are subject to change in the days to come.
6. Lastly it is difficult for an individual to draw up an accurate picture of quality of
work life of employees divided into various categories scattered geographically
all over the country and particularly in rural areas under different circumstances,
perceptions, attitudes etc. However every effort is made to gather and evaluate
the situation as accurately and objectively as possible.
1.21 CHAPTER SCHEME Chapter I
Chapter One deals with Introduction, Significance, Nature and Scope of the
Study, Statement of the Problem, Objectives of the Study and Limitations of the Study.
Chapter II
Chapter Two sketches the review of related literature relevant to the present
study.
Chapter III
Chapter Three presents conceptual frame work of the study, Concept of QWL,
Factors affecting QWL, Measurement of QWL and Barriers of QWL etc.
Chapter IV
Chapter Four presents the research design which includes research question, area
and period of the study, sampling design, questionnaire design, sources of data and
framework of analysis.
Chapter V
Chapter five contains analysis and interpretation of data based on responses of
the women bank employees of both public and private sector collected for the study.
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Chapter VI
Chapter six enlists summary of findings, suggestions and conclusion. Thus it
summarizes all the results obtained through statistical analysis to arrive at conclusions
and to offer suggestions.
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