A Capstone Presented in Partial Fulfillment
Master of Healthcare Administration
Literature Review
The literature review section of the capstone project explores the various concepts that relate to the topic of study. The literature review section will explore the concepts of quality of work life, productivity and work-life balance. These are concepts that emerged from the previous section. These concepts are interrelated in that one leads to the other. The review of literature will explore various studies to determine the interplay of these concepts. It will consider the perspectives of different scholars on how the quality of work life and work-life balance affect the productivity of workers. The review of literature will also look for and discuss dissenting view in an effort to build an informed context upon which the study will be based. The review of literature will also identify gaps in information. The identification of gaps in information is important for designing the present study and also for the recommendations for future research. Towards the end of the section, the review of literature will feature a summary of the main findings and gaps.
Quality of Work Life
The quality of work life is a concept that relates to the conditions and the practices within the organization and how they affect the life of the employees (Almalki, FitzGerald & Clark, 2012). The quality of work life is a concept that is existent when the organization employs management practices that are democratic, the employees get job enrichment, the organization offers working conditions that are safe, and the treatment of the employees is dignified (Srivastava & Kanpur, 2014). The quality of work life relates to how the employees perceive their experience at work. It entails the concepts of motivation, employee involvement, employee satisfaction, and their commitment to their responsibilities and the organization (Srivastava & Kanpur, 2014). Daubermann & Tonete (2012) argues that the quality of work life is an important factor in the workplace as it influences the productivity, commitment, and efficiency of the employees.
Productivity
Productivity at the workplace can take different meanings. The technical definition of productivity entails the efficiency in the use of the inputs to produce outputs. Productivity is measured by determining the ratio between the volumes of outputs versus the inputs (Krugman, 1994). Productivity is an important aspect of an organization because it brings about a competitive advantage which further results in the growth of the organization. Many organizations use the statistics on productivity to determine how the resources are being utilized in order to forecast the growth path of the organization. Productivity is related to the quality of work life in that employees are more productive when they perceive the quality of work life as high (Narehan, Hairunnisa, Norfadzillah & Freziamella, 2014).
Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is an important concept in human resources administration. Work-life balance entails the balancing of the work priorities and lifestyle priorities. Work priorities include the ambition for career development while the lifestyle priorities include leisure and vacation, family life, spiritual development, and the time for pursuing other personal interests. It is important that the management practices and the work environment allow their employees to fulfill the other spheres of their life. The concept of work-life balance relates to the productivity of employees. Employees who have a perfect work-life balance will most like experience a high quality of work life which Narehanet al., (2014) has shown to increase employee productivity (Hatam et al., 2014).
References
Almalki, M., FitzGerald, G. and Clark, M. (2012). Quality of work life among primary health care nurses in the Jazan region, Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study. Human Resources for Health. 10:30.
Hatam, N., Zarifi, M., Lotfi, M., Kavosi, Z. and Tavakoli, A. (2014). The relationship between quality of work life and human resource productivity in knowledge workers. Journal of Health Management & Informatics, 1(3): 59-65.
Krugman, P. (1994). Defining and measuring productivity. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/std/productivity-stats/40526851.pdf
Srivastava, S. and Kanpur, R. (2014). A Study On Quality Of Work Life: Key Elements & It’s Implications. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 16(3): 54-59.
