The Quality of Work Life, Case on Garment Industries, Dhaka

INTRODUCTION:
Man is a congenital worker. The entire Universe, from the tiniest ant to the biggest whale, from the lowliest creeper to the tallest tree is ceaselessly at work. Every member starting from the peon and the mechanic to the clerk and the man-ager is a worker too. The owner and the entrepreneur are also likely to feel offended if not described as workers.

The quality of work life (QWL) of workers shows us the value, the class, the worthiness of a work life of any worker. It can not be define by any particular definition. The quality on average defers from worker to worker for their age, type of job, culture, their ethics, etc.

In this study, we have tried to find out the quality of working life of the garment employees of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh there are nearly 3,760 (BGMEA brushier, 2003, Pg-14) small and medium scales privately owned garment factories are registered with Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), spread in cluster over the EPZ and urban areas of Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chittagong and Khulna. Most of them are export oriented. They make fabrics and readymade garments to export in the international market.
But the quality of the garment worker’s working life is not up to the standard that they deserve. So we have tried to find the actual circumstances of the garment worker’s work life by surveying them with some predetermined questionnaire.
Now first of all we have to know what “Quality of Work Life” is. So we describe it in the light of some literature review.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Every study has its significance in our social life. In our study we have some objectives to find out.
The objectives of this study were to find out:

∆ The overall Quality of Work life of the garment employees.

∆ The effect of the indicators of quality of work life of the employees.

∆ The effect of quality of work life of the employees in different factories of Dhaka city and

Δ To review the conceptual dimension of quality of working life.

By all these information we can find out the overall condition of the garment employees. And we can help them being more satisfied in their work place for better quality of work life.

HYPOTHESIS:

The hypothesis formed to cover the research area is that following:

The Quality of working life of garment industries of Bangladesh is low.

RATIONAL OF THE STUDY:

For the thorough understanding of the course content, the students have to be familiar with the course related objectives. Keeping this in mind we are assigned to prepare a formal report which increase our ability to meet with day to day asks of a business organization and improve computer operation skills which are now a days is very important.
In this assignment, we have selected six garment industries of Dhaka City. The reason we took these specific six industries is that, one of our group member’s relative owe two different industries. And from him we’ve been introduced to the neighbor industry of that garment. Thus it helped us a lot to gather the data from various industries. Another way we took the advantage of our member’s neighbors who are garment employees, they helped us a lot to do this assignment more easily. They really helped us to go to the industries and to take their valuable time. Though it was tough to gather all the data from 60 respondents. The reason our course instructor gave us this project to feel the real life problems of people. Other than that it helped us to meet different people of different places and of different classes.
We divide all the information on 7 parts. This schedules those parts according to their importance. The report we selected to schedule here consist of 7 parts and the information put in every part according to their merit and relation with that particular part. REPORT ORGANIZATION:

In the following pages the findings, statistical treatment of data and information about the overall garment industries are presented.

Firstly the introduction of the report.

Secondly the Overall garment information.

Third is the Methodology of the study.

Fourth is about some information of the respondents who participated in our study.

Fifth is the finding of the study or the result.

Sixth is about the problems we suffered through this study and

Finally the Suggestions about how the garment industries can improve their productivity by further satisfying their Employees and improving the quality of work life. ABOUT QUALITY OF WORKING LIFE:
Man is congenital worker. Nay, the entire universe, from the tiniest ant to the biggest whale, form the lowliest creeper to the tallest tree is ceaselessly at work. Every member in an organization starting from the peon and the mechanic to the clerk and the manager is worker too. The owner and the entrepreneur are also likely to feel offended if not described as workers. Despite whatever praise Bertrand Russell may have sung about idleness, even the idlest of men is a veritable worker.

So before describing about what is the meaning of the quality of working life, we need to know something about work. Now we will discuss about the following things: -
• What is work?
• Why work?
• How to work?

WHAT IS WORK?

According to Albert Low:
“Work can, therefore, be defined as the application of discretion within limits in order to produce a result.”

This definition is obviously cast in the Jaquesian mould. These authors are drawing a basic distinction between activity and work-work is result-oriented and discretionary, while activity is neither. In developing this distinction, Low makes the following observation.

“Works as opposed to mere activity requires discretion means the total human being in action.”2

It seems Low has introduced the phrase “the total human being” without much thought.
According to Gisberg:
“Work is a human activity directed to an object”

According to Raymond Firth:
“Work is a purposeful activity entailing expenditure of energy add some sacrifice of pleasure and leisure.”

Finally we can say that A job or work must be consequently designed that the worker -
1. experiences variety in the task to avoid boredom,
2. is given responsibilities to suit his abilities
3. has an opportunity to display his skills,
4. gets a chance to develop a sense of accomplishment and self-growth,
5. has an opportunity to control the work,
6. is able to participate in problem solving and decision making,
Has an opportunity to learn new skills and to grow and develop within the organization.

WHY WORK? As a human being man every people in the world need to work in life because of some reasons. Similarly from poor people to rich people work in the organization for some reasons. The reasons are :

• To earn a living
• To discharge family and social duties
• To actualize one’s talents and capabilities
• To prevent ennui or boredom
• To leave behind some enduring creation
• To earn a reputation and win recognition

So after all these reasons people work in the organization for their own shake and also for demand of the life.

HOW TO WORK?

After our brief attempt to crystallize the theory of work, centring on the “what” and “why” of it, we may now turn to the “how” of it. And it is here that we became concerned with the method of work.

Picking up the trial left by Marx’s concept of labor’s alienation from his output, numerous social and management scientist in the West have been concerned with the qualities of working life. The human relation school of the thirties, the socio-technical school of the fifties, the job enrichment/ enlargement school of the sixties, and kindred of the social and technical components of the task or work in order to harness a more total man at work. The central aim of all allied efforts has been the progressive humanization of work.
Thus Herrick and Maccoby have observed:

“A central goal of our society, therefore, should be the development of institution of work that stimulate the creative abilities of workers: activeness, cooperativeness, interest in learning and self-development-all of which will encourage positive attitudes of citizenship and spark the hope necessary to build a more just and human society”

Similarly, Walton has listed eight major conceptual categories in terms of human needs and aspirations for the improvement of working life.

“..... adequate and fair compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, immediate opportunity to use and develop human capabilities, opportunity for continued growth and security, social integration in the work organization, constitutionalism in the work organization, work and the total life space, and the social relevance of work life.” 5

The goal set by Herrick and Maccoby is echoed in detail by Walton-for his eight criteria are amongst the ones which could build the kind of humanized institutions the former are aiming at. Again, Dayer and Hoffenberg speak thus.

“...... It is now assumed that the quality of working life can be defined, in terms of the organization’s contributions to the economic and social-psychological needs of those individuals activity engaged in furthering its goal.”5

Thus, here too we notice the unmistakable emphasis on the needs of workers, an increasingly complex and rowing list, to encompass which enterprises and organizations have to change in furthering its goals.
The entire corpus of such literature from the West implicitly makes a fundamental assumption: ‘workers (in the universal, generic sense) know how to work, and it is only the organizations and their systems which stultify their work know-how.

There are some indicators that explain us the dissatisfaction of any employee.
They are –
• Labor turnover
• Absenteeism
• Loitering and idling
• Seeking a transfer
• Low moral
• Frustration
• Frequent machine down time
• Higher error rate than anticipated
• Frequent disappearance of tools etc.
• Undue interest in complaints about salary and opportunities for career development.
QUALITY OF WORKING LIFE: -

There is no well-accepted and well-developed definition of the term quality of work life. Different experts appear to have different perspectives on what makes for a high quality of working life.

According to Guest : -

“QWL 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.”

According to Richard -

“QWL refers to the favourableness or unfavourable ness of a job environmental for people.”

According to Davis and Newstrom : -

“QWL produce a more humanized work environment. It seeks to employ the higher skills of workers and to provide an environment that encourages them to improve their skills. That is, work should contribute to general social advancement.”

These definitions do not, however, unfold major criteria of QWL for the purpose of analysis and interpretation. In this regard, the concept of Walton appears to be more comprehensive in coverage. He proposed eight major conceptual categories relating to QWL.

According to Walton :-

QWL means---
• Adequate and fair compensation
• Safe and healthy working conditions
• Immediate opportunity to use and develop human capabilities.
• Opportunity for continued growth and security
• Social integration in the work organization
• Constitutionalism in the work organization
• Work and total life space
• The social relevance of work life

He, however, did not lay much emphasis on humanization and democratization aspects of QWL, while Herrick and Maccoby laid emphasis on principles of “humanization of work” : • Security
• Equity
• Individuation
• Democracy at work-place

Almost similar emphasis on “humanization and democratization of work” was given by council for the ‘Quality of working life’.

Variations in conceptual dimension QWL might be due to variation in socio-economic environment and level of development. The term “humanization” is mostly understood in the context of socio-cultural having unique social norms and value judgment in a given country. The perception pertaining QWL is, thus, more the function of need-hierarchies combined with need-fulfillment level of the working population in a given socio-economic formation.

QWL PROGRAMS: -

QWL programs are another way in which organizations recognize their responsibilities to develop jobs and working conditions that are excellent for people as well as for the economic health of the organization.

There are some elements in a typical QWL program. These are given by the following diagram :

In addition to improving the work system, QWL programs usually emphasize: -
• Development of employee skills
• The reduction of occupational stress
• The development of more co-operative labor management

Many difficulties developed in QWL program. Because of there was excessive division of labor. Workers became socially isolated from their co-workers because their highly specialized jobs weakened their community of interest in the whole product. De-skilled workers lost pride in there and became bored with their jobs. Higher order (social and growth) needs where left unsatisfied. The result was higher turnover and absenteeism declines in quality, and alienated workers. Conflicts often arose as workers sought to improve their conditions and organizations failed to respond appropriately. The real cause was that in many instance the job itself simply was not satisfying.

A factor contributing to the problem was that the workers themselves were changing. They became more educated, more affluent (partly because of the effectiveness of classical design), and more independent. They began reaching for high-order needs, something more merely earning their bread. Employers now had two reasons for redesigning jobs and organizations for a better QWL.

• Classical originally gave inadequate attention of human needs
• The needs and aspirations of workers themselves were changing.

So finally we can say that close attention to QWL provides a more humanized work environment.

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF WORK LIFE:
For the purpose of improving the quality of work life there are many systems. Human resource development (HRD) and job enrichment experiments are the well used systems.

HRD SYSTEM:
HRD system is based on three assumptions. They are ;
Firstly, when a new concept of people, based on understanding of their complex and shifting needs, is developed.
Secondly, when a new concept of power, based on collaboration, codetermination (participative management for example), is accepted by the management.
Thirdly, when a new concept of organizational values based on humanistic and democratic ideals, is assimilated into the organization’s functioning.

The main aim of HRD is to improve the quality of working life of the workers. HRD is usually conducted in large organizations. Some of the major setups where HRD is being conducted are industry and Government in the USA. Lippitt has developed a model which consists of the elements of a HRD system. They are: 15

1. The work itself which generates a higher degree of responsibility for the work force.
2. The individual who grows personally and professionally,
3. The work output of improved quality resulting from increased responsibilities;
4. Organizational functions and structures built in an open system (concern for both individual and organizational development).

Fig. 1: Elements of HRD system

Thus the components or elements of HRDs are the individual growth, the organizational development and the work output.
HRD as a system means a system composed of many sub-systems which are interdependent. The goal of HRDs is development of human resources. The quality of outputs of an organization depends on the type of human resources and the opportunities that are offered for their maximum development.

JOB ENRICHMENT EXPERIMENTS:

Job enrichment experiments have broadly been cantered around the philosophy of improving the quality of working life or the humanization of work.
Motivation theories as enunciated by Maslow have taken into account a hierarchy of needs of the individual.
The lower order needs are physical and the higher order needs are intellectual.
Fig: 2. Maslow 's Hierarchy of needs
The progression is from one level to another, implying that a lower order need has to be satisfied first before the individual can think of the one at the higher level. The needs in order of importance are-
• Psychological needs
• Safety needs
• Social needs
• Esteem needs
• Self-actualization needs.

In this theory, every employee wants to achieve their needs in any possible way. So to keep the quality of working life better every factory should give their workers the opportunity to fulfill their preferred needs.

In this way, there are many more theories of motivation that help the workers to improve their quality of working life in an organization.

INDICATORS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE OF GARMENT WORKERS:

1. ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The economic benefits lie on the benefits given by the industry to its employees those includes the economical aspects of the industry. Employees earn their wages, overtimes, saving accounts and other economical matters in an industry. The quality of work life basically depends on this aspect of an employee. If they are satisfied with their economical benefits then they can say they are having good quality of wok life. 2. PHYSICAL WORKING CONDITIONS: The physical working condition refers to the overall working condition of the factory. The conditions of the machines, the environment of the factory, the working place of the factory, the overall climate of the factory refers to the physical condition of the factory. 3. MENTAL STATE: The actual mental condition of the employee in the factory refers to this category. What an employee feel for his/her job in the factory is a very important indicator of the quality of work life of the employees. Whether they want to quit his job, or feel so good to work in the factory, or enjoy his idleness or like to be in the factory etc, implies the mental state of an employee. 4. CAREER ORIENTATION: The companies have to give a career opportunity to all its employees. There should be some rules and regulations to make the employees more careers oriented by giving them appropriate motivations. There should be some fair means to give promotions to the employees and help the employees to chose his/her place of working in the factory. 5. ADVANCEMENT ON MERIT: This indicates the opportunity to prove himself as a good employee. And also gives the chance to show his merits by giving them awards or any other positive behaviors. But in our country most of the employers do not care about the feelings of the employees. They do not want to cheer up the employees by any motivational acts. Thus the employees get less interested to their work.

6. EFFECTS ON PERSONAL LIFE: It reflects the impact of work life in some ways effect the personal life of an employee. If his/her co workers have good relationship with him/ her and his/ her society gives them the appropriate respect for their job then they feel better for their jobs and it advances the quality of work life. But only a few factories give them the feelings. Most of our society people do not accept the garments jobs as a good job to do, mainly for women it’s more difficult to have the support of their society for their garments job. In the other hand, the co workers not always are being supportive for them.

7. UNION-MANAGEMENT RELATION: The relationship between the union and the management is a very important indicator of quality of work life of an employee. If the relationship is good in the union then the employees feels confident to themselves. Otherwise, they feel neglected being alone in the factory because there would be no discussion between the management and employee. The union makes the employees more confident and bold. The management should also help the unions and discuss the problems of the factory related to them.

8. SELF RESPECT: Self-respect means the feelings of a excellent position within the factory of a worker, how his co workers behaving or respecting him for his job, or the respect of the society for his position in the workplace. This gives an employee a feeling of self-respect. They feel to achieve a better position for his self-respect. So it is a very important indicator of quality of work life of a garment worker.

9. SUPERVISORY RELATIONSHIP: In any garment factory, the supervisors take a great place in the work life of a garment employee. They emphasis the employee to do better job and work in a discipline in the work place. Every supervisor should have good relation with his employees. He should make them understand what to do or not, how to keep better relationship with themselves, how to help the management, etc. Moreover, they should help employee in choosing their jobs, their preferable time and other matters related to the employees satisfaction.

10. INTRA-GROUP RELATION: Intra group relation means the relationship lies among the employees of the factory. The relationship should be very good among them, they should help each other while working, they should emphasis each other for better work quality, they should make their co workers ease in working and try to behave in a way that could benefit their co workers. 11. APATHY: Apathy means laziness, lack of interest in working, boredom, droopiness, etc. it indicates the interest toward an employees work. It is seen that, most of the garment employees do not feel to do their job for many reasons. They want better workplace, some people need more salary, some feels bore of the job he is doing etc. problems.

12. CONFIDENCE IN MANAGEMENT: The confidence in management of a factory is very important indicator of the quality of work life of an employee. Every employee should have faith on the management that the management will help the employees when they need. Management should take care of their needs and wants, and also to make the workplace appropriate for working. If any problem arises management should obviously give a discussion in the favor of the employee’s.

13. MEANINGFUL DEVELOPMENT: Meaningful development indicates the special talent and skills the employee have must be used in the work place in his job, and also the trainings and other special classes should be taken to have better expertise. The employees should get the chance to employ their talents in their job.

14. CONTROL, INFLUENCE, PARTICIPATION: Control means the minimum control in the employees own job in case where management allows. Like, the preference of employee in choosing his job type, choosing him time of working or have emphasis on the work of the employee. Influence means the effect of the employee’s in the problems of the factory. How they have their influence in the major problems of the factory. Also the decision of the employees in recruiting or disposing any employee and many more employee related decisions of the management. The participation indicates the participation of the employee in any problem solving of the factory.

15. EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT:
Employee commitment refers to the devotedness, loyalty and dutifulness toward the work of the employee. When workers feel for his or her work, to do it in the best way, then the quality of working of the employees increase.

16. GENERAL LIFE SATISFACTION: It indicates the personal life satisfaction of the employee. Whether they are happy with the economic conditions, their wealth, their food, dress and the educational conditions of the other family members or not.
17. ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE: The organizational climate means the internal condition of the industry. How they help employee to make understand the tasks of the employees, the objectives of the industry, the overall working condition of the employees etc.

FAIRLON GARMENTS LTD.
M. A. Khan Plaza, 3-6th floor
Main road no: 1.

Fairlon Garments Ltd. is established in July, 1997. It has 562 numbers of employees. Here most of the employees are women. Fairlon Garments started its business with the capital amount of Taka 10,000,000. It is a small industry with the production capacity of 12,000 pieces per day.
They mainly export their products in the places of Italy, UK and USA.
Mostly they produce shirts for men.
They use 40 machines for doing their job, which are mostly automatic. They need less manpower to produce large amount of readymade garment for using these automatic machines.
The workers of the industry work 8 hours a day and 6 days in a week. If they have much stress of work, then they double their working hour, and works in shifts.
The categories of workers are helper, operator, iron man, input man, supervisor, in charge and production manager. And they start their salary from taka 930 – 3500 without the overtime.

JEBI GARMENT LTD.
260/B, 3rd Floor Shamoli, Behind Shamoli Cinema Hall
Dhaka 1208

Jebi Garment Ltd. is established in 1999 with the capital of Taka 80,00,000. It has employees of nearly 110, where most of the employees are women. It is a small industry with the production capacity of 10,000 pieces per day. They largely produce jeans pants for exporting in USA and Korea. It is 100% export oriented factory.
Jebi Garment Ltd. uses nearly 40 machines. They uses over lock machine, cylinder bed, rip cutter and many other kind of machinery, which are Automatic. So that they need less manpower but can produce largely.
The workers of the industry works for 6 days per week and works in shift of 8 hours a day.

NOWABS GARMENT LTD.
45/1, Ring Road,
Shamoli, Dhaka

Nowabs Garment Ltd. is established in 1997 with the capital of Taka 10, 00,000. It has employees of nearly 135, where most of the employees are women. It is a small industry with the production capacity of 8,000 pieces per day. They largely produce t-shirts for exporting. It is 100% export oriented factory.
Nowabs Garment Ltd. uses machines exported from Hong Kong, which are Automatic. So that they need less manpower but can produce largely.
The workers of the industry works for 6 days per week and works in shift of 9 hours a day.

HOUSE OF SUNSHINE KNITWEAR LTD.
260/B, 2nd Floor, Tejgaon Industrial Area
Dhaka-1208

House of Sunshine Knitwear Ltd. is a large readymade garment industry, established in 1980 with the capital amount of Tk. 120,000,000. It has been running its business successfully worldwide. It is a 100% export oriented industry. Sunshine Knitwear mainly exports its products in Europe. And its products are T-shirts, trousers, blouses and shirts for both men and women. They largely use their own made raw materials for their industry. They also have a knitting factory in Savar where they produce fabrics for their garments.
House of Sunshine Knitwear Ltd. is a huge industry with nearly 1500 workers. They have production capacity of 700,000 pieces per month. They mainly use Japanese auto sewing machineries, so that they can produce quality products at a large quantity within a short time. They have 26 working days per month, and besides 8 hours working hours they allow for more 2 hours overtime.
Most of the workers of the company have permanent job, but some of them are recruited as temporary workers when they have to produce large amount of RMG. Those workers are dismissed after the production of that amount.

MONA GARMENTS LTD.
160/B, 1st Floor
Tajmahal road, Shamoli
Dhaka 1215

Mona Garments Limited is a house of readymade garments. It is established in 1992 with the capital of Taka 200,000,000. They have paid up capital of Taka 2000,000. Apparel Profile Ltd has employees above 350.
This garment industry produces only sweaters for exporting in the international market. They export their products mainly in Europe and some places of USA. It is 100% export oriented industry, and it imports its fabrics from Korea, Japan, China and USA. They have production capacity of 45,000 pieces sweaters per month. And they try to maintain their quality of products by experienced supervisors and workers. They recruit new workers when they have more works, and they dismiss them if they have less works. They work seasonally. In the season they work much and some times they have no work, as they produce only sweaters.
Mona Garments Ltd. uses machineries from Hong Kong, which are manual. As most of its employees are women, so they work for 8 hours per day, and if they have much stress of work then they allow for overtimes for more 4-5 hours. Their working days also depend on the load of work. Most of the time they work 26 days a month.

SHAMOLI KNITWEAR LTD.
260/B, 1st Floor Shamoli, Behind Shamoli Cinema Hall
Dhaka 1208

Shamoli Knitwear Ltd. is established in 1998. It has 125 numbers of employees. Here most of the employees are women. Shamoli Knitwear started its business with the capital amount of Taka 10,000,000. It is a small industry with the production capacity of 9,000 pieces per day.
They mainly export their products in the places of Italy, UK and USA.
Mostly they produce T-shirts for men.
They use exported machines for doing their job, which are mostly automatic. They need less manpower to produce large amount of readymade garment for using these automatic machines.
The workers of the industry work 8 hours a day and 26 days in a month. If they have much stress of work, then they double their working hour, and works in shifts.

METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION:

The Quality of work life can be measured in several ways by several kinds of measurement scales. In our study we have used a pre-determined questionnaire to evaluate the level of quality of working life of a garment employee. In our questionnaire there are 85 questions to answer and have seven levels of answers.

SAMPLES:

The study was conducted on a sample of 60 garment employees drawn from 6 different garment industries of Dhaka city. The garments included in the samples are -

Name of the Garments Number of the Employees

Shamoli Knitwear Ltd 10
Nowabs Garment Ltd. 8
Jebi Garments Ltd. 8
Mona Garment Ltd. 8
Fairlon Garment Ltd. 17
House of Sunshine Knitwear Ltd. 9 The employees have been taken randomly from the factories. All kind of employees are included in these samples. They have several names of the posts of the employees on an industry. They are named by their working category. The employees we’ve taken are, iron man, operator, Line Chief, Cutting in charge, Sewing operator, Iron Supervisor, Knitting Supervisor, etc. In all these designations, most of them are woman, and the average age of the employee is above 28, and most of them are educated till class eight. COLLECTION OF DATA:

Our study was field study. We collected our data from both the primary and secondary sources.

PRIMARY SOURCE:
The data were gathered through questionnaire-interview technique. The subject was contacted personally and data were collected from the subject after making him convinced about the objectives and importance of the study. The subject was also assured about the confidentiality of the data obtained from them. Each page of questionnaire of job satisfaction took about 35-45 minutes to complete. We basically used two kinds of questionnaire. One for the information of the industry we took and another for the personal information of the employees.
They told many things truly about the garments and their management and that helped us to make the study more practical. And the managers who answered the information of the industry also didn’t answer truly. They may be afraid of the true answer. They were really confused about their present capital and total production of the year. Though we managed to answer them the true thing, assuring them that we would not hamper their work.

SECONDARY SOURCES:
We also used some secondary sources of data. We went to the managers and managing directors of the industries we’ve collected data from them, to know the present condition of their industry.
We went to Central library, British Council, IBA Library and Business Faculty Seminar to collect the literatures and journals about Quality of work life of the garment employees to know more about the history of it. PROBLEMS OF THE STUDY:

While doing the research, we found several problems. The problems are stated below: As we were inexperienced, so we had problems locating the places of our industries. And after going there, we couldn’t talk to the Managing Directors of the Companies in a single visit for their shortage of time. So it cost us very much.

We did our research with the garment employees who were very little literate. And they were very much afraid with the questionnaire. They answered the questions but most of them were not so much truthful to the paper. It was harmful for us.

The supervisors were illiterate, so most of them were not able to understand all the questions of our questionnaire. We had to make them clear all the 85 questions, which took most of our time.

Several mid-term exams and unexpected holydays stopped our work for some times and delayed us to serve the report in time.

The working condition of employees is not pleasing. Because, the environment of the Factory is not favorable for the employees.

The system of their working is too old as their works are not systematic. So, this makes them lazy in their work. SUGGESTIONS:

From the overall job satisfaction level of the garment industries we feel that the garment industries should take some initiatives to satisfy their employees more to increase their productivity. In the following Paragraphs we are describing the ways an industry should take to improve their employee’s job satisfaction.

The size of the organization should be kept limited to a certain level so that quality of work life becomes favorable for work. The employees should be evaluated properly in their work place, that they could get their desired job.

The industries should think of the employees’ age and talent & skills to give them the responsibility of work, that, he should not be fed up with his job. He should not be overloaded, which makes him bore towards his job.

In the matter of salary the industry should evaluate the employees’ job properly and have to know employees desired salary, to provide them their preferred salary and make them work better for the industry. But the industry should take care of the salary budget also, so it should not go beyond his budget.

The machineries and other equipments should be tested once in a year or after every six months to keep a safe physical working condition of the factory.

The relationship among the employee and management should be pleasant. Management should take care of that.

The employees also should think the factory as their own factory and work in it as they are the part of it. This mentality helps them to cheer up themselves and work better, feel better and increase the status of quality of work life.

The environment of the industry always affects the quality of work life of the employees so that management should take possible steps to make the environment full of life and work in a friendly way.

The employees should have faith on their management. They should believe that management will do the things that are beneficial to the employees. On the other hand the management should also help the employees in believing in them.

In this way the companies should be concerned of all these things stated here. Because if the employees are fully satisfied then they will work more and the quality of their working will be better than before. It will boost the profit and productivity of the industry, which is the mission of any industry.
So the industries should try to follow the suggestions given here. And we wish they could achieve better performance in the financial system of today’s Bangladesh. As we have studied on small number of samples, it could be more realistic if we could do it with more samples. So further research on job satisfaction of the garment employees will be better.

CONCLUSION

Work is a human activity directed to an object. As a human being man every people in the world need to work in life to earn a living, to discharge family and social duties, to actualize one’s talents and capabilities, to prevent ennui or boredom to leave behind some enduring creation and to earn a reputation and win recognition.
QWL 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. It produces a more humanized work environment. It seeks to employ the higher skills of workers and to provide an environment that encourages them to improve their skills. That is, work should contribute to general social advancement.
From the study we come to the conclusion that the quality of work life of the workers of the garments industries in Dhaka City are not satisfied as it would be. The working condition of employees is not pleasing as it would be and the environment of the Factory is not favorable for the workers. Also the system of their working is too old as their works are not systematic. Even most of the workers are illiterate and their supervisors are not giving much benefit to them. So the government as well as the owner of the garments industries much take necessary measures to improve the quality of the workers. The size of the organization should be kept limited to a certain level so that quality of work life becomes favorable for work and all the indicators of the quality of the work life need to be in consideration that the workers are became interested to improve their working life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. BGMEA brushier, 2003, Page- 14.
2. S.K Chakraborty’s “Managerial effectiveness and Quality of work life”, forwarded by Alan Roland. Tata Mc Graw- Hill Publishing Co. Ltd, New Delhi, 1987. pg-121.
3. Worker Development on Arun Monappa’s Industrial Relation, Tata Mc Graw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd. New Delhi, 2004.
4. Shyam Sundar Karmakar’s “The Quality of Working Life In the Factories of Bangladesh”, Dhaka University Journal of Business Studies. Vol. 13(1), pg: 69-86.
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7. Davis, K.; Newstrom, J. W., Human Behavior at Work: Organizational Behavior, McGraw- Hill, New York, 1985, pg: 332-333.
8. Walton, R E , “Criteria for Quality of working life”, in Davis, L E; Chems, A B (eds), The Quality of Working life, op, cit, pp; 91-97.
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10. Davis, K.; Newstrom, J. W., Human Behavior at Work: Organizational Behavior, McGraw- Hill, New Delhi, 2002, pg-244.
11. Lippitt, G. L. “Quality of work life: Organizational renewal in Action”. Training Development Journal, 32(7), July, 1987, pp. 4-11.

Bibliography: 1. BGMEA brushier, 2003, Page- 14. 2. S.K Chakraborty’s “Managerial effectiveness and Quality of work life”, forwarded by Alan Roland. Tata Mc Graw- Hill Publishing Co. Ltd, New Delhi, 1987. pg-121. 3. Worker Development on Arun Monappa’s Industrial Relation, Tata Mc Graw Hill Publishing Co. Ltd. New Delhi, 2004. 4. Shyam Sundar Karmakar’s “The Quality of Working Life In the Factories of Bangladesh”, Dhaka University Journal of Business Studies 7. Davis, K.; Newstrom, J. W., Human Behavior at Work: Organizational Behavior, McGraw- Hill, New York, 1985, pg: 332-333. 11. Lippitt, G. L. “Quality of work life: Organizational renewal in Action”. Training Development Journal, 32(7), July, 1987, pp. 4-11.