Workplace empowerment, quality of work life and employee commitment: a study on Indian healthcare sector
| Published date | 08 May 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JABS-03-2016-0045 |
| Pages | 117-136 |
| Date | 08 May 2018 |
| Author | Tanaya Nayak,Chandan Kumar Sahoo,Pravat Kumar Mohanty |
| Subject Matter | Strategy,International business |
Workplace empowerment, quality of work
life and employee commitment: a study on
Indian healthcare sector
Tanaya Nayak, Chandan Kumar Sahoo and Pravat Kumar Mohanty
Abstract
Purpose –The purposeof the paper is to explore the relationship between workplaceempowerment and
employee commitment with quality of work life (QWL) as a mediator in the case of private healthcare
employeesin India.
Design/methodology/approach –The study used a structured questionnaire to collect primary data
from 279 employeesof private healthcare units in India. AMOS 20 was used to analysethe data.
Findings –Results of data analysisconfirm that the proposed hypotheses of the study were significant.
Structuralequation modelling revealed a best-fit model that demonstratedQWL to be a significant partial
mediatorbetween workplace empowerment and employeecommitment.
Practical implications –This work provides a pragmatic view about the action mechanism through
which workplace empowerment can aid in generating commitment among healthcare employees. The
paper also offersinsights for healthcare managers, administratorsand practitioners.
Originality/value –The research is an attemptto integrate the employees as the core long-term assets
of the healthcare system. The study establishes the triadic and symbiotic alliance of workplace
empowerment,QWL and employee commitment in the novel contextof healthcare.
Keywords Quality of work life, Employee commitment, Healthcare employees,
Workplace empowerment
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The upsurge of globalisation has propelled the healthcare sector into an epoch of flux. The
healthcare delivery in India has been affected by changes in demographics, disease
patterns, scarcity of healthcare employees, consumer expectations, technological
advancement and rising healthcare costs. These changing priorities in healthcare can only
be pursued through innovation in systems and strategies, supported by a competent and
dedicated workforce. Employees are one of the primary inputs of the healthcare system,
who are responsible for the delivery of services. The performance of the healthcare system
is largely dependent on the knowledge, skill and motivation of the employees. Thus,
healthcare organisations are spending substantial effort and resources for recruitment,
selection and retention of skilled, diligent, proactive and committed employees (Macey
et al.,2009).
Work life epitomises a significant domain, which borders the job content and job context of
the healthcare employees. Quality of work life (QWL) is the perception derived from the
rudiments of workplaces that are physically and psychologically desirable and which
facilitates the employees to satisfy essential personal needs through their work experiences
while achieving organisationalobjectives (Brooks and Anderson, 2005). The employees can
Tanaya Nayak and
Chandan Kumar Sahoo are
both based at the School of
Management, National
Institute of Technology
Rourkela, Rourkela, India.
Pravat Kumar Mohanty is
based at the Department of
Business Administration,
Utkal University,
Bhubaneswar, India.
Received 19 March 2016
Revised 15 June 2016
8 August 2016
Accepted 17 August 2016
DOI 10.1108/JABS-03-2016-0045 VOL. 12 NO. 2 2018, pp. 117-136, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1558-7894 jJOURNAL OF ASIA BUSINESS STUDIES jPAGE 117
ascribe pleasure from their work lives only when the fundamental expectations about their
workplace and job are suitably fulfilled. Therefore, organisations need to focus on the work
aspect of the employees to stimulate positive attitude and behaviour through self-worth,
self-esteem and positive identity at the workplace. Further, their work role should
encompass the concepts of empowerment, participative management and self-leadership
(Dewettinck and van Ameijde, 2011). The empowered work environment can facilitate the
employees to exercise their fullpotential for achieving the organisational outcomes.
The context of India
India has embarked upon a journey of healthcare system transformation with a vision to
provide access to a minimum set of health services to all the citizens. The public sector is
dominant in the healthcare scenarioof the country. However, the public sector is juxtaposed
against the vast expanding privatehealthcare sector, which plays a pivotal role in improving
access and quality of healthcare services. India has made mixed progress in achievingthe
healthcare outcomes as compared to its peer nations. Further, the health outcome of the
country is being affected by shortage and unequal distribution of qualified healthcare
employees. The uneven distribution of healthcare employees, especially nurses, auxiliary
nurses and midwives, paramedics and technicians has left a significant gap within the
existing healthcare infrastructure and services of the country. The health policy of the
country proactively promotes theprivate sector to reduce the service gaps of public sector.
This has led to proliferation of unregulated private health providers. The healthcare
employees have an indispensable role to play in the delivery of care in these units. These
healthcare units often transfer the responsibility of routine tasks to nurses and paramedics,
while expert doctors only handle complicated procedures. These employees comprise of
more than half of the workforce in the privatehealthcare units.
The healthcare employees are the frontlines of the system who work diligently to promote
good health, provide care, offer comfort and help in the recovery of the patients. Whilethey
strive to provide care services to the patients, their health and well-being is often ignored.
They often deal with physical and psychological pressure because of the challenging and
crucial tasks in their job. The private health care units exploit the absence of regulations to
recruit untrained, unqualified and unorganised workforce. The healthcare employees in
private health care units are devoid of standardised working conditions. Specifically, these
employees are plagued with heavy workload, workplace hazards, occupational stress,
negligible career growth and low compensation, which pose a threat to their QWL. This has
led to declining morale, commitment and performance of healthcare employees. The
employee’s prerogative of better QWL is an important HR strategy for Indian healthcare
organisations who are interested to improve their commitment and retention. Moreover,
QWL has become crucial not only because of the increasing demands of the current
business environment but also due to the evolving family structure. This concern has
induced significant research in developed countries in pursuit of solutions for promoting
healthcare employees’ well-being and QWL (Lowe, 2004). However, organisational efforts
towards better QWL are less prevalent in the healthcare sector of developing countries,
such as India and there is lack of evidences for designing relevant intervention programmes
for the employees. Hence, this research targets private healthcare units in Odisha, an
Indian state to draw a holistic picture about the latent mechanisms of QWL among
healthcare employees. Thecritical question that guided this research is:
RQ1. What are the linkages among workplace empowerment, QWL and employee
commitmentin Indianprivate healthcare units?
QWL is being accepted as the foremost criterion for attracting and retaining the human
resources required for quality and sustainability of the healthcare system. QWL has been
the focus of research efforts for several decades and it has been associated with several
antecedents and outcomes. Workplace empowerment and QWL has been significantly
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