Measuring the Impacts of Quality of Work Life Indicators on the Marketing Representatives of Pharmaceutical Industries

Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 20(1): 46-53, 2017 Measuring the Impacts of Quality of Work Life Indicators on the Marketing Representatives of Pharmaceutical Industries Kazi Nazmul Huda Department of Business Administration, Southern University Bangladesh, 739/A, Mehedibag Road, Chittagong 4000, Bangladesh Received: November 30, 2016; Accepted: December 20, 2016; Published (Web): March 19, 2017 Abstract In modern Human Resource Management (HRM) practice, the concept of ‘Quality of Work Life’ (QWL) is relatively a new strategy for employee retention. The idea of QWL is developed upon the increasing importance of reducing employee turnover rate in a highly competitive market. Better QWL practice in sales and marketing oriented companies is inevitable to ensure employee productivity and therefore needs to be studied in detail. The core objective of the study was to measure the impact of QWL variables on the lives of Marketing Representatives (MR) of pharmaceutical companies. First, the variables influencing QWL are elaborated with the help of extensive literature review. Then this study tried to identify the current scenario of QWL Practices in ten renowned pharmaceutical companies through a survey of 112 MRs. This was supplemented with in-depth interviews of HR executives of three different companies. The study discovered job stress as a high priority indicator of QWL. The research also revealed organizational atmosphere based on fairness, experience sharing culture, employee suggestion scheme, opportunity to use skill and satisfactory reward system as influential determinants of QWL. This paper recommends the installation of QWL practices in other pharmaceutical companies with few short and long-term suggestions. There is room for conceptualizing and actualizing standard QWL practice in the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies. An initiative like this one will encourage discussion and debates in applying much needed QWL practices in other sectors. Key words: Human Resource Management, Quality of Work Life, Marketing Representatives, Pharmaceutical Company. Prologue Pharmaceutical industry is the second largest export-oriented earning sector and the top most technologically advanced manufacturing sector of Bangladesh. Around 278 licensed pharmaceutical companies of different sizes are the heart of this sector that proudly offers 27287 registered Allopathic drug to meet 98% of the domestic demand (DGDA, 2015). The size of the industry is 117 billion BDT with the annual growth potential of 11.37% (Hossain & Shoaib, 2014). By 2020, the industry may reach the mark of total sales of 1.4 trillion USD. More than 30 industries export products to about 130 countries around the globe, which are mostly in Germany, USA, France, Italy, UK, Canada, Netherlands, and Denmark (Market Pulse, 2016). It also contributes to the largest recruitment in sales and marketing positions with an employment of approximately 115,000 workers. According to Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Society (BPS), the truth behind the success of the sector is its skilled, knowledgeable, and dedicated professionals. Collective efforts of its workers, staffs, and owners are the key forces behind the extraordinary achievements of this industry. The industry is highly human resource based, as it requires highly skilled people to develop, manufacture and sale of its products. Marketing Representatives (MR) are the frontline employees who are responsible for prospecting the sales of such extended product line. They are the key force for marketing and sales functions of this sector (Habib and Alam, 2011). It can be argued that, target oriented professions can be stressful as they need to put their Correspondence to: Kazi Nazmul Huda, E-mail: Huda / Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Journal 20(1): 46-53, 2017 47 Review of literature work life (Rice et al., 1985). According to Sirgy et al., (2001) employee perceives QWL as mostly ensured by physical facilities of workplace, fair compensation, collaborative relationship among them, participation in decision-making, and self-esteem. Career development opportunity at work is also an effective QWL issue suggested by many researchers like Li and Yeo (2011). Yeo and Li (2011) suggested few important determinants of QWL i.e. organizational culture with good governance, training and learning opportunity, mentorship of the superiors, feedback based appraisal, collaborative environment, job identity, etc. For the sustainability of an organization, management must address the QWL by ensuring employees standard of living, environment, workplace health and safety, wellbeing during working hours, potentials for career advancement, and mostly the work/life balance issues (Ballou and Godwin, 2007). Bragard et al., (2012) conducted a research on cancer doctors of Belgium and found that QWL was ensured through reduction of working hours, increasing organizational support, and change in leadership style. Workers’ wellbeing through QWL interventions is also helpful for the organizational performances. Padala and Suryanarayana (2010) offered two dimensions of QWL. They classified physical working conditions, employees' welfare, employee assistance, job factors, and financial factors under ‘Classical Dimension’ and collective bargaining, industrial safety and health, grievance management, quality circles, work-life balance, workers' participation in management under ‘Contemporary Dimension’. Yadav and Khanna (2014) authored an extensive literature review based article and classified job satisfaction, compensation, occupational safety & health and career opportunity as extremely used variables of QWL by the researchers. Quality of Work Life (QWL) is an important issue in the “Fortune 500 Companies” and gaining attention among the MNCs all around the globe. It is becoming a revolutionary corporate philosophy to improve the work life in a high performing culture and in a rapidly changing environment. QWL strategies raise organizational image that leads to better talent acquisition and retention (Ballou and Godwin, 2007). Many researches on QWL have found a significant relationship between job satisfactions with employees Existing studies like Bragard et al., 2012; Vagharseyyedin et al., 2011; Saklani, 2010; Johnsrud, 2006; Gnanayudam and Dharmasiri, 2007; Tabassum et al.,2011; Bolhari et al., 2011; Kiriago and Bwisa, 2013; Nair, 2013, Sadri and Goveas, 2013 and Mohammadi and Shahrabi, 2013 have succeeded to discover the condition of QWL of different professionals like Doctors, Iranian Nurses, non management working class of India, University Faculties, Apparel Industry Workers, Female Bankers, utmost effort to meet the sales target. To remain engaged and productive in this highly competitive environment, MRs need special care. Quality of work life is a popular human resource management strategy to improve the life of highly engaged employees. Quality of work life is a commitment of an organizati (...truncated)