Demographic Factors, Organisational Climate and Culture as Determinants of Employees’ Quality of Work- Life in Organisations in Ogun and Lagos States, Nigeria

Abstract

Human resources are the most important and valued factor-input upon which every organisation achieves its desired goals and objectives; hence every organisation should ensure that employees‟ work values and expectations, known as Quality of Work-life (QWL) are always met and improved. However, QWL of an average Nigerian worker has been described as poor and low with negative consequences on their morale, commitment, efficiency and productivity; besides it has been attributed to employees‟ demographic factors and the organisational climate and culture in which they worked. Previous studies have concentrated more on the relative influence of these factors without considering their combined effects on QWL. This study, therefore, examined the extent to which demographic factors (age at work, sex, marital status, length of service, highest educational attainment and income), organisational climate (physical working environment, work involvement, organisational communication, organisational structure and worker-friendly policies) and culture (recognition of excellence/reward system, value for employees, allowance for creativity/innovation, teamwork and adaptation to change) predicted QWL in selected organisations in Ogun and Lagos states, Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research design. The multistage sampling procedure was adopted to select 99 management staff, 563 supervisors and 700 junior employees from 12 selected organisations in Ogun and Lagos States (three each from extractive, manufacturing, distributive, and services industries). Three scales were used: Organisational Climate Scale (r=0.89), Organisational Culture Scale (r=0.76) and QWL Scale (r=0.68). Two research questions were answered and four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analyses. Demographic factors, organisational climate and culture significantly influenced QWL (F(16,1257) =.277.685); jointly accounting for 78% in the total variance of QWL. Their relative contributions were: organisational culture (β=.649); organisational climate (β=.237) and demographic factors (β=.089). Significant positive relationships existed among organisational climate variables and QWL as follows:worker-friendly policies (r=.678), organisational structure (r=.650), work involvement(r=.629), organsational communication (r=.567) and physical working environment (r=.501). Quality of Work-Life has significant positive relationship with organisational culture variables as follows: adaptation to change (r=.768), value for employees (r=.687), teamwork (r=.679), recognition of excellence/reward system (r=.660) and allowance for creativity/innovation (r=.624). Observed relationships among the demographic factors and QWL were: age at work (r=-.192), length of service (r=-.122), sex (r=.106), income (r=-.091), highest educational attainment (r=-.061) and marital status (r=-.053). Demographic factors, organisational climate and culture positively enhanced the quality of work life of employees in Ogun and Lagos states. Therefore, in motivating employees to optimal and higher productivity level, adequate consideration and attention should be given to all variables of organisational climate and culture. In addition, attention should be given to employees‟ job entry age, length of service, sex and educational attainment in motivating them to a higher productivity level.