International Journal of Human Resource

Management and Research (IJHRMR)

ISSN(P): 2249-6874; ISSN(E): 2249-7986
Vol. 6, Issue 5, Oct 2016, 1-4
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd

QUALITY WORK LIFE OF WOMEN BANKERS: THE NEED OF THE HOUR

REKHA U. MENON1 & V. P SUKUMARAN2
1

Research Scholar, Bharathiar University, Lecturer (BBA), Government Law College, Thrissur, Kerala, India
2

Deputy Director, Kerala Local Government Service Delivery Project (KLGSDP), Local Self
Government Department, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

ABSTRACT
Women in India have always shown their capability in leadership right from the position of Indian president to
leadership positions many other fields. Indian banking industry is the backbone of Indias economy since it decides
majorly the growth and development of the country. Leadership is a key factor of the success of any industry and women
in India have played a great role in bringing the Indian banking industry to the current position. To keep up this pace
banking industry has to retain its talented women workforce by providing thrust to their quality of work life. This paper
deals with the necessity of maintaining the quality of work life of women bank employees.
KEYWORDS: Indian Banking industry, Quality of Work Life, Leadership, Work Life Personal Life Balance. Women
Bank Employees

INTRODUCTION
The occupation is defined as The social role performed by adult members of the society that directly or
indirectly yields social and financial consequences and that constitutes a major focus in the life of an adult.

Original Article

Received: Sep 01, 2016; Accepted: Sep 21, 2016; Published: Sep 27, 2016; Paper Id.: IJHRMROCT20161

Women employees today constitute a major share of the workforce. In India more than 400 million women are
employed in various streams due to a combination of factors like growing economic needs, greater equality of
sexes, increased literacy rate, increased transportation facilities etc. The women workforce handle both hard and
soft jobs now in areas such as accounting, hospitality, banking, insurance, airways, police, teaching, beauty care
and even driving. Indian banking sector comprises of a wide mix of nationalized sector, co-operative sector,
private sector foreign sector which is expected to provide the best available services on a 24 hour basis and act as
one stop shop for all the financial services. To rise up to these expectations, industry needs to acquire and retain
employees with high aptitude without gender discrimination.

INDIAN BANKING INDUSTRY

The banking industry in India is well regulated and adequately capitalized as per RBI. According to
them the financial and economic conditions in India is at par with any other country in the world. Indian banks
have stood global down turn well because of their rigid nature towards credit risk. The Industry is supposed to
flourish in the coming years for the reason that the government is taking ample measures for the betterment of the
same and the RBIs measures in restructuring the system may provide a new facet to the industry.
The Indian banking system consists of 26 public sector banks, 25 private sector banks, 43 foreign banks,
56 regional rural banks, 1,589 urban cooperative banks and 93,550 rural cooperative banks, in addition to

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Rekha U. Menon & V. P Sukumaran

cooperative credit institutions. Public-sector banks control nearly 80 percent of the market, leaving comparatively much
smaller shares for its private peers. As of November 11, 2015, 192.1 million accounts had been opened under Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) and 165.1 million RuPay debit cards were issued. These new accounts have assembled
deposits worth Rs 26,819 crore (US$ 4 billion). The Reserve Bank of India has granted in-principle licenses to 10
applicants to open small finance banks and 11 applicants to establish payment banks which will help expanding access to
financial services in rural and semi-urban areas.
These rungs towards revitalizing the system show the significance of the industry in maintaining the progress of
the country. For the sustainable growth of any industry, eminence in leadership is a vital factor. Today, the industry is
reaping the benefits of the quality leadership it had in the past decades.

WOMEN LEADERS IN BANKING

Women had played a central role in up building of the industry to current position. The last decade had witnessed
an amazing success of the industry with great leadership and most of these leaders were women. Even today, women hold
many core positions in Indian banks. Ms. Aisha De Sequeira, Co- Country head and Head, Investment Banking, Morgan
Stanley India ; Ms. Archana Bhargava, Chairperson and Managing Director, United Bank of India ; Ms. Arundhati
Bhattacharya, Chairperson, State Bank of India ; Ms. Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO, ICICI Bank Ltd. ;Ms.
Chitra Ramkrishna, Managing Director & CEO, National Stock Exchange of India; Ms. Kalpana Morparia, CEO India,
JPMorgan & Co. ; Ms. Kaku Nakhate, President and Country Head (India), Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Ms. Naina Lal
Kidwai, Group General Manager and Country Head, HSBC India; Ms. Renu Sud Karnad, Managing Director, Housing
Development Finance Corp. Ltd the promoter of HDFC Bank; Ms. Renuka Ramnath, founder, Managing Director and
CEO, Multiples Alternate Asset Management; Ms. Shikha Sharma, CEO,AXIS Bank Ltd.; Ms. Shubhalakshmi Panse,
Former Executive Director, Vijaya Bank ; Ms. Vijayalakshmi Iyer, Chairman and Managing Director, Bank of India ; Ms.
Zarin Daruwala, Head of wholesale banking, ICICI Bank Ltd. are some among them. This extended roll clearly evidences
the caliber of women leaders in raising the industry and thus contributing to nations overall economic development.

QUALITY WORK LIFE

QWL is the method by which an organization can ensure the holistic well-being of an employee instead of just
focusing on work-related aspects. Quality of life in general refers to the factors which comprise of income, health, social
relationships, happiness and self actualization. Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (1997) connected the emotional feelings of
the employees towards their jobs, coworkers and organization with the organization performance. According to him, a
positive feeling of the employee towards the environment would certainly reflect in the profitability and growth of the
organization.
QWL provide the idea that rather than simply using human resources they should be developed. Further, one
should not have excessively negative working conditions. Working conditions should not lay workers under undue stress.
Also, working conditions should not be threatening or dangerous thus damaging or degrading the humanness of the
employees. Instead, it should contribute to the workers abilities to perform in other life roles, such as citizen, spouse and
parent. That is, work should contribute to general social advancement of the workers.

Impact Factor (JCC): 5.4528

NAAS Rating: 3.25

Quality Work Life of Women Bankers: The Need of the Hour

QUALITY WORK LIFE AND WOMEN EMPLOYEES

In India women takes care the responsibilities of household chores, bringing up of children, fulfilling the needs of
extended family even if they are working class. When the obligations and duties of work enlarge, women may not be able
to fulfill the domestic responsibilities which lead to a work-personal life conflict. Chassinet al. (1985) on a sample of 83
dual worker couple with pre-school children have found three types of conflicts. The types of conflicts they faced are
described as the conflict between demands of multiple roles, conflict between role expectations of self and spouse and
conflict created by lack of congruence between expectation and reality of roles. The authors suggest that self-role
congruence in women leads to better mental health. Denise Horner Mitnick, (2007) and Richard Welford (2008) quote that
there is an alarmingly high percentage of female respondents who feel that work is the cause of health problems,
specifically stress and lack of exercise. Health problems are likely lead to lower productivity and effectiveness of workers.
These reasons prevent women from assuming the responsibilities of higher positions due to which the industry
may lose some real talents who can raise the banking industry to new heights. Utmost attention should be bestowed to
addressing such situations and the top management by all measures encourage women employees to take the leadership
positions. The way out for this is to provide with adequate quality of work-life. Intervention must be made to help the
female employees to make good adjustment between the demands of the job, marital commitments and family roles. Some
solutions may be to make available the 1) flexible working hours 2) work home options for pregnant women and women
with children under two years of age 3) child care centers near all the bank offices 4) canteen facility 5) Optional transfer
policy 6) mandatory training after long leave etc.
Though not in large scale, but Banks like ICICI and AXIS have already started providing work home facilities to
few of their female employees. Reserve Bank of Indias Policy of second and fourth Saturdays holidays for the banks and
optional transfer for female employees to the preferred location are new steps towards addressing the quality of work life
of women bank employees. These measures may help the industry to put a stop to the attrition level of multi-faceted
talented women of a particular age category when the family obligations become peak. Further these measures make them
loyal to the industry and later, these employees may contribute to the maximum to the banking industry and thus to the
country.

CONCLUSIONS
Healthy and pleasant employees are always a major asset to any organization. This will bring in enthusiasm both
in work place and personal life. To preserve the enthusiasm, the policy makers should bestow deep attention to the
emotional well being of the employees. Since banking is all about maintaining relationships, the employees Quality of
work and personal life play a vital role in their behaviour at the workplace which can also turn out to be harmful to the
industry if not adequately treated. Women are always the best in maintaining relationships as they always have to keep
balance between their family and extended family members. In order to keep these talented women employees, the banking
industry should take adequate measures to ensure their quality of work life.
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editor@tjprc.org

Rekha U. Menon & V. P Sukumaran

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Impact Factor (JCC): 5.4528

NAAS Rating: 3.25