EFFECTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE ON TURNOVER INTENTION AMONG SEWING MACHINE OPERATORS IN APPAREL INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA.

Abstract

High employee turnover among sewing machine operators is one of the critical problems facing the apparel industry in Sri Lanka as it creates high cost to the organizations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of Quality of Work Life on turnover intention among the sewing machine operators in apparel industry in Sri Lanka. This study was descriptive and correlational in nature. The population of the study covers. sewing machine operators in Sri Lanka with the sample size of 350. The simple random sampling method used to select the sample. The study collected data by distributing a structured questionnaire among the sample and the overall response rate was 94% (N=332). The study used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and graphs used to analysis the demographic profiles of the respondents while the hypothesis testing was done with ANOYA, t-test, Pearson Correlation Coefficient ancl regression analysis. ii Results revealed that the majority of the respondents were females (88%, N=292) and nearly 91% of the respondents were young. The results illustrated that there is a relationship between QWL and turnover intention and the study further indicated that most of the respondents were dissatisfied with their work life and showed their willingness to leave. According to the results of Pearson's Correlation analysis. it was found that QWL were negatively and significantly correlated with turnover intention of SMOs. The study further indicated that there is a strong negative relationship (r=-.749) between these two variables. Regression analysis shows that 56% of the turnovcr intcntion among SMO's was explained by QWL. The study idcntified that thcre was a significant relationship between demographic variablcs oj" education level and agc. Finally, the study concluded that satisfied employees will positively contribute to the organizational goals and assured that the qual ity of work life will not only attract young and new talent but also retain the existing talent.