The Relationship Between the Quality of Work Life and Communication Climate: A Case Study of the Marketing Section of the Philippine Star

Abstract

For a long time now, organizations have been putting a greater emphasis on the personal needs of their employees. Quality of work life refers to the set of organizational rules and practices that are geared towards meeting the full range of the employees’ needs. It is made up of several factors, which are pride, wellness, equitable compensation, job satisfaction, employee participation, conflict resolution, and safe environment. One concept may be related to the quality of work life is the communication climate, as the perceptions of the employees on their status in the organization are involved in both concepts. Communication climate is how the people react to the communication aspects of their organization. Communication climate is focused on the communication interaction that takes place between the members of the organization, their perceptions of it and the general feeling formed when they interact with each other. It is embedded in the quality of communication the members of the organization experience within their organization. While many separate studies of the work life have been made, none have been conducted on the publication industry, and neither have studies been made on the quality of work life in relation to the communication climate in an organization. This study aims to answer the question “What is the relationship between the quality of work life and communication climate of the marketing section of the Philippine Star?” with the following sub problems: “What is the company profile of the Philippine Star? What are the unique features of its marketing department?” “How do the employees perceive their quality of work life?” “How do the employees perceive their communication climate?” and “Does the quality of work life of the employees in the marketing section have a significant relationship with their communication climate?” The participants of this study were the ten members of the marketing section of the Philippine Star. Due to the small number of respondents, this researcher opted to do a census sampling. This researcher used three tools: an interview schedule and two rating scales. The interview schedule dealt with the profile of the Philippine Star and the unique features of its marketing department. The rating scales were comprised of questions regarding the quality of work life for the first one, while the second rating scale is comprised of questions regarding the communication climate. The data for all these were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, using rankings, the weighted mean, and the CHI Square Test. Founded in July 28, 1986 by veteran journalists Max Soliven, Betty Go-Belmonte, and Art Borjal, the Philippine Star is one of the biggest names in the newspaper publishing industry in the country. It abides by the biblical motto, “Truth Shall Prevail,” and functions with its mission of informing and enlightening the Filipino people by upholding truth and fairness at all times. Its headquarters is located in downtown Manila at the corner of Roberto S. Oca Street and Railroad Street. Its main source of income is the marketing section, which doubles as the producer of its special section. The employees of their marketing section perceive that their over all quality of work life as favorable, but perceive the sub-categories differently. Their over all communication climate also received a satisfactory result. Furthermore, the study revealed that the quality of work life and communication climate in the section have a negligible relationship, meaning that the relationship between the two concepts is insignificant. In conclusion, the study shows that the employees of the marketing section of the Philippine Star percgive their quality of work life and communication climate favorably, although there were variations per respective sub category. Moreover, the correlation between the two has no significant relationship, and do not have much effect on each other.