CHAPTER - I

ABOUT THE STUDY

Flexible working condition affects how employees in an organization interact, perform

tasks, and are led. Flexible working condition as an aspect of the work environment have
directly affected the human sense and subtly changed interpersonal interactions and thus
productivity. This is so because the characteristics of a room or a place of meeting for a group
have consequences regarding productivity and performance level.

The physical workplace environment is the most critical factor in keeping an employee
satisfied in today’s business world. Today’s workplace is different, diverse, and constantly
changing. The typical employer/employee relationship of old has been turned upside down.
Workers are living in a growing economy and have almost limitless job opportunities. This
combination of factors has created an environment where the business needs its employees
more than the employees need the business.

A large number of flexible working condition studies have shown that workers/users are
satisfied with reference to specific workspace features. These features preference by users are
highly significant to their productivity and workspace performance, they are lighting,
ventilation rates, access to natural light and acoustic environment Lighting and other factors
like ergomic furniture has been found to have positive influence on employees health and
consequently on productivity. This is so because light has a profound impact on worker’s
physical, physiological and psychological health, and on their overall performance at the
workplace.

Ambient features in office environments, such as lighting, temperature, existence of

windows, free air movement etc, suggest that these elements of thephysical environment
influence employee’s attitudes, behaviours, satisfaction, performance and productivity.

Job satisfaction is defined as the effective orientation that an employee has towards his or
her work.It describes the feelings or preference of individuals regarding work. Job
satisfaction is a very important component to employees in any organization.

Many researchers and administrators have noticed the importance of job satisfaction on a
variety of organizational variables. Dissatisfied employees are likely to leave their jobs, thus
understanding of employee job satisfaction and its contributing variable are important for any
organization to exist and prosper. Similarly noted that the principal reason as to why job
satisfaction is to extensively researched is that it relates to significant association with life
satisfaction, organizational commitment and job performance.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objective of this study is to examine the impact of flexible working condition on
performance and job satisfaction. Specifically the study objectives are:

 To understand the importance of Flexible working conditions in Organisations.

 To examine the type of working conditions in organisations
 To determine if there is a positive relationship between flexible working condition
and employees productivity
 To determine if there is a positive relationship between flexible working condition
and organizational commitment of employees’

NEED OF THE STUDY

 Companies that have implemented the flexible working conditions programs

recognize that employee welfare affects the bottom line of the business.
 In today’s competitive world, organizations are spending lot of time and money on
employee satisfaction in an effort to improve productivity, and also to help the
organization needs the existing importance of flexible working condition, job
productivity and organizational commitment for the organization as well as for the
individuals in private organization.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

 The study scope is limited to investigating impact of flexible working condition on

performance and job satisfaction.
 This study on completion will help the managers and administrators of the tertiary
institutions to understand the importance of effective implementation of flexible
working condition policies.
 Understanding the relationship between employee job productivity, flexible working
condition and organizational commitment is beneficial for administrators.
 The study is aimed at measuring the satisfaction of the employees against their level
of participation in the organisation.

LIMITATIONS OF STUDY

 The study is applicable only to UNITED CARBON SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED. Therefore the
results cannot be generalized for the whole industry.
 The respondents were unable or unwilling to give response.
 In certain situations the company restricts to provide right information.
 The time factor in collecting the responses as in conducting the research study would be
limiting factor.
INDUSTRY PROFILE

Activated carbon, also known as activated charcoal, is a highly porous form of carbon that
has been treated with oxygen or chemicals to create a network of tiny, low-volume pores that
increase its surface area. This high surface area makes activated carbon effective at adsorbing
(collecting) various impurities and contaminants from liquids and gases. The activated carbon
market is divided by applications like the liquid phase application and gas phase application.

The market of activated carbon has been segmented on the basis of end-use industries such as
water treatment, food & beverages, pharmaceutical & medical, automotive, industrial, and
others. There are several raw materials that are used to produce activated carbon such as coal,
coconut, peat, wood, and others, and is the part of the market segmentation of activated
carbon.

Activated Carbon Market Dynamics

a) Driver: Rising concerns for pollution control

The demand for activated carbon is anticipated to increase due to the growing need for
mercury control technology in industrial air purification applications. In the coming years,
many production facilities in the US and Europe, including coal-fired power plants, clinker
cement plants, and other facilities operating large industrial boilers, will be required to meet
stringent new emission standards for mercury and other hazardous air pollutants overseen by
the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Hence, to curb environmental pollution, the
demand for activated carbon is expected to increase during the forecast period.

b) Restraint: Raw material scarcity

Activated carbon is generally produced from various raw materials such as coal, coconut,
wood, peat, and others. Natural calamities are significantly affecting the value chain of the
activated carbon market. Hence, the price of raw materials, mainly coconut shell charcoal,
has increased.

c) Opportunities: Recycling of activated carbon

The demand for activated carbon has increased tremendously due to strict regulations
concerning air quality maintenance and the increasing number of municipal and industrial
wastewater treatment plants. Hence, activated carbon producers mainly focus on the
production of reactivated carbon.

d) Challenges: Weak economic conditions

Weak economic conditions worldwide, particularly in China, Brazil, and European countries,
directly affect industrial growth. Activated carbon can be prominently used in chemical,
petrochemical, food & beverages, pharmaceutical, mining, and automotive industries for air
purification, water treatment, decolorization of chemical products, solvent purification, odor
removal, and so on. Similarly, fluctuation in crude oil prices also impacts the value chain of
the chemical, petrochemical, and allied industries, affecting their growth.
COMPANY PROFILE

The UCS factory is the leading manufacturer of Coconut Shell and Wood based Activated
Carbon in the whole of Asia. It was specialist producers of high-quality Coconut Shell and
Wood Activated Carbon and already enjoy long-term relationships with a number of branded
distributors and end-user manufacturers. Its products are relied on in industrial and retail
applications throughout Europe, the US, Japan and beyond.

Its success is down to our unique production infrastructure. They produce their own raw
materials, including the supply of Coconut Shell charcoal, which in turn ensures that it can
deliver Quality and Competitiveness with all of their products.

Following 10 years of experience processing raw coconut shell into the charcoal required for
production of Activated Carbon, UCS was founded by 5 close friends sharing a vision to
become the World’s leading manufacturer of high-quality Activated Carbons. That friendship
and seed of investment in a state-of-the-art modern factory has seen the company grow into a
strong and stable business operation that has become the hallmark of our identity – a tree with
strong roots, adaptable, eco-aware and always growing which is reflected by our company
logo.

COMPANY DETAILS

Company Name : United Carbon Solutions Pvt Ltd

Founder

Nature of Business

Number of Employees

Working Shift

Adress

Email

Website

VISSION

MISSION

QUALITY POLICY

COMPANY LOGO
PRODUCTS

High quality products for every application

Activated Carbons enjoy an extremely wide utilisation across many industries globally.
Historically, positioned as a ‘Private Label’ manufacturer, UCS has often worked in the
background – carrying out development and manufacturing work in order to deliver our
products for use worldwide; relying on the strength of our quality, pricing and our dedication
to product delivery.

This work has enabled our technical teams to prepare products that are designed for key
applications. Learning from our experience in manufacturing optimised products, we are able
to produce Activated Carbons that go above and beyond the conventional materials available
within the market without the premium costs typically associated with high performance
carbons.

WATER – AQU-EX

United Carbon Solutions – the leading producer of Coconut Shell Activated Carbons in Asia
is pleased to announce our best-in-class range of Water Treatment Activated Carbons. AQU-
EX is a next generation range of Coconut derived products born out of 10 years research and
development supporting some of the largest names in the Water Treatment industry
throughout Europe, the USA and Japan. We’re proud to see our Activated Carbons in use
every day around the World as a critical component in many of the best-known home and
industrial brands of water filters operating in both POU and POE applications.

In addition to the standard AQU-EX range of Coconut Shell Activated Carbons, we can
further distinguish performance as required with the following optional product features
including, but not limited to:

 Acid and/or Water Washed products

 Catalytic Carbon products
 Silver Impregnated products
 Custom particle size distribution products
 Low-silica products
 Ultra-low ash products
 High purity products
 pH adjusted products
AIR & GAS | AIR-EX

United Carbon Solutions presents the AIR-EX range of Coconut Shell Activated Carbons.
AIR-EX represents a new standard in Activated Carbons for Air & Gas applications and is
the latest iteration of UCS products created from a long history supplying a wide variety of
air treatment clients. We have a good history of producing carbons for client applications
ranging from large scale panel filters, to automotive cabin air filters with experience in the
personal air treatment fields of respirators and cigarette filters.

In addition to the standard AIR-EX range of Coconut Shell Activated Carbons, we can
further distinguish performance as required with the following optional product features
including:

Chemical impregnation to complement standard physisorption capabilities with

chemisorption of an even wider range of Substances – including, but not limited to:

– KOH
– NaOH
– KI
– Cu variants
– H3PO4
– Custom impregnations and Multi-impregnation as required

MINING – AUR-EX

United Carbon Solutions is pleased to introduce the AUR-EX range of Coconut Shell
Activated Carbons. AUR-EX carbons represent a new style of Coconut Shell Activated
Carbon with improved performance within all types of Gold Recovery circuit. With
continued experience as a private-label manufacturer of standard Gold recovery specification
Activated Carbon, the UCS team were able to distil the concept of an optimised Gold
recovery Activated Carbon into the AUR-EX range of products. In this configuration, the
AUR-EX carbons seek to deliver maximum performance with minimal losses regardless of
the Gold Circuit layout.

Additionally, conscious of the ever present need to optimise costs, AUR-EX carbons are
competitively priced to offer irresistible value and performance to any gold mine operation.
AUR-EX carbons are characterised by their high hardness, high density, circuit optimised
platelet-free particle shape and sizing alongside best-in-class adsorption rates (R-value) and
capacity (K-value) across all low-ash grade variants.

CHAPTER - II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1) Glass and Finley (2002) Investigated the impact of family Responsive work policy on the
commitment of the employees.It enabled understanding the market based model which
Accommodates the family responsibilities and information.Researcher gave the framework
for future where better Commitment can be attained with focus on family responsive Work
policy.

2) Rogier and Padgett (2004) investigated the difference in theCareer development of

women who opt for flexible working Schedule than who do not opt for it. The respondents
were the Women employees of account department who were seeking Promotion from
manager. The result showed those women Employees who are on flexible work schedule are
less job career Dedicated and less advancement motivation. However, there Was no
difference observed in the capabilities.

3) Grote and Raeder (2009) investigated the relationship between Personal identity and
experience of individual career change And flexible working. Survey data was conducted to
study four Different type of identity i.e. self determined, continuous, job Centred and critical
flexible. Research showed that continuous Type expressed highest satisfaction and critical
flexible type Showed least satisfaction.

4) Jones and Jones (2011) investigated gender inequality with Reference to flexible working
arrangement in UK. Flexibility In working can benefit employer in terms of work, increased
Productivity, efficiency and saving of timing. It is also beneficial To the employees by giving
the advantage of work life balance And high morale to continue with the organization.
Although There are many benefits associated with Flexible working Arrangement for both
the parties but there exists number of Challenges. Also, the research showed that this facility
is mostly Availed and given to women employees and there exist issues Of inequality with
respect to it.

5) Ahmad and Hashim (2013) examined the relationship between Flexible working hours
and employee motivation. Spending More hours at work, affects the safety, security,
education of the children and family responsibilities. Through Implementation of flexible
working this challenge was secured Which enabled the employees to be engaged for a better
Coordination between work and family responsibilities. Correlation and regression was used
as a technique to examine The relationship and study showed that effective implementation
of flexible working schedule contributed to the motivation of Staff of the
department.Shagvaliyev and Yazdanifard (2014) investigated the Relationship between
flexible working hours and work life balance. By employing flexibility in working,
organizations.

6) Jain and Swami (2014) investigated the benefits of flexible Working arrangement and
employee retention in IT sector.Organizations which are practicing flexible working
Arrangement are able to retain and have employees stay for Longer period. The data was
collected by questionnaire and Interview method. Aon Hewitt employees were the
respondents Of the study, showed that flexible work arrangement is preferred By all levels
gender, and is a benefit which is most sought.Research showed that flexible working policy
has improved Staff retention in the organizations. FWA helps them to balance Work and life,
reduce stress, longer tenure in the organization,More committed employees towards the
organization.
7) Deshwal P. (2016) investigated the impact of flexible working Arrangements on the
companies. Flexible working is different From the regular working pattern of employees.
Organizations Are focusing to become flexible in the work timing has helped To create
trustworthy and better retained employee. The data Was collected from 300 employees of
MNC’s in Delhi by Questionnaire. Research showed that flexible working enables The
employee to balance work & life , reduce stress, and have Longer tenure at organization.

8) Johannson B; Rask K; Stenberg M (2010), this study was to carry out a broad and
analysis of relevant research articles about piece rate wages and their on health and safety. A
total of 75 research articles were examined extensively and 31 of these were found relevant
and had sufficient quality to serve purpose of this study. The findings of these relevant
articles are summarized and analyzed in the survey. More recent research shows a clear
interest for health, musculoskeletal injuries, physical workload, pains and occupational
injuries. The fact that 27 of the 31 studied articles found negative effects of piece rates on
different aspects of health and safety does not prove causality, but together they give very
strong support that in most situations piece rates have negative effects on health and safety.

9) Tompa, Emile PhD; Dolinschi, Roman MA; de Oliveira (2009), we reviewed the
occupational health and safety intervention literature to synthesize evidence on financial
merits of such interventions. A literature search included journal databases, existing
systematic reviews, and studies identified by content experts. We found strong evidence that
ergonomic and other musculoskeletal injury prevention intervention in manufacturing and
warehousing are worth undertaking in terms of their financial merits. The economic
evaluation of interventions in this literature warrants further expansion. The review also
provided insights into how the methodological quality of economic evaluations in this
literature could be improved.

10) Lucia Artazcoz; Imma Cortes; Vincenta Escriba-aguir; Lorena Cascant (2009), the
objectives of this study was to identify family and job characteristics associated with long
work hours. The sample was composed of all salaried workers aged 16-64 years (3950 men
and 3153 women) interviewed in the 2006 Catalonian Health Survey. Factors associated with
long working hours differed by gender. In men, working 51-60 hours a week was consistently
associated with poor mental health status, self-reported hypertension, job dissatisfaction,
smoking, shortage of sleep. Among women it was only related to smoking and to shortage of
sleep. The association of overtime with different health indicators among men and women
could be explained by their role as the family breadwinner.

11) Dee W. Edington; Alyssa B. Schultz (2008), The aim was to present the literature which
provides evidence of the association between health risks and the workplace economic
measures of time away from work, reduced productivity at work, health care costs and
pharmaceutical costs. A search of PubMed was conducted and high quality studies were
selected and combined with studies known to the authors. A strong body of evidence exists
which shows that health risks of workers are associated with health care costs and
pharmaceutical costs.
12) David E. Cantor (2008), The purpose of this paper was to review the literature and call
for additional research into the human, operational, and regulatory issues that contribute to
workplace safety in the supply chain. This paper identifies several potential research
opportunities that can increase awareness of the importance of improving a firm's workplace
safety practices. This paper identifies 108 articles which informs, how the logistics and
transportation safety has evolved. The paper identifies 14 future research opportunities within
the workplace safety in the supply chain, that have been identified can have a positive effect
on practitioners confronted with safety issues.

13) Lucia Artazcoz; Imma Cortes; Vincenta Escriba-aguir; Lorena Cascant (2007), To
provide a framework for epidemiological research on work and health that combines classic
occupational epidemiology and the consideration of work in a structural perspective focused
on gender inequalities in health. Gaps and limitations in classic occupational epidemiology,
when considered from a gender perspective, are described. Classic occupational
epidemiology has paid less attention to women's problems than men's. Research into work
related gender inequalities in health has rarely considered either social class

CHAPTER – III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

The research design of this study considering its objectives & coverage was exploratory as
Well as descriptive in nature.

3.2 Source of Information

3.2.1 Primary Data

The primary data has been obtained from the selected employees and senior executives of
United Carbon Solutions Pvt Ltd through circulation of the structured Non-disguised
Questionnaire.

3.2.2 Secondary Data

The secondary data has been obtained from published as well as unpublished literature on
The topic and from Books, Journals, News papers, Research Articles, Thesis, Websites,
Magazines etc.

3.3 Sampling Decisions

3.3.1 Sample Size

Appropriate number of sample size was put to used for the purpose of collecting primary
Data from the selected employees of the United Carbon Solutions Private Limited.

3.3.2 Sampling Method

Chi Square Test was put to used for the purpose of collecting primary data from the Selected
employees of the United Carbon Solutions Private Limited.

3.3.3 Sampling Media

Sampling Media has been in the form of filling up of questionnaire.

3.4 Research Instrument

A structure non-disguised questionnaire has been prepared to get the relevant information
from the respondents. The questionnaire consists of variety of questions presented to the
Respondents for their responses.

3.5 Data Collection, Analysis & Interpretation

The collected information and primary data has been subjected to data analysis and
Interpretation. The collected primary data has been pre-coded considering the designing of
the structured non-disguised questionnaire. The primary data has been scrutinized, edited and
Validated and thereafter it has been analysed.
STATISTICAL TOOLS: SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING

Simple random sample refers to a subset of individuals chosen from a larger set in which a
sub Set of individuals are chosen randomly, all with the same probability. It is a process of
selecting A sample in a random way. It is the basic sampling technique where we select a
group of subjects (A sample) for study From a larger group (population). Each individual is
chosen entirely by chance and each Member of the population has an equal chance of being
included in the sample.

CORRELLATION

Correlation is a statistical term describing the degree to which two variables move in
Coordination with one another. If two variables move in one direction then those variables
are said to have a positive correlation. If they move in opposite direction, then they have a
negative Correlation.

𝑟 =∑(𝑥𝑖−𝑥̅) (𝑦𝑖−𝑦̅)

√∑(𝑥𝑖−𝑥̅) ∑(𝑦𝑖−𝑦̅)

R = correlation coefficient

Xi = values of the x- variable in a sample

𝒙̅ = mean of the values of the x-variable

Yi = values of the Y-variable in a sample

𝒚̅ = mean of the values of the Y-variable