Distinction On Location And Work Contentment: Qwl Study On Palm Oil Plantation, Indonesia

Working environment concept is an indicator of the workers whether they do their job in harmonious working environment or not. Plantations in Indonesia as the legacy of Dutch colonialization is still regarded as preserving inharmonious working environment and condition, structurally and culturally. This research was done at one unit of plantation at the area in Simalungun Regency which is the property of a state-owned company in North Sumatra province. Samples consist of workers in administration (office), processing techniques (factory) and plantation workers at afdeling who has been working for more than 5 years. Based on Anova test, it is found that there are two workers groups with different views about working environments, which are between workers in office and workers in factory, and on the other hand the workers at afdeling. There are four items of QWL discovered in the research that could explain the differences in working environment on both workers group, which are: 1). inharmonious situation arises on income variable and insufficient compensation, 2). the disparity of income through overtime of afdeling workers which causes inequality, thus results in high level of inconvenience, fatigue and overwhelm. 3). The harmoniousness is seen among afdeling workers but the inharmoniousness appears among other workers in other sections. Appreciation towards managerial side was given by the workers because the workers’ job-related inputs were acknowledged. 4). Inharmoniousness resurfaces when quality time with family is reduced due to long working hour especially to receive additional fee. Afdeling workers consider this disturbing the harmoniousness in working environment.