School of Geography - Theses
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ItemQuality of life as a business objective( 1999)The main purpose of this study was to design and implement an instrument to measure the success of a company if its objective was to improve the quality of life of the people involved in it. The fundamental premise of the research is that companies, being one of the most important institutions of our time, could be more beneficial to humans if it's main objective was to improve their quality of life instead of the creation of profit and wealth. Throughout the thesis I have given theoretical and empirical evidence to support this idea. To analyse the full implications of such a change would require years of research. Because of this, the present study only seeks to answer the following question: How can the success of a company be assessed if its main objective was to improve the quality of life of the people involved in it? Based on the existing literature on quality of life measures, a questionnaire of 82 items and a report of the company's policies was produced to describe what is the influence of an organisation on its members' quality of life. This instrument was applied to a small Melbourne based company. It proved to be an effective tool to provide the company with the required information. The work done in this thesis has implications at two different levels. First, and perhaps most important, it has questioned the generalised idea that the main objective of a company's activities is to make money. Secondly, a first step has been taken towards the achievement of this change in objectives. There is now a specific instrument to measure the success of a company if its objective was to improve the quality of life of its members.