Author(s): Deepak Babu, Mani P Sam and Imran Ahmed Khan
The current global pandemic will be the catalyst to the unprecedented changes in future employment sources and location of workplace. We soon experience organizations creating feasible job locations in the post COVID era. Till now the IT enabled services and business process outsourcing (ITES/BPO) sector are at the forefront in providing employment to the less qualified, semi-skilled people cutting the gender barriers and bringing a needed change in social development of society. This sector adds their bit to the achievement of United Nations’ sustainable development goal to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for the women. The type of job and job location give one the work identity which recognizes an individual. The impact of both job location and work identity can be positive or negative. Providing job with decent work is important because it is linked to the work identity, social status and it determine the psychological state of employees in terms of their self-esteem and job satisfaction. The gender differences in self-esteem and job satisfaction among employees of Indian BPO is studied in this research work. In a mixed-effects analysis, men scored significantly higher than women on self-esteem and job satisfaction. The study also found that the women working as data entry employees in Indian BPOS actually deficient in self-esteem and job satisfaction compared to men performing the same duties. It discusses and argues about the organizational learning ability for BPOs about women workforce strategies and manpower planning based on decent work for all. This study sought to identify the antecedents and consequences of data entry job satisfaction and assess the significant relationships to their self-esteem and job satisfaction. The gender differences in job satisfaction was studied focusing on location job related self-esteem. Findings may guide employers in creating more decent jobs for less educated and semi-skilled women in small towns and rural settings especially in the post COVID era in the developing economies.