Working out the quality of work life

A career development perspective with insights for human resource management

Roland K. Yeo and Jessica Li

A
Roland K. Yeo is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Kuwait Maastricht Business School, Salmiya, Kuwait. Jessica Li is Assistant Professor in the Department of Learning Technologies, College of Information, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.

sk anyone a basic question: Do you like your work life? The answer could be much more multifaceted than meets the eye.

Research on the quality of work life suggests that there are different relationships between the satisfaction with work life and, for instance, employees engagement in, and commitment to, their work (Rice et al., 1985). Employees perceive quality when fundamental expectations about the workplace and their job are adequately met. According to Maslows hierarchy of needs, these expectations could range from the more immediate physical needs such as workplace facilities, to security needs such as compensation and benets, to afliation needs such as social-networking and collaboration opportunities, to esteem needs such as autonomy and decision making, to actualization needs such as strategic planning and involvement (Sirgy et al., 2001). What can managers do to help to improve their employees quality of work life and how could this improvement be realized in the form of career development for employees? This article is based on a US study of data collected between 2007-2009 from 140 working people who had decided to improve their career prospects and, thereby, their quality of work life, through professional education (Li and Yeo, 2011). The following eight factors were found to inuence the quality of work life, with implications for career development and human resource management (HRM).

1. Organizational culture
Employees believe they have a high quality of work life when there is a clear sense of openness and trust between management and employees and no fear of being short-changed or misguided in task performance. Particularly, the level of moral intelligence as associated with the work ethic is viewed as important in maintaining the equitable treatment of employees across the organization. The transparency of organizational practice as enforced by policies and regulations should be strongly and consistently upheld. Power distribution among managers must be clearly structured through an appropriate hierarchy, as this prevents employees from receiving conicting signals based on managerial decisions.

DOI 10.1108/09670731111125952

VOL. 19 NO. 3 2011, pp. 39-45, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0967-0734

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 Employees believe they have a high quality of work life when there is a clear sense of openness and trust between management and employees and no fear of being short-changed or misguided in task performance.

Career development enabler An organizational culture of openness and trust provides employees with the spontaneity they need to recreate their identity through job enlargement and enrichment. The focus is on recognizing exibility and creativity as sources of motivation for increasing individual competence and intellectual capacity. HRM insight The organization of social structure is institutionalized through the construction of meanings and actions by employees. Boundaries of assumptions and routines are reshaped by individuals interpretation of the notion of quality that mediates work and personal life.

2. Leadership
Quality of work life is characterized by opportunities for learning, particularly from mistakes and new endeavors, and these could be realized from the type and extent of supervision given to employees. For instance, the mentorship of managers would help employees to cope with their daily challenges and increase their competence in handling complex tasks. Further, the decision-making and problem-solving capability of managers can transform potential obstacles into opportunities for learning and reective inquiry for employees. The appropriate use of authority, particularly for ensuring work and resources are distributed fairly, creates a balance between expectation and outcome for employees. Career development enabler Appropriate leadership guides employees in aligning their individual goals to those of the organization. Such an alignment encourages individuals to view their day-to-day tasks in terms of making an impact on other strategic prospects of the organization. The focus is on promoting task signicance through autonomy and empowerment. HRM insight The distinction between management and leadership is crucial to understanding transactional and transformative leadership. A fundamental competence in transactional leadership, with a transformative perspective, helps employees to conquer present challenges for future competitive advantage.

3. Communication
The quality of work life is determined by the type of information employees receive about the organization and the extent to which they themselves are heard by the organization. Employees thus regard communication as a crucial channel towards understanding, agreeing and sharing common goals in the workplace. This process involves constant dialog and feedback, where employees engage in the interpretation of their work and its impact on their immediate context. Communication helps them to understand their current position and takes them to another level of contribution.

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Career development enabler An open communication system in an organization is the basis for gathering individual and collective voices. The focus is on understanding employees attitudes and opinions about their jobs and the environment to identify diversity in job functions for the achievement of various skills. HRM insight Interpretation of meanings is subject to the engagement of feedback loops to promote reective action taking. Negative feedback may be reconstructed to produce amplifying effects for debate and inquiry.

4. Teamwork
Most employees view teamwork as a key determinant in shaping their quality of work life. They seek to pursue collaborative inquiry through the enlargement of their worldviews, which in turn helps them to become reective practitioners. Quality is largely determined by the opportunity to capitalize on one anothers strengths to produce bigger outputs that meet organizational demands. Teamwork also promotes shared expectations, complementary member competence and a task-interdependence system. Collaboration taps employees socialization, communication and negotiation skills, offering them an enriching work experience. Career development enabler Teamwork promotes cross-boundary interaction that creates opportunities for collaborative learning, problem solving and decision making. The focus is on job redesign that provides the potential for division of labor and job rotation where experiential engagement in less-familiar work contexts helps an employee to realize each facet of knowledge, skills and abilities. HRM insight Collaborative inquiry increases employees capacity to engage in adaptive and generative coping strategies to produce a concerted outcome. Coping increases an employees ability to function competently in unstable conditions.

5. Job identity
Quality of work life is more fundamentally associated with the job itself that an employee performs. This can range from job boundaries to skill variety to clarity of roles to expectation of job extension. Employees want to be recognized for their professionalism, particularly the expertise and skills that dene their job identity. They therefore attribute the depth and interdependent features of their job to the quality of impact their job can create on wider functions, which ultimately benet the organization. The clearer the job identity, the greater the level of quality as associated with work life. Career development enabler Recognition of jobs and the value they create for the organization is essential for increasing the commitment and involvement of employees. The focus is on creating value in job contribution, the impact it brings to work processes and the signicance it accords to organizational growth. HRM insight Diffusion in job identity induces work disengagement. Employees see themselves as operating outside the purview of the organizations vision. Clarity of job denition gives meaning to work and promotes connectedness.

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6. Performance
Being able to accomplish a task well, particularly with minimal supervision but with a fundamental level of autonomy, translates into a type of experiential quality work can bring to an employee. For instance, the ability to manage tangible outcomes such as increasing productivity and keeping task-related errors at bay has contributed to employees sense of control and ownership of their job. Employees understanding of their performance as determined by clarity in goal setting and a realistic appreciation of their competence has led to intangible responses as well. These include a greater level of commitment, less absenteeism and lateness, and lower employee turnover. Career development enabler An appropriate measurement of performance at individual and group levels helps employees to identify their effectiveness in achievable ways. The focus is on harnessing a commitment to quality and productivity through job sharing, specialization and standardization. HRM insight Performance measures inuence employees differently. Target achievement may constitute work that relies on repeating familiar tasks and may truncate innovative intentions. When evaluation of output becomes less straightforward, recognition of intangible performance characteristics may be the answer to achieving the wider dimension of organizational performance.

7. Rewards and recognition

The most immediate connection to the quality of work life is extrinsic rewards such as basic compensation, facilities, and fringe benets such as health-care provisions and annual leave. All of these can help to shape employees motivation and wellbeing at work. More importantly, employees have increasingly realized the need to be recognized for their achievements as a means of deriving intrinsic motivation. This type of motivation is much more durable than extrinsic rewards as it increases the quality of work involvement including task signicance and goal orientation. Career development enabler The worthiness of a job is often determined by appropriate reward and recognition apart from the more intrinsic aspect of the impact of the job on to the organization. The focus is on generating a commitment to excellence through job innovation where functions, processes and outcomes determine the boundaries of job specialization. HRM insight The sustainability of employee motivation requires a comprehensive and strategic total rewards package. However, too extensive a benet may be taken for granted and lose its appeal and value.

8. Training and development

Employees view their growth path in their organizations as a way of dening the quality of work life. This includes opportunities for learning, knowledge sharing and reections through job enlargement and enrichment. The ability to expand their learning capacity through training and development as well as professional-development programs will contribute to the overall repositioning of their competence, ultimately affecting the organization. In this way, employees attribute the quality of work life to a time dimension where they see themselves moving forward as more valuable employees.

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Career development enabler Learning and development are key aspects of valuing human resources through the expansion of intellectual assets. The focus is on talent development that will have an inuence on succession planning, employee retention and performance. HRM insight Employees view learning and development as current opportunities for future job enlargement. The present-versus-future perspective of training reduces employees current capacity for optimal contribution, exchanging short-term deciencies for long-term anticipated contributions.

The practical way forward

Finally, the study led to a classication of the quality of work life and career development into two matrices. This was supported by data analysis that revealed a number of key themes and concepts, as illustrated in Tables I and II. Table I Quality of work life matrix
Low impact Internal factors Cognitive passivity Self versus others Self-sufciency Critical and suspicious of others Lack of meeting points between personal goals and those of the work team and/or organization at large Reective inquiry Why do I need to put up with my co-workers and superiors who are not as competent as expected? How could I possibly depend on others if they cannot depend on themselves to do a decent job? Assumption If I am not going to be duly recognized for my contribution at work and may end up being blamed for the mistakes incurred by others, I will have a negative connection with my work and hence may modify my personal goals and contribute below the companys expectation of my commitment. I would have to ght for myself all the time Environmental disturbance Management conict Fragmented team dynamics Lack of welfare support Too much noise from gossip and backbiting Reective inquiry How could I possibly work with people who do not appreciate what I do and think less of me? Why should the company not provide enough welfare benets to boost our morale? Assumption If the value of my work is undermined by a lack of integrity and accountability on the part of my colleagues and superiors, I will be demoralized and will withdraw from being too connected with my work. If the company does not take care of our welfare, why should I slog for them? High impact Psychological safety Private versus public life Openness Trust Ability to handle feedback constructively Self-condence Reective inquiry How do I engage myself more optimally at work as I am given the space and time to demonstrate my skills without the fear of making mistakes knowing that I can garner the kind of support needed to get the job done? Assumption If people care about me to offer me useful feedback about my job, they want me to improve my skills in whichever capacity I am in. If I remove my fear of making mistakes, I can boldly turn my abstract conceptualizations into concrete experimentations. This will add an innovative dimension to my work connecting me to my job even more Stimulus-response catalyst Management support Collaborative climate Reward and recognition A blame-free environment Reective inquiry What can I do more to prove myself and make my colleagues and superiors happy with my work? How can I go that extra mile to establish my competence and be duly recognized for my hard work? Assumption If I am regarded as a positive contributor in the company, I know my work has been appreciated and has made an impact in some way. If I know my work will be rewarded both intrinsically and extrinsically, I will be more motivated to be engaged in my work and be connected to the companys vision and mission

External factors

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Table II A career development matrix

Individual impact Internal factors Endogenous carriers Personal values Career aspiration Education background Competencies Quality of work life factor: cognitive participation Career enablers Task identity Task signicance Continual education Exogenous carriers Family Friends Community Social network Quality of work life factor: environmental reinforcement Career enablers Committee participation Community service Collaborative work functions Job sharing Flexible hours Organizational impact Strategic carriers Organizational culture Organizational structure Organization goals and objectives Management philosophy Quality of work life factor: psychological safety Career enablers Job enlargement Job enrichment Job rotation Competitive carriers Information exchange through external networks Technological development Global economic competition External business environment Quality of work life factor: stimulus-response catalyst Career enablers Job standardization Job specialization Apprenticeship Telecommuting

External factors

The quality of work life is further divided into four dimensions, namely cognitive passivity, psychological safety, environmental disturbance and stimulus-response catalyst. These are, in turn, characterized by internal and external factors, and determined by the level of impact between high and low. Keywords: Job satisfaction, Career development, Motivation (psychology), Human resource management On the other hand, the career development dimensions are determined by endogenous, exogenous, strategic and competitive carriers. These are also inuenced by internal and external factors and can potentially lead to either an individual or organizational level of impact. In short, these matrices will be useful for managers to work out the quality of work life for their employees in practical and realistic ways.

References
Li, J. and Yeo, R.K. (2011), Quality of work life and career development: perceptions of part-time MBA students, Employee Relations (forthcoming). Rice, R.W., McFarlin, D.B., Hunt, R.G. and Near, J.P. (1985), Organizational work and the perceived quality of life: toward a conceptual model, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 296-310. Sirgy, M.J., Efraty, D., Siegel, P. and Lee, D.J. (2001), A new measure of quality of work life (QWL) based on need satisfaction and spillover theories, Social Indicators Research, Vol. 55 No. 3, pp. 241-302.

Further reading
Gregory, A. and Milner, S. (2009), Editorial: Of work life balance: a matter of choice?, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 1-13. Grote, G. and Raeder, S. (2009), Careers and identity in exible working: do exible identities fare better?, Human Relations, Vol. 62 No. 2, pp. 219-44. Harrington, B. and Ladge, J.J. (2009), Of work life integration: present dynamics and future directions for organizations, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 38 No. 2, pp. 148-57.

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About the authors

Roland K. Yeo holds a PhD from the Leeds Business School in UK and is currently an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Kuwait Maastricht Business School. He also teaches on the executive MBA program at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia as an adjunct faculty. His research interests include the social aspects of learning in organizational contexts, team processes in problem solving and action learning as well as organizational learning and change. Roland K. Yeo can be contacted at: yeokkr@yahoo.com Jessica Li holds a PhD from the Pennsylvania State University and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Learning Technologies, College of Information, at the University of North Texas. Before becoming an academic, she worked for ten years in business corporations such as Motorola, Nokia and Raytheon. She has also taught at Texas A&M University and North China University and Technologies. Her research interests include work ethic, international human resource development and emerging technological applications for learning in the workplace. She has published various articles in these areas and has won the best research paper award at the Academy of Human Resource Development.

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