an analysis of quality of work life and career

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Quality of work life: Perception of college teachers : Author Info Pugalendhi, Subburethina Bharathi M, Umaselvi Nakkeeran, Senthil kumar. Abstract Several Research Studies in the world have measured the Quality of Work of Employee’s in Industries, Universities, Schools, Government and Non Government Organizations. This research study highlights the quality of work life of college teachers under various dimensions. New Challenges can be faced with employee’s commitment and involvement in achieving organizational goals. This study helps the college teachers to know the level of perception towards QWL and to enhance the same by the educational administrators.. Quality of Work Life is the essential concept of favorable situations in a working environment. The Quality of Work Life facilitates employee’s training opportunities, job satisfaction and working conditions. A better Quality of Work Life

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Page 1: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Quality of work life: Perception of college teachers :

Author Info

Pugalendhi, Subburethina Bharathi

M, Umaselvi

Nakkeeran, Senthil kumar.

Abstract

Several Research Studies in the world have measured the Quality of Work of

Employee’s in Industries, Universities, Schools, Government and Non Government

Organizations. This research study highlights the quality of work life of college

teachers under various dimensions. New Challenges can be faced with employee’s

commitment and involvement in achieving organizational goals. This study helps

the college teachers to know the level of perception towards QWL and to enhance

the same by the educational administrators.. Quality of Work Life is the essential

concept of favorable situations in a working environment. The Quality of Work

Life facilitates employee’s training opportunities, job satisfaction and working

conditions. A better Quality of Work Life improves the growth of the employee’s

along with the organization growth. The universe of the study includes 12 colleges

located within the Tiruchirappalli city limit and 1279 college teachers were

working during May 2008 – February 2009. A sample of 239 respondents was

collected from the universe. The collected data after being coded were analyzed

using Statistical Package for Social sciences Research (SPSS) and various

statistical tests were applied based on hypotheses and matching variables. There is

a significant association between quality of work life total and quality of life in

teaching environment total. It shows QWL of college teachers is in low level.

Page 2: An analysis of quality of work life and career

An analysis of quality of work life and career-related variables:

(American Journal of Applied Sciences, Dec, 2006 by Raduan Che Rose,

LooSee Beh, Jegak Uli, Khairuddin Idris)

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to determine the level and relationship between

qualities of work life (QWL) with career-related variables. The sample consists of

475 executives from the electrical and electronics industry in the free trade zones

in Malaysia for both the multinational corporations (MNCs) and the small-medium

industries (SMIs). The selection of respondents using stratified random sampling

technique involves a complete list of industrial firms registered with Malaysian

Industrial Development Authority (MIDA). Construct validity and discriminant

validity were conducted on the instruments. Three exogenous variables were

studied. The result indicates that the three exogenous variables are significant:

career satisfaction, career achievement and career balance with 63% of the

variance in QWL. The respondents appeared to be satisfied in respect to the level

of QWL (49.5%), career achievement (70.3%), career satisfaction (63.8%), but less

so for career balance (36.6%). These findings contribute to an understanding of

ways by top management in attempts to attain a career fit between the needs of the

employees and the needs of the organization. The role QWL plays in organizations

is an understudied issue. The present study opens an avenue for more studies in

this direction.

Page 3: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Work Place Democracy and Quality of Work Life: Problems and Prospects

By HY KORNBLUH ( THE ANNALS “ American academy of political and social

science”)

Abstract

The concept of increasing the participation of workers in decisions affecting

their work lives is appearing more often on the labor-management agenda. The

reasons for management interest include the need for (1) increasing productivity

and quality; (2) increasing the quality of work life for the new worker, who is more

educated, with a good work ethic but alienated and unmotivated under current

management practice; and (3) meeting foreign competition. Problems may arise for

firms involved in forms of participation such as quality circles and quality of work

life programs, when management aims of a streamlined work force and control of

worker innovations clash with the workers' expectations of work place democracy

inherent in such programs. A dilemma is posed for unions when the new forms of

participation undermine the union, or maintain or create so-called union-free

environments. Many unions are now playing a more active role in these programs.

More aggressive approaches to bargaining on work environment and other issues

reflect movement by some unions to a more proactive philosophy of the union's

role in participation-enhancing strategies.

Page 4: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Quality of work life survey :

By (Statistics Finland) , 16 Dec 2008.

The latest Quality of work life survey, which was conducted in 2008,

describes the changes that have taken place in working conditions during the past

30 years. Positive changes have been observed in the possibilities of learning and

development at work and as an increase in the variety of tasks. Negative

developments include an increase in problems related to time pressure, the

insecurity of the employment relationship and social relationships. These negative

developments have been observed especially in the public sector. Besides

describing the physical, mental and social work environments, the data also depict

the contents of work, employees’ labour market positions, conditions of

employment, values and valuations of work and factors at the work organisation

level. The collected basic data are confidential.

Page 5: An analysis of quality of work life and career

The study on job stress and quality of work life: Humor leadership and

worksite health promotion as the moderators :

By Shih-huey Chuang

This study is to explore the staffs of Kaohsiung city government for: (1) The

relationships among job stress, quality of work life, humor leadership, and

worksite health promotion; (2) The moderating effect of humor leadership toward

job stress and quality of work life; (3) The moderating effect of worksite health

promotion toward job stress and quality of work life; (4) The differences of sample

characters on job stress, quality of work life, humor leadership, and worksite health

promotion.

The questionnaire survey was conducted in the study. Based on the data from

Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of Kaohsiung city government,

the budgeted staffs in 2009 are 10,840 persons who were located into 11 institute’s

catagories. According to the staffs numbers, we measured by ratio sampling (8%-

10%), and associated with convenient sampling. Total 1005 questionnaires were

distributed to the government staffs and 71 public schools staffs, and the valid

questionnaires were 800 copies with return rate of 79.6%.

This study adopted exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis

(CFA), reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, independent-sample t-test, one-

way ANOVA, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), correlation analysis and

multiple regression. The findings are: (1) The government staffs have more stress

on outside-giving, and they were mostly satisfied with leadership style of their

supervisors; (2) Extrinsic effort and Overcommitment negatively and significantly

affect quality of work life; Self-esteem and job promotion positively and

Page 6: An analysis of quality of work life and career

significantly affect quality of work life; (3) Extrinsic effort and overcommitment

negatively and significantly affect the balance of job/life; Self-esteem and job

promotion positively and significantly affect quality of work life; (4) Humor

leadership is a moderator toward extrinsic effort, self-esteem, overcommitment and

quality of work life; (5) Health life, comfortable environment, friendly worksite are

partial moderators toward self-esteem, job promotion, overcommitment and job

characteristics; (6) Part of personal characters have significant differences in job

stress, quality of work life, humor leadership, and worksite health promotion.

This study aims to the relationship between job stress and quality of work life from

the staffs of Kaohsiung city government, and could confirm humor leadership and

worksite health promotion to be a moderator partially affecting job stress and

quality of work life. The results could be the reference to provide Kaohsiung city

government and related institutes to work on the strategy for reducing job stress

and increasing quality of work life.

Page 7: An analysis of quality of work life and career

The effect of cognitive demands and perceived quality of work life on human

performance in manufacturing environments :

(By John K. Layer , Waldemar Karwowski and Allen Furr)

The main objective of this study was to test the research question that human

performance in manufacturing environments depends on the cognitive demands of

the operator and the perceived quality of work life attributes. The second research

question was that this relationship is related to the operator's specific task and time

exposure. Two manufacturing companies, with a combined population of seventy-

four (74) multi-skilled, cross-trained workers who fabricated and assembled

mechanical and electrical equipment, participated in an eight month, four-wave

pseudopanel study. Structural equation modeling and invariance analysis

techniques were conducted on the data collected during cognitive task analysis and

the administration of questionnaires. Human performance was indicated to be a

causal result of the combined, and uncorrelated, effect of cognitive demands and

quality of work attributes experienced by workers. This causal relationship was

found to be dependent on the context of, but not necessarily the time exposed to,

the particular task the operator was involved with.

Page 8: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Ethics institutionalization, quality of work life, and employee job-related

outcomes: A survey of human resource managers in Thailand :

(Kalayanee Koonmee, Anusorn Singhapakdi, Busaya Virakula and Dong-Jin

Lee)

This research investigates the association between institutionalization of

ethics, quality of work life (QWL), and employee job-related outcomes in the Thai

work place. The data were collected by means of questionnaires mailed to human

resource managers of 514 Thai companies listed on the Stock Exchange of

Thailand. The response rate was 31.9%. Our survey results reveal a positive

relationship between implicit form of ethics institutionalization and both lower-

order and higher-order aspects of QWL. The results also indicate that the implicit

form of ethics institutionalization and the two aspects of QWL have positive

impacts on the three employee job-related outcomes: job satisfaction,

organizational commitment, and team spirit. The research findings not only

validate the research findings in the U.S. but also verify the importance of ethics

institutionalization and QWL programs for business organizations in Thailand.

Page 9: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Evaluating work ability and quality of life for clinical nurses in Taiwan :

Min-Chi Chiu BS, Mao-Jiun J. Wang PhD , , Chih-Wei Lu PhD, Shung-

Mei Pan RN, MSN, Masaharu Kumashiro PhD and Juhani Ilmarinen PhD

29 November 2007.

This study investigated the work ability and its relationship with quality of

life for the clinical nurses in Taiwan. The survey was of 1534 nursing professionals

from 8 different hospitals. Work ability of nursing professionals varied by age,

work experience, working departments and hospital types. Work ability of nurses

increased with age until after the age of 45. Personal health condition and physical

workload were the main factors contributing to the decline of the perceived work

ability for senior nurses. For young nurses, the mental demands of work were a

critical influence on their work ability. Moreover, work ability of nurses varied

among hospital type and department. The work ability of nurses was strongly

associated with the quality and safety of the work environment and leisure time

management. For improving and maintaining the work ability of nurses,

countermeasures such as enhancing the ability to cope with the job’s mental

demands for young nurses, and improving the job design to reduce physical

workload for senior nurses are recommended.

The quality of dental faculty work-life: report on the 2007 dental school

faculty work environment survey.

By Haden NK, Hendricson W, Ranney RR, Vargas A, Cardenas L, Rose W, Ross

R, Funk E.

Page 10: An analysis of quality of work life and career

This report is the third in a series of articles on the dental school work

environment commissioned by the American Dental Education Association's

Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education. The report is based

on the most extensive research to date on faculty satisfaction in the dental school

environment. The purpose of the study was to assess faculty perceptions and

recommendations related to work environment, sources of job satisfaction and

dissatisfaction, and professional development needs. More broadly, the study

intends to provide insight into the "change readiness" of dental schools to move

forward with curricular improvements and innovations. Findings are based on

1,748 responses from forty-nine U.S. dental schools obtained during the time

frame of February to April 2007. The total number of respondents constituted 17

percent of all U.S. dental school faculty. The average response rate per school was

thirty-six (21 percent). To elucidate the data in terms of issues related to the quality

of faculty work-life based on demographics, the authors compared perceptions of

various aspects of the work culture in academic dentistry among faculty with

different academic ranks and academic degrees and by other variables such as age

and gender, tenure versus non-tenure appointments, and full- versus part-time

status. Quantitative and qualitative analyses show that the majority of faculty

members described themselves as very satisfied to satisfied with their dental school

overall and with their department as a place to work. Tenured associate professors

expressed the greatest level of dissatisfaction. Opportunities for and support of

professional development emerged as an area requiring substantially more

attention from dental schools. The authors of the study suggest that dental school

leaders use these findings to assess their individual dental school's work

environment and to plan changes as needed.

Page 11: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Impact of depressive symptoms on the work-life quality of financial workers

in china

By

X.-L. Wang (Centre on Behavioral Health/The University of Hong Kong, Hong

Kong S.A.R., Hong Kong S.A.R.)

Depression cases have been reported among workers in the financial

industries. Occupations in this industry are considered among the most stressful

ones. This study aimed to examine the impact of depressive symptoms of financial

workers in China on their productivity and well-being. A survey was conducted

using a convenient sample of 1024 financial workers recruited from three large-

scale financial organizations located in the north and south of China. The result of

Hierarchical Regression Analyses shows that depressive symptoms of workers

significantly impaired their work-life quality. Severity of depressive symptoms had

significant positive relationships with three behavioral manifestations at works.

These are, in order of decreasing effect size, turnover intention, presenteeism, and

absenteeism. Specifically, depressive symptoms had a larger effect on

presenteeism compared to absenteeism, which implies the unawareness or

insufficient recognition of Chinese workers towards depression as an illness in

comparison with other physical illnesses. Moreover, a Univariate Analysis was

conducted to study the moderating effect of emotional labor on the relationship

between the severity of depressive symptoms and presenteeism. An aggravating

effect was found, displaying a greater damage of depressive symptoms to

psychosocial functions of workers. Besides, depressive symptoms of workers also

impaired their quality of life in aspects such as interpersonal relationships, life

situation, and so on. This study provides evidence of impairments of depression in

Page 12: An analysis of quality of work life and career

the workplace, urging the management to pay more attention to its employees'

mental health no matter whether it is for the sake of the company's benefit or the

employees' well-being.

Assessing the quality of nursing work life.

Brooks BA, Storfjell J, Omoike O, Ohlson S, Stemler I, Shaver J, Brown A.

University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Traditionally, nursing has measured job satisfaction by focusing on

employees' likes and dislikes. However, job satisfaction is an unsatisfactory

construct to assess either the jobs themselves or employees' feelings about work

sinceas much as 30% of the variance explained in job satisfaction surveys is a

function of personality, something employers can do little to change. Based on

socio-technical systems theory, quality of nursing work life (QNWL) assessments

focus on identifying opportunities for nurses to improve their work and work

environment while achieving the organization's goals. Moreover, some evidence

suggests that improvements in work life are needed to improve productivity.

Therefore, assessing QNWL reveals areas for improvement where the needs of

both the employees and the organization converge. The purpose of this article was

to assess the QNWL of staff nurses using Brooks' Quality of Nursing Work Life

Survey.

Page 13: An analysis of quality of work life and career

A Study of the Relationship on the Bureau of Investigation Officials’ Quality

of Work Life, Work Pressure, and Job Satisfaction

By Jian-hua Hua

The subject of this research is the investigation officials from eight different

regions. With convenience sampling, data are collected through questionnaire

survey. Individual variable is set as independent variable, and the quality of work

life, work pressure and job satisfaction are set as dependent variables. Differences

and correlation are explored within each variable. Next, the quality of work life is

set as mediator variable to investigate the mediator effect and the paths of relations

on the dependent variables of work pressure and job satisfaction.

The total number of 231 copies of effective questionnaires is collected. The return

rate is 68.69%. Data are analyzed with descriptive statistics analysis, reliability

analysis, factor analysis, t-test, One-way ANOVA, Pearson’s product-moment

correlation and canonical correlation analysis. The research reaches several

significant conclusions:

1. The officials hold positive opinions toward their working quality. Result also

shows that factors of marital status, age, years of working, and job position may

cause obvious differences.

2. The officials’ general work pressure reveals the fact of acceptable pressure. The

region of service, job position and job duty are the factors that cause different

levels of work pressure.

3. The officials’ job satisfaction shows that officials are generally pleased with

their works. Differences can be found in marital status, age, years of working and

education level.

4. The officials’ quality of work life and work pressure are partially related.

5. The officials’ quality of work life and job satisfaction are partially related.

Page 14: An analysis of quality of work life and career

6. The officials’ work pressure and job satisfaction have partial correlation.

7. The officials’ quality of work life has partial effect on work pressure and job

satisfaction.

With practical investigation and relevant literature review, this research also

advances suggestions for the Bureau of Investigation and its supervising

department, officials, and other researchers as the reference for future

implementation of management.

A moral imperative to improve the quality of work-life for nurses: building

inclusive social capital capacity.

Hofmeyer A.

Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Abstract

The complexity and incessant change in the corporatised health care workplace has

influenced nurses' work choices, morale, quality of work-life and the wellbeing of

patients. Thus, there is an urgent moral imperative to improve the quality of work-

life for nurses. To this end, it is crucial to re-define progress beyond the sole

economic markers of success and profit in the health care workplace. This paper

argues for the identification of ethical markers and indicators of organisational

success based on bridging and linking social capital which could be used to re-

organise health care organisations, hence crafting inclusive moral spaces where

nurses can safely work and provide quality care for patients. Social and ethical

evaluation is well suited to examine current workplace dilemmas from a

Page 15: An analysis of quality of work life and career

psychosocial perspective and provide a framework for best practice in building

capacity in effective social relations and family friendly, ethical workplaces.

A Study on Quality of Work Life of Real Estate Operators in Public and

Private Sectors

By Ching-Yu Tsai

The managing concept of improving quality of work life has attracted attention of

the researchers and practical managers gradually. The purpose of this study is to

apply this concept on disposal of real estates by public and private

sectors. Through discussion of relevant literature and experimental surveys, we

used registrars of land administration authorities and land administration clerks of

Land Administration Personnel’s Association as subjects. The variables are quality

of work life (including measurement perspectives such as learning development,

dignity in work, nature of job, evaluation on promotion, working environment,

salary and bonus, family leisure, and interpersonal interaction), attribute of

individuals, city and county, and job satisfaction (including internal satisfaction,

external satisfaction and overall satisfaction). In this study, the real estate

operators’ quality of work life, job satisfaction and the correlation between them

were discussed.

The return rate of questionnaires was 93% in this study. We carried out our study

based on the 374 valid questionnaires with the descriptive statistical analysis,

reliability analysis, independent sample T-test, one-way ANOVA analysis and

Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis. The important results of our

research are as the following:

1.The average of quality of work life and job satisfaction is higher than the median

value. This indicates that the real estate operators in both the public and private

Page 16: An analysis of quality of work life and career

sectors recognized their perceptual experience in quality of work life and were

quite satisfied with their jobs. While marriage, age and educational degree of the

real estate operators in the public sector might create appreciable differences in

their perceptual experience in quality of work life. 

2.Differences between public and private sectors and between city and county and

analysis on such differences: With respect to the perceptual experience in quality

of work life and the overall job satisfaction, both the public and private sectors and

the city and county have a degree of satisfaction above average. However, in terms

of the degree of satisfaction, the private sector is higher than the public sector;

Kaohsiung County is higher than Kaohsiung City. The parts that got the highest

points and had the same perspective are nature of job and learning

development. The part getting the lower points and having consistent perspective is

family leisure. However, evaluation on promotion is the part in which the public

sector had the lowest perceptual experience. In private sector, the lowest perceptual

experience fell in salary and bonus.

3.Correlation between quality of work life and job satisfaction: In the public sector,

the highest positive correlation exists between interpersonal interaction and the

overall job satisfaction. In the private sector, the highest positive correlation is

between family leisure and the overall job satisfaction.

Based on the study results and the review of literature, we submit some

suggestions on policies to public and private real estate dealers and their competent

authorities, real estate operators at the basic level, and subsequent researchers for

their reference in practical management.

Page 17: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Impact of the psychosocial aspects of work on the quality of life of teachers.

Fernandes MH, Rocha VM.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of psychosocial aspects on the quality of

life of teachers from municipal schools in Natal, Brazil.

METHOD: descriptive study with a cross-sectional design and a sample of 242

elementary school teachers. We used the WHOQOL-bref to assess the quality of

life as well as questions about the level of control and the psychological demand of

work from the Job Content Questionnaire.

RESULTS: the overall evaluation of quality of life showed that the physical and

environmental domains had the lowest mean scores. According to the psychosocial

aspects, most of the subjects (67 individuals = 32.1%) were characterized as

having active work (high demand and control), followed by 54 teachers (25.8%)

with demanding work (high demand and little control). These two groups have

shown to be more affected in the assessment of physical (p < 0.001), psychological

(p < 0.001), and environment (p < 0.001) domains of quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS: Teachers who had tasks characterized as active and demanding

were more affected in the quality of life domain. This finding suggests the need for

greater investment in health-promotion policies among teachers.

Page 18: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Evaluating work ability and quality of life for clinical nurses in Taiwan.

Chiu MC, Wang MJ, Lu CW, Pan SM, Kumashiro M, Ilmarinen J.

Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, National

Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, 300, ROC.

Abstract

This study investigated the work ability and its relationship with quality of life for

the clinical nurses in Taiwan. The survey was of 1534 nursing professionals from 8

different hospitals. Work ability of nursing professionals varied by age, work

experience, working departments and hospital types. Work ability of nurses

increased with age until after the age of 45. Personal health condition and physical

workload were the main factors contributing to the decline of the perceived work

ability for senior nurses. For young nurses, the mental demands of work were a

critical influence on their work ability. Moreover, work ability of nurses varied

among hospital type and department. The work ability of nurses was strongly

associated with the quality and safety of the work environment and leisure time

management. For improving and maintaining the work ability of nurses,

countermeasures such as enhancing the ability to cope with the job's mental

demands for young nurses, and improving the job design to reduce physical

workload for senior nurses are recommended.

Page 19: An analysis of quality of work life and career

Article: An analysis of quality of work life (QWL) and career-related

variables.

Article from: American Journal of Applied Sciences

Article date: December 1, 2006

Author: Rose, Raduan Che; Beh, LooSee; Uli, Jegak; Idris, Khairuddin

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to determine the level and relationship between

qualities of work life (QWL) with career-related variables. The sample consists of

475 executives from the electrical and electronics industry in the free trade zones

in Malaysia for both the multinational corporations (MNCs) and the small-medium

industries (SMIs). The selection of respondents using stratified random sampling

technique involves a complete list of industrial firms registered with Malaysian

Industrial Development Authority (MIDA). Construct validity and discriminant

validity were conducted on the instruments. Three exogenous variables were

studied. The result indicates that the three exogenous variables are significant:

career satisfaction, career achievement and career balance with 63% of the

variance in QWL. The respondents appeared to be satisfied in respect to the level

of QWL (49.5%), career achievement (70.3%), career satisfaction (63.8%), but less

so for career balance (36.6%). These findings contribute to an understanding of

ways by top management in attempts to attain a career fit between the needs of the

employees and the needs of the organization. The role QWL plays in organizations

is an understudied issue. The present study opens an avenue for more studies in

this direction.

Page 20: An analysis of quality of work life and career

INTRODUCTION

Although research has uncovered important predictors of Quality of Work Life

(QWL), yet it has been absent present and has not been fully explored. To date,

much of the empirical research on QWL has implicitly, if not explicitly, adopted a

contemporary view of job satisfaction, stress, labor relations and a broad based

view of occupation. Past scholars have offered a variety of definitions and

suggestions of what constitutes QWL. For instance, QWL is a philosophy, a set of

principles, which holds that people are the most important resource in the

organization as they are trustworthy, responsible and capable of making valuable

contribution and they should be treated with dignity and respect [1]. The elements

that are relevant to an individual's quality of work life include the task, the physical

work environment, social environment within the organization, administrative

system and relationship between life on and off the job [2]. QWL consists of

opportunities for active involvement in group working arrangements or problem

solving that are of mutual benefit to employees or employers, based on labor-

management cooperation. People also conceive of QWL as a set of methods, such

as autonomous work groups, job enrichment and high-involvement aimed at

boosting the satisfaction and productivity of workers [3]. It requires employee

commitment to the organization and an environment in which this commitment can

flourish [4]. Thus, QWL is a comprehensive construct that includes an individual's

job related well-being and the extent to which work experiences are rewarding,

fulfilling and devoid of stress and other negative personal consequences [5].

Accordingly, the rising number of two-income households is heightening the

concern for employees' quality of work life. Given that female participation at

work is increasing, it is apparent that males and females independently will need to

take care of both work and home. Therefore, quality of work experience rather than

Page 21: An analysis of quality of work life and career

work per se became the focus of attention [6] and workplace wellness is crucial in

promoting healthier working environments [7].

In fact, Malaysia's industrial growth has created a high demand for labor in the

manufacturing sector. Malaysia's electrical and electronics (E & E) industry is the

largest contributor to the country's manufacturing output, employment and exports.

The E & E industry continues to be Malaysia's largest export earner at 65.5%

during the first six months of the year 2003 [8]. Hence, the E & E industry creates

the largest number of job opportunities, totaling 20,493 in 2002 in the

manufacturing projects out of the total of 68,575 [9]. Due to the importance of this

industry, it is a necessity to evaluate the working environment of the executives in

this sector that require medium to high skills. This is consistent with the finding

that competition in world markets for products in electronics has increased

considerably over the past few years. If this trend continues, this sector will

become even more competitive in the years to come [10].

In summary, the limitations of individual job satisfaction had been pointed out in

the literature for assessing the QWL and there had been no attempt in the past to

measure QWL in terms of career aspects and organizational climate. This study is

an attempt in such endeavor to further develop theoretical underpinnings to the

available literature on QWL.

Proposed model:

Career and QWL: The term QWL was introduced in the late 1960s as a way of

focusing on the effects of employment on health and general well-being and ways

to enhance the quality of a person's on the job experience. QWL is much broader

Page 22: An analysis of quality of work life and career

and more diverse than organizational development, in ensuring adequate and fair

compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, opportunities for personal

growth and development, satisfaction of social needs at work, protection of

employee rights, compatibility between work and non-work responsibilities and

the social relevance of work-life [4,11].

Meaningful and satisfying work is said to include: (1) an opportunity to exercise

one's talents and capacities, to face challenges and situations that require

independent initiative and self-direction (and which therefore is not boring and

repetitive work); (2) in an activity thought to be of worth by the individual

involved; (3) in which one understands the role one's activity plays in the

achievement of some overall goal; and (4) take pride in what one is doing and in

doing it well. This issue of meaningful and satisfying work is often merged with

discussions of job satisfaction, however, the author believed this favorable estimate

to QWL instead.

There are three distinctive elements of QWL related interventions: (1) a concern

about the effect of work on people as well as organizational effectiveness, (2) the

idea of worker participation in organizational problem solving and decision

making and (3) the creation of reward structures in the workplace which consider

innovative ways of rewarding employee input into the work process such as

gainsharing, etc