Career choice

Stress management

Career change

Quality of Working

Life

“Without doubt, the most important determinant of QWL is career achievement, followed by career satisfaction and career balance.”

Rose R C, Beh L, Uli J and Idris K (2006) Quality Of Work Life: Implications Of Career Dimensions. Journal of Social Sciences 2 (2): 61-67

What? A review of the literature reveals

relatively little on quality of working life.

What? A review of the literature reveals relatively

little on quality of working life. Where quality of working life has been

explored, writers differ in their views on the core constituents.

Taillefer,-Marie-Christine; Dupuis,-Gilles; Roberge,-Marie-Anne; Le-May,-Sylvie (2003) Health-related quality of life models: Systematic review of the literature. Social-Indicators-Research. 64 (2): 293-323

Quality of Working Life is the greater context in which to understand various factors in the workplace such as job satisfaction and stress.

A proper understanding of the bigger picture would offer opportunity for better informed interventions for individuals and at an organisational level.

We looked at the literature, and talked with the organisations we work with and came up with:

6*Van Laar, Edwards & Easton (2007)

‘Quality of Working Life is that part of overall quality of life that is influenced by work… the widest context in which an employee would evaluate the influence of work on their life.’*

How?How? We set out to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure QoWL. We started with our working definition to help define the scope of a scale. We drew upon theoretical definitions of QoWL (Herzberg, Loscocco &

Rochelle, Sirgy, Warr,etc.)

We had access to related scales, our own staff survey data and job experts

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200 questions were gathered from existing surveys or generated based on theoretical requirements, and reviewed by an expert panel to give an item pool of 61 questions.

The questionnaire was given to over 1000 employees of the UK National Health Service, and EFA and CFA on the two halves were undertaken.

The data sets were combined (N = 953) to confirm a 6 factor structure with 23 items (Overall C’s α = .91) and show a ‘good’ model fit for the ‘Work-Related Quality of Life’ (WRQoL) scale which appeared to be a valid and reliable scale with good psychometric properties.

How: Development of a measureHow: Development of a measure

Work-Related Quality of Life (WRQoL) scale factors

Job Career Satisfaction (JCS) : α = .86How far you agree that you are generally happy with your ability to do your work

General Well Being (GWB) : α = .89How much you agree you feel generally content with life as a whole

Home-Work Interface (HWI) : α = .82How far you agree that the organisation understands and tries to help you with pressures outside of work

Stress at Work (SAW) : α = .81How far you feel agree you experience stress at work

Control at Work (CAW) : α = .81How far you agree you feel you are involved in decisions that affect you at work

Working Conditions (WCS) : α = .75The extent you agree that you are happy with conditions in which you work

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Home

Work

Individual

Quality of Life

The Big Picture………

Control at Work

Home-Work

Interface

General Well-Being

Stress at Work

*Van Laar, Edwards & Easton (2007)

Quality ofWorking

Life

11

Home

Work Individual

Quality of

Life

The Big Picture………

Control at Work

Home-Work

Interface

General Well-Being

Stress at Work

*Van Laar, Edwards & Easton (2007)

Quality ofWorking

Life

Cultural &Social &EconomicEnvironment?

Plan Where we are

Understand what motivates workers in general Where we want to be

Understand how health and stress work into the picture of employee satisfaction and engagement

How we know how we’re doing How does stress tend to affect employee

performance? What are the consequences of employee safety

and health? What is OSHA and how does it regulate the

structure and function of the workplace?

Safety, Health, Stress and the Bottom Line Why should employers care

about employee safety and health as a performance management issue?

What responsibilities do employers have to look out for their employees’ well being?

Safety, Health, Stress and the Bottom Line Physiological

Increased use of sick days and vacations Low levels of energy and motivation Drug/alcohol abuse symptoms

Psychological Difficulty concentrating Reduced creative output Dissatisfaction and resentment

Behavioral Lower performance Anger and violence toward co-workers More grievances in union settings

Stress at Work Think about the ways that the

workplace or school can be stressful

How do you personally cope with these stressors?

What does your organization do to help reduce the extent to which you experience stress?

Integra’s 2000 Survey Showed

65% of workers said that workplace stress had caused difficulties 10% said they work in an atmosphere where physical violence has

occurred because of job stress 29% had yelled at co-workers because of workplace stress 14% said they work where machinery or equipment has been damaged

because of workplace rage 2% admitted that they had actually personally struck someone; 19% had quit a previous position because of job stress 62% routinely find that they end the day with work-related neck pain 44% reported stressed-out eyes 38% complained of hurting hands 34% reported difficulty in sleeping because they were too stressed-out; 12% had called in sick because of job stress

What are the Most Prevalent Stressors in the Workplace? On the job

Job or task demands, like workload and responsibility

Interpersonal conflict Management practices Physical risks

Off the job Financial distress Childcare needs

Source: NIOSH Publication No. 2008–136, Exposure to Stress: Occupational Hazards in Hospitals

Work-Life Conflict as a Stressor Definition

Competing demands from work and family roles Became a larger issue when dual career couples

and shifting expectations for family life increased

Examples of conflicts include scheduling problems, exhaustion, taking home to work with you, and taking work home with you

Stress isn’t compartmentalized Stress at work leads to stress at home Stress at home leads to stress at work

Work-Life Conflict as a Stressor Research investigating negative work-family

conflicts Examined over 18,000 Finnish workers Medically certified absences as an outcome variable,

with self-reported work-family conflict as a predictor Results

Those who reported high levels of work-family conflicts took 1.4 times more certified sickness absences than those who reported low levels of work-family conflicts

Effects were especially strong among blue-collar and lower level white-collar workers

Source: Vaananen et al., Work-Family Characteristics as a Predictor of Sickness Absence, JOHP, 2008

Work-Life Conflict as a Stressor Research investigating work-life conflicts

Examined database of 1,367 individuals working in 126 different occupations

Surveys were conducted over a number of years Occupational demands that increased work-life conflict

Work that is highly interdependent Responsibility for others Inflexible schedules Strong time demands

Home demands that increase work-life conflict Number of children

Source: Dierdorff and Ellington, It’s the Nature of the Work, JAP, 2008