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1 – 10 of over 142000Pantri Heriyati, Nathanya Chitta, Sekar Prasetyaningtyas, Prita Prasetya and Neeraj Yadav
Interrelationships among some common factors of human resource (HR) management and quality management are still unexplored. Changes in work patterns due to the Covid-19 pandemic…
Abstract
Purpose
Interrelationships among some common factors of human resource (HR) management and quality management are still unexplored. Changes in work patterns due to the Covid-19 pandemic have aroused interest in some of these factors, such as working-hours, work pressure, work–life balance practices, job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to explore the interrelationships among such factors. Specifically, the influence of work hours, work pressure, job rotation and work–life balance on job satisfaction is evaluated both directly and under the mediating influence of working conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire-based survey was conducted in Indonesia among diversified organisations. A total of 432 responses were gathered, and they were examined using hypothesis testing and partial least square based structural equation modelling.
Findings
The study confirms the statistically proven impact of work pressure, job rotations and work–life-balance practices on working conditions. Job rotations, work–life balance practices and working conditions directly influenced job satisfaction. Work pressure did not influence job satisfaction directly, but it significantly influenced working conditions, which eventually affected job satisfaction. Working hours neither affected working conditions nor job satisfaction in a significant manner.
Practical implications
Covid-19 necessitated working from home, which is a peculiar work–life balance situation. The findings are helpful for organisations in planning strategies related to work–life-balance, working hours, multi-skilling, working conditions and other quality of work life factors in both regular working conditions and under Covid-19 conditions.
Social implications
The proven influence of work pressure and work–life-balance practices may result in the formation of informal organisations, social groups and increased social networking. As working hours are not diagnosed as an influencing factor for job satisfaction, organisations may think about increasing them, affecting the social fabric of the working community.
Originality/value
Previously unexplored interrelationships among various quality of work life factors are established. Under Covid-19 circumstances, factors such as working hours, work–life-balance and work pressure are investigated in a novel manner. The factors and their interrelationships are important to both quality management professionals and HR professionals.
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Isabel Torres, Tânia Gaspar and Paula Rodrigues
This study aims to explain the health impact of work demands and organization, job content, leadership and values in the workplace. It also explores the extent to which health…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explain the health impact of work demands and organization, job content, leadership and values in the workplace. It also explores the extent to which health conditions influence the meaning in life in late career.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consisted of 1,330 Portuguese-based individuals aged 55–75 years. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for the data analysis and to test the research questions.
Findings
The results showed that stress and burnout are influenced by work demands and organization, job content, leadership and values in the workplace. Employment status had no influence. Health status affects the meaning in life.
Research limitations/implications
Although participants were asked to answer the questionnaire bearing in mind their last work experience, retirees could have had difficulty reporting on their last work; therefore, in future research, the use of a qualitative methodology could also be equated as to complement richer information regarding past experiences in the work context.
Practical implications
Considering the main goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, this study contributes, namely, to the third one – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. In fact, directing a look at the condition in which older people work and at their health contributes not only to more productive organizations, to less spending of public money on health, but also to a more inclusive society. Bearing in mind workers are progressively retiring later and that the exposure to certain work conditions during the late career is problematic for organizations and for society in general, this study has practical and social implication.
Originality/value
Considering demographic changes and the aging of the active population in Portugal and the scarce studies carried out in the country concerning this relevant theme, the authors believe that the conclusions may constitute an important input for workplace policies regarding older workers. In addition, little research has focused on the effect of health in meaning in life.
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Martin Guzi and Pablo de Pedraza García
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of work conditions and job characteristics with respect to three subjective well-being (SWB) indicators: life satisfaction, job…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of work conditions and job characteristics with respect to three subjective well-being (SWB) indicators: life satisfaction, job satisfaction and satisfaction with work-life balance. From a methodological point of view, the paper shows how social sciences can benefit from the use of voluntary web survey data.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper makes use of a large sample of individual data obtained from voluntary web surveys collected as part of the WageIndicator project. The sample includes extensive information on the quality of working conditions together with different well-being indicators. The propensity score adjustment weights are used to improve the sample performance.
Findings
The results shed light on the importance of certain job characteristics not only in determining job satisfaction, but also in other SWB domains. The findings support the theory of spillover perspectives, according to which satisfaction in one domain affects other domains.
Research limitations/implications
As a voluntary web-survey, WageIndicator is affected by selection bias. The validity of the sample can be improved by weighting, but this adjustment should be made and tested on a country-by-country basis.
Originality/value
The paper provides analysis of the quality of a web survey not commonly used in happiness research. The subsequent presentation of the effects of working conditions on several satisfaction domains represents a contribution to the literature.
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Charles R. McCann and Vibha Kapuria-Foreman
Robert Franklin Hoxie was of the first generation of University of Chicago economists, a figure of significance in his own time. He is often heralded as the first of the…
Abstract
Robert Franklin Hoxie was of the first generation of University of Chicago economists, a figure of significance in his own time. He is often heralded as the first of the Institutional economists and the impetus behind the field of labor economics. Yet today, his contributions appear as mere footnotes in the history of economic thought, when mentioned at all, despite the fact that in his professional and popular writings he tackled some of the most pressing problems of the day. The topics upon which he focused included bimetallism, price theory, methodology, the economics profession, socialism, syndicalism, scientific management, and trade unionism, the last being the field with which he is most closely associated. His work attracted the notice of some of the most famous economists of his time, including Frank Fetter, J. Laurence Laughlin, Thorstein Veblen, and John R. Commons. For all the promise, his suicide at the age of 48 ended what could have been a storied career. This paper is an attempt to resurrect Hoxie through a review of his life and work, placing him within the social and intellectual milieux of his time.
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Being involved at work advances accountants' contribution to organizational success. However, scholars are not consistent in discussing involvement's implications on work–life…
Abstract
Purpose
Being involved at work advances accountants' contribution to organizational success. However, scholars are not consistent in discussing involvement's implications on work–life balance (WLB). The article aims to address this issue, investigating involvement's effects on the accountants' ability to manage the work–life interplay.
Design/methodology/approach
Secondary data on a sample of 538 accountants were collected from the sixth European Working Condition Survey (EWCS). A serial mediation analysis was designed to obtain evidence of involvement's implications on WLB through the mediating role of work engagement and work satisfaction.
Findings
Involvement negatively affected the accountants' ability to deal with the work–life interplay. Engagement and satisfaction with work mediated this relationship. More specifically, involved accountants who were engaged and satisfied with their work conditions were less likely to report struggles between work and life.
Research limitations/implications
Involvement implies an intensification of work, heralding an overlapping between work and life. Nonetheless, accountants who are engaged and satisfied with work are less touched by involvement's drawback on WLB. A precautionary approach should be taken to avoid that involvement results in workaholism, thus undermining individual well-being.
Originality/value
The article originally discusses involvement's implications on WLB across accountants. Being involved at work impairs the individual ability to achieve a balance between work and life, endangering well-being at work. Whilst the findings cannot be generalized beyond the accounting profession, they deliver some intriguing insights that highlight avenues for further developments.
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Ilias Livanos and Imanol Nuñez
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how precarious conditions at work affect older workers’ decision about their planned age of retirement.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how precarious conditions at work affect older workers’ decision about their planned age of retirement.
Design/methodology/approach
Different theoretical approaches on the decision to retire are investigated in order to ascertain whether precarious employment extends, or not, one’s working life. A rich data set including over 250,000 old workers across EU-15 is built for the empirical investigation.
Findings
The results suggest that old workers involved in precarious employment are planning to retire later than those who are engaged with more stable and regular jobs. However, lack of training as well as poor health conditions at work are found to be associated with early retirement.
Originality/value
The analysis conceptually associates two key features of modern labour markets (precariousness and retirement) and empirically provides some evidence of the effect of poor employment conditions on the decision to retire.
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Hugo Briseño, Lourdes Maisterrena and Manuel Soto-Pérez
This research aims to find which components of Decent Work are associated with Subjective Well-Being.
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to find which components of Decent Work are associated with Subjective Well-Being.
Design/methodology/approach
With data from 2021 from the states of Mexico, econometric models are carried out.
Findings
It is found that disposable income and satisfaction with leisure time have a significant positive relationship with employees' Subjective Well-Being. Likewise, the rate of critical occupancy conditions and informality rate have a significant negative relationship with Subjective Well-Being. The research suggests that influencing the Decent Work conditions of the population in Mexico could favour their Subjective Well-Being.
Social implications
Share guidelines that enable employers and governments to establish strategies and policies that promote Decent Work to increase the Subjective Well-being of employees.
Originality/value
This article evaluates different variables that make up the Decent Work construct in their level of influence on Subjective Well-being. These relationships and variables considered have not been identified in previous studies as a whole.
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Susana Pasamar and Ramón Valle Cabrera
The purpose of this paper is to analyse perceptions of institutional pressures on employers to improve the work-life balance in challenging environments with difficult financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse perceptions of institutional pressures on employers to improve the work-life balance in challenging environments with difficult financial and economic conditions and to classify organisations according to these perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using survey data from 146 Spanish private firms in different industries, the cluster analysis was conducted.
Findings
The analysis clearly shows the existence of three different groups of companies according to their perception of coercive, mimetic and normative pressures, and the different characteristics of the groups. The perceptions of institutional pressures determine the stance of the company with regard to work-life balance.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the changing economic context, it seems important to analyse the existence of environmental pressures to encourage work-life balance.
Social implications
Spain still has a long way to go in the diffusion of work-life practices.
Originality/value
This paper explores the institutional pressures on employers to improve work-life balance in a crisis context, and in a non-Anglo-Saxon country, showing that companies pay attention to the dynamics of the environment in which the company operates, and do not only consider economic reasons.
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Alexander Styhre and Maria Norbäck
Passion and interest are the two principal drivers of competitive capitalism, and reconciling the two is conducive to a dynamic and welfare-generating economic system. On the…
Abstract
Purpose
Passion and interest are the two principal drivers of competitive capitalism, and reconciling the two is conducive to a dynamic and welfare-generating economic system. On the level of the individual, the same categories can be applied to examining, for example, career choices, at times violating propositions regarding rational expectations as some categories of work include lower economic compensation or higher levels of risk than would be attractive to the median job applicant. The purpose of this paper is to examine how venture workers, employees of life, thinly capitalize science ventures, justify their career choices and how they act in order to create economic security for themselves and their families.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a qualitative data collection methodology and reports on empirical research material from a study of co-workers at life science start-ups. The sample includes salaried employees working at venture capital-backed start-up companies in the life science sector.
Findings
The study indicates that passionate preferences regarding, for example, meaningful work in collaboration with peers, and the ability to participate in the creation of a new venture, have overshadowed the downside risks and the lower level of economic compensation vis-à-vis comparable work. Such findings indicate that deeply meaningful work is a useful analytical category, and that combinations of the favorable market pricing of skills and experiences, as well as state-funded welfare mechanisms, cushioning some of the market risk that employees are exposed to, will provide opportunities for venture labor, i.e. work done at thinly capitalized firms, such as start-ups, per se contributing to a dynamic industry.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the innovation management literature as it examines the key role of salaried venture workers, i.e. workers that do not hold contracts, granting them the right to compensation when venture capital investors make an exit. In addition, the study also discusses the literature on deeply meaningful work, stressing that this is a useful analytical category.
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Nanjundeswaraswamy T.S., Sindu Bharath, P. Nagesh and Vignesh K.M.
This study aims to evaluate and compare the quality of work life (QWL) of nurses, in pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic situations.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to evaluate and compare the quality of work life (QWL) of nurses, in pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic situations.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts a descriptive research design. Data were collected during the pre- and post-pandemic periods. The target sampling unit of the study comprises nurses working in Bangalore city, Karnataka, India. The minimum sample size was determined (Bartlett et al., 2001) as 385. The scale validation is carried out. The factors for the present study were explored using exploratory factor analysis and confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Model fitness (proposed measurement model) is ensured by using fit indices. The linear regression method was used to measure the level of QWL of nurses.
Findings
The present study noted that key factors that affects the QWL of nursing staff are work condition; work environment; work-life balance; compensation and reward; career development; job satisfaction and security; organization culture; relationship among co-workers and stress. Further, it is noticed that QWL of nurses pre-COVID-19 pandemic is 87.2%, while post-COVID-19 pandemic, it is 67%.
Research limitations/implications
Present study can be extended to address the same research question by considering sampling unit such as therapist, technicians and sanitarians who have equally undergone tremendous pressure during pandemic.
Practical implications
The study outcome provides references for organizations engaged in health services to understand the extreme job conditions posed by pandemic. The constructive inspiration (physio-social and organizational support) reinforces the nurses to continue in their professions by decreasing negative impact.
Originality/value
The research paper extends the contributions of Hwang (2002), Nikeghbal et al. (2021), Howie–Esquivel et al. (2022) and Rania et al. (2023) and add to the existing body of the QWL literature. The outcome of the research records the prevailing conditions of pandemic and its effect on changes in work environment with specific reference to health-care sector.
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