Quality of Work: Validation of a New Instrument in Three Languages

Abstract

Introduction and objective: A new instrument to measure quality of work was developed in three languages (German, French and Luxembourgish) and validated in a study of employees working in Luxembourg. Methods and results: A representative sample (n = 1529) was taken and exploratory factor analysis revealed a six-factor solution for the 21-item instrument (satisfaction and respect, mobbing, mental strain at work, cooperation, communication and feedback, and appraisal). Reliability analysis showed satisfying reliability for all six factors and the total questionnaire. In order to examine the construct validity of the new instrument, regression analyses were conducted to test whether the instrument predicted work characteristics’ influence on three components of well-being—burnout, psychological stress and maladaptive coping behaviors. Conclusion: The present validation offers a trilingual inventory for measuring quality of work that may be used, for example, as an assessment tool or for testing the effectiveness of interventions.

The Quality of Work Index and the Quality of Employment Index: A Multidimensional Approach of Job Quality and Its Links to Well-Being at Work

“…A review of job quality approaches has shown the need for a new questionnaire that covers the most recent conceptualization of job quality. Moreover, our aim was to connect the JD-R model that is well established in work psychology [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] with the job quality debate [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. The proposed two job quality indices (i.e., QoW and QoE) contain job characteristics that are linked to well-being and/or health outcomes, and are rooted in the JD-R model.…”

“…Therefore, job quality can be seen as a multidimensional and elusive concept [8]. Perhaps because of this inherent multidimensionality and elusiveness, there are multiple and relatively diffuse concepts that have been developed in parallel and that tap into the domain of job quality, such as quality of working life, decent work, employment quality, and quality of work [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. To make things even more complicated, authors (from different disciplines) referring to the same concept often mean different things (e.g., employment quality [10,13]) and some authors seem to use a few terms interchangeably [12,14,15].…”

“…While economists emphasize the importance of employment conditions (e.g., wages, career advancement), sociologists and psychologists tend to focus on non-economic work factors such as intrinsically meaningful or challenging work, and in particular on the 'goodness' of work when considering job quality [7,8]. These different approaches resulted in a plethora of initiatives aiming at measuring job quality [8,16,17]. Munoz de Bustillo et al and others [8,13] decompose job quality into two broad areas: quality of work and quality of employment.…”

Quality of Life at Work of Janitors Workers

“…The worker invests many hours of the day in a work space in which physical and social conditions converge to which he arrives with his particularities and personal aspirations that he must manage to achieve an efficient execution of his work and a balance between his work life and the external world. The quality of life at work is associated with objective characteristics of the work and the subjective evaluation that the person makes of them (Steffgen, Khol, Reese, Happ, & Sischka, 2015). The emphasis of the meaning of the construct is the worker's assessment of his work life, in the subjective, individual psychological experience and satisfaction (Lehman, 1988) and, it is important because it can support or not to health, safety and a better balance between the employee's personal and work life (Eurofond, 2016a).…”

“…In recent decades, the importance of quality of life at work has been recognized for its influence on physical and mental health, job satisfaction, well-being and work-family balance of the employee and multiple investigations (eg Beham & Drobonic, 2010;Bobé, Trobat, Sampietro, 2008;Dahl, Nesheim & Olsen, 2009; Eurofond, 2016a and b; Eurfond, 2017; Greenhaus, Collin, & Shaw, 2003;Steffgen et al, 2015;Wallace et al, 2007). However, specific studies on janitor employees are scarce in the international context and in Mexico they almost do not exist.…”