Work-life Balance Decision-making of Norwegian Students: Implications for Human Resources Management

An Integrative Approach to Assess Subjective Well-Being. A Case Study on Romanian University Students

“…Studying the drivers of SWB via Pearson correlation analysis, our research finds that health, optimistic, or pessimistic perspectives on the future and satisfaction with current activities have the most significant impact on self-reported happiness, whereas income does not seem to have significant influence. Moreover, the results are consistent with other studies [48,71] that emphasize the non-material determinants of SWB and contradict studies [72,73] where income or having a job are highly influential on self-assessed happiness. By finding a strong correlation between health and SWB, our study relates to Malkoç's research on undergraduate students [58], which reveals that psychological health was positively correlated with SWB, whereas physical health did not predict SWB.…”

“…Moreover, the questionnaire was designed in line with OECD Guidelines on Measuring SWB, which recommends three types of data to be collected: demographics, material income, quality of life, psychological measures [39]. In agreement with previous empirical studies [58][59][60] and the commonly used scales mentioned in the literature review [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53], the determinants of SWB assessed via questionnaire items and the extent to which they relate to categories presented in OECD Guidelines on Measuring SWB (OECD), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale (ComQol), and Personal Well-being Index (PWI) are presented in the Table 1. A rapid analysis of these items and their correspondence to the categories displayed in traditional SWB scales described in the literature review section reveals that the selection of the 11 factors used in our study is consistent with the highlighted research goal of focusing more on the economic approach to SWB.…”

“…Tackling the effect of materialistic values on well-being, Kasser and Ahuvia's study on 92 business students from Singapore finds that "students who believed that money, possession, image, and popularity are of large importance also reported lessened self-actualization, vitality, and happiness, and more anxiety, physical symptoms, and unhappiness" [47] (p. 142). Another research [48] focusing on Norwegian students concludes that income related dimensions of SWB are less important than social ties or lifelong self-development. Kong et al [49] focus on the relationship between self-esteem, social support, and life satisfaction.…”

Employment and Learning in the Context of the Quality of Working Life

“…QWL studies focus on various aspects of the life and work, i.e., (1) the medical aspects of the work process, workers and members of their families, and ways to overcome them [11], [12], [13]; (2) gender and age differences of workers in the labor market [14], [15]; (3) family, leisure, or work priority ratios [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]; (4) studies of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and well-being of employees; (5) studies of the impact of participation in a cultural and sporting events on QWL [21], [22]. A few QWL studies relate to employability and lifelong learning.…”

Encompassing the Work-Life Balance into Early Career Decision-Making of Future Employees Through the Analytic Hierarchy Process

“…QoL research in Economics has gained momentum in past decades with works of such researchers as Maslow [9], Graafland & Compen [10] (life satisfaction), AbelSmith & Townsend [11] (distribution of welfare), Atkinson [12,13] (social inequality), Sen [14][15][16][17][18] (welfare, wellbeing and socio-economic capabilities), Schuessler and Fisher [19] (QoL theory), Layard [20] [31], Gawlik & Jacobsen [32] (work-life balance), Żur [33], Neumark & Muz [34] (entrepreneurship and social inequality) Somarriba Arechavala, Zarzosa Espina & Pena Trapero [35] (QoL measurement) and others.…”