Quality of working life

Quality of working life (QWL) is a broad concept which can have several specific areas of pertinence. Quality of life is a concept which refers to an individual's perception when experiencing situations of his work.¹

Additionally, QWL are favorable working conditions and environments involving employee satisfaction, job security and opportunities for continued training.²

Some authors consider that quality of working life refers to those specific components of work linked to satisfaction, motivation, and work performance. It is also the full degree of satisfaction of our human needs, deduced in different physical, psychological, and social dimensions.³

Regarding the importance of the quality of working life, some authors say that talking about this topic is related to the productive activity of people, where a satisfied and healthy worker is more productive and happier.⁴In a study of QWL in nurses, data analysis demonstrated that 61.82% perceive an average level of quality of working life. In terms of sex, significant difference was found in the dimension of safety at work (p = .040), (M = 40.8 women) (M = 34.7 men); women in the emergency room and operating room showed higher averages in the dimension of institutional support (M = 48.75) compared to men (M = 40.8).⁵

Job performance

Job performance is the way employees strive to work effectively to achieve organizational goals.⁶For León González, work performance is the way or manner in which an employee performs his tasks.⁷In addition, it is proposed that work performance is the value that is expected to contribute to the organization of the different attitudinal competencies that an individual develops and performs in any given period.⁸In the words of Robbins and Coulter, job performance is the result of an activity.⁹On the other hand, job performance is seen as an ongoing process in which employees are informed of the expectations needed from them.¹⁰Job performance is also the work and behavior that can be seen in employees and that are relevant to achieving the goals of the institution.¹¹Gibson^{( )}defines it as the result of tasks that relate to the purposes of the organization, such as quality, efficiency, and other criteria for effectiveness. Job performance is also the function with which the job occupant carries out the activities formally recognized as part of his or her work.¹³

Job performance is extremely situational, that is, it varies from person to person and from situation to situation, because it depends on innumerable factors.¹⁴Chiavenato¹⁵identifies certain areas that determine a worker’s performance: communication, problem solving, decision-making, professionalism, acceptance of change, initiative, interpersonal relationships, responsibility, teamwork, attitude, and work performance. In addition, work performance is considered as a means to value employees, develop their skills, strengthen their performance and distribute rewards.¹⁶For his part, Firth¹⁷stresses that the evaluation of the level of performance is of great importance since it brings benefits to the boss and provides a clearer understanding of what is happening within the company and what could be its future.

Relationship between variables

A study on profitability and quality of working life in 33 companies found a strong relationship between the quality of working life and the products of organizations where it is stated that the higher quality of working life, the better business profitability, thanks to staff performance.¹⁸For his part, Lau¹⁹says that the quality of working life offered by an organization has a positive impact on the physical, mental and emotional health of the worker, with a positive impact on his or her performance. In a study they found that organizations that generate quality goods and/or services through adequate working conditions, as well as personal/professional development opportunities for their employees, are also the ones that make the most profits and best social consideration.²⁰

In a study they found that by establishing strategies focused on improving the quality of working life of workers, this is reflected in the performance and benefit of the organization in the short, medium or long term.¹⁸In an investigation Grote and Guest²¹found a relationship between the quality of working life with work performance, the work system, corporate policies, management and management methods, organizational strategies or effectiveness and productivity. For their part, Kim, and Ryu²²found a direct relationship between physical and mental health variables and performance with performance and delivery of results.

Design and Setting

The present study has a quantitative, transversal, and predictive approach, using a database of doctors working at the Mexican Institute of Social Security for Welfare, in the State of Chiapas, Mexico.

Population and sample

The population used consisted of 445 doctors. The type of sampling carried out in this investigation was not probabilistic for convenience, since doctors working at the IMSS Welfare in the state of Chiapas were selected. The sample was 169 doctors representing 37.97% of the population studied. No sample size calculation was performed, as the instrument used was sent to the entire population. All physicians could participate regardless of gender, position, or age.

Variables and instruments

The variables used in the present study were the following: the independent variable was the quality of working life and the dependent variable was work performance. Some demographic variables such as age, gender, working hours and type of employment were used. Two instruments were used: quality of working life (CVL-HP questionnaire) conformed with 55 criteria and work performance (Labor Performance Scale, EDL), conformed by 15 criteria, with an internal consistency of .957 for the quality of working life and .735 for the boral-performance, measured by the Cronbach alpha.

Procedures

For the collection of data, the survey was used for each of the variables used. The coordinator of the IMSS Welfare of the state of Chiapas was asked for permission to apply through the Google Forms. Each participant was sent via WhatsApp a message with the corresponding link to be answered. Once answered, a database was created automatically and used for statistical analysis.

Statistical analysis

For the analysis of the results, a database was designed, first in the Excel 2010 program, to then proceed to the statistical management. Once the database was created, a clean-up of the database was done, eliminating capture errors, extreme data, and atypical data. Frequencies, descriptive and regression assumptions were obtained, and then hypothesis testing was done by simple regression analysis. The analysis of the data collected was carried out through the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), version 23.0 for Windows XP.

Ethical considerations

In the development of the research process, informed consent was given to safeguard the privacy of all participants in the surveys conducted. All the supports and functions of the research were recognized, as were the copyright of each of the contributors. The information that participants provided to the study was strictly confidential and was used only by the project’s research team and is not available for any other purpose. All participants were coded with a number and their name was not used, so they cannot be identified. Participants in the study did not receive any payment for participating in the research and did not incur any cost for them.

Regression analysis

In the present investigation, four regression assumptions were considered, which are mentioned below: (a) linearity of the phenomenon, (b) normality of residues, (c) independence of the error terms, and (d) constant variance of the error term (homoscedasticity).

The first criterion analyzed was the linearity of the independent variable with the criterion variable and it was observed, in the dispersion graphs, that there is a positive linear relationship where the points tend to form a straight line (seeFigure 1).

Figure 1.  Linearity with the criterion variable. 

The second criterion that was tested was the normality of the errors, using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic (p > .05) and it is observed that the distribution of the residues is normal (p = .) (seeTable 3).

In the third criterion, the independence of the errors was tested, using the Durbin-Watson test whose value was DW = 2.079, where values greater than two indicate negative autocorrelation. Therefore, it is possible to assume independence between waste (seeTable 4).

Finally, homoscedasticity was analyzed, using the graph of the standard predicted value and the value of the standardized residue; it was observed that there is no linear relationship in the residues. Therefore, errors have equal variances (seeFigure 2).

Figure 2. Homoscedasticity 

Hypothesis testing

The hypothesis to be tested was the following: the level of quality of working life is a significant predictor of the level of work performance as self-perceived by physicians working at the Mexican Institute of Social Security, in the state of Chiapas. For the analysis of this hypothesis, the statistical technique of simple linear regression was used; the level of quality of working life was considered as an independent variable and the level of work performance as a dependent variable.

When performing the regression analysis, it was found that the variable level of quality of working life applied 64.9% of the variance of the variable dependent level of work performance. The corrected R2 value was equal to .649. Similarly, we obtained the value of F equal to 309,287 and the value of p equal to 0,000 that allowed us to determine that there was a positive and significant linear influence (seeFigure 3).Figure 4shows the value of the standardized coefficient and found a high level of prediction (β = .806) between the independent variable quality of working life and the dependent job performance. To the extent that doctors are concerned about maintaining a good standard in their quality of working life, it will manifest itself in better performance in their work as health officials.

Figure 3. Dispersion diagram. 

Figure 4.  Final model with results. 

The values of the non-standardized coefficient Bk obtained by the statistical technique of regression were the following: B0 equal to 3.197 and B1 equal to . 369. With these values, the following regression equation could be constructed using the least squares method: quality of working life = 3,197 + . 369 = job performance.

Effect size. To calculate the size of the regression effect, the G*Power was used, which is a free download software designed to make estimates of the statistical power and the size of the effect. A post hoc analysis was carried out as the tools of measurement had been applied. To calculate the effect size in regressions, the following formula was used:

To calculate the effect size and statistical power, a α = . 05 and a sample of 169 individuals were used. A coefficient of determination of R2 of . 649 was obtained. When calculating the size of the effect, a value of 1.849 was found. This value is considered as a measure of the size of the large effect (> .35). When calculating the statistical power, a value of 1.00 was found. The statistical power (1-β = 1.00) exceeds the required minimum levels (80%). Therefore, the statistical power is considered as large.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the level of quality of working life is a significant predictor of the level of work performance self-perceived by doctors working at the Mexican Institute of Social Security, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. In the statistical test, it was found that the quality of working life is a significant predictor in high degree of the work performance of the population of doctors working at the Mexican Institute of Social Security Welfare in the state of Chiapas.

These results agree with Grote and Guest²¹, who found a significant relationship between the quality of working life with work performance, the work system, corporate policies, management and management methods, organizational strategies, and productivity. For their part, Kim, and Ryu²²found a direct relationship between physical and mental health variables and professional performance with work performance and the delivery of results. It also agrees with what Argüelles Ma et al.¹⁸found when establishing strategies focused on improving the quality of working life of workers, this is reflected in the performance and benefit of the organization in the short, medium, or long term. The same authors found a strong relationship between the quality of working life and the products of the organizations where it is manifested that the higher quality of working life, better business profitability, through the staff performance. In addition, Lau² says that the quality of working life offered by an organization has a positive impact on the physical, mental, and emotional health of the worker, while favorably respecting his or her work performance. Organizations that generate quality goods and/or services through adequate working conditions, as well as personal/professional development opportunities for their employees, are also the ones that obtain the highest earnings and best social consideration²⁰.