Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review 2011, 47(5): 937-966 | DOI: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.5.03

Subjective Quality of Working Life Indicator

Jiří Vinopal
Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Praha

The methodological focus of this article is the empirical study of the quality of working life and a description of a population survey instrument developed by the author called the 'subjective quality of working life indicator' (SQWLI). The introduction contains a summary of the theoretical and empirical principles that SQWLI is based on. It describes the basic (micro-, mezzo-, and macro-) levels on which quality of working life can be measured and discusses the problem of the duality of social phenomena consisting in objective conditions and actors' subjective perception of them. Based on this concept, it identifies what the SQWLI is intended to capture, specifically, the micro-level aspect of how workers themselves subjectively perceive the quality of working life. The author then proceeds to describe the structure of the research instrument based on the attributes of working life that survey respondents assess in terms of their importance and in terms of their own satisfaction with them. The two-dimensionality of the instrument and its analytical applications are also described here. Using examples of the basic levels of analysis (aspects, domains, indices) the author also demonstrates how the validity and reliability of the instrument were tested. The article closes with a discussion that raises some question areas that under certain circumstances may make the application of the instrument problematic, in particular the question of the scope of the instrument, correlations between the dimensions of satisfaction and importance, and the possible applications of the instrument outside the large cross-sectional surveys for which it was primarily designed.

Keywords: SQWL, subjective quality of working life, quality of working life, work satisfaction, life satisfaction.

Published: October 1, 2011  Show citation

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Vinopal, J. (2011). Subjective Quality of Working Life Indicator. Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 47(5), 937-966. doi: 10.13060/00380288.2011.47.5.03
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