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Introduction

Meaning of quality of work life

This article reviews literature on quality of work life (QWL) in terms of

its meaning and constructs specifically from the perspective of

information technology (IT) professionals. We first review the

definitions of QWL in order to come up with a conclusive meaning of

QWL. Secondly, we describe who IT professionals are and why QWL is

significant to them. Thirdly, we discuss the theoretical constructs of QWL and research that used these constructs to highlight their

significance to IT profession and organizational performance. Finally,we conclude by formulating a conceptual paradigm of QWL that mayinspire future research in the realm QWL.

As the work culture changes drastically in the recent years, the

traditional concept of work to fulfils humans¶ basic needs are also facingout. The basic needs are continued to diversify and change according to

the evolution of the work system and standards of living of a workforce.

Thus a definition by Suttle (1977) on the QWL as the degree to which

work are able to satisfy important personal basic needs through their experience in the organisation is no longer relevant.

Generally jobs in the contemporary work environment offer sufficient

rewards, benefits,recognition and control to employees over their

actions. Although to some extent contemporary workforce are

compensated appropriately, their personal spending practices, lifestyles,leisure activities, individual value systems, health and so forth can affect

their levels of need. It is similar to the argument posted in the Maslow¶s

hierarchy of needs in which each individual has different level of needs because in reality what is important to some employees may not be

important to others although they are being treated equally in the same

organization. This definition, focusing on personal needs has neglected

the fact that the construct of QWL is subjective and continuously

evolves due to an evergrowing needs of each and every employees.



Hackman and Oldhams (1980) further highlight the constructs of QWL

in relation to the interaction between work environment and personalneeds. The work environment that is able to fulfill employees¶ personal

needs is considered to provide a positive interaction effect, which will

lead to an excellent QWL. They emphasized the personal needs aresatisfied when rewards from the organisation, such as compensation,

promotion, recognition and development meet their expectations.

Parallel to this definition, Lawler (1982) defines QWL in terms of jobcharacteristics and work conditions. He highlights that the core

dimension of the entire QWL in the organization is to improve

employees¶well-being and productivity. The most common interaction

that relates to improvement of employees¶ well-being and productivity is

the design of the job. Job design that is able to provide higher employeesatisfaction is expected to be more productive. However, he accepted the

fact that QWL is complex, because it comprises physical and mental

well being of employees. Later definition by Beukema (1987) describes

QWL as the degree to which employees are able to shape their jobsactively, in accordance with their options, interests and needs. It is the

degree of power an organization gives to its employees to design their

work. This means that the individual employee has the full freedom todesign his job functions to meet his personal needs and interests. This

definition emphasizes the individual¶s choice of interest in carrying out

the task. However, this definition differs from the former which stresseson the organization that designs the job to meet employees¶ interest. It is

difficult for the organization to fulfill the personal needs and values of

each employee. However if the organization provides the appropriate

authority to design work activities to the individual employees, then it is

highly possible that the work activities can match their employees¶needsthat contribute to the organizational performance. In the same vein

Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (1997) define QWL as the feelings thatemployees have towards their jobs, colleagues and organizations thatignite a chain leading to the organizations¶ growth and profitability. A

good feeling towards their job means the employees feel happy doing

work which will lead to a productive work environment. This definition

provides an insight that the satisfying work environment is considered to



provide better QWL. Proceeding to previous definitions, Lau, Wong,

Chan and Law (2001) operationalised QWL as the favourable workingenvironment that supports and promotes satisfaction by providing

employees with rewards, job security and career growth opportunities.

Indirectly the definition indicates that an individual who is not satisfiedwith reward may be satisfied with the job security and to some extent

would enjoy the career opportunity provided by the organization for

their personal as well as professionals growth.The recent definition bySerey (2006) on QWL is quite conclusive and best meet the

contemporary work environment. The definition is related to meaningful

and satisfying work. It includes (i) an opportunity to exercise one¶s

talents and capacities, to face challenges and situations that require

independent initiative and self-direction; (ii) an activity thought to beworthwhile by the individuals involved; (iii) an activity in which one

understands the role the individual plays in the achievement of some

overall goals; and (iv) a sense of taking pride in what one is doing and in

doing it well. This issue of meaningful and satisfying work is oftenmerged with discussions of job satisfaction, and believed to be more

favourable to QWL. This review on the definitions of QWL indicates

that QWL is a multi-dimensional construct, made up of a number of interrelated factors that need careful consideration to conceptualize and

measure. It is associated with job satisfaction, job involvement,

motivation, productivity, health, safety and well-being, job security,competence development and balance between work and non work life

as is conceptualized by European Foundation for the Improvement of

Living Conditions (2002).

2 . Who are IT Professionals? One of the fastest growing workforces in the present work environment

is the group of information technology (IT) professionals. The number of personal computers (PCs) worldwide is close to 1 billion, but the

number of IT professionals joining the field is dwindling fast. Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) estimated that 1.64 million new IT jobs would

be created within the period of 2004 to 2016 (BLS 2007). According to

the bureau, one out of four new jobs will be IT related. IT professionals



are involved in acquisition, processing, storage of vocal, pictorial,

textual and numerical information which demand extensive use of ITskills. The nature of jobs enables the IT professionals to work

independently with multinational teams round the clock regardless of

their locations throughout the world (Evans and Wurster, 2000). Thisflexible work arrangement creates new employment trends that makes it

possible for the sharing of work around the time zone. On the other hand

it allows the organizations to capitalize on skills and the expertise of some highly competent workforce residing across the world to work

remotely with multiple superiors at lower costs (Industrial Relations

Services, 2000; Merill, 2000). This shapes the organization to a smaller

or lean structure. It is reported that IT organizations in midsize and large

companies will be at least 30% smaller than they were in 2005(Computer Computerworld, 2006). Such a working environment exposes

the IT professionals to high task complexity that possibly leads them to

high strain, uncertainty, lack of proper personal development

opportunities as well as a greater imbalance of work with non-work activities. Robbins(2001) argued that such work scenarios will lead the

IT professionals to experience poor QWL. No doubt, all other

occupations have a capacity to influence the work and non-work life balance, but some occupations are potentially more influential than

others. Bagnara, Mariani and Parlangeli (2001) have reported that work

within the high technology and continuously facinguncertainty are potentially more stressful than others. Martinsons and

Cheung (2001) further argue that continuous changes in work related

factors directly or indirectly affected the IT professionals. Indeed these

changes demand them to perform thus, an effective measure to handle its

consequences is the responsibility of the organizations. Therefore, one of the ongoing concerns among the IT industries is to mitigate the effects

of changes in work environment on job satisfaction, work performance,reliability, health and comfort. Understanding the constructs of QWLamong the IT professionals is essential to provide substantial strategies

to counteract such surges (De Jonge et al., 2000; Andries etal., 2002)

especially in the technologically emerging societies of Malaysia



C onstructs of Quality of Work LifeThe selected constructs of QWL that we use in this article are derived

from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and

Working Condition (EWON) (2002) who have used the dimensionswidely in their QWL studies. These factors are believed to be

appropriate and reliable in the context of Asia generally and Malaysia

specifically because some of the factors were used separately byresearchers in Japan (Fujigaki, Asakura and Haratani, 1993), Singapore

(Lau et al., 2001) and Malaysia (Rethinam, Maimunah, Musa and

Bahaman, 2004). The dimensions of QWL selected are health and well- being, job security, job satisfaction, competence development and the

balance between work with non-work life. The following section

discusses each of the constructs of QWL from the perspectives of IT professionals.

H ealth and well-being Health and well-being of QWL refer to physical and psychological

aspects of an individual in any working environment. Asakura and

Fujigaki (1993) examined the direct and indirect effect of computerization on workers health and well-being. Their results were

similar to the study of Iacovides, Fountoulakis and Kaprins (2003) that

higher job demand leads to higher strain work environment, hence, itaffects their health and well being. An unstrained work environment

ensures good health and psychological conditions which enable the

employees to perform job and non-work related functions withoutinhibitions. Thus, it leads to an unstressful work environment providing

comfortable work life. There are many definitions of stress as it is

deemed as a subjective phenomenon of QWL. Chanet al. (2000) define

stress as a response to the perceived relationship between the demands

on individuals and the ability to adjust to their work environment.Carayon, Smith and Haims (2001) revealed that stress arises in the

process of interaction between a person and the work environment that

threatens the individual¶s physical, psychological and physiological

homeostasis. Physical illness and psychological disorders increase when pressure at work increases. Stress causes problems to the muscular



system and circulation thus, increasing the risk of myocardial infarction

which is well documented in psychosomatic studies. They further reported that employees who has been exposed over two years in high

strain work environment is associated with higher systolic blood

pressure. The nature of IT professions reflect a similar situation thatcontinuously demanding and monotonous work environment that affects

the brains resulting in exhaustion and decreasing in some of IT

professionals¶ cognitive abilities. Depression and anxiety are alsoanother form of stress that contributes towards the deterioration of

health. Employees develop various symptoms of stress that can harm job

performance, health and even threaten the ability to cope with the

environment. In the past few decades, impressive developments of

information technologies have taken place in workplace. Apart from the positive effects of IT there are also potential adverse effects that must

not be overlooked. Korunka et al. (1997) identified IT proponents to

subjectively experience stress and dissatisfaction at work. IT related jobs

have been associated with repetitive strain as well as problems related toexcessive exposure to video display terminals (Ng and Munro-Kua,

1994; Duxbury, Higgins and Johnson, 1999). Routine work, badly

designed instruments such as computers and furniture in ICT work environment have significantly increased work related disorders (Blatter

and Bongers, 2002) such as musculoskeletal problems (Cardosa and

Wan Fauziah, 1994).

Job security

A dramatic change of workforce in contemporary work environment has

revealed a significant amount of organization change (Watson et al .,

2003). Organization change such as downsizing, rightsizing andoutsourcing have adversely affected employees¶ loyalty, morale,

motivation and perceived job security. Organization of EconomicCooperation and Development (OECD) (1996) highlighted that jobsecurity is the most controversial issue in contemporary work

environment. Job security, the central aspect of QWL represents strength

of the organizations to provide permanent and stable employment

regardless of the changes in work environment. Hence, providing a



sense of security is important especially in the work environment where

many facets of jobs can be outsourced.The increase in industry wideunemployment and outsourcing trends have made it evident that job

security cannot be taken for granted (Probst, 2003). Jobs in IT industries

such as computer programming, software development, system analysisare highly paid but the chance to extend the contract is uncertain.

Therefore, it is observed that IT industry has practiced high employment

rate but low job security which has led to the intrinsic insecure work environments that lead to poor QWL. This move has prompted some

critics to view that employers are adopting an active policy of creating a

division between the core of highly protected workers, with long-term

career perspectives and a periphery of project based IT professionals

where employer can leverage scarce and high value talentsthat tend to be terminated at the end of every project. The increase in

project based working

arrangements is often regarded as employees¶ choice, although the

desire has come from the employer to increase the part timers or contractworkers and long work culture (Cooper, 1998). The emergence of

outsourcing and IT automation concept also has significantly fuelled the

sense of job insecurity among IT professionals. As a conclusion, theunstable work nature and the way working culture are being diversified,

point to a considerable impact on the job security among the IT

professionals. The ability of organization to provide better QWL toretain their IT professionals has been a critical factor in the effort to

achieve strategic business goal. The exit of IT professionals who seem to

know a project in detail can ultimately contribute to the lost of business

opportunities. Not long ago, Fortune magazine reported that quitting a

job in the technology profession has become an annual event, as theaverage job tenure in IT shrank to about 13 months, down from about 18

months in 1998(Daniels and Vinzant, 2000). Changing employers may be an effective career strategy for some IT professionals. On the other hand, most organizations strive to retain the valued IT professionals by

various means. This is one of the realities of QWL among the IT

professionals even though the organization provides secured job

environment that is expected to provide better QWL.



Job Satisfaction As IT professionals become vital in leapfrogging a country such asMalaysia into a developed nation, the stable transformation of the

existing workforce towards knowledge workers emphasizes the

importance of having satisfied employees. Traut, Larsen and Feimen(2000) suggested that a better understanding of job satisfaction will

ensure a sustainable development of IT workforce. Although, job

satisfaction has been studied ever since the emergence of concept of job(Lamond and Spector, 2000), it remains as one of the most heavily

studied topics in the human resource management especially among the

industry like IT which experiencing high turnover culture. Typically job

satisfaction is defined as an employee¶s level of positive effect towards

job or job situation that enhances quality of work life. The definition,however, evolves as the changes take place in work environment. Later,

cognitive and behavioural components were added to this definition. The

cognitive aspect represents an employee¶s belief about his job or job

situation. This means an employee may believe that his or her job isinteresting, stimulating, or otherwise. The behavioural component

represents an employee¶s behavioural tendencies toward his or her job.

The action of attending work regularly, working hard and intending tostay in the organisation for long period of time shows the positive

behaviour which indicates job satisfaction. In contrast, negative

behavioural outcomes reveal dissatisfaction in job. Job satisfaction of anemployee differs in meaning and importance in relations to the facets of

work. Some may feel pay and fringe benefits that meet his expectations

to be extremely important; another, it may be essential to have a job that

provides an opportunity for challenging

assignment. The results of previous studies indicate that many differentaspects of the job, such as pay, promotions, supervision, fringe benefits,

one¶s co-workers support, and excessive working hours (Watson et al,.2003) are associated with levels of satisfaction. Martinsons and Cheung(2001) reported that IT professional¶s insufficient compensation and

poor promotion prospects were key sources of dissatisfaction. For

example, offering compensation and rewards significantly lower

compared to the competitors for the same type of work can trigger



employees¶ dissatisfaction that will create intention among them to leave

the organisation. Therefore, it is important to know whether theemployees are satisfied. It is also widely expressed that job satisfaction

appears to stem from the interaction between the employee, the job itself

and the organizational context within which the job is carried out. Insummary, the scope of job satisfaction varies with the industries

however, general concepts such as physical conditions that allow the

utilization of the ability of employees, proud of working in anorganization and a sense of belonging that leads to job satisfaction are

among the items adopted in any study on QWL.Competency DevelopmentThere was a strong consensus that IT professionals would need to continuously enhance their

skill sets

in order to remain employable in the IT industry Work associated with greater task variety, task discretion and skill development opportunities foster the competency development among theworkforce (Javernpaa and Eloranthay, 2001). There are types of work, which are intrinsically

interesting and provide opportunities for competency development. The nature of IT related jobsare

expected to stimulate growth in skills and knowledge. This is seen as an important aspect of competency development that enhances QWL. Therefore competency development is

operationalizedas the nature of the job that provides opportunities and stimulates growth in skills and knowledge

either for career or organizational development.

Career development opportunity will provide essential training that will help the individualemployees to equip with the new skills to spearhead in their career. Most contemporary

organizationsdo not limit themselves to just training an employee for a job, but they go beyond to furnish them

witha support system that encourages workplace learning. Empirical research portrays that IT

profession isassociated with higher skill levels, greater employee responsibility and greater task complexitythat

lead to higher utilization of individual capabilities. Hence, individuals in such work scenario,who use

more advanced technological infrastructures, are exposed to greater competency development(Wall,

Cordery and Clegg, 2002).Learning opportunities and skill discretion have also proven to have a positive effect on job

satisfaction and reduced job stress that will lead to better QWL. The opportunity to develop andthe use

of skills is associated with learning mechanisms. This applies especially when the job requires



employees to deploy cognitive skills. With respect to learning, greater autonomy on job enhancesthe

acquisition and utilization of knowledge whilst greater participation is held to promote cognitivegrowth via increased knowledge transfer among employees (Scully, Kirkpatrick and Locke

1995).

Such a job environment expands knowledge base, leads to a better understanding of how the jobisrelated to other organizational practices and a greater ability to solve problems. In such a

situation,employees gain the cognitive and behavioural repertoire to predict, control or cope with

uncertaindemands thus reducing the likelihood of poor QWL. In contrast, high job demands with

inadequatecontrol reduce the ability and opportunities to develop new skills and knowledge and thus

enforcenegative attitudes and anxiety which deteriorate QWL

Work and non-work life balanceA major component of QWL, which is important for both the employees and the employers, is

therelationship between work and home life. In an increasing competitive environment, it is difficult

toseparate home and work life. Employees today are more likely to express a strong desire to have

aharmonious balance among career, family life and leisure activities. This has been suggested at

theinternational level the need for national policies in many countries. An ILO convention that was

adopted in 1981, states that it is necessary for organizations to help employees to balance their work

and non-work demands (Lewis, 1997).The advantage of being able to work anywhere and at anytime has blurred the boundaries of

work and leisure hours. Ironically, with IT revolution and intensified virtual communications,workload and working hours among the workforce have increased. The extended function of IT

as acommunication tool necessitates employees to distinguish between significant and insignificant

information. This could increase the intensity of work because the information overload throughe-mail

consumes a considerable amount of time. Therefore, IT professionals to some extent are requiredto

work long hours; hence compromising their personal time will lead to an imbalance betweenwork with

non-work life.The threat of imbalance in work and non-work life has implications not only on the employees

but also on organizations, governments and society (Grzywacz and Marks, 2000; Swanson,Power and

Simpson, 1998). This relationship is bi-directional because previous studies have indicated thatless



conducive environments in the workplace have a greater impact on home life than vice versa.Another

important factor that creates an imbalance work condition was a commitment to the work activities.

The IT work environment is widely assumed to be a high-commitment workplace that forces the

IT professionals to sacrifice their personal leisure hours to meet their work demand. The flexiblescheduling of work hours which supposedly contribute to balance work and family relationship,

whichmay create a conflict. Such a work arrangement demands the IT professionals to be committed

withwork whenever possible and hijack them from joining non work related activities.

A meta-analysis has confirmed that conflict between work and non-work life is associated withimpaired psychological well-being and other negative outcomes (Allen et al., 2000). Work

familyconflict is a form of inter-role conflict in which the general demand of time devoted to the job

interferes with the involvement of family related responsibilities. The study carried out byAminah

(2002) supports that inter-role family conflict occurs when the cumulative demands of multipleroles at

home and at work become too great to manage comfortably.

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