Fluctuations in Weekly Brief Measures of Quality of Working Life and Prediction of Quality of Working Life Systemic Inventory (QWLSI) Results After Four Months, Using the Internet

Abstract

This article deals with the statistical validity that can be achieved with brief measures of psychosocial factors collected every week. For this research, 173 participants answered the Quality of Working Life Systemic Inventory (QWLSI) at the beginning and end of a 17-week research protocol. Every week, they spent about 2 minutes rating each of the 8 QWSLI subscales. Analysis showed a strong correlation between the brief measures and the QWSLI, with a Spearman's rho of .645 (N = 112, p < .01) at Week 1 and .618 (N = 67, p < .01) at Week 17. Furthermore, it appears that the data collection frequency may reasonably be reduced to once a month because the lowest correlation (Pearson's r) between the scores for one monthly measure and the scores from the average of four monthly measures is .948 (N = 60, p < .01). The brief measures collected in Weeks 1, 5, 9, and 13 were also used in a regression equation resulting in an overall correlation with the Week 17 QWLSI scores of .81 (N = 17, p = .035) for an adjusted r ² of .558. These results suggest that less expensive monthly brief measures that are easy to collect may be used for continuous monitoring of changes in the working life quality of an organization's employees.

KEYWORDS:

• monitoring of psychosocial factors
• occupational health at workplace
• prevention of absenteeism
• quality of working life
• reliability and validity of short and brief measures

We would like to thank Jean-Pierre Martel, Scientific Collaborator with the UQAM Psychology Department's Laboratoire de psychologie de la santé et qualité de vie, Jean Bégin, Scientific Collaborator with the UQAM Psychology Department, Jean-François Tremblay, Technology and Education Project Manager, and Stéphanie Beauchamp, Multimedia Integration Technician with the audiovisual department of Centre HumaniTIC in the UQAM Humanities faculty, for their invaluable contributions. Thank you also to the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST; Robert-Sauvé Occupational Health and Safety Research Institute) for the doctoral fellowships granted under its 2006 and 2007 grant programs and the Conseil National des Cycles Supérieurs for the grant provided as the first prize in the Lettres, arts et sciences humaines category of the Concours de vulgarisation scientifique organized for the Salon national de la recherche universitaire 2006.

Notes

Note. QWLSI = Quality of Working Life Systemic Inventory.

Note. QWLSI = Quality of Working Life Systemic Inventory.

^a Predicted values: (constants), BMW1.

^b Predicted values: (constants), BMW1, BMW5.

^c Predicted values: (constants), BMW1, BMW5, BMW9.

^d Predicted values: (constants), BMW1, BMW5, BMW9, BMW13.