Validation d’une échelle de Qualité de Vie au Travail écart entre idéalisation et perception : la QUALTRA-Scale

Abstract

Introduction

Over the past twenty years, the Quality of Life at Work (QVT) has given rise to a resurgence of scientific researches. These researches have contributed to clarifying the concept of QVT. They also gave rise to the development of measurement scales, which make it possible to establish a diagnosis of the QVT. However, these scales do not most often make it possible to link the diagnosis phase (QVT experienced by individuals) and the implementation of an action plan, based on the expectations of individuals (expected QVT ideally).

Objectives

Based on this observation, our objective was to build a scale including these two meta-dimensions (experienced vs. expected) and six sub-dimensions: (1) Tasks and work organization; (2) Social relations at work; (3) work-life balance; (4) Work environment; (5) Professional Development; and (6) Feeling of Recognition and Organizational Support.

Method

We indirectly measured satisfaction with QWL by calculating, for each item, the gap between the reference point (on the expected meta-dimension) and the present situation (meta-dimension-experienced). We tested the scale structured in 26 items distributed on 6 dimensions on a population of 1321 all-comers employees. To test divergent validity, we compared the answers to the WRQoL items on the same sample.

Results

Factorial analyzes confirmed the structure of the scale into 6 factors. These 6 factors correlate significantly with the dimensions of the WRQoL.

Conclusion

The use of this scale opens up various possibilities such as adjusting an action plan to the expectations of employees (meta-dimension-expected), or more fundamentally as an indirect measure of individual satisfaction (difference between meta-dimension “Expected” and meta-dimension “Experienced”).