A suggestion of quality of work life scale: Sakarya province application

Quality of Work life (QWL) is a dynamic structure whose content expands with the transformations in work life. With this aspect, it has been on the agenda of many institutions and researchers in recent years. In many parts of the world, there are different perspectives on the components of this structure and there is no agreed definition at the international level. The aim of this study is to develop a valid, reliable and worker-based scale that measuring the quality of work life in Turkey. Three goals have been determined for this purpose; First, the thematic structuring of the quality of work life is determined on the basis of existing scales and ILO conventions. The second is to determine the expressions and indicators under the thematic structure of the quality of work life. At the last step, it was aimed to create a scale proposal from the determined thematic structure and expressions. The components of QWL consist of objective and subjective criterias. The most comprehensive structure of these criterias are determined by the agreements of ILO member countries and the tripartite structure of these countries. In this study, 18 scales that based on ILO conventions and making comprehensive measurements were identified. The themes and sub-parameters of these scales are subjected to cluster analysis and the components that claim to measure the quality of work life are clustered in common denominators. Within these clusters, 12 themes measuring the quality of work life were determined. These; wages, social security, working hours, job security, ocupational safety and health, leave rights, equal treatment in employment, industrial relations, social dialogue, skill development and education, work-life balance and work motivation. The scope of this study is discussed in terms of thematic and application. Thematically, the components of the quality of working life are limited to ILO conventions / recommendations, scales supported by the ILO, and practices in Asian, Middle Eastern and African countries. The reason for this restriction is that ILO is an international and comprehensive organization regulating working life. For the application of field research, the scope of this study was limited to unionized workers in the metal sector in Sakarya Province. The main reason for this, as in the world and also in Turkey metal sector is an industry which has the largest numbers of employees. Moreover, the reason of the geographic constraint is that Sakarya hosts large-scale enterprises in metal industry at national level (Toyota, Otokar, Türk Traktör, Yazaki ..). The reason for the limitation of the sample to unionized workers is that the necessary permissions could not be obtained from the managers of non-unionized workplaces to ask questions on the theme of industrial relations, which is an important component of the quality of working life structure. In this study, quantitative research methodology has been adopted. In the process of scale development in the study: defining the structure to be measured, examining the scales in the literature and including the expressions appropriate to the content in the draft form, creating an expression pool, determining the type of measurement, reviewing the draft form of the scale by experts and making the necessary arrangements, piloting and eliminating the necessary statements, field application of the scale, analysis of data and finalization of the scale were followed. The findings obtained as a result of the scale development process were subjected to exploratory factor analysis. As a result of the factor analysis, a valid and reliable quality of work life scale proposal consisting of 9 themes and 36 statements was developed from the themes and parameters of the ILO conventions and existing scales. In addition, the opinions of the participants about the quality of work life were evaluated by frequency analysis. Accordingly, it has been determined that the quality of working life of the unionized workers in the metal industry in Sakarya is at a "good" level.