Asia Pacic Business Review Vol. 13, No.

4, 501517, October 2007

Quality of Work Life: A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China

KA WAI CHAN* & THOMAS A. WYATT**
*University of Macau, **University of Macau ABSTRACT This study examines Quality of Work Life (QWL) in China in terms of how their work lives satisfy eight basic needs of employees and how the satisfaction of each individual need in their work life affects employees job satisfaction, affective commitment, turnover intention, life satisfaction and general well-being. A total of 319 questionnaires were collected from eight organizations in Shanghai, China. Based on the need satisfaction theory and spillover theory in the QWL literature, hypotheses are derived and tested. Results conrm hypotheses regarding the relationship between perceived QWL and all the dependent variables. Multiple regression analyses conrm using levels of satisfaction of six different individual needs as signicant predictors of the ve dependent variables. Esteem need satisfaction is found to be the most important for life satisfaction and turnover intention while four needs (esteem, actualization, economics and family, and health and safety) predict general well-being. Knowledge and health and safety need predict affective commitment. Three needs (economic and family, health and safety, and knowledge) are important for job satisfaction. Being recognized and appreciated for one s work is found to be a strong predictor of how satised employees in Shanghai feel with regard to their lives. Limitations of the study and ideas of future research are discussed. KEY WORDS : Job satisfaction, life satisfaction, needs theory, quality of work life, Shanghai, spillover theory

Introduction Given the amount of time and energy people expend at the workplace, it is important for employees to be satised about their life at work. Since work occupies an important place in many people s lives, such conditions are likely to affect not only their physical but also their psychological and spiritual well-being. If organizations are concerned about developing their human resources and gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace, it seems necessary that they attend to one of their most precious assets, namely, their human resources. In support of this idea, Levering (1988) argued that the prot of successful organizations is not to be achieved at the expense of its employees. According to Caudron (1994), the only thing that will maintain todays source of competitive advantage is high quality personnel instead of merely capital, technology or long-lived products. In fact, employees are the soft assets and are the hidden value of a company (Abdeen, 2002). They will remain as untapped assets if
Correspondence Address: Ka Wai Chan. Email: achan@umac.mo

1360-2381 Print/1743-792X Online/07/040501-17 q 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13602380701250681

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organizations do not manage their human resources well. In todays commercial world, a productive workforce can increase productivity and efciency, as well as being a vehicle essential for gaining and maintaining sustainable competitive advantages for business organizations on a global basis. One method for developing a unique and inimitable workplace is for organizations to create a special quality of work life (QWL) within their sociotechnical systems. This term quality of work life is reputed to have originated from an international labour relations conference in 1972 at Arden House, Columbia University, New York (Davis & Cherns, 1975). While there seems to be no agreed upon denition of quality of work life, it has been used as a construct which relates to the well-being of employees. Some say that Mills (1978) may have rst coined the term quality of work life and he suggested that QWL had moved into the permanent vocabulary of both unions and management. From a business perspective, quality of work life (QWL) is important since there is evidence demonstrating that the nature of the work environment is related to satisfaction of employees and work-related behaviours (Greenhaus et al., 1987). QWL is also found to affect employees work responses in terms of organizational identication, job satisfaction, job involvement, job effort, job performance, intention to quit, organizational turnover and personal alienation (Carter et al., 1990; Efraty & Sirgy, 1990; Efraty et al., 1991). In a review of the health and well-being literature there is a linking of people who experience greater QWL with those who also experience higher levels of health and well- being (Danna & Grifn, 1999). Other work-related behaviours such as absenteeism, reduced productivity and efciency also appear to be affected by experienced levels of QWL. While there are many studies and emphasis on QWL in North America, it seems that the concept has been less popular in Asia, especially China. Given that China is now undergoing dramatic changes in its social and economic structure, it will want to pay attention to factors that will improve its ability to compete in the business world. Improving the QWL may be one of those competitive factors needing attention in business organizations. However, a search of the literature found virtually no published studies in China on QWL. This study aims at lling the niche by studying the quality working life experience and its impact on employees non-work lives and job-related behaviours among organizational employees in the city of Shanghai, China. More specically, we examined QWL in China in terms of how their work lives satisfy six basic needs of the employees. In addition, we study how the satisfaction of the needs in work life affects employees job responses and non-work responses. The job-related responses include job satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intention. The nonwork responses include life satisfaction and general well-being. It is proposed that the better the QWL in terms of satisfying the various needs of the employee, the more favourable will be these job-related responses as well as the employees satisfaction with their life and general well-being. Literature Review QWL can be dened as the favourable conditions and environments of a workplace that support and promote employee satisfaction by providing workers

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with rewards, job security and growth opportunities (May et al., 1999). Job security, better reward systems, higher pay, opportunity for growth, participative groups, and increased organizational productivity are the main issues discussed in the extant QWL literature. Under the service prot chain model, QWL has also been interpreted as internal service quality to the quality of work environment that contributes to employee satisfaction (Heskett et al., 1994). QWL is said to differ from job satisfaction (Quinn & Shephard, 1974; Davis & Cherns, 1975; Hackman & Suttle, 1977; Kabanoff, 1980; Near et al., 1980; Staines, 1980; Champoux, 1981; Kahn, 1981; Lawler, 1982) but QWL is thought to lead to job satisfaction. QWL refers to the impact of the workplace on satisfaction in work life (job satisfaction), satisfaction in non-work life domains, and satisfaction with overall life (Sirgy et al., 2001). Some researchers (Danna & Grifn, 1999) see QWL as a hierarchy of concepts that include non-work domains such as life satisfaction (at the top of the hierarchy), job satisfaction (at the middle of the hierarchy) and more work-specic facets of job satisfaction including such things as pay, co-workers, and supervisor (lower in the hierarchy). Although QWL originated over three decades ago, the interest in the construct has not waned entirely. During the 1990s, scholars and practitioners regained an interest in the study of QWL and this concept has become of renewed concern and increased importance to the organization and its human resources both in terms of employee job satisfaction and in terms of the ultimate performance of the organization. People began to know more about quality of work life when the United Auto Workers and General Motors introduced a QWL programme for work reform (Beer et al., 1985; May, 1999). The denition of QWL used in this study employs a need satisfaction approach. This means that the higher the perceived QWL the more the six needs are being satised through the working experience. Thus, the older QWL concept is being approached from a slightly different theoretical perspective.

Theories and Hypotheses Sirgy et al. (2001) suggested two main theoretical approaches to QWL in the literature: need satisfaction and spillover (see also Loscoco & Roschelle, 1991 for a sound review of the QWL literature). The QWL measure used in this article derives from the need satisfaction approach to QWL which is based on the needsatisfaction theories of Maslow (1943), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) and Alderfer (1972). The underlying notion of the need satisfaction approaches to QWL is the assumption of a set of needs which people attempt to satisfy through their work. Workers will gain satisfaction of their basic needs to the extent to which their jobs meet their needs. Porter (1961) developed his Need Satisfaction Questionnaire and seven needs were originally used and divided into three different need dimensions including: . Survival need: comprised of security and pay needs; . Social need: comprised of need for interpersonal interactions and friendships and need for membership;

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. Ego need: comprised of need for self-esteem, need for autonomy; and selfactualization needs. The QWL construct used in this article is based on a modied version of the notion developed by Sirgy et al. (2001) which originally used seven needs. Their ndings suggested that the aesthetic need was not a strong predictor of various dependent variables and thus it was decided not to include this need in this study. In the present study, QWL is conceptualized in terms of the satisfaction of six needs including: 1. Satisfaction of health and safety needs (protection from ill health and injury at work and outside of work as well as enhancement of good health); 2. Satisfaction of economic and family needs (adequate wages, job security and other family needs such as having enough time from work to attend to family needs); 3. Satisfaction of social needs (collegiality at work and leisure time off work); 4. Satisfaction of esteem needs (recognition and appreciation of ones work both inside and outside the organization); 5. Satisfaction of actualization needs (realization of ones potential within the organization and as a professional); and 6. Satisfaction of knowledge needs (learning to enhance job skills and professional skills). The second theoretical approach to QWL is the notion of spillover. The spillover concept with regard to QWL suggests that satisfaction in one life domain may well inuence satisfaction in another. This means that job satisfaction may affect other life domains such as family, leisure, social, health, nancial and so on (Levitin & Quinn, 1974; Kavanagh & Halpern, 1977; Andrisani & Shapiro, 1978; Orpen, 1978; Kabanoff, 1980; Rice et al., 1980; Schmitt & Melon, 1980; Staines, 1980; Schmitt & Bedian, 1982; Crouter, 1984; Crohan et al., 1989; Steiner & Truxillo, 1989; Bromet, Dew & Parkinson, 1990). Horizontal and vertical spillover are said to operate in both work and non-work domains. Horizontal spillover is the proposed effect of one life domain on a connecting domain. For example, job satisfaction may affect feelings of family life satisfaction and vice versa. When speaking about vertical spillover, it is necessary to discuss the idea of an assumed hierarchy of domains. It may be possible to imagine the domain at the top of the hierarchy as being the superordinate domain which is of paramount importance in ones life. Other domains are arranged in hierarchical fashion in the minds of people. Typically, the domain at the top is concerned with general life satisfaction or personal happiness or subjective well-being. Other domains below the general life satisfaction domain include such domains as family, leisure, nancial, and so forth. The idea of vertical spillover is that one domain in the hierarchy will spill over to the next in either a bottom-up or a top-down fashion. While some peoples lives are more connected and the domains are more permeable, other people maintain rather segmented lives in the sense that their

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particular domains are not well connected and thus there may be little spillover from one domain to the other (Wilensky, 1960). The notion of compensation is the idea that there is a balance of inuence between and among the life domains (Sirgy et al., 2001). Thus, satisfaction in one domain compensates for dissatisfaction in other domains. That is to say, if one is unsatised in the work domain, then one may compensate and feel extremely satised in a non-work domain. A number of studies support the idea of spillover theory rather than the compensation theory and report a consistent positive relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction (Kabanoff, 1980; Rice et al., 1980; Tait et al., 1989; Liu et al., 1990; Rain et al., 1991). It seems that ones experiences at work will affect other non-work life domains through the process of a spillover effect. Thus, QWL does not only affect job satisfaction but also affects satisfaction in other non-work life domains. The spillover notion suggests a positive relationship between work and non-work experiences. Based on this, our rst hypothesis is as follows: Hypothesis 1. The higher the perceived QWL, the higher the life satisfaction. It seems to follow, then, that a higher perceived QWL will also spill over and lead to higher levels of general well-being. In a review of the health and wellbeing literature, there is a linking of people who experience greater QWL to those who also experience higher levels of health and well-being (Danna & Grifn, 1999). This leads to our second hypothesis: Hypothesis 2. The higher the perceived QWL, the higher the general well-being. Past studies have found that QWL may have a signicant impact on employee behavioural responses, including organizational identication, job satisfaction, job involvement, job effort, job performance, turnover intention, personal alienation (Carter et al., 1990; Efraty & Sirgy, 1990; Lewellyn & Wibker, 1990; Efraty et al., 1991). Studies also indicated that if ones needs are satised, then one experienced higher levels of job satisfaction (Porter, 1961; Hall et al., 1970; Danna & Grifn, 1999). Thus arises our third hypothesis: Hypothesis 3. The higher the perceived QWL, the higher the perceived job satisfaction. If one is satisfying ones needs at work, then the workplace is likely to be seen as a desirable place to spend time. In this sense, it is also likely that those who are satised at work will be more committed to such a place and will have lower turnover intention. The idea of organizational commitment is founded on the assumption that commitment is comprised of several factors: a strong belief and acceptance of organizational goals and values, a readiness to exert effort on behalf of the organization and a strong desire to remain a member of the particular organization (Porter, et al., 1974; Mowday et al., 1979). Reviews of the literature show that organizational commitment (Mowday et al., 1982) is related to high job performance (Mowday et al., 1974), organizational effectiveness (Steers, 1977), low employee turnover (Porter et al., 1974) and high job satisfaction (Aranya & Ferris, 1984). This leads us to our fourth and fth hypotheses:

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Hypothesis 4. Higher levels of perceived QWL are associated with higher levels of affective organizational commitment. Hypothesis 5. Higher levels of perceived QWL, are associated with lower levels of turnover intention. The kinds of moods, emotions or predispositions that people tend to bring to the workplace will very likely have an impact on the kind of experience they have while performing their job in the organization. A dual construct called positive and negative affectivity has been developed in the literature. Negative affectivity is a mood predisposition to experience subjective distress and unpleasant nervousness while the positive affectivity construct reects the degree to which a person feels enthusiastic, active and alert (Watson et al., 1988). Watson & Clark (1984) have demonstrated that these two mood states of positive and negative affectivity are related to the dominant personality factors of extraversion and anxiety/neuroticism respectively. There is evidence to indicate that people who may be characterized by high negative affectivity tend to experience their worlds in more negative ways (Watson & Tellegen, 1985; Agho et al., 1992). Research has indicated that negative affectivity and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 1998; Connolly & Viswesvaran, 2000) as well as negative affectivity and life satisfaction are strongly related (Brief et al., 1993; Judge et al., 1998.). The general theme of the ndings between negative affectivity and the work experience is mostly a negative one. This leads us to our sixth hypothesis: Hypothesis 6. The higher the negative affectivity the lower the perceived QWL. Figure 1 presents the conceptual framework for this study.

METHOD Subjects A total of 319 subjects from 8 different organizations from banking, insurance, airlines, nance and import/export industries in the city of Shanghai participated in this study. There were 39.6 per cent male respondents and 60.4 per cent were female. Sixty-nine per cent of the respondents fell into the age group of 25 34, 15 per cent came from the group between 18 24, 13 per cent from 35 44, and 3 per cent were above 45. Single respondents amounted to 52.5 per cent of the sample, while 46.8 per cent were married and the rest were divorced. About 5 per cent of the respondents had secondary education, 81.3 per cent had an undergraduate degree, 12.7 per cent had achieved a Masters degree and 1 per cent had attained a doctorate. The sample may be considered to be a fairly educated one. In addition, 18.4 per cent of the respondents had worked in their organization for less than one year, while 32 per cent had already been working for 1 3 years, 20.6 per cent had worked for 4 6 years, 13.9 per cent had worked for 7 9 years, and 15.2 per cent had worked for 10 years or more. Thus, half of the sample had been working for their organization only for 3 years or less.

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Figure 1. Conceptual Model of QWL

Procedure The questionnaires in the present study were translated into Chinese from English using the method of back translation (Brislin, 1986). Attached to each questionnaire was a letter stating the objectives of the study and a guarantee of condentiality for the respondents. Invitation letters with a covering letter and brief information about the research were sent to 25 companies in the city of Shanghai, followed by telephone calls to the human resource managers of the companies to invite them to participate in the research. All the 25 companies were introduced by friends and relatives of the researcher. Finally, 8 companies in different business industries including banks, airlines, real estate and investment companies showed their interest and participated. Questionnaires were distributed to all of the employees either by the human resource department of the companies or by the researcher. Although involvement was voluntary, employees were strongly encouraged by the top management to participate and were assured that their responses would remain condential and anonymous. Subjects were asked to ll in the questionnaires within 2 days and drop them inside a secure box. The questionnaires were collected personally by the researcher. The total number of questionnaires collected was 319 with around a 60 per cent response rate.

Measures The QWL measure. The measure of QWL used in the present paper is based on a modied version of the measure developed by Sirgy et al. (2001). The need satisfaction measure consisted of 42 items relating to the need satisfaction dimensions of the six needs. Nine items each were used for both the health and

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safety need and the economic and family need, while six items each were used for the social need, esteem need, actualization need and knowledge need. The QWL questionnaire involved 14 items respectively relating to the overall work environment, job requirements and supervisory behaviour. Subjects were asked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 representing Strongly Disagree to 7 indicating Strongly Agree. Negative affectivity. Negative affectivity was measured by an 11-item questionnaire developed by Watson & Tellegen (1985). Subjects were asked to respond to each of the 11 items by checking a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 indicating Strongly Agree to 7 indicating Strongly Disagree. Life Satisfaction. Subjects were asked to rate their satisfaction in other life domains in a 15-item questionnaire. Each domain was measured by a single indicator-item. This measure was used by Andrews & Withey (1976) and Efraty & Sirgy (1990). Subjects were asked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 indicating Very Dissatised to 7 indicating Very Satised. General Well-being. General well-being was measured by a 12-item scale developed by Goldberg (1978). Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they experienced each of the somatic and affective symptoms listed during the previous six weeks. Subjects were asked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point scale ranging from 1 indicating Strongly Agree to 7 indicating Strongly Disagree. Affective Organizational Commitment. An 8-item scale by Allen & Meyer (1990) was used to measure affective organizational commitment. Subjects were asked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point scale ranging from 1 indicating Strongly Agree to 7 indicating Strongly Disagree. Job Satisfaction. A 5-item scale originally used by Brayeld & Rothe (1951) and later by Agho et al., (1992) was used to measure job satisfaction. Subjects were asked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point scale ranging from 1 indicating Strongly Agree to 7 indicating Strongly Disagree. Turnover intentions. A 3-item scale by Camman et al. (1983) was used to measure the extent to which employees think they will leave the organization. Subjects were asked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point scale ranging from 1 indicating Strongly Agree to 7 indicating Strongly Disagree. Data Analysis Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, reliability alphas and correlations of the study variables. Among the six needs, the knowledge need scores are the highest on a 7-point scale, while economic and family need scores are the lowest, followed by social need and actualization need. Zero-order correlations were used

Table 1. Mean, S.D., Alpha, and intercorrelations of independent and dependent variables
Variable Independent variables: 1. QWL-needs satisfaction (average of six needs) 2. Health & safety need 3. Economics & family need 4. Social need 5. Esteem need 6. Actualization need 7. Knowledge need 8. Negative affectivity Dependent variables: 9. Affective commitment 10. Job satisfaction 11. Turnover intention 12. Life satisfaction 13. General well-being Mean 4.35 S.D. .80 Standardized Alpha .90 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

4.57 3.75 4.15 4.58 4.20 4.83 3.13 4.38 4.13 3.19 4.61 4.92

.93 .92 .96 .89 1.06 1.08 1.12 .86 1.17 1.38 .82 .78

.78 .80 .67 .80 .85 .83 .93 .69 .86 .90 .91 .82

.75** .82** .66**

A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China

.84** .69** .74** .85** .53** .56** .56** .84** .40** .61** .58** .76** .84** .46** .51** .58** .76** .77** 2.13* 2.25** 2.04 2.11 2.17** 2.03 2.06 .60** .44** .46** .47** .51** .49** .58** 2.22** 2.39** .44** .36** 2.12 2.27** .57**

.69** .60** .62** .54** .56** .53** .56** 2.22** .68** 2.28** 2.24** 2.21** 2.20** 2.28** 2.20** 2.25** .29** 2.50** .46** .36** .42** .39** .39** .15* .40** .28** .42** .45** .31** .19** .36** 2.32** .34** 2.65** .34** .31**

* correlation is signicant at 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** correlation is signicant at 0.01 level (2-tailed) N 319

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to provide an initial assessment of our general proposition that higher perceived QWL will be associated with various job-related dependent variables. This proposition received strong support as these variables were signicantly related and generally at the p , .01 level. QWL (average of all the six needs) is found signicantly correlated to negative affectivity and turnover intention (negatively correlated). QWL is found to have a signicant positive correlation to life satisfaction, general well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Therefore, the results of the hypotheses proposed in this study are all fully supported. Table 2 presents the results of the multiple regression analyses of the six needs on the dependent variables. Results show the prediction of life satisfaction by esteem need (Beta .29; p , .01) with R square of .33. General well-being is explained by esteem need (Beta .54; p , .01), actualization need (Beta .32; p , .01), health and safety need (Beta .31; p , .01) and economic and family need (Beta .23; p , .01). The predictors for job satisfaction were health and safety need (Beta .29; p , 01), economic and family need (Beta .30, p , .01) and knowledge need (Beta .26; p , .01). Results also show that satisfaction of both the knowledge need (Beta .37; p , .01) and health and safety need (Beta .15; p , .05) signicantly predict the level of affective organizational commitment. Finally, the only predictor for turnover intention was the esteem need (Beta .21; p , .01). It should be noted that health and safety need along with esteem need were found to be predictors for 3 out of the 5 dependent variables in this study. Additionally, there is a signicant negative correlation (r .13; p , .05) between negative affectivity and QWL.

Table 2. Result of multiple regression analyses

Dependent variables Affective commitment Independent Variables 1 Health & safety need Economics & family need Social need Esteem need Actualization need Knowledge need Job satisfaction Turnover intention Life satisfaction General well-being

R Square .40 .15* .11 .01 .07 .02 .32**

R Square .51 .29** .30** 2 .08 .05 .02 .26**

R Square .16 2.09 2.05 .04 2.21* .14 .15

R Square .33 .15 .13 .09 .29** 2.14 .07

R Square .59 .31** 2.23** .01 .54** 2.35** .15

* correlation is signicant at 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** correlation is signicant at 0.01 level (2-tailed)

A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China Discussion

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The present study attempts to assess QWL in organizations in Shanghai, China. The study used the need satisfaction approach originally theorized by Maslow (1943). A seven need approach conceived of by Sirgy et al. (2001) was modied to a six need model by the authors and was employed in the present research. Using the notion of spillover, it was predicted that QWL would contribute to the satisfaction of life in general. Thus, the higher the perceived QWL in satisfying various needs of the employee, the higher the life satisfaction. This hypothesis was conrmed indicating that individuals who perceive a higher QWL in their work contexts tend to experience greater life satisfaction. The regression results show that esteem need satisfaction from work predicts life satisfaction. This suggests that satisfaction of the need to feel recognized and appreciated for ones work inside the workplace is a strong predictor of how satised with their lives these Shanghai employees feel. Results from the present study support a number of studies that have reported a consistent positive relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction (for example, Rice et al., 1980; Rain et al., 1991). Results from regression analyses supported the idea that satisfaction of needs in the workplace spill over into a persons sense of well-being. However, the satisfaction of employees economic and family need and actualization need at work are found to be associated with a sense of well-being in ones non-work life in a negative way. The more the employee realizes his/her potential in the organization or as a professional, the lower will be the general sense of well-being. Why? When the organization provides opportunities to actualize employees potential, the employees may evaluate their ability to actually maintain this high level of attainment of their potential. For individuals with low self-efcacy, this evaluation can well lead to more pressure which then spill overs and causes a lower sense of general well-being in their non-work life. The sample of employees in the study is quite young and educated but with little experience. It may be that these individuals are being placed under great stress and question their ability to full the expectations of the organization which in turn leads to them experiencing lower levels of well-being. Regarding the negative relationship between economic and family need and general well-being, one possible explanation can be answered by Equity theory. Equity theory suggests that employees make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes and then compare the outcome-input ratio with relevant others (Adams, 1965). A high satisfaction of the economic need indicates that the employee is happy with the pay and compensation provided by the organization. Equity theory indicates that the higher the satisfaction of the reward provided by the organization, the more the employee feels motivated or obligated to do a better job in order to increase the input side of the ratio to create equity. Consequently, these people may be lled with more stress and worries from high expectations or demands at the workplace. Again, this stress and worry spill over into the employees non-work life and their general well being suffers. The present study predicted that economic and family, knowledge and health and also safety needs are signicant predictors of levels of job satisfaction. For

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Shanghai employees, higher level of wages, job security and other family needs are strongly related to higher experiences of job satisfaction. The results are congruent with other studies that found similar relationships (Porter, 1961; Hall, et al., 1970; Danna & Grifn, 1999). A higher level of satisfaction of knowledge needs was a strong predictor of job satisfaction. The ability to enhance job skills and professional skills is an important element in employees feeling a sense of job satisfaction. Although the study of Elizur et al. (1991) was not focused on job satisfaction, it did examine the priority of work values across a number of countries, including China. In their investigation it was found that achievement was ranked rst and, in this sense, the ndings of the present research are consistent with Elizur et al. (1991) in that knowledge need satisfaction was also a predictor of job satisfaction. The present study predicted that higher levels of perceived QWL will be linked to higher levels of affective organizational commitment. This hypothesis was conrmed and indirectly supports the results of studies linking organizational commitment to job satisfaction (Aranya & Ferris, 1984). Through regression analyses, knowledge need satisfaction predicted most of the variance in affective organizational commitment. The extent to which an organization is able to fulll peoples needs in learning new skills and knowledge tends to lead to higher affective organizational commitment. Elizur et al. (1991) found that achievement values were ranked the highest in their cross-cultural study. This could logically mean that those whose knowledge needs were highly satised in their workplace would nd the organization more attractive and display greater loyalty to such a workplace. Those who took part in this study are young, relatively new to the organization and quite well educated. Having the opportunity to satisfy a need for learning would be likely to make the organization a much more attractive place to remain. This would be seen as another desirable consequence of greater need satisfaction in the workplace. Voluntary turnover intention remains a great interest in both the research literature and in the practical organizational world. This study predicted that higher perceived levels of QWL would be associated with lower levels of intentions to turnover and the ndings support this hypothesis. The results of this research conrm the ndings of Porter et al. (1974). The results of the regression analysis supported the idea that higher levels of esteem need satisfaction are related to lower levels of turnover intention. The opportunity to satisfy ones need for being recognized at work for ones accomplishments is important for an employees desire to remain in the organization and have no intentions to quit. For this sample of Chinese employees, then, the more satisfaction they receive from their esteem needs, the less they intend to quit their organizations. Elizur et al. (1991) found that esteem need was ranked third in importance for Chinese managers and the present results give credence to such a rating. It seems important for managers to consider remaining in an organization in which they feel a greater sense of recognition and appreciation of ones work inside and outside the organization. Again, those who took part in this study are young, educated, relatively new to the organization and possibly in the early stages of their career development.

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Employees predisposition to experience their worlds in predominantly positive or negative ways affects their working experiences in predictable ways. The results supported this hypothesis and lend support to previous ndings that people high in negative affectivity tend to experience their worlds in more negative ways (Watson & Tellegen, 1985; Agho et al., 1992). It may well be that even though the particular QWL in the organization is quite high, employees who show high levels of negative affectivity will tend to experience the workplace in more negative ways than those who show lower levels of negative affectivity. Implications for the Theory The results of this study once again conrm the theoretical conceptual framework using spillover theory on the relationships between quality of work life and life satisfaction, general well-being, affective commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention. Consistent with previous studies, spillover effects have been found to indicate that higher satisfaction in the work area is associated with higher satisfaction in non-work areas (Kabanoff, 1980; Tait et al., 1989; Rice et al., 1980; Rain et al., 1991). This study contributes to the knowledge of Quality of Work Life by using a need theory approach. Multiple regression analyses conrm the satisfaction of six different individual needs as signicant predictors of the ve dependent variables. Esteem need satisfaction is the major predictor among the six needs of life satisfaction, general well-being and turnover intention. Additionally, knowledge need satisfaction and health and safety need satisfaction are the major predictors for both job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. This supports the motivational theories that fullling unsatised needs is important to motivate people at work and increase their commitment to the organization. As subjects in this study do not have major nancial difculties, the results shows that it is the higher order need such as esteem and knowledge needs that are more important in both their work and non-work areas for employees in Shanghai. Perhaps the most important implication for the theory in this study is the negative relationships found between general well-being and actualization need, as well as economic need. Here we use the concept of self-efcacy and equity theory to explain the relationships respectively. When organizations provide ample opportunities to actualize their employees potential, stress or pressure will increase as they want to meet the organizations expectations, especially when individuals have low self-efcacy. As a consequence, this kind of self-doubt, worries and stress will negatively affect their general well-being. Therefore, in understanding the relationship between actualization need and general well-being, the concept of stress or self-efcacy should be added as moderator. Unless individuals have high self-efcacy to meet the expectations of organizations, the satisfaction of the actualization need may indeed lower, rather than enhance the level of general well-being. Similarly, high economic satisfaction at work, according to equity theory, produces an obligation of good performance to create equity. Unless employees believe that they have been doing a good job at work which deserves the high economic satisfaction from the organization, this pressure for good performance or feelings of inadequacy will negatively affect general well-being. Therefore, in using the equity approach to understand the situation,

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it is suggested that economic need satisfaction will be negatively related to general well-being when the employees feel obligated to perform well or when they believe they are overpaid.

Implications for Managers The results of this study provide several implications for managers in organizations. Firstly, organizations would do well to note the strong effect of the workplace on peoples lives in general if they want to play a role in affecting the work life harmony of their employees. Esteem need satisfaction is the major predictor of life satisfaction, general well-being and turnover intention. This suggests that employees have strong needs to be recognized in the workplace. The opportunity to satisfy one s need for being recognized at work for ones accomplishments is important for an employee s overall well-being as well as the desire to remain in the organization. Organizations which face problematic turnover would do well to consider providing mechanisms for employees to be recognized for their accomplishments such as some form of feedback indicating reward, promotion and/or praise. The more satisfaction employees receive from their esteem needs, the more they enjoy their lives and the less they intend to quit their organizations. Secondly, knowledge need satisfaction is the major predictor for both job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Organizations would do well to ensure more favourable work environments in which employees are able to satisfy their needs for knowledge. This could be attained through such human resource practices as offering training and development opportunities which challenge the intellectual capacity of employees and broaden their knowledge and skill horizons. Managers could also consider different types of job designs which might intellectually challenge employees. Having the opportunity to satisfy a need for learning is likely to make the organization a much more attractive place to remain. Employees should nd the organization more attractive and display greater loyalty to such a workplace. Thirdly, results indicate a negative relationship between employees sense of well-being and the satisfaction of economic and family need, as well as actualization need at work. In the evaluation of employees own ability to maintain high levels of attainment of their potential, more pressure may accrue. This increased doubt may create a poorer sense of well-being. Similarly, equity theory indicates that the higher the satisfaction of the reward provided by the organization, the more the employee feels motivated or obligated to do a better job in the organization. Consequently, these people may be lled with more stress and worries from high expectations or demands at the workplace. Again, this stress and worry spill over into the employees non-work life and their general well-being suffers. Organizations should be on the lookout for such employees who are lled with self-doubt and make adjustments of the high expectations placed on them and provide more support for the achievement of these expectations. On the other hand, organizations would do well to be aware of those employees who are suffering increased stress from heavy job demands and

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subsequent lower feelings of well-being and in turn make every effort to help their employees cope with this stress. Conclusions When discussing the results of the present research, one must keep in mind the particular limitations of the study. Firstly, the sample may not be considered a truly random sample of managers from the Shanghai area. From a mailing to 25 organizations, only 8 organizations were nally included in the study. Thus, the ability to generalize far beyond this sample is limited. The survey data collection method carries with it the limitations of singlesource, self-report data. Therefore, the possibility of method bias may be present. Spector (1994) reminds us of the difculty of making causal connections among the variables when such self-report data are utilized. Future research needs to add other data acquisition methods in order to increase the validity of the data. The surprising nding of negative relationships between sense of general wellbeing and satisfaction of the actualization need as well as the economic and family needs to be explored further. Is this result peculiar to this sample only or is it a widespread phenomenon in Chinese organizations? Is it an urban phenomenon? As suggested in the article, perhaps the self-efcacy of the people is a moderating variable and this could be an avenue of future research. The study makes a contribution to the QWL literature in understanding the needs satisfaction at work in the Shanghai area of China. Areas for future research could involve studies focusing on the impacts of national or organizational culture on the quality of work life. A comparison of needs satisfaction of QWL in different cultures or industries would be interesting.

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