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

KAWAI 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 worklives satisfy eight basic needs of employees and how the satisfaction of each individual need in theirwork life affects employees’ job satisfaction, affective commitment, turnover intention, lifesatisfaction and general well-being. A total of 319 questionnaires were collected from eightorganizations in Shanghai, China. Based on the need satisfaction theory and spillover theory in theQWL literature, hypotheses are derived and tested. Results confirm hypotheses regarding therelationship between perceived QWL and all the dependent variables. Multiple regression analysesconfirm using levels of satisfaction of six different individual needs as significant predictors of thefive dependent variables. Esteem need satisfaction is found to be the most important for lifesatisfaction 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 predictaffective commitment. Three needs (economic and family, health and safety, and knowledge) areimportant for job satisfaction. Being recognized and appreciated for one’ s work is found to be astrong predictor of how satisfied employees in Shanghai feel with regard to their lives. Limitations ofthe 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 isimportant for employees to be satisfied about their life at work. Since workoccupies an important place in many people’ s lives, such conditions are likely toaffect not only their physical but also their psychological and spiritual well-being.If organizations are concerned about developing their human resources andgaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace, it seems necessary that theyattend to one of their most precious assets, namely, their human resources.In support of this idea, Levering (1988) argued that the profit of successfulorganizations is not to be achieved at the expense of its employees. According toCaudron (1994), the only thing that will maintain today’s source of competitiveadvantage is high quality personnel instead of merely capital, technology orlong-lived products. In fact, employees are the soft assets and are the hiddenvalue of a company (Abdeen, 2002). They will remain as untapped assets if

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

Correspondence Address: Ka Wai Chan. Email: achan@umac.mo

Asia Pacific Business ReviewVol. 13, No. 4, 501–517, October 2007

organizations do not manage their human resources well. In today’s commercialworld, a productive workforce can increase productivity and efficiency, as well asbeing a vehicle essential for gaining and maintaining sustainable competitiveadvantages 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 socio-technical systems. This term ‘quality of work life’ is reputed to have originatedfrom an international labour relations conference in 1972 at Arden House,Columbia University, New York (Davis & Cherns, 1975). While there seems to beno agreed upon definition of quality of work life, it has been used as a constructwhich relates to the well-being of employees. Some say that Mills (1978) mayhave first coined the term ‘quality of work life’ and he suggested that QWL hadmoved into the permanent vocabulary of both unions and management.Froma business perspective, quality ofwork life (QWL) is important since there is

evidence demonstrating that the nature of the work environment is related tosatisfaction of employees and work-related behaviours (Greenhaus et al., 1987).QWL is also found to affect employees’ work responses in terms of organizationalidentification, 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-beingliterature there is a linking of people who experience greater QWL with those whoalso experience higher levels of health and well- being (Danna & Griffin, 1999).Other work-related behaviours such as absenteeism, reduced productivity andefficiency 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 Chinais now undergoing dramatic changes in its social and economic structure, it willwant to pay attention to factors that will improve its ability to compete in thebusiness world. Improving the QWL may be one of those competitive factorsneeding attention in business organizations. However, a search of the literaturefound virtually no published studies in China on QWL. This study aims at fillingthe niche by studying the quality working life experience and its impact onemployees’ non-work lives and job-related behaviours among organizationalemployees in the city of Shanghai, China. More specifically, we examined QWLin 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 affectsemployees’ job responses and non-work responses. The job-related responsesinclude job satisfaction, affective commitment and turnover intention. The non-work responses include life satisfaction and general well-being. It is proposed thatthe 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 employee’ssatisfaction with their life and general well-being.

Literature Review

QWL can be defined as the favourable conditions and environments of aworkplace that support and promote employee satisfaction by providing workers

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with rewards, job security and growth opportunities (May et al., 1999). Jobsecurity, better reward systems, higher pay, opportunity for growth, participativegroups, and increased organizational productivity are the main issues discussed inthe extant QWL literature. Under the service profit chain model, QWL has alsobeen interpreted as ‘internal service quality’ to the quality of work environmentthat 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 thoughtto lead to job satisfaction. QWL refers to the impact of the workplace onsatisfaction in work life (job satisfaction), satisfaction in non-work life domains,and satisfaction with overall life (Sirgy et al., 2001). Some researchers (Danna &Griffin, 1999) see QWL as a hierarchy of concepts that include non-work domainssuch as life satisfaction (at the top of the hierarchy), job satisfaction (at the middleof the hierarchy) and more work-specific facets of job satisfaction including suchthings 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 aninterest in the study of QWL and this concept has become of renewed concern andincreased importance to the organization and its human resources both in terms ofemployee job satisfaction and in terms of the ultimate performance of theorganization. People began to know more about quality of work life when theUnited Auto Workers and General Motors introduced a QWL programme forwork reform (Beer et al., 1985; May, 1999).The definition 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 beingsatisfied through the working experience. Thus, the older QWL concept is beingapproached from a slightly different theoretical perspective.

Theories and Hypotheses

Sirgy et al. (2001) suggested two main theoretical approaches to QWL in theliterature: need satisfaction and spillover (see also Loscoco & Roschelle, 1991 fora sound review of the QWL literature). The QWL measure used in this articlederives from the need satisfaction approach to QWL which is based on the need-satisfaction theories of Maslow (1943), McClelland (1961), Herzberg (1966) andAlderfer (1972). The underlying notion of the need satisfaction approaches toQWL is the assumption of a set of needs which people attempt to satisfy throughtheir work. Workers will gain satisfaction of their basic needs to the extent towhich 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 andfriendships and need for membership;

A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China 503

. Ego need: comprised of need for self-esteem, need for autonomy; and self-actualization needs.

The QWL construct used in this article is based on a modified version of thenotion developed by Sirgy et al. (2001) which originally used seven needs. Theirfindings suggested that the aesthetic need was not a strong predictor of variousdependent 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 sixneeds including:

1. Satisfaction of health and safety needs (protection from ill health andinjury at work and outside of work as well as enhancement of goodhealth);

2. Satisfaction of economic and family needs (adequate wages, job securityand other family needs such as having enough time from work to attendto family needs);

3. Satisfaction of social needs (collegiality atwork and leisure time offwork);4. Satisfaction of esteem needs (recognition and appreciation of one’s work

both inside and outside the organization);5. Satisfaction of actualization needs (realization of one’s potential within the

organization and as a professional); and6. Satisfaction of knowledge needs (learning to enhance job skills and

professional skills).

The second theoretical approach to QWL is the notion of spillover. The spilloverconcept with regard to QWL suggests that satisfaction in one life domain maywell influence satisfaction in another. This means that job satisfaction may affectother life domains such as family, leisure, social, health, financial 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 aconnecting domain. For example, job satisfaction may affect feelings of familylife satisfaction and vice versa. When speaking about vertical spillover, it isnecessary to discuss the idea of an assumed hierarchy of domains. It may bepossible to imagine the domain at the top of the hierarchy as being thesuperordinate domain which is of paramount importance in one’s life. Otherdomains are arranged in hierarchical fashion in the minds of people. Typically, thedomain at the top is concerned with general life satisfaction or personal happinessor subjectivewell-being. Other domains below the general life satisfaction domaininclude such domains as family, leisure, financial, and so forth. The idea of verticalspillover is that one domain in the hierarchy will spill over to the next in either abottom-up or a top-down fashion.While some people’s lives are more connected and the domains are more

permeable, other people maintain rather segmented lives in the sense that their

504 K. W. Chan

particular domains are notwell connected and thus theremaybe little spillover fromone domain to the other (Wilensky, 1960). The notion of compensation is the ideathat there is a balance of influence between and among the life domains (Sirgy et al.,2001). Thus, satisfaction in one domain ‘compensates’ for dissatisfaction in otherdomains. That is to say, if one is unsatisfied in the work domain, then one maycompensate and feel extremely satisfied 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 jobsatisfaction and life satisfaction (Kabanoff, 1980; Rice et al., 1980; Tait et al., 1989;Liu et al., 1990; Rain et al., 1991). It seems that one’s experiences at work will affectother non-work life domains through the process of a spillover effect. Thus, QWLdoes not only affect job satisfaction but also affects satisfaction in other non-work lifedomains. The spillover notion suggests a positive relationship between work andnon-work experiences. Based on this, our first hypothesis is as follows:

Hypothesis 1. The higher the perceived QWL, the higher the lifesatisfaction.

It seems to follow, then, that a higher perceived QWL will also spill over andlead to higher levels of general well-being. In a review of the health and well-being literature, there is a linking of people who experience greater QWL to thosewho also experience higher levels of health and well-being (Danna & Griffin,1999). This leads to our second hypothesis:

Hypothesis 2. The higher the perceived QWL, the higher the generalwell-being.

Past studies have found that QWL may have a significant impact on employeebehavioural responses, including organizational identification, job satisfaction,job involvement, job effort, job performance, turnover intention, personalalienation (Carter et al., 1990; Efraty & Sirgy, 1990; Lewellyn & Wibker, 1990;Efraty et al., 1991). Studies also indicated that if one’s needs are satisfied, thenone experienced higher levels of job satisfaction (Porter, 1961; Hall et al., 1970;Danna & Griffin, 1999). Thus arises our third hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3. The higher the perceived QWL, the higher the perceivedjob satisfaction.

If one is satisfying one’s needs at work, then the workplace is likely to be seenas a desirable place to spend time. In this sense, it is also likely that those who aresatisfied at work will be more committed to such a place and will have lowerturnover intention. The idea of organizational commitment is founded on theassumption that commitment is comprised of several factors: a strong belief andacceptance of organizational goals and values, a readiness to exert effort on behalfof the organization and a strong desire to remain a member of the particularorganization (Porter, et al., 1974; Mowday et al., 1979). Reviews of the literatureshow that organizational commitment (Mowday et al., 1982) is related to high jobperformance (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 fifth hypotheses:

A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China 505

Hypothesis 4. Higher levels of perceived QWL are associated with higherlevels of affective organizational commitment.

Hypothesis 5. Higher levels of perceived QWL, are associated with lowerlevels of turnover intention.

The kinds of moods, emotions or predispositions that people tend to bring to theworkplace will very likely have an impact on the kind of experience they havewhile performing their job in the organization. A dual construct called positiveand negative affectivity has been developed in the literature. Negative affectivityis a mood predisposition to experience subjective distress and unpleasantnervousness while the positive affectivity construct reflects the degree to which aperson feels enthusiastic, active and alert (Watson et al., 1988). Watson & Clark(1984) have demonstrated that these two mood states of positive and negativeaffectivity are related to the dominant personality factors of extraversion andanxiety/neuroticism respectively. There is evidence to indicate that people whomay be characterized by high negative affectivity tend to experience their worldsin more negative ways (Watson & Tellegen, 1985; Agho et al., 1992). Researchhas indicated that negative affectivity and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 1998;Connolly & Viswesvaran, 2000) as well as negative affectivity and lifesatisfaction are strongly related (Brief et al., 1993; Judge et al., 1998.). The generaltheme of the findings between negative affectivity and the work experience ismostly a negative one. This leads us to our sixth hypothesis:

Hypothesis 6. The higher the negative affectivity the lower the perceivedQWL. Figure 1 presents the conceptual framework for thisstudy.

METHOD

Subjects

A total of 319 subjects from 8 different organizations from banking, insurance,airlines, finance and import/export industries in the city of Shanghai participatedin this study. There were 39.6 per cent male respondents and 60.4 per cent werefemale. Sixty-nine per cent of the respondents fell into the age group of 25–34, 15per cent came from the group between 18–24, 13 per cent from 35–44, and 3 percent 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 ofthe respondents had secondary education, 81.3 per cent had an undergraduatedegree, 12.7 per cent had achieved a Master’s degree and 1 per cent had attained adoctorate. 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 oneyear, while 32 per cent had already been working for 1–3 years, 20.6 per cent hadworked for 4–6 years, 13.9 per cent had worked for 7–9 years, and 15.2 per centhad worked for 10 years or more. Thus, half of the sample had been working fortheir organization only for 3 years or less.

506 K. W. Chan

Procedure

The questionnaires in the present study were translated into Chinese from Englishusing the method of back translation (Brislin, 1986). Attached to eachquestionnaire was a letter stating the objectives of the study and a guarantee ofconfidentiality for the respondents. Invitation letters with a covering letter andbrief information about the research were sent to 25 companies in the city ofShanghai, followed by telephone calls to the human resource managers of thecompanies to invite them to participate in the research. All the 25 companies wereintroduced by friends and relatives of the researcher. Finally, 8 companies indifferent business industries including banks, airlines, real estate and investmentcompanies 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 involvementwas voluntary, employees were strongly encouraged by the top management toparticipate and were assured that their responses would remain confidential andanonymous. Subjects were asked to fill in the questionnaires within 2 days anddrop them inside a secure box. The questionnaires were collected personally bythe researcher. The total number of questionnaires collected was 319 with arounda 60 per cent response rate.

Measures

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

Figure 1. Conceptual Model of QWL

A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China 507

safety need and the economic and family need, while six items each were used forthe 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 wereasked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1representing ‘Strongly Disagree’ to 7 indicating ‘Strongly Agree’.

Negative affectivity. Negative affectivity was measured by an 11-itemquestionnaire developed by Watson & Tellegen (1985). Subjects were asked torespond to each of the 11 items by checking a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1indicating ‘Strongly Agree’ to 7 indicating ‘Strongly Disagree’.

Life Satisfaction. Subjects were asked to rate their satisfaction in other lifedomains in a 15-item questionnaire. Each domain was measured by a singleindicator-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-pointLikert scale ranging from 1 indicating ‘Very Dissatisfied’ to 7 indicating ‘VerySatisfied’.

General Well-being. General well-being was measured by a 12-item scaledeveloped by Goldberg (1978). Respondents were asked to indicate the extent towhich they experienced each of the somatic and affective symptoms listed duringthe previous six weeks. Subjects were asked to respond to each item by checking a7-point scale ranging from 1 indicating ‘Strongly Agree’ to 7 indicating ‘StronglyDisagree’.

Affective Organizational Commitment. An 8-item scale by Allen & Meyer(1990) was used to measure affective organizational commitment. Subjects wereasked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point scale ranging from 1indicating ‘Strongly Agree’ to 7 indicating ‘Strongly Disagree’.

Job Satisfaction. A 5-item scale originally used by Brayfield & Rothe (1951) andlater by Agho et al., (1992) was used to measure job satisfaction. Subjects wereasked to respond to each item by checking a 7-point scale ranging from 1indicating ‘Strongly Agree’ to 7 indicating ‘Strongly Disagree’.

Turnover intentions. A 3-item scale by Camman et al. (1983) was used tomeasure 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 rangingfrom 1 indicating ‘Strongly Agree’ to 7 indicating ‘Strongly Disagree’.

Data Analysis

Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, reliability alphas and correlationsof the study variables. Among the six needs, the knowledge need scores are thehighest 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

508 K. W. Chan

Table 1. Mean, S.D., Alpha, and intercorrelations of independent and dependent variables

Variable Mean S.D.Standardized

Alpha 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Independent variables:1. QWL-needs

satisfaction(average of sixneeds)

4.35 .80 .90

2. Health & safetyneed

4.57 .93 .78 .75**

3. Economics &family need

3.75 .92 .80 .82** .66**

4. Social need 4.15 .96 .67 .84** .69** .74**5. Esteem need 4.58 .89 .80 .85** .53** .56** .56**6. Actualization need 4.20 1.06 .85 .84** .40** .61** .58** .76**7. Knowledge need 4.83 1.08 .83 .84** .46** .51** .58** .76** .77**8. Negative

affectivity3.13 1.12 .93 2 .13* 2 .25** 2 .04 2 .11 2 .17** 2 .03 2 .06

Dependent variables:9. Affective

commitment4.38 .86 .69 .60** .44** .46** .47** .51** .49** .58** 2 .22**

10. Job satisfaction 4.13 1.17 .86 .69** .60** .62** .54** .56** .53** .56** 2 .22** .68**11. Turnover

intention3.19 1.38 .90 2 .28** 2 .24** 2 .21** 2 .20** 2 .28** 2 .20** 2 .25** .29** 2 .50** 2 .39**

12. Life satisfaction 4.61 .82 .91 .46** .42** .39** .40** .42** .31** .36** 2 .32** .34** .44** 2 .1213. General

well-being4.92 .78 .82 .36** .39** .15* .28** .45** .19** .34** 2 .65** .31** .36** 2 .27** .57**

* correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2-tailed)

** correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed)N ¼ 319

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to provide an initial assessment of our general proposition that higher perceivedQWL will be associated with various job-related dependent variables. Thisproposition received strong support as these variables were significantly relatedand generally at the p , .01 level.QWL (average of all the six needs) is found significantly correlated to negative

affectivity and turnover intention (negatively correlated). QWL is found to have asignificant positive correlation to life satisfaction, general well-being, jobsatisfaction and organizational commitment. Therefore, the results of thehypotheses 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 byesteem need (Beta ¼ .29; p , .01) with R square of .33. General well-being isexplained by esteem need (Beta ¼ .54; p , .01), actualization need (Beta ¼ –.32; p , .01), health and safety need (Beta ¼ .31; p , .01) and economic andfamily need (Beta ¼ –.23; p , .01). The predictors for job satisfaction werehealth and safety need (Beta ¼ .29; p , 01), economic and family need(Beta ¼ .30, p , .01) and knowledge need (Beta ¼ .26; p , .01). Results alsoshow that satisfaction of both the knowledge need (Beta ¼ .37; p , .01) andhealth and safety need (Beta ¼ .15; p , .05) significantly predict the level ofaffective organizational commitment. Finally, the only predictor for turnoverintention was the esteem need (Beta ¼ –.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 significant negative correlation (r ¼ –.13; p , .05)between negative affectivity and QWL.

Table 2. Result of multiple regression analyses

Dependent variables

Affectivecommitment

Jobsatisfaction

Turnoverintention

Lifesatisfaction

Generalwell-being

IndependentVariables R Square .40 R Square .51 R Square .16 R Square .33 R Square .59

1 Health &safety need

.15* .29** 2 .09 .15 .31**

Economics &family need

.11 .30** 2 .05 .13 2 .23**

Social need .01 2 .08 .04 .09 .01Esteem need .07 .05 2 .21* .29** .54**Actualizationneed

.02 .02 .14 2 .14 2 .35**

Knowledgeneed

.32** .26** .15 .07 .15

* correlation is significant at 0.05 level (2-tailed)

** correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed)

510 K. W. Chan

Discussion

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 modified toa six need model by the authors and was employed in the present research. Usingthe notion of spillover, it was predicted that QWL would contribute to thesatisfaction of life in general. Thus, the higher the perceived QWL in satisfyingvarious needs of the employee, the higher the life satisfaction. This hypothesiswas confirmed indicating that individuals who perceive a higher QWL in theirwork 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 andappreciated for one’s work inside the workplace is a strong predictor of howsatisfied with their lives these Shanghai employees feel. Results from the presentstudy support a number of studies that have reported a consistent positiverelationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction (for example, Rice et al.,1980; Rain et al., 1991).Results fromregression analyses supported the idea that satisfaction of needs in the

workplace spill over into a person’s sense of well-being. However, the satisfaction ofemployees’ economic and family need and actualization need atwork are found to beassociated with a sense of well-being in one’s non-work life in a negative way. Themore 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 thishigh level of attainment of their potential. For individuals with low self-efficacy,this evaluation can well lead to more pressure which then spill overs and causes alower sense of general well-being in their non-work life. The sample of employeesin the study is quite young and educated but with little experience. It may be thatthese individuals are being placed under great stress and question their ability tofulfil the expectations of the organization which in turn leads to them experiencinglower 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 andoutcomes and then compare the outcome-input ratio with relevant others (Adams,1965). A high satisfaction of the economic need indicates that the employee ishappy with the pay and compensation provided by the organization. Equity theoryindicates that the higher the satisfaction of the reward provided by theorganization, the more the employee feels ‘motivated’ or ‘obligated’ to do a betterjob in order to increase the input side of the ratio to create equity. Consequently,these people may be filled with more stress and worries from high expectations ordemands at the workplace. Again, this stress and worry spill over into theemployees’ 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 significant predictors of levels of job satisfaction. For

A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China 511

Shanghai employees, higher level of wages, job security and other family needsare strongly related to higher experiences of job satisfaction. The results arecongruent with other studies that found similar relationships (Porter, 1961; Hall,et al., 1970; Danna & Griffin, 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 animportant element in employees feeling a sense of job satisfaction. Althoughthe study of Elizur et al. (1991) was not focused on job satisfaction, it didexamine the priority of work values across a number of countries, includingChina. In their investigation it was found that achievement was ranked first and,in this sense, the findings of the present research are consistent with Elizur et al.(1991) in that knowledge need satisfaction was also a predictor of jobsatisfaction.The present study predicted that higher levels of perceived QWL will be linked

to higher levels of affective organizational commitment. This hypothesis wasconfirmed and indirectly supports the results of studies linking organizationalcommitment 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 anorganization is able to fulfill peoples needs in learning new skills and knowledgetends to lead to higher affective organizational commitment. Elizur et al. (1991)found that achievement values were ranked the highest in their cross-culturalstudy. This could logically mean that those whose knowledge needs were highlysatisfied in their workplace would find the organization more attractive anddisplay greater loyalty to such a workplace. Those who took part in this study areyoung, relatively new to the organization and quite well educated. Having theopportunity to satisfy a need for learning would be likely to make the organizationa much more attractive place to remain. This would be seen as another desirableconsequence 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 thathigher perceived levels of QWL would be associated with lower levels ofintentions to turnover and the findings support this hypothesis. The results of thisresearch confirm the findings of Porter et al. (1974). The results of the regressionanalysis supported the idea that higher levels of esteem need satisfaction arerelated to lower levels of turnover intention. The opportunity to satisfy one’s needfor being recognized at work for one’s accomplishments is important for anemployee’s 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. Elizuret al. (1991) found that esteem need was ranked third in importance for Chinesemanagers and the present results give credence to such a rating. It seems importantfor managers to consider remaining in an organization in which they feel a greatersense of recognition and appreciation of one’s work inside and outside theorganization. Again, those who took part in this study are young, educated,relatively new to the organization and possibly in the early stages of their careerdevelopment.

512 K. W. Chan

Employees’ predisposition to experience their worlds in predominantly positiveor negative ways affects their working experiences in predictable ways. The resultssupported this hypothesis and lend support to previous findings that people high innegative affectivity tend to experience their worlds in more negative ways(Watson & Tellegen, 1985; Agho et al., 1992). It may well be that even though theparticular QWL in the organization is quite high, employees who show high levelsof negative affectivity will tend to experience the workplace in more negativeways than those who show lower levels of negative affectivity.

Implications for the Theory

The results of this study once again confirm the theoretical conceptual frameworkusing spillover theory on the relationships between quality of work life and lifesatisfaction, general well-being, affective commitment, job satisfaction andturnover intention. Consistent with previous studies, spillover effects have beenfound to indicate that higher satisfaction in the work area is associated with highersatisfaction 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 WorkLife by using a need theory approach. Multiple regression analyses confirm thesatisfaction of six different individual needs as significant predictors of the fivedependent variables. Esteem need satisfaction is the major predictor among the sixneeds of life satisfaction, general well-being and turnover intention. Additionally,knowledge need satisfaction and health and safety need satisfaction are the majorpredictors for both job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Thissupports the motivational theories that fulfilling unsatisfied needs is important tomotivate people at work and increase their commitment to the organization. Assubjects in this study do not have major financial difficulties, the results shows thatit is the higher order need such as esteem and knowledge needs that are moreimportant 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-efficacy and equitytheory to explain the relationships respectively. When organizations provideample opportunities to actualize their employees’ potential, stress or pressure willincrease as they want to meet the organization’s expectations, especially whenindividuals have low self-efficacy. As a consequence, this kind of self-doubt,worries and stress will negatively affect their general well-being. Therefore, inunderstanding the relationship between actualization need and general well-being,the concept of stress or self-efficacy should be added as moderator. Unlessindividuals have high self-efficacy to meet the expectations of organizations, thesatisfaction of the actualization need may indeed lower, rather than enhance thelevel of general well-being. Similarly, high economic satisfaction at work,according to equity theory, produces an ‘obligation’ of good performance to createequity. Unless employees believe that they have been doing a good job at workwhich deserves the high economic satisfaction from the organization, this pressurefor good performance or feelings of inadequacy will negatively affect generalwell-being. Therefore, in using the equity approach to understand the situation,

A Study of Employees in Shanghai, China 513

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

Implications for Managers

The results of this study provide several implications for managers inorganizations. Firstly, organizations would do well to note the strong effect ofthe workplace on peoples’ lives in general if they want to play a role in affectingthe work life harmony of their employees. Esteem need satisfaction is the majorpredictor of life satisfaction, general well-being and turnover intention. Thissuggests that employees have strong needs to be recognized in the workplace. Theopportunity to satisfy one’ s need for being recognized at work for one’saccomplishments is important for an employee’ s overall well-being as well as thedesire to remain in the organization. Organizations which face problematicturnover would do well to consider providing mechanisms for employees to berecognized for their accomplishments such as some form of feedback indicatingreward, promotion and/or praise. The more satisfaction employees receive fromtheir esteem needs, the more they enjoy their lives and the less they intend to quittheir organizations.Secondly, knowledge need satisfaction is the major predictor for both job

satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. Organizations would dowell to ensure more favourable work environments in which employees are able tosatisfy their needs for knowledge. This could be attained through such humanresource practices as offering training and development opportunities whichchallenge the intellectual capacity of employees and broaden their knowledge andskill horizons. Managers could also consider different types of job designs whichmight intellectually challenge employees. Having the opportunity to satisfy a needfor learning is likely to make the organization a much more attractive place toremain. Employees should find the organization more attractive and displaygreater 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 asactualization need at work. In the evaluation of employees’ own ability tomaintain high levels of attainment of their potential, more pressure may accrue.This increased doubt may create a poorer sense of well-being. Similarly, equitytheory indicates that the higher the satisfaction of the reward provided by theorganization, the more the employee feels ‘motivated’ or ‘obligated’ to do a betterjob in the organization. Consequently, these people may be filled with more stressand worries from high expectations or demands at the workplace. Again, thisstress and worry spill over into the employees’ non-work life and their generalwell-being suffers. Organizations should be on the lookout for such employeeswho are filled with self-doubt and make adjustments of the high expectationsplaced on them and provide more support for the achievement of theseexpectations. On the other hand, organizations would do well to be aware of thoseemployees who are suffering increased stress from heavy job demands and

514 K. W. Chan

subsequent lower feelings of well-being and in turn make every effort to help theiremployees cope with this stress.

Conclusions

When discussing the results of the present research, one must keep in mind theparticular limitations of the study. Firstly, the sample may not be considered atruly random sample of managers from the Shanghai area. From a mailing to 25organizations, only 8 organizations were finally 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 single-

source, self-report data. Therefore, the possibility of method bias may be present.Spector (1994) reminds us of the difficulty of making causal connections amongthe variables when such self-report data are utilized. Future research needs to addother data acquisition methods in order to increase the validity of the data.The surprising finding of negative relationships between sense of general well-

being and satisfaction of the actualization need as well as the economic and familyneeds to be explored further. Is this result peculiar to this sample only or is ita widespread phenomenon in Chinese organizations? Is it an urban phenomenon?As suggested in the article, perhaps the self-efficacy of the people is a moderatingvariable 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 researchcould involve studies focusing on the impacts of national or organizational cultureon the quality of work life. A comparison of needs satisfaction of QWL indifferent cultures or industries would be interesting.

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