Psychology and Cognitive Sciences

Open journal

ISSN 2380-727X

Design and Validation of the Quality of Work Life Scale for Call Center Workers of a Private Company in Downtown of Lima, 2019

Joanne E. M. Yllescas*

Received: October 5th, 2020; Revised: December 19th, 2020; Accepted: December 28th, 2020; Published: December 28th, 2020

INTRODUCTION

The study of the quality of work life (CVL) is of gradual interest given the new structures of business and work organization that originate in individuals high-levels of pressure and work stress, which brings as a consequence difficulties at the level of productivity and performance within your work area. However, CVL humanizes the workplace, since it provides the basic needs to employees, seeking to provide an environment where they can develop for the benefit of their good performance.1

The International Labor Organization (ILO, 2012) defines work as “the set of human activities, paid or not, that produce goods or services in an economy, or that satisfy the needs of a community or provide the means of sustenance for the individuals.”

The first experience of Quality of Work Life was presented in the USA. General Motors was the first company to address this concept in 1971. Procter And Gamble, Exxon, Ford and Polaroid continued the studies and inquired more about the subject.2

Asenjo3 mentions the fulfillment of the position and the work environment represent valuable elements that will determine an adequate condition within the work. If the environment is inappropriate, it will affect the training of the employee, thus causing discomfort that will be reflected in their productivity and generating inappropriate behaviors (absenteeism, turnover, others).

An adequate quality of life leads to a good climate of trust and respect, which generates that workers generate their contributions and increase their chances of success in all areas, while management will emphasize reducing control mechanisms.

Cerdá4 , Meneses et al5 carry out their investigation of a quantitative approach of a descriptive-instrumental type of CVL scale in the transportation sector, it was applied to 468 drivers of the SETP of the City of San Juan de Pasto (Colombia), with ages between 20-70-years old, incompleted primary and secondary education level. The psychometric properties of the scale were determined using the EFA procedure, we sought to know the grouping of the items. At the first moment, an analysis of the correlation matrix was carried out through Bartlett’s sphericity test, obtaining a χ (Chi square) of 20417.726, which shows the existence of correlation between the items, a significance level of 0.000 indicating that the research hypothesis is accepted. In other words, there is a relationship between the results of the Scale, thus forming factors, and a Kayser Meyer Olkin index of 0.783, values that demonstrate the viability of using factor analysis.

Vega et al6 in their, “Empirical study of quality of working life, four indicators: job satisfaction, work conditions and environment, organization and global indicator, Private and Public sectors. Development, application and validation of the instrument” the study aimed to develop an instrument to know the quality of working life of the company. The sample of this research has included 128 workers from the private and public sectors. The instrument that was applied to measure the quality of work life consists of 118 items that have been divided into 4 indicators: job satisfaction, work conditions and environment, organization and global indicators. It is concluded that the scales have been validated for the sample that can be used to measure the quality of working life of private companies in different sectors and public, and give a significant contribution to correct the strategies applied in companies by implementing an improvement strategy to all organizations with internal and external policies that are of great interest.

Peña7 , Quintero8 posited needs at five levels; physiological, security, affiliation, recognition and self-actualization. Where the first four reflect the needs for deficit (primordial), the fifth need reflects the highest-level, growth motivation or need to be.

According to Maslow, needs are an individual’s right. However, in order to satisfy them, you must work on them to achieve what is needed, to find solutions and be happy. These being divided into pleasure, charm, vigor, work, etc. When it fails to achieve the objectives of one of these, it can enter a state of shame, decay, among others. At the same time, when these needs are adequately satisfied, others are born that human beings will have to achieve.9

With regard to Maslow’s theory of basic needs with quality of work life, it can be easily applied to the work environment. For a worker, the journey begins when lower-order needs (physiology and safety) are met. That is, when a person wants to work, they will be anxious about receiving a salary. Thus, not only will you need your organization to receive a salary; The company must provide a place where the worker can have minutes of relaxation and where he can satisfy his hunger, such as a dining room or recreation room (physiological needs).7,8,9

From the moment the first need is covered, the employee will dedicate himself to establishing and organizing his profession for some demands and a stable and safe work environment (security). Therefore, the worker will wish to have access to a healthy life; thus, for example, guarantees in risk prevention and occupational safety. Then, he will seek stability in the organization, heading for his professional development and preserving his interests.

When the basic levels are reached, the worker will want to satisfy their affiliation needs. Bearing in mind interpersonal relationships in the organization as they are necessary and effective. If the organization encourages collaboration between employees, performance will increase generating a good quality of work life. It is important that there is communication when carrying out any project of the organization; workers should consider promoting a sense of belonging.

Workers will previously develop new motivations and seek to be successful in their company, this means: seek to be recognized in their work. If the organization and their colleagues recognize the effort of their work, the worker will increase their confidence, at the same time they will reinforce their identity and move towards success.

With the aforementioned, we say that Maslow’s theory has been successful in labor issues, that is why organizations will be able to implement an order of needs, being able to organize themselves in the best way and achieve the objectives in an immediate and appropriate way a good quality of working life.

Psychometric Aspect

It should be noted that psychometric tests allow an objective analysis of the quality of work life construct with a representative sample, corresponding to our reality. It is important to mention, examine the reliability of the instrument using other procedures such as temporal reliability or reliability by parallel forms.10

METHODS

Lawler11 cataloged this research as instrumental studies since the purpose is to execute an instrument from the construction to the resolution of the psychometric properties. The research was of a non-experimental design, for Hernández et al1 the variables are not altered, they are only examined and translated, they are also cross-sectional, since the data are collected in a single time. It was applied at the applied level, for Angarita8 , it takes the title of “practical or empirical research”, it is distinguished by the search for the knowledge obtained, they acquire others, after implementing and structuring the practice dedicated to research. Therefore, the research was quantitative, Hernández et al1 begins a conception that indicates and deduces objectives that studies various sources for the creation of the theoretical framework. In this way, the instrument is created, the psychometric properties being resolved.

Participants

For this research, a sample of 700 collaborators from 18-yearsold to 55-years-old was used, all telemarketers from a call center of a private company in Downtown of Lima. Thus provide the following guide: 100=poor, 200=fair, 300=good, 500=very good, ≥ 1000=excellent.

It is worth mentioning that the sampling was non-probabilistic for convenience; used to prepare samples according to the possibility of access, the willingness of individuals to be part of the sample, in a given space of time.12 In turn, they were informed of the procedure through informed consent so that they can participate voluntarily and anonymously.

Instrument

In the research carried out for data collection, the quality of work life scale was used, which in its preliminary version was composed of 30 items structured in 4 dimensions (Autonomy, Personal development, Work safety and Equity). It should be noted that, in the final version of the instrument, it is composed of 5 dimensions (Autonomy, Personal development, Job security, Equity, Fair salary) and 29 items with optimal values for adequate validity and reliability.13

Analysis of Data

In the first phase, a scale with 30 items were made and quantifications were carried out by judges’ criteria through the Aiken’s V coefficient. As a result, of the 30 items, none were removed and only ten were corrected for clarity. The pilot study consisted of 100 call center workers from a private company in Downtown ofLima, and with the database obtained, the internal reliability of the instrument in question was carried out. Likewise, it was verified by statistical analysis of Cronbach’s alpha data; The Guttman Coefficient halving method was also performed.

In the second phase, the instrument created with the items that were suitable was applied to a sample of 700 call center workers from a private company in Downtown ofLima, the analysis of items were used again considering descriptive statistics such as; the corrected test item, communalities; the standard deviation; Fisher’s coefficient of skewness; Fisher’s kurtosis coefficient; Since this analysis allows finding evidence for content validity.14,15 Then, the data processing technique was used, as well as the data processing tables to tabulate and process results of the instrument using the Microsoft Excel 2013 program and the statistical software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25.0. The Analysis of Moment Structures program (AMOS), version 25.0 was used to perform the confirmatory analysis.

RESULTS

Exploratory Factor Analysis

In the EFA, the Kaiser Meyer Olkin (KMO) measurement test was performed for the quality of work life scale is 0.930, which means that it is > 0.80 on the number of observations for the base of respondents (700). Which is acceptable for testing. On the other hand, for Bartlett’s sphericity test it is not significant (p <0.05). Which means a correlation between the variables.

On the other hand, in the total variance explained it indicates that the instrument has five factors that explain 54.982% of the total variance, it tells us that the test is acceptable since it is equivalent to greater than 50% of the scale in general (Table 1).

Table 1. Total Explained Variance of the Quality of Work Life Scale (n=700)

Total

% Variance % Accumulated Total % Variance % Accumulated Total % Variance

e % Accumulated

9.448

31.494 31.494 9.448 31.494 31.494 4.786 15.954 15.954

3.297

10.989 42.483 3.297 10.989 42.483 4.226 14.085 30.039
1.616 5.387 47.870 1.616 5.387 47.870 3.716 12.387

42.426

1.099

3.665 51.535 1.099 3.665 51.535 2.045 6.816

49.241

1.034 3.448 54.982 1.034 3.448 54.982 1.722 5.741

54.982

Finally, the rotated component matrix shows us that the test was organized into 5 factors whose factorial loads ranged between 0.4 and 0.8 respectively (Table 2).

Table 2. Distribution of the Items by Factors of the Quality of Work Life Scale
Matriz de Componente Rotadoa

Componente

 

1

2 3 4

5

item21

0.821

       
item17

0.760

       
item20

0.759

       
item22

0.742

       
item18

0.739

       
item15

0.622

       
item16

0.522

       
item14

0.480

       
item19

0.460

       
item2  

0.665

     
item1  

0.659

     
item7  

0.657

     
item6

 

0.633

     
item8  

0.581

     
item5

 

0.555

     
item4  

0.547

     
item10

 

0.546

     
item30    

0.735

   
item25    

0.709

   
item29    

0.678

   
item24  

 

0.664

   
item28  

 

0.547

   
item9    

0.475

   
item27      

0.598

 
item3      

0.526

 
item26      

0.517

 
item23      

0.497

 
item13        

0.693

item12        

0.613

Extraction method: principal component analysis. Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser normalization. a. The rotation has converged in 7 iterations.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

In the confirmatory factor analysis model 1, the distribution of the 5 dimensions could be verified, obtaining some adequate values in their goodness of fit indices; in the following indices X²/ gl=4.920, indicating a good fit, the CFI value=0.835, indicating an inappropriate value (Schreider, Stage, Nora & Barlow, 2006). In the same way, the value of RMSEA=0.075, indicating a good fit. On the other hand, the TLI values=0.805 indicates an inappropriate value. Likewise, AIC=1,999,730 indicates an inappropriate value Hernández et al.1 In model 2, making covariance in items (3 and 23) and (26 and 27), adequate values were obtained in their goodness of fit indices; in the following indices X²/gl=4.711, indicating a good fit, the CFI value=0.90, indicating a good fit. In the same way, the value of RMSEA=0.073, indicating a suitable value. On the other hand, the TLI values=0.815 indicates an inappropriate value. Likewise, AIC=1,917,408 indicates an inappropriate value (Table 3) (Figures 1 and 2).1

Table 3. Goodness-of-Fit Measures of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Quality of Work Life Scale (n=700)

Adjustment Indices

Model 1 Model 2

Optimal Indices

Absolute Fit      
X²/g Chi square ratio/degrees of freedom

4.920

4.711

≤5.00 (Acceptable)

RMSEA Adjusted goodness-of-fit index

0.075

0.073

≤0.08 (Acceptable)

Comparative Fit
CFI Comparative fit index

0.835

0.90

≥0.90 (Acceptable)

TLI Tuker-Lewis index

0.805

0.815

≥0.90 (Not acceptable)

Parsimonious Adjustment
AIC Akaike information criteria

1.999.730

1.917.408

Close to 0 (Not acceptable)

Reliability Analysis

The internal consistency achieved in the Quality of Work Life Scale and its dimensions through Cronbach’s Alpha method ranged between 0.458 and 0.876; since they present us with results with a high-level of reliability and reliability of 0.919 (Table 4).

Table 4. Reliability by Cronbach’s Alpha of the Dimensions of the Quality of Work Life Scale (n = 700)

 

α

N° Items

Autonomy 0.876

9

Personal development

0.806

8

Job security

0.835

6

Equity

0.791

4

Fair wage

0.458

2

Total

0.919

29

Likewise, the Cronbach’s alpha of the dimensions are as follows for the autonomy component a score of 0.876 was obtained, for the personal development component a 0.806 was obtained, for the equity component an 0.835 was obtained, for the security component Labor was obtained 0.791 and finally for fair salary a 0.458 was obtained. Which shows us that our scale is adequate and with acceptable reliability.

DISCUSSION

The purpose of this research was to construct a quality of work life scale for workers of a call center company in Downtown of Lima. The theoretical foundations are governed by the studies carried out of the basic needs of Maslow with quality of work life, which can be easily used in the work environment. When the basic levels are reached, the worker will want to satisfy new needs that change to satisfiers, sought-after objects, interests, and values.

When making the distribution of the items by factors, applied in the initial sample of (n=700), it was elaborated starting with 4 dimensions where each one of them consists of a number of items in the dimensions: autonomy (8 items), personal development (8 items), job security (7 items) and equity (7 items); in as much as it divides in an adequate way this theoretical approach based on the 4 dimensions. It should be noted that what was done through the exploratory factor analysis of the rotated component proposes a better structure leaving 5 dimensions, since it only rethinks some items and in the dimensions: autonomy (9 items), personal development (8 items), job security (9 items), equity (4 items) and fair salary (2 items).

Regarding the results found from the confirmatory factor analysis where the sample of (n=700) was used, the distribution of the 5 dimensions could be verified, obtaining in model 1 some adequate values in their goodness of fit indices; in the following indices X²/gl=4.920, indicating a good fit, the CFI value=0.835, indicating an inappropriate value. In the same way, the value of RMSEA=0.075, indicating a good fit. On the other hand, the TLI values=0.805 indicates an inappropriate value. Likewise, AIC=1,999,730 indicates an inappropriate value.1

In model 2, making covariance in items (3 and 23) and (26 and 27), adequate values were obtained in their goodness of fit indices; in the following indices X²/gl=4.711, indicating a good fit, the CFI value=0.90, indicating a good fit. In the same way, the value of RMSEA=0.073, indicating a suitable value. On the other hand, the TLI values=0.815 indicates an inappropriate value. Likewise, AIC=1,917,408 indicates an inappropriate value.1

The reliability analysis by dimensions was carried out where we used the initial sample of (n=700), it was evidenced that in the dimensions (autonomy, personal development, job security, equity and fair salary); that comprise the total variable of quality of working life, where the acceptable values in reliability are between 0.458 and 0.876; since they present us with results with a high-level of reliability and reliability of 0.919.

On the other hand, access to the established sample was with people with different academic degrees, it had some restrictions due to the time factor and there is little access to them in a set time. Meanwhile, it is recommended to continue with the study of the variable as it is the subject of various studies in our environment; Furthermore, in organizational practice its application is not valid with the Humanist approach that puts human labor relations as the main assumption and focus on the importance of understanding performance in the feelings, ideas and behaviors of collaborators in organizations.16

Finally, it could be inferred that Martínez’s Quality of Work Life Scale (ECVL) has a total of 29 items, classified in 5 dimensions: autonomy, personal development, job security, equity and fair salary, which, in the Confirmatory factor analysis model 2 shows us a covariance that indicates the similarity between the items (3 and 23) and (26 and 27) of the same dimension (equity). Likewise, the ECVL demonstrated adequate levels of validity and reliability.

CONCLUSION

The content validity evidence was found through the 10-expert judgment method using Aiken’s V. validity (p>80) and the Binomial test (p<0.05), which allowed maintaining the 30 items.

•The descriptive analysis of the items showed adequate indicators regarding: the corrected test item; communality; the standard deviation; Fisher’s coefficient of skewness; Fisher’s kurtosis coefficient; for the thirty items.
• Regarding the validity of the internal structure by means of the exploratory factor analysis, it was possible to establish the organization of the items in 5 factors, taking into account the Bartlett’s
sphericity test values (sig=0.000) and the adequacy index sample (KMO=0.930).
• Regarding the validity of the internal structure by means of the confirmatory factor analysis, model 1 and model 2, the relevance of the theoretical model was verified to explain the quality of working life composed of five dimensions according to Maslow’s theory, showing adequate indices adjustment: X2/gl=4.920 and 4.711, CFI=0.835 and 0.90, RMSEA=0.075 and 0.073, except TLI=0.805 and 0.815 which did not show an adequate value.

RECOMMENDATIONS

•It is recommended to use the instrument following the qualification criteria, because it has been shown that it has adequate levels of validity and reliability for a company in the call center field.
• It is recommended to apply other procedures, such as the joint relationship with other measures, such as convergent, divergent, predictive or other validity, which contribute to evidence the validity by criterion of the quality of work life scale.
• It is recommended to eliminate the equity dimension because it has a similarity between the items, according to model 2 of the confirmatory factor analysis.
• It is recommended to apply and measure in other samples in different professionals, on the quality of work life scale.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This is an independent thesis research. The approval of the Ethics Committee and the Institutional Review Committee (IRB) to carry out this study was not mentioned.

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8. Angarita JRQ. Teoría de las necesidades de Maslow. 2008. Web site. http://doctorado.josequintero.net. Accessed October 4, 2020.

9. Randstand. La pirámide de Maslow en el ámbito laboral [In: Spanish]. 2016. Website. https://www.randstad.es/tendencias360/la-piramide-de-maslow-en-el-ambito-laboral/. Accessed October 4, 2020.

10. Corral Y. Revistas de Ciencias de la Educación [In: Spanish]. Validez y confiabilidad de los instrumentos de investigación para la recolección de datos. Venezuela. Website. http://servicio.bc.uc. edu.ve/educacion/revista/n33/art12.pdf. 2009; 19 (33). Accessed October 4, 2020.

11. Lawler E. Measuring the Psychological Quality of Working Life. In: Davis LE, Cherns AB, eds. The way and how of it, and the quality of working life. New York, USA: The Free Press; 1975.

12. Otzen T, Manterola C. Técnicas de Muestreo sobre una Población a Estudio [In: Spanish]. Int J Morphol. 2017; 35(1): 227-232. doi: 10.4067/S0717-95022017000100037

13. Sireci SG. The construct of content validity. Social Indicators Research. 1998; 45: 83-117. doi: 10.1023/A:1006985528729

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15. Aiken LR. Test Psicológicos De Evaluación [In: Spanish]. México, USA: Prentice-Hall; 1996.

16. Lobato D. Calidad de vida laboral y su relación con el compromiso organizacional de los trabajadores de la constructora Perú Obras SRL del Distrito de Trujillo, 2017. [In: Spanish]. Website. https://repositorio.ucv.edu.pe/handle/20.500.12692/10081. Accessed October 4, 2020.

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