Without doubt, the most important determinant of QWL is career achievement, followed by career satisfaction and career balance.
Marital status, age, income, education, total tenure years of employment and tenure with current employer correlate positively with QWL. In this sample, this indicates that as age increases, so does the level of career achievement. Similarly with the increase of the total tenure years of employment and tenure with the current employer also indicate the increase in the level of QWL. Accordingly, the number of children correlates negatively with total tenure years of employment, career satisfaction, career achievement, organizational climate and QWL. This means that as age increases, together with the total tenure years of employment and with the current employer, the number of children decreased. In turn, this will increase the level of career satisfaction, career achievement and QWL. This is consistent with the literature that age positively predicts success presumably because extrinsic outcomes accrue over time[40,41]. It also indicates that older respondents had been long in their career and had achieved more promotions in their careers than had younger executives[31]. Also, the respondents who worked in MNCs were reported to have a slightly higher level of QWL as compared to those in SMIs. The higher the income obtained by the respondents, the higher the level of QWL.
However, the respondents did not express the level of satisfaction with their career balance. This is in line with the literature standpoint and expressed in the conflict between work and family life. The results show that the respondents are satisfied with their achievement (63.8%) in their career progress but not in terms of career balance (36.6%). Participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role[22]. Executives who value their career quite highly will find that it affects the amount of time they can devote to the family[41]. Rapoport and Rapoport[30] supported this by showing that the family’s morale support and the diversion that it entails make it an important factor affecting QWL.
There is significant difference of QWL between married and singles (F = 1.644, df = 463, p = 0.02). Those who are married and have children have a higher level of QWL as compared to the singles. Past researchers have observed that in early stages of their careers, individuals are often willing to sacrifice their personal lives in the interests of their career progression. However, as individuals advance in age to the maturity stage of their career, they have been found to place a greater emphasis on a balance between their work and family lives that individuals place on their family role as they age. Prior research has found that being married leads individuals to give their personal lives priority over their work lives. Similarly, being a parent increases the importance that individuals place on their family role. Some research indicates that a happy family life correlates with high levels of job satisfaction and objective career success[29]. This is supported in this sample of study.
In this study, the E & E industry comprises mostly Japanese companies where the workers tend to have higher work centrality and place a greater emphasis on job security and stability even though they are Malaysians. This finding is in accordance with Lundberg and Peterson[42] and England and Misumi[43]. This suggests that Japanese have instituted similar cultures in Malaysia and even perhaps that our Malaysian culture, may be more attracted to traditional careers with an average tenure of 9.2 years with the current employer and in contrast to the boundaryless career concept that capture the working lives of Americans more accurately.
Implications: The result of this study supports the proposition that the degree of satisfaction in QWL is related to the degree to which the individual believes his or her success criteria have been met, especially if the individual places great importance on these criteria which include pay, respect, personal growth and family life balance. This supports the materialistic work ethic that place strong emphasis on corporate power, income and personal growth as parts of their careers. It can also be concluded from the data, that the individual’s family life correlates significantly with his/her level of QWL. This further suggests that a successful family life carries over into one’s career and makes one more satisfied with personal achievements.
The fact that is worthy of conclusion is the importance of career achievement in QWL. In the current context, the emphasis is on income, position and personal growth and opportunity in career mobility as potential success indicators. Further, this is related to having a harmonious successful home environment from spousal and family support that is highly valued where career balance is expected to provide some impact as found in this paper.
It can thus be concluded that the essential determinants of QWL appears to be career related, taking into account the executives’ met expectations of their career development.
Some suggestions for future research: This study has the potential value for further research. To ensure representativeness, the study should be replicated to cover a bigger sampling frame and the results should be compared to those found in this study. Future research should further explore the perception of career and understand that changes may take place in that perception as life events occur and how social values relate to career elements and family elements if we are to increase our present limited ability to explain individual’s QWL. Given the changes experienced by organizations that can include the virtual organizations and telecommuting, one possible insight is to evaluate the extent of QWL and the desirable level in such postmodern climate where flexibility into organizational structures and work schedules are emerging.
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