Enhancing the work-life balance through AHP modeling of early career decision making

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the ranking of quality of life determinants in the evaluation of university students that are starting their professional activities. The research methodology was composed of five levels. First, a review of the scientific literature on the quality of life and work-life balance, as well as on multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) was performed. Then, an AHP decision-making model for early career decision-making was elaborated. It was followed by a two-stage expert selection process, from which significance rankings for all four parent criteria, 16 sub-criteria and four decision alternatives were obtained. Finally, a graphical and descriptive presentation of the obtained results was presented. The research sample was composed of 14 experts extracted from an initial sample of almost 200 university students. The research findings show that university students who are on the verge of entering so-called "adult life" most likely choose a career-oriented approach. At the same time, they seem to most value the "safety, stability and certainty" parent criterion. The implications of the presented research could help students better adapt to the labor market trends and lead to a higher life satisfaction of future employees. The main research limitation comes from narrowing the group of experts to only university students. The value added by this research is derived from the fact that employees with a satisfactory level of work-life balance will contribute to a general increase in the overall satisfaction level in society.