Developments in Quality of Work-Life Research and Directions for Future Research

Abstract

Objective of this paper was to observe trends and developments in quality of work-life research throughout the decades. Previous researchers mostly focused on systematic and general literature reviews. In this paper bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review were combined to observe the trends and developments in quality of work-life research. An electronic Scopus database search initially produced of 867 documents on quality of work-life. Further purposive screening reduced the documents to 752 altogether. Furthermore, a detailed literature review of top 10 most cited publications throughout the decades of quality of work-life research was conducted, to explore construct development, antecedents, and outcomes of quality of work-life. Bibliometric analysis revealed that most of the research was produced from United States, and in areas of business, management, and accounting. Literature review revealed that from 1970s to 1980s, the focus of quality of work-life research was mainly on construct development. From 1990s onward, researchers mostly focused on identifying antecedents and outcomes of quality of work-life at organizational and employee level. Findings of this research suggests various employee and organizational level factors which have been neglected by most influential studies of quality of work-life throughout the decades. Future researchers should focus on these factors to motivate government and organizations to incorporate these factors in their system, and to support the quality of work-life research.