Influence of Social Intelligence and Change Readiness on Quality of Work Life
Main Article Content
Abstract
Today’s organizations aim to establish healthy work environments. Through purposive sampling, 150 participants from two higher educational institutions were selected to explore the factors influencing their quality of work life. The instrument was composed of adapted questions from the Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale, Assessment for Change Readiness, and Work- Related Quality of Life Scale. The findings revealed high levels of social intelligence and change readiness, along with an average quality of work life. Social intelligence (p = .001) and change readiness (p = < .001) were associated with the quality of work life. Significant differences in quality of work life were also exhibited in terms of educational attainment (p = .045) and work position (p = .022). The results of this study verified these associations with social intelligence, change readiness, and quality of work life. Furthermore, confidence and optimism were the specific subscales that significantly predicted the employee's quality of work life. The study underscored that work has the potential to influence life to a great extent, and thus managers of establishments are urged to create nurturing environments that promote personal advancement, work-life balance, satisfaction, and trusting relationships. These factors critically enhance the quality of work life.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright: Asia-Pacific International University reserve exclusive rights to publish, reproduce and distribute the manuscript and all contents therein.
References
Akar, H. (2018). The relationships between quality of work life, school alienation, burnout, affective commitment and organizational citizenship: A study on teachers. European Journal of Educational Research, 7(2), 169–180. https://doi.org/10.12973/eu- jer.7.2.169
Akar, H., & Ustuner, M. (2019). The relationships between perceptions of teachers’ transformational leadership, organizational justice, organizational support and quality of work life. International Journal of Research in Education and Science (IJRES), 5(1), 309–322. www.ijres.net
Albrecht, K. (2006). Social intelligence: The new science of success. Jossey-Bass.
Çetinkanat, A., & Kösterelioğlu, M. A. (2016). Relationship between quality of work life and work alienation: Research on teachers. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 4(8), 1778–1786. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2016.040806
Chand, S. (2021). Quality of work life: Its meaning and definition [Employee Management]. YourArticleLibrary.com. https://www./yourarticlelibrary.com/employee-management/quality-of-work-life-its-meaning-and-definition-employee-man
Cooper, K. (2021). Why corporate social intelligence should be on your company’s radar. Centre for Social Intelligence. https://www.centreforsocialintelligence.ca/blog/
Crispo, A., Vandeveer, R., & Sugarman, H. (2005). Appreciative inquiry helps define “best-in-class leadership”: An exciting philosophy for change [Electronic proceedings]. International Leadership Association 7th Annual Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Easton, S., & Van Laar, D. (2018a). User manual for the work-related quality of life (WRQoL) scale: A measure of quality of working life (2nd ed.). University of Portsmouth. www.qowl.co.uk
Easton, S., & Van Laar, D. (2018b). Reconciling organizational stress, cultural differences and quality of working life. Indian Journal of Career and Livelihood Planning, 7(1), 38.
Frankovský, M., & Birknerová, Z. (2014). Measuring social intelligence-the MESI methodology. Asian Social Science, 10(6), 90–97. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v10n6p90
Holt, D. T., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S., & Harris, S. G. (2007). Readiness for organizational change: The systematic development of a scale. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43(2), 232–255. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886306295295
Howley, C. (2012). Readiness for Change. ICF International. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535400.pdf
Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt Lewin’s change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation and Knowledge, 3(3), 123–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2016.07.002
Ivancevich, J. M., Konopaske, R., & Matteson, M. T. (2014). Organizational behavior and management (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Joseph, C., & Lakshmi, S. S. (2010). Social intelligence, a key to success. The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 4(3), 15–21. https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=1706610
Kamboj, S., Rani, V., Kohli, S., & Malik, A. (2015). Emotional competence and quality of work life in call center employees: A gender based study. Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 6(10), 994–998.
Kanten, S., & Sadullah, O. (2012). An empirical research on relationship quality of work life and work engagement. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 62, 360–366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.057
Kihlstrom, J. F., & Cantor, N. (2011). Social Intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg & S. B. Kaufman (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence (pp. 564–581). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511977244.029
Leitão, J., Pereira, D., & Gonçalves, Â. (2019). Quality of work life and organizational performance: workers’ feelings of contributing, or not, to the organization’s productivity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(20), 3803. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203803
Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. Harper and Brothers. http://www.sciepub.com/reference/37764
Lorincová, T., & Lelková, A. (2016). Prediction of manipulation, empathy and social irritability through selected personality traits among managers. Periodica Polytechnica Social and Management Sciences, 24(2), 83–87. https://doi.org/10.3311/PPso.8765
Martel, J. P., & Dupuis, G. (2006). Quality of work life: Theoretical and methodological problems, and presentation of a new model and measuring instrument. Social Indicators Research, 77(2), 333–368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-004-5368-4
Moss, F. A., & Hunt, T. (1927). Are you socially intelligent? Scientific American, 137(2), 108–110. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0827-108
Muafi, Fachrunnisa, O., Siswanti, Y., El Qadri, Z. M., & Harjito, D. A. (2019). Empowering leadership and individual readiness to change: The role of people dimension and work method. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 10(4), 1515–1535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-019-00618-z
Muthukumaran, M. (2018). Effect of quality of work life on job satisfaction and organizational performance: A structural equation analysis. Optimization: Journal of Research in Management, 10(2), 46–51. http://www.publishingindia.com/ojrm/109/effect-of- quality-of-work-life-on-job-satisfaction-and-organizational-performance-a-structural-equation-analysis/717/5002/
Newstrom, J. W. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Human behavior at work (13th ed.). McGraw Hill.
Njoroge, C. N., & Yazdanifard, R. (2014). The impact of social and emotional intelligence on employee motivation in a multigenerational workplace. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 14(3), 31–36.
Nouri, M., Pourghaz, A. W., & Jenaabadi, H. (2015). Social intelligence and its relationship with school administrators’ knowledge absorption capability. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(6), 333–342. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s6p333
Olpin, M. & Hesson, M. (2016). Stress management for life: A research- based, experiential approach (4th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Öztürk, Ö. T., Soytürk, M., & Gökçe, H. (2019). Investigation of relationship between communication in academic environment and quality of work life among academic staff. Asian Online Journal Publishing Group Asian Journal of Education and Training, 5(1), 280–286. https://doi.org/10.20448/journal.522.2019.51.280.286
Palucka, A., Celinski, M. J., Salmon, J. D. J., & Shermer, P. (2011). Social and emotional intelligence: Contributors to resilience and resourcefulness. In K. Gow & M. J. Celinski (Eds.), Wayfinding through Life Challenges: Coping and Survival (pp. 47–62). Nova Science Publishers.
Popp, J. (2017, April–June). Social intelligence and the explanation of workplace abuse. SAGE Open, 7(2), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017715076
Rafferty, A. E., Jimmieson, N. L., & Armenakis, A. A. (2013). Change readiness. Journal of Management, 39(1), 110–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206312457417
Ramawickrama, J., Opatha, H. H. D. N. P., & Pushpakumari, M. D. (2018), Quality of work life and job performance: Empirical evidence from station masters working at Sri Lanka railways. Sri Lankan Journal of Human Resource Management, 8(1), 1- 22. http://doi.org/10.4038/sljhrm.v8i1.5638
Rose, R., Beh, L., Uli, J., & Idris, K. (2006). An analysis of quality of work life (QWL) and career- related variables. American Journal of Applied Sciences, 3(12), 2151–2159. https://doi.org/10.3844/ajassp.2006.2151.2159
Saragih, E. H. (2015). Individual attributes of change readiness: A case study at Indonesia state-owned railway company. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences, 172, 34–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.332
Silvera, D. H., Martinussen, M., & Dahl, T. I. (2001). The Tromsø Social Intelligence Scale, a self-report measure of social intelligence. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 42(4), 313–319. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00242
Sirgy, M. J., Efraty, D., Siegel, P., & Lee, D. J. (2001). A new measure of quality of work life (QWL) based on need satisfaction and spillover theories. Social Indicators Research, 55(3), 241–302. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010986923468
Thakur, R., & Sharma, D. (2019). A study of impact of quality of work life on work performance. Management and Labour Studies, 44(3), 326–344. https://doi.org/10.1177/0258042X19851912
Thorndike, E. L. (1920). Intelligence and its uses. Harper’s Magazine, 140, 227–235. https://harpers.org/archive/1920/01/intelligence-and-its-uses/
Vakola, M. (2014). What’s in there for me? Individual readiness to change and the perceived impact of organizational change. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 35(3), 195–209. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-05-2012-0064
Vasita, M., & Prajapati, K. (2014). A study of quality of work life and its impact on job satisfaction in selected higher education institutions of Western Rajasthan. Annamalai International Journal of Business Studies & Research, 6(1), 26–34.
Vernon, P. E. (1933). Some characteristics of the good judge of personality. Journal of Social Psychology, 4(1), 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1933.9921556
Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4(1), 67. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748- 5908-4-67
Weis, S., & Süß, H.-M. (2005). Social Intelligence--A review and critical discussion of measurement concepts. In R. Schulze & R. D. Roberts (Eds.), An International Handbook of Emotional Intelligence (pp. 203–230). Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.