Abstract

CARNEIRO, Thiago Lopes  and  FERREIRA, Mário César. Does working time reduction improve quality of work life?: The experience of a Brazilian public organization. Rev. Psicol., Organ. Trab. [online]. 2007, vol.7, n.1, pp. 131-157. ISSN 1984-6657.

The objective of this study was to identify possible impacts of working-time reduction on employees' Quality of Work Life (QWL) at Brazilian Public Organization's department. Literature shows strong relation between working-time and QWL, mainly concerning adaptation with private life issues and optimization of time-use at work. Based on Activity Ergonomics' theoretical approach, document analysis was done; psychometric scales and interviews were applied to employees from the department where working-time was reduced. There was small difference in QWL indicatives among employees who worked on reduced to those on conventional working-time at psychometric scales' results. On interviews, employees with reduced working-time and managers said that there was optimization of time-use, since employees could take care of their private issues at their free time, and productivity was kept at the same level or higher; however, managers complained due to difficulty to supervise their teams. Study concludes that there were few indicatives of effective QWL improvement. Recommendations are presented for the studied Organization for better QWL achievements

Keywords : working-time; Quality of Work Life; public organization; Ergonomics.

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