Kobe University Repository : Thesis
The Quality of Work Life and Subjective Career of Japanese 学位論文題目 Employees(労働生活の質が日本人従業員の主観的キャリアに与える Title 影響) 氏名 Sophia, Ali Author 専攻分野 博士（経営学） Degree 学位授与の日付 2019-03-25 Date of Degree 公開日 2020-03-01 Date of Publication 資源タイプ Thesis or Dissertation / 学位論文 Resource Type 報告番号 甲第7426号 Report Number 権利 Rights JaLCDOI URL http://www.lib.kobe-u.ac.jp/handle_kernel/D1007426
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PDF issue: 2021-09-24 Doctoral Dissertation
The Quality of Work Life and Subjective Career of Japanese Employees
January 21st, 2019 Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University Supervisor: Professor Ryuta Suzuki Business Administration 149B409B Sophia Ali ABSTRACT
This study investigates the influence of quality of work life on subjective career, explores the affective process through which the influence occurs, and highlights the generational constraints in the process. A moderated-mediation model was developed by integrating the affective events theory with the prior literature on quality of work life. Data included measures of quality of work life, the positive and negative affect schedule as well as three states of subjective career of the Japanese employees. The proposed relationships were tested with robust data analytic techniques on a sample of 442 employees. The results are consistent with the hypothesized conceptual scheme that the influence of quality of work life on subjective career is mediated by the affective states of the employees, and it is moderated by generation. Specifically, the influence of quality of work life on a negative affective state along with the overall influence on career mist and career drift via a negative affective state is significantly higher for the millennials than the non-millennials. However, there are no significant generational differences in the framework of quality of work life and career hope via a positive affective state. These results have been discussed in this dissertation along with the implications.
Keywords: Quality of work life, Generational differences, Millennials, Positive affect, Negative affect, Career mist, Career drift, Career hope, Japan
DEDICATION
To my father, Mr. Syed Muhammad Ali Kazmi, for his boundless wisdom, unconditional love and immense belief in me; and, to my Mother, Dr. Shamim Ali for her intellect, infinite optimism, and unwavering support.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to thank Allah, the most gracious and compassionate. Secondly, I would like to express my profound gratitude for my supervisor, Prof. Ryuta Suzuki. His constant guidance and support have led me towards the successful completion of my research work. I would also like to appreciate his intellect, creativity, and problem-solving skills. I am also grateful for the keen evaluation of my research work by the dissertation committee members, Prof. Norio Kambayashi, Prof. Ralf Bebenroth, and Dr. Yoshiko Niwamoto. I am particularly indebted to Prof. Ralf Bebenroth for his constructive criticism, detailed feedback, and encouragement. Furthermore, I am thankful to Dr. Yoshiko Niwamoto for her sound advice and encouragement during the intermediate and advanced stages of my research. Thirdly, I am thankful to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), for providing me the opportunity to study for a doctorate, and conduct research in Japan. I would also like to appreciate the diligence and efficiency of the staff in the academic affairs office of the business faculty at Kobe University. Moreover, I would like to acknowledge the support I received from the students of Kobe University who provided me unconditional assistance and helpful feedback. Additionally, I also attribute the successful completion of my research work to the amazing friends I’ve made in Japan, whose moral support has been invaluable for me. Last but not least, I am immensely grateful to all of my family members for their incomparable positivity as well as helpful input on this research theme. I am particularly thankful to Mr. Syed Mumtaz Hussain Kazmi for his keen attention to detail and insightful comments, and to my sister, Dr. Tanya Ali for constantly inspiring and supporting me to undertake challenging tasks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Research problem...... 3 1.2 Rationale...... 8 1.3 Objectives...... 12 1.4 Significance...... 13 1.5 Thesis outline...... 13 2. Theoretical background and literature review ...... 15 2.1 Quality of work life...... 17 2.2 Subjective career...... 19 2.3 Generational differences...... 24 2.4 Affective events theory...... 27 2.5 QWL and subjective career...... 29 2.5.1 QWL and affective states...... 34 2.5.2 Affective states and subjective career...... 38 2.5.3 The mediating role of affective states...... 43 2.5.4 The moderating role of generation...... 44 2.6 Conceptual framework...... 59 3. Methodology ...... 60 3.1 Study-I: sampling...... 60 3.2 Study-I: measurement...... 60 3.2.1 Independent variable...... 60 3.2.2 Dependent variables...... 61 3.2.3 Control variables...... 61 3.3 Study-I: reliability and validity...... 61 3.4 Study-II: sampling...... 62 3.5 Study-II: measurement...... 63 3.5.1 Independent variable...... 63 3.5.2 Dependent variables...... 63 3.5.3 Control variables...... 64 3.5.4 Mediating variable...... 64 3.5.5 Moderating variable...... 64 3.6 Study-II: reliability and validity...... 65 4. Results ...... 68 4.1 Study-I...... 68 4.1.1 Study-I: QWL and career mist...... 69 4.1.2 Study-I: QWL and career drift...... 69 4.1.3 Study-I: QWL and career hope...... 70 4.2 Study-II...... 72 4.2.1 Study-II: QWL and career mist...... 73 4.2.2 Study-II: QWL and career drift...... 79 4.2.3 Study-II: QWL and career hope...... 82 5. Discussion...... 84 5.1 QWL and career mist...... 85 5.2 QWL and career drift...... 90 5.3 QWL and career hope...... 93 5.4 QWL and subjective career: generational differences...... 96 6. Conclusion...... 105 6.1 Theoretical and practical implications...... 106 6.2 Limitations and future research...... 108 Appendices...... 111
A. Study-I: quality of work life scale...... 111
B. Study-I: subjective career scale...... 112
C. Study-II: quality of work life scale...... 114
D. Study-II: subjective career scale...... 116
E. Study-II: The positive and negative affect schedule...... 118
References...... 119 LIST OF TABLES
4.1 Study-I: Descriptive statistics and correlations ...... 68 4.2 Hierarchical regression analysis: career mist...... 69 4.3 Hierarchical regression analysis: career drift...... 70 4.4 Hierarchical regression analysis: career hope...... 71 4.5 Study-II: Descriptive statistics and correlations...... 72 4.6 Regression results for the conditional analysis: career mist...... 75 4.7 Regression results for the conditional analysis: career drift...... 80 4.8 Regression results for the conditional analysis: career hope...... 83
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 Affective events theory model. Source: Weiss & Cropanzano (1996)...... 29 2.2 Negative affective state linking QWL to career mist moderated...... 57 by generation 2.3 Negative affective state linking QWL to career drift moderated...... 58 by generation 2.4 Positive affective state linking QWL to career hope moderated...... 58 by generation 2.5 Composite conceptual framework based on AET...... 59 4.1 Statistical model for affective state linking QWL to subjective career...... 73 moderated by generation- based on Hayes (2013) 4.2 Association between QWL and a negative affective state (NAS)...... 77 moderated by generation 4.3 Indirect influence of QWL on career mist (CMi) via a negative...... 78 affective state, moderated by generation 4.4 Influence of QWL on career drift (CDr) moderated by generation...... 81
1. Introduction
Quality of work life is a critical component in organizational behavior literature which is evident from the vast amount of research available on the subject (e.g., Cetrano et al., 2017; Wan & Chan, 2013; Sinha, 2012; Sirgy, Efraty, Siegel & Lee, 2001; Carayon, 1997; Loscocco & Rochelle, 1991; Elizur, 1990; Walton, 1980). Hackman and Suttle (1976) defined quality of work life as the degree to which an organization satisfies several personal needs of its employees. Later, Newstrom and Davis (2005) simplified quality of work life as the extent to which individuals find their work environment favorable or unfavorable. Exemplars of the quality of work life definitions range from highly specific factors to multidimensional classifications but the recurring approach which dominates the existing literature is known as the need satisfaction and spillover approach (e.g., Jabeen, Friesen, & Ghoudi, 2018; Lee, Yu, Sirgy, Singhapakdi, & Lucianetti, 2015; Sirgy et al., 2001; Cascio, 1998). This approach describes quality of work life as the fulfillment of employees' needs based on an interaction between various organizational and personal dimensions (Sirgy et al., 2001; Efraty & Sirgy, 1990). Over the years, quality of work life has emerged as a significant issue in research (Lee, Back, & Chan, 2015; Gregory & Milner, 2009), and it has concurrently become a significant organizational concern (Surienty, Ramayah, Lo, & Tarmizi, 2013; Harrington & Ladge, 2009). The growing popularity of this construct may be attributed to its benefits for employees as well as employers (Raj Adhikari, Hirasawa, Takakubo, & Lal Pandey, 2011). Prior research documents the role of quality of work life as an antecedent for reduced absenteeism, decreased turnover, and greater job satisfaction (Huang et al. 2007; Cohen, Chang, & Ledford, 1997; King & Ehrhard, 1997; Hom et al. 1992; Havlovic, 1991; Farrell and Stamm 1988), as well as increased productivity and performance (Tho, 2017; Dess, Lumpkin and Eisner, 2007; Wheelan & Hunger, 2006; Cummings & Worley, 2005; Leopold, 2005; Yorks, 2005 ; Cascio, 1998; Lau & May, 1998; Walker, 1992). Existing literature recurrently highlights the influence of quality of work life on job satisfaction and organizational commitment in various settings (Cummings & Worley, 2005; Leopold, 2005; Lee et al. 2007; Koonmee et al. 2010). Prior studies on quality of work life show its influence on a myriad of employee behavioral and attitudinal outcomes, but there remains a severe dearth of research addressing its impact on
1 career (Li & Yeo, 2011), particularly on the subjective career. A few researchers have investigated the influence of quality of work life on career advancement (Parsa, Idris, Samah, Wahat, & Parsa, 2014), career development (Li & Yeo, 2011), and career satisfaction (Rastogi, Karatepe, & Mehmetoglu, 2018) but for the most part, studies linking quality of work life and career are limited to scale operationalization by exploring dimensions of quality of work life which foster career development of employees (Amin, 2013; Che Rose, Beh, Uli, & Idris, 2006). Career is often defined as the sequence of an individual's work experiences over time and across multiple positions, firms and professions (Rose et al., 2006; Arthur, Hall, & Lawrence, 1989; Feldman, 1989). This definition of career reflects that the subjective elements of career need to be taken into consideration to understand the concept of career in all its complexity. The term, ‘subjective career,' as the name implies, is the non-objective approach to understanding career and it signifies the attitudes held by individuals towards their career (Park, 2010; Arthur, Khapova, & Wilderom, 2005; Aryee, Chay, & Tan, 1994; Stebbins, 1970). Subjective career is based on the contextual factors surrounding the incumbents, particularly the prevalent employment and career systems, and there may be various potential antecedents of subjective career (Kato & Suzuki, 2006) In the western context, boundary-less careers (Övgü Çakmak-Otluoğlu, 2018; Briscoe & Hall, 2006; Arthur & Rousseau, 2001; 1996; 1994), and protean careers (Hirschi, Jaensch, & Herrmann, 2016; Gubler, Arnold, & Coombs, 2013; Hall, 1996) are popular subjective career conceptualizations. There are a few studies which present subjective career in the Japanese context (Kato & Suzuki, 2006; Kato, 2004; Suzuki, 2002; Suzuki, 2001; Kato, 2001; Kanai, 1999), and altogether these studies highlight the prevalence of three subjective career constructs namely career mist, career drift and career hope in Japan. Although Kato and Suzuki (2006) briefly mention the influence of organizational and personal factors on subjective career in Japan, no previous study has tested a model which investigates the role of quality of work life on subjective career of the Japanese employees. The research on career mist, career drift and career hope in Japan focuses on the identification and conceptualization of subjective career constructs, as opposed to exploring their antecedents in detail. It is essential to examine the quality of work life as a potential stimulus to exercise control over the subjective career of Japanese employees, especially the younger generation. Japan is facing a significant population decline which warrants serious consideration to the younger cohort by policymakers, organizations, and researchers (Furuichi, 2017; Nae, 2017). Moreover, the millennial generation will form a dominant part of the
2 workforce in the next decades as most of the socioeconomic and leadership contributions will be from them. It is crucial for employers to identify what the Millennials expect from their organizations and strive to fulfill those expectations (Ismail & Bebenroth, 2016; Bebenroth & Ismail, 2014). Thus, the focus of this thesis is to (a) explore the influence of quality of work life on subjective career, (b) establish the process through which this influence occurs, and, (c) highlight the generational constraints under which this influence occurs. The detailed research problem which this study seeks to address, and the rationale for conducting it, along with the significance of this research theme, have all been discussed in the following sections.
1.1 Research Problem
During the last few decades, increased digitalization brought about substantial changes in organizations all over the world as a greater part of the workforce began performing their duties outside the physical boundaries of their offices and beyond the conventional work hours (Kalleberg, 2018; NG, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2007). Employment systems, and resultantly careers underwent some significant transformations as firms redesigned their basic structures by shedding hierarchical layers, and redevising contractual relationships as well as career management/development opportunities to the employees (Debroux, 2017; Sturges, 1999). Recently, members of the younger generation, known as the Millennials, have received a lot of attention because such technological advancements shaped their formative experiences. The degree of interest in this cohort may be witnessed by the growing literature on generational differences in attitudes/behaviors at the workplace undertaken by various researchers (Calk & Patrick, 2017; Becton, Walker, & Jones-Farmer, 2014; Lyons & Kuron, 2013; Twenge & Campbell, 2008). In the past, many scholars documented the presence of job security offered by large Japanese corporations and the higher levels of employee loyalty received in turn by such employers, as a distinctively Japanese phenomenon (Hassard & Morris, 2018; Kambayashi & Kato, 2016; Ono, 2010; Koike 1988; Shirai 1983; Dore 1973; Abegglen 1958). In the 1980s, other unique features of Japanese employment practices besides lifetime employment, such as slow career progression, focus on generalists rather than specialists, and relative, cohort-based pay schemes also became the focus of research. However, as the economic "bubble" collapsed in Japan
3 in 1989, a long period of stagnation ensued. Japanese organizations faced difficulties in most global and domestic markets, which led towards a drastic shift in the popular rhetoric surrounding Japanese employment and career systems from being known as the model of ideal human resource management to a failing system (Kambayashi & Kato, 2010). Westney (2001) pointed out that the very features of acclaimed employment and career institutions of Japanese corporations instantly started being touted as the reasons behind their failure. After the economic bubble collapsed, a long period of economic depression began in 1991, which increased competition amongst Japanese firms causing them to indulge in wide-scale restructuring, and a subsequent increase in non-regular employment also occurred (Osawa, Kim, & Kingston, 2013). Non-regular employment, in turn, exacerbated the problem of long work hours because regular workers in Japan were usually offered livelihood and job protection in exchange for giving up time off from work, or working additional hours on demand (Kojima, North, & Weathers, 2017). Such factors further intensified the deterioration in the quality of work life for the regular (white-collared) workers who have since then been working for even more extended hours to deal with increasing organizational demands (Genda, Kuroda, & Ohta, 2015). Japan's regular employees are known for working long hours as well as encountering difficulties in attaining work-life balance (Shimazu, Demerouti, Bakker, Shimada & Kawakami, 2011). In fact, in a comparative study amongst public sector employees in the UK, Finland, and Japan, Chandola.et.al (2004) highlighted that Japanese employees scored the highest on work-life imbalance. Globally, and specifically in Europe, North America and Japan, scholars have acknowledged the concept of quality of work life as a way to make the organizations more humane and democratic as well as to enhance the workers’ productivity (Bragard, Dupuis, & Fleet, 2015; Wyatt & Wah, 2001). However, it appears that in Japan there is still a long way to go before practitioners (government, organizations, and employees) could fully embrace the facets of an ideal quality of work life intervention. It is ironic because Japan introduced and popularized the transformational concepts of all-around quality such as quality circles and productivity enhancement. Takezawa (1976) wrote about the trends existing in Japan pertaining to the quality of work life. The report claims to be one from a series of ongoing improvements regarding efforts relating to work reforms and the quality of work life. It is evident from the report that the quality
4 of work life movements began quite early in Japan and these were mostly initiated with the goals to humanize work instead of just increasing productivity. During the years of ongoing efforts, faced by incoming challenges, the movement seems to have expanded and shifted its primary focus. Currently, most of the efforts on work-style reforms in Japan focus on either work-life balance/work-family conflicts or, work-a- holism/burnout issues related to long working hours (e.g., Demerouti.et.al, 2013; Shimazu.et.al, 2011; Shimazu, Bakker, Demerouti, & Peeters, 2010). This may be further witnessed by how Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared that the 150-day regular DIET session which began in early 2018 was dedicated to "work-style reforms" with two key facets. One was the tightening of labor regulations by imposing a legal cap on overtime hours while the other comprised deregulatory steps by the introduction of a "highly professional" work system and expanding the scope of the discretionary labor scheme. The government decided to take a three-pronged approach to work- life improvements by (a) limiting over time, (b) reducing wage disparities between regular and non-regular staff and (c) encouraging more active participation by females and seniors (Shirakawa, 2018). The above-mentioned accounts of the work-style reform movement in Japan, albeit commendable, show that there is substantial room for improvement in certain aspects because there is insufficient attention to various other features of work which undermine the ‘quality’ of work experiences of employees. Merely curbing working hours, increasing number of women in the workforce, or encouraging employees to avail holidays is akin to treating the symptoms but not investigating the real causes (Kojima, North, & Weathers, 2017). Quality of work life goes deeper than just work-life balance because it gradually enhances the fulfilling psychological as well as physical quality experiences that work provides to employees’ career and how it interacts with their lives (Bagtasos, 2011; Sirgy et al., 2001) Despite the anticipated crisis of the aging population, there has been slow progress by the organizations and the government for introducing corresponding changes pertaining to the quality of work life during the last couple of years. The slow progress is evident from the results of a survey conducted by HIDA special group in 2012 which reported that many young people in Japan quit regular jobs due to boredom, poor human relations, and wage or working hours. The number of college graduates leaving jobs over the past years has also steadily increased. Usually, within the first three years of regular employment 30% of college graduates, 50 % of high school
5 graduates and 70 % of junior high school graduates left their jobs. The Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training cited work-related stress (29.7%), long working hours (24.4%) and unbearable human relations at work (22.2%) as the top three reasons why young workers left their jobs within three years of employment. At the time of their survey, Japan had a population of 120 million with young people (ages 15-24) of 30 million, hence the youth who had decided not to undertake regular employment is a serious issue (Maeda, 2012). These accounts highlight that the quality of work life has a major impact on employees' career and career-related decisions in Japan. Similarly, a survey of the millennials between the ages of 16-29 conducted by the Cabinet Office during October/November 2017 showed that a total of 72 percent of 10,000 respondents were in favor of switching careers (“Surveys find young generation in Japan positive about changing jobs," 2018). Additionally, another recent report on career perceptions by the Japan Institute of Labor Policy and Training shows that the millennials who are university graduates make up a large portion of the "step-up category" (Hori, Tani, Kosugi, & Oguro, 2017). This category includes those young people who willingly opt for non-regular/part-time jobs to supplement their acquired education/training to secure employment in their preferred organizations. Earlier, Bird, Beck & Beck (1995) pointed out that the increasing globalization of financial markets along with the economic downturn of the 1990s would have serious managerial implications for Japan. Similarly, Cole (1979) also pointed out that the so-called lifetime employment system was not viable for high economic growth situations as severe shortages in the workforce would ultimately increase employees' opportunities to work freely and choose their workplaces. Ever since the younger generation has joined the workforce en masse, these early propositions are gradually being supported, which is evident from the reports cited above. There seems to be considerable pressure on the government and the organizations to fulfill various needs of employees to recruit and retain suitable employees. Japan is at the forefront of a demographic shift usually experienced by advanced industrial economies, as its population growth rate is falling and reversing. This demographic shift calls for studying solutions that would promote employees' welfare as well as the country’s economic growth. The demographic situation, political trends, and various corporate tactics are reshaping Japan's labor market, and prospects for positive change are required (Vogel, 2018). Since the millennial generation grew up in a different time frame so unlike the previous generation of employees, the younger cohorts are not likely to be devoted to their workplace in entirety unless their own work-life needs are also being met (Erdem,
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2018; Kuron, Lyons, Schweitzer, & Ng, 2015). It is critical for the researchers to explore how the quality of work life influences subjective career in Japan, as the ratio of the job to the applicant is now 1.6 in Japan (“Employment Referrals for General Workers”-MHLW, 2018) which provides more leverage to the employees rather than the employers, in the future. Japanese organizations are facing the dilemma to attract, recruit and retain employees, and greater attention needs to be given to the millennial generation. Globally, non-linear trends such as boundary-less careers are increasingly becoming the norm, but the situation for Japanese employees is unique due to traditional management practices of long-term employment, once a year hiring, focus on generalists rather than specialists, and relative, cohort-based pay schemes. Most of these practices are still widely prevalent in Japanese organizations, and there is no substantial evidence to suggest that Japanese employment and career systems underwent any major transformation after the bubble collapse (Kambayashi & Kato, 2010; Van Maanen, 2006); despite the gradual shift towards merit-based compensation as opposed to seniority-based promotion/remuneration, and selective training in some organizations. Even though the long-term employment system and career management systems are primarily unchanged within most Japanese organizations (Takahashi, 2018), the demographics within the workplaces are changing due to socio-economic conditions such as diminished economic growth, low birth rate and population aging in Japan (Fujimoto, Sano, Yamaguchi, & Takami, 2017). While such socio-economic changes are creating problems for organizations, many Japanese companies have begun to explore ways to foster employees' work lives, career and skill development (Fujimoto et al., 2017). The dilemma is that even though career and employment systems remain largely unchanged in most of the organizations, surveys such as the ones mentioned in the preceding paragraphs show changes in the younger generation's expectations from their workplaces regarding needs' fulfillment. The impact of quality of work life on the employees' career may differ between the different generations of employees' at the workplace. Having unmet or unfulfilled needs is likely to change the affective states of employees, especially the younger generation, which may influence the subjective career differently for them than the older cohort. Hence, the real issue is to figure out whether or not/how the quality of work life interacts with the subjective career, especially for the younger generation. Thus, the problem statement for this study is, "to address the issues of work life and career of Japanese employees,
7 by exploring the affective linkages between the quality of work life and the subjective career, from an intergenerational perspective.”
1.2 Rationale
The research problem in the prior section identifies the dilemma which this research seeks to address, while the current section is not only based on this dilemma, but it also highlights what is not yet known about the dilemma but is being encouraged by the scholars and policymakers to discover. As mentioned in the preceding sections, the prior literature on quality of work life investigated and consequently established its influence on employees' attitudes and behaviors, but more research is required to test the influence of quality of work life on career (Li & Yeo, 2011), particularly for the younger generation in Japan. As Nae (2017) points out, Japanese millennials differ from prior generations based on their formative experiences while growing up. Thus, it is important to explore quality of work life and its influence on subjective career ‘on' and ‘among' Japanese employees. Moreover, while discussing the process involved in the influence of quality of work life on employees’ subjective career, this study focuses on the affective states of employees based on the framework outlined in affective events theory by Weiss and Cropanzano (1996). The inclusion of affective states in the framework is an essential consideration because affective linkages play a significant role in understanding the influence of quality of work life on subjective career. As Koonmee, Singhapakdi, Virakul & Lee (2010) have highlighted, "affect" is contained in various domains of employees' lives including family life, work life, community life as well as leisure life. They discuss how the domain of work life is deemed a "psychological space" wherein all the affective work-related experiences are stored. The affective work experience arises from the degree of employees' need satisfaction as manifested at the workplace. The degree to which employees' needs are satisfied by the organization, the higher is their overall satisfaction in terms of quality of work life (Efraty & Sirgy, 1990), and the higher will be their satisfaction with their career/employment system. Thus, the role of affect cannot be ignored in research regarding the outcomes of quality of work life. Previous organizational research on work-life interventions mostly focuses on well-being related variables as the potential outcomes (e.g., Kaplan et al., 2014; Bono, Glomb, Shen, Kim, & Koch, 2013) but this study shows the influence of quality of work life on nuanced constructs such as the Japanese subjective career situations of mist, drift and hope
8 thereby extending the understanding of the usefulness brought by quality of work life interventions at the workplace via the affective state. The research related to mood/emotional processes in organizations initiated in the early 1990s (George & Brief, 1992) when social psychologists began to have an impact on organizational research (Forgas, 2000), and since then studies show that employees have emotional reactions to situations that take place within organizational settings (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Researchers recognize that positive and negative mood impacts employees' thoughts and behaviors in the workplace (Rusting & DeHart, 2000; Isen, 1993). Particularly, unfavorable work occurrences foster strong negative feelings (Ohly & Schmitt, 2013; Rozin & Royzman, 2001) which have a negative impact on a variety of work-related attitudes and behaviors (e.g., Kiefer, 2005; Hui, Law, & Chen, 1999). Therefore, it may be surmised that past research, in line with a major postulate of AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), establishes that a negative affective state can be an intervening variable between adverse work stimuli and various employee performance outcomes (Elfenbein, 2007). Additionally, not only the results from such research work have dealt with the ubiquitous influence of mood on employees' attitudes/behaviors, but these studies have also demarcated positive mood from negative. Dal Santo, Pohl, & Battistelli (2016) write that it is imperative to recognize such distinctions for useful studies of employee attitudes and behaviors in organizational settings, and so this study will demarcate positive and negative affective states concerning their associations with the subjective career constructs. This research also builds upon interactionist theories, such as the consistency model by Staw and Ross (1985), by considering the relevance of both environmental (QWL) as well as dispositional (generational) determinants of the subjective career. Connolly & Viswesvaran, (2000) have signified the need to reflect on affective disposition and for that to be incorporated in the future research on affect, subjective well-being, and work-life satisfaction. Thus, this study also answers this call by including generational differences amongst the millennial and non- millennials employees and how these interact with affective stimuli such as quality of work life, to influence career subjectively. Prior literature has not explored how various attributes of the workplace interact with employees' generation to influence their affective states. Brief and Weiss (2002) write that research on affective reactions to the physical work environment is small and eclectic, but interesting. Moreover, research which recognizes that customers/clients/patients can be construed as mood and emotion generators and focuses on the mood and emotional
9 consequences of the workplace aesthetics seems to be particularly fascinating yet not enough progress has been made in the past decade toward understanding the effects of quality of work life on employees' affective state. It is established that there exists a relative dearth of research on quality of work life, consequent affective states, and career constructs. Informed by the social cognitive literature and following the advice from prominent scholars who have implored researchers to attend to human resources' concerns holistically (Pluta & Rudawska, 2016; Lyons, Urick, Kuron, & Schweitzer, 2015; Swanson, 2002; Betz & Corning, 1993; Krumboltz, 1993), this thesis examines the interaction of quality of work life and employees’ generation over positive/negative affective states, and consequently on subjective career. Since the subjective career is based on accounts from the employees' perception of the prevalent career system; therefore, the role of affect is critical for discussing influences on any subjective career construct. As Ng & Feldman (2014) highlight, most of the research included in the persisting meta-analyses on subjective career success tends to measure affect-based components, and their findings also reflect this perspective. Research on career issues in the earlier days has also highlighted the dearth as well as the importance of studying the role of affect evident from how Kidd (1998) points out that a holistic approach to career can only be undertaken by considering its affective components. Additionally, by focusing on affective states as a potential mediator, this study responds to the call for more in-depth research related to interventions on positive psychology in the field of organizational behavior as encouraged by Volmer & Wolff (2018), Proyer, Gander, Wellenzohn, & Ruch, (2016), and Meyers, Van Woerkom, & Bakker (2013). The growing trend, as well as need for this research, can be witnessed by the research conducted during the last couple of years as organizational researchers have started exploring the effects of a myriad of positive psychology programs and interventions (for example, Kaplan et al., 2014; Bono.et.al., 2013). Even though, scholars have established results which highlight the usefulness of such research (e.g., Hülsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt, & Lang, 2013; Bono et al., 2013), it is still in the developing phases, and there is a lot that remains to be investigated and/or established, and many interlinkages remain unexplored. Thus, this thesis hopes to add to this growing field of work by examining the positive or negative influences of affective stimuli (quality of work life) on subjective career constructs in several ways outlined below.
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First of all, prior research on organizational behavior has focused on the varied attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of the quality of work life (e.g., Lee & McCreary, 2013; Huang et al., 2007; Wheelan & Hunger, 2006; Cummings & Worley, 2005; Leopold, 2005; Yorks, 2005; Cascio, 1998; Lau & May, 1998; Walker, 1992) but have not adequately established the underlying affective processes for these effects. Secondly, interventions to check the boundary conditions and consequences of positive activities are mostly conducted in the Western context (Chancellor, Layous, & Lyubomirsky, 2014), but this study focuses on the Japanese context. Thirdly, career constructs in relation to quality of work life have only been discussed in a few studies such as Parsa (2014) who established the influence of quality of work life on career advancement, or Rose et al (2006) who discussed the implications of career dimensions within quality of work life programs. There isn't sufficient in-depth research to explain how quality of work life influences or shapes the career of employees (Li & Yeo, 2011), and this study responds to that call in the literature. Fourth, generational differences especially by the entrance of the millennial generation in the contemporary workplaces have been documented as a significant issue (Abrams & Frank, 2013; Lyons & Kuron, 2013; McDonald and Hite, 2008) which needs to be explored further (Lyons et al., 2015; Ng et al., 2010; Chen and Choi, 2008). As research on quality of work life shows, there are generational differences in the construct's interaction with other workplace variables (Lai, Chang, & Hsu, 2012). To date, there has not been sufficient research investigating the interaction of quality of work life and (subjective) career with an intergenerational perspective. This study tackles this issue and contributes by providing empirical evidence to test the popular stereotypes regarding the millennial generation in Japan for essential outcomes related to employment and careers. Lastly, even though Kato and Suzuki (2006) presented a comprehensive framework on subjective career constructs prevalent in Japan, they recommended that further research needs to be carried out on the subject. Da Costa and Oliveira (2016) write that "there appears to have been little undertaken so far either in Japan or elsewhere." Thus, this research serves as a follow-up study on the likely antecedents of career mist, career drift and career hope in Japan as well as providing implications for further research on the subjective career in Japan. Additionally, the inclusion of quality of work life in the subjective career framework does not require any effort from employees themselves. The prior studies on positive psychology interventions revolved around involving employees in various tasks or activities to reflect upon
11 positive occurrences at the workplace (e.g., Chancellor, Layous, & Lyubomirsky, 2014; Bono et al., 2013) or utilized social connectedness intervention (i.e., using various strategies to increase social ties at work; Kaplan et al., 2014). This thesis uses responses to an exhaustive questionnaire to gauge the levels of quality of work life and tests its influence on subjective career by Japanese employees in Japan. Studying the role of quality of work life as a positive intervention in the present research does not require any additional effort from the employees and does not inculcate any interference in their work lives apart from the time spent in responding to the questionnaire. Employing such a minimally intrusive intervention follows Seligman, Steen, Park, and Peterson's (2005) suggestion for least intrusive kinds of positive psychology interventions. Regarding the quality of work life research in the new millennium, Li and Yeo (2011) write that quality of work life and career development constructs have not been explored adequately with respect to their interlinkages, and due to the changing work and different career paradigms in different context(s), it is imperative to investigate the relationship between these constructs. It is evident that scholars have examined various determinants of quality of work life as well as its effects on employee behaviors and attitudes, but due to changing employment paradigms, they remarked that the prevalence and costs of ignoring the influence of quality of work life on various aspects of career make its study important. More importantly, besides expanding the research on quality of work life and careers, the present study extends the theoretical perspective of Kato and Suzuki's approach (2006) to understanding subjective career. By grounding the analysis in affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), the study is able to conceptualize the relationships between quality of work life and subjective career attitudes in terms of affective reactions, why these reactions occur and how they could potentially diminish career mist and career drift while elevating employees’ career hope. Thus, this thesis highlights the patterns of the results uncovered by such an analysis.
1.3 Objectives
Based on the research problem and rationale discussed above, this research explores the affective process of how quality of work life interacts with the employees' generation to influence subjective career. Thus, this thesis attempts to: establish the ‘influence’ of quality of work life on the three states of subjective career (of Japanese employees)
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investigate the ‘magnitude' of the influence of quality of work life on subjective career ascertain the ‘direction’ of the influence of quality of work life on each of the subjective career constructs explain the ‘process' of how quality of work life influences subjective career via the affective state of the employees, i.e., exploring affective linkages between quality of work life and subjective career measure the ‘constraints' on the influence of quality of work life on subjective career by testing generational differences discuss the areas that need improvement and suggest ways to improve quality of work life in Japanese organizations
1.4 Significance
For practitioners, i.e., government policymakers, managers, and organizations, this research would be beneficial to identify the importance of adopting a need-based and spillover approach to quality of work life for effectively managing the subjective career of Japanese regular employees. This approach would also assist in retaining regular employees especially the millennials who are gradually showing their dissatisfaction with their working environment and careers. Additionally, it would also help to control the shift towards non-traditional employment by individuals of otherwise employable age and qualifications during the crisis of aging population in Japan. On the other hand, researchers would also benefit from the results of this study because it would theoretically add value to four domains of research by establishing hitherto unexplored interlinkages between them namely quality of work life, (subjective) career, affective events theory and generational differences between the millennials and non-millennials at the workplace. Moreover, the research framework presented in this thesis could also be tested within other settings and eventually generalized based on the outcome of future studies.
1.5 Thesis outline Chapter one provides the introduction, research problem, rationale, objectives, and significance of this thesis. Chapter two consists of the theoretical background as well as the detailed overview of the relevant literature. Consequently, the second chapter also devises the
13 conceptual framework and the hypotheses. Chapter three presents the mechanics utilized in conducting this quantitative research; starting from designing, collecting and analyzing data to inferring results. It deals with the procedure of data collection, statistical sampling method, criteria for acceptability and formula applied for this research. Chapter four is descriptive, interpretive and evaluative as it presents the results of the data analysis. Chapter five deals with the discussion based on the findings from chapter four. Chapter six presents the conclusion and recommendations for future directions as well as the limitations.
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2. Theoretical background and literature review This study explores quality of work life and its influence on the subjective career for the Japanese employees and tests for generational differences within the framework. It is based on the need satisfaction and spillover approach to quality of work life (Efraty & Sirgy, 1990; Sirgy et al., 2001). In the Japanese context, three subjective career constructs have been identified, and aptly named career mist, career drift and career hope (Kato & Suzuki, 2006). Research regarding the influence of quality of work life on subjective career cannot be deemed complete without incorporating the role of "affect" in the process because affective states constitute a pervasive part of any discussion on subjective career. Forgas (2016) writes, affective states are critical mechanisms which shape perceptions of individuals’ surroundings. Scholars suggest various definitions and conceptualizations, but for all intents and purposes, “affect” is an umbrella term comprising all kinds of emotive states (Forgas, 1995). Due to the importance of affect in social and organizational psychology, scientific research has witnessed an increasing repertoire on how affect impacts social judgments (Judge, Weiss, Kammeyer-Mueller, & Hulin, 2017; Liu, Song, Li, & Liao, 2017; Michel, Newness, & Duniewicz, 2016; Lerner, Li, Valdesolo, & Kassam, 2015; Keltner & Lerner, 2010; Mackie & Hamilton, 2014; Greene & Haidt, 2002; Clore et al., 1994; Forgas, 1992; Bower, 1991; Fiedler, 1991; Wyer & Srull, 1989), attitudes (Rude, 2007; Mignonac & Herrbach, 2004; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Zanna & Rempel, 1988), and organizational behavior (Samnani, Salamon, & Singh, 2013; Isen & Baron, 1991; Sinclair, 1988; Baron, 1987). Thus, to establish, investigate and consequently reveal the underlying ‘process' for the association between quality of work life and subjective career, affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) provides a theoretical backdrop for the proposed "sequence" model depicted in Figure 2.5. Moreover, the fundamental tenets of the Generation theory (Mannheim, 1923) coupled with the contemporary literature review on the millennial generation, assist in building the boundary conditions for the relationship between the primary variables. This chapter focuses on the following: (a) Quality of work life (2.1) This section elaborates the origin, concepts, and operationalization(s) of quality of work life (QWL), based on the prior literature.
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(b) Subjective career (2.2) This section explains the concept of subjective career along with its examples, and highlights the importance of considering subjective aspects of career, grounded in existing literature. (c) Generational differences (2.3) This section discusses the existence of generational differences in attitudes and behaviors at the workplaces based on the Generation theory (Mannheim, 1923; Ryder, 1985; 1965) and prior research. (d) Affective events theory/AET (2.4) This section provides a summary of AET as proposed by Weiss & Cropanzano (1996). (e) QWL and subjective career (2.5) This section proposes the influence of quality of work life on three subjective career constructs in Japan, based on AET and prior research. (f) QWL and affective states (2.5.1) This section discusses the process of the proposed causal relationship between quality of work life and subjective career by focusing on the association between quality of work life and employees’ affective states. (g) Affective states and subjective career (2.5.2) This section furthers the discussion on the proposed causal relationship between quality of work life and subjective career, by proposing the link between employees' affective states and subjective career. (h) The mediating role of affective states (2.5.3) This section proposes the indirect influence of quality of work life on subjective career via affective state as a mediating variable, based on AET and prior research. (i) The moderating role of Generation (2.5.4) This section proposes the moderating role of the millennial generation in the proposed influence of quality of work life on the subjective career based on prior literature.
Finally, based on the above mentioned theoretical background and literature review, an integrated framework has been proposed in section 2.6 (figure 2.5) that may provide guidance in understanding if, why, how, and for whom career mist and career drift decline and how career
16 hope rises as a consequence of the quality of work life. Conditional process framework(s) have been proposed in this chapter (figures 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4) to address these questions.
2.1 Quality of work life
The concept of “quality of work life” was initiated as a set of ideas to improve working conditions in the late 1950s (Martel & Dupuis, 2006). In 1960, the term "quality of work life" was first mentioned by Elton Mayo while studying ways in which the work environment affected workers' performance (Easton & Laar, 2018; Mayo, 1960). Quality of work life is commonly abbreviated as QWL, and henceforth this abbreviation will be used interchangeably with quality of work life throughout this thesis. The QWL movement gained momentum during the period 1969 to 1974 when a vast group of practitioners, scholars, and researchers coupled with union leaders and government officials showed an inclination towards the improvement of a worker's on-the-job experiences. This interest in the QWL movement appears to have continued through the mid-1970s by stressing work design and improving work factors, and then came to a halt during late 1970s due to the influence of various economic and social factors (Nadler & Lawler, 1983). From the 1980s onwards, QWL has expanded to include elements that could influence workers' productivity and job satisfaction: for instance, reward distribution mechanisms, physical work atmosphere, involvement and employees' self-esteem needs (Cummings and Worley, 2005). Walker (1992) identified QWL as the actions that specifically champion employees' need satisfaction at the workplace. Eventually, the QWL movement seems to have continued with renewed vigor over the years as scholars, researchers, and managers struggle to come to terms with adequate ways to conceptualize, measure and implement quality of work life initiatives. As far as the components of QWL are concerned, it is possible to do so in a myriad of ways related to working conditions. According to Gani & Ahmed (1995), optimal working conditions and growth options are significant factors of QWL. Individual works of literature also cite environmental elements (security, physical, working conditions), workplace relationships, demographic elements, technology, social change and labor markets as being highly relevant to the concept of QWL (Saklani, 2004). To grasp the concept in its entirety, a substantial number of studies by numerous researchers have emerged over the years. Many proposed a wide range of components/factors that could capture the essence of QWL. Hackman & Oldham (1976) mostly focused on psychological growth needs as the essence of QWL. In their work, needs such as skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback primarily feature as the ideal
17 components for conceptualizing QWL. It was proposed that these needs have to be met to let workers benefit from a higher QWL. In vivid contradiction to theory-based conceptualizations, Taylor (1979) adopted a more practical approach to conceptualize QWL based on an amalgamation of various extrinsic elements such as compensation packages, working hours as well as intrinsic ones including but not limited to participative management, self-development, and support mechanisms. It was also elaborated that QWL concept is prone to variations based on firms and diversified employee groups. Warr (1979) highlighted components such as work involvement, motivation, satisfaction, happiness and anxiety levels. Mirvis & Lawler (1984) associated QWL with a basic satisfaction of various employee needs. Interestingly, Baba & Jamal (1991) highlighted some core organizational outcome variables such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions, to name a few, as a signal for determining QWL. They also pointed out that the novelty component by stating how routines in job content could influence the quality of some employees' working life negatively. To understand QWL as a whole construct, Camman and Ledford (1985) offer an integrated approach to understand the main constituents of QWL. They have organized the approach into three distinct steps. First is the ‘programme' which includes objectives, principles, strategies, and resources to implement those strategies. QWL is mainly based on improving working conditions and achieving organizational effectiveness. On the basis of the objectives and strategies, various practices are adopted by the organization to achieve the objectives identified in the first stage. Thus, ‘practices' form the second phase of this approach and it includes concrete steps undertaken to improve working conditions, solving employees' dilemmas at the workplace, enhancing cooperation amongst and between staff and management, and managing employees through the provision of skill training. The last phase of this approach is ‘outcomes,' and these are anticipated results of the QWL efforts. Results of improved working conditions lead towards job security, job satisfaction, employees' personal growth and development etcetera. The results of organizational effectiveness are observed through higher productivity, lower absenteeism and turnover as well as better products and services even high profits in most cases. Overall, it appears that some researchers highlight workplace components and others have adopted a more exhaustive approach to QWL by taking into account intrinsic concepts of psyche and spillover constructs of life satisfaction while some focus on including the whole process of
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QWL interventions in the construct itself. As scholars, researchers and practitioners strove to come to terms with the adequate approach to understanding QWL; they proposed various theories, elements, correlational studies as well as opinionated discourse regarding the application of QWL definitions and measures to either confined settings or a universally applicable context. Undeniably the factors that have persisted through all these theories and models are the ones that directly fulfill employees' needs, and therefore, such facets shall remain the focal point of research on QWL. Mostly QWL is considered as a summation of employees' perceptions regarding the degree to which work environment fulfills the complete set of their well-being needs within the organization (Sirgy, Efraty, Siegel and Lee, 2001; Cascio, 1998;). This study is based on the model proposed by Sirgy et al. (2001) who opted for a need satisfaction and spillover approach to QWL by stating that it is employee satisfaction through resources, activities, and outcomes which stem from participation in the workplace (p. 242). According to the need satisfaction approach, employees bring a cluster of needs to the firm and their QWL is determined by the extent to which the firm fulfills some/most of their needs. So, greater QWL is realized when there is a higher degree of needs' satisfaction. This approach conceptualizes QWL as a composite of basic (lower-order) needs and growth (higher-order) needs (Lee et al., 2015; Maslow, 1970). The spillover approach to QWL posits that satisfaction in one area of life influences satisfaction in other life areas (Sirgy et al., 2001). Thus, in the need satisfaction and spillover approach, need clusters are based on both personal and organizational dimensions. Personal elements stem from psychological/intrinsic needs of the employees and organizational elements rise from organizational resources that also, in turn, fulfill personal needs. Greater QWL is realized when there is a higher degree of needs’ satisfaction, wherein the needs are based on both personal and organizational dimensions.
2.2 Subjective career
The term ‘‘career’’ itself conveys subjective meanings of the construct as, Creed and McIlveen (2018) highlight that this term is a metaphor because it originated in Super's view of "career as a journey" (Super, 1957; 1988). Thus, a subjective approach by using metaphors cannot be overlooked to grasp the whole meanings of the term ‘career' (Inkson, 2004; Mignot, 2004). As social constructionism perspective highlights, there are potentially uncountable explanations and portrayals of the world, and the individuals who reside in it (Gergen, 2009). Within the social constructionist perspective, careers are conceptualized subjectively by the individuals themselves
19 as they move through time and space and interact with others which constrains or enables their actual career journey, rather than considering it as a rigid structural form (Cohen, Duberley, & Mallon, 2004). This perspective critiques the existing preordained views of understanding the world and individuals by supporting subjective constructs as a way to cultivate greater understanding rather than relying solely on objective means to gain knowledge (Gergen, 2009). Therefore, social constructionism urges us to challenge the objective means as the sole basis of knowledge (Gergen, 2009; 1985). The quintessential theme of social constructionism is to reflect on the ways that individuals make sense of the world around them mostly by sharing their experiences with other people through the medium of language (Shotter, 2002; Watzlawick, 1984; Berger & Luckman, 1966). Thus, to adequately understand career, it is crucial to discover the way people ‘speak about their career' and ‘account for it' (Cohen, Duberley, & Mallon, 2004). Over the years, various career issues and dilemmas have emerged due to the impact of the ever-changing economic and socio- political scenario on employment. Some scholars have conceded to each other's understanding of career-related issues whereas some have downright disagreed and offered alternatives to the definitions and comprehension of careers and the associated problems (Da Costa & Oliveira, 2016). The conflicts occur because most of the existing discourse on career focuses on the objective matter, which leaves no room for subjective interpretations of the career construct. Despite the importance of the subjective career, there have been very few methodological advances on the subject (Creed & McIlveen, 2018). There appears to be lesser attention to the subjective dimension of the career construct which is evident from some of the oldest lines of work that seeks to define career objectively in vertical or horizontal ways (Nosow and Form, 1962), or movement within a hierarchy (Becker, 1952; Hall, 1948). According to Stebbins (1970), the subjective approach to career is when individuals recognize and interpret all the past and future occurrences related to their employment while encountering all the contingencies. Essentially, it is their ‘personal perspective' or attitude towards their employment system as they attempt to make sense of their careers which forms the basis of the subjective career. He writes that the undeniable importance of subjective career constructs is highlighted in those circumstances when employees' perspectives enter the situation and change the ‘actual behavior' of the individual from the ‘expected behavior'- which was solely based on objective constructs. Therefore, it is advantageous for researchers to consider subjective aspects
20 of career because it gives an exhaustive assessment of the varied and situational features of career and also helps to gauge behavioral outcomes based on the way individuals perceive their career in a specific context. To assign meaning to the situational aspects of human lives, it is critical to understand social practices which enable that meaning to be reproduced and transmitted. Since language is a crucial enabler in this aspect, so the research on subjective careers often banks upon the usage of metaphors. Even a perfunctory perusal of the discourse verifies the dominance of Metaphors within the career literature such as the universal usage of, ‘career capitalists,' ‘career path,' ‘career ladder' and ‘career plateau.' (Inkson, Dries, & Arnold, 2015; Inkson, 2006). Career theory is brimming with metaphors supported by various empirical studies by various scholars (Powell and Mainiero, 1992; Levinson et al., 1978). Schein (1978) introduced the construct of career anchors, and Powell et al. (1992) introduced the literature to women's career by using cross-currents as a metaphor based on ‘currents' and ‘riverbanks.' Inkson (2004) also used nine metaphors to explain career development. Friedman and Giddens (2003) build a case for the subjective career by claiming that the world has transformed into a knowledge economy, so individuals are empowered to affect markets and states at any given time. In this situation, a social revolution can only occur if individuals rely more on their internal perceptions about career (Feldman, 2000). Furthermore, Rodrigues, Guest, and Budjanovcanin (2013) suggest the importance of using subjective career constructs based on the fact that is not possible for an individual to make sense of his career using mere objective benchmarks. Additionally, Collin and Young (2000) also suggested a reconceptualization of career constructs in terms of ‘narratives' that would signify individuals' lives thereby acknowledging the various dualities as well as ambiguities. They discuss the existing career construct and the resultant incoherence that has occurred due to the disintegration of work life, at great lengths. Although the discourse on career confirms that metaphors and narratives are a useful and powerful way to access subjective career, there have only been a few studies that have revealed such metaphors within the Japanese context by directly examining subjective career development in Japan. According to Briscoe and Hall (2006), despite the long period of stagnation which ensued in the wake of the economic "bubble burst" situation in the 1990s, various career metaphorical constructs implying greater autonomy in career management such as boundary-less and protean careers would not necessarily apply to non-Anglicized organizations. They argued that these
21 notions stem from greater ‘individualism' which might never be a part of the Asian culture. Therefore, it is essential to consider subjective career constructs discovered within the Japanese context because western career constructs cannot be applied to Japan in all accuracy. Kato and Suzuki (2006) highlighted the need for understanding the subjective career in Japan, and their qualitative study also presents alternatives which reflect subjective career within the Japanese context. The objective career system has always been discussed while subjective valuations regarding employees' perceptions of the prevalent career situation in Japan are sidelined in the existing research which is why there are limited subjective career studies and constructs applicable to Japan's regular employees. Subjective career is a highly context-specific variable, which means that subjective career constructs stem from the prevalent employment/career system within a particular country. Japanese employment system is different, and so the subjective career valuations within Japan are also different. For this reason, Kato & Suzuki (2006) presented novel research showcasing a theoretical framework based on the subjective career within the context of Japanese workplaces. This study was undertaken to address the lack of research surrounding subjective career development in Japan underpinning the theoretical and practical implications for such research. Using a qualitative approach, they identified three related constructs, aptly named as career mist, career drift, and career hope. They attribute the formulation of their work to grounded theory by Glaser & Strauss (1967). According to them, there are three dominant subjective career constructs which are prevalent in Japanese employment system, and these are assigned the metaphors of career mist, career drift, and career hope. Japanese human resource management is unique as it involves hiring fresh graduates based on their degree of suitability with the company as opposed to one particular position/job within the company, and then training them as generalists for a variety of future roles within the company (Kuriyama, 2017; Moriguchi, 2014). Career mist is a state narrated by employees in which they feel restrained in terms of forecasting the future of their careers. It is not possible to provide complete information to the employees regarding the future career path at the onset of their career because in Japanese companies the employees are not hired for one specific position or role in the company. The employees feel that they are in a ‘haze' based on an ‘unclear' career situation, as explained by various employees during interviews. Thus, this construct was metaphorically assigned the title of ‘career mist' because a mist can vary in density from slight to complete
22 invisibility thereby suggesting continuity. Secondly, a mist may change along the time frame from slight ‘haze' to ‘heavy fog.' Lastly, close objects are visible in a mist, but sights that are farther away are not visible which alludes to the time frame of an employee's anticipations (Kato & Suzuki 2006). Additionally, it has been mentioned that a mist is not to be confused with a complete whiteout; instead, it is akin to a haze through which some light can pass. These indications provide several implications for further research, such as the fact that career mist can be altered and secondly, some information regarding future career is available because it is not described as a complete "whiteout" (Kato & Suzuki, 2006, p.268). As the latest research on Japanese employment and career systems shows, the practice of hiring generalists as opposed to specialists still prevails in most Japanese firms (Kuriyama, 2017; Moriguchi, 2014), so career mist remains a significant issue for Japanese employees. The second subjective construct which is being studied in this research is, "career drift." It was essentially coined by Kanai (1999) as quoted by (Kato & Suzuki, 2006), and known as an "antithesis" of career design. Suzuki (2001) defines it as the complicated career situation for employees who ought to self-determine their career but instead they exhibit little or no interest in taking charge of their career. He subcategorizes career drift as ‘floating' and ‘flowing' based on his qualitative data. ‘Floating' situation occurs when the incumbent has no interest in his/her career and tends to refrain from making any decisions pertaining to the career or its development; ‘Flowing' envisages a situation in which an employee can somewhat foresee their career within the firm but still does not exhibit motivation in taking measures regarding career planning, growth or development. The third subjective career construct is career hope, and unlike the previous two constructs, it has positive connotations for the incumbents and their organization. The term, as the name implies, is assigned to a certain attitude possessed by employees which causes them to persevere in the organization based on the ‘hope' that their desired future career awaits within the organization even in the face of the unpredictability of the future career. In some instances, even a slight possibility of their career goals being fulfilled in the future might lead some employees to remain committed to their current workplace.
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2.3 Generational differences
Contemporary research on employees' attitudes and behaviors often cites Generational differences (Calk & Patrick, 2017; Becton, Walker, & Jones-Farmer, 2014; Lyons & Kuron, 2013; Twenge & Campbell, 2008). Scholars argue that studies about the workplace and attitudinal outcomes are incomplete without understanding generational differences in the workplace domain (Lyons et al., 2015). As early as the 1920s, generation theorists proposed the view of understanding generational differences and since then it has been supported by various empirical studies as well as anecdotal evidence. In social sciences, two major perspectives regarding generations exist. The first one is the "social forces perspective" and the second one is the "generational cohort perspective." Social forces perspective stems from Mannheim's work, and cohort perspective has its roots in Ryder's work (Timonen & Conlon, 2015; Gilleard, 2004; Laufer & Bengtson, 1974). Generation theory, commonly referred to as the sociology of generations, was introduced by Karl Mannheim in the 1920s (Timonen & Conlon, 2015). He explained that notable historical and sociological events tend to have a substantial impact on individuals particularly those events that are experienced during their youth. These shared experiences lead towards a social formation of ‘cohorts' which influences the oncoming generations. He also elaborated that children mostly adopt value sets from their adults and surrounding communities, but as they grow up, they perceive their surroundings and make sense of it accordingly so much so that their value systems are transformed in terms of the content of their experiences which separates their consciousness from that of other generations. Once such mental transformations have taken place, the practices and behaviors of individuals within a certain generational cohort would naturally be attuned to their collective as well as individual consciousness through the remainder of their lives. Mannheim's theory focuses on inter-related and multi-dimensional social groups that take shape within the flow of history, and it simultaneously studies the effects of the biological process of aging as well as social and historical events (Mannheim, 1996; 1952). Naturally, Mannheim's approach has had its fair share of contenders, some of whom, have plausible concerns because Mannheim's work stemmed from Western ideologies which are lacking in cultural inclusivity thereby rendering it of lesser value to various cultures/societies across the world. However, Edmunds & Turner (2005) posited that the impact of modern technological influences have global outreach and as such it supports the possibility of an ‘emergent global generation' across and oblivious to geographical boundaries/countries and nations.
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The critique notwithstanding, Mannheim’s central premise that members of a common generation share some commonalities based on shared historical experiences (Weiss & Lang, 2012; Bangerter, 2005) can be used as a foundation in this study to cultivate an understanding of generational differences. His work has also inspired others to research generational similarities and differences while accounting for unique contextual, cultural factors since this perspective essentially consider the effects of age, period and cohort as complementary instead of opposing and views generations as multidimensional (Lyons et al., 2015; Lyons & Kuron, 2013). The second generational perspective, referred to as the cohort perspective stems from Ryder (1965) and is frequently cited in demography, gerontology as well as psychology (Pilcher, 1994; Laufer & Bengtson, 1974). Its primary objective is to empirically support the generational differences construct by setting rigid demarcations between each generation based on supporting data, but he also elaborated that cohorts cannot be studied in isolation without considering other population parameters, such as educational levels and geographical location as well as ethnicity/race. Scholars who have investigated generational differences in the domain of organizational research and work-related aspects focus exclusively on the cohort perspective (Foster, 2013). Ryder's work differs from Mannheim's theory as the latter is not explicitly concerned with the influence of generations on their behavioral and attitudinal outcomes instead as the ongoing interaction of generations as a tool for social change. Generational cohort theorists dwell on the influence of generation on individuals, and many have tried to identify changes in attitudes, values, and beliefs based on generational cohorts (e.g., D'Amato & Herzfeldt, 2008; Edmunds & Turner, 2005). The Howe and Strauss generational theory (1992), is one such theory which is commonly applied to work design and organizational research domain. They have categorized generations based on shared key events in history as well as societal influences. To belong to a generation, members must possess three factors: (a) share an age location in history (b) share common beliefs and behaviors and (c) share a common perceived membership. They demarcated the age ranges around a span of about twenty years using birth year ranges as indicators. They also theorized that individuals of a particular cohort are socially aware of belonging to that generation. The key idea from both generational perspectives is that historical and social events to which an individual might be exposed during their earlier, formative years instead of later on in life tend to have a more significant impact on their dispositional profiles. Thus, people born in a
25 specific birth year range, belonging to a particular cohort, will have certain commonalities in their cognitive thinking and such an influence usually lasts for a long time (Jurkiewicz & Brown, 1998). Generation theory proponents posit that individuals belong to a ‘generation'- with its personalized set of memories, life experiences, habits, and customs etcetera- that merely happens to be ‘moving through an age bracket'; however, that does not mean that the members of that generation ‘belong' to that age bracket. It explains why the theory doesn't categorize people based on their current age rather than on their birth years. Moreover, even if all the individuals go through similar historical occurrences, their response would still differ remarkably due to their position in the stage of their life cycle at that particular point in time (Ryder, 1985;1965). As contemporary workplaces are composed of employees from different generational cohorts, a better understanding of their expectations, past experiences and future outlook may pave the way towards better hiring processes, lesser turnover, better career development, and succession planning as well as higher employee commitment. Employees with shared generational identities in an organization might have similar or related ‘psychological contract,' and if this contract is not fulfilled it could result in dissatisfaction, poor employee commitment and eventual intention to leave (Lub, Bal, Blomme, & Schalk, 2015; Joshi, Dencker, & Franz, 2011; Dencker, Joshi, & Martocchio, 2008). Over the past couple of years, the literature cites many cases of conflict between generations in the workplace (Lyons et al., 2015; Yi, Ribbens, Fu, & Cheng, 2015; Lu & Gursoy, 2013; Solnet & Kralj, 2011). It is highly recommended that work-related generational differences be clarified and acknowledged so that the newfound knowledge may be employed to increase workers' productivity, innovative capacity and corporate citizenship (Kupperschmidt, 2000). Some scholars have suggested that the relationship between QWL and other variables also differs between generational cohorts of workers. For example, Ellis and Pompli (2002) identified many factors contributing to job dissatisfaction and perceptions regarding QWL in millennial nurses, including poor working environments, aggressive supervisory behaviors, work-life balance, a dearth of adequate recognition and acknowledgment, and inadequate opportunities for growth and learning, to name a few. Additionally, research on the role of the workload in determining QWL also shows that the relationship varies amongst generations (Lai, Chang, Hsu, 2011). Within the generational differences domain, significant attention has been given to millennials because they are considered to be most different from prior generations. Brown (2004)
26 writes that millennials seek intellectually challenging work situations and drive for success thereby looking for organizations who would serve as the right pedestal for their career development. Due to their potential for proactivity, personal goal setting and goal achievement have a high degree of importance in their lives. They prefer engaging in work that they perceive to be meaningful and rewarding in terms of social responsibility. Research findings show that millennials have high expectations regarding work-life balance as well as career success and compared to their predecessors they are not as loyal to their organizations if such goals are not being achieved (Hershatter and Epstein, 2010; Smith, 2010). Millennials have a completely different perspective about job experiences since they are not just educated but also trained in technology, energetic and confident about their life choices. They opt for teamwork as opposed to working on their own, and they tend to set high expectations for themselves as well as their leaders. They look for challenging tasks, but even then, work-life balance is vital for them. They are also aware that their high socialization needs and somewhat contradictory wish for rapid career advancement might be deemed as weaknesses by senior colleagues (Gilbert, 2011). Moreover, recent studies show significant differences between millennials and other generations in terms of subjective career outcomes (Ng, Lyons, & Schweitzer, 2018). Generation theory, as well as extant literature highlight the importance of studying generational differences in various attitudes and behaviors at the workplace. Prior research signifies the importance of exploring these differences in the influence of QWL on subjective career constructs of career mist, career drift, and career hope.
2.4 Affective events theory Affective events theory (AET), which builds upon already established cognitive appraisal models, explains how workplace features and events could shape various work attitudes and potentially influence employee behaviors over time. In doing so, it focuses on ‘affect’ in the workplace domain. Although Fridlund (1994) contended that emotions are just social protocols for establishing intended behaviors, it is widely believed that emotions are inherent responses by individuals to adapt themselves to the demands of their environment (Ekman, 1992; Smith & Ellsworth, 1985; Scherer, 1984). Even though affect and mood are often used interchangeably in daily life, but theorists conducting empirical research on affect have presented a clear distinction. Moods are considered to be generalized feelings which are not associated with a particular stimulus and are not intense enough to interrupt the flow of thoughts (e.g., Thayer, 1989; Clark & Isen,
27
1982). In contrast, affect occurs as a response to specific stimuli and possesses the intensity to interrupt thought process of individuals (e.g., Zajonc 1998; Frijda 1993, Simon 1982) thereby becoming inherent causes of various deep-rooted attitudes and behaviors. Most scholars agree about affective states/emotions being a reaction to stimuli and that these resultant emotions have a range of probable consequences (Frijda, 1988), affective events theory (AET; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) builds upon the same idea. AET discusses the role played by affect in the stimuli and response process and states that events i.e., “a change in circumstances, a change in what one is currently experiencing” (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996, p.31) in the work environment can form employees’ affective experiences which, in turn, influence their attitudes and behaviors in the organizational domain. AET uses the following framework for predicting organizational behavior. Work environment features (such as organizational characteristics: policies, strategies etcetera) lead to work attitudes directly as well as indirectly. In terms of indirect path, features of the work environment lead to work events (meetings etcetera) which, in turn, cause ‘affective reactions.' Personal disposition of individuals also plays a vital role in the process from an event until the affective reaction occurs. The affective reactions cause affect-driven behaviors and also work attitudes. Affective responses lead towards two different behavioral paths as work environment influences work attitudes, which then influence judgment-driven behaviors while affective reactions directly cause affect-driven behaviors. As the diagram below shows, AET highlights that affect-driven behavior occurs almost instantaneously as a reaction, following the affect state formed by an event while judgment-driven behaviors take a longer route by leading towards work attitudes (which are also influenced by work environment features) from affective reactions and finally causing behavior. Thus, the latter is longer and more deliberate since it is influenced both by emotion and cognitive reinterpretation.
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Figure 2.1: Affective events theory model. Source: Weiss & Cropanzano (1996)
AET suggests that for any workplace event triggered by a stimulus, there are endless possibilities of responses by individuals but after the appraisal (primary or secondary) takes place, the behavior choice would largely depend on the individual's affective reaction to the stimuli. Moreover, it is essential to understand that since AET is centered around the occurrence of events, so any change in organizational circumstances currently being experienced by the employees, can be defined as an ‘event' within the context of this theory. Such changes shape attitudes directly and cause positive or negative affective states which influence behaviors either directly (affect-driven behavior) or indirectly (judgment-driven behavior). All of these relationships have been represented in the model above. Since the AET framework highlights how workplace environment and characteristics would typically create a range of affective states/reactions which may be positive, or negative, so this leads towards the exploration of QWL and how it causes affective reactions which in turn lead towards different attitudes' formation regarding career or work. Particularly, in this study, it is proposed that QWL leads towards positive or negative affective states in employees which, in turn, influence career mist, career drift, and career hope.
2.5 QWL and subjective career AET asserts that work environment features influence employees’ attitudes through the affective route (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Thus, within the context of AET, this section will first elaborate the propositions regarding the influence of QWL on each of the subjective career constructs, i.e., career mist, career drift, and career hope. Consequently, the following sections (2.5.1, 2.5.2 and 2.5.3) will focus on the propositions regarding the underlying "affective process"
29 of how QWL influences each of the three subjective career constructs. Based on AET and supported by the existing literature, positive and negative affective states will be proposed as the mediating variables to investigate the affective process. It has been discussed how QWL is achieved through greater needs’ fulfillment (Sirgy.et.al, 2001; Efraty & Sirgy, 1990), and psychologists define attitudes as a propensity to assess various stimuli positively or negatively (Albarracin, Johnson, & Zanna, 2014; Wood, 2000; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). It may be argued that when an organization fulfills employees’ needs to a greater extent, resultantly their attitudes towards their workplaces and careers will be affected. As discussed in the first chapter, prior research shows that QWL enhances positive career and work-related attitudes in employees such as job satisfaction, career satisfaction, motivation, intentions to stay and commitment (Jabeen et al, 2018; Baleghizadeh & Gordani, 2012; Huang et al., 2007; Lee et al. 2007; Cummings & Worley, 2005; Leopold, 2005; Ragins, Cotton, & Miller, 2000; Louis 1998). Management research often joins QWL with other job related outcomes such as productivity and performance (Dess et al., 2007; Lu, 2007; Tsai et al., 2007; Wheelan and Hunger, 2006; Yorks, 2005; Cascio, 1998; Lau and May, 1998; Spector 1997; Walker, 1992) and lower turnover (Lee, Dai, & McCreary, 2013). QWL leads towards greater flexibility, dedication, and motivation amongst employees which are important attitudes for the organization's competitiveness and sustainability (Bassi and Vanburen, 1997; Roth, 1993). Based on prior literature and AET, it is argued that the higher the levels of QWL, the lower will be the career mist. Career mist literature shows that it is the state which occurs due to feelings of discontentment regarding the unclear future. Employees who are unable to make sense of their career path even after being employed by an organization for a few years develop feelings of confusion regarding their future career which may be described as ‘career mist.' Due to the occurrence of certain events in Japanese career paths (usually, functional rotations or transfers etcetera), the mist becomes dense which leads the employees to struggle on an unknown career path within the company (Kato & Suzuki, 2006). There may be factors in the workplace which could influence the degree or density of perceived career mist. These factors may potentially aggravate the career mist perception of the employees as research shows that persistent presence of an object in the surroundings leads towards ‘stored' attitudes about the object (Eagly and Chaiken, 2007, Fazio, 1995) and such attitudes are retrieved to make persistent evaluative judgments about the object, place or situation. Career mist is a subjective valuation and has the
30 potential to be altered or reduced through impact by various persistent features of the work environment or favorable policies within the organization. QWL does not only play the role of a positive intervention for lowering various negative attitudes towards work and career, but it may also be a significant factor contributing towards diminishing career mist. It is proposed that higher QWL would reduce career mist instead of increasing it because various features of QWL reduce feelings of anxiety regarding the future. These interventions also cause employees to pick up cues from their environment which may provide some information about their future career path and lessen the mist. Positive feelings from a better QWL may also support cognitive elaboration which leads towards the formation of strong attitudes (Nayakankuppam, Priester, Kwon, Donovan, & Petty, 2018, Petty and Wegener, 1999; Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). The consequent attitude of career mist strengthens or weakens as a result of the thoughts that employees may have in response to their surroundings. Similarly, the literature on organizational support for development shows how developmental interventions by the firm leads to enhanced career satisfaction of employees as they perceive that they are being provided growth and developmental opportunities. As such opportunities signal to the employees that they are considered worthy by their organizations (Kraimer, Seibert, Wayne, Liden, & Bravo, 2011; Lee & Bruvold, 2003; Cavanaugh & Noe, 1999), and may impact the career mist evaluation. QWL interventions include various elements which provide developmental support and enhance the employability so when QWL is low, employees are more prone towards negatively assessing their career to be situated in a dense mist. Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed:
Hypothesis H1-1: QWL negatively influences career mist.
The second subjective career state in this study is, "career drift." An employee with a drifting attitude towards career stops taking any required initiatives for career growth or development and becomes completely dependent on the organization to steer his/her career on a virtually unknown path. The literature on career drift mentions the role played by personal and organizational factors on career drift. It has also been suggested that Japanese employees hold the same positions for a longer period and such an extended tenure diminishes their interest in their jobs and careers (Kato & Suzuki, 2006). As the literature cited in the preceding paragraphs shows, QWL enriches employees' in different ways which has the potential to engage them in their work so it may be proposed that it
31 would increase employees' interest in (career) development while reducing career drift. Earlier, Hall and Mirvis (2013) argued that employees would exhibit greater involvement and performance in exchange for the firm offering them purpose, meaning, rewards and benefits. Colarelli & Bishop (1990) wrote that career commitment, which they described as the formulation of career goals and involvement in investing oneself in those goals, was positively associated with some features of QWL. Moreover, career drift may also be considered a stark opposite of career motivation, i.e., employees with a higher career motivation would not possess a career drift attitude because career drift attitude revolves around lack of motivation to develop one's career (Suzuki, 2001). Career motivation is known to be positively influenced by QWL (Pinder, 2014; Baleghizadeh & Gordani, 2012). Many theorists (e.g., Pinder, 1998; London, 1983) have characterized the components of career motivation and the association among workplace characteristics and career motivation. London (1983) presented a multidimensional construct for career motivation based on career resilience, career insight, and career identity. Career resilience is the degree to which an individual can adapt to a change in his/her circumstances and so employees with career resilience would embrace changes in the organization and be more proactive in terms of taking risks for career advancement. Career insight is the degree to which individuals are aware of their abilities and career goals, and career identity is the extent to which individuals define themselves through their jobs and organization. Thus, overall career motivation is manifested as being involved in activities related to career advancement and taking pride in their work and careers as well as solidarity with their organization. The literature on career motivation is pertinent for studying career drift because employees who exhibit a career drift attitude, do not have enough career motivation to think about developing their career. Thus, it is proposed that a higher level of QWL reduces career drift in employees. As AET suggests that workplace characteristics shape attitudes of employees, so coupled with the above-mentioned indications in the literature, this leads towards the hypothesis that better QWL may sufficiently lower career drift amongst employees as they become more interested in, and committed to their career growth and development.
Hypothesis H1-2: QWL negatively influences career drift.
The third subjective career construct in this study is career hope, which is characterized by possessing the belief that one’s desired career awaits in the current organization in the near or distant future and so employees with greater career hope are more likely to remain in their current
32 organization even when their future career path is unknown (Kato, 2001; Kato & Suzuki, 2006). It has been mentioned before that QWL positively influences ‘intention to stay', and negatively impacts ‘turnover intention' either through intervening variables such as commitment and job satisfaction or through more direct means. It has been highlighted in prior research that when employees attribute positive features to their work, their turnover intentions are lowered (McKnight, Phillips, & Hardgrave, 2009). Similarly, a study conducted in Iranian hospitals concluded that there exists a negative relationship between QWL and turnover intention. The negative correlation was concluded due to low QWL reported along the dimensions of ill-treatment by supervisors, lower job security, minimal career growth prospects, and dissatisfaction with the compensation package/salary which were proposed to have caused feelings of dissatisfaction leading towards eventual turnover (Mosadeghrad, 2013). Similar results were observed from various QWL models in several studies (Gregory, Way, LeFort, Barrett, & Parfrey, 2007; Tourangeau & Cranley, 2006; Sourdif, 2004; Larrabee et al., 2003; Shader, Broome, Broome, West, & Nash, 2001). It is a fact that most of the facets of QWL have an inverse relationship with turnover intention as it enhances employees career satisfaction (Rastogi, Karatepe, & Mehmetoglu, 2018). Career satisfaction is the degree to which employees believe their career progress matches their values, preferences, and goals (Erdogan, Kraimer, & Liden, 2004; Heslin, 2003; Seibert and Kraimer, 2001). In terms of career hope, it is proposed that a higher QWL would enable the employees to develop hopeful career attitudes as they would envisage themselves to be sufficiently equipped to deal with any contingency in their future. It has been established that QWL has various spillover and crossover implications (Sirgy et al., 2001); therefore it can also influence employees' perceptions about their career (Li & Yeo, 2011). Past studies also verify that various organizational and personal factors influence employees' positive perceptual, attitudinal as well as behavioral outcomes. Saks (2006) indicated several HR interventions such as flexible work arrangements, training programs, and incentives to lead towards greater work engagement. QWL interventions may also improve employees' self-esteem and job satisfaction (Suttle, 1977). Dada (2006) confirmed that QWL influences employees in terms of organizational identification, job satisfaction, job involvement, job effort, job performance, and organizational alienation- all of which are similar to career hope as they represent a broad, positive outlook towards jobs and careers.
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Li & Yeo (2011) state the positive influence of quality of work life on the career developmental aspirations and they also quote the research by Creed et al. (2009), Kelliher and Anderson (2008), Kreiner et al (2009), McDonald et al (2008) and McDonald et al (2007) to argue about the influence of positive perceptions about QWL on career development ‘aspirations’. They write that a positively perceived QWL would induce people to raise their career aspiration leading them to take part in participative career development with their employers (Kidd, 2002). The conceptualization of career hope revolves around the hopeful beliefs for the desired career within the firm. Based on AET and all of the above-mentioned literature, it is proposed that a higher QWL would act as a stimulus for employees' optimistic appraisal of their career within the firm.
Hypothesis H1-3: QWL positively influences career hope.
2.5.1 QWL and affective states
Based on AET, it is proposed that a higher QWL would lead towards a lower negative affective state and a higher positive affective state in employees. Since time immemorial psychologists such as William James (1884), have emphasized that all emotional experiences follow the perception of a stimulus and later on Weiss and Cropanzano’s (1996) affective events theory (AET) highlighted how work-related stimuli cause positive or negative affective reactions. According to Brief and Weiss (2002), several factors within the workplace influence employees’ moods and emotions and these are often combined into categories which may or may not overlap (e.g., George 1996; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996; George & Brief 1992). These groupings might comprise of stressful events (or aversive stimuli), leadership at work, leaders, organizational policies and practices, physical environment at the workplace, and even compensation packages and punishment mechanisms. It is pertinent to mention that, although, AET highlights ‘events' as the core element causing negative or positive affect a stimulus does not have to be a ‘situation.' As Elfenbein (2008) writes, it may just be a ‘stable feature of the environment' that is significant to the employees' needs. She continues that it may be any contact between employees and their work environment which has the potential to be classified as an affective event, even more so when the contextual setting includes other individuals such as colleagues and supervisors etcetera. Therefore, QWL is
34 primarily composed of stimuli which may lead to certain positive or negative emotive states in employees by fulfilling (or not fulfilling) certain needs. AET discusses how (stressful) events play a significant role in determining employees' affective state. It is evident how salient the role of stress is in the life of employees because there is a massive amount of literature focusing specifically on work-related stress (e.g., Peng, Zhang, Xu, Matthews, & Jex, 2018, Johnstone & Feeney, 2015; McVicar, Munn-Giddings, & Seebohm, 2013). Most of the research dealing with stress and affect tends to focus on ‘negative affect' and rightly so because naturally, stress is more related to negative affect than positive affect. Various studies in the 1990s tried to identify whether negative affect is more of a problem causing variable in the work stress analysis since it tends to inflate/aggravate relationships between self-reported environmental stressors/strain elements (e.g., Schaubroeck, Ganster, & Fox, 1992). Similarly, leadership is also one crucial factor in the workplace that causes negative or positive affect since leaders are known to affect the feelings of their followers (e.g., George 2000). Workgroup characteristics also tend to elicit affect which is mostly consistent or homogenous (e.g., Barsade & Gibson, 2012; George 1990, 1996). Additionally, AET mentions physical settings of the workplace, which even considered in a broader context of safe working environment has the potential to cause affective reactions in employees. The nature of work tasks/job and its complexity is also recognized in AET and further identified by Saavedra & Kwun (2000), who studied a sample of managers and discovered that self-reported accounts of task/job features were consequently associated with pleasant as well as unpleasant affective states. Rafaeli & Sutton (1990), also found evidence supporting the influence of work environment features on positive and negative affect by using structured observations in five supermarkets. From an analysis of 194 transactions among customers and cashiers, they discovered that the degree of busyness in a store was negatively related to cashiers' positive affect display, and customer demand was positively related to displayed positive emotions. Moreover, even things such as aesthetics of the work environment tend to influence affect as Wasserman, Rafaeli and Kruger (2000) highlighted the association between aesthetics/physical cues at the workplace and employees’ emotions. There are various other studies on the subject by Strati (1992, 1996) and White (1996). Organizational compensation mechanisms such as payments and penalties also influence affect through the perspective of organizational and distributive justice (Brief and Weiss, 2002; Folger & Cropanzano 1998; Greenberg, 1990). Moreover, it was
35 discovered that various combinations of work environment features influence happiness or guilt, anger, or even pride (Weiss, Nicholas, & Daus, 1999; Weiss, Suckow, & Cropanzano, 1999). Brief and Weiss (2002) write that their identified categories of workplace stimuli must not be treated as all-encompassing approaches to affect in the workplace and that other approaches also exist. Many facets of the workplace that act as stimuli for employee attitudes and behaviors have not been explained in-depth in the AET nor covered in other literature on employees' affective reactions. The construct, ‘quality of work life,' for instance, includes most of the factors that are a part of AET as well as more work-related stimuli which must be elaborated further to understand employees' emotions/feelings, attitude formation and behaviors. The needs fulfillment paradigm of quality of work life is vital for affective events theory because unfulfilled needs are likely to evoke negative sentiments in employees. According to Kelly and Barsade (2001), a higher degree of interdependence in contemporary organizations means that the stimuli at the workplace are now able to evoke more intense reactions. In the past, the nature of work was monotonous, and there was not as much interaction amongst people as there is nowadays, so there are more significant challenges and stimuli for affective reactions at the workplace or in any professional context nowadays. The stimuli with the strongest emotional influence of employees are the ones that involve other people and their situation in each other's professional space (Dimotakis, Scott, & Koopman, 2010; Dasborough, 2006; Mignonac & Herrback, 2004; Gaddis, Connelly, & Mumford, 2004; Basch & Fisher, 2000) and this is also another crucial element of the QWL concept. Although human interactions are one of the most potent stimuli for affective states, economic context also significantly elicits emotions (Brief & Weiss, 2002), in addition to a variety of physical settings such as temperature, noise, fragrances (Isen & Baron, 1991), or any other organizational artefacts (Rafaeli & Vilnai-Yavetz, 2004). There exists substantial empirical research linking work features and various environmental characteristics to employees’ affective states (Idris & Dollard, 2011; Saavedra & Kwun, 2000; Oldham, Hackman, & Pearce, 1976; Herzberg, 1966). Various workplace stimuli evoke negative affective states in employees. These include situations deemed to be unfair in terms of non-financial compensations, power struggles, discriminatory conditions, esteem issues, unsafe working conditions to name a few. A large-scale survey showed that sense of accomplishment and professional compliments by colleagues/superiors were the most common positive affect elicitors while the loss of a collegial relationship, interference between work and home, conflicts at work
36 or having to perform undesired tasks at work tend to elicit negative sentiments (Mignonac and Herrbach, 2004). Lower levels of various quality of work life determinants such as job security, reasonable working hours, role clarity, safe working space, collegial ties at work are associated with higher stress levels, and such stress leads towards overall mental distress and depression (Sabadra, 2009). There have also been various studies on employees’ mental health and well-being which highlight how the higher quality of work life leads towards better mental health in the form of lowered depressed states (Estrada, Hidalgo-Santacruz, & Hidalgo-González, 2018). A study by Sirgy, Reilly, Wu, & Efraty (2008) shows that QWL influences employees' well-being and happiness. Most of the affective reactions of employees are functions of their work. Undesirable features of the work cause negative affect in many diverse samples. A study about police officers' affect revealed that emotion-focused coping with events at work was related to negative experiences which were connected to greater degrees of negative affect rather than positive affect. For them, organizational dimensions seemed to generate a greater degree of negative affect compared to the operational elements such as dealing with crimes or victim handling (Hart, Wearing, & Headey, 1995). Using time series analysis, it was found that difficulties experienced during work were directly associated with day-end negative affect (Zohar, 1999). In a study about accountants' moods, Teuchmann, Totterdell, and Parker (1999) found that time pressure led to negative affective states and perceptions of control. Research conducted with various diverse samples has consistently demonstrated linkages between the appraisal of workplace stimuli as salient and harmful and the subsequent experience of negative emotions (Carver & Scheier, 1990; Lazarus, 1991). Therefore, based on AET and the literature reviewed above, it is proposed that a higher QWL would lower negative affect states in employees and thus,
Hypothesis H2-1: QWL negatively influences a negative affective state. The AET highlights how favorable workplace stimuli lead towards the generation of positive affect (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Positive affect is often defined as the degree to which an individual feels enthusiastic, active, and alert (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988), thus, a higher positive affective state is characterized by energy, concentration, and higher work engagement (Van Woerkom & Meyers, 2014). Individuals relate to their work beyond mechanical tasks as a composite of human interactions (Hammond, Clapp-Smith, & Palanski, 2017; Wrzesniewski; Yeoman, 2014; Dutton, & Debebe, 2003). It has also been established that positive affect not just
37 emerges from interactions but from various work-related elements such as the act of doing the job itself and the surrounding physical space (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975; Sandelands, 1988; Ashkanasy, Ayoko, & Jehn, 2014), as well as various external elements which employees carry over to their work such as home/personal life elements (Brief & Weiss, 2002). Based on the above, QWL which includes dimensions of meaningful work, as well as work-life balance, is an antecedent of a positive affective state. It has been discovered that many features of work induce positive affect (George, 1991), for instance, Oldham et al. (1995) found that listening to music improved the affective states of employees especially those engaged in relatively simple tasks. Boudens (2005) highlighted that identity/image building is one of the strong sources of positive affect especially work-related achievements and being recognized for them, feelings of interconnectedness, supportive mechanisms at work and overcoming daily hurdles to work. These are also a part of QWL mechanisms being studied in the present research. Similarly, in detailed studies of positive affect, Isen (1999; 1993; 1991) mentions that the most commonplace things could be vital in inducing positive feelings and these could be everyday events or characteristics at the workplace. For instance, rewards trigger positive affective states. Additionally, in neurobiology literature, there are various studies which describe how reward induces positive affective states via dopamine levels in the brain (Gaudi, Guffanti, Fallon, & Macciardi, 2016; Lindquist, Wager, Kober, Bliss-Moreau, & Barrett, 2012; Cooper, 1989; Wise & Rompre, 1989; Beninger, 1983; Liebeman &; Wise, 1982). Based on all of the above, it may be argued that a higher QWL would lead towards a positive affective state.
Hypothesis H2-2: QWL positively influences a positive affective state. 2.5.2 Affective states and subjective career Affective events theory highlights that all kinds of meaning by employees are assigned based on their perception. The appraisal process for perception by an individual takes place in two steps, primary or secondary. Primary appraisal utilizes various mechanisms, but its main function is determining the degree to which an event is deemed congruent/incongruent with a person's goals, and values. In the case of congruence, events would be assigned a positive significance and vice versa for incongruence. The primary appraisal mechanism assigns a basic ‘good' or ‘bad' labels. In most situations, the primary appraisal is strong enough to provoke an ‘affective response.' Examples of a positive affective response could be love and happiness whereas a potential negative
38 affective response could be ‘fright' or ‘anxiety.' Secondary appraisals are not as immediate as primary ones, and they rely on more thought-driven processes. Most of the human emotions occur via both primary and secondary appraisals which lead towards attitudes or behaviors (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). The above-mentioned account of how affect leads towards the creation of attitudes is valuable for establishing any prospective links between the affective state of employees and their attitudes towards their career (subjective career). Various studies show that even seemingly neutral constructs which are associated with emotionally charged stimuli can lead individuals to possess strong attitudes (Kassin, Fein, & Markus, 2008). Based on this, QWL is one such feature which develops/shapes subjective career through feelings/emotions. The formal definition of an attitude is “a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor” (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998, p. 269). Thus, the definition in itself is sufficient to establish that attitudes towards a career (subjective career) are strongly linked to emotional aspects of valence, which is its connection to an entity. AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and cognitive appraisal theories about the organizational realm highlight that individuals strive to assign meaning to workplace stimuli. Similarly, subjective career theory also highlights that employees tend to interpret their careers using narratives and metaphors to assign meaning to their careers (Stebbins, 1990). These metaphors assigned to employees' careers (subjective career) are essentially employees' attitudes towards career because they are based on employees’ non-objective valuations about the prevalent career situation. Elfenbein (2007) writes that there is a significant amount of research on attitudes, cognitive conditions, and behaviors as the effects of emotion/feelings in the organizational context, so these may be classified as post-emotive responses. To be classified as a post emotive response, attitudes must be the causation of positive or negative affect. Thus, in this section, it is being proposed that subjective attitudes towards career are shaped or influenced by the affective states of the employees, while affective states are a reaction to employees' QWL (proposed earlier in section 2.5.1). There is insufficient research to empirically highlight how certain affective states (positive or negative) may lead towards career mist, career drift or career hope but there are studies on particular work/career related attitudes which highlight affective states as their antecedents. Thus, prior research on the application of AET, affective states, and attitudes serves as cues to understand
39 whether positive or negative affect leads towards a certain kind of subjective career construct. Various theoretical and empirical studies have highlighted the linkage of affect with several employee outcomes , such as employees’ subjective work experience, task performance, prosocial behavior, stress, and emotional well-being (Kaplan, Bradley, Luchman, & Haynes, 2009; Dalal, 2005; Ilies & Judge, 2004; Thoresen, Kaplan, Barsky, Warren, & de Chermont, 2003). The research on subjective career also contains accounts of the role played by the affective state of employees. For instance, existing research on subjective career success mentions that it can be gauged through job or career satisfaction. According to Heslin (2005) subjective career success can only be experienced and visualized by employees themselves, and it can be measured through its most common operationalization which is in the form of job or career satisfaction. As per AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), one of the most common consequences of affect is job satisfaction which points towards the association between affective state and subjective career. Furthermore, since subjective career success is the valuation of career success by the individual based on personally meaningful career accomplishments (Seibert, 2006), so it makes sense that internal emotive and cognitive processes play a significant role in subjective career valuation (Spurk, Hirschi, & Dries, 2018). Additionally, several scholars support the notion that certain negative affective states such as depressed affect have positive associations with dysfunctional career thinking, or career indecision (Saunders et al., 2000). Career indecision and career shyness are also related to depressed affective states (Smith and Betz, 2002). These cues in the literature highlight how affective states are associated with subjective valuations of career. For Japan, the conceptual framework of career mist, career drift, and career hope provides a unique but relatable way for Japanese white-collar employees to construct their careers. A significant number of such employees in Japan are undergoing the situation of career drift within career mist while searching for career hope. The research on subjective career in Japan (Kato & Suzuki, 2006) concludes with the implication that there are numerous future possibilities for empirical research on these constructs and to investigate these possibilities, certain theories and models need to be studied. These constructs were identified through employees' narratives based on the career and employment system of Japan. Just as boundary-less and protean careers are widely prevalent in the Western context, career mist, drift and hope are present amongst Japanese employees while they try to make sense of their career situation in an archetypical Japanese
40 corporation. It has been established via prior research that affect influences various cognitive aspects in the work context (Spassova & Isen, 2013; Huntsinger 2011, 2012; Borman, Penne, Allen, & Motowidlo, 2001; Staw, Sutton, & Pelled, 1994), impacts several kinds of subjective attitudes such as willingness to cooperate within teams (Van Kleef et al., 2012) and affect is also contained in the intention to engage in citizenship behavior (Podsakoff et al., 2017; Organ, Podsakoff & Mackenzie, 2000; Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 1997; George & Brief, 1996). Thus, it is proposed that employees’ affective states, which are reactions to their QWL, influence their subjective career valuations. It is a known fact that individuals tend to pass judgments which may be biased in the direction of their prevailing emotive state due to associative memory (Bower, 1991; Forgas & Moylan, 1987). Thus employees who have a higher negative affective state, feel more negatively about their career or job. Zajonc (1998) argued that affective reactions are primary in determining our attitudes toward the social environment and so it may be ascertained that negative affective states lead towards higher career mist since career mist has negative connotations to the employees. Therefore, it is proposed that a higher career mist is positively influenced by a negative affective state.
Hypothesis H3-1: A negative affective state positively influences career mist.
Additionally, employees' affective states are a critical predictor of their engagement as well as withdrawal attitudes in the organization. For example, studies investigating burnout show that stressful experiences lead towards negative affect which, in turn, leads towards withdrawal attitudes, i.e., diminished commitment, higher turnover intentions, and increased burnout (Lee & Ashforth, 1993; Khajavy, Ghonsooly, & Hosseini Fatemi, 2016; McNeill, Durand-Bush, & Lemyre, 2018). Since literature highlights how negative affect may cause various withdrawal attitudes to work and career, it is proposed that it serves as an antecedent for career drift. Employees' perceptions, judgments and decisions (cognitive processes) as well as their degree of job engagement (reflected through proactively searching for resources, identifying good opportunities) and coping reactions to failures, challenging situations and hindrances, all have affective roots. Thus, it may be said that affect is a significant determinant of most of the engagement and withdrawal processes in individuals (Baron, 2008; Shepherd, 2003, 2009). As per prior research on career drift, it may be caused by organizational factors such as a slow traditional promotion and educational procedures within Japanese firms and/or personal triggers such as
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"weariness" (Kato and Suzuki, 2006, p.271), which points towards a negative affective state as a possible and likely antecedent. As the literature cited in the preceding paragraphs shows, affect predicts cognitive and behavioral responses in an array of extant literature (Barone, Fedorikhin, & Hansen, 2015; Lerner, Li, Valdesolo, & Kassam, 2015), so it is expected that employees experiencing a higher degree of negative affect would report greater career related withdrawal in the form of high career drift.
Hypothesis H3-2: A negative affective state positively influences career drift. In the past, research has shown that when individuals experience higher positive affect, their attention span is widened (Shu-hua, 2010; Rowe, Hirsh, & Anderson, 2006) and they interpret various stimuli about their jobs/careers more positively (M. Clark & Teasdale, 1985; Forgas, Bower, & Krantz, 1984; Carson & Adams, 1980; Isen, Shalker, Clark, & Karp, 1978). Even slight changes in positive feelings can progressively influence cognitive processing (Isen, 1999; 1993). For example, it has been observed that even mild positive affect, of the sort that most people can experience every day, improves creative problem solving (Nelson & Sim, 2014; De Houwer & Hermans, 2010; Estrada, Young, & Isen, 1994), facilitates recall of neutral and positive material (Nasby & Yando, 1982; Teasdale & Fogarty, 1979; Isen, Shalker, Clark, & Karp, 1978), and systematically changes strategies used in decision-making tasks (Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999). Individuals with higher positive affect are more likely to participate in new interactions and even pursue new and higher goals (Carver, 2003). Positive affect essentially signals to individuals that their life is satisfactory without any apparent threatening conditions looming ahead (Carver & Scheier, 1990; 2001; Cantor et al., 1991). Additionally, individuals undergoing positive affect usually perceive circumstances more favorably (Claypool, Hall, Mackie, & Garcia-Marques, 2008; Garcia-Marques, Mackie, Claypool, & Garcia-Marques, 2004; Bower, 1991). Positive affect has also been known to lead towards optimistic biases in estimating future occurrences (Seligman, 2018; Wright and Bower, 1992). Since prior research has established that positive affect is associated with greater approach oriented behaviors (Elliot & Thrash, 2002; Watson, Wiese, Vaidya, & Tellegen, 1999) as well as more favorable work-related attitudes and reactions (Gloria & Steinhardt, 2016; Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2012; Ilies & Judge, 2004; Thoresen et al, 2003), thus, based on the conclusive influences of positive affect on a variety of hopeful and optimistic attitudes of
42 employees, it may be argued that employees' positive affective state will lead towards increased career hope.
Hypothesis H3-3: A positive affective state positively influences career hope. 2.5.3 The mediating role of affective states
Earlier in 1911, Taylor’s scientific management revolved around robotic efficiency and that was the time when indulging in emotions was considered illogical and effeminate (Mumby & Putnam, 1992), however, modern research on organizational psychology and behavior focuses heavily on studying the role of emotion in organizations (Lopes, 2016; Gill, 2015; Fineman, 1996). Studying the mediating role played by employees’ affective states in the associations between various stimuli and response variables is important in tracing the process behind many outcomes. There are numerous studies which highlight positive and negative affective states as mediating variables between various associative and causal relationships in the workplace, especially in employees' attitudinal and behavioral studies about withdrawal and engagement. Montero-Marin et al. (2015), discuss the mediating role of positive and negative affect in a study of mindfulness, resilience, and burnout in employees. Similarly, Extremera and Rey (2016) also establish the link between ability emotional intelligence (EI), positive and negative affect, and life satisfaction. Pollack, Vanepps, and Hayes (2012) show how economic stress causes feelings of despondency and despair amongst entrepreneurs, and such a resultant negative affect leads towards higher withdrawal intentions. They highlight how depressed affective state plays the role of a mediating variable in the effect of economic stress on withdrawal intentions. Cole.et.al (2008) also explore the role of negative affective tone as a mediator between dysfunctional team behavior and team performance. As mentioned in AET, researchers widely acknowledge that employees tend to respond emotionally to organizational stimuli (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Notably, work episodes which are deemed unfavorable usually foster strong negative affective states in employees (Rozin & Royzman, 2001) which, in turn, have an adverse impact on various work-related attitudes as well as behaviors (Kiefer, 2005; Hui, Law, & Chen, 1999). This highlights how ‘affect' plays an intervening role in the QWL and subjective career model since the purpose of an intervening variable in a study is to explain the process of how the independent variable influences or alters the dependent variable (Shrout & Bolger, 2002). In this study it is being proposed that the
43 independent variable of QWL is capable of predicting changes in the dependent variables: career mist, career drift, and career hope and these changes in the dependent variable occur via the affective state of employees.
As stated in section 2.5.1, Hypothesis H2-1 in this study predicts an inverse relationship between QWL and a negative affective state, and Hypotheses H3-1 and H3-2 predict a positive relationship between a negative affective state and career mist/career drift. Together, these hypotheses specify a model in which QWL diminishes career mist and career drift by first contributing to employee’s negative affect. This notion is in line with AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996); that is, employees harbor negative feelings in response to unfavorable features of the work environment/conditions and this negative affect, in turn, tends to demotivate and distract employees (Elfenbein, 2007). Accordingly, negative affective states are anticipated to mediate the QWL and career mist/career drift relationship such that when QWL is high, employees’ negative affective state will diminish and the lower negative affective state will then cause a reduction in career mist and career drift. The following two propositions:
Hypothesis H4-1: A negative affective state mediates the negative influence of quality of work life on career mist.
Hypothesis H4-2: A negative affective state mediates the negative influence of quality of work life on career drift. Moreover, as it has been proposed in this study that when QWL is high, it will lead towards a positive affective state (H2-2) and an increased positive affective state will raise career hope (H3-
3), so it is further proposed that QWL will have a positive influence on career hope via a positive affective state:
Hypothesis H4-3: A positive affective state mediates the positive influence of quality of work life on career hope.
2.5.4 The moderating role of generation The purpose of a moderator in a study is to explain the ‘boundary condition' for the association between a set of variables (Hayes, 2013). For the conceptual framework of this study, moderator (generation) explains the ‘conditions' under which the independent variable (QWL) influences dependent variable (subjective career) through the mediating variable (affective state). Based on the importance of dispositional influences in AET, it is important to understand that the influence of QWL on affective states may be moderated by the employee's "generation." The
44 reason for this moderating effect is that not only generational attributes tend to predispose employees towards certain affective states, i.e., positive and negative affectivity (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), but certain stimuli are likely to deliver different attitudinal responses between different generation of employees depending upon generational attributes and associated psychological expectations (Campbell, Campbell, Siedor, & Twenge, 2015; Becton et al., 2014; Lyons & Kuron, 2013; Parry & Urwin, 2011; Twenge, 2010). Before proposing a moderating effect within this framework, it is pertinent to mention two preconditions for the proposed moderating effect of generation in the conceptual framework of this study. There are two preconditions either of which could logically be used for arguing the case for employees' generation to act as a moderating variable in this conceptual framework. As Baron (2008) writes, there is “state affect,” and then there is also “dispositional (trait) affect.” "State affect" comprises feelings or emotions generated by external stimuli whereas "trait/dispositional affect" deals with an individual’s tendency to undergo particular affective reactions across various situations (e.g., Isen, 1999). Hence ‘affect state’ is the emotive state of an individual which is caused by any factor of the external environment and thus it is highly susceptible to the influence of external stimuli. For instance, in this study, it is being proposed that affective states (either positive or negative feelings) would occur as a response to QWL needs being met (or unmet) by the organization. The second one highlighted by Isen (1999), and quoted by Baron, is ‘dispositional effect,' which is the degree to which employees are predisposed towards a certain affective temperament under particular situations or circumstances. State Affect and dispositional affect might have different sources, but research has shown that both result in similar effects across many situations (e.g., Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005, offer a detailed review). Therefore, considering such evidence, this study assumes that both state affect and dispositional affect work together to alter career mist, career drift and career hope in Japanese employees. Throughout this thesis, the terms negative and positive affect have been used to discuss such feelings irrespective of whether their source is certain events (state affect) or by inherent tendencies (dispositional affect) for such states. Affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), focuses on dispositional affect to moderate the relationship between work characteristics and affective reactions; however, Fisher (2002) suggests that dispositional affect impacts attitudes through its influence on real-time affective reactions instead of directly, and George (1991, 1992 & 1996) also concedes that the influence of trait affectivity is mainly mediated
45 through state affect. Therefore, this study uses both state affect and dispositional affect arguments to propose that generational differences interact with QWL to influence career related attitudes via affective states of employees. It has been mentioned above in section 2.4, that a critical posit of AET is, ‘personal disposition of the individual also plays a major role in the process from an event till the affective reaction occurs.' This leads towards the realization that affective dispositions broadly influence the extent to which people are satisfied with and derive pleasure from their jobs (as well as other aspects of their lives) and hence no model of stimuli-response should be considered complete without the boundary conditions of dispositional influences on the association between work features/conditions and affective state. In further discussions about processes involving affect, Brief & Weiss (2002) write that although it is obvious that predisposition towards certain temperaments may have an effect on attitudes but the processes by which this occurs are not yet completely recognized. It seems that dispositional affect, "operates through multiple channels" to alter/impact attitudes (p.286) According to Fisher (2002), the main set of linkages in AET arise from the independent variables of "individual differences in trait affectivity and work environment features to events and/or real-time affective reactions" (Fig. 2.1). It is argued in this study that the ‘multiple channels' alluded by Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) as well as the individual differences in trait affectivity pointed out by Fisher (2002) are likely to be generational differences. a. The Japanese millennials Japan is confronted with a shrinking population and growing intergenerational inequality. Acceptance of a generational social divide is of utmost importance for Japan's future because understanding begins the cycle of acknowledgment and this acknowledgment would breed familiarity. One of the primary reasons why it is essential to acknowledge the intergenerational social divide in Japan is the bubble burst situation which led to significant differences amongst those who grew up during bubble era and those who came of age during/after the bubble collapsed. For Japanese who are in their forties or above, they might have begun working during the bubble era whereas the ones who are in their thirties and below, graduated during the post- bubble era. Therefore, the argument that there are some critical differences between the ones who were working during the bubble era and the ones who entered post-bubble is an important one. (Fahey, 2017)
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Japanese popular culture artifacts refer somewhat disparagingly to their millennials as, ‘Yutori' generation'(in Japanese: ゆとり世代 /Yutori Sedai). The literal meaning of the term ‘Yutori' is ‘breathing space' and it refers to the relaxations in curriculum which had been provided to this generation when they were in school, initiated in the late 1980s till early 1990s to diminish the unbearable study pressure on the school-age children (Lin, 2018; Kariya, 2010). There was a growing concern that Japanese educational institutions since postwar time had been churning out graduates with enough academic skills yet insufficient creative and independent thinking skills as well as lessened desire to be ‘lifelong learners' (Fish, 2016). A dearth of such skills would not have complemented Japanese corporations' management practices of hiring lifetime generalists using continuous on-the-job learning programs. To understand how the Japanese millennial generation differs in their work expectations and attributes from other generations, it is crucial to elaborate their formative experiences which played a significant role in shaping their current attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. This generation includes those Japanese who underwent elementary and secondary education in the 1990s or 2000s. That was a time of educational reform in terms of curriculum design. The primary aim of reforms was to ‘ease the pressure' and to instill creativity as well as lessen the emphasis on rote learning/excessive memorization. The policymakers wanted to ensure that students developed practical life skills by reducing study hours spent at school. Overall studying hours at school were reduced 10%, and individually for each course, they were reduced by 15%, the difference of 5% was treated as "holistic learning time," which was at the discretion of the school. However, later on in 2000s students' performance seemed to be dwindling in comparison to other OECD nations' students and the ‘excess breathing space' provided to them earlier as a part of educational reforms was deemed as one of the major causes. The holistic period at school also termed as "integrated studies" comprised of mind building and nurturing activities such as school trips and other activities designed to assist pupils in their practical life outside of school. Saturday classes were abolished, and new evaluation systems relying on absolute grading were installed in schools to save low performers from embarrassment and accompanied bullying (Bjork, 2015; Soble, 2010; Bjork, 2009). According to Tadashi Ikegaya who wrote the book on how to handle millennial (Yutori) employees, the yutori curriculum gave time to develop individuality in the students of that time and so the adults from this generation are not motivated by their ego rather by their interests in life.
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Also, just as their western counterparts are, this generation does not enjoy being told what to do, and money is important but not the sole/grand motivating factor for them. They are always on the lookout for self-fulfillment, and if the work does not interest them, they will not exert any additional effort into it other than what is necessary. The Yutori curriculum gave free time which meant that this generation discovered that there is life ‘outside the workplace' which is equally important, so they are reluctant to devote themselves entirely to work. This generation is often credited as possessing a carefree attitude which they brought with them to their first jobs during 2009 and 2010, and in a struggle between leisure and zeal, the former seems to be winning. ("New graduates show lack of zeal for jobs and job-hunting," 2009). Another less disparaging but ironic term is also used in popular culture artifacts as well as newspapers to refer to the Japanese millennial generation and it is, Satori sedai (Japanese: さとり 世代). Satori is a Japanese ‘Zen' word which may be understood in English as "awakening" or "enlightenment." Although the word may be understood as enlightenment, the real intricacies of the term are harder to translate to English due to its varied nuances. Hiam, Berger, and Eshghi (2017) write that, due to the millennial generation's less competitive and less ambitious traits, they are called the satori people. It is also said that this generation has accepted and is ‘resigned to fate' than prior generations. They are content in their ‘stagnancy.' They seemingly desire very little in life except for their comfort and a steady living. Initially, a former reporter named Taku Yamaoka from Nihon Keizai Shimbun is widely credited for popularizing the term Satori for this generation as opposed to Yutori. His book called, “Young People with No Desires,” began debates on an online message board about the issue and a user coined the term ‘satori sedai.' (Nam-ku, 2013). In this study, it is being argued that QWL matters more to the Japanese millennials generation and the above account(s) from their formative years provides some insight into ‘holistic learning time' which enabled them to appreciate their leisure time and find lives outside of school/work. As adults, this is likely to have translated into greater expectations regarding quality of work life, e.g., steady living and comfort. b. Affective disposition of the Japanese Millennials As the millennial generation in Japan has grown up, criticism stemming from the relaxed educational reforms continue to surround and haunt them as many people claim these reforms to be the source of this generation's unambitious attitude and self-obsession. Curriculum changes and reforms are the most frequently cited reasons for why the term “Yutori sedai" is sometimes said
48 disdainfully to belittle the younger generation as they are made out to be less competent, more psychologically weak and unable to handle competition. The description of the millennial generation in Japan is a stark contrast to that of the prior generations' formative years, i.e., people who are now in their 40s or above since the latter underwent strict curriculum and considerable pressure in terms of competitive exam results as well as rote learning. It is implied that the generations before the Japanese millennials were more competitive and ambitious because they underwent academic pressure during their school days. Just as the opponents of millennials in the west, people who criticize the millennial generation prefer the more straightforward narrative and over-generalize bad attributes (Lin, 2018; Fahey, 2017). There are various psychological differences between this generation and the preceding ones. The Japanese millennials possess a somewhat different value system, and hence priorities are also different when compared to the earlier generations. The reason is multidimensional as their formative years happened to coincide with educational reforms and their social and political identity was shaped in a different time. For this younger millennial generation, it has been almost a quarter of a century since the bubble collapsed and since they never experienced it, so they do not seem to be as engaged in getting that ‘glorious' period back as their predecessors. This generation seems more concerned about their lifestyle with notions of work-life balance as they desire not to devote all their time to their corporations. Perhaps this is the reason why the prior generations, who are still wistful about the golden times of the bubble period, label this generation as ‘lazy' and ‘self-obsessed.' It is often said that this generation is overly praised for the slightest amount of effort and protected from criticism and competition since school age which has contributed to them being lazy and more likely to get exasperated if checked by superiors (Soble, 2010). The magazine Shukan Gendai highlighted the ‘relaxed' and unconcerned attitude of this generation. One of the significant cases cited by the magazine was from the personnel manager of a retail firm who asked a millennial candidate why he applied for the position. The received answer was that the applicant liked theater and the office of the company was close to the theater district. Such incidents highlight the importance of work-life balance as well as interests/hobbies in the life priorities of the younger generation which would have been almost unthinkable in previous generations of more serious applicants ("New graduates show lack of zeal for jobs and job-hunting," 2009).
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The media has, of course, also capitalized on this term in Japan. The millennial generation is considered different mainly because they grew up during advanced digitalization which they have in common with global millennials; however, for the Japanese millennials, this access to information made them more aware of their seemingly hopeless present and future thereby making their expectations more realistic and less ambitious in comparison to prior generations. A survey by Dentsu innovation institute shows that the millennial generation does not want to spend too much money and they tend to seek out lower-priced but high-quality products and services or more value for money options. Due to digitalization, this generation can connect with various free applications on their phones and the most famous retail chains and food chains among this generation are the ones that are low priced but possess a more upbeat and relaxed vibe. They often use terms such as ‘co-spa' which is an abbreviation for cost performance (Gough, 2018). Therefore, the millennial generation is considered frugal compared to the prior generations. When the Japanese millennial generation reached adulthood, they witnessed low salaries, work without sufficient fringe benefits and a government laden under debt. This generation has become thrifty as a result, and although western millennials such as the ones in the U.S also show disinclination towards over-consumption and more inclined to share goods, it is a major problem for the Japanese economy due to the diminishing population and each family spending less than they ought to. According to Yusuke Shimoda (an economist at the Japan Research Institute), this generation has spent their whole life in the post-bubble era, and so the psychological influence is much higher on them than millennials of other countries ("Why Japan's thrifty millennials are a bad omen for its Economy," 2016). Moreover, according to the Asahi Shimbun, addressing Japanese millennials as “Satori” is suitable because it is reflected in their lack of interest in luxury products. They would even sacrifice unneeded money in favor of their work-life balance. They do not get thrilled for international travel and are even hesitant to pursue romantic entanglements. They get most of their knowledge online via social media but also enjoy reading books. At the workplace, it is often observed that Japanese millennials agonize over the problems associated with getting a promotion such as overtime and greater responsibility (Nam-ku, 2013). As per Furuichi's description, this generation grew up during a constant economic downturn, and so they adjusted their expectations accordingly. They think before acting on their whims or desires. (Furuichi, 2017).
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When this generation entered the workforce en masse, Shukan Asahi newspaper quoted many employers as saying that they are so relaxed as to be dysfunctional. They reported that new hires from this generation were poor communicators, irresponsible, weak under pressure and lacking an esprit de corps. They also seemed to have no interest in going to after work drinking parties with their superiors whereas previous generations used to consider such invitations as an honor bestowed upon them by the boss ("New breed of employees can't communicate and wilt under pressure," 2009). It is true that Japanese millennials value their work-life balance, but that does not mean they are also successful in their endeavors to achieve it. Employees in their late 20's do not just work for longer than usual office hours but also have to undergo a long journey back home, making Japan one of the cultures with the lowest work-life balance. Due to this reason, a survey by Manpower group shows that 37% of Japanese millennials feel that they will be working till they die, whereas for Western millennials the figures are around 12% only. This further amplifies another affective trait of Japanese millennials, which is their lack of optimism. This generation consistently ranks as pessimistic and depressed in global surveys. They do not envision a bright and prosperous future ahead of them and treasure life outside of work while being unable to attain it due to rising living costs in the country which forces them to work more extended hours and extra shifts. They also have little faith in the pension system to take care of them when they are aged (Sivan, 2017). When it comes to personal lives, socioeconomic situations undeniably affect this generation as due to low wages and a considerable amount of public debt. The percentage of male millennials who want to marry diminished to 39% in 2016 and 59% for female millennials according to Meiji Yasuda Institute of Life and Wellness (Ujikane, 2016). The previous generations were more obedient and devoted to their work and workplaces because they were promised lifetime employment as well as steady increases in their salaries. Now, not as many corporations can deliver as much and so the millennials don't find it rational to exert additional efforts, or uncompensated over-time neither do they want to spend their non-working hours with their bosses or colleagues. To sum up, although the goals of the Yutori reforms are suited to the 21st century they are wrongly considered unsuitable because the older generation who is managing and supervising the millennial generation has a different mindset. (Soble, 2010)
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During the 1990s, while the Japanese millennial generation was growing up, they encountered economic lows as opposed to the high economic growth experienced by their parents during their formative years. The series of downsizings/layoffs after the bubble collapse as well as the global financial crisis of 2008 destroyed the notion of lifetime employment and consequent loyalty to one parent organization, in the psyche of this generation. Therefore, this generation has grown up as more risk-averse, insular, and self-interested than prior generations. They would prefer employability and job security over leadership and even promotions, and would not care as much about their organization's productivity as previous generations (Vilet, 2011). Some employees of this generation also refused their transfer orders. Job transfers are a reasonable part of Japanese careers, so this is seen as an act of major rebellion. A survey conducted by Chuo University, the work-life balance and diversity promotion research project, showed that 42.7 % of men would try their utmost to defy job transfers, going so far as even to consider resigning from the job when asked to transfer (Ryall, 2017). Moreover, not just organizational behavior but also in terms of consumer behavior, Japanese millennials seem to be defying traditional authority in their ways as highlighted by Hiam, Berger, and Eshghi (2017). This generation is not purchasing luxurious items, and they are reluctant to accompany their superiors to after-work drinking parties which are a norm in Japanese organizations. A study conducted by a winery of 6638 males indicated that 39.8% of millennial men are voluntarily non-drinkers. There also seems to be a changing mindset amongst millennials about gender roles. More and more of them seem to value or recognize gender equality as wives demand their working husbands to come home after work to spend some time with the family and millennial husbands mostly concede to such demands (Ryall, 2017). These accounts show a generational shift in the mindset. As much as the western millennials are known as lively and generally hopeful about their future, Japanese millennials are often portrayed as downcast and disconsolate. Although not openly rebellious but they try to defy traditional workplace culture handed down from the prior generations in their way by resisting rigorous work hours, after work drinking parties with bosses/colleagues, and even resisting unplanned transfers in their organizations. They seem to be more interested in work-life balance than the prior generations. Japanese sociologist Furuichi writes that younger people do not seek to be defined by their work/job anymore and do not consider it as their sole identity (Furuichi, 2017). Japanese Millennials also rank low in life satisfaction
52 scores and terms of accomplishment in life (IRIS, 2015). Another global survey consisting of many other countries' millennials in both Eastern and Western cultures, shows that Japanese millennials rank lowest in terms of hopefulness/optimism about future career/job prospects. A similar study in 2016 also showed that only 27% of those surveyed were optimistic while globally the average figure is 49% (IRIS, 2015). According to Ujikane (2016), Japanese millennials are consistently known as the world's saddest youth among the developed countries, and this is alarming because they are even more depressed than Greek millennials who underwent a worse political and social crisis in the past few years. Some of their pessimistic outlook towards life might be attributed to the fact that this generation will have to take care of its elderly by paying massive amounts in welfare (Furuichi, 2017). This generation claims that experiences have more worth than personal possessions and so at their offices, they tend to expect self-fulfillment as opposed to advancing in careers and despite being labeled as gloomy, they self-describe themselves as happy or content. Supportive of this view, another survey by Deloitte shows the perception that previous generations generally enjoyed a more joyous time in Japan, South Korea, and countries in mainland Europe (including France and Germany) (Deloitte millennial survey, 2017). Overall, Millennials in Japan, Greece, and Italy are the least positive about their future careers—a reflection of economic, political and cultural factors in these countries (Millennial Careers:2020 Vision, 2016). Despite such surveys, Japanese millennials self-proclaim themselves to be “happy” but Furuichi (2017), writes in great depth about this "paradox" of happiness. The millennials say they are content/happy with their current lives precisely because they are not ‘hopeful' about their future. This hopelessness can also be seen from a survey by the Manpower group which showed that only two-thirds of young Japanese predicted their happiness when they reached their 40s compared with over 80% in six other developed countries. Japanese millennials are fully aware of the social and economic burdens they are expected to undertake in the future. The population over 65 already accounts for 28% of the total population which is nearly twice that of 15-29-year-old millennials. Elderly are projected to increase to almost 40% by 2065. An advertising company Dentsu revealed in their survey in 2015 that one of the most common concerns of the people in their 20s was not about their employment as much as about their lives after retirement ("Seventh Heaven at 7- Eleven", 2018). Accounts such as these reflect the negative affective disposition of the Japanese millennials.
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Accounts such as the ones mentioned above highlight the negative affectivity of the Japanese millennial generation. It is true that millennials may describe themselves as content in the present, but they still exhibit feelings of ‘resignation' about their future. They do not believe that the future will get any better than the present (Furuichi, 2017). It appears that the affective state of Japanese millennials is predominantly more attuned towards negative affectivity and their affective state would be more susceptible to fluctuations in QWL than prior generations. Firstly, they value their contentment and QWL considerably more than other generations and secondly they are already prone towards higher negative affectivity in the form of no expectations from the future (hence, hopelessness) and lower optimism (optimism not happiness). Weiss & Cropanzano (1996) write that people with high trait negative affectivity do not necessarily go through life with dire discontentment, rather they are more likely to respond strongly to negative events when such events take place because they are more predisposed towards negative affect. For the Japanese millennials who report themselves to be ‘happy,' in reality, their happiness strongly depends on their circumstances and environmental stimuli. Thus, it may be argued that if their QWL is lowered, their dormant negative affectivity will be triggered. To summarize the previous accounts about the affective disposition of Japanese millennials, this particular paragraph from Furuichi's book (2017), has significant implications for the hypotheses of this study. He writes that among the younger generation the "values of treasuring slivers of happiness in our days- those smaller pleasures of life, such as intimate relations with those close to us" are increasingly becoming important. He further writes that after exploring the young generation closely, he found out that they care deeply about their social lives outside of work such as time out with friends. Also, it is a myth that their consumption has declined and they do not care about remuneration because of low spending habits rather, they spend on the things that matter to them such as dining with friends, clothing, cosmetics, video games, and communication services. The nature of the millennials' consumption varies from prior generations because, for the prior generations, spending on luxurious items was more important. For the millennials, QWL matters more than any other generation because the things they value more than anything is their breathing space/ time out from work as well as enough remuneration to lead comfortable lives otherwise they are prone to getting anxious about their future. Furuichi further adds that "Young people don't believe that tomorrow will be better than today", and this is another
54 critical point which highlights the affective disposition of Japanese millennials to be more prone towards negative affectivity. The literature cited above establishes both arguments which have been mentioned at the beginning of section 2.5.4 as preconditions for establishing generational differences as a moderator for this study. Moreover, regarding the argument about state affect, based on various accounts of Japanese millennials it is apparent that they care more about their QWL, hence their affective state is more likely to be impacted by QWL interventions or lack thereof. Recently, there is greater evidence of a generational change in the mindset of Japanese employees. It has been observed that the millennial generation in Japan seems to be more in favor of job switching over unfavorable work conditions. As per the recent surveys, one of the major contributing factors is that the number of positions has increased after years of stagnancy in the job market since the population is declining. Due to the number of jobs available, young employees know that they could switch jobs if such a need arises. Disco Inc, which is a recruitment information company based in Tokyo, has just highlighted in their new survey that from the 455 newly hired graduates, 43.1% are either already looking for new jobs or reflecting on switching jobs and it is an uncharacteristically high figure for the Japanese salarymen. Additionally, there is a massive drop in satisfaction rates among young employees who are actively job hunting or thinking about switching. It has fallen to 57.3 % from 72.7% when they first joined their workplace. The most frequently cited reasons include long work hours including excessive overtime, insufficient wages, and inadequate training opportunities within the firm. Some of the respondents report that they wish they had done sufficient research on their organization before accepting the position or asked ex-employees about their experiences at the firm. They regret that their jobs did not involve tasks which they had expected or wanted to perform. Around 45.1 % of the employees surveyed reported that they would not pick the same organization if it were possible and 12.2 % said that they would like to work somewhere else. Similarly, the cabinet office surveyed the younger generation (16-29) in October 2017 and highlighted that 72% of the 10,000 people surveyed were proponents of a career change. Respondents felt strongly about not working for a firm which doesn't match with their qualifications and potential as 10% said that they should absolutely switch jobs in case that occurs, 25.4% reported that job switching would be worth considering while a high number (36.7 %) reported that job switching would be unavoidable under such circumstances. In terms
55 of gender, female employees were more prone or interested in job switching compared to men. The exact figures were 78% women and 67% men ("Surveys find young generation in Japan positive about changing jobs," 2018). Based on the AET, discussion about dispositional influences on the interaction between workplace features/events and affective reactions, as well as the major arguments by generation theorists along with prior research on generational differences at the workplace, it is contended that the affective state of employees from the millennial generation would be more susceptible to the influence of QWL/work environment features than the employees from any another generation. The reason is that millennials value quality of work life to be significantly more important than other generations. They do not consider their workplaces to be a source of income; instead, they expect it to fulfill their various expectations of growth, learning, as well as work-life balance. Therefore, they are more likely to have a stronger affective reaction to their QWL. It can be proposed that affective reactions to the quality of work life vary with the generation of the employees, and consequently the overall indirect influence of QWL on subjective career would also be moderated by generation with the effect being higher for the millennials. Not only are the millennials more concerned with their QWL than the other generations but accounts of their traits in the literature mentioned above show that they are also more prone towards negative affectivity in case their QWL needs are not met. Hence the overall indirect influence of QWL on career mist and career drift via negative affect will be moderated by generation, such that, for millennials, the overall effect will be stronger, and this is hypothesized as:
Hypothesis H5-1: The negative influence of QWL on a negative affective state is greater for the millennials than for the non-millennials Conversely, based on the above it is argued that the influence of QWL on a positive affective state is also felt more strongly by the millennial generation and the direct influence of QWL on career hope is even greater for millennials. Millennials would feel a higher degree of positive emotions/feelings if their quality of work life rises and also millennials career hope will be more strongly influenced by their quality of work life:
Hypothesis H5-2: The positive influence of QWL on a positive affective state is greater for the millennials than for the non-millennials. Since it has been proposed that the effect of QWL on both positive and negative affective states is contingent upon generation, then it would logically follow that the indirect effect of QWL
56 on career mist, career drift, and career hope via affective states is also moderated by generation. As Hayes (2013) highlights, the indirect effect is the product of the conditional effect of the independent variable (QWL in this study) on the mediating variable (affective state, in this study), and the unconditional influence of mediating variable (affective state) on the dependent variable (career mist, career drift and career hope in this study). Hence, it is further proposed that:
Hypothesis H5-3: Generation moderates the indirect negative influence of QWL on career mist via a negative affective state, such that this influence is greater for the millennials than for the non-millennials.
Generation: -Millennials -Non-Millennials Negative affective state
QWL Career mist
Figure 2.2 Negative affective state linking QWL to career mist moderated by generation
Hypothesis H5-4: Generation moderates the indirect negative influence of QWL on career drift via a negative affective state, such that this influence is greater for the millennials than for the non-millennials.
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Generation: -Millennials -Non-Millennials Negative affective state
QWL Career drift
Figure 2.3 Negative affective state linking QWL to career drift moderated by generation
Hypothesis H5-5: Generation moderates the indirect positive influence of QWL on career hope via a positive affective state, such that this influence is greater for the millennials than for the non- millennials.
Generation: -Millennials -Non-Millennials Positive affective state
QWL Career hope
Figure 2.4 Positive affective state linking QWL to career hope moderated by generation
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2.6 Conceptual framework
Based on the AET and the preceding sections, the composite conceptual diagram is presented below. It illustrates how the effect of quality of work life on affective states (a positive affective state or a negative affective state) is moderated by generation. Consequently, the influence exerted by quality of work life on subjective career (career mist, career drift, and career hope) via the affective state(s) is also contingent on generation.
Generation: - Millennials -Non-millennials
Affect State Subjective Career -Career mist -Negative affective state -Career drift -Positive affective state -Career hope
Quality of work life
Figure 2.5 Composite conceptual framework based on AET
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3. Methodology This chapter elaborates the study design for testing the influence of QWL on three subjective career constructs via the affective state of the employees, and, for exploring the moderating effects of generation within the framework. Two studies were conducted a year apart from each other. The purpose of the first study was to conduct an initial investigation of some features of QWL on three subjective career constructs. The second study was an in-depth investigation of the influence of QWL on three subjective career states as well as the affective process through which this influence manifests by using employees’ affective state as a mediating variable. The moderating effects of employees’ generation were also tested. Sections 3.1, 3.2, and 3.3 present the methodology for the first study, while sections 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 elaborate the sampling as well as measurement/scales employed for all the variables used in the second study along with their respective reliability and validity tests.
3.1 Study-I: sampling
An online survey was used to gather data for the first study, and the participants were randomly selected volunteers working in Japanese organizations, who filled out questionnaires anonymously. A total of 515 employees from various organizations participated in the survey, and among them, the data from 436 regular employees were considered for data analysis. Among the respondents, 61% were male, and 39% were female. 56% were married, and 44% were unmarried. In terms of age, 26.4% respondents were under 29, 25% were 30–39, 22.9% were 40–49, 24.8% were 50–59 and 0.9% were >60.
3.2 Study-I: Measurement 3.2.1 Independent variable
The questionnaire for QWL was adapted from the seminal work of Efraty & Sirgy (1990) and translated into the Japanese language to facilitate the respondents' understanding. The scale relied on a need satisfaction approach to QWL by measuring the degree to which policies and practices in the organization fulfill various needs of the employees. The administered questionnaire consisted of 9 items (Cronbach’s alpha measure: 0.81), of which each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). The complete scale is presented in appendix A.
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3.2.2 Dependent variables
The dependent variables used in the first study were subjective career states, namely career mist (5 items- Cronbach’s alpha measure: .80), career drift (5 items- Cronbach’s alpha measure: .70) and career hope (4 items- Cronbach’s alpha measure: .71). Original scales based on the earlier seminal work by Kato & Suzuki (2006) were used1. All three scales were developed in Japanese and measured using Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Agree) to 5 (Strongly Disagree). The complete scale is presented in appendix B.
3.2.3 Control variables In scientific research, it has been established that certain demographic variables play a major role in influencing the dependent variables pertaining to attitudes and behaviors, in addition to the manipulated independent variable(s). Thus, two variables, i.e., gender and managerial position were entered as control variables. The Gender variable was dummy coded with 1 being ‘female’ and 0 being ‘male’, and the managerial position variable was also dummy coded with 1 being ‘yes' and 0 being ‘no.' It became essential to control for gender and managerial position due to the possibility of confounding effects in the conceptual framework, based on the prior research on QWL and career-related variables.
3.3 Study-I: reliability and validity
The factorability of the nine items in the QWL scale was examined using SPSS. Principal components analysis was used to identify and compute composite scores for the factors underlying the adapted version of QWL and using this; a two-factor solution was found to explain 55% of the variance. These factors were named ‘personal dimensions' and ‘organizational dimensions' based on the prior groupings by Efraty & Sirgy (1990). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.86, above the commonly recommended value of 0.6 (Kaiser, 1970; 1974), and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ2 (36) = 1101.69, p < .001) as per Bartlett (1954). It was observed that all the items correlated at least 0.4 with at least one other item, suggesting reasonable factorability. The diagonals of the anti-image correlation matrix were also all over 0.5. The communalities were all reasonable. Given these overall indicators, factor analysis was deemed to be suitable with all nine items.
1Original scales were developed for conducting this research by Prof. Ryuta Suzuki (Kobe University, Japan) based on his earlier research on subjective career in Japan (Kato & Suzuki, 2006; Suzuki, 2002;2001). 61 Similarly, a factor analysis for the career scales was also performed using the principal components method. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ2 (91) = 1794.157, p < .001) indicating that it was appropriate to use the factor analytic model on this set of data. The Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy indicated that the strength of the relationships among variables was high (KMO =0.81); thus it was acceptable to proceed with the analysis. A series of factor analyses were conducted which indicated that three factors (as predicted) gave the most interpretable solution. Oblimin rotation was performed for the subjective career items since factors were expected to be correlated based on theoretical grounds. The first factor had an eigenvalue of 3.6, and it accounted for 25.7 % of the variance in the data. Factor two had an eigenvalue of 2.4 and accounted for a further 17.2 % of the variance, and the eigenvalue for factor three was 2.0 accounting for an additional 14.8 % of the total variance. Factor analysis of the career items used in the current study revealed three factors were sufficient to explain the underlying structure of subjective career states, as expected. The pattern matrix revealed factor one to consist of five items. This factor was labeled career mist. The second factor consisting of 5 items was identified as career drift. Factor three contained four items and was labeled career hope.
3.4 Study-II: sampling
An online survey was used to gather data for the final study. The participants were randomly selected volunteers from Japanese organizations who filled out questionnaires anonymously. Five hundred and fifteen (515) employees from various companies participated in the survey, and among those respondents, the data from 442 regular employees were considered for this research because the conceptual framework does not apply to non-regular employees. Among the 442 regular employees who participated in the survey, 69% are male, and 31% are female. 64.9% are married, and 35.1% are unmarried. In terms of age, the respondents are under 29 (12.2%), 30–39 (24.9%), 40–49 (34.4%), 50–59 (23.3%) and >60 (5.2%). These percentages in the sample reflect the realistic composition of employees' in the population from which the sample has been drawn. In the contemporary Japanese workplaces, the greatest percentage of regular employees are in their 40s as opposed to ones in their 20s, 30s, 50s, and 60s. Additionally, the male-female percentages also accurately reflect the situation in Japanese organizations where male workers are considerably more than the females. Therefore, this sample is deemed a suitable representative of the population.
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3.5 Study-II: measurement 3.5.1 Independent variable
The questionnaire for QWL has been adapted from the seminal work of Efraty & Sirgy (1990), along with later developments to the scale (Sirgy.et.al, 2001), and translated into the Japanese language to facilitate the respondents’ understanding. The scale relies on a “need satisfaction and spillover approach” to QWL by measuring the degree to which an organization’s work environment, job requirements, supervisory behavior, and ancillary programs fulfill seven needs of the employees namely health and safety, economic and family, social, esteem, actualization, knowledge and aesthetics. The concept behind using this approach to QWL is that a certain set of needs accompany employees to their workplaces and so no matter which operationalization is used, the quintessential concept of such a construct is the extent to which the organizations satisfy these needs of the employees. The administered questionnaire consists of 17 items (Cronbach’s alpha measure: 0.85), of which each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Agree) to 5 (Strongly Disagree). Sample items range from basic/low order needs such as, “I am satisfied with what I am getting paid for work”; to higher order needs such as, “This job allows me to enhance my professional skills” and, "I feel my job allows me to realize my full potential." The complete scale has been presented in Appendix C.
3.5.2 Dependent variables
The dependent variables are career mist, career drift, and career hope. Original scales from the first study were used. All three scales were administered in Japanese and measured using Likert scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Agree) to 5 (Strongly Disagree). Career mist scale consists of 5 items (Cronbach’s alpha measure: 0.80) and a sample translated item is, “It is difficult for me to visualize my job five years into the future." The career drift scale contains five items (Cronbach’s alpha measure: 0.65) and a sample item is, "I do not have so much interest in my future career." Lastly, career hope consists of 4 items (Cronbach’s alpha measure: 0.76) and a sample item is, "My career will turn out just fine even if I continue as it is”. The complete scale has been presented in Appendix D.
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3.5.3 Control variables
Two variables, i.e. gender and managerial position have been entered as the control variables. The gender variable is coded as a dummy variable with 1 being female and 0 being male, and the managerial position variable is also dummy coded with 1 being ‘yes' and 0 being ‘no.'
3.5.4 Mediating variable Mediating variable is employees' "affective state," which has been measured by the Japanese version of "positive and negative affect schedule/PANAS," developed by Sato and Yasuda (2001). The PANAS scale has been used widely to measure affective state in the workplace, and it has been extensively validated in various settings and context (Watson et al., 1988; Watson, 1988a 1988b; Watson, Clark and Carey, 1988). It has 16 items with eight items measuring positive affect (e.g., enthusiastic, active; alpha measure 0.89) and eight items measuring negative affect (e.g., frustrated, irritable; alpha measure 0.89) with 1 ranging from strongly agree to 5 strongly disagree. Respondents were asked to indicate to what extent they generally feel this way at their workplace. The complete scale has been presented in appendix E. Researchers have successfully used the positive and negative affect schedule to measure feelings and emotions in employees grouped into two categories of positive and negative states. The reason for using groupings of positive and negative as opposed to single items such as ‘happy' or ‘sad,' has been elaborated by Izard (1991) as quoted by Andrieș (2011). He writes that the emotions of the same sign (positive or negative) tend to form pairings, based on similarity, which are all activated simultaneously. For instance, happiness/joy which is a positive emotion triggers other emotions of a similar kind such as optimism, well-being, and satisfaction. Whereas, anger which is a negative emotive condition activates other similar negative feelings such as contempt or frustration. Therefore, there is better success and accuracy in scientific experiments to use a variety of emotive states to measure positive and negative affective states.
3.5.5 Moderating variable
The second study is based on the dichotomous moderator of "Generation," i.e., ‘Millennial Employees’ (born between the years 1987-2004) and ‘Non-millennial employees’
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(others). Amongst the 442 respondents of the study, 74 have been classified as millennials based on this classification; whereas, 368 have been classified as non-millennials. This sample is an adequate representation of the current population as it reflects the low current ratio of millennials in the Japanese workplaces due to age reasons. Currently, the oldest members of the millennial generation in Japan are 32 years old, and the youngest members are merely 15 years old. It naturally follows that employees who are 32 years old and below are still too young to form a more substantial part of the workforce but anticipated to form a greater part of the workforce in the future as more members of this generation reach the working age. One critical challenge of conducting generational studies is to decide the number of categories to be compared. For this research, it was carefully debated and researched whether to use three categories of generation (Bubble generation, Lost generation, and Millennials) or two (Millennials versus Non-millennials); however, since the focus of the research problem is Japanese millennials and how the influence of QWL on subjective career states differs for them compared to the larger population, the latter two categories were eventually retained for the study. Thus, the focus remains on the millennial generation. Another critical challenge of investigating generational differences is the confounding influences of maturation (i.e., age effect) and generational cohort (i.e., birth year effect). Although some researchers have argued that it is essential to differentiate the individual effects of age and generation (e.g., Twenge, 2010), others have argued that it is equally important to examine these effects concomitantly (e.g., Kuron et al., 2015). This study employs the latter approach and considers age and cohort effects as complementary. This issue has been discussed further in chapter five.
3.6 Study-II: reliability and validity
The factorability of the 17 items in the QWL scale was examined using SPSS. Several well-recognized criteria for the factorability of a correlation were used. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the factor structure underlying the quality of work life item responses in the dataset. It was observed that the standard deviations are smaller than the respective means and that no one standard deviation stands out upon gross observation as remarkably larger than the other variables.
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Principal components analysis was used because the primary purpose was to identify and compute composite scores for the factors underlying the adapted version of QWL and using this, a two-factor solution was found to explain 43% of the variance. These factors were named ‘personal dimensions’ and ‘organizational dimensions’ based on the prior groupings by Efraty & Sirgy (1990). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.88, above the commonly recommended value of 0.6 (Kaiser, 1970; 1974), and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ2 (136) = 2178.841, p < .001) as per Bartlett (1954). It was observed that all the items correlated at least 0.4 with at least one other item, suggesting reasonable factorability. The diagonals of the anti-image correlation matrix were also all over 0.5. The communalities were all reasonable considering the complexity of the construct, providing further evidence that the results are appropriate for interpretation by confirming that each item shared some common variance with other items (Neil, 2008). Given these overall indicators, factor analysis was deemed to be suitable with all 17 items. Similarly, a factor analysis for the mediating variable of ‘positive and negative affect schedule’ was also conducted using the principal components method of extraction. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ2 (120) =3581.669, p < .001) indicating that it was appropriate to use the factor analytic model on this set of data. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy indicated that the strength of the relationships among variables was high (KMO =0.922); thus it was acceptable to proceed with the analysis. A series of factor analyses were conducted which indicated that two factors (as predicted) gave the most interpretable solution. An orthogonal rotation was performed since factors were not expected to be correlated based on Todorova, Bear and Reingart (2014), who argued that positive-negative emotions are two separate, orthogonal dimensions (i.e., more akin to an x and y-axis) rather than emotions on a single range/continuum. The first factor had an eigenvalue of 6.4, and it accounted for 40.2 % of the variance in the data. Factor two had an eigenvalue of 2.8 and accounted for a further 57.7 % of the total variance. The first factor is negative affect and the second one is positive affect, and both reflect high internal consistency (Appendix E). Lastly, factor analysis for the career scales was also performed using the principal components method. Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (χ2 (91) = 1711.815, p < .001) indicating that it was appropriate to use the factor analytic model on this set of data. The Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy indicated that the strength of the relationships among
66 variables was high (KMO =0.82); thus it was acceptable to proceed with the analysis. A series of factor analyses were conducted which indicated that three factors (as predicted) gave the most interpretable solution. An oblimin rotation was performed for the subjective career items since factors were expected to be correlated based on theoretical grounds. The first factor had an eigenvalue of 3.8, and it accounted for 27.53 % of the variance in the data. Factor two had an eigenvalue of 2.2 and accounted for a further 15.8 % of the variance, and the eigenvalue for factor three was 1.8 accounting for an additional 12.68 % of the total variance. Factor analysis of the career items used in the current study revealed that three factors were sufficient to explain the underlying structure of subjective career states, as expected. The pattern matrix revealed factor one to consist of five items. This factor was labeled career mist (Cronbach's alpha: 0.80). The second factor composed of 5 items was identified as career drift (Cronbach's alpha: 0.65). Factor three contained four items and was labeled career hope (Cronbach's alpha: 0.80).
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4. Results
The data analysis aimed to test the influence of QWL on subjective career via the mediating variable of affective state, moderated by employees' generation(s). Sections 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 present the key results of data analysis from the first study pertaining to the influence of QWL on career mist, career drift and career hope, respectively. Sections 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6 present the results from the second study which explores the affective process of the influence of QWL on each of the subjective career constructs, moderated by generation. Sections 4.4 and 4.5 comprises the key results of the influence of QWL on career mist and career drift respectively, via a negative affective state, contingent upon generation. Section 4.6 presents the results of the influence of QWL on career hope via a positive affective state, moderated by generation.
4.1 Study-I
The correlations of all the variables included in the first study are presented in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Study-I: Descriptive statistics and correlations Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Gen .39 .49 1 2. Age .26 .44 .03 1 3. MgPo 1.81 .39 .23** .21** 1 4. QWL 3.02 .63 .02 -.07 -.10* 1 5. CM 2.75 .70 -.10* -.15** -.08 -.10* 1 6. CD 3.08 .62 -.12** .11* -.06 -.02 .28** 1 7. CH 3.05 .67 -.08 -.06 .00 .53** -.16** .10* 1 Notes. n=436; significance: * 0.05, **0.01. Abbreviations: CM (career mist), CD (career drift), CH (career hope), QWL (quality of work life), Gen (gender dummy), Age (age dummy), MgPo (managerial position dummy). Gender dummy: 1 = female; 0 = male; Age dummy: 1= millennials; 0=Non-millennials; Managerial position dummy: 1=Yes, 0=No.
SPSS version 22.0 was used to conduct hierarchical multiple regression to assess the ability of QWL to predict levels of career mist, career drift, and career hope, after controlling for the influence of gender, age and managerial position. Preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity, and homoscedasticity occurred.
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4.1.1 Study-I: QWL and career mist
For testing the influence of quality of work life on career mist, control variables were entered at step 1 explaining 3.4 % of the variance in career mist. After entry of the quality of work life scale at step 2, the total variance explained by the model as a whole was 4.7%, F (4,431) = 5.34, p< .05. Quality of work life explained an additional 1.4 % of the variance in career mist, after controlling for socio-demographic variables, R-squared change = .014, F change (1,431) = 6.16, p<.05. In the final model, all control variables except managerial position remained statistically significant, with the quality of work life scale recording the highest beta value (beta = -.13, p< .05). Therefore, these results showed that career mist reduces as quality of work life rises (Table 4.2).
Table 4.2 Hierarchical regression analysis: career mist Predictor Unstandardized Standard Error Standardized coefficient coefficient Step 1 B SE b (Constant) 2.96 .16 Gender dummy -.13 .07 -.094** Age dummy -.22 .08 -.142*** Managerial position -.05 .09 -.030 dummy R2 .034** Step 2 (Constant) 3.39 .23 Gender dummy -.13 .07 -.09* Age dummy -.23 .07 -.15*** Managerial position -.07 .09 -.04 dummy Quality of work life -.13 .05 -.12** R2 .047** R2 change .014 o Note. n=436. Significance *p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, ***p < .01. Gender dummy: 1 = female; 0 = male; Age dummy: 1= millennials; 0=Non-millennials; Managerial position dummy:1=Yes, 0=No
4.1.2 Study-I: QWL and career drift
For testing the influence of quality of work life on career drift, control variables were entered at step 1 explaining 3.3 % of the variance in career drift. After entry of the quality of work life scale at step 2, the total variance explained by the model as a whole was 3.3%, F (4,431) = 3.68, p < .10. Quality of work life explained no additional variance in career drift, after controlling for socio-demographic variables, R-squared change = .0, F change (1,431) = .103, p > .10. In the final model, only the control variables, except managerial position, remained statistically
69 significant. Therefore, the results for the influence of quality of work life on career drift in the first study were deemed insignificant (Table 4.3).
Table 4.3 Hierarchical regression analysis: career drift Predictor Unstandardized Standard Error Standardized coefficient coefficient Step 1 B SE b (Constant) 3.25 .14 Gender dummy -.15 .06 -.12** Age dummy .18 .07 .13** Managerial position -.09 .08 -.06 dummy R2 .033** Step 2 (Constant) 3.30 .21 Gender dummy -.15 .06 -.12** Age dummy .18 .07 .13** Managerial position -.09 .08 -.06 dummy Quality of work life -.02 .05 -.02 R2 .033 R2 change .000 o Note. n=436. Significance *p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, ***p < .01. Gender dummy: 1 = female; 0 = male; Age dummy: 1= millennials; 0=Non-millennials; Managerial position dummy:1=Yes, 0=No
4.1.3 Study-I: QWL and career hope For testing the influence of quality of work life on career hope, control variables were entered at step 1 explaining 1.2 % of the variance in career hope. After entry of the quality of work life scale at step 2, the total variance explained by the model as a whole was 29.2%, F (4,431) = 44.47, p< .001. Quality of work life explained an additional 28 % of the variance in career hope, after controlling for socio-demographic variables, R-squared change = .28, F change (1,431) = 170.67, p<.001. In the final model, only quality of work life remained significant while recording the highest beta value (beta = .56, p< .001). Therefore, the results from the first study showed that as the quality of work life rises, an increase in career hope is also observed (Table 4.4).
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Table 4.4 Hierarchical regression analysis: career hope Predictor Unstandardized Standard Error Standardized coefficient coefficient Step 1 B SE b (Constant) 3.05 .15 Gender dummy .12 .07 .09* Age dummy -.10 .07 -.07 Managerial position -.01 .09 -.01 dummy R2 .012 Step 2 (Constant) 1.19 .19 Gender dummy .09 .06 .07 Age dummy -.06 .06 -.04 Managerial position .08 .07 .04 dummy Quality of work life .57 .04 .53*** R2 .292*** R2 change .280 o Note. n=436. Significance *p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, ***p < .01. Gender dummy: 1 = female; 0 = male; Age dummy: 1= millennials; 0=Non-millennials; Managerial position dummy:1=Yes, 0=No
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4.2 Study-II All the results in study-II were computed in SPSS version 22.0 with the help of “process macro” (version 3.0) introduced by Preacher and Hayes (2004). The correlations of all the variables in the second study are presented in Table 4.5.
Table 4.5 Study-II: Descriptive Statistics and Correlations Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Gen .69 .46 1 2. Age .17 .37 -.39** 1 3. MgPo .23 .42 .22** -.18** 1 4. QWL 2.97 .54 .03 .01 .08 1 5. NA 2.32 .89 .05 .04 .02 -.17** 1 6. PA 2.36 .83 -.02 .01 .01 .20** .41** 1 7. CM 3.26 .70 -.07 .10 .10** -.10* .16** -.11* 1 8. CD 3.05 .51 .02 .00 .00 .10* .10* .01 .44** 1 9. CH 2.91 .68 -.17** -.07 -.07 .52** -.11* .31** -.25** -.02 1 Note. n=442. Significance *p < 0.10, ** p < 0.05, ***p < .01. Gender dummy: Female=1, Male=0. Age dummy: Millennials=1, Non-millennials=0. Managerial position dummy: Managerial position=1, Non-managerial position=0
According to Hayes (2013), when the model/framework is concerned with estimating the degree to which the indirect effect of a causal variable on an outcome variable through a mediating variable depends on another variable (moderator), then it is considered a moderated mediation model because the occurrence, strength or direction of the whole intervening relationship is contingent on the moderator. Thus, the conceptual framework(s) for this study presented in the second chapter, are classified as conditional indirect models also known as ‘moderated mediation’ models. The statistical pathways for such models are presented below in figure 4.1.
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Affective state (M)
a1 b1
a2
QWL (X) c/ Subjective career (Y)
a3 Generation (W)
QWL * generation (XW)
Figure 4.1 Statistical model for affective state linking QWL to subjective career moderated by generation- based on Hayes (2013)
4.2.1 Study-II: QWL and career mist
The framework presented in figure 2.2 (chapter two), is a first stage and direct effect moderation model (Edwards and Lambert, 2007). It proposes that the influence of quality of work life on a negative affective state, and the indirect influence of quality of work life on career mist via a negative affective state, are estimated as moderated by generation(s). The possible pathways for this framework have been presented above in figure 4.1. The process application enables the use of all variables simultaneously in the program; therefore, the independent variable (quality of work life), mediating variable (negative affective state), dependent variable (career mist) as well as control variables (gender dummy, managerial position dummy) were all entered simultaneously along with the dichotomous moderator (generation). For career mist, the following hypotheses were tested:
Hypothesis H1-1: QWL negatively influences career mist.
Hypothesis H2-1: QWL negatively influences a negative affective state.
Hypothesis H3-1: A negative affective state positively influences career mist.
Hypothesis H4-1: A negative affective state mediates the negative influence of QWL on career mist.
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Hypothesis H5-1: The negative influence of QWL on a negative affective state is greater for the millennials than for the non-millennials.
Hypothesis H5-3: Generation moderates the indirect negative influence of QWL on career mist via a negative affective state, such that this influence is greater for the millennials than for the non- millennials.
The results in Table 4.6 show that quality of work life is indeed inversely associated with a negative affective state (B= -.31, SE = .08, p <0.001) thereby proving hypothesis H2-1. Similarly, a negative affective state is positively associated with career mist while controlling for the influence of quality of work life (B = .11, SE = .04, p <0.001) which lends support to hypothesis
H3-1. There is also evidence of a negative influence of quality of work life on career mist (B = -.11,
SE= .04, p <0.10) supporting hypothesis H1-1.
To test hypothesis H4-1 stating that a negative affective state mediates the inverse relationship between quality of work life and career mist, a simple mediation model was tested using the process application. This application relies on a bootstrapping technique with 5000 iterations recommended by Hayes (2013) and others (Preacher, Rucker & Hayes, 2007; Muller, Judd & Yzerbyt, 2005). If zero is not contained within the confidence intervals, then it is concluded that the indirect effect is statistically significantly different from zero at p<0.05 (Hayes, 2013). The results show that the total effect of quality of work life on career mist via a negative affective state is significant (B= -.13, SE= .06, p < 0.05), while the indirect effect of quality of work life on career mist via negative affective state is also found (B= -.03, SE= .01) and it is statistically significant, as evidenced by a 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval that is entirely below zero (-.0686, -.0086) which provides evidence for mediation. Thus, it is proved that a negative affective state mediates the influence of quality of work life on career mist, and the indirect effect is indeed negative. Specifically, the data supports the proposition that the higher the levels of quality of work life, the lower will be the levels of a negative affective state in employees. The lowered levels of a negative affective state, in turn, predict reduced career mist, thereby proving hypothesis H4-1. It has been suggested that sound mediation must be established upon the significance of the indirect effect. Although Sobel test was one of the most commonly used tests for this purpose in the past, it is no longer considered the ideal approach because it relies on the notion that the indirect effect is normally distributed (Kenny, Kashy, and Bolger, 1998; MacKinnon, Krull, &
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Lockwood, 2000; Shrout & Bolger, 2002; Hayes, 2013). The assumption that an indirect effect is normally distributed is questionable because even in cases where the variables comprising the indirect effect are normally distributed, the distribution of the indirect path is still known as non- normal (Edwards & Lambert, 2007). Therefore, to counter this issue, bootstrapping confidence intervals were used in this study, as recommended by methodologists (MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004; Hayes, 2013), to overcome power issues caused by asymmetric/non-normal distributions of the indirect effect. Finally, to test the model for the conditional indirect effect of quality of work life on career mist (Figure 2.2), which proposes that the association between quality of work life and a negative affective state is moderated by generation(s) (Hypothesis H5-1), and the overall indirect effect of quality of work life on career mist via a negative affective state is also contingent on generation(s)
(H5-3), moderated mediation tests were carried out in the process macro application.
Table 4.6 Regression results for the conditional analysis: career mist Predictor B SE p Model 1: NAS Constant 2.21 .80 .00 QWL -.31 .08 .00 Generation .18 .12 .15 QWL * Generation -.58 .23 .01 Gen -.14 .10 .15 MgPo .05 .10 .59 Model 2: CM Constant 3.06 .11 .00 QWL -.11 .06 .09 NAS .11 .04 .00 Generation .13 .10 .17 QWL * Generation -.23 .18 .22 Gen .05 .08 .50 MgPo -.11 .08 .17 Generation Boot indirect effect Boot SE Boot LLCI Boot ULCI Conditional effect of QWL on NAS at both categories of generation Millennials -.79 .22 -1.2215 -.3684 Non-millennials -.21 .08 -.3783 -.0508 Conditional indirect effect of QWL on CM at both categories of generation Millennials -.09 .03 -.1798 -.0242 Non-millennials -.02 .01 -.0560 -.0022 Index of moderated mediation -.06 .03 -.1453 -.0113 o Note. n=442. Abbreviations: NAS (Negative affective state), CM (career mist), QWL (quality of work life), Gen (gender dummy), Age (age dummy), MgPo (managerial position dummy); Gender dummy: 1
75
= female; 0 = male; Age dummy: 1= millennials; 0=Non-millennials; Managerial position dummy:1=Yes, 0=No. Unstandardized regression coefficients are reported. Bootstrap sample size = 5,000, 95% confidence intervals. The results presented in Table 4.6 show that the association between quality of work life and a negative affective state is indeed moderated by the generation of the employees as the coefficient of the interaction term in the first model is -0.58, and it is statistically significant (p < .005). Furthermore, for a dichotomous moderator such as the one in this study, process application produces conditional effects of the independent variable at each of the two values of the moderator, along with a standard error, t, and p-value (conditional effect of QWL on NAS at both categories of generation). These values show that the quality of work life has an inverse association with a negative affective state for both generations. Figure 4.2 is based on the data values generated by the process application data for probing and visualizing an interaction plot. It can be observed that a negative affective state seems to fall as the quality of work life levels rise among both millennials as well as non-millennials but, as proposed, the association is stronger for the millennial generation witnessed by the steep decline in the negative affective state of millennials, as the quality of work life rises. This proves hypothesis H5-1, stating that, the inverse association between quality of work life and a negative affective state is stronger for millennials than for non-millennials. Similarly, results have been obtained for moderation of the overall indirect effect by generation in a statistically significant interaction between quality of work life and generation in the first model of negative affective state (Table 4.6). According to Hayes (2012), given that the first stage of the mediation model (QWL→NAS) is moderated, this means that the indirect effect is also moderated. Thus, the indirect effect of quality of work life on career mist through a negative affective state is constructed as the product of the effect of QWL→NAS which is conditional on generation, and the NAS→CM effect. The indirect effect of QWL on career mist through a negative affective state is no longer a single quantity but is, instead, a function of generation and hence conditional.
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Figure 4.2 Association between QWL and a negative affective state (NAS) moderated by generation
The conditional indirect effects of quality of work life on career mist at both categories of the moderator are shown in Table 4.6. The specific values of the dichotomous generation moderator are in a mean-centered metric. Process delivers asymmetric bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals for inference about the conditional indirect effects using 5,000 bootstrap samples because the sampling distribution of the conditional indirect effect should not be assumed normal. The table also shows a bootstrap estimate of the standard error of the conditional indirect effect. The indirect effect of quality of work life on career mist through a negative affective state is consistently negative for both categories of the moderating variable which shows that as the quality of work life rises, a negative affective state reduces for both millennials as well as non- millennials thereby reducing career mist for both categories. A 95% bootstrap confidence interval for the conditional indirect effect is entirely below zero among both categories of generation (Table 4.6- Conditional indirect effect of QWL on CM at both categories of generation). Thus, the influence of quality of work life on career mist is mediated by a negative affective state for both millennials as well as non-millennials. Although the direction of the influence remains the same for both categories of generation, the strength/magnitude of the influence differs between both categories as hypothesized. The indirect effect has been plotted in Figure 4.3 and shows that the indirect
77 negative influence of quality of work life on career mist is greater for the millennial generation.
Thus, hypothesis H5-3 is also supported.
Figure 4.3 Indirect influence of QWL on career mist (CMi) via a negative affective state, moderated by generation.
Overall, for the conditional indirect model proposed for the influence of quality of work life on career mist through a negative affective state, the index of moderated mediation is -.06 and the bootstrapping confidence intervals are -.1453, -.0113, thereby supporting the proposed model of conditional indirect negative influence moderated by the employees' generation. Thus, based on the above-mentioned analysis, it is concluded that quality of work life inversely influences career mist via a negative affective state and this overall indirect influence is contingent upon generation(s) with the influence being greater for the millennial generation. Hypotheses H1-1, H2-
1, H3-1, H4-1, H5-1, and H5-3 are all supported.
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4.2.2 Study-II: quality of work life and career drift
Results for the following hypotheses related to career drift were also computed in the process macro application:
Hypothesis H1-2: QWL negatively influences career drift.
Hypothesis H3-2: A negative affective state positively influences career drift.
Hypothesis H4-2: A negative affective state mediates the negative influence of QWL on career drift.
Hypothesis H5-4: Generation moderates the indirect negative influence of QWL on career drift via a negative affective state, such that this influence is greater for the millennials than for the non- millennials.
Meanwhile, hypothesis H2-1: QWL negatively influences a negative affective state, is also vital for this section but the results are already presented in the prior section (4.2.1) as the same proposition for hypothesis H2-1 is used for both career mist and career drift. Moreover, Hypothesis
H5-1: The negative influence of QWL on a negative affective state is greater for the millennials than for the non-millennials, is also essential for this section but results, as supported by the data analysis, are already presented in the prior section (4.2.1). From the analysis, it becomes apparent that quality of work life/QWL is a significant predictor of a negative affective state, (B= -.03, SE = .07, p <0.001), and a negative affective state is a significant predictor of career drift, (B = .06, SE = .03, p < 0.05), proving hypothesis H3-2. The influence of quality of work life on career drift also exists (B = .10, SE = .05, p < 0.05) which is positive and does not support hypothesis H1-2. The indirect effect for mediation hypothesis H4-2 was checked using a bootstrap estimation approach with 5000 samples (Shrout & Bolger, 2002). These results indicate that the indirect coefficient is significantly negative (B = -.02, SE = .01, 95% CI = -.0435, -.0033) as the 95% bootstrapping confidence interval does not include zero.
Hypothesis H4-2 proposing the indirect negative influence of quality of work life on career drift via a negative affective state is supported by the results. In order to test the model which proposes that the association between quality of work life and a negative affective state is moderated by generation (Hypothesis H5-1), and the overall indirect effect of quality of work life on career drift via negative affective state is also moderated by generation, moderated mediation tests were carried out in process macro application. The results are presented in Table 4.7. As mentioned in the prior section, given that the first stage of
79 the model (QWL→NAS) is moderated, it means that the indirect effect is also moderated because the indirect effect of QWL on career drift through negative affective state is no longer a single quantity but is, instead, a function of generation and it is conditional (Hayes, 2012).
Table 4.7 Regression results for the conditional analysis: career drift Predictor B SE p Model 1: NAS Constant 2.21 .80 .00 QWL -.31 .08 .00 Generation .18 .12 .15 QWL * Generation -.58 .23 .01 Gen -.14 .10 .15 MgPo .05 .10 .59 Model 2: CD Constant 2.95 .07 .00 QWL .10 .05 .02 NAS .06 .03 .03 Generation -.03 .07 .71 QWL * Generation -.39 .14 .00 Gen .03 .06 .57 MgPo -.05 .06 .40 Generation Boot indirect effect Boot SE Boot LLCI Boot ULCI Conditional effect of QWL on NAS at both categories of generation Millennials -.79 .22 -1.2215 -.3684 Non-millennials -.21 .08 -.3783 -.0508 Conditional indirect effect of QWL on CD at both categories of generation Millennials -.05 .02 -.1028 -.0054 Non-millennials -.01 .01 -.0323 -.0003 Index of moderated mediation -.03 .02 -.0831 -.0025 Note. n=442. Unstandardized regression coefficients are reported. Bootstrap sample size = 5000, 95% confidence intervals. LL=lower limit, UL=upper limit, CI=confidence interval, abbreviations: QWL=quality of work life, CD=career drift, NAS=negative affective state, Gen: Gender dummy, MgPo: Managerial position dummy The indirect effect of quality of work life on career drift through a negative affective state is consistently negative for both categories of the moderator which shows that as the quality of work life rises, negative affect state reduces for both millennials as well as non-millennials and consequently, career drift also declines for both categories of generation. The 95% bootstrap confidence interval for the conditional indirect effect is entirely below zero for both categories of generation (Conditional indirect effect of QWL on CD at both categories of generation in Table 4.7). Thus, negative affective state mediates the influence of quality of work life on career drift,
80 and the direction of the overall indirect effect is negative for both generations while the influence is greater for millennials than non-millennials. Thus provides support for Hypothesis H5-4. Additionally, the results from the data analysis reveal that the direct effect of quality of work life on career drift is only significant for non-millennials (Effect= .17, SE= .05, t=3.48, p < .01, 95% LLCI .0737, ULCI .2646) meaning that when a negative affective state is controlled for, non-millennials' career drift rises as a consequence of quality of work life. The results show that quality of work life has a negative influence on career drift for millennials, but the confidence intervals do not reach the acceptable significance level (Effect= -.22, SE= .13, t=-1.75, p<.10, 95% LLCI -.4735,ULCI .0273).
Figure 4.4 Influence of QWL on career drift (CDr) moderated by generation
Overall, the ‘index of moderated mediation' is -.03 and the bootstrapping confidence intervals are -.0831, -.0025 which do not include zero thereby supporting the overall proposed model of the conditional indirect effect of quality of work life on career drift. Thus, based on the above-mentioned analysis, it is concluded that quality of work life negatively influences career drift via a negative affective state and this influence is contingent upon generation(s) with the
81 influence being greater for the millennials than non-millennials. Hypothesis H3-2, H4-2, and H5-4 are all supported by the data analysis while H1-2 is not supported.
4.2.3 Study-II: quality of work life and career hope
Results for the following hypotheses related to career hope were computed during data analysis:
Hypothesis H1-3: QWL positively influences career hope.
Hypothesis H2-2: QWL positively influences a positive affective state.
Hypothesis H3-3: A positive affective state positively influences career hope.
Hypothesis H4-3: A positive affective state mediates the positive influence of QWL on career hope.
Hypothesis H5-2: The positive influence of QWL on a positive affective state is greater for the millennials than for the non-millennials.
Hypothesis H5-5: Generation moderates the indirect positive influence of QWL on career hope via a positive affective state, such that this influence is greater for the millennials than for the non- millennials.
The results from the data analysis (Table 4.8) show that quality of work life/QWL is a significant predictor of a positive affective state (B= .29, SE = .07, p <0.001) which proves hypothesis H2-2. Furthermore, a positive affective state is a significant predictor of career hope (B
= .18, SE = .03, p< 0.001) proving hypothesis H3-3. There is also evidence for the positive influence of quality of work life on career hope (B = .5983, SE = .0509, p < 0.001) proving hypothesis H1-3.
To test hypothesis H4-3 stating that a positive affective state mediates the positive relationship between quality of work life and career hope, a simple mediation model was tested using process macro. The results show evidence of mediation. The total effect of QWL on career hope via a positive affective state is significant (B= .6481, SE= .0513, p < 0.001) and there is also substantial evidence for the indirect positive effect (B= .0535; LLCI .0203, ULCI .0958) which confirms that mediation via a positive affective state exists. Specifically, the results support the proposition that higher levels of quality of work life, raise the levels of a positive affective state. The increased levels of a positive affective state, in turn, predict greater levels of career hope, thereby proving hypothesis H4-3.
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Table 4.8 Regression results for the conditional analysis: career hope Predictor B SE p Model 1: PAS (Constant) 2.31 .08 .000 QWL .29 .07 .001 Generation .07 .11 .551 QWL * Generation -.29 .22 .181 Gen -.02 .09 .844 MgPo .15 .09 .100 Model 2: CH (Constant) 2.34 .09 .000 QWL .60 .05 .000 PAS .18 .03 .000 Generation -.04 .08 .619 QWL * Generation .11 .15 .476 Gen -.22 .06 .007 MgPo -.04 .06 .533 Boot indirect effect Boot SE Boot LLCI Boot ULCI Index of moderated mediation -.05 .04 -.1414 .0320 Note. n=442. Unstandardized regression coefficients are reported. Bootstrap sample size = 5000, 95% confidence intervals. LL=lower limit, UL=upper limit, CI=confidence interval, abbreviations: QWL=quality of work life, CH=career hope, PAS=positive affective state, Gen: Gender dummy, MgPo: Managerial position dummy Additionally, the results from process macro reveal that the association between quality of work life and a positive affective state is not contingent upon generation because the influence of the interaction term (quality of work life and generation) is insignificant. Given that the first stage of the mediation model (QWL→positive affective state) is not moderated, this means that the indirect effect of quality of work life on career hope through a positive affective state is also not moderated because it is constructed as the product of the effect of QWL→positive affect state, which is conditional on generation, and the positive affect state→career hope effect. Thus, the indirect effect of QWL on career hope through a positive affective state is not a function of generation and hence there is no conditional indirect effect of quality of work life which is further proved by the index of moderated mediation (LLCI -.1414, ULCI .0320) shown above in Table
4.8. Thus, hypothesis H5-2 and H5-5 are not supported. It is concluded that hypotheses H1-3, H2-2,
H3-3, and H4-3 are supported by the analysis; however, hypotheses H5-2, and H5-5 are not supported.
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5. Discussion
Most of the research in the field of organizational behavior revolves around two kinds of inquiries, the first one is how organizations influence individuals’ feelings, shape their attitudes, and elicit actions from them (e.g. Kumar, Jauhari, Rastogi, & Sivakumar, 2018; Shantz, Alfes, & Latham, 2014; Ohly & Schmitt, 2013; Kehoe & Wright, 2010), while the second one is how individuals’ emotions, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors influence the organizations (e.g., Strauss, Lepoutre, & Wood, 2017; Tenzer & Pudelko, 2015; Avey, Wernsing, & Luthans, 2008). This research has been undertaken on the former kind of inquiry by examining the association between quality of work life and subjective career. Mainly, it discusses three key areas (a) how quality of work life influences subjective career: career mist, career drift, and career hope, (b) through the affective states of employees and (c) whether or not/how does the millennial generation act as a border condition for the influence of quality of work life on subjective career. The affective state mediation is based on affective events theory which posits that work-related events generate positive or negative affective reactions which influence work-related attitudes and behaviors (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). The proposed generation as a moderator model builds on the critical tenets proposed by generation theorists that the formative experiences of each generation impart different values and psychological expectations regarding work and career (Ng et al., 2018; Lu & Gursoy, 2013; Solnet & Kralj, 2011). Therefore, it follows that there exist generational differences in how quality of work life is associated with negative or positive affective states as well as in the overall influence of quality of work life on subjective career. For this research, data included measures of quality of work life, positive and negative affective states as well as three states of subjective career for the Japanese employees. Using a sample of 442 employees, the proposed relationships were tested with robust data analytic techniques presented in the previous chapter. Results are consistent with the hypothesized conceptual scheme that affective states of the employees indeed mediate the influence of quality of work life on subjective career, and the influence of quality of work life on subjective career via affective states is also moderated by the employees’ generation. Specifically, the influence of quality of work life on negative affective states as well as the overall influence on career mist and career drift via a negative affective state is significantly stronger among the millennials than the non-millennials. However, there are no significant generational differences in the framework of
84 quality of work life and career hope via a positive affective state. The details of these results will be discussed in this chapter.
5.1 QWL and career mist
Results from the data analysis in chapter four support hypotheses H1-1, H2-1, H3-1, H4-1, H5-
1, and H5-3 thereby lending support to the proposition that a higher quality of work life reduces career mist by diminishing a negative affective state, and this indirect effect is moderated by the generation of employees. The major findings are:
1. A higher quality of work life predicts a reduced negative affective state which, in turn, significantly lowers career mist. 2. The influence of quality of work life on career mist via a negative affective state is stronger for the millennial employees.
The results support the major propositions made about the influence of quality of work life on career mist. Prior research on career mist (Kato & Suzuki, 2006; Kato, 2001) shows that in most Japanese organizations employees are not provided adequate information about their future career path, and they feel their career to be situated in a ‘mist.' Japanese employees' career development is vertical as well as horizontal wherein; horizontal career development entails development of firm-specific skills while vertical career development involves slow promotions and ability-based grade systems (Hirano, Uchida and Suzuki, 2009). Due to the focus on firm- specific skill building, most companies hire fresh/new graduates as white-collar employees and train them to be generalists rather than specialists. Employees are often transferred or rotated, based on the discretion of their supervisor/managerial team or the human resource department to build firm-specific skills (Sekiguchi, Froese, & Iguchi, 2016; Peltokorpi, 2013). Sometimes employees who begin their careers in one function could find themselves rotated to another functional department or rotated to another position in the same function, after a few years or months in the organization. Although, such an approach enables the Japanese organizations to have flexible employees with a diversified skill set, and a greater degree of firm-specific knowledge (Peltokorpi, 2013; Morishima, 1995), the downside is that employees feel their future career path is unpredictable and situated in a ‘mist' (Kato & Suzuki, 2006). Enhancing the quality of work life may remedy this situation. The results from this research support the argument presented in the
85 second chapter that career mist is aggravated by a lower quality of work life, especially for the millennial generation via an increase in their negative affective states. Based on the pioneering work on career mist (Kato & Suzuki, 2006), it has already been established that career mist is capable of being altered as it “ranges from a slight haze to a whiteout, suggesting continuity” and it also “alters along a time frame” from dense to clearer or vice versa (p. 268). Moreover, from the framework proposed by Efraty & Sirgy (1990), it has been established that a better quality of work life revolves around the fulfillment of various employee needs. Fulfilling those needs raises the standards of quality of work life in the organization which, as the results of this study show, significantly alter the career mist perception in employees' minds. The question then arises, how does this influence occur? Simplistically, what is the underlying process of such an occurrence? To explain how such a significant reduction in career mist occurs in response to a better quality of work life, the mediating variable of ‘affective state' was proposed earlier in this study based on AET (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Affect is an instinctual reaction to stimuli, and it takes place before any of the brain's cognitive processes which pave the way for complex attitudes or perceptions (Gazzaniga, 2012; Zajonc, 1980) such as the perception of career mist. Based on the descriptions of career mist, it is the result of an affective experience as it is based on employees' feelings about their current career situation in the organization. Negative affective states prevail amongst employees because of dissatisfaction from the quality of work life, and such negative feelings/emotive states lead towards a higher density of career mist. Therefore, when an organization chooses to invest in employees' quality of work life, it signifies many things to them about their future career in the organization and reduces career mist in five ways as discussed below. The first point is attentional selectivity. Scientific research provides evidence that the part of the brain which processes emotions, known as the amygdala, responds to various environmental stimuli (Jarymowicz, 2016; Phelps, Ling, & Carrasco, 2006). Emotions influence not only the degrees of perception but also the focus of attention. Zadra and Clore (2011) write about the common adage that a person, “can’t see the forest for the trees", which means that someone is failing to look at the bigger (often, better) picture and focusing instead on the narrow (mostly, negative) aspects of their situation due to their negative affective state. They add that, there are conditions which enhance either the local perspective or the bigger/global perspective. Focusing
86 on the local/narrow perspective is commonly related to negative emotions. For employees, a lower quality of work life contributes to negative emotions which increase career mist. Thus career mist is a local/narrow perspective wherein employees see their career path as unclear because of their negative emotive state caused by poor quality of work life. As the previous literature and supporting results from this study show, a negative affective state is a significant predictor of career mist which is in line with the proved notion that negative emotions cause individuals to take a local/narrow perspective rather than the global perspective. It has been scientifically proven that the spatiotemporal field of individuals shrinks in response to stressful emotive states so stressful affective states may reduce the focus of attention (Easterbrook, 1959). Thus, when Japanese employees’ quality of work life is low, they feel more negatively about their future career because their attention span is narrowed. Attentional selectivity has been verified years later by social scientists (Näätänen, 2018; Sørensen & Barratt, 2014). In studies where sad, emotive states are deliberately induced in individuals, they tend to focus only on the negative/narrow picture (Gasper and Clore, 2002). Conversely, these results highlight how a higher quality of work life may help employees to undertake a global/broad perspective. A higher quality of work life would diminish the subjective career state of mist due to a decrease in the negative affective state. The decrease in their negative affective state, in turn, would enable the employees to focus on surrounding environmental cues to discover their future career path. Earlier, Wakabayashi, Graen, and Uhl- Bien (1990) proposed that in Japanese corporations, managers who eventually reach executive status are often identified early in their career and consequently they may also be treated differently since their identification. For example, as a part of enhancing the quality of work life, organizations train employees for future roles in the organization. Thus, training for future skills' raises employees' quality of work life, and since this reduces the negative affective condition, so the employees can perceive that they are being considered for other (bigger/better) roles in the organization. The negative affective state is reduced by raising the quality of work life, and this causes the employees to undertake a ‘global' perspective which diminishes career mist. The employees can predict some aspects of their future career in the firm by focusing on the signals and cues related to their career development in the firm. Furthermore, such signals indicating that workplace situation as well, also have the potential to diminish over-analyzing and discernment (George & Zhou, 2002) regarding the future career path which would also reduce career mist.
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In addition to attentional selectivity, the second point to be addressed in understanding how quality of work life influences career mist via a negative affective state is, affect infusion. Affect infusion is the process in which affective states interact with the thinking process to the extent that affect, “becomes incorporated into the judgmental process, entering into the judge's deliberations and eventually coloring the judgmental outcome” (Forgas, 1995, p.39). A better quality of work life reduces the negative affective state (and raises positive affective state), which enables the employees to consider and judge the degree of the organization’s investment in them. Such an investment could be in terms of compensation or benefits, work-life balance plans as well as training for skills development and learning transferability in case of uncertain future career path(s). It also helps when employees feel that the organization is investing in their growth and development as esteemed professionals and their dealings/interactions as respected professionals in their line of work. A higher quality of work life revokes the negative affective states in employees as Kitayama, Markus and Kurokama (2000) write that negative affective states, such as anger and frustration, usually result when one’s goals, desires, or rights are blocked. When the organization invests in its employees in various ways, then it is difficult for employees to harbor negative feelings of resentment, anger or frustration towards their organization regarding their careers. The need-based approach to quality of work life entails how fulfilling a composite of seven different needs of employees altogether, leads towards a better quality of work life. These needs are health and safety, economic and family, social, esteem, knowledge, aesthetics and actualization (Sirgy et al., 2001). Policies and plans aligned towards these needs function as a composite whole to reduce negative affective states as guided by AET and supported by the results of this study. Immediate aversive or favorable reactions take place in individuals when faced with stimuli related to pain/threat (Calvo & Nummenmaa, 2007). Lower order needs, such as health and safety or economic and family are the basic requirements of any employee, and lack of fulfillment is bound to cause a negative affective state. When employees have problems with company's policies or administrative matters, or issues with their superiors regarding technical/work matters or at an interpersonal level, then these are known to lead to a negative affective state (Herzberg et al., 1959) thereby, aggravating career mist. Thirdly, besides affect infusion, the ‘distorting' roles of affective states help explain how lower quality of work life increases career mist by increasing a negative affective state.
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Psychological research has shown that feelings and emotions interfere with cognitive processes (Eich & Forgas, 2003). Some people also hold the belief that emotions hamper logic and rational thinking. The reality of a situation may not be exactly as the mind perceives it to be, because of the role of emotions. Emotions are disruptive by-default (Frijda, 1988) because they tend to interrupt the thought process and channel focus towards the emotion itself (Beal et al., 2005; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Due to a lower quality of work life, Japanese employees' negative affective states become higher as they feel confused, or frustrated. Thus, it leads towards a higher valuation of career mist. Fourth, it is also essential to discuss the impact of affective states on individuals' objectivity and how it translates into subjective assessments such as career mist. At first, the notion that emotions/feelings routinely influence employees’ attitude formation sounds complex but research has shown that emotions have such a strong influence on individuals’ attitudes and perceptions that affective states routinely impact even objective aspects of visual clarity. Proffitt, Bhalla, Gossweiler, & Midgett (1995) explain this in their research about geographical slants. They elaborate that many individuals assume that when each of us looks at a hill, the degree of its incline/steepness would be gauged almost similarly by everyone who looks at it but the reality is that the degree of the incline of a hill would be described differently by different people. The description of the incline by the same individual may depend on the affective state of the individual (Riener, Stefanucci, Proffitt, & Clore, 2011; Bhalla & Proffitt, 1999). For example, when individuals are feeling dejected, they are more likely to perceive the hill to be steeper than it is, but when negative feelings are diminished, they may perceive it to be an easy hill to climb, notwithstanding optical factors. Empirical findings such as these imply that even objective/factual situations such as the steepness of a hill are greatly influenced by individuals’ affective states (Zadra & Clore, 2011). Further research conducted using visual illusions also reflects and supports the results from the study about how negative affective states cause a local perceptual style and also how individuals with negative feelings are more attuned to picking up negative cues from their environment once such emotions have been triggered (Avramova, Stapel, & Lerouge, 2012). Negative affective states such as sadness interfere with relational processing which leads towards referential processing also known as item-specific processing (Storbeck & Clore, 2008). Therefore, career mist can be reduced by enhancing quality of work life.
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Lastly, emotions tend to draw individuals' attention towards the object causing them. A major role of emotions, in fact, is to interfere and rearrange cognitive processing, as proposed by Herbert Simon (1967). Thus, a reduction in negative feelings makes it harder for the employees to focus on negative situations and develop negative valuations/attitudes towards their career situation in the form of career mist. When there is a lesser degree of negativity in the employees' minds due to needs' fulfillment, than even supposedly hopeless situations may be processed by their cognition less intensely. Since the results highlight how the subjective career construct of ‘mist’ is an affective experience, it means that the degree of mist relies on employees’ emotive states caused by their quality of work life. It is established that employees are more likely to reflect more on their ‘career mist’ situation when their quality of work life is low and consequent negative affective state is high. Some of the earliest research on affective states also supports this view, as Griffitt (1970) discovered that when negative affective states were induced in experiment subjects, they made more negative evaluations of a target. Thus, he suggested that valuations are determined by the negative or positive elements of a stimuli intervention. Simiarly, Gouaux and Summers (1973) employed interpersonal feedback to manipulate affective states and received similar results.
5.2 QWL and career drift
Results from the data analysis in chapter four support hypotheses H2-1, H3-2, H4-2, H5-1, and
H5-4, thereby lending support to the proposition that a higher quality of work life reduces career drift as it diminishes a negative affective state, which is a significant predictor of career drift. The main findings are as under:
1. A higher quality of work life predicts a lower negative affective state and a lower negative affective state, in turn, predicts a lower career drift. 2. The indirect influence of quality of work life on career drift is greater for the millennial employees Initially, the term career drift was proposed by Kanai (1999) to offer the opposite construct for “career design.” In simple terms, it is the employees' attitude characterized by little to no interest in managing their careers. Employees who are in a career drift state do not take any initiatives regarding career growth and development. Other than such a simplistic notion of career
90 drift, there is more to the construct than meets the eye. Career drift is a complex attitude towards career because of its nuanced connotations. In the prior research on career drift, detailed and in- depth causes or antecedents have not been discussed. The primary purpose of the prior research on career drift was to establish its presence as a realistic subjective career construct occurring within the Japanese employment/career system or to discuss the different types of career drift. This research tested quality of work life as an antecedent for career drift and the results highlight that a better quality of work life reduces career drift through the affective pathway. From one perspective, career drift has already been assigned certain negative connotations as Suzuki (2001) writes that these are the employees who ought to take an interest in their careers, but instead they do not indulge in any career development or growth endeavors in their firm. The results from the current research highlight these negative connotations from the affective process, as career drift is found to be significantly positively associated with a negative affective state. Employees with a career drift attitude tend to withdraw from any active participation in their career development. Prior studies show that withdrawal attitudes are considered to stem from employees’ dissatisfaction (Carpenter & Berry, 2016; Hanisch & Hulin, 1991, 1990), and quality of work life is based on the need satisfaction of employees. Thus when employees’ quality of work life is low, it would enhance their withdrawal attitudes such as career drift by increasing negative feelings. Prior studies also show that growth and development endeavors by the firm increase employees’ involvement and participation at work (Kraimer et al., 2011). Thus, in the case of a better quality of work life, employees’ negative emotions reduce which then leads them to actively collaborate with their firm in terms of their career growth and development initiatives. In the past research on career drift, it has been mentioned that it is likely to occur because of personal factors of weariness in employees or as a personal consequence of experience, as well as some organizational factors such as the training or slow promotion systems in the firm (Suzuki, 2002). It has also been highlighted that these factors could be interlinked in time to eventually lead towards career drift, which also corroborates the negative roots from which career drift stems, as shown by the results of this study. Additionally, Kato and Suzuki (2006) write that career transitions such as being promoted to a managerial position, do not take place till later in employees’ professional lives in Japanese organizations and this stagnancy aggravates career drift, which means that being in a situation similar to ‘career plateau’ would worsen career drift. Therefore, existing research on career plateau
91 is also useful for explaining how an enhanced quality of work life reduces career drift via negative affective state reduction. A career plateau occurs when employees reach the point in their career(s) where it is neither possible nor probable for them to attain vertical or horizontal career growth (Nachbagauer & Riedl, 2002; Ference, Stoner, & Warren, 1977). Career plateau is deemed an undesirable experience, and it is closely associated with adverse outcomes (Xie, Xin, & Bai, 2016; McCleese, Eby, Scharlau, & Hoffman, 2007; Xie and Long, 2005). A substantial number of studies suggest certain factors which assist employees to overcome the undesirable effects of career plateau (Tremblay & Roger, 2004), and most of the mentioned factors lie within the construct of quality of work life. Tremblay & Roger (2004) also quote Hall and Rabinowitz (1988), Ference et al. (1977) and Stoner et al. (1980) to highlight those productive employees who face the plateau situation significantly lower their performance and productivity if they perceive that their work is not stimulating or challenging enough. Thus, a higher quality of work life would assist those employees in recovering from such a state. Literature also cites various job-related factors which reduce the negative effects of career plateau (Chay et al., 1995; Hall, 1985; Domsch and Gerpott, 1987) and since these effects are similar to career drift, so these are useful in explaining how career drift is enhanced via the negative affective state caused by lower levels of quality of work life. When there is an imbalance in reciprocation by the organization in terms of quality of work life, it leads employees towards embitterment (Blau, 1964, p. 146). Initially, employees respond with negative feelings to this imbalance, such as frustration or agitation and over time these negative feelings get translated to more permanent attitudes and behaviors (Yang, Niven, & Johnson, 2018) such as career drift. Although the focus of this research was to reveal the underlying affective process through which quality of work life reduces career drift, the results also show that a direct influence of quality of work life on career drift (controlling for a negative affective state) exists. However, unlike the affective pathway, this effect is positive and only applicable to non-millennials. Since the results show that the indirect effect of quality of work life on career drift for non-millennials is much lesser in magnitude than their direct effect, so it means that non-millennials’ negative affective states from a lower quality of work life do not substantially influence their levels of career drift. It may also be argued that for non-millennials, career drift is fundamentally less affective and more cognitive than millennials. Prior research provides considerable insight for interpretation of
92 this result for the non-millennials, particularly research in the field of organizational support for development (OSD). Recent research by Ichimura (2017) conducted in Japan shows how OSD by Japanese organizations leads towards a reduction in career development actions taken by the employees themselves when OSD influences career development actions directly. However, in the indirect path, OSD increases career development actions taken by employees via perceived career opportunity in the firm. This finding has major implications for explaining the results of this study as it shows that quality of work life enhances career drift for non-millennial employees because it causes them to rely on the organization for their career growth or development. Moreover, career drift is not an entirely ‘affective' phenomenon for the non-millennials. From the indirect path, when the quality of work life in the firm is higher, employees' negative affective states decrease, and they become more motivated and interested in growth and development endeavors. Employees with a lower career drift would actively pursue career development opportunities in their firm. They would also be more likely to collaborate with their organization for their career growth. Results show that this effect is higher for the millennial generation as they become more engaged in their career development when their basic needs are being fulfilled. Since this research is concerned with the affective process through which quality of work life influences career drift, so the results are useful for this purpose. The results highlight that career drift is a predominantly negative attitude for the millennials which is triggered by lower levels of quality of work life. Although existing research on career drift alludes to its affective component, it mostly stresses on how the slow promotion systems in Japanese firms aggravate career drift. The results of this study help to establish the affective component of career drift and the role of quality of work life as an antecedent. Career drift, essentially a subjective career construct, is an attitude and all attitudes possess affective linkages with various stimuli. In this case, such an affective linkage is with quality of work life.
5.3 QWL and career hope
Results from the data analysis in chapter four support hypotheses H1-3, H2-2, H3-3, H4-3, but do not support H5-2, and H5-5 thereby lending support to the proposition that a higher quality of work life increases career hope as it enhances the positive affective state in employees which is a significant predictor of career hope. These influences occur irrespective of the generation of the
93 employees. The direct influence of quality of work life on career hope, while controlling for a positive affective state, also exists but it is less than the total effect after including the positive affective state as a mediator. Career hope, as the name implies, is the degree of hope an employee has regarding the future career; however, the concept is not merely being optimistic about having a ‘prosperous' future career rather it also includes having hope that a certain ‘desired' position in the career path awaits in the distant future. Having career hope enables employees to persevere in an organization (Kato & Suzuki, 2006) even if their current position is not up to their liking, so it is an important construct. The results from this study help in establishing the quality of work life as a significant antecedent for this important construct. Quality of work life includes fulfillment of various needs of employees, and as the results show, it predicts greater career hope via a positive affective state. This predictive influence exists because career hope is a subjective career construct which implies the presence of affective roots. Based on the results, the process of quality of work life influencing career hope may be classified as an affective reaction as opposed to solely being a cognitive process. Strong emotions take up space in the cognitive capacity of the brain, which includes functions of memory, reasoning powers as well as attention during encoding and retrieval (Clore et al., 1994). Quality of work life, in itself, is both a cognitive as well as an affective marker (Lee et al., 2015), and career hope as an attitude towards one's career also has both feeling and thinking elements to it. It can be further witnessed from the primary study on career hope which illustrates narrative accounts from Japanese regular employees, such as: “Well, when you work for a company for about five years or so, you come to see things, you know. Like, ‘maybe I’ll be transferred to A (location name), or B, and then to a plant, and maybe work in human relations for a while, and maybe education, and so on ...’ I mean, you feel like you can see it.” A higher quality of work life ensures the employees that they are worthy of organization's investment, and if they are worthy of investment then their thought processes signal that they are also being considered for a favorable career path in the organization. Having a poor quality of work life will lead towards lower career hope, as the employees will conclude that the organization is investing as little as possible in them while stilting their growth and development as human assets. From the employee's standpoint, poor quality of work life may also be an indicator of how an employee is being prepared for the so-called ‘surplus pool' of an organization as opposed to
94 stellar career roles in the future. Forgas' interactionist approach towards affect and his consequent work on the affective infusion model (1995) corroborates it. He writes that affective states tend to interact with and build cognition despite their distinct status from cognitive processes because affective states are capable of ‘influencing' the availability of cognitive factors which are being used by the mind in information processing (Forgas, 1995). There are many traditional theorists who also supported this idea that affect, and cognition are connected in one interdependent structure (e.g. Bower, 1991; Salovey & Mayer, 1990; Nesse, 1990; Frijda, 1988; Mayer, Mamberg, & Volanth, 1988; Isen, 1987; Bower & Cohen, 1982), for some it is because of the notion that experiencing emotion is also cognition (Laird & Bresler, 1991). Thus, for the employees, quality of work life increases career hope because of the positive feelings induced by quality of work life. Simultaneously, these positive affective states interact with their thought processes. They believe that their desired future career awaits in the firm, or there are opportunities for a prosperous career in that organization because their organization is investing in them. When features of work (e.g., quality of work life in this study) enhance the positive affective states in employees, it sends a signal to them that their objectives have been achieved (Frijda, 1988). Traditional research supported that affective states are vital components of employees’ decision making and thought processes because individuals rely on somatic markers whose job is to signal the desirability and consequences of possible behaviors (Lindebaum, Geddes, & Jordan, 2018; Damasio, 1994). Cognitive processes benefit from emotive states, and thus career hope is formed. Emotions encompass the conditions relevant to an individual’s future decision making (Loewenstein & Lerner, 2003). Processing at an affective stage occurs implicitly, and it becomes manifested in the shape of instinctive expectations about the future outcomes of certain events or situations, and so affective state serves as an enabler for decision making (Fineman, 2007). Thus, the role of positive affect in the association between quality of work life and career hope cannot be ignored. Since affective state also aids individuals in organizing and labeling situations or objects around them based on feelings (Forgas, 2000), so higher quality of work life is assigned positive annotations by employees which furthers career hope. Some scholars have even referred to the affect infused cognitive process as ‘hot cognition’ because of the role played by affective states in thinking (Morris & Keltner, 2000). The literature contains extensive support for the influence of emotive states on memory, associative skills, learning, social judgments and interactive behaviors (Clore et al., 1994; Forgas & George, 2001).
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Although, Fisher (2002) writes that affective events theory in itself does not particularly list which work environment features or events have associations with positive or negative affective reactions, several significant clues exist in the two-domain research which assist in explaining the influence of quality of work life on career hope via a positive affective state. Workplace characteristics which are most consistently used in association with the positive affective state concerning one's job include achievement, recognition, growth/advancement, or work which is deemed interesting/creative (Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman, 1959). Positions which are greatly perceived to be higher in terms of such characteristics would naturally be the ones that provide greater opportunities for discrete events of such kind to take place during employment. Such occurrences, in turn, create positive affective states such as pride, optimism, enthusiasm, pleasure, contentment, enjoyment, and happiness. Therefore, in this study, a higher quality of work life is positively associated with the occurrence of positive affective reactions in the workplace and hence career hope of employees. Lastly, it was proposed that the influence of quality of work life on career hope via a positive affective state would be higher for millennials as opposed to non-millennials. However, findings show that irrespective of generation, all employees perceived the positive influence of quality of work life on career hope. Individuals who are higher in negative affectivity will respond with greater negative emotions to stimuli that provoke negative affective states than they would in terms of positive affective states (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Thus in terms of positive affective states, no significant intergenerational differences in the influence of quality of work life on positive affective state, and consequently on career hope are found in the data.
5.4 QWL and subjective career: generational differences
The term, ‘generation,' may be broadly defined as a cohort of individuals whose initial socialization occurred during the same frame of time. Thus each generational cohort is composed of people who share the same historical, social and political context during their birth period as well as adolescence and adulthood, thereby developing a common beliefs system founded on a similar world view (Hu, Herrick, & Hodgin, 2004; Kupperschmidt, 2000; Mannheim, 1993). In terms of generational perspectives, the results from this study show that as the quality of work life rises, negative affective states reduce for all employees irrespective of generation; however, the influence is stronger for the millennials as proposed. Consequently, the overall indirect inverse
96 influence of quality of work life on career mist and career drift via a negative affective state is also significantly higher for the millennial generation than non-millennials.
(a) Interplay of age-period-cohort
It is pertinent to err on the side of caution over generational issues to advance the debate on generational issues following the results from this study. It is mandatory to highlight the interplay of age-period-cohort (generation) while discussing generational effects (Lyons & Kuron, 2013). It is pertinent to mention that any research which entirely excludes or eliminates the examination of age effects from that of ‘generation/cohort’ cannot be deemed plausible since the two are closely interlinked in time. Even if longitudinal studies are conducted by tracking the same set of respondents over time, age and generation will both play some role in determining attitudes. However, age is often studied in research frameworks while generational differences are more likely to be overlooked which is a grave error on the part of researchers (Lyons et al., 2015). Age, alone is not sufficient to explain all the attitudinal changes in employees as prior research on intergenerational differences has shown. Hence, it is important to discuss age and cohort effects concurrently in terms of how quality of work life reduces a negative affective state in millennials (generational demarcation) who are also classified as younger employees (age demarcation). Furthermore, ‘age/maturation' and ‘generational cohort' effects cannot be discussed in isolation from the ‘time period' effects either, and for results from this study it translates in to the fact that Japanese millennials are facing the worst crisis in terms of a shrinking workforce hitherto unexperienced by the prior generations in such severity (Nae, 2017). Based on the results from this study and prior research undertaken on generational issues, it is evident that it is the interplay of age-period-cohort altogether, which makes the (Japanese) millennial employees different from other generations in the workplace, and hence generation is a critical category for consideration as a moderating variable for this research. The age-period-cohort interplay has been discussed in greater depth by Lyons et al. (2015). At the time of the data collection, millennials from this study were 31 years old and below, which means that for regular employees, they were still in the beginning stages of their career cycle where the uncertainty about career path is high. It naturally follows that career mist may also be considerably higher than non-millennials who are above the age of 31. However, age is just one of the reasons why the indirect influence of quality of work life on career mist is higher for the millennials than the non-millennials. Generational influences cannot be ignored in these results
97 because just as age is vital for understanding the associated career stages (younger employees would naturally be in the beginning stages while older employees will be in higher career stages), the importance of quality of work life and its association with a reduced negative affective state in millennials cannot be entirely attributed to age effects and in fact requires to be explained within the generational context. The reason why the influence of quality of work life on negative affective states is significantly higher for millennials, cannot be plausibly explained by age effect because as employees get older, the importance of quality of work life is bound to rise when their ‘needs' tend to increase with age. Thus, notwithstanding generational influences, the resulting impact of QWL on their (negative) affective states ought to be higher if one was to solely consider it within the realm of ‘age' effects; but, the results of the study show a different trend which demands insight into other competing perspectives, i.e. generational impact. The results support the proposition of this research that the millennials' negative affective states are more sensitive to their quality of work life due to their different value set or psychological expectations from their workplace based on their formative differences as a cohort. Moreover, Smola and Sutton (2002) performed a longitudinal study and discovered that generational influences more profoundly impacted work values compared to biological age. Thus, in line with prior research on generational differences, the results from this study also highlight that for the millennial generation negative affective state is more sensitive towards changes in quality of work life issues based on their generational differences from prior generations. Even though the generation issue in Japan has garnered significant anecdotal evidence witnessed by the growing literature about the millennial generation in popular cultural artifacts such as magazines, music, and newspapers, more attention is required towards empirical research about the various workplace and career-related constructs for Japanese millennials. Nae (2017) alludes that Japanese millennials are bound to be different in terms of all three interrelated effects: age-period-cohort/generation. She writes that the Japanese millennials came of age during deteriorating economy, tarnished due to shrinking labor, unpredictable employment situations with diminished job security and paradoxically more work responsibilities and the number of hours (thus, time period effects). She further adds that as children they were raised in relatively prosperous times while being indulged in childhood due to which their outlook differs (generation
98 effects). At the same time they are young and so of course, age is another basis for essential differences in comparison to the older generations (age effects), especially at the workplace. It is a global phenomenon that when younger people feel that their future is unknown, it provokes negative affective states, and Meijers (2002) quotes various surveys that some younger employees feel afraid for their future as well as extremely worried about their future lives, and feelings of insecurity prevail. In an earlier study, it was reported that a quarter of French youth struggled with feelings of despair regarding their future. Some younger people are also at risk of becoming aggressive due to uncertain future careers/lives (Heitmeyer et al., 1995- by Meijers, 2002). The Japanese millennials, as previously mentioned in the various surveys quoted in the literature review chapter, are already prone towards anxiety regarding their future. Not only are the current socio-economic times facing them drastically different than prior generations, but also during their formative years, they were given more relaxation and leisure opportunities than other generations which makes them ill-equipped at times to deal with pressure and struggles from their adulthood challenges.
(b) Rokeach value systems and generational differences
Prior research on value systems corroborates and helps to explain further how generational differences within the affective experiences paradigm occur in this study's context. Rokeach theorized that value systems are an integral part of individuals' development and it has an influence on their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors (Rokeach, 1977) as values have intrinsic roots within persons as well as sharing at the societal level. Individuals tend to prioritize their values, and these priorities form their psychological expectations by serving as the framework of guidance whenever any conflict of values or expectations occurs. These values are basically instilled in individuals during their formative years by various societal as well as internal influences, so sharing of these values by a generational cohort exists (Whitbeck & Gecas, 1988; Inglehart & Brown, 1990; Mannheim, 1993; Schönpflug, 2001; Lyons, Duxbury, & Higgins, 2005). During their formative years, people belonging to one particular generation have borne similar societal influences, and these unstable forces alter over time for other following generations, so generational differences in terms of values prevail throughout individuals' lifespan (Lyons.et.al, 2005). Hence, Rokeach’s human values idea assists in explaining how the socialization of millennial generation in Japan has dealt a lasting impact on their future affective reactions to various situations and stimuli as shown by the results of this study.
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Most of the prior generations in Japan, referred to as the pre-bubble and bubble generations seem to have a singular motivation which is to attain and recover the Japanese economic prosperity once again. According to Fahey (2017), the other generations in Japan consider Japanese millennials to be less invested in regaining the economic prosperity and more interested in themselves, inward-looking and seeking personal comforts in life. Various such accounts and descriptions support the results of the study by highlighting how and why quality of work life is significantly more important for the affective experiences of millennial employees. When the millennial generation was awarded more ‘breathing space' (the literal translation for the Japanese term ‘Yutori' is breathing space) in their curriculum, it gave them the unique opportunity to discover themselves and to find lives outside of work and study, an experience not provided to the prior generations. This freedom, of course, carried onto their adult life as a higher degree of negative affective state when quality of work life is not up to par in their organizations. This point also brings the discussion to the next issue: generational differences in the psychological contract for Japanese millennials.
(c) The psychological contract: generational differences The psychological contract is an implied set of reciprocal obligations which are held by employees regarding their organization, and such obligations are not necessarily identified by the agents involved in such a binding perception (Morrison and Robinson, 1997). Employees possess particular beliefs about what an organization must offer, and how they should reciprocate. The roots of the psychological contract lie in social exchange theory, which suggests that employees and their organizations are involved in transactions whereby each agent reciprocates the others’ offer (Blau, 1964). Therefore, it logically follows that such norms of reciprocity dictate that when the organization does not fulfill obligations, the employee will reciprocate accordingly by changing their attitudes, or behaviors on a variety of dimensions especially commitment, performance and turnover related matters (Lub et al., 2011; Bal et al., 2010). It has been suggested by Rousseau (2001) that various social events and pre-employment experiences activate the antecedents of psychological contracts. Additionally, Bal, De Lange, Jansen, & Van Der Velde (2008) highlight how certain kinds of psychological contracts might be related to age effects. Even though they do not focus on generational differences per se, but they suggest a critical point. They claim that as most of the work on the psychological contract has been carried out over the last two decades, so it cannot be readily determined whether or not age-effects
100 seen in the work are consequences of biological aging/age effects or due to generational changes. For this study, to understand how the negative affect states of Japanese millennials are significantly more sensitive than other generations, it is useful to reflect on the psychological contract. It has already been established in the literature review section that due to the formative experiences of the millennials' generation, their values and expectations regarding their quality of work life differs from other generations in Japan. They expect more in terms of quality of work life than others. At the same time, reflecting on that highlights that possessing such expectations may have led towards different psychological contract between millennials and their organizations. Thus, negative affect states of Japanese millennials become more prone to changes in the quality of work life, as witnessed by the results of this study. For the non-millennials in this study, if one were to look at the composition, they are made up of the three generations namely: shinjinrui, bubble and lost generation(s). What shinjinrui and bubble generations have in common is that while they were growing up, they witnessed Japan’s predominantly hierarchical culture while reveling in overspending, international travel, and spending on luxury brands. Naturally, for this, they had to partake the culture of long work hours, and corporate citizenship to sponsor their extravagant lifestyles (Nae, 2017) which meant that their lavish lifestyle paradoxically led towards lesser attention to their quality of work life by them. Then, for the lost generation, as the bubble collapsed, leading to downsizings and widespread insecurity, the very notion of quality of work life was altogether an alien idea. Thus, for these generations, a negative affective state is not intensely triggered by changes in their quality of work life. Eventually, after all these generations came the Japanese millennials, who were precociously treated by their parents and policymakers during their school ages and eventually grew up in a deteriorating economy with a shrinking workforce, and poor working conditions (Nae, 2017). All of these factors led towards a greater understanding, need, appreciation and consequent psychological expectations for attaining a better quality of work life. Their focus has never been on attaining luxury or extravagant trips rather on having a good, content working life with personal growth and development as well as better work-life balance (Furuichi, 2017), thereby shaping their psychological contract from their employers. Breach of such a contract tends to cause fluctuations in their negative affective states.
(d) Western millennials versus Japanese millennials: two sides of the same coin
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To discuss the results of the study, it is also worthwhile to include Western millennials in the discussion even though Western millennials do not form a part of the research sample of this study. For fostering debate on the issue of Japanese millennials, it is helpful to include comparisons with the global or Western millennial generation. Even though, it is conceded that the motivations/formative experiences behind the value sets as well as the causes for certain attitudes are entirely different between Japanese millennials and their western counterparts, from studies it appears that millennials all over the world (including Japan) value their quality of work life through lower and higher order needs fulfillment considerably more than prior generations. The reason for this similarity may be technological advancements and globalization, which have ensured greater access to information and the flow of information between countries and cultures. Popular culture transcends national boundaries (Matsuda & Higashi, 2006), and impacts the Millennials all over the globe. According to the existing literature, Western millennials are more prone towards switching their jobs or exhibiting dissatisfied attitudes when their working life expectations are not met with, and they possess strong values regarding their lives outside of work. Also, they also seek intellectually challenging work situations and drive for success thereby looking for organizations which would serve as the right pedestal for their career development (Brown, 2004). Surprisingly for many, Japanese millennials also exhibit some of the trends similar to Western millennials in their working preference. According to the global employer branding organization Universum, Gen-Y workers in Japan tend to perceive work-life balance as their topmost career objective so much so that up to 60% of male respondents and 67% of females rated this as the leading factor. Japanese millennials, even though known as the Yutori/relaxed generation, care about their growth and development, as it is evident from the fact that according to Japanese millennials one of the primary positive attributes of an organization is work that may be considered challenging. Organizations such as Hakuhodo and Fuji Television Network were rated high by business students like the ones offering challenging work while Mitsui Fudosan and Nippon Steel were ranked high by engineering students in this category (Thomas, 2016). Thus, the literature supports the notion that personal growth and development as a part of the quality of work life construct is of major importance for Japanese millennials and hence as per the results of the study their negative affect states are more sensitive to changes in quality of work life.
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For Western millennials, due to their potential for proactivity, personal goal setting and goal achievement have a great degree of importance in their lives. Research findings show that the Millennials possess great expectations when it comes to work-life balance as well as career success and compared to their predecessors they are not as loyal to their organizations if such goals are not being achieved (Hershatter and Epstein, 2010; Ng et al., 2010; Smith, 2010). For the Japanese millennials, these values are becoming increasingly important too, as it can be witnessed by their growing dissatisfaction with their current workplaces ("Surveys find young generation in Japan positive about changing jobs," Kyodo News, 2018; Maeda, 2012). However, the reason why they are unable to exercise these preferences is that the employment and career system in Japan is still mostly unchanged. So, when the Western millennials are compared with the Japanese millennials, the common perception prevails that both are poles apart. The reality is that, (a) the prevalent systems and (b) formative motivations, are different between Japanese and western millennials, but the resultant expectations of both Western and Japanese millennials from work and organizations have a few similarities across dimensions such as work-life balance, personal growth and development and workplace interactions with their supervisors, explained below. Millennial workers have a completely different perspective about job experiences since they are not just educated but also trained in technology, energetic and confident about their life choices. They look for challenging tasks, but even then, work-life balance is crucial for them. They are also aware that their high socialization needs and somewhat contradictory wish for rapid career advancement might be deemed as weaknesses by senior colleagues (Gilbert, 2011). This account, although written for western millennials, is also applicable to Japanese millennials. As the results of the study show, the negative affective states of millennials are strongly sensitive to their quality of work life which includes their work-life balance as well as learning, growth, and development as professionals in their field of work. For the Japanese non-millennials the relationship is not of such a greater magnitude, as per the results and as per the proposed hypotheses. Now that the similarities have been briefly discussed, one of the major points of difference between Western and Japanese millennials also needs to be summarized. Even though it is true that the Japanese millennials value their work-life balance, it does not mean that they are also successful at getting it (Sivan, 2017). This critical point also aids in explaining why the negative affective states of the Japanese millennials are so much more sensitive to their quality of work life than prior generations. Furthermore, it is also one of the reasons why Japanese millennials differ
103 from their Western counterparts. Whereas Western millennials have mostly been able to find workplaces suited to their likings and expectations (also evident from western subjective career constructs: boundary-less career, protean career and so forth), Japanese employment systems remain mostly unchanged. The negative affective states of the Japanese millennials are more triggered with changes in their quality of work life because they expect different things which are not on offer by their current workplaces in Japan. The issues associated with the psychological contract are related to this point and have been covered in the prior section. Another significant difference between Western and Japanese millennials emerges from there which is the ‘hopelessness' for the future in the latter. Due to this overarching anxiety about their future, Japanese millennials possess higher degrees of negative affectivity. Thus, when quality of work life is lower, this negative affectivity is triggered in the millennials more than in the prior generations. The prior generations of employees in Japan did not encounter the imbalance between the comfort of their formative years and instability of economic and social circumstances of the future as faced by the millennial employees.
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6. Conclusion
This study examined the influence of quality of work life on subjective career in Japan. An integrated conceptual scheme was proposed in which employees’ affective states were predicted to operate as mediating mechanisms between quality of work life and subjective career. Generational differences were proposed to moderate the relationship between quality of work life and subjective career. Findings demonstrate that employees' moods/emotions as well as emotional processing depending on their generation, represent critical mechanisms in determining how quality of work life is associated with subjective career. It is hoped that such an understanding would advance the theoretical discussion on the scope of quality of work life, assist in establishing alternative antecedents of subjective career states prevalent in Japan, and reinforce the notion of subjective career as an affective reaction by employees to their quality of work life in Japanese organizations. The affective events theory and literature on different kinds of affective experiences at the workplace highlight that the process always begins with some environmental stimuli (Cropanzano & Dasborough, 2015; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), but it is also of significant importance to realize that ultimately employees may also choose their preferred environment (Kloutsiniotis & Mihail, 2017; Hooi & Leong, 2015). The vast body of research on emotion regulation contains details of situations’ selection which is defined as the ability of employees to choose situations which evoke their desired affective states while avoiding those that provoke negative affective states (Gross, 1998). Since different workplaces make different affective reactions less or more probable (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996), so at some level, every choice made by an employee may be considered an affective event. Sometimes, individuals anticipate their affective states, and this anticipation guides their decision making (Loewenstein & Lerner, 2003; Mellers, 2000). Thus, individuals are also responsible for selecting and shaping their environment based on how it influences their affective states and ultimately shapes their careers. This is already evident in the Western context, as subjective career constructs in the West include boundary-less and protean career themes which signify greater exercise of career self- management on the part of employees. Just as quality of work life influences subjective career via affective states, sooner or later quality of work life in Japan will be determined by the employees when they start selecting those workplaces which better suit their needs in terms of subjective career. As Japan heads towards greater labor shrinkage in the future, the choices available to the Japanese millennials are
105 increasing. Based on the findings from this study as well as contemporary surveys, it is safe to conclude that employees, especially millennials, will start choosing work environments which offer a higher quality of work life and serve as a better fit for their affective disposition(s). The discussion chapter mentioned how most of the research in the field of organizational behavior revolves around two kinds of inquiries; the first one was how organizations influence individuals’ feelings, shape their thoughts, and elicit actions from them, while the second one was how individuals' perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors influence the organizations. The present study was undertaken on the former kind of inquiry by examining the association between quality of work life and subjective career. However, after the findings from this study, it becomes apparent that soon research in Japan will have to start focusing on the second kind of inquiry which revolves around how the millennial employees' choices will start shaping the employment and career systems in Japan. The findings from this study reveal how quality of work life is influential in the subjective career determination of the Japanese millennials via their affective states. Therefore, keeping in view the socio-economic situation, it is important to study and reflect further on the present findings. The Japanese millennials have two viable options now: ‘sink or swim’ and it seems that they have chosen to float in the present situation (Nae, 2017). Prior research on career drift also highlighted two main kinds: flowing and floating (Suzuki, 2001). Quality of work life may assist in rectifying this ‘floating' situation as the results of the study highlight how career drift reduces for millennials, via a decrease in their negative affective state, when quality of work life rises.
6.1 Theoretical and practical implications
This study makes several theoretical contributions. First of all, this study is useful in advancing the theoretical debate on the complex relationship between quality of work life and (subjective) career aspects (Parsa et al., 2014; Li & Yeo, 2011; Rose et al., 2006). Building upon these results, further research may also explore the cognitive processes that function alongside the affective mechanisms linking quality of work life to subjective career, particularly in the framework of career drift and career hope. Secondly, this research contributes to the applications of affective events theory and quality of work life literature. Contrary to the previous studies on the application of affective events theory, this research does not just focus on job-related attitudes as the outcome; instead, it focuses on career-related outcomes. It extends the understanding of the affective nature of subjective career
106 by highlighting its relationships with affective states induced by quality of work life. Thus, based on affective events theory, these findings may be used for exploring the affective and cognitive behavioral outcomes which may arise as a consequence of career mist, career drift, and career hope. Thirdly, findings from this research contribute to the ongoing empirical work on generational differences in terms of work and career. Proponents of this approach advise conducting more generational studies in a different context(Campbell et al., 2015; Lyons et al., 2015) other than the Western context where ample research already exists on this issue. Building upon the results from this research, future research on quality of work life, career constructs or employees’ attitudes may also consider replacing age with generation to account for potential moderating effects in the research models (Lyons et al., 2015; Lai, Chang & Hsu, 2012). Fourth, this research provides an important integration between the prior literature on quality of work life and its career-related outcomes. Specifically, this research demonstrates the role of need satisfaction and spillover approaches in the determination of individuals' careers. Lastly, results from this research help to establish the nuanced nature of the subjective career constructs, and assist in generating theoretical discussion on how inherently ‘good' stimuli such as quality of work life may have varying effects depending on the employees' generation. The findings from this study also have various practical implications. This research is helpful for the Japanese organizations to understand the influence exerted by quality of work life on subjective career, particularly with the affective linkages proposed in this study. Once such an understanding is cultivated, only then the Japanese firms will employ the best possible means (such as quality of work life measures) to exercise control over the prevalent subjective career constructs to sustain morale while simultaneously ensuring career development of a satisfied workforce. Based on the previous chapters, it may be deduced that altogether career mist, career drift, and career hope are essential concepts to understand the Japanese employment system from the employees’ perspective. These are not altogether unknown phenomena within the Japanese context, but these constructs lack substantial quantitative follow-up research especially in terms of antecedents. In the wake of the current interest in work-life reforms by Japanese government and organizations, it is surmised that organizations would prefer to bolster career hope while simultaneously reducing the perception of career mist and controlling the levels of career drift to a favorable extent. The Japanese government has been trying to introduce reforms to aid organizations for taking required employment measures for engaging women, men as well as older
107 people or anyone who might be readily available to work due to the accelerating rate of aging in the current population. Therefore, if introducing a better quality of work life could raise career hope, control drift and reduce the mist among existing workers than this approach is worth considering. As Kato & Suzuki (2006) sum up the career situation for employees in Japanese organizations using subjective constructs, most of them are drifting in the mist while searching for hope. Thus, this research is vital not just to establish the quality of work life as an antecedent for the subjective career in Japan but to tackle issues associated with the inevitable gradual demise of long-term employment in the future and retain employees who are slowly showing inclinations towards dissatisfaction and disenchantment with their working environment and careers. Practically applying these results would also help control any shift towards non-traditional/non- regular employment in Japan especially by the scarce younger workforce. Not just within Japan but globally organizations are trying to devise strategies to cope with the change and the diverse workforce of this century. In accordance with that, the strategies ought to focus on sustainable competitive advantage as well as employees' personal goals so they could successfully lead towards the completion of organizational goals (Timossi, Pedroso, Francesco & Pillati, 2008). Simply put, the 21st-century work environment demands that organizations place greater emphasis on workforce needs by exploring their potential to take complete advantage of their capabilities (Arthi & Chitramani, 2011). Since this research highlights the significance of understanding generational differences that thrive in Japanese workplaces so designing quality of work life interventions which are better suited to the generational composition of the workforce may serve as a potential competitive advantage for the organizations. It would be beneficial for the employees as well as employers to design quality of work life interventions based on the employees’ generation. Human resource development strategies by organizations should be devised to cope with generational differences (Lyons et al., 2015; FosterFenzel/University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2013) because employees would respond more positively to programs that are better aligned with their generational needs (Lub et al., 2015).
6.2 Limitations and future research
Despite its numerous empirical, theoretical, and practical contributions, this research has some limitations that need to be addressed in future studies. First of all, although more than half
108 of the studies on mediation are cross-sectional designs (Pek & Hoyle, 2016), longitudinal designs are more viable for mediation analyses. The cross-sectional design of this research limited its ability to allow for causal inferences in terms of mediation, and to observe the changing patterns in the response items. Even though the primary effects of the independent variable on the dependent variables were tested across two data sets collected one year apart, the first study had a preliminary design and did not include the items for measuring conditional indirect effects. Additionally, in terms of affective scales, this research relied on a cross-sectional approach because numerous studies measuring different kinds of affective states of employees administer the test only once (e.g., Michel, Newness, & Duniewicz, 2016; Pollack, Vanepps, & Hayes, 2012; Cole, Walter, & Bruch, 2008; Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008; Cropanzano, James, & Konovsky, 1993). However, some other researchers advocate administering affect-based scales multiple times to gauge the average affective state for employees over a particular period. As the primary purpose of this research was to establish the hitherto unexplored associations between the proposed variables, so a cross-sectional design was deemed sufficient. Future studies are advised to address these shortcomings by using longitudinal analyses to identify the causal trends, and to account for possible variations in the response items. Secondly, the negative predisposition of the Japanese millennials was suggested based on the abundant literature and surveys about their pessimism, anxiety, and sadness, quoted in the second chapter. However, future empirical studies may be expanded to include personality inventories to decisively gauge the persistent negative or positive affectivity of the millennial respondents. Watson (1988a) found that dispositional affect was related to “average mood rated daily for eight weeks." Thus, longitudinal studies on quality of work life and subjective career via affective states may consider collecting data repeatedly over eight weeks. Thirdly, testing for generation as a moderator raises some concerns. The age-period-cohort confound has already been discussed in detail in chapter five, and this limitation of the study is unavoidable (Lyons et al., 2015), so future studies on intergenerational issues ought to consider and discuss these effects concurrently (Lyons & Kuron, 2013). Furthermore, despite the fact that this study found significant conditional indirect effects in two out of the three hypothesized relationships, the effect sizes are small which may limit the practicality of the results. Therefore, future replication of these results is required on larger sample sizes to decisively generalize these effects to the general population in Japan.
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While the limitations exist, this research also offers useful avenues for further research. Future studies should try to expand the proposed integrated framework by considering the behavioral outcomes that arise from the influence of quality of work life on subjective career. Based on the AET, these outcomes may include affective commitment or turnover intention. Another viable option for further research is to test for the intervening variables outside the scope of the affective pathway proposed in this research. The conceptual framework examined in this study has the potential to be expanded with the inclusion of other relevant mediating and moderating variables. Future studies, especially in Japan, could also account for industry level comparisons as moderating effects. Finally, the research framework and hypotheses were tested in the Japanese context which may limit the generalizability of these results, so the external validity of the results could be assessed by replicating the research in other countries. Research investigating the implications of this study in different cultural contexts is recommended. In sum, it is hoped that this research provides a foundation on which future research can build more useful and sound frameworks.
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APPENDIX A Study-I: quality of work life scale Factor loadings and communalities based on a principal components analysis with oblimin rotation for the QWL scale (N= 436) Dimension-I Dimension-II Communalities 1. My organization offers an adequate health 0.8 0.6 insurance plan 私の組織は適切な保険プランを提示している 2. The administrative team provides an 0.5 0.6 environment in which I feel safe and secure 経営陣は私が安全で安心できるような環境を 提供してくれている 3. I feel that the training provided in our company 0.8 0.6 has helped me to achieve the required skill for performing my current job effectively 私はこの会社が提供する人材育成に関するプ ログラムは今の自分の仕事を効果的に行うた めに求められるスキルを得る助けになってい ると思う My Organization has a work-life balance 0.7 0.5 policy/plan for all employees 私の組織はすべての従業員向けにワークライ フバランスの方針やプランを持っている My current job involves creative tasks (tasks in 0.9 0.6 which I can channel my creative potential) 私の今の仕事は創造的な仕事（自分の創造的 な能力を注ぎ込むことができる仕事）を含ん でいる I feel that my job is secure in this Organization 0.8 0.5 私はこの会社において自分の仕事がなくなる 不安がない I am allowed adequate paid leave by my 0.7 0.5 Organization (Casual leave, Sick leave, Annual leave or Maternity/Paternity) この組織では十分な有給休暇（臨時休暇、病 気休暇、年次休暇、産休、育休）をとること ができる I don’t feel that I have more work assigned to me 0.7 0.4 in comparison with my colleagues 私は同僚に比べてより多くの仕事を課せられ ているとは思わない I feel that I get sufficient fringe benefits in 0.4 0.5 addition to my salary 私は給与に加えて十分な福利厚生を受けてい ると感じている
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APPENDIX B Study-I: subjective career scale Factor loadings and communalities based on a principal components analysis with oblimin rotation for the subjective career scale (N= 436)
Career mist Career drift Career hope Communalities It is difficult for me to visualize my 0.7 0.5 job 10 years into future. 私は、10 年後の自分の仕事内容 を具体的に思い浮かべることが できない Now I do not know about my future 0.7 0.6 job 仕事に関する自分の将来がどう なるか、今はよく分からない It is difficult for me to visualize my 0.6 0.5 job 5 years into future. 私は、5 年後の自分の仕事内容 を具体的に思い浮かべることが できない I feel that my future career is 0.7 0.5 uncertain, as if it is in a mist 自分の将来は霧がかかっている ようでよく見えない I can hardly predict my career in the 0.7 0.5 future これからの先のキャリアのこと は、ほとんど予想がつかない 0.4 0.6 I often think that I want to make my career fulfilling (Reverse item) 自分のキャリアを充実したもの にしたいとしばしば考える 0.6 0.5 Now I do not have any motivation to think about own future career 将来の自分のキャリアについて は、今は考える意欲がまったく わかない I do not care about how should I 0.7 0.6 develop my own career どのようなキャリアを歩むべき かということはあまり気になら ない I do not have so much interest in 0.8 0.7 my future career
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自分の将来のキャリアに対して さほど今は関心をもっていない I try not to think about my future 0.7 0.5 career as much as possible 将来の自分のキャリアのことに ついては、できるだけ考えない ようにしている My career will turn out just fine 0.6 0.5 even if I continue as it is (in the current situation) このままでも自分の将来は何と かなりそうだ Continuing to work in current 0.6 0.6 organization will lead to my desired career situation 現在の組織で仕事を続けること で、自分にとって望ましい状態 に到達できそうだ I am hopeful about the part of my 0.8 0.6 future career that is undecided 自分の将来に関して未知の部分 に希望を感じる I feel that something good for my 0.8 0.6 future career will occur 自分の将来のキャリアに関して 何かいいことがありそうだと感 じる
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APPENDIX C Study-II: quality of work life scale Factor loadings and communalities based on a principal components analysis with oblimin rotation for the QWL scale (N= 442)
Organizational Personal Communalities dimension dimension My organization offers an adequate health 0.6 0.4 insurance plan 私の組織は適切な保険プランを提示している I am allowed adequate paid leave by my 0.7 0.4 Organization (casual leave, sick leave, annual leave or maternity/paternity) この組織では十分な有給休暇（臨時休暇、病 気休暇、年次休暇、産休、育休）をとること ができる I feel that I get sufficient fringe benefits in addition 0.7 0.6 to my salary 私は給与に加えて十分な福利厚生を受けてい ると感じている I am allowed to file for/receive overtime pay 0.5 0.3 私はこの会社で時間外手当てを申告し、受け 取ることができる I spend quality time with my family and/or non- 0.6 0.4 work friends every week/weekend 私は毎週（あるいは毎週末）家族や仕事とは 関係のない友人とすごす時間が十分にある My organization has a work-life balance 0.6 0.5 policy/plan for all employees 私の組織はすべての従業員向けにワークライ フバランスの方針やプランを持っている I don’t feel that I have more work assigned to me 0.6 0.3 in comparison with my colleagues 私は同僚に比べてより多くの仕事を課せられ ているとは思わない I feel that the training provided in our company 0.5 0.5 has helped me to achieve the required skill for performing my current job effectively 私はこの会社が提供する人材育成に関するプ ログラムは今の自分の仕事を効果的に行うた めに求められるスキルを得る助けになってい ると思う I am satisfied with what I’m getting paid for my 0.3 0.3 work わたしは、仕事に対する報酬（給与）に満足 している。
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The administrative team provides an environment 0.6 0.5 in which I feel safe and secure 経営陣は私が安全で安心できるような環境を 提供してくれている I feel that my job is secure in this Organization 0.4 0.3 私はこの会社において自分の仕事がなくなる 不安がない My current job involves creative tasks (tasks in 0.5 0.4 which I can channel my creative potential) 私の今の仕事は創造的な仕事（自分の創造的 な能力を注ぎ込むことができる仕事）を含ん でいる If the need arises, my current skills from this job 0.5 0.3 are transferable to/useful for another company 必要があれば、この仕事から得られる今のス キルは他の会社においても有用である People at work and/or within my profession 0.7 0.5 respect me as a professional and an expert in my field of work. わたしは、同じ組織の同僚や同じ専門性を持 つ人から、専門家として尊敬されている。 I feel my job allows me to realize my full potential 0.7 0.5 わたしは、今の仕事において、自分の能力を 最大限発揮できていると感じる。 I feel that I am realizing my potential as an expert 0.9 0.7 in my line of work/field わたしは、仕事において、専門家としての能 力を発揮できていると感じる。 This job allows me to sharpen/enhance my professional skills わたしは、仕事を通じて、自分の専門家とし てのスキルを磨き・高めている 0.7 0.4
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APPENDIX D Study-II: subjective career scale Factor loadings and communalities based on a principal components analysis with oblimin rotation for the subjective career scale (N= 442)
Career mist Career drift Career hope Communalities It is difficult for me to visualize 0.5 my job 10 years into future. 0.7 私は、10 年後の自分の仕事内 容を具体的に思い浮かべること ができない Now I do not know about my 0.6 future job 0.7 仕事に関する自分の将来がどう なるか、今はよく分からない It is difficult for me to visualize 0.5 my job 5 years into future. 0.7 私は、5 年後の自分の仕事内容 を具体的に思い浮かべることが できない I feel that my future career is 0.6 uncertain, as if it is in a mist 0.7 自分の将来は霧がかかっている ようでよく見えない I can hardly predict my career in 0.6 the future 0.7 これからの先のキャリアのこと は、ほとんど予想がつかない 0.4 0.6 I often think that I want to make my career fulfilling (Reverse item) 自分のキャリアを充実したもの にしたいとしばしば考える 0.6 0.6 Now I do not have any motivation to think about own future career 将来の自分のキャリアについて は、今は考える意欲がまったく わかない I do not care about developing my 0.7 0.5 career どのようなキャリアを歩むべき かということはあまり気になら ない
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I do not have so much interest in 0.8 0.6 my future career 自分の将来のキャリアに対して さほど今は関心をもっていない I try not to think about my future 0.6 0.5 career as much as possible 将来の自分のキャリアのことに ついては、できるだけ考えない ようにしている My career will turn out just fine 0.8 0.6 even if I continue as it is (in the current situation) このままでも自分の将来は何と かなりそうだ Continuing to work in the current 0.8 0.5 organization will lead to my desired career situation 現在の組織で仕事を続けること で、自分にとって望ましい状態 に到達できそうだ I am hopeful about the part of my 0.7 0.6 future career that is undecided 自分の将来に関して未知の部分 に希望を感じる I feel that something good for my 0.7 0.6 future career will occur 自分の将来のキャリアに関して 何かいいことがありそうだと感 じる
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APPENDIX E Study-II: The positive and negative affect schedule Factor loadings and communalities based on a principal components analysis with orthogonal rotation for the positive and negative affect schedule/PANAS (N= 442)
Positive Negative Communalities びくびくした 0.8 0.7 Jittery おびえた 0.8 0.7 Afraid うろたえた 0.8 0.7 Upset 心配した 0.7 0.5 Scared 苦悩した 0.7 0.5 Attentive びりびりした 0.7 0.5 Distressed 恥じた 0.7 0.6 Ashamed 苛立った 0.6 0.4 Irritable 活気のある 0.8 0.7 Attentive 誇らしい 0.8 0.7 Proud 強気な 0.8 0.5 Strong 気合いの入った 0.7 0.6 Inspired きっぱりとした 0.7 0.5 Determined わくわくした 0.7 0.6 Excited 機敏な 0.7 0.6 Active 熱狂した 0.6 0.5 Enthusiastic
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