oa Southern African Business Review - Can job-sharing improve quality of work life in South Africa?

Abstract

In recent years, the issue of redesigning jobs has gone beyond the determination of the most efficient way to perform tasks and improve productivity, to ways of improving the employee's dignity, trust and wellbeing through a philosophy that has come to be known as quality of work life (QWL). Industrial unrest, strikes and retrenchments, among other things, have characterised the South African labour market. These pose a challenge to most organisations, which have to take cognizance of the fact that, to increase employee productivity and thrive competitively in the global market, they have to develop more humanistic workplaces. One of the ways that organisations can improve QWL is by enriching the context of the job through giving employees autonomy to choose their work schedule, or when thcjob is performed. An alternative work schedule, which provides employees with flexibility and increases their motivation and work satisfaction, is job-sharing. This paper, based on literature and research survey results, explores the relationship between job-sharing and QWL, and concludes that job-sharing has the potential to improve QWL in South Africa.