Bridging the Gaps in Work Quality Research: A Multi-Level Interdisciplinary Review

Lisa Chamberlain, Emma Hughes and Rory Donnelly
Additional contact information
Lisa Chamberlain: University of Liverpool, UK
Emma Hughes: University of Manchester, UK
Rory Donnelly: University of Liverpool, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2025, vol. 39, issue 4, 949-971

Abstract: Experiences of work and employment continue to change but the concepts of job quality, job satisfaction and quality of working life remain compartmentalised and contextually disconnected due to entrenched disciplinary divisions, which hinder multi-level work quality theorisation. This article contributes to research on the sociology of work by integrating divergent streams of literature on these concepts with labour process theory to offer a more holistic and integrated perspective on work quality. Our multidisciplinary systematic review ( n  = 345) reveals the conceptual challenges and dynamics work quality researchers face within and between analytical levels, which we synthesise in this article in Figure 1. Three interrelated research agendas are proposed to bridge the gaps between different disciplines, work quality models and contexts. We argue that research combining objective and subjective features of work quality with wider labour process considerations can lead to richer interdisciplinary understandings and support improvements to working lives.

Keywords: job quality; job satisfaction; labour process theory; literature review; quality of working life; work quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170251325790 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:39:y:2025:i:4:p:949-971

DOI: 10.1177/09500170251325790

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Work, Employment & Society from British Sociological Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().