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Improving the quality of working life

Melhorar a qualidade de vida no trabalho

Mejorar la calidad de vida en el trabajo

Améliorer la qualité de la vie au travail

“Laboreal”, July 2025 edition

« Laboreal », edição de julho de 2025

«Laboreal», número de julio de 2025

« Laboreal », numéro de juillet 2025

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Published on Friday, September 20, 2024

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, there has been a proliferation of research and interventions whose purpose, in contrast to the strict profitability objective of ‘quality circles’, focuses on the quality of working life. They have often been designated by the acronym QWL. This designation authorizes a wide range of methodologies and actions and there have been proposals structured considering diagnoses and interventions that were based on the workers’ point of view and on what happens in reality at work situations. In these approaches, the tradition of activity ergonomics and work psychology once again demonstrate the wealth of methodological tools and intervention models. Laboreal invites researchers to present studies addressing this issue, in particular those that present detailed field experiences.

Announcement

Argument

A decisive turning point in the history of the organization of industrial work occurred during the 1980s: large-scale production was gradually replaced by the manufacturing of small series of products better suited to the needs of customers who, in a competitive environment that was favorable to them, demanded other specificities and renewed quality in their orders. Important changes to the production process’s structure were implemented to adapt to the new requirements. In human resources management, conditions were created that were conducive to new scenarios of retraining and recruitment. Thus, the era of ‘just in time’ was imposed, associated with the search for ‘total quality’ in a global economy undergoing a profound transformation, that quickly spread to economic activities involving the provision of services.

The intervention model known as ‘quality circles’ was very successful in companies at the time: relying on the virtuality of small groups, it brought together groups of workers responsible for proposing measures to improve the conditions inherent to production work, with the dual concern of product quality and company productivity.

However, the quality search was not always associated with the evolution of working conditions, which were affected by the progressive intensification of activities that require constant attention and commitment, in working hours that put health at risk. This is often accompanied by lack of recognition and the use of assessment methods that are not sensitive to the complexity of real work, an increasing precariousness of employment contracts, and organizational dynamics that are not very open to controversy, highlighting the downside of economic development based on serious shortcomings in the quality of working life.

Thus, over the last twenty years, there has been a proliferation of research and interventions whose purpose, in contrast to the strict profitability objective of quality circles, focuses on the quality of working life. They have often been designated by the acronym QWL.

This designation authorizes a wide range of methodologies and actions, such as those that Ferreira (2015) defined as ‘body-mind restoration’, which aim, using activities focused on a balance of physical and mental well-being of workers, to help them better deal with work situations that are maintained unchanged. On the other hand, there have also been proposals structured to be openly oriented towards the design of decent working conditions - that is, considering diagnoses and interventions that were based on the workers’ point of view and on what happens in reality at work situations. In these approaches, the tradition of activity ergonomics and work psychology once again demonstrate the wealth of methodological tools and intervention models whose foundations historically precede concerns with QWL.

Laboreal invites researchers to present studies addressing this issue, in particular those that present detailed field experiences.

Articles will be published in one of the journal’s two languages ​​(Spanish or Portuguese). However, proposals and texts submitted for evaluation may also be written in French or English.

Authors will be responsible for translating their work into Spanish or Portuguese, taking into account the results of the evaluations.

Issue Editors

Lúcia Simões and Marianne Lacomblez

Schedule

  • October 14th, 2024: Deadline for submitting proposals with the following content:

article title; 500-word abstract with a projection of the author's intentions for the article; and 5 references, including references to the authors- publications. Proposals should be sent to the following email address: laboreal@fpce.up.pt

  • October 31st, 2024: Deadline for informing authors of the evaluation results of the proposals.
  • December 15th, 2024: Deadline for receipt of complete papers.
  • February 15th, 2025: Deadline for informing authors of article evaluation results.
  • March 31st, 2025: Deadline for receiving revised versions of articles.
  • 31st of May 2025: Deadline for receiving the final version of the papers, in Spanish or Portuguese.

Scientific Committee

  • Lúcia Simões Costa ESTESC-Coimbra Health School, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Portugal
  • Marianne Lacomblez Centro de Psicologia da Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
  • Daniel Silva Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

Ferreira, M. C. (2015). Qualidade de Vida no Trabalho (QVT): do assistencialismo à promoção efetiva. Laboreal, 11(2), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.4000/laboreal.3552

Places

  • Revista Laboreal, CPUP - Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200–135
    Porto, Portugal (4200–135)

Event attendance modalities

Full online event


Date(s)

  • Monday, October 14, 2024

Keywords

  • trabalho real, qualidade de visa no trabalho, ergonomia da atividade, psicologia do trabalho

Contact(s)

  • Simões Lúcia
    courriel : luciasimoescosta [at] gmail [dot] com
  • Silva Daniel
    courriel : danielsilva [at] fpce [dot] up [dot] pt

Reference Urls

Information source

  • Lacomblez Marianne
    courriel : lacomb [at] fpce [dot] up [dot] pt

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Improving the quality of working life », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Friday, September 20, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/12buv

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