The "ideal" and the "real" quality of work life as estimated by the employed population of the Vologda oblast

The evolution of society is inextricably linked to the qualitative changes in people's work life. Therefore, the problem of quality of work life (hereinafter QWL) of the employed population becomes urgent in socio-economic and human terms. When making management decisions in the socio-labor sphere and evaluating the interventions' effectiveness it is necessary to consider the population's opinion. The study objectives are the assessment of the quality component of the employed people's working life in terms of perceptions of their importance (the ideal) and availability (the real) in theworkplace and defining the differences in these estimates by gender and taking into account the kind of the work. The article provides the results of the evaluation of the main components of quality of work life from the point of view of their ideal (important) and real (actual) state. The information base of the research was the author's online survey of the employed population of the Vologda Oblast (N=402). The index method was used when assessing the “ideal” and the “real” quality of work life. The “ideal” estimate was based on the respondents' answers about the importance of their working environment, and the “real” one on the degree of conformity of the expected to the real situation in the workplace. It is emphasized that the index of the real state of the analyzed characteristics pertaining to the quality of work life is below the index of importance of QWL component, that is the “ideal” working conditions. The novelty of the study is that the authors implement an integrated approach to the QWL assessment having laid the most comprehensive list of QWL components in the assessment methodology, including the new ones such as autonomy in the workplace; besides, in contrast to the existing approaches, they complement the QWL component assessment by the analysis of differences in the profile of the key population characteristics (socio-demographic, organizational and labor, etc.). The differences in the estimates of the “ideal” and the “real” quality of work life by men and women, and the workers of mental and physical labor are shown. Practical significance of the research is provided by obtaining information about the important components of quality of work life for the employees which will allow to taking this into account when making management decisions in the field of labor activity intensification.