The impacts of working hours and job demands on front-line manufacturing workers - A mixed-methods research in China

Abstract

China's front-line manufacturing workers constitute a large-scale workforce. They face persistent challenges like long working hours and poor working conditions. Governments and organizations tend to address these challenges primarily by reducing working hours. However, such efforts have met strong resistance from workers themselves. This thesis therefore examines the impacts of working hours and working conditions on employee outcomes, specifically well-being, work-family conflict, and turnover intentions, and explores potential strategies for improvement. Job demands, specifically workload and time pressure, are adopted to represent working conditions. Working hours in this thesis are treated as an independent factor rather than a component of job demands. This thesis employs a mixed-methods research design, combining questionnaire surveys (N=504) and semi-structured interviews (N=30) to examine the impacts of working hours and job demands, specifically workload and time pressure, on well-being, work-family conflict, and turnover intentions among front-line manufacturing workers. Questionnaire surveys were conducted and analyzed first, followed by semi-structured interviews to explore the underlying mechanisms. This thesis further examines the results through data triangulation with operational metrics from the case company. The quantitative results indicate that the impact of working hours on front-line manufacturing workers' well-being is significant, while the impacts on work-family conflict and turnover intentions are not significant. The impact of job demands specifically workload and time pressure on front-line manufacturing workers' well-being is not significant, while the impacts on work-family conflict and turnover intentions are significant. Fatigue plays a mediating role in all the significant impacts. (p<0.05 for all significance levels) Qualitative research explains the impacts of working hours and job demands specifically workload and time pressure on well-being, work-family conflict, and turnover intentions from three aspects: negative impact factors, mitigating factors, and positive impact factors. The significant impact of working hours on well-being comes from insufficient discretionary time and fatigue. However, high autonomy over working hours can mitigate the negative impact. Long working hours can also bring positive effects such as increased income and fulfillment of social needs. The non-significant impact of working hours on work-family conflict is attributed to certain cultural factors (e.g., attitudes toward family, expectations, etc.), high autonomy over working hours, and family support. The non-significant impact of working hours on turnover intentions is due to the mitigating effects of certain cultural factors (e.g., concepts, concerns about potential discrimination), company benefits, and economic pressure. The impact of job demands specifically workload and time pressure on well-being is caused by high workload and demanding work arrangements. This finding differs from the conclusions of quantitative research, mainly because of differing understandings of well-being in different situations. However, certain cultural factors (e.g., family concepts, expectations) and the higher income resulting from high job demands can mitigate the related negative impacts. The significant impact of job demands specifically workload and time pressure on work-family conflict also comes from high workload and demanding work arrangements. Family support can mitigate these negative impacts. The impact of job demands specifically workload and time pressure on turnover intentions is primarily due to high workload. However, some cultural factors (e.g., concepts, expectations) can mitigate the impact of job demands specifically workload and time pressure on turnover intentions. From the qualitative study, the factors influencing fatigue and well-being are explored, which is useful for developing measures to improve working conditions from the perspective of front-line manufacturing workers themselves. Finally, from a pragmatic perspective, this study provides recommendations for improving the working hours and working conditions of front-line manufacturing workers, as well as outlines practical practices of the case company, aiming to enhance their lives based on the genuine interests of both labor and management.