The discourses about quality of life for workers as disciplinary mechanisms

Abstract

The discourse about the promotion of quality of life for workers is disseminated both in companies and academic papers on Psychology, Management, and Production Engineering. However, there's a remarkable divergence among authors with regard to the definition and origin of the term quality of life for workers, something which motivated us to scrutinize many works on the area trying to understand how this discourse found a place among the authorized (or those regarded as veritable) discourses. The analysis of academic studies on the quality of work life indicated the existence of three matrices on the theme: Humanist Matrix, Sociotechnical Matrix, and Total Quality Matrix. We also analyzed authors who, if not constituting a reference matrix, present a critical view on the classic proposals addressing the theme and put them in context with regard to other knowledge areas. One concludes that, putting Work aside and connecting themselves to the idea of Lifestyle, the discourses on the quality of life for workers ended up becoming disciplinary mechanisms for the internalization of values and promotion of habits, behaviors, and attitudes regarded as "healthy" by employers.