Quality of work life and illness in the daily lives of higher education professors

ABSTRACT:

The purpose of this article is to disseminate the results of a study on the Quality of Work Life (QWL) of professors. The methodology used in the study was a case study carried out in a Brazilian Federal University which originated from the current policy for the expansion of higher education. In this perspective, the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT) was selected as the object of study, due to the fact that it is located in one of the central regions aimed by the expansion policy; it is the institution which has shown the highest growth in the number of teachers and courses among the Federal universities in the Northern Region of the country and it has several campuses (seven in total). The study was carried out during the second half of 2012, when 130 QWL evaluation questionnaires (10-point Likert-type scale) were applied. The SPSS software was used for the treatment of closed questions and the NVivo 10 software for open questions. Finally, the data obtained from the questionnaires were cross-referenced with illness data obtained from SIASS/UFT. The results show that the greater the integration of the professor's life project with the institution, the greater the QWL, even in unfavorable working conditions. On the other hand, the greater the distance of the personal/collective project from the institutional objectives, the lower the QWL. Relational factors have direct implications on the QWL of teachers and the adoption of Policies for Promotion and Support for the permanence of teachers contributes to the reduction of illnesses.

Keywords:
ReUni; Higher Education Professors; Quality of Work Life; Higher Education Institutions