The Rigor of QWL Evaluations Over Time: Evidence of a Modified Positive-Findings Bias

Recent detailed analysis of Quality of Working Life (QWL) evaluative studies supports 3 major conclusions concerning this family of organizational interventions. Only small proportions of the variance in success rates can be attributed to differences in rigor. No case can be made for a robust positive-findings bias (PFB) that proposes that QWL success varies inversely with the degree of rigor of evaluative studies. A recent study tests for possible longitudinal effects by assessing success rates during 5-year intervals from 1965 through early 1987 and by searching for variations over time between methodological or design rigor and success rates of individual studies. This permits an estimate of the degree to which attractive overall QWL success rates can be attributed to incaution or slow learning. Despite the failure to support PFB in the overall 22-year period, a modified PFB is implied when increases in rigor are most associated with lower QWL outcomes in the 1976-1980 period.