In this book, chapters 1 through 3 attempt to provide a description and explanation to the concepts and framework to be addressed in this research. Here, the author elaborates on the basic definitions of objective and subjective quality of work, and the analyses to be carried out centering on these concepts. The author argues that the discussion of objective quality of work should be carried out by analyzing the combinatorial patterns of various dimensions of the quality of work and researching how the quality of work is distributed across different sectors and groups; while analysis of subjective quality of work should be focused on workers’ perception and evaluation of related job characteristics. With an attempt to minimize the use of psychological theories, the author explains the differences and patterns arising therefrom from a sociological perspective (e.g., the theory of social action). Chapters 4 through 6 present a study of the most important dimensions of quality of work. Specifically, the author focuses on compensation, contract and job security in Chapter 4 to analyze different ways to obtain compensation and inequality of compensatory levels, and explain such differences based on the differentiation of labor contracts. In Chapter 5, the author mainly analyzes skill development, job turnover and promotional opportunities of employees as a way to distinguish career-type jobs and dead-end jobs. In Chapter 6, the author examines employees’ participation and autonomy within organizations. Chapter 7 deals with the trend of changes in conditions of the quality of work and cross-national differences. Differing from the focuses of previous chapters on combinatorial patterns and causal relationships, this chapter presents a comprehensive analysis of quality of work from a temporal and nation-specific perspective.

For example, to validate the proposition of the “Matthew effect” in Chapter 4, the author examines the deterministic mechanism of wages across the two sectors in a dualistic labor market. The author argues that as a core characteristic, job security can be used to distinguish the primary and secondary labor markets. As job security is legally fulfilled through labor contracts, it is feasible to further divide the dualistic labor market based on labor contracts. Empirical results show that different deterministic mechanisms of wages are at work in the primary and secondary labor markets. Wages in the secondary labor market are mainly determined by market factors and mechanism, while those in the primary market are significantly subject to geographic factors and non-market mechanisms. Such a difference has resulted in significantly higher wages in the primary market than the secondary market. The finding, on the one hand, directly validates the existence of the Matthew effect, and provides an explanation to the differentiation of the quality of work, on the other, that is, labors that falling into the two heterogeneous and segmented labor markets are the main cause for the considerable difference in the quality of their working life.

As found by the author in Chapter 5, for one thing, a rise in educational level increases the risk of job turnover; for another, other variables, such as specialized skills, professional titles and management positions, reduce the risk of job turnover. The results of logistic model analysis carried out by the author on promotional opportunities reveal that like other variables (specialized skills, professional title and management position), educational level significantly increase promotional opportunities, both actual and prospective, within an organization; however, for promotional opportunities that are obtained after an employee leaves his/her current employer, other factors like specialized skills, professional title and senior management positions than educational level and specific management positions (grassroots and mid-level positions) have no significant effect on external promotional opportunities.

Take another example: in Chapter 6, the author's analysis of the mode of work autonomy indicates that within employment organizations, work autonomy and the freedom in other aspects of workplaces form up an evident convergent mode, that is, while workers obtain work autonomy, they are also granted relatively large freedom in other aspects. An analysis of the deterministic factors for work autonomy indicates that work autonomy is closely related to employees’ skill levels and their management positions within organizations. The higher an employee's skill level, the more likely he or she will obtain work autonomy opportunities; by the same token, occupation of management positions can also significantly boost the opportunity of work autonomy. The author’s analytic data also shows that in China's employment organizations, management position is a more significant factor in determining work autonomy than skill level. Thus, the distribution of work autonomy tends to be power-centered instead of task-centered.

In this book, the author further examines the effect of work autonomy on the frequency of interpersonal interactions within organizations. It is found that the higher the workers’ work autonomy, the more frequent their interactions with superiors and subordinates, and the less frequent their interactions with colleagues at the same level. The author argues that work autonomy increases the trust between workers and their superiors, but at the same time, it also increases the conflicts with colleagues at the same level. This indicates that work autonomy as an important dimension in the quality of working life can affect people's actually perceived status and interpersonal trust within an organization in multiple ways, thereby affecting their job satisfaction.