Autonomous work groups are composed of team human resource management, team autonomy and multiskilling. These components have positive effects, but little quantitative research has explicitly examined these effects in Japanese hospitals. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which team human resource management and team autonomy would be associated with quality of working life levels, and whether multiskilling would mediate these relations. To test this model, using a sample of 302 Japanese medical professions working for hospital organizations in Japan. Based on multiple regression analysis and the bootstrapping method, two findings were revealed. First, both team human resource management and team autonomy were significantly and positively related to quality of working life. Second, multiskilling was evidenced to partially mediate the effects of team human resource management and team autonomy on quality of working life. These results provide further empirical support for autonomous work groups in hospital organizations, and also evidence to promote autonomous work groups to workplaces affected by the service economy and knowledge economy.
