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For representative German panel data, we show that voluntary job switching leads to relatively high levels of life satisfaction, though only for some time, whereas the impact of exogenously triggered job changes is ambiguous. Risk aversion interacts negatively with this effect in life satisfaction. Analysing time-use data and well-being indicators for various areas of life, we find evidence that involuntary job mobility turns out to be harmful for satisfaction with family life. By linking this relatively new measure of family well-being to domestic events, such as future child births, our paper reveals a behaviourally valid predictor of great economic relevance.

Job satisfaction has been found to impact behavioral choices at the workplace. Since levels of satisfaction are not guaranteed to remain high, understanding the consequences of job dissatisfaction is essential. Hence, I analyze the relationship between a worker’s job satisfaction and her training investments. Based on my theoretical model, I expect a U-shaped relationship if dissatisfied workers attempt to improve the situation or plan to quit. In contrast, there is an overall positive relationship if dissatisfied workers neglect their duties. Using logit regressions with the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey I find tentative evidence that there is on average an overall positive relationship with a 1 standard deviation increase in job satisfaction being associated with a 1.5% increased likelihood of participating in training. A closer inspection of the reasons for training as well as quit intentions reveals some hints of a U-shaped relationship. My results highlight the importance of considering the source of dissatisfaction as there are heterogeneous effects along different job satisfaction facets., CEPA Discussion Papers; 47

Although Hirschman's exit-voice theoretical model has been applied to labor markets, research up to now has not tested one of its most important features: the impact of job quality on exit-voice strategies. Hirschman's model of consumer behavior explains that those individuals unsatisfied with a product's quality are more likely to "voice," whereas those more concerned with its price are more likely to "exit." A rationale for this trade- off is based on information: first, information on the price of alternative options is much more accessible than information on quality; second, voice produces more information than exit and favors opportunities for specific improvements. We transpose Hirschman's assumptions to labor markets and use the French SalSa survey and DADS, declaration by employers on social data, to examine the conditions under which French employees are more likely to exit, and the conditions under which they are more likely to voice. Our results support the Hirschmanian hypothesis. A deterioration by one unit in our working-conditions index increases the probability of participation in collective action by 5 percentage points. An increase in log hourly wage by one unit decreases the probability of quitting by 5 percentage points.

Along with China becoming an upper-middle-income country from a lower-middle-income one after 2009, the happiness inequality in China has been enlarged. Based on the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) database (2003-2012), this paper investigates the determinants of the happiness inequality in China and explores what factors contribute to its enlargement after 2009. We find that a rise of income inequality as well as the population share of middle age cohorts can widen China’s happiness inequality, while an increase in income or education level has a reducing impact. Owning a house and being in employment also have happiness inequality reducing impacts. A decomposition analysis shows that the deterioration of China’s happiness inequality is mainly caused by coefficient effects, i.e., the relationships between happiness inequality and its influencing factors have changed, which reflects the dramatic change in the Chinese economy and society. Among the coefficient effects, regional heterogeneity plays an important role. Policies enhancing economic performance and education as well as reducing income inequality and regional inequality can help to reduce happiness inequality and improve social harmony in China.

"This paper evaluates the impact on temporary agency workers' job satisfaction of a reform that considerably changed regulations covering the temporary help service sector in Germany. We isolate the causal effect of this reform by combining a difference- in-difference and matching approach and using rich survey data. We find that the change of the law substantially decreased agency workers' job satisfaction while regular workers' job satisfaction remained unchanged. Further analysis reveals that the negative effect on agency workers' job satisfaction can be attributed to a decrease in wages and an increase in perceived job insecurity. These results are also robust to the use of different specifications and placebo tests." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

In recent years many countries of the European Union (EU) have implemented comprehensive smoking bans to reduce exposure to tobacco smoke in public places and all indoor workplaces. Despite the intense public debate, research on the impact of smoking regulation on health, particularly within the workplace, is still very limited. In this paper, we use a Diff-in-Diff approach and comparable micro-data – for a large number of European countries – to evaluate the impact of national comprehensive smoking bans on both perceived workers' health and presence of respiratory problems within workplaces. Results show that the introduction of comprehensive smoking bans has a significant effect on workers' perceived health, particularly on the probability of exposure to smoke and fumes, also controlling for risk exposure. We also highlight some unintended effects of smoking bans in terms of mental distress, which counteract the positive impact on risk exposure and physical health. The impact across countries is shown to vary with the degree of strictness of the bans.

We show that worker wellbeing is not only related to the amount of compensation workers receive but also how they receive it. While previous theoretical and empirical work has often been pre-occupied with individual performance-related pay, we here demonstrate a robust positive link between the receipt of a range of group performance schemes (profit shares, group bonuses and share ownership) and job satisfaction. Critically, this relationship remains after conditioning on wage levels, which suggests these pay methods provide utility to workers in addition to that through higher wages. These findings survive a variety of methods aimed at accounting for unobserved individual and job-specific characteristics. We investigate two potential channels for this effect. We first demonstrate that half of the positive effect can be accounted for by employees' tendency to reciprocate in return for the "gift" of share capitalism. Second, we show that these 'share capitalist' modes of pay dampen the negative wellbeing effects of what we typically think of as "bad" aspects of job quality. Finally, share-capitalist pay methods also have positive wellbeing spill-over effects on co-workers.

In recent years, the proportion of students facing a binding constraint on government student loans has grown. This has led to substantially increased use of private loans as a supplementary source of finance for households’ higher education investment. A critical aspect of the private market for student loans is that loan terms must reflect students’ risk of default. College investment will therefore differ from a world in which government student loans, whose terms are not sensitive to credit risk, are expanded to no longer bind. Moreover, beyond simply crowding out private lending, expansions of the government student loan program will feed back into default risk on private loans. The goal of this paper is to provide a quantitative assessment of the likely effects of the private market for student loans on college enrollment. We build a model of college investment that reflects uninsured idiosyncratic risk and a well-defined life-cycle that is consistent with observed borrowing and default behavior across family income and college preparedness. We find that higher government borrowing limits increase college investment but lead to more default in the private market for student loans, while tuition subsides increase college investment and reduce default rates in the private market. Consequently, higher limits on government student loans have small negative welfare effects, while tuition subsidies increase aggregate welfare.

Recent work in psychology and economics has investigated ways in which individuals experience their lives. This literature includes influences on individuals’ momentary happiness. We contribute to this literature using a new data source, Mappiness (www.mappiness.org.uk), which permits individuals to record their wellbeing via a smartphone. The data contain more than a million observations on tens of thousands of individuals in the UK, collected since August 2010. We explore the links between individuals’ wellbeing measured momentarily at random points in time and their experiences of paid work. We explore variation in wellbeing within-individual over time having accounted for fixed unobservable differences across people. We quantify the effects of working on individuals’ affect relative to other activities they perform. We consider the effects of working on two aspects of affect: happiness and relaxation. We find paid work is ranked lower than any of the other 39 activities individuals engage in, with the exception of being sick in bed. Although controlling for other factors, including person fixed effects, reduces the size of the association its rank position remains the same and the effect is still equivalent to a 7-8% reduction in happiness relative to circumstances in which one is not working. Paid work has a similar though slightly larger negative impact on being relaxed. However, precisely how unhappy or anxious one is while working depends on the circumstances. Wellbeing at work varies significantly with where you work (at home, at work, elsewhere); whether you are combining work with other activities; whether you are alone or with others; and the time of day or night you are working.

The data used in this paper were collected by the “Bundesinstitut fur Berufsbildung (BIBB)” and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and are documented in the German “Zentralarchiv fur Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA).” Neither the producers of the data nor the ZA bear any responsibility for the analysis and interpretation of the data in this paper. This study is partially funded by the Swiss Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology through its Leading House on the Economics of Education, Firm Behavior and Training Policies. For comments and suggestions the authors are grateful to Ulrich Kaiser, Jens Mohrenweiser, and Andrew Oswald, and participants in the T.A.S.K.S workshop, the EALE in Cyprus, and discussants at the SMYE in Groningen.

The recent recession has generated a tremendous increase in unemployment rates in Spain. In this paper we use a very rich repeated cross-section dataset on workers’ job conditions, together with regional unemployment rates, to investigate whether peers’ unemployment affects individuals’ job satisfaction. We find that, once perceived job stability is controlled for, peers’ unemployment shows a positive effect on individuals’ wellbeing at work, larger and more precisely estimated for men and private-sector workers. The impact is highly non-linear and the largest effect is found for unemployment rates exceeding 10%. Interestingly, the results are robust to controlling for workforce selection. La recesión reciente ha generado un gran incremento de las tasas de desempleo en España. En este artículo se utiliza una fusión de cortes transversales sobre las condiciones de trabajo, lo que junto a las tasas de desempleo regionales nos permite investigar si el desempleo de los pares afecta a la satisfacción laboral de los individuos. Llegamos a que, una vez controlada la estabilidad en el empleo, el desempleo de los pares muestra un efecto positivo sobre la satisfacción laboral. Este efecto es mayor para los hombres y los trabajadores del sector privado. Además, el impacto es no lineal y el efecto mayor se encuentra para una tasa de desempleo mayor al 10%. Los resultados son robustos y no hay problemas de selección muestral.

The objective of this paper is to examine the factors influencing workers’ job satisfaction aside from the conventional factors, in the light of basic cultural values and beliefs, and then to set this into a comparative perspective for three groups of countries: South-East European (SEE) countries, Central and Eastern European countries (CEE) and Western Europe. Cultural values are grouped into traditional vs. secular-rational values and survival vs. self-expression values. The main result of the study is that culture has a considerable effect on job satisfaction across all groups of countries under investigation. However, there are between-group differences in terms of the relative importance of specific cultural values for job satisfaction. We also find some evidence suggesting the persistency of cultures and slow-moving institutions.

This paper examines the impact of worker’s age on the consequences of occupational injuries. Using data from the Spanish Statistics on Accidents at Work for 2004-2010, a multinomial model is estimated in order to analyse the impact of the age on the probability of suffering a severe or fatal accident. Further, a duration model is used to assess the effect of worker’s age on the length of sick leave caused by occupational injuries. The analysis shows that the probability of suffering a severe or fatal accident, as well as the duration of the sick leave, increases with the worker’s age once personal, job, and accident characteristics are controlled for. From a policy perspective, the results point out that decisions about delaying the retirement age require additional measures, such as the occupational reallocation of these older workers towards tasks with lower incidence rates, in order to minimise these effects

This paper investigates the phenomenon of qualification mismatch (overeducation) among graduates from universities of applied sciences. Using data from the Swiss graduate surveys, it analyses the incidence of mismatch, determinants, and the connections with earnings and job satisfaction. Analyses show that a year after graduating around one sixth of those employed (17%) are in a job which does not match, or only partially matches, the qualifications they have acquired, and that this proportion is not diminishing significantly in the medium term. The risk of mismatch varies considerably, however, by subject area and final grade. In addition, the results indicate that employment below the level of qualification on entering professional life significantly raises the probability of mismatch in the following years too. Analyses of the impacts suggest that employment poorly matched to education and training is associated with an income penalty of around 5% in the short to medium term. Graduates in a mismatch situation also demonstrate less job satisfaction than those in a position matched to their qualification.

Measures of individual happiness, or well-being, can guide labor market policies. Individual unemployment, as well as the rate of unemployment in society, have a negative effect on happiness. In contrast, employment protection and un-employment benefits or a basic income can contribute to happiness—though when such policies prolong unintended unemployment, the net effect on national happiness is negative. Active labor market policies that create more job opportunities increase happiness, which in turn increases productivity. Measures of individual happiness should therefore guide labor market policy more explicitly, also with substantial robotization in production.

Employees are more willing to work and put effort in for an employer that genuinely promotes the greater good. Some are also willing to give up part of their compensation to contribute to a social cause they share. Being able to attract a motivated workforce is particularly important for the public sector, where performance is usually more difficult to measure, but this goal remains elusive. Paying people more or underlining the career opportunities (as opposed to the social aspects) associated with public sector jobs is instrumental in attracting a more productive workforce, while a proper selection process may mitigate the negative impact on intrinsic motivation.

El presente trabajo se llevó a cabo con la finalidad de identificar los factores que determinan un clima organizacional en las Pequeñas empresas de la industria metal – mecánica de Monclova y Frontera, Coahuila, a fin de proporcionarles a estas últimas una propuesta con recomendaciones y contribuir al logro de sus estrategias gerenciales. El estudio se realizó a un consenso de 31 trabajadores a quienes se les aplicó un cuestionario estructurado, para la fiabilidad del instrumento se utilizó la prueba Alfa de Cronbach, obteniéndose un coeficiente de consistencia interna de 0.851. Una vez tabulados los datos, el tratamiento estadístico se realizo usando el programa SSPS (versión17.0) Como resultado la Medias más altas fueron los siguientes: Relaciones, Liderazgo y Estructura; en cuando a las correlaciones de Pearson las altamente significativas entre las variables Estructura con Liderazgo y Relaciones; Recompensas, Mecanismos Útiles; Liderazgo con Relaciones. Otras de las correlaciones significativas son Propósito con Estructura; Relaciones y Recompensas con Mecanimos Útiles

Occupational accidents cause important social and economic problems by loss of life and physical injuries. Construction sector involves high risk due to its production processes and labor intensive characteristic and because of occupational accidents the sector brings up against financial loss in large scale. In developing countries, construction sector is one of the most important sectors that have a great contribution to economic development with its employment capacity and added-value to the economy. On the other hand, due to the lack of preventive measures, occupational accidents occur, frequently in construction in Turkey. Major occupational accidents are defined as the cause of serious injuries and a long-term disability; minor occupational accidents are defined as the cause of insignificant injuries and short-term disability. Minor occupational accidents are not considered sufficiently, they are even not kept as a record. It is known that minor occupational accidents, which are not considered sufficiently and even not registered, cause great financial loss in workplaces. The aim of this paper is to investigate the cost of workforce loss caused by the accidents in construction sites by using the statistics of three construction sites in Turkey and to compare the financial losses of minor and major occupational accidents. In this study, three construction project are investigated in Turkey in 2009 and it is obtained that the cost of workday loss caused by major occupational accidents is 19431.75 $ and minor occupational accidents cause a loss of 6924.25 $. The cost of workday loss caused by minor occupational accidents are almost 35 % of major workday losses’. These costs presents the importance of preventive measures for workers’ health and safety in construction.

This paper introduces an empirical investigation of on-the-job relationships by studying two facets of relationships, namely time spent in relationships with colleagues and clients and quality of relationships cultivated on the job. The analysis is carried out on a sample of organisations in the welfare sector. This sector is characterised by the relevance of relationships due to the multitasking activity performed; specifically, the quality of services produced is frequently to result from attention paid to clients and relational aspects. The paper focuses on both the determinants of time spent in relationships and employees satisfaction with relationships in order to understand the main factors determining the development of relationships, as well as the impact of relationships with colleagues and superiors on employees’ wellbeing and performance. The natural traits of employees and their motivations towards relationships, affective and informational support by colleagues and superiors and the working environment are individuated as determinants of good-quality relationships. Furthermore, the results show that having good on-thejob relationships enhances job satisfaction, but also workforce productivity, with positive consequences for organisations as well.

This work identifies factors that determine organizational climate in small enterprises in industry metal – mechanics of Monclova and Frontera, Coahuila. The objective is to provide them a proposal with recommendations and contribute to achievement of their strategies management. We carried out a consensus of 31 workers who applied a structured questionnaire. To determine reliability of the instrument we used the Cronbach’s Alpha test, obtaining a 0.851 internal consistency coefficient. Once we tabulated data, the statistical treatment was conducted using the SSPS (versión17.0) program. The highest means were the following: Relationships, Leadership and Structure; when Pearson correlations the highly significant differences between the variables Structure with Leadership and Relationships; Rewards, Helpful Mechanisms; Leadership with Relationships. Other significant correlations are with Purpose with Structure; Relations and Rewards with useful mechanisms.

Canadian real labour income has increasingly lagged behind productivity growth. This article employs a bargaining power approach to wage determination to explore the hypothesis that some public polices intended to promote productivity growth may have contributed to the erosion of worker bargaining power, thereby reducing workers’ capacity to benefit from productivity growth. We present an econometric analysis of several policies that supports this hypothesis.

Die allermeisten Erwerbstätigen bewerten ihre berufliche Tätigkeit positiv; nur jeder Achte ist mit ihr unzufrieden. An diesem Bild hat sich in den vergangenen 20 Jahren nichts verändert. Es zeigen sich kaum Unterschiede im Ausmaß der Zufriedenheit zwischen den Geschlechtern, zwischen den Beschäftigten in Westdeutschland und Ostdeutschland sowiezwischen den verschiedenen Altersgruppen. Auch die Höhe der Entlohnung sowie die Art der ausgeübten Tätigkeit haben keinen starken Einfluss auf die Zufriedenheit mit dem Job. Bei der Bewertung einer beruflichen Tätigkeit spielen nicht nur deren Eigenschaften eine Rolle, sondern auch die Einschätzungen der Beschäftigten darüber, was der Job ihnen bieten sollte. Dem entsprechend wird die Arbeitszufriedenheit erheblich von Gefühlen und persönlichen Eigenheiten beeinflusst. Unzufrieden mit ihrer Arbeit sind relativ häufig Personen, die oft ängstlich oder ärgerlich sind, die sich vergleichsweise selten glücklich fühlen und die weniger optimistisch in die Zukunft schauen. Personen, die mit ihrer Arbeit unzufrieden sind, neigen häufiger zum Jobwechsel, und dadurch steigt in vielen Fällen die Zufriedenheit. Es gibt aber auch nicht wenige Personen, die an ihrer Stelle festhalten, und dennoch im Laufe der Zeit zufriedener werden. Vermutlich arrangieren sie sich mit den Gegebenheiten. The vast majority of workers rate their professional occupations positively; only one in eight is unhappy with his or her job. This has been the case for the past 20 years. There is little difference in the degree of satisfaction between genders, workers in West Germany and East Germany, or among different age groups. Even the level of compensation and the nature of the work itself do not exert any strong influence on job satisfaction. When a job is being evaluated, not only do its peculiarities play a role, but also the employees' perceptions of what they should be getting out of their jobs. As a result, job satisfaction is significantly influenced by employees' feelings and personal peculiarities. It is relatively common for people who are often anxious or angry, are happy relatively rarely, or who have a less optimistic future outlook to be dissatisfied with work. People who are dissatisfied with work are more prone to changing jobs, and in many cases, their satisfaction increases as a result. There are also quite a few dissatisfied individuals who decide to stick with theirjobs and find themselves becoming more satisfied over time; presumably, they come to terms with their circumstances.

Nearly all workers have a supervisor or “boss.” Yet little is known about how bosses influence the quality of employees’ lives. This study offers new evidence. First, the authors find that a boss’s technical competence is the single strongest predictor of a worker’s job satisfaction. Second, they demonstrate using longitudinal data, after controlling for fixed-effects, that even if a worker stays in the same job and workplace, a rise in the competence of a supervisor is associated with an improvement in the worker’s well-being. Third, the authors report a variety of robustness checks, including tentative instrumental variable results. These findings, which draw on U.S. and British data, contribute to an emerging literature on the role of “expert leaders” in organizations.

This paper reviews the literature on the impact ofwork on health. We consider work along two dimensions: (i) the intensive margin, i.e. how many hours an individual works and (ii) the extensive margin, i.e. whether an individual is in employment or not, independent of the number of hours worked. We show that most of the evidence on the negative health impact of work found in the literature is based on situations in which workers have essentially no control (no choice) over theamount of work they provide. In essence, what is detrimental to health is not so much work per se as much as the gap which may exist between the actual and the desired amount of work, both at the intensive and extensive margins., Dans cet article, nous passons en revue la littérature sur l'impact du travail sur la santé. Nous considérons le travail selon deux dimensions : (i)la marge intensive, à savoir le nombre d'heures travaillées par un individu et (ii) la marge extensive, c'est-à-dire le fait qu'un individu soit ou non en emploi, indépendamment du nombre d'heures travaillées. Nous montrons que l'effet néfaste du travail sur la santé, mis en évidence dans la littérature, est basé sur des situations dans lesquelles les salariés n'ont, pour l'essentiel, aucun contrôle (aucun choix) sur la quantité de travail qu'ils fournissent. Dans les faits, l'effet néfaste sur la santé ne proviendrait pas tant du travail en soi que de l'écart éventuel entre la quantité de travail effectivement fournie et la quantité désirée, tant à la marge intensive qu'à la marge extensive.

Given that there have been written a number of books, numerous papers, theses that treat the subject work in people's lives, this article aims to bring added value by identifying the extent that it contributes to improving the quality of individuals' life. During the two parts of the article (state of the art and theoretical) the article focuses on relevant issues which have national and international literature sources, but also international websites specialized in work analysis. The data, on I have completed the practical part of this article, comes from a site specialized in the study of quality of people's live ,,Word Values Survey". The theoretical part is a office marketing research focused on the analysis of secondary sources. The working hypothesis of this article assumes that work is one of the determinants of people's life quality, because it determines the individual's moral and financial satisfaction, and through economic situation the individual can lead a better life. The research is actually a comparative analysis based on a survey among Romanians and Ukrainians to identify how they perceive some aspects related to work. TWord Values SurveyT has an application and, as a result of the orders, it has provided me information from surveys applied, whereon I analyzed and interpreted in my own way, but objectively. The research reveals that there is a difference of opinion between the two countries on relevant issues related to work.

This paper argues that the German labor market reforms implemented in 2003–2005 were successful, according to the main quantitative indicator of labor market conditions. Long-term unemployment decreased substantially in the years after the reform, and the trend of continuously increasing systemic unemployment was reversed. At the same time, the extreme shock to the GDP incurred by the world recession in 2008/2009 left only minor traces in the German labor market. Employment climbed to an all-time high, and several regions, especially Southern Germany, are close to full employment. One should also stress that youth unemployment in the country is among the lowest in Europe. The evidence from several qualitative indicators of labor market conditions, however, is less clear. Since 2005, these different indicators tell both negative and positive stories. On the positive side, the German ‘job miracle’ could have played a role in this context. Even during the sharpest recession in the post-war period, employment was stable. My interpretation is that this ameliorated the perceived job stability for many workers. On the negative side, the wage growth for many groups of workers is unsatisfactory. Wage inequality has risen substantially. Today, the size of the low-pay sector in Germany is higher than that in almost all other European countries. I argue that the increase in wage dispersion has gone too far. It was not a necessary condition for the improvement of the employment rate but was instead an unintended by-product of the reforms. Therefore, this side effect can be corrected without jeopardizing the indisputable employment rate successes.

Bilgi iletisim teknolojisinde ve bireylerin yasam tarzlarinda meydana gelen hizli gelismeler nedeniyle calisanlarin is ve kisisel yasamlari arasinda bir denge kuramadiklari ve bu sorunu gidermek icinse orgutlerin is yasam denge programlarini uygulamaya koyduklari gorulmektedir. Icsel pazarlama yaklasimina gore dis musterilerin memnun edilebilmesi, ic musteriler olan calisanlarin da memnun edilebilmesine baglidir. Calisanlarin is ve ozel yasamlari arasinda denge kurabilmeleri orgute olan bagliliklarini dolayisiyla memnuniyetlerini etkilemektedir. Bu nedenle bu kavramlar arasindaki iliskileri ortaya koymak yoneticilerin orgutun insan kaynagini iyi yonetmesi ve cesitli insan kaynagi politikalari uretmesi acisindan son derece onem tasimaktadir. Bu acidan bakildiginda bu calismanin; is yasam dengesinin, orgutsel baglilik ve calisan memnuniyeti ile olan iliskisini ayni zamanda orgutsel bagliligin da calisan memnuniyetine olan etkisini yapisal esitlik modeli yardimiyla ortaya koymasi amaclanmaktadir. Bu amacla bu calisma Turkiye Tas Komuru Kurumu Genel Mudurlugu’nde calisan beyaz yakali calisanlar uzerinde yapilmis ve calismanin sonucunda is yasam dengesinin orgutsel bagliligi arttirdigi, dogrudan calisan memnuniyeti uzerinde anlamli bir etkisinin olmadigi ancak orgutsel bagliligin calisan memnuniyetini arttirdigi tespit edilmistir.

Based upon the results of a national survey conducted in Taiwan, this study investigates the effects of volunteering on life satisfaction. We used a univariate ordered probit model and a simultaneous bivariate ordered probit model to compare the potential endogeneity between volunteering and life satisfaction. An exogenous military service variable was included in the bivariate model to correct the endogeneity of volunteering on life satisfaction. The results of the univariate ordered probit model suggest that volunteering has no effecton life satisfaction. However, the results from the simultaneous bivariate ordered probit model indicate volunteering has a significantposit ive effect on life satisfaction. The failure to account for endogeneity appears to underestimate the effect of volunteering on life satisfaction.

The precariat is a notion and a phenomenon that has drawn special attention of economists since the turn of 20th and 21st centuries. The article is based on the assumption that the precariat involves unwanted and long-term insecurity and uncertainty, a highly changeable situation on the labour market and many other negative consequences. The paper advances the thesis according to which the phenomenon in question will escalate and be experienced by a growing number of people who have reached pre-retirement age and are no longer mobile in occupational terms. The article is aimed at presenting reasons of possible growth of the problem under discussion, as well as the consequences faced by people who deal with it. Last but not least, potential ways of fighting precarity will be discussed. The analysis will be based on the literature on the subject, data derived from Central Statistical Office of Poland (GUS) and Eurostat, as well as research conducted by the author.

In this paper, we exploit a cohort discontinuity in the stringency of the 1993 Dutch disability reforms to obtain causal estimates of the effects of decreased generosity of disability insurance (DI) on behavior of existing DI recipients. We find evidence of substantial "social support substitution": individuals on average offset a euro of lost DI benefits by collecting 31 cents more from other social assistance programs. This benefit-substitution effect declines somewhat over time, but is still a significant 20% eight years later. Individuals also exhibit a strong rebound in earnings: labor earnings increase by 62 cents on average per euro of lost DI benefits. This is novel evidence of substantial remaining earnings capacity in a sample of long-term claimants of DI. On average, individuals make up for almost the entire DI benefit reduction through increases in other forms of social assistance and in labor earnings.

Human behaviors are governed by two main systems: one system of reward and punishment. Our behaviors followed by positive results tend to develop. Conversely, behaviors followed by negative results tend to diminish. What is usually overlooked is that the rewards of working extremely intense emotions, such as pleasure (reward) and fear, aggression, conflict states (penalty) and determine motivation. Labor ?n there is a large increase in the unpleasant consequences of what we generally call it frustration. Frustrations are increasingly less compensated by rewards and which are permanent sources of organizational conflicts.

This paper uses matched employee-employer data from the British Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2004 to examine the determinants of employee job anxiety and work-related psychological illness. Job anxiety is found to be strongly related to the demands of the job as measured by factors such as occupation, education and hours of work. Average levels of employee job anxiety, in turn, are positively associated with work-related psychological illness among the workforce as reported by managers. The paper goes on to consider the relationship between psychological illness and workplace performance as measured by absence, turnover and labour productivity. Work-related psychological illness is found to be negatively associated with several measures of workplace performance.

At the heart of any workplace behavior (and not only), there are always one or more emotions (pleasant/unpleasant, partially controllable/uncontrollable, aware/ unconscious, useful/useless/harmful, intense/less intense, predictable/unpredictable, expressed/ repressed, observable/ unobservable, explained/ unexplained, rational/ irrational, and so on). Emotions are the foundation of a complex and mysterious mechanism of action and behavior. Emotions are triggered by certain things, people, events, situations, processes, results, interactions and so on, and are informed by a variety of endogenous (biological) and exogenous factors, and also by the intellectual potential of each individual. Emotions lie at the intersection of rationality, body (physical) and soul (spirit), thought, reason, logic, compassion, autonomy and action/behavior, individual and environment. This article undertakes to define emotions and identify their impact on the organizational environment, with emphasis on emotional climate and managing emotions. Moreover, we will focus on human behavior/action, rather than on the evolution of the nervous system or the cortex in particular. Work itself should not be a source of suffering. It is obvious that certain emotions cause bad moods, unnecessary and even harmful ones, conditions that should be considered, even if they have a situational and subjective character. Some managers think that the decision-maker fulfills his/her duties by strictly conforming to the law and to the agreement clauses and by meeting his/her obligations in a timely and exacting manner. Others believe that a good leader, in addition to observing the applicable rules and regulation, must be honest also to his colleagues and collaborators and sympathetic to the needs, ideas and emotions of those who are interested in the optimal operation of the company. Managers must remain alert to events, people and behaviors that can trigger harmful emotions within the organization. Employees should be encouraged to express their emotions in order to avoid tense situations. Even though tensions may occur, they must be managed effectively because, as we all know, avoiding a war does not mean peace, just as avoiding unnecessary inconveniences does not always equal pleasure. The improvement of emotional behavior represents a competitive edge in business activities for any organization. The main target of this undertaking is to provide a certain perspective on emotion; to be more specific, we are concerned with discovering the circumstances and causes that trigger off emotions in organizational environments. Theoretical approaches conveyed in this article may be perceived as a call to mindfulness and to the managers\\\' awareness as to the importance of improving the emotional climate of the workplace.

This literature review provides an overview of the theoretical and empirical research in several disciplines on the relation between ageing and subjective well-being, i.e., how subjective well-being evolves across the lifespan. Because of the different methodologies, data sets and samples used, comparison among disciplines and studies is difficult. However, extant studies do show either a U-shaped, inverted U-shaped or linear relation between ageing and subjective well-being.

International audience; The goal of the article is to present a case study in rail maintenance. This case study describes the consequences of an organizational change (the implementation of lean production) on health at work and absenteeism. This organizational change was followed by a surge of MSDS and absenteeism. Our case study underlines the essential role of work organisation in the increase of MSDS and absenteeism. Our results are discussed on the light of psychodynamic of work and clinical activity literatures.; L’objet de l’article est de présenter les conséquences sur la santé au travail et l’absentéisme d’un changement organisationnel (l’implantation de la lean production) dans un établissement de maintenance ferroviaire. Ce changement organisationnel a été suivi d’une forte augmentation des TMS et du taux d’absentéisme. Notre étude de cas souligne le rôle essentiel de l’organisation du travail dans l’apparition de TMS et d’une augmentation de l’absentéisme. Nos résultats sont discutés au regard de la littérature sur la psychodynamique du travail et de la clinique de l’activité.

This paper exploits the richness and large sample size of the Gallup/Healthways US daily poll to illustrate significant differences in the dynamics of two key measures of subjective well-being: emotions and life evaluations. We find that there is no day-of-week effect for life evaluations, represented here by the Cantril Ladder, but significantly more happiness, enjoyment, and laughter, and significantly less worry, sadness, and anger on weekends (including public holidays) than on weekdays. We then find strong evidence of the importance of the social context, both at work and at home, in explaining the size and likely determinants of the weekend effects for emotions. Weekend effects are twice as large for full-time paid workers as for the rest of the population, and are much smaller for those whose work supervisor is considered a partner rather than a boss and who report trustable and open work environments. A large portion of the weekend effects is explained by differences in the amount of time spent with friends or family between weekends and weekdays (7.1 vs. 5.4 hours). The extra daily social time of 1.7 hours in weekends raises average happiness by about 2%.

This paper deals with the compensation for non-fatal accident risk in Switzerland and presents empirical estimates of the value of a statistical injury. We approach the problem of endogenous sorting of workers into jobs with different accident risks based on unobserved productivity differences twofold. First, we have access to the number of accidents not only at the level of industries, but within cells defined over industry x skill-level of the job, which allows us to estimate risk compensation within groups of workers defined over the same cells. Second, we capitalize on the partial panel structure of our data which allows us to empirically isolate the wage component specific to the employer. Our different approaches to identification in fact yield very different estimates of the value of a statistical injury. Our preferred estimate gives an estimate of about 40,000 Swiss francs (per prevented injury per year).

A közszféra munkahelyként történő választását a jövedelmen kívül más szempon tok is motiválják. A biztonság iránti igény mögött nemcsak belső késztetés, hanem családi okok is meghúzódhatnak. Több olyan családi körülményt azonosítottunk, ami valószínűbbé teszi, hogy valaki a közszférában vállaljon munkát: ha valaki egyedül neveli gyerekeit, ha tartósan beteg, ha házas-/élettársának vagy gyerekének tartós betegsége van, nők esetében, ha férjük korábban munkanélküli volt. Ezeket az eseteket kockázatkerülő magatartás helyett pontosabb családi stratégiák optimalizálásaként értelmezni. A társadalmi hasznosság iránti igényt az önkéntes munkavégzéssel közelítettük. Ez a motívum fontos szerepet játszik a humán szolgáltatások területén, de egyáltalán nem jelenik meg a közigazgatásban dolgozók esetében. Az egyenlőtlenségekkel szembeni ellenérzésen keresztül a jövedelmek újraelosztása iránti igény is kapcsolódhat a szociális elkötelezettséghez. Ilyen hatás az egészségügyben és a szociális ágazatban dolgozók esetében mutatható ki. Az önkéntes munkavégzést valószínűbbé teszi a magasabb életkor, a magasabb iskolai végzettség, a gyerekek száma és a településméret csökkenése. A jövedelem, az iskolai végzettség, a gyerekszám és a településméret növekedésével csökken a jövedelmek újraelosztása iránti rendkívül magas igény. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: D31, D63, D64, D81, H50, J28, J45, J62., Preference for public-sector jobs is motivated not only by the income available from them. Family circumstances may generate a demand for greater job security. The authors identify several family circumstances that increase the probability of preference for the public sector: single parenthood; long-term illness; a chronically ill child or partner; or in the case of women, a husband who previously experienced unemployment. In interpreting these cases, the usual approach of risk aversion is not wholly correct; optimizing family strategies would be far more accurate. The authors used volunteering as proxy for direct social commitment. This motive is important with employees working in human services, but quite absent from public/government administration. Another approach taken to social responsibility may be a demand for redistribution, connected with aversion towards inequalities. A relatively higher demand for redistribution is characteristic only of employees working in health and social care. The probability of volunteering is increased by higher age, higher education, higher number of children (up to three), and smaller settlement size. The demand for redistribution, which is very high in Hungary, is reduced by higher income, higher education, higher number of children and larger settlement size.

Labor flexicurity within the organizations from EU countries represents an important objective for the fulfillment of the provisions of the "Lisbon strategy for more and better jobs". Flexicurity concept involves two components: flexibility of workers, respectively their capacity to adapt to labor market developments and to professional transitions and safety of workers, requiring them to advance in their careers, to develop skills and be supported by social insurance systems during periods of inactivity. This study presents the basic principles to be considered in developing the national flexicurity strategies and the directions should be acted to substantiate these strategies. As well references are made to the study "New skills for new jobs", the initiative of "Youth in movement" and to the "Lifelong Learning" Program. There are presented a series of benchmark indicators for the labor flexicurity.

A tanárok pályaelhagyási döntését vizsgálva, a tanulmány a következő két kérdésre keresi a választ. Milyen szerepet játszanak e döntésekben a keresetek, alternatív kereseti lehetőségek? Hogyan hatott a tanárok pályaelhagyására a 2002. évi közalkalmazotti béremelés? Az elemzéshez az OEP-ONYF-FH összekapcsolt nagymintás adatbázis felhasználásával kétféle modellt becsült a szerző: 1. két lehetőséget megkülönböztetve (elhagyja a tanári pályát/nem hagyja el) Cox-féle arányos hazárdfüggvényeket, 2. a pályaelhagyás okai között a más állásba kerülést és az egyéb pályaelhagyási okokat megkülönböztetve versengő kockázati modelleket. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy a kereseti lehetőségek hatnak a pályaelhagyási döntésekre. A magasabb jövedelem és magasabb relatív kereset csökkenti annak valószínűségét, hogy egy tanár elhagyja a pályát, és más pályán helyezkedjen el, vagy nem foglalkoztatotti státusba kerüljön. A közalkalmazotti béremelés átmenetileg csökkentette a pályaelhagyás valószínűségét a fiatal tanárok körében, de a hatás egy-két év alatt eltűnt. Az 51 évesnél idősebb tanárokat pedig inkább a pályán tartotta a béremelés, csökkentette annak valószínűségét is, hogy más pályán helyezkedjenek el, vagy hogy nem foglalkoztatotti státusba kerüljenek. Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: I22, J28, J31, J45, J62., The paper investigates teachers decisions to leave the profession. It first examines the role in such decisions of pay compared with earnings in alternative occupations, and then discusses how the public-sector pay increase of 2002 af-fected exit decisions by teachers. Duration models were estimated using large merged administrative data sets. First binary-choice Cox proportional hazard models (leaving teaching profession or not), then competing risk models that distinguish exits to another occupation and exits to a non-working state. Results show that earnings matter. Higher wages reduce the probability of exiting teacher profession to go to another occupation or to non-employment. The public-sector pay increase decreased the probability of inexperienced teachers leaving the teacher profession temporarily, but the effect disappeared after one or two years. For experienced teachers over 51 years old, the wage increase was found to reduce attrition.

This paper reports the first study of compensating wage differentials for work-related fatalities in an African country. Using original data from the Tunisian Caisse nationale de la sécurité sociale, statistically significant compensating wage differentials are found. The implied value of statistical life is found between $553 320 and $682 080 (US $ 2000, or between $783 264 and $965 533, US $ 2013), smaller than the value estimated from developed countries. Policy makers interested to decrease occupational risk fatalities could use this outcome as a benchmark.

Management processes play the key role in providing for health and safe conditions of work and managers play the most important role in counteracting accidents at work. This article discusses some basic problems related to inappropriate organisation of work as a cause of accidents in the overall national economy, in the Industrial Processing section, and in the particular processing departments in years 2006-2011. It was found out that inappropriate organisation of work was an especially significant cause in case of serious and fatal accidents. In many departments of Industrial Processing section, it was even pointed out twice more often, as a reason for serious and fatal accidents, than total accidents.

The development of human resources that finds an important practical application in enterprises from the developed world, account facts which refer to the conclusion that satisfaction of employee can greatly contribute to increasing productivity in enterprises and in states from whole world. Enterprises should assume appropriate measures which will be concentrated on reviewing the toolkit related to management staff, especially systems of payment and organization culture if they want to avoid negative consequences caused by dissatisfaction of employees in the workplace.

Using a model of wage determination developed by Stevens (2003) we offer an explanation of why tenure has a negative effect when entered in job satisfaction equations. If job satisfaction measures match quality, then the explanation follows from a model of the labour market in which workers accumulate specific human capital at the firm they work and the way in which this accumulation affects the way workers react to outside job opportunities.

The cost of duration moral hazard in workplace accident insurance has been amply explored by North-American scholars in both the USA and Canada. Given the current context of financial constraints in public accounts and particularly in the Social Security system, we feel that the issue merits inquiry in the case of Spain. The present research also posits a methodological proposal using the econometric technique of stochastic frontiers, which allows us to break down the duration of work-related leave into what we term “economic days” and “medical days”. Our calculations indicate that during the seven-year period spanning 2005 to 2011, the cost of sick leave amongst full-time salaried workers amounted to 5,830 million Euros (in constant 2011 Euros). Of this total, and bearing in mind that “economic days” are those attributable to duration moral hazard, over 2,500 million Euros might be linked to workplace absenteeism. It is on this figure where economic policy measures might prove more effective.

While peer effects have been shown to affect worker's productivity when workers are paid a fixed wage, there is little evidence on their influence on quitting decisions. This paper presents results from an experiment in which participants receive a piece-rate wage to perform a real-effort task. After completing a compulsory work period, the participants have the option at any time to continue working or quit. To study peer effects, we randomly assign participants to work alone or have one other worker in the room with them. When a peer is present, we manipulate the environment by giving either vague or precise feedback on the co-worker's output, and also vary whether the two workers can communicate. We find that allowing individuals to work with a co-worker present does not increase worker's productivity. However, the presence of a peer in all working conditions causes workers to quit at more similar times. When, and only when, communication is allowed, workers are significantly more likely to (1) stay longer if their partner is still working, and (2) work longer the more productive they are. We conclude that when workers receive a piece-rate wage, critical peer effects occur only when workers can communicate with each other.

PurposeThis study seeks to investigate the differences in three aspects of job satisfaction – total pay, promotion prospects, and respect received from one's supervisor – between male heterosexual and gay employees in Athens, Greece.Design/methodology/approachTo determine whether a job satisfaction gap exists, the job satisfaction of gay employees is compared to the job satisfaction of heterosexual employees after accounting for various asymmetries. The data were gathered as part of the Athens Area Study conducted by the University of Piraeus, University of Central Greece, and Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences.FindingsGay employees are found to be less satisfied according to all job satisfaction measures. Affect theory proposes that the extent to which one values a given facet of work moderates how dissatisfied one becomes when one's expectations are not met. Furthermore, the data enable us to estimate that gay employees’ job satisfaction is not associated more (as compared with heterosexuals’ job satisfaction) with adverse mental health symptoms. This finding is crucial given the rising interest between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Finally, wage gaps against gay employees are found after accounting for basic asymmetries. Interestingly, however, the wage gaps grow for very dissatisfied employees and shrink for very satisfied employees.Practical implicationsAs long as, the general patterns in Greece suggest that homosexual employees face labor market discrimination, gay employees will report being less satisfied at work. Actually, in this study, job satisfaction is associated with wage inequality.Originality/valueThis research initiates efforts to compare job satisfaction based on sexual orientation.

This study explores the impact of culture on participatory decision making (PDM) and job satisfaction (JS) using data obtained from the European Values Study (EVS). We parameterise two different cultural variables using principal components analysis: first a continuum based on survival versus self-expression values and second a continuum based on traditional versus secular-rational values. Application of ordered logistic regression to Likert scales of PDM and JS suggests that greater self-expression in the survival versus self-expression variable enhances both PDM and JS; and more traditional values in the traditional versus secular-rational continuum have the same effect.

The effect of shift structure on worker performance and productivity has been an issue of increasing interest among firms and regulatory bodies, motivated by the belief that fatigue is a critical mediator. We study this issue using approximately 742,000 emergency trauma and medical incidents attended by 2,381 paramedics in the state of Mississippi between 2001 and 2005, and evaluate the extent to which performance of paramedics towards the end of their shift is impacted by its length. We find that paramedics exhibit poorer performance towards the end of long shifts, compared to their performance towards the end of shorter shifts. In addition, at the end of longer shifts, paramedics perform fewer medical interventions while the speed with which procedures are performed deteriorates significantly. We argue that fatigue is the mediating factor in the observed decline in performance. These findings have implications for workforce organization and call attention to regulation designed to limit extended work hours.