Is there a paradox of lower job satisfaction among trade union members? European evidence

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 471-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Paola Donegani ◽  
Stephen McKay
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Us ◽  
Paradoxical Finding ◽  
The Uk

In most of the literature on industrial relations, union members are found to be less satisfied with their jobs than non-members. Analysts have applied various statistical and econometric approaches to try to resolve what seems like a paradoxical finding, with mixed results, using theories based on selection bias and ‘exit-voice’ considerations. We review this literature, and note that most empirical studies are from only a few countries – especially the US and the UK. Analysis of a wider range of 18 countries participating in the large-scale European Social Survey in both 2006 and 2010 finds that trade union members generally tend to express higher rather than lower job satisfaction than others, although results differ by country. We use regression models (ordinal logistic) to show that union membership is generally associated with higher job satisfaction, even after controlling for individual, job and workplace differences. Attempts to link the union factor in job satisfaction to typologies of countries, either by welfare regime or extent of collective bargaining coverage, have not been able to address the puzzle of why a negative link persists in a few countries, but not in most.

scholarly journals What makes workers happy: Empowerment, unions or both?

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 363-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H van der Meer
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Pay Satisfaction ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Negative Effect

Does the negative effect of union membership on job satisfaction, as shown in Anglophone countries, also hold for Continental Western Europe? Given the differences in industrial relations, I hypothesize that the effect will be different. I also test hypotheses about the effect of empowerment on job satisfaction, which might explain the negative union effect, and broaden the analysis to include pay satisfaction. Analyses of European Social Survey data show that the negative union effect does not exist for Continental Western Europe and that this can be explained by empowerment of employees.

Power Values and Power Distance Moderate the Relationship Between Workplace Supervisory Power and Job Satisfaction

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-141
Author(s):  
Kenneth D. Locke
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Multilevel Modeling ◽  
Power Distance ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Workplace Power ◽  
Over Time

Abstract. Person–job (or needs–supplies) discrepancy/fit theories posit that job satisfaction depends on work supplying what employees want and thus expect associations between having supervisory power and job satisfaction to be more positive in individuals who value power and in societies that endorse power values and power distance (e.g., respecting/obeying superiors). Using multilevel modeling on 30,683 European Social Survey respondents from 31 countries revealed that overseeing supervisees was positively associated with job satisfaction, and as hypothesized, this association was stronger among individuals with stronger power values and in nations with greater levels of power values or power distance. The results suggest that workplace power can have a meaningful impact on job satisfaction, especially over time in individuals or societies that esteem power.

Political attitudes and trade union membership in the Nordic countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Impact

Do political attitudes influence the likelihood of employees being members of a trade union, and to what extent is this the case in the Nordic countries with their high aggregate levels of membership? In this article, I address these questions using European Social Survey data from 2012. The results show that left-wing political attitudes have the most impact on the likelihood of trade union membership in Sweden and to a lesser extent in Denmark. In Norway and Finland, there is no statistically significant impact. I argue that the impact of left-wing political attitudes on unionization in Sweden and Denmark reflects a conception among employees that trade unions are normative organizations.

The promise of partnership

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-257
Author(s):  
Denis Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Call Centre ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Partnership Approach ◽  
Development Of Partnership

‘Partnership’ is a word that crops up with increasing frequency in government, trade union and management circles in the UK. For many it neatly embodies both the practice and sentiment of the so-called ‘third way’. In the workplace, a partnership approach to industrial relations has been offered as a neo-pluralist alternative to the unitarism of Human Resources Management. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is an active proponent of partnership and the government has created a fund to support the development of partnership at the workplace. This article sketches some theoretical underpinning for the practice of partnership. To shed some light on the prospects for partnership it draws on recent UK experience and includes a case study of the development of a partnership between UNISON, the UK’s largest trade union, and Vertex Data Sciences, one of the fastest growing call centre operators in the UK.

scholarly journals Diversity and Perceptions of Immigration: How the Past Influences the Present

2020 ◽  
pp. 003232172092277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren McLaren ◽  
Anja Neundorf ◽  
Ian Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Generational Differences ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Past ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The Uk ◽  
British Sample ◽  
The Impact

The question of whether high immigration produces anti-immigration hostility has vexed researchers across multiple disciplines for decades. And yet, understanding this relationship is crucial for countries dependant on immigrant labour but concerned about its impact on social cohesion. Absent from most of this research are theories about the impact of early-years socialisation conditions on contemporary attitudes. Using the British sample of the European Social Survey (2002–2017) and two innovative approaches to modelling generational differences – generalised additive models and hierarchical age‒period‒cohort models – this paper shows that rather than producing hostility to immigration, being socialised in a context of high immigrant-origin diversity is likely to result in more positive attitudes to immigration later in life. This implies that through generational replacement, countries like the UK are likely to become increasingly tolerant of immigration over time. Importantly, however, a context of high-income inequality may diminish this effect.

scholarly journals The Sustainability of Social Science Survey Infrastructures

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Emery
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
European Research ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
Research Infrastructures ◽  
Survey Methodologies

Social science surveys are undergoing rapidchange due to fundamental shifts in the way data is generated, collected and processed. In order to address this challenge, several large scale social surveys have been integrated into the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). This has allowed them to develop specialized and professionalized survey work flows within an integrated infrastructural context. This allows for greater sustainability through investment in survey methodologies and data collection which advance the field of social science. This paper examines three case studies within the ESFRI framework; The Survey of Health & Retirement (SHARE) and the European Social Survey (ESS) are European Research Infrastructure Consortia and are both landmarks within the ESFRI landscape. The third case study is of the Generations & Gender Programme which is an Emerging Community in the ESFRI landscape. The three case studies are used to illustrate the developments but also the persistent challenges for social surveys as they evolve with the framework of European Research Infrastructures. Each survey infrastructure is presented and it’s scientific, financial and governance sustainability. Conclusions are drawn as to the sustainability of survey infrastructures and how they could be further improved.

What Shapes the Perception of Income Inequality

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
G. Monusova
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Redistributive Policies ◽  
Policies And Measures ◽  
Perceptions Of Inequality

The recent economic and sociological literature pays a lot of attention to the issue of income inequality and to preferences for the redistribution. This paper discusses various approaches which pretend to explain what shapes perceptions of income inequality and finally affects preferences for the redistribution. If people in a given country perceive the level of income inequality as too high and unacceptable, they may support various redistributive policies and measures. However, this does not always happen. Perceptions of inequality and preferences for redistribution vary across countries as well as across individuals within countries. The paper overviews existing theoretical and empirical studies and provides their synthesis. In its empirical section, the paper tests a few most frequently mentioned hypotheses. For this, it uses large cross-country data sets from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and the European Social Survey (ESS) covering 34 and 25 countries, respectively. One of the main findings is that the public attitude towards inequality depends little on the actual level of inequality. What appears to be more important is whether the society provides functioning escalators to individuals for moving up the socio-economic ladder and whether individuals have recently experienced actual upward mobility. What also matters is whether this mobility is considered by public fair and legitimate. This means that is driven by hard work (and is meritocratic) but not by pure luck, or connections, or bribes (is structural). Therefore, the perception of inequality and redistributive demands are largely shaped by dominant views on fairness, social mobility and trust to the state. If individuals see for themselves feasible prospects for advancement and can achieve more in a way they consider fair, they are more likely to tolerate the income inequality and their redistributive claims tend to become weaker. This brings to the forefront the issue of quality of state institutions and institutional environment. The corruption as a measure of the institutional quality emerges a very strong predictor for larger support to redistributive policies.

Right-wing populist attitudes among European public servants – A cross-country comparison

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-506
Author(s):  
Wouter van Acker
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Country Comparison ◽  
European Public ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Beliefs And Attitudes

Thus far, there has not been any investigation into the populist held beliefs and attitudes among public servants. These attitudes, given the considerable discretionary decision power of public servants, and their influence in policy-making processes, could have a significant impact on public policies. This paper investigates the populist attitudes of public servants, based on data that are retrieved from the European Social Survey. The paper compares public servants from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The results show that public servants hold surprisingly similar populist views as compared with non-public servants, and that there are striking differences between countries. There are significant implications for the work public servants do, and the representativeness of the administration.

Trade unionism in Europe: Are the working class still members?

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-120
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Trade Unionism

How far does social class position influence the likelihood that employees will be members of a trade union? I use European Social Survey data to compare trade union membership of ‘working-class’ and ‘middle- and upper class’ employees in different European countries. Although the former dominate the trade unions in absolute numbers in most (but not all) countries, the likelihood that the latter will be members of a trade union is higher in most of the countries analysed.

Relationships between cycles of economic expansion in construction and craft workers’ job satisfaction and preferences

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed Albattah ◽  
Yongwei Shan ◽  
Paul M. Goodrum ◽  
Timothy R.B. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Physical Work ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Fundamental Factor ◽  
Job Preferences ◽  
Job Preference ◽  
The Us ◽  
Overall Job Satisfaction

When construction craft workers consider potential career alternatives, overall job satisfaction is a fundamental factor that influences their retention and productivity. This paper analyzes changes in job satisfaction and job preferences of craft workers in the US construction industry across successive economic recession–expansion cycles. The analysis used data from the General Social Survey (GSS) collected from 1974 to 2014 and compared job satisfaction and preferences of construction craft workers with those in other industries. The authors found that job preferences of the sampled construction respondents changed with each successive recession–expansion cycle and that the desire for high income became more prevalent than that for a sense of accomplishment in physical work, which has traditionally been the top job preference among construction workers in general. Overall job satisfaction among sampled construction respondents was equal to or slightly exceeded the overall job satisfaction of sampled respondents in other industries. Industry craft recruitment efforts can use these insights to design future recruitment and retention strategies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document