Labor Market Precarity Shapes Perception of the Public Sector in the Eurozone

This study analyses the impact of working in the public sector on job satisfaction in Europe (19) through the European Working Condition Survey (EWCS). A grouping of countries is proposed based on the perception of workers regarding the functioning of the labor market. Econometric estimates show that public sector workers, at an aggregate level, are more satisfied than those in the private sector. The highest job satisfaction corresponds to permanent contract public sector workers, followed by temporary contract public sector employees, the permanent contract private sector, and the temporary contract private sector workers. The results confirm that in those countries with a higher proportion of individuals who consider losing their job a probability, public sector job satisfaction is higher. In addition, those countries where the proportion of individuals with low confidence in finding a new job with similar characteristics to the one they have, public sector job satisfaction is also higher.

Forgiveness among Public Sector Workers: A Predictive Study of Employee Resilience, Emotional Intelligence and Loneliness at Work

The gains of organizational wellbeing and productivity have been challenged by workers disposition especially the heart of forgiving one another within the workplace. The present study investigated forgiveness among public sector workers: a predictive study of employee resilience, emotional intelligence and loneliness at work. Participants in the study were made up of non-academic staff of Nnamdi Azikiwe University. They comprise of 78 males (43.09%) and 103 females (56.91%) with a mean age of 39.77 years and a standard deviation of 7.9 years and age ranges from 28 -65 years. Four different instruments were used to measure the four variables; Resilience, Loneliness, Emotional Intelligence and Forgiveness. The Rye’s Forgiveness Scale was used to measure forgiveness among the participants; Wagnild and Young’ Resilience scale (WYRS) was used to measure resilience; UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS) was used to measure loneliness while Wong’s Emotional Intelligence scale (WEIS) measured the participants’ emotional intelligence. The design adopted for this study is the correlational design and the statistical method used is the multiple regression technique. The results of the hypotheses tested showed that that there is insignificant relationship between resilience and forgiveness (β=.052 p>.05), the regression results shown in Table 2 show that there is insignificant relationship between loneliness and forgiveness (β=.030, p>.05), there was also a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and forgiveness (β= .500, p<.05) and the overall significance of the effect as shown in Table 3 showed that there was an overall significance between forgiveness and the selected predictors F (3,177)= 3.126, p<.05. It was however recommended that Personnel Managers should inculcate improvement in psychological factors like emotional intelligence in their personnel training agenda so as to improve the individuals’ tendency to forgive coworkers in the workplace.

Pathways to Retirement in Taiwan: Do Ethnicity and Cohort Matter?

Studies about retirement often neglect ethnic identity. This research utilized the “Taiwan Longitudinal Study in Aging” data from 1989 to 1996 when political and social changes in the country occurred to examine the influence of ethnicity (dominant Mainlanders versus Southern Min, Hakka, and various indigenous people) on Taiwanese men’s working status at age 60 and above. We asked three questions: (1) Are Mainlanders more likely to retire earlier than non-Mainlanders? (2) Does working in the public versus the private sector affect the age of retirement and does this differ by ethnicity? (3)What factors determine retirement ages of two cohorts? Using chi-square and t-tests, results of a comparison of two cohorts (n = 1254 and n = 526 for the 1989 and 1996 cohorts, respectively) showed that being a Mainlander, being unmarried, older age, self-reported poor health, and functional limitation were associated with a higher likelihood of earlier retirement. In logistic regression models, public sector work mediated and moderated the effect of ethnicity on the likelihood of earlier retirement only in the older cohort, where Mainlander public sector workers had the greatest likelihood of earlier retirement, indicating that the incentive structure of public pensions contributes to earlier retirement. The results are consistent with cumulative advantage theory. To delay the retirement age for public sector workers, policymakers could reduce public pension incentives.