Sociology Job Quality
by
Sonja Drobnič
  • LAST REVIEWED: 06 September 2019
  • LAST MODIFIED: 11 January 2018
  • DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0207

Introduction

Employment is central to most people’s lives and the quality of one’s job is an important element of an individual’s well-being. Still, agreement is not universal on what constitutes a good job and no unanimous definition of the concept or its measurement exists. Emerging from early attempts to improve working lives, numerous conceptual frameworks have been developed in social sciences centered on work and employment, such as quality of work life, quality of employment, quality of work, job quality, and job satisfaction. These approaches include indicators of objective working conditions as well as subjective appraisals of work situation. There is an underlying agreement that these concepts are important because the quality of work affects the well-being of the employees, their productivity, and economic performance. Although the ideas on the quality of work life and human relations movement originated in the United States, the spread of the concept “job quality” gained momentum with the centrality of the strategic goal of the European Union (EU) for the period of 2000–2010 to create “more and better jobs” as a means of developing a sustainable and affluent society. This policy discourse was very important for the development of international comparative research on job quality, even after the quality issues lost priority in policy discourse. The EU definition of job quality relies on a multidimensional approach, including objective characteristics of the job, subjective evaluations by workers, workers’ characteristics, and the match between the worker and the job.

General Overviews

Early research dates back to the Hawthorn plant studies conducted in the 1920s and 1930s, which are often considered the starting point for recognizing the importance of human and social factors that affect workers’ performance (Mayo 2007). The terminology related to job quality or quality of work life was not used but the developments were important in terms of fostering ideas on improving working conditions. Another strand of research involved worker’s motivation and job satisfaction (Herzberg, et al. 2010). In the 1960s and 1970s, concerns grew about the effects of employment on the health and well-being of employees (Braverman 1974). In Europe, the studies at Volvo plants in the early 1970s were well known, but concerns were increasing to improve both working conditions and job satisfaction for employees in many European countries (Cooper and Memford 1979). The International Conference on the Quality of Working Life in 1972 and the subsequent book (Davis and Cherns 1975) systematically addressed strategies and knowledge on how to create a better quality of working life. Nadler and Lawler 1983 systematizes the ideas and concepts on quality of work life. Also, awareness increased that new forms of work and production, based on skilled work (Piore and Sabel 1984) and information (Bell 1999), will significantly change the working environment. In the decades since the 1980s, debates on meanings, definitions, concepts, and measurements continued in academic and policy circles. Currently, it is generally agreed that job quality and other neighboring concepts contribute to the well-being of workers, but agreement is less universal on which factors are important and must be present in a work situation for a job to be of high quality.

  • Bell, Daniel. 1999. The coming of post-industrial society. New York: Basic Books.

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    Originally published in 1973. Bell describes the emergence of what he calls a post-industrial society, one that will rely on the economics of information rather than economics of goods. The post-industrial society’s dimensions include the spread of a knowledge class, the change from goods to services, and the changing role of women. All of these are dependent on the expansion of services in the economic sector and on an increasing dependence on science as the means of innovating and organizing technological change.

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  • Braverman, Harry. 1974. Labor and monopoly capital: The degradation of work in the twentieth century. New York: Monthly Review.

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    This widely acclaimed and influential book overturned the reigning ideologies of academic sociology and became the standard text for many basic areas of sociological inquiry, including the science of managerial control, the relationship of technological innovation to social class, and the deskilling of labor force under capitalism.

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  • Cooper, Cary L., and Enid Memford. 1979. The quality of working life in western and eastern Europe. Westport, CT: Greenwood.

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    The Quality of Working Life examines the issues raised by experiments in the quality of working life, explores pioneering work done in Europe, and highlights specific developments in both western and eastern European countries.

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  • Davis, Louis E., and Albert Cherns, eds. 1975. The quality of working life. Vol. 1, Problems, prospects and the state of the art. New York: Free Press.

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    This volume is a compilation of various contributions to the International Conference on the Quality of Working Life in 1972, at which the term quality of working life was introduced and research on and action for quality of working life were discussed. Systematic attempts were made to assess the central aspect of quality of working life, its definitions, and its measurements.

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  • Herzberg, Frederick, Bernard Mausner, and Barbara Block Snyderman. 2010. The motivation to work. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

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    Originally published in 1959. The authors found that while a poor work environment generated discontent, improved conditions seldom brought about improved attitudes. Instead, satisfaction came most often from factors intrinsic to work: achievements, job recognition, and work that was challenging, interesting, and responsible. The evidence provided in this volume called into question many previous assumptions about job satisfaction and worker motivation.

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  • Mayo, George Elton. 2007. The social problems of an industrial civilization. London: Routledge.

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    Originally published in 1949. The Hawthorne experiments brought to light ideas concerning motivational influences, job satisfaction, resistance to change, group norms, worker participation, and effective leadership. These were groundbreaking concepts in the 1930s.

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  • Nadler, David A., and Edward E. Lawler III. 1983. Quality of work life: Perspectives and directions. Organizational Dynamics 11.3 (Winter): 20–30.

    DOI: 10.1016/0090-2616(83)90003-7Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    In this article, the authors distinguish various definitions of quality of work life. Based on previous understanding of quality of work life as a variable and as a movement, they propose a working definition that integrates people, work, and organizations. Its distinctive elements are (1) concerns about the impact of work on people as well as organizational effectiveness, and (2) the idea of participation in organizational problem-solving and decision making.

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  • Piore, Michael J., and Charles F. Sabel. 1984. The second industrial divide. New York: Basic Books.

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    The authors warned in the 1980s that the Fordist model of work and mass production was about to come to an end. International competition and domestic conflicts are driving many large firms out of mass markets for standardized goods. To survive this challenge, manufacturers have to produce more specialized, higher-quality products, which increases the need for skilled labor and provides better opportunities for utilization of skills.

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Theoretical Perspectives

Increased understanding of the social costs of poor job quality has focused attention on physical and social environments at work as well as institutional, historical and societal factors that impact job quality and its changes over time. Mainstream economics has traditionally eschewed analysis of working life and largely equated job quality with wages. With the emergence of the “economics of happiness,” new interest regarding the quality of life, including quality of work, has drawn attention to subjective measures in economics. Subjective job quality is understood as the “utility” a worker derives from a job, usually measured through job satisfaction. Sociologists have discussed the concept of job quality more broadly, distinguishing between intrinsic and extrinsic factors, as well as objective and subjective measures. Subjective factors alone are largely seen as insufficient to understand outcomes or impacts of job quality. Objective factors imply that certain jobs are good or bad regardless of the particular job holder’s preferences or expectations. Most researchers define and measure job quality through a broad range of “objective” components (Clark 2005; Findlay, et al. 2013; Gallie 2007b; Green 2006; Kalleberg 2011); however, job satisfaction is often included among other indicators (Clark 2001, Green 2006). Theorizing the quality of work, Gallie 2007b distinguishes between two broad strands of theories: universalistic and institutional theories. Universalistic theories, such as the theory of industrialism (Piore and Sabel 1984, cited under General Overviews), post-industrialism/information society (Bell 1999, cited under General Overviews) or Marxian/ labor process theory (Braverman 1974, cited under General Overviews) predict growing convergence between countries and consequently convergence in employment conditions and job quality. Institutional theories, such as varieties of capitalism/ production regime theory (Hall and Soskice 2001, Gallie 2007a, Estévez-Abe 2005) or employment regime theory (Gallie 2007b) predict persisting distinctiveness of different countries or types of countries (regimes) also in terms of employment relations and job quality.

  • Clark, Andrew E. 2001. What really matters in a job? Hedonic measurement using quit data. Labour Economics 8:223–242.

    DOI: 10.1016/S0927-5371(01)00031-8Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Clark uses labor market spell data and shows that job satisfaction data are powerful predictors of job quits, even controlling for wages, hours, and standard demographic and job variables. Second, the comparison of domain job satisfaction measures indicates that job security and pay are the most important, followed by use of initiative, the work itself, and hours of work. This ranking differs markedly across different labor market groups.

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  • Clark, Andrew E. 2005. Your money or your life: Changing job quality in OECD countries. British Journal of Industrial Relations 43.3: 377–400.

    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2005.00361.xSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    In this article, both cross-section and panel data are used to examine changes in job quality in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) during the 1990s. Despite rising wages and falling hours of work, overall job satisfaction was either stable or declining. These movements are due neither to changes in the type of workers nor to changes in their job values. Some pieces of evidence point to stress and hard work as strong indicators of problem issues with employees’ jobs.

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  • Estévez-Abe, Margarita. 2005. Gender bias in skills and social policies: The varieties of capitalism perspective on sex segregation. Social Politics 12.2 (Summer): 180–215.

    DOI: 10.1093/sp/jxi011Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This article addresses occupational segregation by gender in advanced industrial societies and attributes cross-national variations in occupational segregation to differences in national skill profiles. The central claim is that firm-specific skills discriminate against women, whereas general skills are more gender neutral.

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  • Findlay, Patricia, Arne L Kalleberg, and Chris Warhurst. 2013. The challenge of job quality. In Special issue: Understanding job quality. Edited by Patricia Findlay, Arne L. Kalleberg, and Chris Warhurst. Human Relations 66.4: 441–451.

    DOI: 10.1177/0018726713481070Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This article provides background for a special issue. Guest editors identify a number of emergent themes. First, job quality is a multidimensional phenomenon. Second, multiple factors and forces operating at multiple levels influence job quality. Third, the study of job quality is an inherently a multidisciplinary endeavor. Fourth, job quality is a contextual phenomenon, differing among persons, occupations, labor market segments, societies, and historical periods.

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  • Gallie, Duncan. 2007a. Production regimes and the quality of employment in Europe. Annual Review of Sociology 33:85–104.

    DOI: 10.1146/annurev.soc.33.040406.131724Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This review examines the claim of production regime theory that major differences exist in the quality of work between the two principal regime types that are held to characterize European societies: coordinated market economies and liberal market economies. The evidence does not confirm most of the theoretical claims about work and employment conditions. Rather, it points to the distinctiveness of the Scandinavian countries and hence factors that lie outside the explanatory framework of the theory.

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  • Gallie, Duncan, ed. 2007b. Employment regimes and the quality of work. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    This book makes a major contribution to the sociology of employment by comparing the quality of working life in European societies with very different institutional systems. It focuses, in particular, on skills and skill development, opportunities for training, the scope for initiative in work, the difficulty of combining work and family life, and the security of employment. The book represents a major breakthrough as it provides a link between research on job quality and research on comparative economic organization.

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  • Green, Francis 2006. Demanding work: The paradox of job quality in the affluent economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.

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    In this account of changing job quality, the author highlights contrasting trends, using quantitative indicators drawn from public opinion surveys and administrative data. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Green shows how aspects of job quality are related, and how changes in the quality of work life stem from technological change and transformations in the politico-economic environment. The book concludes with a discussion of what individuals, firms, unions, and governments can do to counter declining job quality.

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  • Guillén, Ana M., and Svenn-Åge Dahl, eds. 2009. Quality of work in the European Union: Concept, data and debates from a transnational perspective. Brussels: Peter Lang.

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    This collective volume on quality of work in the European Union offers a comprehensive analysis of tensions between work and welfare in Europe, with a special emphasis on employment-related issues. The book addresses the decisions taken by policymakers to foster the performance of the labor market, on the one hand, and the demands of workers for welfare, protection, and a better reconciliation of work and family life, on the other hand.

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  • Hall, Peter A., and David Soskice. 2001. Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1093/0199247757.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Varieties of Capitalism offers a framework for understanding the institutional similarities and differences among the developed economies. The authors set out two distinct types of capitalist economies: liberal market economies (LME) and coordinated market economies (CME). Institutional complementarities suggest differences in the quality of work between CME and LME, with the coordinated market economies favoring higher skill levels, greater individual job autonomy, and better workplace representation, leading to consensual decision making and higher job security.

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  • Kalleberg, Arne L. 2011. Good jobs, bad jobs: The rise of polarized and precarious employment systems in the United States, 1970s–2000s. American Sociological Association Rose Series in Sociology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

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    This book provides an analysis of how and why precarious employment is gaining ground in the labor market and the role played by these developments in the decline of the middle class. The author shows that by the 1970s, government deregulation, global competition, and the rise of the service sector gained traction, while institutional protections for workers, such as unions and minimum wage legislation, weakened, which led to increased polarization between workers.

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Journals

Many general sociology journals occasionally feature articles on job quality, employment relations, working conditions, and related issues. But some journals in sociology, management, industrial relation, and occupational psychology are more specifically dedicated to research and policy on job quality and provide a possible outlet for sociological and interdisciplinary studies in this area: British Journal of Industrial Relations, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Human Relations, Journal of Industrial Relations, Journal of Labor Research, Journal of Occupational Behavior, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Labor Studies Journal, Social Indicators Research. Some economics journals focus on wages, which economists consider the main indicator of job quality, see Labour Economics.

Policy Context

The EU Employment Strategy

A sustained period of strong growth in the United States in the 1990s, unusually low unemployment, and the creation of 20 million new jobs drew attention around the world. Discussions in the EU member states centered on the need to also create more jobs in Europe; however, the achievements of “the great American job machine” with predominantly low-paid, dead-end jobs in the service sector were considered problematic. In 1997, EU member states undertook to establish a set of common objectives and targets for employment policy, known as the European Employment Strategy. With the 2001 European Employment Strategy (European Commission 2001), the issue of job quality and quality of working life has become an explicit goal, said to be at the heart of the European Social Model. The policy objectives were formulated in terms of common indicators and measurable targets for employment and the social domain, grouped in the so-called Laeken indicators (Davoine, et al. 2008; Muñoz de Bustillo, et al. 2009; Peña-Casas 2009; Royuela, et al. 2008). The main aim was to create more and better jobs throughout the EU, thus emphasizing not only job quantity but also job quality (European Commission 2001). Although the quality issues soon became marginal in political discourse, efforts to define and measure job quality in academic circles have persisted and intensified.

  • Davoine, Lucie, Christine Erhel, and Mathilde Guergoat-Larivière. 2008. Monitoring quality in work: European Employment Strategy indicators and beyond. International Labour Review 147.2–3: 164–198.

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    This article discusses implementation of the Laeken indicators, which were identified to monitor employment quality in the EU. From a theoretical perspective, it shows that the concept of work quality encompasses several dimensions, which are likely to be related to national institutions, particularly industrial relations and welfare systems.

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  • European Commission. 2001. Employment in Europe 2001: Recent Trends and Prospects. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

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    This report outlines the strategic goal for the EU launched in the Lisbon Strategy, to “become the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.” The promotion of high quality in work is central to this approach.

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  • Muñoz de Bustillo, Rafael, Enrique Fernández-Macías, José Ignacio Antón, and Fernando Esteve. 2009. Indicators of job quality in the European Union. INSITO-Workshop on Job Quality in Europe, 25 June, 2009, Vienna. Brussels: European Parliament.

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    This report provides an overview of existing indicators of job quality, their development, and the relevant ongoing work at the EU level. It further analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each set of indicators with a view to assessing their significance. The definition of quality of employment, quality of work, and the different dimensions contained in these concepts are discussed and suggestions are made to create and promote a European Job Quality Indicator.

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  • Peña-Casas, Ramón. 2009. Monitoring quality of work and employment in the European Union: Conceptual frameworks and indicators. In Quality of work in the European Union: Concept, data and debates from a transnational perspective. Edited by Ana M. Guillén and Svenn-Åge Dahl, 41–86. Brussels: P. I. E. Peter Lang.

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    In this early overview the author describes the emergence of quality of work and employment (QWE) issues in the European debate, the Lisbon Strategy, and more specifically the European Employment Strategy. He also describes the conceptual frameworks and indicators developed in the EU policy processes and reviews and discusses some empirical results from research on QWE in Europe.

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  • Royuela, Vicente, Jordi López-Tamayo, and Jordi Suriñach. 2008. The institutional vs. the academic definition of the quality of work life: What is the focus of the European Commission? Social Indicators Research 86.3: 401–415.

    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-007-9175-6Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    The authors compare the European Commission definition of the quality of work life with the academic one. They also analyze the possibility of applying the institutional definition to a specifically Spanish case through the development of specific indicators. The main conclusions are that quality of work life is increasingly important for policymakers, and that objective indicators are essential for reliable measures of quality of work life.

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Other Organizations and Institutional Frameworks

Many international organizations emphasize the importance of quality of jobs and employment in their programs. They established new divisions or expert groups that offer their own approaches to studying job quality, quality of employment, and work life: International Labour Organization (International Labour Organization 2013), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Cazes, et al. 2015; Hijzen and Menyhert 2016; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2014; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2015), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe 2015), World Health Organization (Employment Conditions Knowledge Network 2007). Also, specific interest organizations, such as the European Trade Union Institute, have developed their own indexes for cross-national comparison (Leschke, et al. 2008).

  • Cazes, Sandrine, Alexander Hijzen, and Anne Saint-Martin. 2015. Measuring and assessing job quality: The OECD job quality framework. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 174. Paris: OECD.

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    This paper presents the OECD Framework for Measuring and Assessing Job Quality developed jointly by the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Directorate and the Statistics Directorate of the OECD and describes its links to the broader well-being agenda pursued by the OECD. The approach to job quality taken is explicitly multidimensional and defined in terms of earnings quality, labor market security, and quality of the working environment.

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  • Employment Conditions Knowledge Network (EMCONET). 2007. Employment conditions and health inequalities: Final report for the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH). Barcelona, Spain: Health Inequalities Research Group.

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    This is the final report to the World Health Organization, prepared by the Employment Conditions Knowledge Network (EMCONET). The aim of this report is to provide a rigorous analysis on how employment relations affect different population groups, and how this knowledge may help identify and promote worldwide effective policies and institutional changes to reduce health inequalities derived from unequal employment relations and working conditions.

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  • Hijzen, Alexander, and Balint Menyhert. 2016. Measuring labour market security and assessing its implications for individual well-being. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers No. 175. Paris: OECD.

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    This paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the labor market security dimension of the OECD’s job quality framework, thereby complementing the analysis in chapter 3 of the OECD Employment Outlook 2014 and chapter 5 of the OECD Employment Outlook 2015.

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  • International Labour Organization. 2013. Decent work indicators: Guidelines for producers and users of statistical and legal framework indicators: ILO manual. 2d ed. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office.

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    The main purpose of the work of the International Labour Organization (ILO) is “to promote opportunities for men and women to obtain decent and productive work.” Productive employment and decent work are key elements to achieving a fair globalization and poverty reduction. The ILO has developed an agenda for the community of work looking at job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue, with gender equality as a crosscutting objective.

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  • Leschke, Janine, Andrew Watt, and Mairéad Finn. 2008. Putting a number on job quality? Constructing a European Job Quality Index. European Trade Union Institute for Research, Education and Health and Safety Working Paper No. 2008.03. Brussels: ETUI-REHS.

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    The European Trade Union Institute research department developed the European Job Quality Index (JQI), compiled on the basis of six sub-indexes that capture different aspects of job quality: wages, nonstandard forms of employment, work-life balance and working time, working conditions and job security, access to training and career advancement, and collective interest representation and participation.

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  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2013. Well-being in the workplace. Measuring job quality. In How’s life? 2013: Measuring well-being. By OECD, 147–171. Paris: OECD.

    DOI: 10.1787/9789264201392-enSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    While employment is a strong determinant of people’s life satisfaction, what matters is not just having a job, but also what kind of job. Measuring the quality of employment covers many different aspects, from work content and autonomy in decision making to interactions with colleagues and support from managers, as well as more traditional dimensions such as earnings and job security.

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  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2014. How good is your job? Measuring and assessing job quality. In OECD employment outlook 2014. By OECD, 79–129. Paris: OECD.

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    This chapter of the OECD Employment Outlook 2014 provides a broad picture of job quality across OECD countries and socioeconomic groups, along thee broad dimensions that are essential for worker well-being: earnings quality, labor market security, and quality of the work environment.

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  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 2015. Enhancing job quality in emerging economies. In OECD employment outlook 2015. By OECD, 211–249. Paris: OECD.

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    This chapter of the OECD Employment Outlook 2015 provides the first comprehensive analysis of job quality in emerging economies. The countries considered are: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, (urban) China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Russian Federation, South Africa, and Turkey. It extends the OECD Job Quality Framework to better suit the countries considered while maintaining its three broad dimensions: earnings quality, labor market security, and quality of the working environment.

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  • United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). 2015. Handbook on measuring quality of employment. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Expert Group on Measuring Quality of Employment. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations.

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    The UNECE framework provides a coherent structure for measuring quality of employment. It approaches quality of employment as a multidimensional concept, identifying seven dimensions (safety and ethics of employment, income and benefits from employment, working time and work-life balance, security of employment and social protection, social dialogue, skills development and training, and employment-related relationships and work motivation) and introducing a number of statistical indicators for measuring them.

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Measurements

The indicators developed by international organizations aim to measure, monitor, and compare job and employment quality at the aggregate cross-national level, but not to evaluate the quality of jobs for specific groups of workers or occupations—a crucial requirement for an index, if it is to be used for policy purposes. Thus, attempts have been made to systematically assess working conditions and job quality at the individual level. Although a large number of national surveys worldwide include measures of job quality in national contexts, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) provides the most comprehensive cross-national data bases for studying job quality, with the aim to provide research-based findings and knowledge to help develop social, employment, and work-related policies. Eurofound has developed three regularly repeated surveys that offer a unique source of comparative information on the quality of living and working conditions across the EU and beyond. The European Working Conditions Survey (European Working Conditions Survey) has become an established source of information about working conditions, employment, and job quality. It enables monitoring of long-term trends in working conditions in Europe. Related Eurofund surveys are European Quality of Life Survey (European Quality of Life Survey) and European Company Survey (European Company Survey). These and other individual-level data, such as International Social Survey Programme (International Social Survey Programme), have been widely used by researchers. Most scholars agree that work time, working environment, job autonomy, job demands, job security, training, skill development, skills usage, and work-life balance should be included in any definition of what constitutes a good job (Eurofund 2012, Holman 2013, Kalleberg and Vaisey 2005, Thompson and Phua 2012). A comprehensive overview of current indexes of job quality (Muñoz de Bustillo, et al. 2011) concludes that a need still exists for a worker-oriented, individually constructed, and theoretically grounded job quality indicator to measure, compare, and monitor the evolution of job quality in different countries.

  • Eurofund. 2012. Trends in job quality in Europe. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union.

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    Based on the European Working Conditions Survey, four indexes were constructed for the study: earnings, job prospects, intrinsic job quality, and working time quality. The four indexes cannot be reduced into a single index of job quality because associations between them are weak. They are, however, theoretically and conceptually coherent.

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  • European Company Survey (ECS). Dublin, Ireland: Eurofound.

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    European Company Survey has been carried out since 2004–2005. It aims to assess company policies and practices on a harmonized basis. Interviews take place with the manager responsible for human resources in the establishment and when possible with an employee representative. The most recent survey in 2013 includes companies and establishments in thirty-two countries, including twenty-seven EU member states and Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Iceland, Montenegro, and Turkey.

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  • European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS). Dublin, Ireland: Eurofound.

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    Quality of Life Survey has been implemented since 2003. Topics include a range of issues, such as employment, income, education, housing, family, health, and work-life balance. It also looks at subjective indicators, such as people’s levels of happiness and life satisfaction. The most recent survey in 2016 includes a randomly selected population in the twenty-eight member states of the EU and in five candidate countries: Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey.

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  • European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS). Dublin, Ireland: Eurofound.

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    Working Conditions Survey has been implemented since 1990. Topics covered include employment status, working time arrangements, work organization, learning and training, physical and psychosocial risk factors, health and safety, worker participation, work-life balance, earnings and financial security, as well as work and health. The most recent survey in 2015 includes workers in the twenty-eight member states of the EU, Norway, Switzerland, Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey.

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  • Holman, David. 2013. Job types and job quality in Europe. Human Relations 66.4: 475–502.

    DOI: 10.1177/0018726712456407Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    Using the European Working Conditions Survey 2005, the author establishes a taxonomy of six job types and shows that there are different types of high- and low-quality jobs. It is concluded that institutional theory is able to explain the level but not the nature of cross-national variation in job quality.

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  • International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Mannheim, Germany: GESIS-Leibnitz Institute for the Social Sciences.

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    The International Social Survey Programme is a cross-national collaboration program conducting annual surveys on diverse topics relevant to social sciences. Not all countries participated in all ISSP waves, but, since its beginning in 1984, the survey has included fifty-seven nations around the globe. The ISSP “Work Orientations” module series, which is particularly relevant for studying job quality, includes four surveys conducted in 1989, 1997, 2005, and 2015.

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  • Kalleberg, Arne L., and Stephen Vaisey. 2005. Pathways to a good job: Perceived work quality among the machinists in North America. British Journal of Industrial Relations 43.3: 431–454.

    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2005.00363.xSave Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This paper argues that useful insights can be obtained by examining the relationships between global and specific measures of job quality: a global or general assessment of a job versus assessments along a variety of specific dimensions of work. By linking these approaches, the authors conclude that various pathways exist by which workers may consider jobs to be “good.”

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  • Muñoz de Bustillo, Rafael, Enrique Fernández-Macías, Fernando Esteve, and José-Ignacio Antón. 2011. E pluribus unum? A critical survey of job quality indicators. Socio-economic Review 9.3: 447–475.

    DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwr005Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    The aim of this paper is to present different views and existing proposals of job quality indicators. The authors discuss the methodological decisions that have to be made in the process of designing an indicator of job quality, from both a theoretical and a methodological/ technical perspective. Further, they discuss critically the different empirical approaches to the measurement of job quality proposed in the literature, and they present some recommendations for the construction of a job quality index for policy purposes.

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  • Thompson, Edmund R., and Florence T. T. Phua. 2012. A brief index of affective job satisfaction. Group & Organization Management 37.3: 275–307.

    DOI: 10.1177/1059601111434201Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This article responds to criticisms that affective job satisfaction research suffers serious measurement problems. Unlike any previous job satisfaction measure, the proposed four-item Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction is overtly affective, minimally cognitive, and optimally brief. It also differs from any previous job satisfaction measure in being comprehensively validated not just for internal consistency, reliability, temporal stability, convergent, and criterion-related validities, but also for cross-population invariance.

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Related Theoretical Concepts

Quality of Life/Well-Being

No general answer can be given to the question of what constitutes a good job. Similarly, no single, agreed-upon definition exists of the construct or a single, reliable, and widely accepted measurement instrument to assess quality of life. Quality of life can be understood as a subjective overall cognitive assessment of feelings and attitudes about one’s life at a particular point in time. Or it can be perceived as a construct consisting of discrete life domains. The thesis of domain hierarchy then refers to the idea that life domains are cognitively structured in a hierarchical pyramid: feelings about life overall are located at the top of this pyramid, the level below is reserved for satisfaction with the different life domains, and the bottom level pertains to life events within different life domains. Work is one of the central domains that affect general quality of life (Wallace, et al. 2007; Bäck-Wiklund, et al. 2011; Drobnič, et al. 2010). More specific approaches have addressed the psychosocial effects of work environments on well-being, stress, and mental health. Most broadly known are the Demand-Control model (Karasek 1979, Karasek and Theorell 1990) and the model of Effort-Reward Imbalance (Siegrist 1996). Another important theoretical framework is the capabilities approach (CA), which sees freedom of choice as an essential ingredient of well-being (Nussbaum and Sen 1993, see also Hobson 2014 [cited under Work-Life Balance]). CA has been increasingly seen as a relevant framework for studying employment quality.

  • Bäck-Wiklund, Margareta, Tanja van der Lippe, Laura den Dulk, and Annekke Doorne-Huiskes, eds. 2011. Quality of life and work in Europe: Theory, practice and policy. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

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    Intense globalization, rapidly changing workplaces, and family patterns have renewed interest in quality of life around the globe. This book examines different institutional arrangements, work-place conditions, and gendered work and care that affect the conditions for achieving quality of work and life in European countries.

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  • Drobnič, Sonja, Barbara Beham, and Patrick Präg. 2010. Good job, good life? Working conditions and quality of life in Europe. Social Indicators Research 99.2: 205–225.

    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-010-9586-7Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This paper addresses the relationship between job quality and quality of life. Results suggest that the issue of security, such as security of employment and pay, which provides economic security, is the key element that in a straightforward manner affects people’s quality of life. Several other working conditions translate into high/low job satisfaction, which, in turn, increases/decreases life satisfaction indirectly.

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  • Karasek, Robert A., Jr. 1979. Job demands, job decision latitude, and mental strain: Implications for job redesign. Administrative Science Quarterly 24.2: 285–308.

    DOI: 10.2307/2392498Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    A stress-management model of job strain is developed and tested in this article. The model predicts that mental strain results from the interaction of job demands and job decision latitude. The consistent finding is that it is the combination of low decision latitude and heavy job demands that is associated with mental strain.

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  • Karasek, Robert A., Jr., and Tores Theorell. 1990. Healthy work: Stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. New York: Basic Books.

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    This book relates the issues of occupational health to broader concerns of economic production, restructuring, and organization of work life. It examines the basic theme of workplace control and psychological demands within a multidisciplinary framework. The first part presents a model of psychosocial job structure and stress-related illness, particularly from heart-disease research. The second part attempts to translate these findings into a set of guidelines for the design of healthy work.

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  • Nussbaum, Martha, and Amartya Sen, eds. 1993. The quality of life. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    This volume addresses issues of defining and measuring the quality of life. Recent developments in the philosophical definition of well-being are discussed and linked to practical issues, such as the delivery of health care, and the assessment of women’s quality of life. Contributions from leading philosophers and economists in this volume consider various problems the subject raises.

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  • Siegrist, Johannes. 1996. Adverse health effects of high-effort/low-reward conditions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 1.1: 27–41.

    DOI: 10.1037/1076-8998.1.1.27Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This article discusses the link between psychosocial occupational stress and health. Two theoretical models, the person-environment fit and the demand-control models, are reviewed. The maintenance of chronically stressful experience in individuals who are exposed to the psychosocial stressors identified in models is described, and the concepts of threat, status control, and reciprocity of exchange in occupational life are introduced. Based on these concepts, a third theoretical concept is introduced: the model of effort-reward imbalance at work.

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  • Wallace, Claire, Florian Pichler, and Bernadette C. Hayes. 2007. First European quality of life survey: Quality of work and life satisfaction. Luxembourg: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.

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    This analytical report addresses the question concerning the extent to which quality of work influences people’s overall quality of life. A strong correlation is found between working conditions and job satisfaction, which, in turn, is shown to affect people’s overall life satisfaction. The report also underlines an emerging East–West divide in terms of people’s experiences of working conditions, with more negative experiences prevailing in the eastern, and also in some of the southern, European societies.

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Work-Life Balance

“Work-Life Balance” was included among the EU Laeken indicators (see Davoine, et al. 2008; Muñoz de Bustillo, et al. 2009; Peña-Casas 2009; Royuela, et al. 2008, all cited under the EU Employment Strategy). This indicator acknowledges that the challenge of balancing paid employment and private life plays an increasingly important role in the well-being of European workers, and the opportunity for individuals to balance their home and work lives is a central component of a good job. With increasing economic prosperity, how a job measures up in terms of a successful reconciliation of work and non-work roles becomes an important issue (Drobnič and Guillén 2011). The theoretical framework linked to role theory and widely applied to the interface between work and family has been the resources-demands approach (Bakker and Demerouti 2007). When the role demands stemming from one domain (work or family) are incompatible with role demands stemming from another domain (family or work), the result is work-family conflict (Greenhaus and Beutell 1985, Voydanoff 2005). More recently, the field has also begun to include the positive side of the work-family interface by examining outcomes such as positive work-family enrichment (Greenhaus and Powell 2006), or satisfaction with work-family balance (Valcour 2007). A recent application of the capabilities approach to the work-life balance of Amartya Sen (see also Nussbaum and Sen 1993 [cited under Quality of Life/Well-Being]) introduces new perspectives and adds new dimensions to the analysis of job quality (Hobson 2014).

  • Bakker, Arnold B., and Evangelina Demerouti. 2007. The job demands–resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology 22.3: 309–328.

    DOI: 10.1108/02683940710733115Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    The purpose of this paper is to give a state-of-the art overview of the job demands–resources (JD-R) model. The strengths and weaknesses of the demand-control model and the effort-reward imbalance model regarding their predictive value for employee well-being are discussed. The paper then introduces the more flexible JD-R model and discusses its basic premises. The paper provides an overview of the studies that have been conducted with the JD-R model.

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  • Drobnič, Sonja, and Ana M. Guillén, eds. 2011. Work-life balance in Europe: The role of job quality. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

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    Examining the debate on quality of jobs in Europe, the contributors focus on the work-life balance, a central element of the EU agenda. The book addresses tensions between work and private life, examining job quality, job security, working conditions, and time-use patterns of individuals and households as well as institutional contexts.

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  • Greenhaus, Jeffrey H., and Nicholas J. Beutell. 1985. Sources of conflict between work and family roles. Academy of Management Review 10.1: 76–88.

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    An examination of the literature on conflict between work and family roles suggests that work-family conflict exists when time-based, strain-based, or behavior-based requirements of one role make it difficult to fulfill requirements of another role. A model of work-family conflict is proposed, and a series of research propositions are presented.

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  • Greenhaus, Jeffrey H., and Gary N. Powell. 2006. When work and family are allies: A theory of work-family enrichment. Academy of Management Review 31.1: 72–92.

    DOI: 10.5465/AMR.2006.19379625Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    The authors define work-family enrichment as the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role. In this article, they propose a theoretical model of work-family enrichment and offer a series of research propositions that reflect two paths to enrichment: an instrumental path and an affective path. The implications of the model for future research on the work-family enrichment process are examined.

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  • Hobson, Barbara, ed. 2014. Worklife balance: The agency and capabilities gap. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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    The agency and capabilities gap addresses tensions in work-life balance within families, workplace organizations, and policy frameworks. Inspired by Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach, this volume considers not just what individuals do, but also the scope of alternatives to make other choices. It includes rich contextualized studies across western and eastern European countries and Japan, with a focus on gendered agency inequalities for work-life balance.

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  • Valcour, Monique. 2007. Work-based resources as moderators of the relationship between work hours and satisfaction with work-family balance. Journal of Applied Psychology 92.6: 1512–1523.

    DOI: 10.1037/0021-9010.92.6.1512Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    This article examines the relationship between work demands and resources and introduces a new theoretical construct—satisfaction with work-family balance—into the literature. As with other forms of satisfaction (e.g., job, life), there is both a cognitive and an affective component to work-family balance satisfaction. The study reports on an investigation of the relationships of work hours, job complexity, and control over work time to satisfaction with work-family balance.

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  • Voydanoff, Patricia. 2005. Work demands and work-to-family and family-to-work conflict: Direct and indirect relationships. Journal of Family Issues 26.6: 707–726.

    DOI: 10.1177/0192513X05277516Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

    The author uses a demands-and-resources approach to examine relationships among three types of work demands and work-to-family and family-to-work conflict: time-based demands, strain-based demands, and boundary-spanning demands. The results indicate consistent positive relationships between the three types of demands and work-to-family conflict. Strain-based demands show the strongest relationships with family-to-work conflict.

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