Organizational leadership: How much does it matter?

I study the influence of leadership on organizational performance and worker wellbeing using data from the 2004 and 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS). Our most conservative estimates from fixed effects regressions on a panel of organizations reveal that virtuous leadership is significantly and positively linked to an upbeat assessment of organizational performance, and an increase in worker wellbeing. Specifically, the estimates reveal that an increase in leadership quality by one standard deviation increases organizational performance and worker job satisfaction by 0.27 and 0.73 standard deviations, respectively, while it leads to a fall in worker job anxiety by 0.13 standard deviations. The results support the hypothesis that good leadership is vital for the success of business, including worker wellbeing, which organizational policymakers ought to heed. There is a dearth of empirical evidence on organizational leadership as an institution and its influence on organizational outcomes, which this article aims to address.     

Unions and Work Attitudes in the United States and Japan

Examining whether Japanese enterprise unions have a negative effect on employee job attitudes or whether they forge a stronger bond between the worker and the firm, our results indicate that union membership has no effect on Japanese employees' job satisfaction, but that there is some negative impact on company commitment. Much of the union effect on U.S. workers' job attitudes stems from lower job complexity, work autonomy, perceived promotion chances, and quality circle membership.     

Union Voice Effects in Mexico

This paper utilizes establishment survey data from Mexico to explore the impact of union voice on fringe benefits, turnover, job training and productivity. Mexican unions have a significant effect on these outcome measures for workers and firms. Unions increase both the value of fringe benefits per worker and the ratio of fringe benefits to total compensation, increase job training and raise productivity per worker. However, contrary to the broader literature on union voice effects, unionized establishments in Mexico appear to possess greater worker turnover.     

Happier with the Same: Job Satisfaction of Disadvantaged Workers

Job satisfaction evaluations depend not only on the objective circumstances that workers experience in their jobs, but also on their subjective dispositions, such as their aspirations, expectations, feelings of entitlement or personal evaluation criteria. We use matched employer–employee data from the United Kingdom to examine whether and how subjective dispositions influencing job satisfaction vary across workers with different socio‐demographic traits. We approximate jobs using detailed occupations within workplaces and find that most of the variability in job satisfaction is at the worker rather than the proximate‐job level, and that workers with disadvantaged statuses report higher satisfaction with the same jobs than those with advantaged statuses.     

Job Satisfaction and Promotions

This paper estimates the impact of promotions and promotion expectations on job satisfaction using the 1996–2006 waves of the NLSY79 dataset. Having received a promotion in the past 2 years leads to increased job satisfaction, even while controlling for the worker’s current wage, wage rank within her peer group, and wage growth. Workers who believe a promotion is possible in the next 2 years also report higher job satisfaction. Additionally, past promotions have a lingering, but fading impact on job satisfaction.     

Horticultural exports,female wage employment and primary school enrolment: Theory and evidence from Senegal

In this paper we analyse the indirect effects of the boom in horticultural exports in Senegal on child schooling. The export boom has caused a dramatic increase in female off-farm wage employment, which led to increased female bargaining power in the household. We investigate the causal effect of female wage income on primary school enrolment. We develop a collective household model with endogenous bargaining power to show that, if women have higher preferences for schooling than men, the impact of female wage income on school enrolment will be the result of a positive income effect, a negative labour substitution effect and a positive empowerment effect. We address the question empirically using original household survey data from Senegal. We use different econometric techniques and show that female off-farm wage income has a positive effect on primary school enrolment for both boys and girls, and that female empowerment is specifically important for the schooling of girls. Our results imply that the horticultural export boom in Senegal has indirectly contributed to the second and third Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and elimination of gender disparities in primary education.     

The combined effects of positive and negative affect on job satisfaction and counterproductive work behavior

Management researchers have paid more attention to the role of affect in the workplace in the last two to three decades. While it is clear that positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) should be associated with positive and negative employee attitudes and behaviors, respectively, we know little about their combined effects. In this study, we provide preliminary evidence concerning the potential complexity of the interplay between PA and NA in affecting job satisfaction and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). Results of polynomial regression analyses from a sample of 216 employees showed that congruence of PA and NA at high level leads to the higher level of job satisfaction and CWB than they are congruent at low level. For incongruence situations, PA higher than NA leads to higher level of job satisfaction and a lower level of CWB than when NA is higher than PA. Theoretical implications, limitations and future directions are discussed.

     

The link between computer use and job satisfaction: The mediating role of job tasks and task discretion

This study focuses on the consequences of the use of computerized work equipment (hereafter: computer use) on the content and quality of work. It investigates, first, the relationship between computer use and both job tasks and task discretion and, second, their mediating role for the relationship between computer use and job satisfaction. With our German-UK comparison, we contribute to the long-standing debate on the upskilling/de-skilling nature of the use of technology and its repercussions on the quality of work. We analyse data from the Skills and Employment Surveys for the UK and the BIBB/BAuA Employment Surveys for Germany using structural equation modelling. In line with the literature on routine-biased technological change, we show that computers are complementary to the performance of less routine and more abstract cognitive tasks and that this relationship is conducive to a higher level of task discretion and job satisfaction in both countries. Accounting for differences in job tasks performed, we find a negative direct effect of computer use on both task discretion and job satisfaction in the United Kingdom but not in Germany. Our results indicate that the ultimate effect of computer use on both task discretion and job satisfaction depends on the institutional contexts in which technology is introduced.     

Occupational Stereotypes and Gender‐Specific Job Satisfaction

Using representative data containing information on job satisfaction and workers’ gender‐specific prejudices, we investigate the relationship between stereotyping and job satisfaction. We show that women in stereotypically male jobs are significantly less satisfied with their work climate and job content than in stereotypically female jobs but more satisfied with their income in those same jobs. Our findings indicate that women trade off their higher income satisfaction against the negative consequences of stereotyping. As long as we take into account that stereotypically male jobs are physically more demanding than stereotypically female jobs, men are generally more satisfied with stereotypically male jobs.     

Job satisfaction and employer-sponsored training

This article examines whether participation in employer-sponsored training has a causal impact on job satisfaction by accounting for individual fixed effects, individual-by-employer fixed effects and controlling for promotions in a sub-sample of the data to address the endogeneity of participation arising from within employer job changes. The estimates show a consistent, positive effect of participation in employer-sponsored training on job satisfaction. Conversely, participation in other types of training does not have a significant impact upon job satisfaction. Additionally, participation in employer-sponsored training has a strong, negative correlation with turnover even while controlling for job satisfaction. Training does not exhibit a lasting effect of either job satisfaction or turnover.     

The Impact of Union Experience on Job Satisfaction

The relationship between union status and job satisfaction is commonly estimated without recognizing the heterogeneity of non‐union members. Many non‐union workers have experienced union jobs in the past while others have not, suggesting past estimations of the impact of unions on job satisfaction may miss a critical distinction. After separating non‐union members into those workers with and without union experience, this article shows that job satisfaction increases significantly for first‐time union workers, but decreases as workers accumulate experience in the union. Finally, after leaving the union jobs, worker job satisfaction recovers but does so only as the time since unionization grows.     

Job Satisfaction in Britain

Little recent empirical work in economics or industrial relations has examined job satisfaction, despite its demonstrated correlation with labour market behaviour such as quits, absenteeism and productivity. This paper uses information from a study of 5000 British employees to investigate the relationship between three measures of job satisfaction and a wide range of individual and job characteristics. Notably, men, workers in their thirties, the well-educated, those working longer hours and workers in larger establishments have lower levels of job satisfaction. The estimated job satisfaction equations are used to calculate a measure of the shadow wage and to provide some evidence that is consistent with the existence of non-compensating differentials in the industry and occupational wage structure.     

Worker Control as a Facilitator in the Match between Education and Jobs

This article examines the relationship between worker control and subjective underemployment among workers who have more education than is needed for entry into their jobs (credential underemployment). Results indicate that social and technical controls are related to a greater sense of education–job matching. Workers who have credential underemployment are less likely to report subjective underemployment (underutilization and lack of fit between education and job) if they have higher levels of workplace control. This article contains implications for job design and the role of employers and managers in fostering the utilization of their workforces.     

Pensions and Training

Economic analysis of private pensions commonly assumes that incentives for long tenure and early retirement enhance workforce productivity. An implication of the productivity theory of pensions is that workers who receive job training are more likely to be covered. We test this prediction with data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). We find a strong positive relationship between pensions and training, even after controlling for income and other worker and firm characteristics.     

Union Participation, Job Satisfaction, and Employee Turnover: An Event-History Analysis of the Exit-Voice Hypothesis

This study examines the exit-voice hypothesis by applying event-history analysis to data from a sample of 674 unionized public school teachers from 405 schools. Union participation (i.e., voice) and job satisfaction had significant negative main effects on turnover. In contrast to the original formulation of the exit-voice hypothesis, a test for interaction revealed that union participation had significant negative effects on quit behavior for members displaying both low and high satisfaction.
  The existing conclusions regarding the role of unions in reducing employee quits by providing voice mechanisms implicitly assume that union members actually use these mechanisms. Mechanisms such as attending union meetings and serving on a committee provide opportunities for members to express how they feel about their wages and working conditions. In this article we examine the influences of union participation and job satisfaction on individuals' decisions to quit working for an organization using event-history analysis. Unlike existing research, the present study focuses on member participation in a range of union activities (i.e., voting in union elections, attending union meetings, serving in a union office or on a committee, and seeking assistance from the union) to analyze the effect of union voice on employee quits. ¹ We further investigate how union participation and job satisfaction may interact to influence employee turnover over time, controlling for demographic, job-related, environmental, and contextual variables across 405 research sites.     

A Meta‐Analysis of the Union–Job Satisfaction Relationship

The purpose of this study is to provide a systematic and quantitative review of the existing empirical evidence on the effects of unionization on overall job satisfaction. We conducted a meta‐regression analysis (MRA) with results from a pool of 235 estimates from 59 studies published between 1978 and 2015. The accumulated evidence indicates that unionization is negatively related to job satisfaction but is far from being conclusive. When primary studies control for endogeneity of union membership, the results of the MRA indicate that the difference in job satisfaction between unionized and non‐unionized workers disappears. These results suggest that reverse causation (i.e. dissatisfied workers are more likely to join a union) and time‐varying endogenous effects play a key role in explaining the relationship between unionization and job satisfaction.     

Internal Labor Markets and Worker Quits

This article uses establishment-level data to explore the impact of internal labor markets on worker quits. Quits are lower where job ladders are long, pay growth from the bottom to the top of job ladders is high, and seniority is used as a criterion for promotion. Using a system of internal promotion without a commitment to seniority is associated with higher worker quits. These results hold true even when controlling for the specific human capital skills of workers, suggesting that personnel factors other than specific training are responsible both for the existence of internal labor markets and for the impact of internal labor markets on worker quits.     

The Part‐Time Job Satisfaction Puzzle: Different Types of Job Discrepancies and the Moderating Effect of Family Importance

Although part‐time employment often appears as a substandard form of employment, evidence that part‐time employees are less satisfied than full‐time employees is ambiguous. To shed more light on this puzzle, I test an extended discrepancy theory framework using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel. The results help explain previous inconsistent findings: Part‐time employment increases the chances of being underemployed while it reduces the likelihood of working more hours than preferred, and the negative effects of both types of working time mismatches on job satisfaction are similar in size. Furthermore, the importance attributed to family roles mitigates the negative effect of part‐time employment on job satisfaction.     

The Determinants of Employee Productivity and Earnings

This paper uses data on employee wages and characteristics drawn from a nationwide sample of firms to re-examine the determinants of employee productivity and earnings. The results show that previous experience and tenure in the current job have significant, positive effects on wages and productivity. Hours of training are positively related to productivity and wage growth but generally not to levels of either. Lastly, gender effects are evident. Productivity growth and current productivity levels are slightly higher for females while their wages are significantly lower.     

Co-determination, Efficiency and Productivity

We present the first panel estimates of the productivity effects of the unique German institution of parity, board‐level co‐determination. Although our data span two severe recessions when labour hoarding costs of co‐determination are probably highest, and the panel is too short to capture the likely long‐run benefits in terms of human capital formation and job satisfaction, we find positive productivity effects of the 1976 extension to parity co‐determination in large firms.