Does job design make workers happy?
| Author | Mari Kangasniemi,Antti Kauhanen,Petri Böckerman,Alex Bryson |
| Published date | 01 February 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/sjpe.12211 |
| Date | 01 February 2020 |
DOES JOB DESIGN MAKE WORKERS
HAPPY?
Petri B€
ockerman* , Alex Bryson** , Antti Kauhanen*** and
Mari Kangasniemi****
ABSTRACT
Using linked employer-employee data for Finland we examine associations
between job design, employee well-being and job-related stress. Three key find-
ings stand out. First, in accordance with the theory of Karasek and Karasek and
Theorell, job control and supervisory support are positively correlated with
employee well-being and negatively correlated with job-related stress. Second, as
predicted by theory, job demands are positively correlated with job-related stress.
Third, there is no association between job demands and employee well-being and,
contrary to expectations, neither job control nor supervisory support alleviate
the negative relationship between job demands and job-related stress. Our results
confirm the importance of job design for employee well-being.
II
NTRODUCTION
In the standard labour supply model there is a marginal disutility to addi-
tional work because performing it eats into leisure time. Consequently, peo-
ple are paid to work and will respond to financial incentives with greater
effort at the extensive and intensive margins. Recent research on momen-
tary well-being is consistent with this proposition: working is second only
to being sick in bed when individuals are randomly dinged on their smart-
phone and asked how happy they are during an activity (Bryson and
MacKerron, 2017). At the same time, paid work contributes to higher
reported life satisfaction, even after controlling for income, and individuals
report being more fulfilled when their lives include paid employment
(Blanchflower and Oswald, 2011). Their life satisfaction is particularly
adversely affected by bouts of unemployment. Indeed, unemployment is one
of the few episodes in life that people struggle to recover from in happi-
ness terms (Clark et al., 2008).
*University of Jyv€
askyl€
a (School of Business and Economics), Labour Institute for
Economic Research and IZA
**University College London, NIESR and IZA
***The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, University of Jyv€
askyl€
a (School of
Business and Economics)
****Labour Institute for Economic Research
Scottish Journal of Political Economy, DOI: 10.1111/sjpe.12211, Vol. 67, No. 1, February 2020
©2019 Scottish Economic Society.
31
These findings on the adverse and positive associations between well-being
and paid employment are not necessarily contradictory. Rather they reflect
the influence of paid work on different aspects of well-being: when individu-
als reflect back on their lives paid work contributes to satisfaction with that
life but, at the margin, individuals would often rather be doing something
else.
When examining the relationship between well-being and paid work one
should be mindful not only of the different dimensions of well-being, but also
that not all jobs are the same.
1
This literature began as far back as Adam
Smith’s discussion of compensating wage differentials in The Wealth of
Nations (1776) in which he argued that workers were more likely to undertake
jobs with poor working conditions where they commanded a higher wage to
compensate them for those conditions. More recently a literature in psychol-
ogy has revisited the issue of non-pecuniary job attributes and their influence
on worker well-being. The seminal work in this field has been undertaken by
Karasek (1979) and Karasek and Theorell (1990). The original model focuses
on two key aspects of job design: the demands the job makes on the individ-
ual and the degree of control the employee has over aspects of their job (what
Karasek termed ‘job decision latitude’). Under the model job demands create
job stress, thus having a negative impact on worker well-being, whereas job
control has a positive direct influence on well-being, as well as being able to
mitigate the adverse effects of job demands. It is the combination of low job
control and high job demands that is associated with mental strain and job
dissatisfaction. As we shall see in Section Two, many empirical studies con-
firm these propositions. Subsequent empirical studies have incorporated forms
of job support (supervisory, co-worker and non-work) and find these can miti-
gate the effects of job demands on job stress.
We contribute to this literature in two ways. First, we seek to identify the
association between job design and worker well-being taking into account
worker selection into jobs that differs along the dimensions of job control, job
demands and job support. We do so by conditioning on workers’ labour mar-
ket histories prior to entering their current job. Earlier research has shown
that the wage returns to undertaking particular jobs are substantially over-
stated if one does not account for worker sorting along these dimensions
(B€
ockerman et al., 2013). Therefore, we consider the sensitivity of the link
between job attributes and well-being to the inclusion of work histories. Sec-
ond, we use rich nationally representative linked employer-employee data for
Finland to see whether findings from the empirical literature hold in the Fin-
nish setting.
The Finnish setting has broader interest for several reasons. First, Finland
is known for its high take-up of high involvement management practices
which are characterized by high levels of job control and job demands (B€
oc-
kerman et al., 2012). Second, in contrast to much of the literature which is
1
Paid work, even if unpleasant in its own right, may allow the individual to earn the
income that makes non-work periods pleasant.
32 P. B€
OCKERMAN,A.BRYSON,A.KAUHANEN AND M. KANGASNIEMI
Scottish Journal of Political Economy
©2019 Scottish Economic Society
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