Employment status and job satisfaction

Pages187-216
Date07 October 2013
Published date07 October 2013
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-08-2012-0008
AuthorJohn Sutherland
Subject MatterHR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM
Employment status and job
satisfaction
John Sutherland
Scottish Centre for Employment Research (SCER),
Department of Human Resource Management,
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Purpose – Motivated by the concept of procedural utility, which emphasises the salience of process-
related job aspects, the purpose of this paper is to addresses three questions: first, “is job satisfaction
different for the self-employed with no employees and the self-employedwith employees?”; second, “is
job satisfaction different for managers employedin smaller establishments and managers employed in
larger establishments?”; and third, for both the self-employed and those in waged work, is job
satisfaction overall correlated with satisfaction with ten identified job aspects’?
Design/methodology/approach – A data set which has its origins in the (UK) 2006 Skills survey is
examined, making use of ordinal logit estimations.
Findings – There are differences in job satisfaction between the self-employed with no employees and
those with employees, with the latter tending to be more likely to be satisfied. There are differences in
job satisfaction between managers in smaller establishment and managers in larger establishments,
but not for the threeprocess-related job aspectsassociated with proceduralutility. For theself-employed,
there is a predominantly positive and sometimes statistically significant correlation between an
individual’s job satisfactionoverall and satisfactionwith the ten job aspects.For the waged worker,there
is a uniformly positive and predominantly statistically significant correlation between an individual’s
job satisfaction overall and satisfaction with the ten job aspects.
Research limitations/implications – The self-employed and those in waged work cannot be
assumed to constitute homogeneous groups. Consequently, when future research seeks to examine the
manner in which job satisfaction maydiffer across employment status groups, these groups cannot be
treated as mere dichotomous dummy variables.
Originality/value – This is an empirically based reappraisal of hypotheses associated with
procedural utility which focuses up on within group differences for two sub-populations in the data set,
the self-employed and waged workers.
Keywords Job satisfaction, Self-employment, Personnel economics, HRM
Paper type Research p aper
1. Introduction
There is a degree of consensus in the literature about the determinants of job
satisfaction. Most empirical studies identify the central importance of p ersonal
characteristics such as gender, age and education and job characteristics such as
promotion prospects, hours worked, pay and establishment size. Ceteris paribus, males,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/2049-3983.htm
Received 6 August 2012
Accepted 17 August 2012
Evidence-based HRM: a Global
Forum for Empirical Scholarship
Vol. 1 No.2, 2013
pp. 187-216
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
2049-3983
DOI 10.1108/EBHRM-08-2012-0008
The 2006 Skills Survey data set was downloaded from the ESRC Data Archive. The survey was
co-funded by the ESRC, the Department of Education and Skills, the Department for Trade and
Industry, the Learning and Skills Council, the Sector Skills Development Agency, Scottish
Enterprise, Future Skills Wales, the East Midlands Development Agency,Highlands and Islands
Enterprise and the Department for Employment and Learning (Norther n Ireland).None of these
parties, however, has any responsibility for the use made of the data set, nor any conclusions
drawn from the analysis within this paper. The author acknowledges the constructive comments
received from two anonymous referees on a much earlier version of this paper.
187
Employment
status and job
satisfaction
individuals in their 30s, with higher levels of education, with no promotion prospects,
working long hours in larger establishments tend to have relatively lower levels of
job satisfaction. However, there is less consensus about the nature of the relationship
between job satisfaction and employment status, for example whether an individual
is self-employed or in waged work. This lack of consensus becomes especially
apparent when, rather than examining job satisfaction in general, research focuses
upon the satisfaction derived from different aspects of the job, for example its
pecuniary aspects, such as pay, and its non-pecuniary aspects, such as the nature
of the work undertaken.
Benz and Frey add a further dimension to this literature. Contextualising their
research in the contrasting work systems of market (epitomised by self-employment),
and hierarchy (in waged work), they argue that what is of especial consequence to
the former is neither the job satisfaction to be gained from pecuniary outputs nor the
job satisfaction to be gained from non-pecuniary outputs but the job satisfaction to be
gained from the processes by which these different outputs are generated, attributable
to procedural utility. Moreover, according to Benz and Frey, the job satisfaction an
individual derives from process is not unique to market systems. It is also to be found
in waged work systems. They claim that it is relatively less likely to be found in larger
establishments because of the manner in which decision-making processes there tend
to be more centralised and formalised.
Contrary to Benz and Frey’s (implicit) assumption, however, not all the self-
employed act as individuals within the market place. Some employ others, thereby
creating small businesses. Hence the self-employed with no employees need to be
distinguished from the self-employed with employees. Accordingly, the first research
question is:
RQ1. Is job satisfaction different for the self-employed with no employees and the
self-employed with employees?
Further, and again contrary to Benz and Frey’s assumptions, decision making on the
part of those in waged work is more likely to be undertaken by those in managerial
positions. Accordingly, and thereby retaining the salience of size, the second research
question is:
RQ2. Is job satisfaction different for managers employed in smaller establishments
and managers employed in larger establishments?
The analysis undertaken, therefo re, is for two mutually exclusive sub-populations in
the data set: those who are self-employed and those who are in waged work. In this
way, the focus is upon differences in job satisfaction within employment status groups
not differences across employment status groups.
First, differences in job satisfaction are examined for ten job aspects, aspects of
equal relevance to individuals in self-employment and waged work and reflecting both
process and product. Latterly, satisfaction with these asp ects is examined as they
feature as explanatory variables in the estimated model, generating the third research
question, which is:
RQ3. For both the self-employed and those in waged work, is job satisfaction overall
correlated with satisfaction with ten job asp ects?
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