Roads to Post‐Fordism: Labour Market and Social Structures in Europe – By Max Koch
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00690_7.x |
| Author | Carlos Jesús Fernández Rodríguez |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
BOOK REVIEWS
Job Quality and Employer Behaviour by Stephen Bazen, Claudio Lucifora and Wiemer
Salverda. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK, 2005, x +254 pp., ISBN 1 4039
4794 5, £60.00.
After two decades in which European job quality has been consistently compared
favourably with that of US jobs, European researchers are beginning to take a harder
look at their own countries’ jobs. Recent European Commission Employment in
Europe reports have spotlighted the persistence or even growth of low wage or
temporary jobs in a variety of sectors. However, most research has focused on
supply-side causes and remedies for low-quality jobs, namely skills and training. This
volume takes on the admirable goal of filling out that picture by examining the
demand side — employer behaviour.
Although two of the book’s 10 substantive chapters summarize evidence from the
United States and one describes data for OECD countries as a whole, this is primarily
a book about work in Europe. Within that frame the analyses are wide-ranging.
Specific chapters examine Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, and the United
Kingdom. The volume includes studies of cross-sectional and longitudinal quantita-
tive data, as well as case studies, primarily from the service sector. In particular, five
of the chapters examine longitudinal labour market data, reflecting the recent explo-
sion in such research.
The articles address four main questions: What determines job satisfaction? What
determines more objective job characteristics? What determines a person’s likelihood
of advancement in job quality? And finally, why do particular groups face distinct
odds of getting hired in less-skilled jobs? I briefly review selected findings on these
questions, then turn to an overall assessment of the volume.
Some of the findings in response to all four questions are unsurprising. There are
large sectoral and country differences in job satisfaction, objective job characteristics
and mobility. Young people and women have objectively worse jobs, and there are
reduced odds for upward mobility for older workers, women, nonwhites in the United
States and less skilled workers. Harry Holzer shows that US employers are more
reluctant to hire blacks and former criminal offenders, even for relatively unskilled
jobs.
Other findings are more novel, and beg for additional explanation. For instance,
interesting findings about gender thread through most of the chapters. Iben Bolvig
reports that in Sweden, not only are women less likely to move into better jobs, but so
are other workers in firms with high concentrations of women. Women are more
satisfied in their jobs than men after controlling for job differences. In Finland, over
the first five years of tenure, gender wage gaps widen in retail but narrow (slightly) in
information technology, according to Rita Asplund and Reija Lilja. French retailers
British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00690.x
46:3 September 2008 0007–1080 pp. 555–574
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2008. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
discount workers’ social skills, in part, Florence Jany-Catrice and co-authors argue,
because they take for granted women’s socialization in these capacities.
And in a few cases, authors have turned up results that are counter-intuitive or that
contrast across countries. Union representation is associated with higher satisfaction
(though not at statistically significant levels) in Britain, but lower satisfaction in a
15-country cross section. Holzer reports that in the United States, most transitions
out of low-wage employment involve a move to a higher-wage firm, whereas Bolvig
finds the most common route to higher wages in Sweden is in-house advancement.
As this summary bristling with details suggests, a strength of the volume is its
ambition and scope. It could hardly offer a comprehensive compendium of findings
on job quality, given the volume of recent work, but there is something here to address
all of the major questions. As regards the other half of the title, ‘employer behaviour’,
however, the book’s offerings are somewhat thinner. Most of the articles refer to
employer behaviour only implicitly, through job characteristics (union representa-
tion, type of employment contract) or sectoral comparisons. The exceptions are
noteworthy. Alex Bryson, Lorenzo Cappellari, and Claudio Lucifora draw on an
employer survey with detailed variables such as ‘no information regularly shared with
employees’. However, only three behavioural variables (internal labour markets, job
security, and formalized dispute resolution) are strongly correlated with all four
dimensions of job satisfaction they consider, and only one (internal labour markets)
with the expected sign; they devote some effort to explaining the unexpected results.
Holzer builds on employer self-descriptions of beliefs, preferences and actions
from large surveys. Damian Grimshaw, Jany-Catrice et al., and Paul Osterman
all use industry or firm case studies, which yield detailed stories, though limited
generalizability.
I would have liked to see a bit more on public policy as well (though editors
Lucifora and Salverda do have two other volumes on policy for low-wage employ-
ment). The various references to policy form an intriguing ensemble. Frank Siebern-
Thomas makes the general case for a ‘high road’ option by observing that
productivity and job quality are correlated across countries and sectors. The editors,
in their brief introduction, review several policy options, but, somewhat over-
cautiously in my view, only strongly endorse intermediaries to match workers and
jobs. Holzer takes this line of thought a step farther, noting that intermediaries can
also work with businesses to improve jobs, for example, by constructing career
ladders. Grimshaw, on the other hand, offers a spirited empirical defence of minimum
wage rises (an option about which the editors expressed reservations), noting that in
British case studies, employers responded to minimum wage increases by boosting
productivity.
Osterman provides the most extensive discussion of policy, though one that focuses
on the United States. He not only lays out a broad menu that includes traditional
solutions (increasing aggregate demand, raising the minimum wage, facilitating
unionization) but also explores innovative approaches to changing the structure of
jobs, mobility paths and even industries. He argues that employers may well accept
such reforms, given potential productivity advantages and coming demographically
driven labour shortages — especially if the additional weight of political pressure is
brought to bear.
Indeed, Osterman’s concluding chapter offers a satisfying capstone to the volume,
tying together job quality, mobility, and public policy, and threading employer behav-
iour through all these themes. It is more than a bit ironic that the final synthesis in a
volume focused on job quality and employer behaviour in Europe is contributed by a
556 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2008.
To continue reading
Request your trial