The Part‐Time Job Satisfaction Puzzle: Different Types of Job Discrepancies and the Moderating Effect of Family Importance
| Author | Anja Iseke |
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12019 |
The Part-Time Job Satisfaction Puzzle:
Different Types of Job Discrepancies
and the Moderating Effect of
Family Importance
Anja Iseke
Abstract
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.
1. Introduction
The effect of part-time employment on job satisfaction still remains a
puzzle. Though part-time employees constitute a growing share of the work-
force (Anxo et al. 2012; McDonald et al. 2009), most research on job satis-
faction refers to full-time employees, and the generalizability of previous
findings to part-time employees has been called into question (Thorsteinson
2003; Wittmer and Martin 2011). As a non-standard employment relation
(Broschak et al. 2008; Casey and Alach 2004; Kalleberg 2000), it is widely
assumed that part-time jobs offer substandard conditions and thus are infe-
rior to full-time jobs (Kalleberg 2000; McGovern et al. 2004). However,
while some studies report lower levels of job satisfaction for part-time than
Anja Iseke is at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of
Paderborn.
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British Journal of Industrial Relations doi: 10.1111/bjir.12019
52:3 September 2014 0007–1080 pp. 445–469
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2013. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
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full-time employees (e.g. Krausz et al. 2000; Miller and Terborg 1979;
Vecchio 1984), others find higher levels of job satisfaction for part timers
(e.g. Booth and van Ours 2009; Conway and Briner 2002; Eberhardt and
Shani 1984; Wotruba 1990). Thorsteinson’s (2003) meta-analysis indicates
no significant effect of part-time employment on job satisfaction. Even
though these studies come to different, even opposite conclusions, they
share the notion that job discrepancies account for differences in job satis-
faction between part-time and full-time employees. Job discrepancies imply
that the characteristics of a job do not match a person’s preferences and
abilities (e.g. Kristof-Brown et al. 2005; Lawler 1973; Locke 1976; Wooden
et al. 2009).
Putting together previously separate pieces of the part-time job satisfaction
puzzle, this study first tests whether part-time employees are more or less
likely to experience job discrepancies and, second, it shows how these job
discrepancies relate to job satisfaction. Two types of job discrepancies are
investigated simultaneously. The first type encompasses three forms of inad-
equate employment: time-related over-employment, time-related underem-
ployment and over-education. The second type refers to relatively poor
working conditions compared with standard employment relations and per-
tains to differential treatment of part-time and full-time employees in orga-
nizations. Separating inadequate employment from less favourable working
conditions in the preferred type of employment enables this study to distin-
guish whether differences in job satisfaction can be attributed to labour
market misallocations, including involuntary part-time (e.g. Barling and
Gallagher 1996; Holtom et al. 2002) or to unequal working conditions for
part-time and full-time employees.
Furthermore, this study adds a new piece to the part-time puzzle by intro-
ducing family importance as a moderating factor. Family importance implies
that an employee attributes personal significance to family roles (Reitzes and
Mutran 2002). It is inferred from the number of hours an individual spends
on housework and childcare. Identity theory (Ashforth 2001; Burke 1980;
Stryker 1968) suggests that family importance may influence the significance
employees attribute to job characteristics and hence moderate the effect of
part-time employment on job satisfaction.
The theoretical framework is tested using the German Socio-Economic
Panel (SOEP), using data on approximately 16,000 employees and covering
1985-2008. The panel structure of the data was scrutinized to better control
for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity which Barling and Gallagher
(1996) consider one reason for previous inconsistent findings (for an
exception, see Wooden et al. 2009). By focusing on within-person differ-
ences, I was able to identify the effects of individual changes in employment
status and job discrepancies on job satisfaction. In addition and in contrast
to previous studies on the impact of underemployment or family roles
which mostly employ data based on single occupations or employers
(e.g. Keil et al. 2000; Krausz et al. 2000; Morrow et al. 1994; Stamper and
van Dyne 2001), the current study uses a large nationally representative
446 British Journal of Industrial Relations
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd/London School of Economics 2013.
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