The impact of comparative state-directed development on working conditions and employee satisfaction

In this research, I apply and extend Kohli's (2004) state-directed development framework to better understand country-level factors influencing cross-national differences in job characteristics and job satisfaction. Prior research has indicated that the nature of work has changed dramatically in recent years in response to economic shifts and an increasingly global economy. However, there is little agreement on whether the overall quality of work has improved or declined over that period and little is known about the overall comparative quality of work and job satisfaction across the global economy. In this study I use non-panel longitudinal data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP 1989, 1997, 2005 – survey questions on job characteristics and job quality) and various country-contextual variables. This article explores the impact of state-directed development on job satisfaction, first identifying and explaining the foundations of the statist literature, and then using various statistical methods to test for statistically significant impact and variation across countries.