IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v17y2016i1p389-411.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Job-Related Well-Being Through the Great Recession

Author

Listed:
  • Francis Green
  • Alan Felstead
  • Duncan Gallie
  • Hande Inanc

Abstract

We study how job-related well-being (measured by Warr’s ‘Enthusiasm’ and ‘Contentment’ scales) altered through the Great Recession, and how this is related to changing job quality. Using nationally representative data for Britain, we find that job-related well-being was stable between 2001 and 2006, but then declined between 2006 and 2012. We report relevant changes in job quality. In modelling the determinants of job-related well-being, we confirm several previously-studied hypotheses and present some new findings: downsizing, work re-organisation, decreased choice, and linking pay to organisational performance each reduce well-being; indicators of skills challenge in jobs have more of a positive association with Enthusiasm than with Contentment, while effort has a more negative association with Contentment than with Enthusiasm. Our estimates are largely orthogonal to the effects of personality traits and demographic controls on well-being. Using a standard decomposition, we find that the 2006–2012 fall in job-related well-being is partly accounted for by accelerations in the pace of workplace change, rising job insecurity, increased effort and changing participation. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Suggested Citation

  • Francis Green & Alan Felstead & Duncan Gallie & Hande Inanc, 2016. "Job-Related Well-Being Through the Great Recession," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 389-411, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:389-411
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-014-9600-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-014-9600-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-014-9600-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keith Bender & Colin Green & John Heywood, 2012. "Piece rates and workplace injury: Does survey evidence support Adam Smith?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 569-590, January.
    2. Petri Böckerman & Pekka Ilmakunnas, 2012. "The Job Satisfaction-Productivity Nexus: A Study Using Matched Survey and Register Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(2), pages 244-262, April.
    3. Alan Manning & Joanna Swaffield, 2008. "The gender gap in early-career wage growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(530), pages 983-1024, July.
    4. Allen, Jim & van der Velden, Rolf, 2001. "Educational Mismatches versus Skill Mismatches: Effects on Wages, Job Satisfaction, and On-the-Job Search," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 53(3), pages 434-452, July.
    5. Orley Ashenfelter & Kirk Doran & Bruce Schaller, 2010. "A Shred of Credible Evidence on the Long‐run Elasticity of Labour Supply," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(308), pages 637-650, October.
    6. Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Ed Diener & Louis Tay & Cody Xuereb, 2013. "The Objective Benefits of Subjective Well-Being," CEP Discussion Papers dp1236, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    7. Francis Green, 2001. "It’s Been A Hard Day’s Night: The Concentration and Intensification of Work in Late Twentieth‐Century Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 39(1), pages 53-80, March.
    8. Francis Green, 2008. "Leeway for the Loyal: A Model of Employee Discretion," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 46(1), pages 1-32, March.
    9. Theodossiou, I., 1998. "The effects of low-pay and unemployment on psychological well-being: A logistic regression approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 85-104, January.
    10. Matthias Benz, 2005. "Not for the Profit, but for the Satisfaction? – Evidence on Worker Well‐Being in Non‐Profit Firms," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 155-176, May.
    11. Böckerman, Petri & Bryson, Alex & Ilmakunnas, Pekka, 2012. "Does high involvement management improve worker wellbeing?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 660-680.
    12. Francis Green & Yu Zhu, 2010. "Overqualification, job dissatisfaction, and increasing dispersion in the returns to graduate education," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(4), pages 740-763, October.
    13. Rafael Di Tella & Robert J. MacCulloch & Andrew J. Oswald, 2003. "The Macroeconomics of Happiness," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 809-827, November.
    14. Gretchen Spreitzer & Kathleen Sutcliffe & Jane Dutton & Scott Sonenshein & Adam M. Grant, 2005. "A Socially Embedded Model of Thriving at Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(5), pages 537-549, October.
    15. Dickerson, Andy & Green, Francis, 2012. "Fears and realisations of employment insecurity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 198-210.
    16. Francis Green, 2009. "Subjective employment insecurity around the world," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 2(3), pages 343-363.
    17. Melvin Stephens, 2004. "Job Loss Expectations, Realizations, and Household Consumption Behavior," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 253-269, February.
    18. Green, Francis, 2011. "Unpacking the misery multiplier: How employability modifies the impacts of unemployment and job insecurity on life satisfaction and mental health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 265-276, March.
    19. Elena Cottini & Claudio Lucifora, 2013. "Mental Health and Working Conditions in Europe," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(4), pages 958-988, July.
    20. Francis Green, 2012. "Employee Involvement, Technology and Evolution in Job Skills: A Task-Based Analysis," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(1), pages 36-67, January.
    21. Green, Francis, 2010. "Well-being, job satisfaction and labour mobility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 897-903, December.
    22. Andrew Brown & Andy Charlwood & David A Spencer, 2012. "Not all that it might seem: why job satisfaction is worth studying despite it being a poor summary measure of job quality," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1007-1018, December.
    23. Duncan Gallie & Ying Zhou & Alan Felstead & Francis Green, 2012. "Teamwork, Skill Development and Employee Welfare," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 50(1), pages 23-46, March.
    24. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1994. "A Test for Moral Hazard in the Labor Market: Contractual Arrangements, Effort, and Health," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(2), pages 213-227, May.
    25. Alex Bryson & Erling Barth & Harald Dale-Olsen, 2013. "The Effects of Organizational Change on Worker Well-Being and the Moderating Role of Trade Unions," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(4), pages 989-1011, July.
    26. John Zelenski & Steven Murphy & David Jenkins, 2008. "The Happy-Productive Worker Thesis Revisited," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 521-537, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francis Green, 2020. "Health effects of job insecurity," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 212-212, December.
    2. KonShik Kim, 2023. "The impact of job quality on organizational commitment and job satisfaction: The moderating role of socioeconomic status," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 773-797, August.
    3. Helena Lopes & Sérgio Lagoa & Ana C Santos, 2019. "Work conditions and financial difficulties in post-crisis Europe: Utility versus quality of working life," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(1), pages 39-58, March.
    4. Maëlezig Bigi & Nathalie Greenan & Sylvie Hamon-Cholet & Joseph Lanfranchi, 2018. "The Human Sustainability of ICT and Management Changes: Evidence for the French Public and Private Sectors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-23, October.
    5. Nathalie Greenan & Majda Seghir, 2017. "Measuring Vulnerability to Adverse Working Conditions: Evidence from European Countries [Mesurer la vulnérabilité à la dégradation des conditions de travail dans les pays européens]," Working Papers hal-02172377, HAL.
    6. Nikolova, Milena & Cnossen, Femke, 2020. "What makes work meaningful and why economists should care about it," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Duncan Gallie & Alan Felstead & Francis Green & Golo Henseke, 2021. "Inequality at work and employees' perceptions of organisational fairness," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(6), pages 550-568, November.
    8. Argyro Avgoustaki & Hans T. W. Frankort, 2019. "Implications of Work Effort and Discretion for Employee Well-Being and Career-Related Outcomes: An Integrative Assessment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 636-661, May.
    9. Patrick Pilipiec & Wim Groot & Milena Pavlova, 2020. "A Longitudinal Analysis of Job Satisfaction During a Recession in the Netherlands," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 239-269, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Green, Francis, 2011. "Unpacking the misery multiplier: How employability modifies the impacts of unemployment and job insecurity on life satisfaction and mental health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 265-276, March.
    2. Ángel Díaz-Chao & Pilar Ficapal-Cusí & Joan Torrent-Sellens, 2016. "Economic Crisis and Job Quality in Spain: A Multi-dimensional and Micro-data Empirical Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 613-633, January.
    3. Ben Halima, Mohamed Ali & Greenan, Nathalie & Lanfranchi, Joseph, 2023. "Getting sick for profit? The impact of cumulative ICT and management changes on long term sickness absence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 659-688.
    4. Dickerson, Andy & Green, Francis, 2012. "Fears and realisations of employment insecurity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 198-210.
    5. Elena Cottini & Paolo Ghinetti, 2018. "Employment insecurity and employees' health in Denmark," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 426-439, February.
    6. Díaz-Chao, Ángel & Ficapal-Cusí, Pilar & Torrent Sellens, Joan, 2014. "Workplace or working environment? Job quality and economic crisis in Spain," EconStor Preprints 162057, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    7. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Sonja G. Schatz, 2014. "Re-employment Expectations and the Eye of Providence," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2014n11, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    8. Alex Bryson & John Forth & Lucy Stokes, 2015. "Does Worker Wellbeing Affect Workplace Performance?," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 447, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    9. Francis Green, 2020. "Health effects of job insecurity," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 212-212, December.
    10. Mohamed Ali Ben Halima & Nathalie Greenan & Joseph Lanfranchi, 2021. "Organisational changes and long-term sickness absence and injury leave: a difference in difference approach," TEPP Working Paper 2021-05, TEPP.
    11. Nikolova, Milena & Cnossen, Femke, 2020. "What makes work meaningful and why economists should care about it," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Bryson, Alex & Clark, Andrew E. & Freeman, Richard B. & Green, Colin P., 2016. "Share capitalism and worker wellbeing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 151-158.
    13. Robson Morgan & Kelsey J. O’Connor, 2022. "Labor Market Policy and Subjective Well-Being During the Great Recession," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 391-422, February.
    14. Adrian Chadi & Laszlo Goerke, 2023. "Seeking shelter in times of crisis? unemployment, perceived job insecurity and trade union membership," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(359), pages 1041-1088, July.
    15. Leandro Iván Canzio & Felix Bühlmann & Jonas Masdonati, 2023. "Job satisfaction across Europe: An analysis of the heterogeneous temporary workforce in 27 countries," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 728-754, August.
    16. Lucía Mateos-Romero & María del Mar Salinas-Jiménez, 2017. "Skills Heterogeneity Among Graduate Workers: Real and Apparent Overeducation in the Spanish Labor Market," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(3), pages 1247-1264, July.
    17. Lanfranchi, Joseph & Pekovic, Sanja, 2014. "How green is my firm? Workers' attitudes and behaviors towards job in environmentally-related firms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 16-29.
    18. Carol Graham, 2005. "The Economics of Happiness," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 6(3), pages 41-55, July.
    19. Laura Peutere & Antti Saloniemi & Simo Aho & Jouko Nätti & Tapio Nummi, 2018. "High-involvement management practices, job control, and employee well-being in the public and private sectors. Evidence from Finland," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 24(4), pages 467-486, November.
    20. Dain Jung & Do Won Kwak & Kam Ki Tang & Myra Yazbeck, 2021. "How Do Job Conditions Amplify the Impacts of Mental Health Shocks?," Discussion Papers Series 647, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Effort; Job insecurity; Downsizing; Performance-related pay; Organisational participation; Job-related well-being; Task discretion; Skill; 3600; 3650; J53; I00; J0;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J53 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Labor-Management Relations; Industrial Jurisprudence
    • I00 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General - - - General
    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:17:y:2016:i:1:p:389-411. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.