Satisfaction with Work in a European Perspective: Center and Periphery, "Old" and "New" Market Economies Compared

ISSN： 1417-8648

Source： Review of Sociology of the Hungarian Sociological Association, Vol.9, Iss.1, 2003-05, pp. : 43-68

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

The analysis approaches satisfaction with work as affected by demographic and social characteristics as well as by labor market and labor organization position. Furthermore the impact of expectations to and evaluation of the job is also considered. The international variation in the explanatory mechanism of satisfaction with work is analyzed by comparing five groups of European societies. First, distinction is made between 'old' European market economies and 'new' post-socialist countries. Second, based on economic indicators, the first group of countries is divided into three subgroups: West (Center 1), Scandinavia (Center 2), and Periphery, while the second group of countries is divided into more developed and less developed transition societies. The ISSP 1997 Work Orientation Module data are used for the analysis. Only respondents in labor force are analyzed (N=11739). The paper presents descriptive statistics for the clusters of the countries as well as for the dependent and independent variables in the analysis. Then, ordered logit models are used to predicting satisfaction with work. The explanatory variables contain objective status indicators, subjective evaluation of the job, the country groups and interaction terms. Results reveal that both status indicators and attitudes toward the job are significant predictors of the general satisfaction in agreement with gender paradox, life cycle, reference-group and status discrepancy hypotheses. However, these explanatory mechanisms vary a lot by the groups of countries. If controlling for composition effects within these groups of countries, Scandinavia turns out to be a place with highest satisfaction and developed transition societies are characterized by the lowest satisfaction wit work.