The quality of employment and decent work: definitions, methodologies, and ongoing debates

This article explores the development of concepts related to the ‘quality of employment’ in the academic literature in terms of their definition, methodological progress and ongoing policy debates. Over time, these concepts have evolved from simple studies of job satisfaction towards more comprehensive measures of job and employment quality, including the International Labour Organization’s concept of ‘Decent Work’ launched in 1999. This article compares the parallel development of quality of employment measures in the European Union with the ILO’s Decent Work agenda and concludes that the former has advanced much further due to more consistent efforts to generate internationally comparable data on labour markets, which permit detailed measurements and international comparisons. In contrast, Decent Work remains a very broadly defined concept, which is impossible to measure across countries. We conclude by proposing three important differences between these two scenarios that have lead to such diverging paths: the lack of availability of internationally comparable data, the control over the research agenda by partisan social actors, and a prematurely mandated definition of Decent Work that is extremely vague and all-encompassing

Human development and decent Work: Why some concepts succeed and others fail to make an impact

This paper examines the impact of the International Labour Office’s (ILO) concept of Decent Work on development thinking and the associated literature. We attempt to answer the question of what makes a development initiative successful by comparing the decent work approach to the United Nation Development Program's (UNDP) human development concept (in conjunction with the human development indicator). We consider that the latter has been one of the most successful development concepts ever to have been launched, while the impact of decent work by comparison has been limited. Our hypothesis relating to the question of what makes a development initiative successful has three fundamental components: first, a solid theoretical foundation has to justify the launch of a development concept. A second vital factor is the availability of sufficient national and internationally comparable data that enables researchers and policymakers alike to apply the concept, preferably by means of a synthetic indicator. Third, the political will and institutional structure of the development institution that launches a concept is a key factor, particularly if data availability is limited as countries then have to be persuaded to generate new data.The authors would like to thank the Cambridge Humanities Research Grants Scheme, the European Union (FP7 project ‘Nopoor’), and the Conicyt/Fondap Proyect number 15130009 for partial funding provided for this paper.This is the accepted manuscript. It's currently embargoed pending publication by Wiley. The final version is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dech.12149/abstrac

Job quality in European employment policy: one step forward, two steps back?

This article analyses the development and use of the concept ‘job quality’ in European Union (EU) employment policy. Using a set of complementary public policy theories, it examines how both political and conceptual factors contributed to the failure to achieve any significant progress in articulating job quality in the EU’s policy objectives and guidelines. Conceptual clarity in defining what job quality is (and what it is not), from whose perspective it should be considered, and which direction of change indicates improvement, are vital prerequisites for an effective integration of job quality into the EU’s employment strategy and into the elaboration of any successful social indicator. A constant political struggle between different stakeholders at EU level, and a need to reconcile the often-contradictory views of the social partners, has precluded the completion of this first step. Instead, attempts to include job quality into the policy formulation process were made without simultaneously adapting the overall narrative, which continued to give prominence to flexibility and deregulation. The outcome has been a rather cursory and inconsistent effort to implement policies and actions aimed at boosting job quality. </jats:p

Job Characteristics and Subjective Well-Being in Australia – A Capability Approach Perspective

Using the capability approach as conceptual framework, the present study examines empirically the effect of job characteristics on subjective well-being. First, I suggest a measurement model for four latent job characteristics, using a confirmatory factor analysis. Then, I examine the job characteristics' influence on life and job satisfaction, using Australian panel data. The results suggest that (i) the four latent job characteristics are valid constructs, (ii) favourable job characteristics increase life and job satisfaction significantly, (iii) job characteristics account for some of the unemployed's dissatisfaction, and (iv) controlling for unobserved heterogeneity is crucial in such exercises.Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht empirisch den Effekt von Job-Eigenschaften auf subjektives Wohlbefinden, wobei der Capability-Ansatz als konzeptioneller Rahmen dient. Zunächst wird ein Messmodell für vier latente Job-Eigenschaften mittels einer konfirmatorischen Faktoranalyse vorgestellt. In einem zweiten Schritt wird dann der Einfluss von Job-Eigenschaften auf die Lebens- und Jobzufriedenheit, mittels australischer Paneldaten, untersucht. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass (i) die vier latenten Job-Eigenschaften valide Konstrukte darstellen, (ii) positive Job-Eigenschaften die Lebens- und Jobzufriedenheit signifikant erhöhen, (iii) Job-Eigenschaften die mit Arbeitslosigkeit einhergehende Unzufriedenheit teilweise erklären können und (iv) dass das Kontrollieren unbeobachteter Heterogenität in derartigen Untersuchungen von zentraler Bedeutung ist