Arbeitszufriedenheit im internationalen Vergleich
The purpose of this paper is to compare the extent and determinants of employees’ job satisfaction on a European level. The underlying data originate from the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) 2005 covering 31 European countries. Beside detailed information about type of work and working conditions the data account for personal and household characteristics including objective and subjective income measures. The result from Ordered-probit regressions for all 31 countries as well as separate regressions for five groups of countries (clustered with respect to level of welfare and type of welfare state) indicate a diversified pattern of explanation of job satisfaction. For all analyzed countries except for countries in Scandinavia and continental Europe the employees’ subjective evaluation of income appears to have the strongest effect on job satisfaction. Considering the conflict of working hours with private life, the negative effect on job satisfaction is less distinctive in countries with a lower welfare level. Job security is found to have a stronger impact for UK and Ireland, whereas work autonomy is only found to be among the top ten influences for high level welfare states (UK, Ireland, continental Europe, and Scandinavia).
Wer arbeitet wann? Arbeitszeitarrangements von Selbständigen und abhängig Beschäftigten: Eine mikroökonometrische Analyse deutscher Zeitbudgetdaten
Mit der zeitlichen Flexibilisierung der Arbeitsmarkte und dem damit verbundenen Ruckzug des Normalarbeitstages treten neue Muster von Arbeitszeit auf. Auf Basis der deutschen Zeitbudgeterhebung 1991/92 sollen Arbeitszeiten von Selbstandigen und abhangig Beschaftigten untersucht werden. Zunachst systematisiert der vorliegende Beitrag verschiedene Verlaufe des Arbeitstages. Dabei werden bilden sich vier Kategorien von Arbeitszeitmustern heraus. Danach stellt sich die Frage, ob sich zwischen Selbstandigen und abhangig Beschaftigten Unterschiede in der Gestaltung des Arbeitstages feststellen lassen. Nach einer deskriptiven Analyse der Kategorien, wird in einem Multinomialen Logit Modell neben dem Berufsstatus der Einfluss sozio-okonomischer Hintergrundvariablen auf die Entscheidung fur eine der Kategorien von Arbeitszeit geschatzt. Wir kontrollieren dabei u. a. fur Variablen, die der Humankapitaltheorie, den ‚new home economics’ und der Zeitverwendungsforschung entliehen sind. Es zeigt sich, dass insbesondere Selbstandige ohne Angestellte zu einem atypischen Verhalten am neigen, das durch Arbeitszeiten am fruhen Morgen und spaten Abend sowie Unterbrechungen kennzeichnet.
Lobbyismus und Mittelstand: Zur Identifikation der Interessenverbände des Mittelstands in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
This paper deals with the organisation of the interests of the small business sector in the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany. 'Freie Berufe' are regarded as an integral part of this sector. Starting from the hypothesis that these interests are not represented appropriatly in the interest organisation system on the national political level it is the goal of this paper to show a way to realize an empirical test. In order to reach this goal it was referred to the policy network concept as an appropriate empirical analytical tool. Starting from a suitable data set containing interest organizations which try to influence the political system on a national level, the reputational approach was used to identify the whole system of the influential interest organisations in this sphere. The empirical small business influence network gained by that method contains 49 interest organisations. Yet the organisational system found is of extreme heterogenity. According to the influence reputation between the organisations many differences were discovered. They differ furthermore in a number of certain aspects like size of the membership, organisational structure or organisational environment. Taken the empirical results into account one is forced to reject the hypothesis of the underrepresentation of small business interests in the political system at the national level in Germany. But there was found not one organisational vote but a whole network of organisations with different goals, structures and relationships to each other.