1. InGRID March 28th, 2019 Panteion University
Olympia Kaminioti, Ph.D.
National Institute of Labour
and Human Resources
Athens, Greece

2. Outline of the presentation
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Outline of the presentation
Why focus on job satisfaction?
Previous research
Data
Analysis
Preliminary results
Conclusions
Implications for research
Implications for policy

3. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Why focus on job satisfaction?
Why judge working conditions with individual (subjective) measures and not with objective measures (% of part-time, etc.)?
Individual measures do matter.
They correlate with observable phenomena including labour market behaviour.
One of the determinants of life satisfaction is job satisfaction.
Job satisfaction relates to: individual well-being and business outcomes (productivity, profitability, etc.).
Job satisfaction informs us about important aspects of the quality of work.
It provides a way to identify inequalities.

4. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Previous research
Demographics: age (U shaped), gender (conflicting), family status (married – positive r), education-skills (complicated),
working conditions: wages’ level and prospect of change, stability, supervisory duties, fixed term - high job satisfaction,
hours, stress at work, monotony, physical effort – low job satisfaction,
psychological: motivation, self-esteem, personality characteristics– correlated with job satisfaction.

5. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Data European Skills & Jobs Survey (ESJS), CEDEFOP 1st wave, 2014 The Greek sample consists of: 2037 adult (24-65 years old) employees

6. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Preliminary analysis
Comparison of means
Chi-square analysis
Profile of very satisfied and very unsatisfied employees
OLS

7. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors? Preliminary results-1
 Demographics
Job satisfaction
Significance
Gender -
Age
** 
24-39
 6.70
40-54
 7.00
55-64
 7.60
Education
Family status - 
Nationality
 ** GR
 6.83
Other
7.25

8. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors? Preliminary results-2
Job satisfaction 
Significance
Part-time
6.70 *
Full-time
6.93
Non permanent contract
6.65 **
Permanent contract
6.98
Working hours -
Type of organization
NGO
6.62
Private
6.81
Public
7.07
Size of organization
Occupation
Elementary occupations
6.29
Managers
7.53
Salary
Absolute
Relative (quartiles)

9. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors? Preliminary results-3
Job characteristics 1
 Job satisfaction
Significance
Possibility of loosing job
Very likely – very unlikely **
Tenure
1-2 years
6.60
3-9 years
6.86
10-20 years
7.10
21+ years
7.22
Promotion No
6.74
Yes
7.48

10. Job satisfaction Significance
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors? Preliminary results-4
 Job characteristics 2
 Job satisfaction
Significance
Choice in performing job
Never - always **
Team work
Routine tasks -

11. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors? Preliminary results-5
Skills
Job satisfaction 
Significance
Outdated skills
Very likely – very unlikely **
Learning at work
Never - always
Matching skills for job
4 categories
Change of skills
Worse
5.36
Same
6.08
Better
7.02

12. Differences between very unsatisfied and very satisfied employees
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors? Preliminary results-6
Differences between very unsatisfied and very satisfied employees
Perhaps the most striking difference is the lack of difference in certain variables
Striking difference with respect to security, quality of work, skill development and mismatch

13. More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors? Preliminary results-7
OLS results
R2 adj=10%
Significant coefficients: promotion, routine, learning, choice, team, security, skill mismatch
Not significant coefficients: age, gender, marital status, nationality, education, fulltime/part-time, permanent/non permanent contract, public/private/ngo, tenure, salary

14. Conclusions Overall high job satisfaction levels
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Conclusions
Overall high job satisfaction levels
Lower compared to some other countries
Happy to have a job during the crisis?
For the study of inequality relative numbers matter
More importantly, determinants of job satisfaction are of interest
Individual measures are important but caution is necessary in the interpretation of results.

15. Implications for research
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Implications for research
Sector specific analyses are required.
The timing of the survey is important (crisis).
Self-employed, other categories need not be excluded.
Linear specification may not be the most appropriate.
Direct and indirect effects
Bi-directional effects
Education may have direct and indirect effects. Education increases options for finding a better job and choices on how to do a certain job; over-education matters; skill mismatch matters.

16. Implications for policy
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Implications for policy
Job satisfaction may highlight some aspects of inequalities in the labour market,
but some people may have lower expectations….
Job satisfaction has to do with expectations and experiences:
What you obtain – what you expect
Complex concept
Job satisfaction may highlight some aspects of inequalities both in terms of expectations and experiences.

17. Thank you olympiakaminioti@gmail.com
More and less satisfied workers: which are the differentiating factors?
Thank you