Stefan Kirchner Sven Hauff Employee involvement Are there

Stefan Kirchner & Sven Hauff Employee involvement: Are. there different forms and do they matter?

Employee involvement – Desirable or undesirable effects > Position 1. . . generally positive effects – > "An important claim in the literature. . . employee involvement. . . is beneficial for both economic performance and employee well-being. " (Gallie/Zhou 2013: 46; …) Position 2. . . negative or ambiguous effects – “intensification and management by stress” (Parker and Slaughter 1995; Rinehart et al. 1997) – “mixed results” (Godard 2004, 2010; Macky and Boxall 2008; Ramsay et al. 2000; Wood et al 2012) 2

Employee involvement – One dimensions or many? > General applications = broadly defined concept > Differentiation of different dimensions (e. g. Gallie/Zhou 2013) – – – > Task discretion Organizational participation Strategic participation … role of responsibility for involvement acknowledge, however no specific measures or measurement constructs 3

Hypotheses > Hypothesis 1: Employee involvement exerts positive effects on working conditions and well-being. > Hypothesis 2: Employee involvement exerts negative effects on working conditions and well-being. > Hypothesis 3: Different dimensions of employee involvement exert counteracting effects on working conditions and wellbeing. 4

Data > EWCS 2010: EU 27 countries, only empoyees, only from manufacturing or service industry (N: 17581) > Measures: employee involvement, working conditions, wellbeing > Control variables: sex; age; weekly working time; job tenure; supervision function; physical strain; contract types; educational level; size of the worksite; ISCO 88; NACE; country dummies; 5

Measuring model Working conditions Work strain Meaningfulness of work Employee involvement Well-being General well-being, health status Health problems: physical / psychological 1. Different forms of employee involvement? 2. Different effects on working conditions and well-being? 6

Analysis > Factoranalysis predicted factor scores > Basic regression of factor variables on working conditions and well-being variables > Meditation regression of factor variables on well-being variables (working conditions as independent variables included) 7

EMPIRICAL RESULTS 8

Factor analysis > Selection of theoretically related items in the EWCS > 1. Step: Three factors – Three dimensions of employee involvement - Task discretion - Process responsibility - Organizational participation > (good factor solution) (sufficient factor solution) (good factor solution) 2. Step: One meta-factor of employee involvement

Discussion I > Factor analysis: three different employee involvement dimensions – Task discretion and organizational participation confirmed – Process responsibility newly identified, picture completed > Regression results: counteracting effects – Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 rejected – Hypothesis 3 supported : negative and positive effects present that are due to different dimensions of employee involvement 10

Results: meta-factor 11

Regression analysis: working conditions 12

Discussion II > Work strain: – Mitigated by task discretion and organizational participation – Increased by process responsibility > Meaningfulness of work – Generally increased by all employee involvement dimensions 13

Discussion III > Well-Being (satisfaction, health problems) – Task discretion only positive effect on satisfaction – Process responsibility decreases well-being – Organizational participation increases well-being > Well-Being – moderation models (working conditions included) – Effects generally mitigated = partial moderation – Systematic relation between involvement and working conditions 14

Regression analysis: well-being 15

Regression analysis: well-being basic and mediation models 16

Conclusions and implications > “Participation comes with the burdens of responsibility” – Responsibility = important dimension + negative effects > Limited reach of task discretion (vs. org. participation) – Fewer aspects influenced (working conditions + well-being) > Counteracting effects bridge the negative-positive rupture in the literature (hpwp vs. management by stress) – Work design: leveling the relation of responsibility and participation 17

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION. . . 18

BACKUP - WHAT IS NEXT … 19

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