Working Time, Work Organisation and Internal Flexibility Flexicurity Models in the EU

Transcription

1 Working Time, Work Organisation and Internal Flexibility Flexicurity Models in the EU Employment in Europe 2007 Chapter 3 Presentation centred on new forms of work organisation and flexicurity systems Matteo Governatori and João Medeiros 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 1

2 Outline This presentation is divided in two parts: The first presents some descriptive analysis on the links between new forms of work organisation and employees perceived working conditions The second applies multivariate techniques on a broad set of indicators, including of flexibility within the firm, to propose a taxonomy of flexicurity (or labour market) regimes 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 2

3 Policy basis IG No 21: Promote flexibility combined with employment security and reduce labour market segmentation, having due regard to the role of social partners, through [inter alia] the promotion and dissemination of innovative and adaptable forms of work organisation COM(2007)359 on flexicurity: flexibility also concerns work organisation common principles call for enhancing simultaneously internal and external flexibility 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 3

4 The role of flexibility within the firm Firms may adjust to changing economic conditions by varying the number of workers (external flexibility) providing flexible working-time arrangements (internal flexibility) requiring workers to perform different tasks (functional flexibility) New Forms of Work Organization (NFWO) can be characterised by flatter hierarchical structures, a stronger involvement of employees in decision making, and greater discretion/autonomy of workers in the completion of their tasks, coupled with a richer job content NFWO show significant complementarities/synergies with certain human resource management practices (HRM), such as on-the-job training and performance-related pay systems 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 4

5 NFWO are common since the 1980s both in the EU-15 and NMS12 (New Member States) 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 5

6 Autonomy at work The European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS, 2005) provides comprehensive data on new forms of work organisation These three indicators of work autonomy are highly correlated There are large difference across Member States (Nordic and NL rank high, while some Southern and Eastern countries rank low) 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 6

7 Task rotation and teamwork Task rotation and teamwork tend to go together Two forms of work organisation, involving task rotation and teamwork, can be identified as: «normal» and «advanced» «advanced» forms involve autonomous teams and tasks requiring different skills Take-up rates of «advanced» forms are lower across the EU 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 7

8 Performance-based pay goes together with some new forms of work organisation Using a Probit equation that controls for a number of characteristics, performance-based pay is found to be positively correlated with some new forms of work organisation (job rotation, teamwork, and learning new things at work) There seems to be complementarity between some new forms of work organisation and HRM policies, such as performance-based pay and training paid by the employer 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 8

9 NFWO and determinants of the work pace As determinants of the work pace, (market) demands on workers (Market Constraints, MC) play a larger role than the speed of machines (Industrial Constraints, IC) MC and IC are negatively correlated across the EU Econometric analysis suggest that MC are associated with autonomy, discretion and problem-solving While IC go together with task monotony/repetition 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 9

10 NFWO and work intensity (I) The pace of work has increased since the early 1990s in the EU-15 but it decreased between 2001 and 2005 in 12 NMS 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 10

11 NFWO and work intensity (II) Work intensity and various forms of work organisation Increases in work intensity are associated with rotating tasks, team work, complex tasks and quality standards to be met while autonomy at work provides some relief 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 11

12 The impact of NFWO on workers NFWO may increase firms productivity and profitability but are they also favourable for workers (i.e. win-win solutions)? As regards the job quality aspects covered by the EWCS (2005) Job rotation, team work, task complexity and monotony at work increase perceived health risks and worsen the work-life balance While, autonomy/discretion at work reduce perceived health risks and improve the work-life balance 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 12

13 The impact of NFWO on job satisfaction Conflicting effects are possible Increasing demands on workers can be compensated by giving them more control/autonomy at work, thereby reconciling social partners interests (i.e. win-win solutions) Autonomy/discretion at work increases job satisfaction Job complexity, monotony and repetitiveness of tasks lower job satisfaction 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 13

14 Taxonomy of EU labour markets or flexicurity systems First, multivariate methods are used to calculate country-specific indicators of internal and functional flexibility Second, a PCA and a clustering exercises are carried out on an enlarged set of indicators Finally, main results are presented 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 14

15 Forms of internal flexibility Following Wilthagen (2006), internal flexibility is divided between internal and functional forms Internal flexibility refers to types of working-time arrangements, atypical working practices, and work intensity. Nine questions from the EWCS are used Functional flexibility refers to work organisation practices, such as task rotation, teamwork, autonomy at work, complexity of tasks, need to solve unforeseen problems and learn new things on your own, etc. Eleven questions from the EWCS are used For both internal and functional flexibility, multivariate methods are used to calculate indicators. In both cases, the indicators are the largest two factors extracted 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 15

16 The positive correlation between internal and functional flexibility indicators 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 16

17 The PCA analysis (I) Seven active variables are used covering all the four components of flexicurity: modern labour laws, effective active labour market policies, modern social security systems, and comprehensive lifelong learning policies The EPL indicator used as a proxy for the external numeric flexibility (EPL) The percentage of participants in education or training programmes (ETP) Expenditure on labour market policies as a percentage of GDP (LMP) An indicator on work intensity and the irregularity of working schedules to measure aspects of internal flexibility (WII) An indicator on the existence or not of flexible working time arrangements and forms of atypical work to measure aspects of internal flexibility (FWA) An indicator on the degree of autonomy and complexity of tasks to measure aspects of functional flexibility (WAC) An indicator on rotating work and teamwork to measure aspects of functional flexibility (RTW) 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 17

18 The PCA analysis (II) 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 18

19 The cluster analysis Results of the clustering analysis, using the K-means method Continental Central, Eastern Nordic and the Mediterranean Anglo-Saxon and Greece Netherlands AT BG DK ES IE BE CZ FI IT UK DE EE NL PT FR EL SE HU LT PO SK SI Sources: DG EMPL calculations using data from Eurostat, Dublin Foundation and the OECD. 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 19

20 Main points (I) Two flexicurity regimes are found to be associated with relatively good socio-economic outcomes. This roughly confirms the analysis of Muffles et al. (2002) and the reassessment of OECD s Job Strategy (2006) which roughly proposed a four way taxonomy of labour market models in Europe (the liberal, the socio-democratic, the corporatist and the southern); two of them being good models There is no one size fits all model but different models with their institutional complementarities and functional equivalences 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 20

21 Main points (II) The first (Anglo-Saxon) good model is characterised by high external flexibility and low segmentation It is associated with high rates of secondary education attainment, moderate intensity of vocational training, low spending in activation policies, and moderate reductions in poverty rates It involves relatively low budgetary costs 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 21

22 Main points (III) The second (Nordic and the Netherlands) good model is characterised by a high incidence of advanced forms of flexible work organisation and by moderate levels of external flexibility, complemented by a large role for lifelong learning policies, vocational training and spending in R&D, as well as labour market policies with activation strategies It is also associated with better overall socio-economic outcomes (labour market, innovation and productivity, and a significant reduction in poverty) Employees also report better working conditions, such as job satisfaction, work-life balance and health conditions However, it implies higher budgetary costs 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 22

23 Thank you for your attention 12-Dec-07 Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit D1 23