IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v67y2014i2p280-294.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conceptualising Work in Economics: Negating a Disutility

Author

Listed:
  • David A. Spencer

Abstract

type="main"> This paper starts from the premise that economics has offered a one-sided conception of work. Standard economic theory, specifically, has defined work as a means to income and consumption; it has failed to grasp the importance of work as an end in its own right. The aim of the paper is to develop an alternative conception of work that captures the formative impacts of work on the well-being of workers. The paper firstly outlines and criticises the different definitions of the disutility of work found in economics. It then offers a critical assessment of happiness research on work. The idea that the effects of work on worker well-being can be captured by job satisfaction data and that the importance of work can be reduced to a subjective feeling in the heads of individual workers – two key aspects of happiness research – are challenged. The final part of the paper develops novel ideas about how the economics of work should progress in the future. The section proposes a needs-based conception of work and then uses this conception to make the case for collective intervention aimed at enhancing the quality of work life.

Suggested Citation

  • David A. Spencer, 2014. "Conceptualising Work in Economics: Negating a Disutility," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 280-294, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:67:y:2014:i:2:p:280-294
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/kykl.12054
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    2. Clark, Andrew E., 2001. "What really matters in a job? Hedonic measurement using quit data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 223-242, May.
    3. Joern Block & Philipp Koellinger, 2009. "I Can't Get No Satisfaction—Necessity Entrepreneurship and Procedural Utility," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 191-209, April.
    4. Clark, Andrew E & Oswald, Andrew J, 1994. "Unhappiness and Unemployment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(424), pages 648-659, May.
    5. Andrew Brown & Andy Charlwood & David A Spencer, 2012. "Not all that it might seem: why job satisfaction is worth studying despite it being a poor summary measure of job quality," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 26(6), pages 1007-1018, December.
    6. Edward P. Lazear & Kathryn L. Shaw, 2007. "Personnel Economics: The Economist's View of Human Resources," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(4), pages 91-114, Fall.
    7. Daniel Kahneman & Alan B. Krueger, 2006. "Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 3-24, Winter.
    8. Bruno Frey & Matthias Benz & Alois Stutzer, 2004. "Introducing Procedural Utility: Not Only What, but Also How Matters," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(3), pages 377-401, September.
    9. Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Happiness: A Revolution in Economics," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262062771, April.
    10. Jeffrey Pfeffer, 2007. "Human Resources from an Organizational Behavior Perspective: Some Paradoxes Explained," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(4), pages 115-134, Fall.
    11. Matthias Benz & Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Being Independent is a Great Thing: Subjective Evaluations of Self‐Employment and Hierarchy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 75(298), pages 362-383, May.
    12. Edwards, P. K., 1990. "The politics of conflict and consent : How the labor contract really works," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 41-61, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dirk Nicolas Wagner, 2019. "The Opportunistic Principal," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 637-657, November.
    2. FitzRoy, Felix & Nolan, Michael A., 2021. "The Inefficiency of Employment and the Case for Workplace Democracy," IZA Discussion Papers 14065, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Nikolova, Milena, 2024. "Loud or quiet quitting? The influence of work orientations on effort and turnover," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1429, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Jianbo Jeff Luo, 2022. "Is Work a Burden? The Role of the Living Standard," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 61-77, August.
    5. Jianbo Luo, 2020. "A Pecuniary Explanation for the Heterogeneous Effects of Unemployment on Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(7), pages 2603-2628, October.
    6. FitzRoy, Felix & Nolan, Michael A., 2020. "Towards Economic Democracy and Social Justice: Profit Sharing, Co-Determination, and Employee Ownership," IZA Discussion Papers 13238, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Alan Piper & David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2023. "Is pain associated with subsequent job loss? A panel study for Germany," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 141-158, February.
    8. Kristin J. Kleinjans & Karl Fritjof Krassel & Anthony Dukes, 2017. "Occupational Prestige and the Gender Wage Gap," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(4), pages 565-593, November.
    9. David A. Spencer, 2023. "Automation and Well-Being: Bridging the Gap between Economics and Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(2), pages 271-281, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aguilar, Alexandra Cortés & García Muñoz, Teresa M. & Moro-Egido, Ana I., 2013. "Heterogeneous self-employment and satisfaction in Latin America," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 44-61.
    2. Cortés Aguilar Alexandra & Teresa Garcia-Muñoz & Ana I. Moro Egido, 2013. "Heterogeneous Self-employment and Subjective Well-Being. Evidence from Latin America," ThE Papers 13/05, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    3. Sarah Flèche, 2015. "Distaste for Centralization: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Switzerland," CEP Discussion Papers dp1383, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Joern Block & Philipp Koellinger, 2009. "I Can't Get No Satisfaction—Necessity Entrepreneurship and Procedural Utility," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 191-209, April.
    5. Hajdu, Tamás & Hajdu, Gábor, 2011. "A hasznosság és a relatív jövedelem kapcsolatának vizsgálata magyar adatok segítségével [Examining the relation of utility and relative income using Hungarian data]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 56-73.
    6. Fritsch, Michael & Sorgner, Alina & Wyrwich, Michael, 2019. "Self-employment and well-being across institutional contexts," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(6).
    7. Ratna K. Shrestha & Raunak Shrestha & Sara Shneiderman & Jeevan Baniya, 2023. "Beyond Reconstruction: What Leads to Satisfaction in Post-Disaster Recovery?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1367-1395, April.
    8. Adrian Chadi & Clemens Hetschko, 2021. "How Job Changes Affect People's Lives — Evidence from Subjective Well‐Being Data," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 279-306, June.
    9. Bruno Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2010. "Happiness and public choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 557-573, September.
    10. Cordero, José Manuel & Salinas-Jiménez, Javier & Salinas-Jiménez, M Mar, 2017. "Exploring factors affecting the level of happiness across countries: A conditional robust nonparametric frontier analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(2), pages 663-672.
    11. Christian Schubert, 2012. "Pursuing Happiness," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 245-261, May.
    12. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2006. "Income and happiness: Evidence, explanations and economic implications," PSE Working Papers halshs-00590436, HAL.
    13. Byela Tibesigwa & Martine Visser & Brennan Hodkinson, 2016. "Effects of Objective and Subjective Income Comparisons on Subjective Wellbeing," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 361-389, August.
    14. Collewet, Marion, 2014. "Approaches to well-being, use of psychology and paternalism in economics," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-25.
    15. Stutzer, Alois & Frey, Bruno S., 2010. "Recent Advances in the Economics of Individual Subjective Well-Being," IZA Discussion Papers 4850, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Stutzer, Alois, 2014. "Economic Approaches to Understanding Change in Happiness," IZA Discussion Papers 8131, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Stutzer, Alois, 2020. "Happiness and public policy: a procedural perspective," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 210-225, July.
    18. Johansson, Edvard, 2004. "Job Satisfaction in Finland - Some results from the European Community Household Panel 1996-2001," Discussion Papers 958, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    19. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2009. "Glück ? die ökonomische Analyse," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-11, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    20. Thomas Markussen & Maria Fibæk & Finn Tarp & Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, 2018. "The Happy Farmer: Self-Employment and Subjective Well-Being in Rural Vietnam," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 1613-1636, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:67:y:2014:i:2:p:280-294. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0023-5962 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.