IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0222715.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why are Chinese workers so unhappy? A comparative cross-national analysis of job satisfaction, job expectations, and job attributes

Author

Listed:
  • Xing Zhang
  • Micha Kaiser
  • Peng Nie
  • Alfonso Sousa-Poza

Abstract

Using data from the 2015 International Social Survey Program (ISSP), this study conducts a multinational comparison of job satisfaction determinants and their drivers in 36 countries and regions, with particular attention to the reasons for relatively low job satisfaction among Chinese workers. Based on our results from a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis, we attribute a substantial portion of the job satisfaction differences between China and the other countries to different job attributes and expectations; in particular, to unmet job expectations for interesting work, high pay, and opportunities for advancement. We also note that, contrary to common belief, Chinese workers value similar attributes as Western workers but perceive their work conditions as very different from those in the West.

Suggested Citation

  • Xing Zhang & Micha Kaiser & Peng Nie & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2019. "Why are Chinese workers so unhappy? A comparative cross-national analysis of job satisfaction, job expectations, and job attributes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-16, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0222715
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222715
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0222715
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0222715&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0222715?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saziye Gazioglu & Aysit Tansel, 2006. "Job satisfaction in Britain: individual and job related factors," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(10), pages 1163-1171.
    2. Freeman, Richard B, 1978. "Job Satisfaction as an Economic Variable," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 135-141, May.
    3. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2008. "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1733-1749, April.
    4. Jie Li & Wangshuai Wang & Gong Sun & Zhou Jiang & Zhiming Cheng, 2018. "Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi and Job Satisfaction Among Migrant Workers in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 293-307, August.
    5. Ye Luo, 2016. "Gender and Job Satisfaction in Urban China: The Role of Individual, Family, and Job Characteristics," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 289-309, January.
    6. Millissa Cheung & Wei-Ping Wu & Allan Chan & May Wong, 2009. "Supervisor–Subordinate Guanxi and Employee Work Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 77-89, April.
    7. Zhiming Cheng & Haining Wang & Russell Smyth, 2014. "Happiness and job satisfaction in urban China: A comparative study of two generations of migrants and urban locals," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(10), pages 2160-2184, August.
    8. Homburg, Christian & Stock, Ruth, 2004. "The Link Between Sales People’s Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction in a Business-to-Business Context: A Dyadic Analysis," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 35550, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    9. Douglas N. Behrman & William J. Bigoness & William D. Perreault, Jr., 1981. "Sources of Job Related Ambiguity and Their Consequences Upon Salespersons' Job Satisfaction and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(11), pages 1246-1260, November.
    10. Ben Jann, 2008. "The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for linear regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 8(4), pages 453-479, December.
    11. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    12. Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Sousa-Poza, Andres A., 2007. "The effect of job satisfaction on labor turnover by gender: An analysis for Switzerland," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 895-913, December.
    13. GAO, Wenshu & SMYTH, Russell, 2010. "Job satisfaction and relative income in economic transition: Status or signal?: The case of urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 442-455, September.
    14. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J., 1996. "Satisfaction and comparison income," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 359-381, September.
    15. Andrew E. Clark, 2015. "What makes a good job? Job quality and job satisfaction," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 215-215, December.
    16. A. Sousa-Poza & A. A. Sousa-Poza, 2003. "Gender differences in job satisfaction in Great Britain, 1991-2000: permanent or transitory?," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(11), pages 691-694.
    17. Yarid Ayala & José Ma. Peiró Silla & Núria Tordera & Laura Lorente & Jesús Yeves, 2017. "Job Satisfaction and Innovative Performance in Young Spanish Employees: Testing New Patterns in the Happy-Productive Worker Thesis—A Discriminant Study," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 1377-1401, October.
    18. Andrew E. Clark, 1996. "Job Satisfaction in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 189-217, June.
    19. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    20. Wang, Huashu & Pan, Lei & Heerink, Nico, 2013. "Working Conditions and Job Satisfaction of China's New Generation of Migrant Workers: Evidence from an Inland City," IZA Discussion Papers 7405, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Qiu, Leiju & Zhao, Daxuan, 2019. "Urban inclusiveness and income inequality in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 57-64.
    22. Homburg, Christian & Stock, Ruth, 2004. "The Link between Sales People’s Job Satisfaction and Customer Satisfaction in a Business-to-Business Context: A Dyadic Analysis," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 60486, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    23. Peng Nie & Lanlin Ding & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, . "What Chinese Workers Value: An Analysis of Job Satisfaction, Job Expectations, and Labour Turnover in China," Prague Economic Papers, University of Economics, Prague, vol. 0, pages 1-18.
    24. 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.
    25. Clark, Andrew E., 1997. "Job satisfaction and gender: Why are women so happy at work?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 341-372, December.
    26. Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Sousa-Poza, Andres A., 2000. "Well-being at work: a cross-national analysis of the levels and determinants of job satisfaction," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 517-538, November.
    27. José Millán & Jolanda Hessels & Roy Thurik & Rafael Aguado, 2013. "Determinants of job satisfaction: a European comparison of self-employed and paid employees," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 651-670, April.
    28. Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell & Paul Frijters, 2004. "How Important is Methodology for the estimates of the determinants of Happiness?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(497), pages 641-659, July.
    29. Alfonso Sousa‐Poza & Fred Henneberger, 2000. "Work Attitudes, Work Conditions and Hours Constraints: An Explorative, Cross‐national Analysis," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 14(3), pages 351-372, September.
    30. Russell Smyth & Qingguo Zhai & Xiaoxu Li, 2009. "The impact of gender differences on determinants of job satisfaction among Chinese off-farm migrants in Jiangsu," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 363-380.
    31. J. A. Hartigan & M. A. Wong, 1979. "A K‐Means Clustering Algorithm," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 28(1), pages 100-108, March.
    32. George J. Borjas, 1979. "Job Satisfaction, Wages, and Unions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 14(1), pages 21-40.
    33. Hang Ngo & Sharon Foley & Ming Ji & Raymond Loi, 2014. "Work Satisfaction of Chinese Employees: A Social Exchange and Gender-Based View," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 116(2), pages 457-473, April.
    34. Weihui Fu & Satish Deshpande, 2014. "The Impact of Caring Climate, Job Satisfaction, and Organizational Commitment on Job Performance of Employees in a China’s Insurance Company," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 339-349, October.
    35. Long Zhang & Yulin Deng, 2016. "Guanxi with Supervisor and Counterproductive Work Behavior: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 413-427, March.
    36. Cui Liu & Lingjuan Zhang & Wenqin Ye & Jianying Zhu & Jie Cao & Xiaoying Lu & Fengping Li, 2012. "Job satisfaction and intention to leave: a questionnaire survey of hospital nurses in Shanghai of China," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(1‐2), pages 255-263, January.
    37. Nielsen, Ingrid & Smyth, Russell, 2008. "Job satisfaction and response to incentives among China's urban workforce," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(5), pages 1921-1936, October.
    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. Asuyama, Yoko, 2021. "Determinants of job interestingness: Comparison of Japan and other high-income countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Cynthia Atamba & John Kipngetich Mosonik & David Stuckler & Lincoln Jisuvei Sungu & Cornelia Melinda Adi Santoso & Halima Habuba Mohamed, 2023. "Impact of Workplace Mistreatment on Employees’ Health and Well-Being in Chinese Firms: A Systematic Review," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    3. Md. Abu Issa Gazi & Md. Aminul Islam & Jakhongir Shaturaev & Bablu Kumar Dhar, 2022. "Effects of Job Satisfaction on Job Performance of Sugar Industrial Workers: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-24, 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. Peng Nie & Lanlin Ding & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2020. "What Chinese Workers Value: An Analysis of Job Satisfaction, Job Expectations, and Labour Turnover in China," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2020(1), pages 85-104.
    2. Laetitia Hauret & Donald R. Williams, 2017. "Cross-National Analysis of Gender Differences in Job Satisfaction," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 203-235, April.
    3. Getinet A. Haile, 2015. "Workplace Job Satisfaction in Britain: Evidence from Linked Employer–Employee Data," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 29(3), pages 225-242, September.
    4. Zhiming Cheng, 2014. "The Effects of Employee Involvement and Participation on Subjective Wellbeing: Evidence from Urban China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 457-483, September.
    5. Possenriede, Daniel & Plantenga, Janneke, 2014. "Temporal and Locational Flexibility of Work, Working-Time Fit, and Job Satisfaction," IZA Discussion Papers 8436, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Justina A. V. Fischer & Alfonso Sousa‐Poza, 2009. "Does job satisfaction improve the health of workers? New evidence using panel data and objective measures of health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 71-89, January.
    7. Mora, Toni & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 2009. "The job satisfaction gender gap among young recent university graduates: Evidence from Catalonia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 581-589, August.
    8. Susan J. Linz & Anastasia Semykina, 2012. "What Makes Workers Happy? Anticipated Rewards and Job Satisfaction," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 811-844, October.
    9. Hikaru Hasegawa & Kazuhiro Ueda, 2016. "Analysis of Job Satisfaction: The Case of Japanese Private Companies," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 30(1), pages 109-134, March.
    10. Stavros A. Drakopoulos, 2020. "Pay Level Comparisons in Job Satisfaction Research and Mainstream Economic Methodology," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 825-842, March.
    11. Anthea Long, 2005. "Happily Ever After? A Study of Job Satisfaction in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 303-321, December.
    12. GAO, Wenshu & SMYTH, Russell, 2010. "Job satisfaction and relative income in economic transition: Status or signal?: The case of urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 442-455, September.
    13. Cristina Bernini & Alessandro Tampieri, 2023. "Much Ado about Salary: A Comparison of Monetary and Non-Monetary Components of Job Satisfaction," Working Papers - Economics wp2023_06.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    14. José Millán & Jolanda Hessels & Roy Thurik & Rafael Aguado, 2013. "Determinants of job satisfaction: a European comparison of self-employed and paid employees," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 651-670, April.
    15. Maryam Dilmaghani, 2022. "Revisiting the gender job satisfaction paradox: The roots seem to run deep," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 278-323, June.
    16. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    17. Whelan, Adele & McGuinness, Seamus, 2017. "Does a satisfied student make a satisfied worker?," Papers WP561, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    18. Francesco Bartolucci & Aleksandra Baschina & Giovanni S. F. Bruno & Olga Demidova & Marcello Signorelli, 2015. "Determinants of Job Satisfaction in Young Russian Workers," Discussion Papers 7_2015, CRISEI, University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    19. Theodossiou, I. & Zangelidis, A., 2009. "Career prospects and tenure-job satisfaction profiles: Evidence from panel data," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 648-657, August.
    20. Mohanty, Madhu, 2019. "Effects of job satisfaction on the worker's wage and weekly hours: A simultaneous equations approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 27-42.

    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:plo:pone00:0222715. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.