IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-03324454.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When work becomes meaningless. The influence of meaningful work on job mobility, voice and sickness absence: a longitudinal analysis with the Working Conditions Survey 2013-2016
[Quand le travail perd son sens. L'influence du sens du travail sur la mobilité professionnelle, la prise de parole et l'absentéisme pour maladie : une analyse longitudinale avec l'enquête Conditions travail 2013-2016]

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Coutrot

    (DARES - Direction de l'animation de la recherche, des études et des statistiques - Ministère du Travail, de l'Emploi et de la Santé)

  • Coralie Perez

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Exposed to numerical targets, rigid procedures and frequent reorganisation, employees often feel that their work loses its meaning. How do they react to these difficulties? Do they seek to leave to find a better job, or do they act collectivity to influence management practices? What is the link between changes in the meaninfulness of work and the number of days of sick leave? Economists have only recently begum to address the question of meaningful work, and do not have a consensus definition. After reviewing the literature in economics and management, we propose an original definition of meaningful work with reference to the critical theory of "living work" and the psychodynamics of work. The analysis of the 2013-2016 panel of the Working Conditions survey (which includes nearly 17,000 employees), shows that a meaningless work in 2013 is clearly associated with a change of job (exit) between 2013 and 2016. When endogeneity issues are taken care of meaningless work is also associated with collective voice (joining a union) over the same period. Changes in the meaning of work also have a very significant impact on the variation in the number of days of sickness absence.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Coutrot & Coralie Perez, 2021. "When work becomes meaningless. The influence of meaningful work on job mobility, voice and sickness absence: a longitudinal analysis with the Working Conditions Survey 2013-2016 [Quand le travail p," Post-Print halshs-03324454, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-03324454
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03324454
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03324454/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    2. Barigozzi, Francesca & Burani, Nadia, 2019. "Competition for talent when firms' mission matters," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 128-151.
    3. George A. Akerlof, 1982. "Labor Contracts as Partial Gift Exchange," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 97(4), pages 543-569.
    4. George A. Akerlof & Andrew K. Rose & Janet L. Yellen, 1988. "Job Switching and Job Satisfaction in the U.S. Labor Market," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(2), pages 495-594.
    5. Keith A. Bender & Peter J. Sloane, 1998. "Job Satisfaction, Trade Unions, and Exit-Voice Revisited," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 51(2), pages 222-240, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Thomas Coutrot & Coralie Perez, 2021. "Quand le travail perd son sens. L'influence du sens du travail sur la mobilité professionnelle, la prise de parole et l'absentéisme pour maladie : une analyse longitudinale avec l'enquête Conditions d," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 21020, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    2. Michael A. Shields & Melanie E. Ward, "undated". "Improving Nurse Retention in the British National Health Service: The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Intentions to Quit," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 00/3, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    3. Georgellis, Yannis & Lange, Thomas, 2009. "Are Union Members Happy Workers after All? Evidence from Eastern and Western European Labor Markets," MPRA Paper 17020, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Mark P. Taylor, 2006. "Tell me why I don't like Mondays: investigating day of the week effects on job satisfaction and psychological well‐being," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(1), pages 127-142, January.
    5. Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2018. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 393-418, February.
    6. Eric A. Verhoogen & Stephen V. Burks & Jeffrey P. Carpenter, 2007. "Fairness and Freight-Handlers: Local Labor Market Conditions and Wage-Fairness Perceptions in a Trucking Firm," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 60(4), pages 477-498, July.
    7. Michael A. Shields & Stephen Wheatley Price, "undated". "Racial Harassment, Job Satisfaction and Intentions to Quit: Evidence from the British Nursing Profession," Discussion Papers in Public Sector Economics 01/2, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester.
    8. Hoogveld, Nicky & Zubanov, Nick, 2017. "The power of (no) recognition: Experimental evidence from the university classroom," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 75-84.
    9. 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.
    10. Mertzanis, Charilaos, 2019. "Family ties, institutions and financing constraints in developing countries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    11. Nicholas Barton & Tessa Bold & Justin Sandefur, 2017. "Measuring Rents from Public Employment: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Kenya - Working Paper 457," Working Papers 457, Center for Global Development.
    12. Panos, Georgios & Theodossiou, Ioannis, 2009. "Union Mediation and Adaptation to Reciprocal Loyalty Arrangements," MPRA Paper 15471, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Putnam, Bluford H. & Azzarello, Samantha, 2015. "Evolving dynamics of the relationship between US core inflation and unemployment," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 27-34.
    14. Liang Zhang & Bin Qiu & Xiaocong Xu & Shaoqin Sun, 2021. "Offshoring, Wages, and Skill Premiums: Firm‐level Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(5), pages 1-27, September.
    15. Jellal, Mohamed & Zenou, Yves, 1999. "Efficiency wages and the quality of job matching," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 201-217, June.
    16. Christian Pfeifer & Stefan Schneck, 2012. "Relative Wage Positions and Quit Behavior: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(1), pages 126-147, January.
    17. Armin Falk & Fabian Kosse & Ingo Menrath & Pablo Emilio Verde & Johannes Siegrist, 2014. "Unfair Pay and Health," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 715, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Jirjahn, Uwe & Rienzo, Cinzia, 2024. "Working from Home and Performance Pay: Individual or Collective Payment Schemes?," IZA Discussion Papers 17234, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Alain Cohn & Ernst Fehr & Lorenz Goette, 2015. "Fair Wages and Effort Provision: Combining Evidence from a Choice Experiment and a Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(8), pages 1777-1794, August.
    20. Bold, Tessa & Barton, Nicholas & Sandefur, Justin, 2017. "Measuring Rents from Public Employment: Regression discontinuity evidence from Kenya," CEPR Discussion Papers 12105, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    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:hal:journl:halshs-03324454. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.