Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken

New labour market policies in western countries aiming to extend work years and work hours per worker meet strong resistance. A prominent thesis in the literature is that the increase of affluence causes decline in work ethics; another thesis is that in affluent societies work motivation is less extrinsic and more intrinsic. In the article, we test these thesis in an international comparative research design. Using the World Values Survey 2000, we test whether and how GDP affects work ethics. The results of the tests show decreasing work centrality with increasing GDP, but not a significant change in work orientations. These results support the thesis of declining work ethics, and do not support the thesis of increasing intrinsic motivation.
Key words: work ethic, work motivation, welfare state

The aim of this study was to examine: i) to what extent motherhood ideology and work-home culture are related to the utilization of (flexible and care-related) arrangements and work hours, and ii) how utilization of these arrangements is associated with work-home and home-work conflict. These research questions have been studied among 387 Dutch employees from various branches (health care, government, financial & commercial services, and production). We found that employees who agree with a motherhood ideology in which women are held primary responsible for household and care giving made little use of flexible arrangements. Furthermore, support in utilizing work-home arrangements was positively related to the utilization of work-home arrangements. Governmental employees reported higher levels of work-home conflict compared to those working in healthcare or production. Finally, employees working many hours per week experienced more work-home conflict than those working less hours. Implications are discussed.
Key words: motherhood ideology, culture, arrangements, work-home conflict, sectors

This article examines to what extent preferences regarding family roles and occupational careers affect the turnover intention of Dutch municipal officials. Hakim distinguishes three preference types: the home-centred, the work-centred and the adaptives. The article shows that preferences affect the job satisfaction and turnover intention of municipal officials, whereas gender does not. It can be concluded that it is useful to complement the research on job satisfaction and turnover with a focus on preferences regarding paid work and care. This can be relevant for organizational diversity policies and for maintaining employees as well.
Key words: preferences regarding work and caring, job satisfaction, turnover, municipalities

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Laid-off employees and employees whose jobs were terminated on personal grounds constitute two distinct groups. Men, young people, singles, foreigners, employees with low wages and employees working in the sectors business services and health care are overrepresented among employees who were discharged on personal grounds. One would expect this group to experience substantially more difficulties in becoming re-employed than laid-off employees, given the negative signal that emanates from this form of job termination. Although discharge on personal grounds was indeed found to be associated with a reduced probability of re-employment, the effect was relatively small.
Key words: employee discharge, layoff, re-employment

This article poses that educational background matters in the relationship between job dissatisfaction and turnover intentions. The first part of this cross-sectional study (N=15,661) examines to what extent work dissatisfiers differentiate between employees with a different educational background because of differences in work values. In the second part, the possible differences in the manifestation of turnover intentions between lower- and higher-educated employees are examined. Here, we report the results of a study including 13.528 Dutch employees. The results of two different analyses indicate that for lower-educated employees a lack of extrinsic work characteristics relates stronger to job dissatisfaction than for the higher-educated employees for whom the lack of intrinsic work characteristics is a more salient work dissatisfier. In reaction to job dissatisfaction this study shows that dissatisfied higher-educated workers show more search behaviour than dissatisfied lower-educated workers. The results provide insight in a process in which lower-educated workers run a higher risk of getting stuck in a job that for their own reasons does not fit (anymore).
Key words: work values, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, search behav iour, educational differences

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Research has rarely focused on the societal consequences of job insecurity such as right-wing extremism. The scarce empirical evidence points to an indirect relationship, for instance running via perceived status anxiety, anomy, relative deprivation or everyday racism. Overall, feelings of economic threat by immigrants are assumed to play an important intermediate role. A sound theoretical explanation is however lacking. In this research we propose an explanatory model that builds on insights of the latent deprivation model of Jahoda (1982) and the social identity approach of Tajfel and Turner (1979). In addition, we control for other (broader) aspects of perceived threats by immigrants, i.e. perceived nuisances and fear of crime. Hypotheses are tested using linear hierarchical regression analysis on the survey data of 602 Flemish workers. The results indicate that job insecurity is indirectly related with sympathy for right-wing extremist political parties. It is associated with more status anxiety, which in turn strengthens everyday racism and political distrust. Both variables relate strongly with sympathy for extreme right-wing parties. The results suggest that job insecurity is an indirect and not a direct predictor of right-wing extremism, even after controlling for other types of perceived threats associated with immigrants.
Key words: job insecurity, voting behaviour, extreme right wing party, everyday racism