Documents Grönlund, Anne 3 results

"The `varieties of capitalism' school argues that firm-specific skills are more common in coordinated than in liberal economies and that appropriate training is facilitated by employment protection legislation. We compare the level of firm-specific skills across 21 countries with different capacities for labour market coordination. The data provide very limited support for the thesis, showing large variation among the coordinated countries. The results indicate `varieties of coordination', which have different implications for the incidence and consequences of firm-specific skill. Improved operationalization of the skill concept seems urgent."

"The aim of this article is to deepen the understanding of work—family conflict and the impact of social policies by integrating the theoretical perspectives of role conflict and role expansion. First, we present a theoretical model identifying different mechanisms through which policy may affect both role conflict and role expansion, with a particular focus on dual-earner policies. Second, we examine some of its implications, using data from the European Social Survey comprising 10,950 employees in 15 countries. In contrast to traditional theories presenting conflict and expansion as mutually exclusive, we find that work—family conflict and experiences of role expansion, measured with indicators of life satisfaction and psychological well being, may go hand in hand. The results also indicate that such a balance is more common in countries with dual-earner policies than in other countries. Women committing as strongly to work as men experience more work—family conflict, but also high levels of well being and satisfaction. The findings largely support our theoretical arguments and imply that future research should examine the conflict-expansion nexus rather than focussing on either of the two. In this context, both gender and policy need to be considered."

"Despite higher educational investments, women fall behind men on most indicators of labour market success. This study investigates whether workplace skill investments set men and women off on different tracks in which the human capital acquired through higher education is either devalued or further developed. A survey sample of Swedish men and women who recently graduated from five educational programmes, leading to occupations with different gender composition, is analysed (N ≈ 2300). Results show that, a few years after graduation, men are more likely than women to acquire complex jobs and that this difference contributes to early career gender gaps in wages and employee bargaining power. The findings do not support the notion that child-related work interruptions provide a main mechanism for sorting women into less complex jobs. "