Documents Kauhanen, Antti 4 results

"Using linked employer-employee data for Finland we examine associations between job design and ten measures of worker wellbeing. In accordance with Karasek's (1979) model we find positive correlations between many aspects of worker wellbeing and job control. However, contrary to the model, job demands have no adverse effects on worker wellbeing. We find a strong positive correlation between job support and all aspects of worker wellbeing that is independent of job controls and job demands, a finding that has not been emphasized in the literature. The effects are most pronounced in relation to supervisor support. We also find evidence of unemployment scarring effects: substantial experience of unemployment has long-term consequences for the wellbeing workers experience in their current jobs, even controlling for the quality of those jobs."

"This article uses representative employee survey data for Finland from 2003 to study the incidence of adaptive teams, incentive pay and employer-provided training. A combination of these practices would be termed a high-performance work system (HPWS). Influential theories suggest that we should view these practices as `bundled' together. However, these `bundles' are quite rare and thus HPWS is a rare phenomenon. The article finds that the probability of participation in HPWS is higher for (1) employees with higher socioeconomic status, (2) employees using communication technology for internal communication in the workplace, (3) younger employees, (4) full-time and permanent employees, (5) employees in larger firms and (6) employees in foreign-owned firms."

"Much of the empirical literature on PRP (Performance Related Pay) focuses on a question of whether the firm can increase firm performance in general and enterprise productivity in particular by introducing PRP and if so, how much. However, not all PRP programs are created equal and PRP programs vary significantly in a variety of attributes. This paper provides novel and rigorous evidence on the productivity effect of varying attributes of PRP and shows that the details of PRP indeed matter. In so doing we exploit the panel nature of our Finnish Linked Employer-Employee Data on the details of PRP. We first establish that the omitted variable bias is serious, makes the cross-sectional estimates on the productivity effect of the details of PRP biased upward substantially. Relying on the fixed effect estimates that account for such bias, we find: (i) group incentive PRP is more potent in boosting enterprise productivity than individual incentive PRP; (ii) group incentive PRP with profitability as a performance measure is especially powerful in raising firm productivity; (iii) when a narrow measure (such as cost reduction) is already used, adding another narrow measure (such as quality improvement) yields no additional productivity gain; and (iv) PRP with greater Power of incentives (the share of PRP in total compensation) results in greater productivity gains, and returns to Power of incentives diminishes very slowly."

"Using large-scale, linked, employer–employee, Finnish panel data, the authors examine firms' internal versus external hiring decisions more comprehensively than has prior literature. The results show that vacancies in job hierarchies are filled more often by horizontal moves than by promotions. Most horizontal moves are external and within the same job functions, so that internally promoted workers face external competitors occupying higher job levels. Compared to internally promoted workers, external and internal horizontal hires have stronger observable ability indicators (e.g., education, experience, prior work history) but weaker job performance in the year preceding the transfer. Internal and external horizontal hires have similar job histories."