International Journal of Manpower

Rohrbach-Schmidt, Daniela; Wehner, Caroline; Krueger, Sabine; Ebner, Christian

2023 International Journal of Manpower

doi: 10.1108/ijm-01-2022-0038

This article aims to examine whether specific job tasks measured at the individual level or personality traits are associated with wages and whether the relationship between personality traits and wages differs depending on the job tasks that individuals perform.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes the association between job tasks and personality traits, and their interaction, with regard to wages using German employee data from 2017/2018.FindingsResults suggest that nonroutine manual, interactive or analytic tasks are associated with significantly higher wages compared to routine manual tasks, and while extraversion and emotional stability are related to higher wages, agreeableness and openness tend to be associated with lower wages also within occupations. Moreover, the association between personality traits and wages varies depending on the job task requirements at the workplace. A high degree of extraversion in particular is associated with higher wages when the employee performs nonroutine manual, interactive or analytic tasks.Originality/valueTo date, especially the interaction between individual job tasks and personality traits on wages has not been extensively studied because data on both job tasks and personality at the employee level are scarce. This study contributes to the understanding of wage differences among employees.

Rouvroye, Lin; van Dalen, Hendrik P.; Henkens, Kène; Schippers, Joop J.

2023 International Journal of Manpower

doi: 10.1108/ijm-06-2021-0341

Flexible staffing arrangements have become a permanent feature of employment in many industrial societies. This article examines how employers perceive the consequences of using flexible staffing arrangements. It presents and assesses theoretically informed hypotheses on organisational situations in which negative consequences are more likely to be perceived.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data (n = 761) from a bespoke employers survey, fielded in the Netherlands in 2019. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to measure and explain employers' perception of downsides to flexible staffing arrangements.FindingsEmployers report distinct downsides to the use of flexible staffing arrangements in terms of performance, management and employee well-being. Model estimates show that employers using flexible staffing arrangements to acquire specific expertise or to follow other organisations in their sector perceive more downsides.Originality/valueEmpirical research on employers' perception of the disadvantageous consequences of using flexible staffing arrangements is scarce. This article highlights that this practice can discourage investments in human capital and lead to a sense of insecurity among young workers. It draws attention to the relevance of distinguishing between strategic motives when trying to understand organisational behaviour regarding non-standard forms of employment.

Mussida, Chiara; Patimo, Raffaella

2023 International Journal of Manpower

doi: 10.1108/ijm-12-2022-0633

This paper investigates the relationship between health and labour market participation considering the potential role played by the presence of children and elderly persons (with/without disabilities) in Italian households.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use longitudinal data from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and full-information maximum likelihood to estimate a two-equation model (one equation for labour force participation and one for health status) with instruments to address the endogeneity of the labour force participation choice. The model is estimated separately by gender.FindingsThe authors find that while the presence of children, elderly persons or both is positively associated with the health status of both genders, the presence of disabled elderly persons exerts a negative role. As for participation, interesting differences emerge. The presence of children discourages women's participation but is positively associated with men's labour force participation. Interestingly, a caring role for elderly persons without disability emerges for both genders when the presence of children is combined with that of elderly people. Gender differences are also at work for the role of childcare services and elderly and/or disabled home care/assistance.Originality/valueThe findings indicate a possible caring role for elderly persons without disabilities, neutralizing the effect of the presence of children on the labour force participation of both genders. The results also suggest that greater coverage of care services should increase the active participation of women in the labour market.

Kucel, Aleksander; Vilalta-Bufí, Montserrat

2023 International Journal of Manpower

doi: 10.1108/ijm-01-2023-0040

Research shows that parental employment and education status affect the amount of parental childcare time, which is a fundamental determinant of children's outcomes. In this paper, the authors study whether being overeducated – working in a job that requires less education than the level of education acquired – is related to the time parents devote to their children.Design/methodology/approachThe authors set two main hypotheses. First, overeducation might lead to more childcare time if being overeducated is the result of the individual prioritizing family over career. Second, overeducation might lead to less childcare time if overeducation is the result of lower ability. The authors estimate time use equations using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2004 to 2019.FindingsThe authors find that overeducated parents devote less time to childcare than matched parents, especially in the weekend sample. The authors’ results suggest that overeducation is not a deliberate choice prioritizing family over career.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the implications of being overeducated on childcare.

Agovino, Massimiliano; Bevilacqua, Michele; Cerciello, Massimiliano

2023 International Journal of Manpower

doi: 10.1108/ijm-12-2022-0600

While the economic literature mostly tackled discrimination looking at labour costs, this work focuses on its relation to labour productivity, arguing that discrimination may worsen the performance of female employees. In this view, it represents a source of allocative inefficiency, which contributes to reducing output.Design/methodology/approachFemale discrimination is both a social and an economic problem. In social terms, consolidated gender stereotypes impose constraints on women’s behaviour, worsening their overall well-being. In economic terms, women face generally worse labour market conditions. Using long-run Italian data spanning from 1861 to 2009, the authors propose a novel measure of female discrimination based on the observed frequency of discriminating epithets. Following social capital theory, the authors distinguish between structural and voluntary discrimination, and use Data Envelopment Analysis for time series data to assess the extent of inefficiency that each component of discrimination induces in the production process.FindingsThe results draw the trajectory of female discrimination in Italy and provide evidence in favour of the idea that female discrimination reduces productive efficiency. In particular, the structural component of female discrimination, although less sizeable than the voluntary component, plays a major role, especially in recent years, where more stringent beauty standards fuel looks-based discrimination.Originality/value The contribution of this work is twofold. First, based on contributions from social sciences different from economics, it proposes a novel theoretical framework that explores the effect of discriminatory language on labour productivity. Second, it introduces a novel and direct measure of female discrimination at the country level, based on the bidirectional link between language and culture. The indicator is easily understood by policymakers and may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-discrimination policies.