Authors

• University of Tampere. Work Research Center (WRC)

Keywords

arrangement of working time, autonomy at work, businesses, employees, employment contracts, flexible working time, innovation, job characteristics, job security, occupational life, occupational training, organizations, private sector, public sector, wages, well-being at work, workers participation, working conditions

Abstract

The survey studied organisational practices, organisational change, job characteristics, workplace relations and well-being at work in Finland from the employee perspective. The contents of the survey were influenced by the MEADOW (Measuring the Dynamics of Organisations and Work) tool created to collect data on change at work and in organisations at the European level, both from employers and employees. Another influence were the national MEADOW surveys in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. This dataset forms the Finnish employee-level MEADOW survey. However, the Finnish survey also includes some national questions. Data were collected from employees of the private and public sector organisations that had participated in the employer survey. Both employer (FSD2955) and employee (FSD2954) surveys have been archived and the data can be combined using the organisation number variable.

First, the respondents were asked whether they still worked at the organisation in question and what their job was. Job characteristics were charted with questions on work contract, working hours, use of foreign languages at work, supervisory or management responsibilities, presence and nature of group or team work, team member influence. The respondents were asked to evaluate their workplace regarding a number of aspects, for instance, enthusiasm, competence, employee well-being, management, utilisation of staff ideas. Assistance received from supervisor, co-workers or clients in difficult or overload situations, targets set for the job, achieving these targets, and working to tight deadlines or at speed were charted. Further questions investigated how often the respondents worked at home, or worked or were contacted outside normal office hours.

Changes in work organisation were studied with questions on what kind of changes had been done in the organisation in the past two years, including changes in task division, organisational structure, working methods or systems, whether these changes had had impact on the respondent's work tasks, job security, career, meaningfulness of job, workload or pay. The necessity of these changes and R's satisfaction with involvement in the change process were charted. Possibility to participate in decision-making regarding own duties, and performance appraisal and its consequences were studied as well as own image of and pride in the work. Other topics included level of educational achievement or prior work experience required for the job, requirements regarding learning new things, helping others with advice, participation in improving own work or developing new products or services, participation in training or education paid by the employer, and sufficiency of training regarding work duties.

Working time questions investigated working time arrangements, shift work, own influence over shifts, and unpaid and paid overtime. Employment security was charted by asking about likelihood of losing the job. Satisfaction with working time arrangements, job security and pay as well as what kind of changes had happened in staff numbers in the past two years were studied. Finally, employee well-being was investigated with questions on positive feelings about work, overall job satisfaction, feelings of stress, days of absence, and self-perceived work capability.

Background variable included R's gender, age, household composition, highest level of education attained, number of years in paid work after full-time study, pay type and level, and occupation.