Study title

Parish Employee Survey 2015

Dataset ID Number

FSD3581

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3581

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Ketola, Kimmo (Church Research Institute)
• Church Research Institute

Abstract

The 2015 church employee survey studied the views of people working in the parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Main themes of the survey included the future of work in the church, structural changes and strategic planning in parishes, ordination of women, the amended Marriage Act entering into force in 2017, and Christian values and ethics.

First, the respondents were asked about the significance of work, family and leisure time in life. Questions included, for example, whether the respondents felt that their work was a calling for them, that having a family increased the quality of life, and that everybody should have at least one hobby. Views on the future of the Evangelical Lutheran Church were surveyed with various statements on what the main focus of the church should be moving forward. The statements included, for example, whether the church should be more direct in discussing social issues, support immigrants more, be more accepting towards sexual minorities, and be more visible on online platforms. Structural changes and strategic planning in the parishes were examined with questions on whether the respondents' parish had gone through a merger, how the respondents thought parish structures should be developed, and whether there had been changes in personnel in their line of work and how the changes had affected their work environment. Questions also surveyed the respondents' views on the ordination of women.

Next, the respondents' attitudes were examined with various statements relating to values and religion in everyday life and society. Further questions surveyed how the respondents thought the church should act after the amended Marriage Act entered into force in 2017 (e.g. whether the church should continue to only officiate opposite-sex marriages or also officiate same-sex marriages) as well as what they thought about the role of religious communities in Finnish society and the presence of different religious gathering spaces in their area. The respondents were also asked whether they thought they were more conservative or liberal within the church, how often they attended worship services, and how often they prayed.

Background variables included the respondent's year of birth, gender, job title, how long they had worked for the church or religious organisation, size of their parish, diocese, type of municipality where they worked, and political party they had voted for in the 2015 parliamentary elections, and whether they belonged to a revivalist movement or a Christian organisation.

Keywords

church; equal opportunity; family life; hobbies; marriage; ordination of women; personnel; religiosity; religious beliefs; religious communities; religious personnel

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Humanities (Fields of Science Classification)
• Working conditions (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Religion and values (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Parish Employee Surveys

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Lindroos, Elina (Church Research Institute)

Time Period Covered

2015

Collection Dates

2015-11-12 – 2015-12-01

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Employees aged over 18 working in the parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Systematic random

Every fourth address was selected from an email list of employees of the Evangelical Luther Church of Finland. The survey was sent to 3,746 employees, of whom 1,390 responded.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

37.1

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of respondents, the feedback variable and the open-ended variable denoting the respondent's specific job title were removed from the data by the researcher. Additionally, the variable denoting specific revivalist movements or Christian organisations to which the respondent belonged was removed at FSD, variables q23 denoting job title and q25 denoting size of parish where the respondent worked were categorised, and variable q21 denoting year of birth was top- and bottom-coded.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Ketola, Kimmo (Church Research Institute) & Church Research Institute: Parish Employee Survey 2015 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2022-11-30). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3581

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Ketola, Kimmo, Hytönen, Maarit, Salminen, Veli-Matti, Sohlberg, Jussi & Sorsa, Leena (2016) Osallistuva luterilaisuus. Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko vuosina 2012-2015: Tutkimus kirkosta ja suomalaisista. Kirkon tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 125. Tampere: Kirkon tutkimuskeskus.