Measuring Labour Flexibility in Organisation Surveys

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Measuring Labour Flexibility in Organisation
Surveys

• Lessons from the Flemish PASO-surveys

Stijn Gryp Geert Van Hootegem (CESO) Workshop
Works, 22-02-2006 (HIVA)
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The PASO-surveys

• Economy wide (Flanders)
• Establishments with 1 employee(s)
• Panelsurvey using mail (1-9) and web (10)

• 2002 Labour Organisation
• 2003 Human Resource Management
• 2004 Corporate Entrepreneurship

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Labour flexibility in PASO

• Wave 1 and 2
• Three major flexibility strategies
• contractual (use share)
• temporal (use share)
• functional (use typology team work)
• Flexibility needs
• market situation output characteristics job and
  organisational characteristics

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General observation

• Labour flexibility profiles
• multiple use of labour flexibility measures
• Simple characteristics ? typologies
• e.g. diversity in team work
• Share of employment-questions
• quantitative image of labour flexibility in
  organisations

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Agency and temporary work functional equivalents?
Average use AW Average use TW

no contract 0 0
little contract 0,29 1,94
high AW 10,1 0,90
high TW 0,03 38,0
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Substantive issues

• Share of employment-questions
• detail ? validity reliability // item
  non-respons
• no volume indication
• single moment in time
• Keeping track with change
• What is a suitable interval ?
• Meaning of concepts
• e.g. team work, task roulation

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Substantive issues

• Flexibility profiles on establishment level
• no information on job level or for specific types
  of workers ? necessity of employee survey
• indirect view on segmentation

• Legal and other differences
• Economy wide questions

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Methodological issues

• Measurement level of labour flexibility
• dichotomous
• many organisations use ? to less diversity
• numerical
• detail ? validity vs. reliability
• change to lower level ?

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Methodological issues

• Item non-respons
• systematic ?
• sources
• question mode
• respondent
• available sources

• stable unstable/changing organisations

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Measuring Labour Flexibility in Organisation
Surveys

• Questions, comments ... discussion.

Stijn Gryp Geert Van Hootegem (CESO) Workshop
Works, 22-02-2006 (HIVA)