Work commitment across the lifecourse using data from BHPS and NCDS

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Work commitment across the life-courseusing data
from BHPS and NCDS

• Jane Elliott
• Maggie Hancock
• Centre for Longitudinal Studies
• j.elliott_at_ioe.ac.uk
• m.hancock_at_ioe.ac.uk

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Work commitment Questions of research interest

• Is there a gender difference in individuals
  commitment to work
• How stable is work commitment over the
  lifecourse?
• Which factors help shape work commitment?
• Is work commitment a stable disposition fixed
  early in life?
• Is work commitment contingent on recent work
  history and current job?
• Does work commitment predict subsequent
  employment behaviour (e.g. early retirement)?
• Is it possible to measure work commitment? How
  valid are our measures and how do they associate
  with other attitudes to work?

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Policy background

• Ageing population in Great Britain and change to
  the state pension age.
• From 6 April 2020, the State Pension age for both
  men and women will be 65.
• State Pension age for both men and women is then
  set to increase from 65 to 68 between 2024 and
  2046
• Women born in 1958 will have a state pension age
  of 65
• Women born in 1970 will have a state pension age
  of 67
• Concern over dependency ratio and poverty among
  those dependent on State pensions

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Employment behaviour after age 50(NCDS)

• Employment
• At age 50, 90 of men and 82 of women are in
  paid work (employed or self employed)
• Only 2 report being unemployed
• But 5 report not working because they are either
  permanently or temporarily sick or disabled
• Only 1 reported being retired
• Analysis of data from ELSA suggests that by age
  55-59 only two thirds of men and a half of women
  will be in paid work.

Preliminary analyses based on 3016 NCDS cases
surveyed in August-December 2008
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Looking forward at age 50pensions (NCDS)
When I reach State Pension Age I'd do some paid
work if it meant a better standard of living
(70 agree or strongly agree) I
worry about how much I will have to live on after
retiring from paid work
(40 agree or strongly
agree) I can't afford to put money aside for
retirement at the moment
(37 agree or
strongly agree) I will definitely have enough
income to live comfortably when I retire from my
main job (17 agree
or strongly agree)
Preliminary analyses based on 3016 cases surveyed
in August-December 2008
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Sources of data on work commitmentNCDS

• National Child Development Study
• One of four national birth cohort studies
• Based on people born in 1 week in 1958
• Followed up from birth into adulthood
• Immigrants identified in schools included at
  age 7, 11 15
• Multi-purpose and multi disciplinary
• Approximately 10,000 individuals still
  participating
• Website http//www.cls.ioe.ac.uk/

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NCDS follow-ups and sources of information
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NCDS questionnaire content

• Housing
• Relationships
• Pregnancies and births
• Periods of lone parenthood and absent children
• Family Income
• Employment
• Qualifications gained, courses attended, computer
  use and basic skills
• General health, smoking, drinking and exercise
• Social participation, political views, attitudes
  etc.

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Sources of data on work commitment BHPS

• British Household Panel Survey
• Household based
• Annual data collection since 1991
• Wave 110,300 individuals from 5500 households
• Follows individual panel members and includes all
  members of their new households
• Will be incorporated into the new Understanding
  Society longitudinal study
• Website http//www.iser.essex.ac.uk/ulsc/bhps/

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BHPS questionnaire content

• Household composition
• Housing conditions
• Residential mobility
• Education and training
• Health and the usage of health services
• Labour market behaviour
• Socio-economic values
• Income from employment, benefits and pensions

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Sources of data on work commitment

• NCDS
• Has not routinely included measures of work
  commitment
• Some measures on work attitudes (e.g. Job
  satisfaction)
• New measure of work commitment included at age 50
  based on an established scale
• BHPS
• Advantage of data collected at two time points
  five years apart
• No direct measure of work commitment (Importance
  of a fulfilling job)
• Data does not cover the whole life course

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BHPS Importance of questions

• Asked of all respondents in sweeps K (1998) and M
  (2003)
• I'm going to read you a list of things that
  people value. For each one I'd like you to tell
  me on a scale from 1 to 10 how important each one
  is to you, where '1' equals 'Not important at
  all', and '10' equals 'Very important
• Your health
• Having a lot of money
• Having children
• Having a fulfilling job
• Being independent
• Owning your own home
• Having a good marriage or partnership
• Having good friends

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Sweep H (1998) Importance of having a fulfilling
job and Importance of having children variables

• Importance of having a fulfilling job

• Importance of having children

N10,476 Mean7.9 Stddev2.3
N10,480 Mean7.6 Stddev2.9
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Sweep M (2003) Importance of having a fulfilling
job and Importance of having children variables

• Importance of having a fulfilling job

• Importance of having children

N12,592 Mean7.8 Stddev2.2
N12,592 Mean7.7 Stddev2.8
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BHPS Sweep M Mean scores for 'Importance of
variables across the adult life course
N12,591
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BHPS Sweep M Mean score for 'Importance of
having a fulfilling job' comparing genders,
social class of current job and highest
educational quals.
Gender (all respondents) T-test Plt.001
Social class of current job (all in paid
employment) T-test P.002
Highest Educational quals. (all
respondents) T-test Plt.001
Male Female (N5800)
(N6792)
Non-manual Manual . (N4790)
(N2884)
A levels plus ltA levels . (N6677)
(N5569)
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BHPS Sweep M Mean score for 'Importance of
having a fulfilling job' by social class of
current job by gender
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BHPS Sweep M Mean score for 'Importance of
having a fulfilling job' across adulthood BY
gender
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BHPS Sweep M Mean score for 'Importance of
having a fulfilling job' across adulthood BY
gender and social class of current job
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Work attitude variables in NCDS Job Satisfaction

• Job Satisfaction (age 23, 42, 46 and 50)
• All things considered, how satisfied or
  dissatisfied are you with your present job
  overall? (1very satisfied to 5very
  dissatisfied)
• Job element satisfaction (age 23)
• I am going to read out some things which affect
  how people feel about their job. Can you tell
  me how satisfied or dissatisfied with each one
  in your present job? (1very satisfied to 5very
  dissatisfied)
• Your usual take home pay
• Your prospects
• The people you work with
• Your physical working conditions
• The way your firm or organisation is run
• The way your abilities are used
• The interest and skill involved in your job

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Work attitude variables in NCDS Work life balance

• Work life balance (age 42 and 50)
• Do you think the demands of your work interfere
  with the demands of home and family life? (Yes
  / No)
• Demands of work (age 42)
• Do you find that in physical terms your work
  demands ...
• a lot of you.. a moderate amount or very
  little?
• Do you find that mentally or emotionally your
  work demands
• a lot of you.. a moderate amount or very
  little?

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Work attitude variables in NCDS Work hours
preference and commitment to employer

• Preferences for changing hours of work (age 42)
• Assuming that you would be paid the same amount
  per hour, would you prefer to
• work fewer hours than you do now
• work more hours than you do now or
• carry on working the same number of hours?
• Commitment to current employer (age 42 and 50)
• In a year from now do you expect to be..
• working for the same employer
• working for a different employer
• not working at all?

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Job involvement measure

• Job Involvement first proposed as a type of job
  attitude by Allport in 1943, who defined job
  involvement as
• the degree to which an employee is
  participating in his job and meeting such needs
  as prestige, self-respect, autonomy or self
  regard
• (cited in Saleh Hosek 1976)

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Job involvement measure Lodahl and Kejner (1965)

• 20 item job involvement scale devised by Lodahl
  Kejner in 1965
• Measure seen as misleading and difficult to
  interpret. Job involvement confused with
  intrinsic motivation on the job and presumed
  effects of job involvement

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Job involvement scale (Kanungo 1982)
Research by Kanungo (1982) to address measurement
issues and develop separate job and work
involvement scales resulted in a 10-item scale
for job involvement.
4 items used in NCDS 2008 work involvement scale
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Job involvement scale used in NCDS 2008

• 4 item job involvement scale as used by Frone and
  Rice (1987)
• Derived from Kanungos 10 item scale (1982)
• Asked if respondent employed or self employed and
  either full- or part- time
• Response1 strongly agree to 6 strongly disagree

NCDS 2008 test data comprising 3016 cases
surveyed in August-December 2008
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NCDS 2008 initial data Job involvement scale
descriptive statistics
NCDS 2008 test data comprising 3016 cases
surveyed in August-December 2008
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NCDS 2008 initial data Job involvement scale
at age 50 by gender and working hours
N51
N798
N525
N1209
NCDS 2008 test data comprising 3016 cases
surveyed in August-December 2008
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NCDS 2008 initial data Job involvement scale at
age 50 by socio-economic class of job at age 46
(NS-SEC 8)
Significant difference found between the mean JI
scores for higher managerial/ professional
occup./ Small employers/ own a/c workers and the
other groups. Oneway Anova Plt.001
N770
N261
N241
N337
N145
N250
N237
NCDS 2008 test data comprising 3016 cases
surveyed in August-December 2008
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NCDS 2008 initial data Relationships between job
involvement and other work variables
P lt 0.01
NCDS 2008 test data comprising 3016 cases
surveyed in August-December 2008
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NCDS 2008 initial data Mean score for job
involvement scale by work attitude variables
Whether expecting to be working for same
employer in a year Oneway Anova Plt.001
Whether work interferes with family life T-test
plt.001
Yes (N1005)
Same employer (N1974)
Different employer (N165)
Not working (N23)
No (N1577)
NCDS 2008 test data comprising 3016 cases
surveyed in August-December 2008
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Work commitment across the life-courseReferences

• Allport, G. (1943). "The ego in contemporary
  psychology." Psychological Review 50 451-476.
• Frone, M. R. and R. W. Rice (1987). "Work-Family
  Conflict - the Effect of Job and Family
  Involvement." Journal of Occupational Behaviour
  8(1) 45-53.
• Kanungo, R. (1982). "Measurement of Job and Work
  Involvement." Journal of Applied Psychology
  67(3) 341-349.
• Lodahl, T. M. and M. Kejner (1965). "'Definition
  and measurement of job involvement'." Journal of
  Applied Psychology(49) 24-33.
• Paterson, J. M. and M. P. O'Driscoll (1990). "An
  empirical assessment of Kanungo's (1982) concept
  and measure of job involvement." Applied
  Psychology An International Review 39(3)
  293-306.
• Saleh, S. D. and J. Hosek (1976). "Job
  Involvement Concepts and Measurements." The
  Academy of Management Journal 19(2) 213-224.
• Van Wyk, R. and A. BOSHOFF (2003). "The
  prediction of job involvement for pharmacists and
  accountants." SA Journal of Industrial Psychology
  29(3) 61-67.

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Work commitment across the life-courseusing data
from BHPS and NCDS

• Jane Elliott
• Maggie Hancock
• Centre for Longitudinal Studies
• j.elliott_at_ioe.ac.uk
• m.hancock_at_ioe.ac.uk

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