Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes

Labour market flexibility in the Netherlands: looking for winners and losers

Almost two decades have passed since Dutch employers, unions and the government, in their struggle against unemployment, agreed on a policy to increase labour market flexibility. Over the years the share of flexible jobs in the Netherlands has gradually increased to around ten percent. According to some parties the introduction of more labour market flexibility would lead to more inequality and a division in the labour market between workers with permanent employment and an underclass of women, immigrant workers and poorly educated workers with temporary contracts. The Dutch government has always claimed that a special set of legal rules regarding labour market flexibility would prevent the development of such an underclass. In this article three questions are addressed: Who has a flexible labour contract and who is in permanent employment? What is the pattern of transition to permanent contracts? What are the consequences for wage rates for those on permanent or flexible contracts respectively? The answers to these questions are provided using panel data for the period 1986-96. The results show that labour market flexibility has been introduced into the Dutch labour market without detrimental consequences for specific groups of workers.

'Not worth mentioning' : The implicit and explicit nature of decisionmaking about the division of paid and domestic work

The aim of this qualitative study of 31 Dutch couples is to help us understand why the division of paid and unpaid work between women and men remains stubbornly unequal, despite womens gains in the workplace and rising educational levels. This study expands on other research by documenting daily implicit and explicit decision-making about the division of paid and domestic work by couples during a unique period of their lives: the formative years of their relationship, until they are expecting their first child. Our findings indicate that in general, these Dutch couples do not look explicitly at their division of paid and domestic work, and that this often perpetuates a gendered division of work. More explicit decision-making occurs when couples have a very strong preference for equal sharing, or when the partners disagree or feel frustrated with their current situation. One important finding of this study is that even the couples who prefer to divide the work equally often end up following traditional patterns. This has to do with the decision-making strategies they apply, which seem to be grounded in ambivalent feelings about roles and responsibilities and often romanticizing relationships. Such ambivalence functions as a barrier to more effective decision-making processes. Data from this study seems to suggest that couples wanting to share household responsibilities should, as a minimum, engage in explicit decision-making until they have developed egalitarian routines.

Social Policy in Europe: its Impact on Families and Work

Whether or not Europeans are able to achieve a healthy work/life balance is due, at least in part, to the effects of social policies in the different nations. In the comparative literature on European social policy, the differences between various welfare regimes is an important and recurring theme. Europe is made up of a diverse collection of nations and there are wide variations in social policy across the European Union. The Esping-Andersen typology of welfare regimes still provides a convenient starting point for analysing the implications of social policy for the everyday lives of people. In this well-known typology, a distinction is made between the liberal, the corporatist and the social-democratic regime.

Family-friendly policies in The Netherlands

The article reports on research among Dutch employers concerning the arrangements they provide for employees to help them with the reconciliation of work and family life. The research not only answers the question of to what extent different employers offer arrangements like childcare facilities, flexible working hours or leave schemes, but it also tries to explain employers’ policies. The explanatory analysis includes organisational characteristics and employers’ opinions with respect to costs and benefits of different arrangements. The empirical analysis is based on a survey among 871 organisations in the profit sector and the non‐profit sector. One major conclusion is that family‐friendly arrangements have become rather common among organisations; employers are aware of the fact that the reconciliation of work and care has become an issue for an increasing number of workers.

Work‐family arrangements and gender inequality in Europe

Focuses on how government policy regarding work‐family arrangements affects the labour market position of women and men in the European Union. Discusses the statutory provisions of three different work‐family arrangements: leave arrangements, child care and part‐time work. Finds that the development of work‐family arrangements differs between member states, although these differences can be placed in a typology of welfare state regimes. To determine whether there is more equality between men and women in countries with a more extensive government policy, uses four indicators: the gender‐related development index of the Human Development Report, female labour participation, wage differences between men and women and segregation in the labour market. Suggests from a review of the indicators that there is a positive relation between the presence of statutory work‐family arrangements and gender equality in the labour market. Notes, however, that occupational segregation is less affected by work‐family arrangements. Concludes that a relation between the use of work‐family facilities and the persistence of segregation seems plausible. Argues that if work‐family arrangements are only available to women or if men do not use the existing facilities, inequality in the labour market will be maintained rather than reduced.

Offering choice in benefits: a new Dutch HRM arrangement

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine what kinds of Dutch organisations offer their employees a choice in the composition of their benefits with the aid of a theoretical model that incorporates insights from rational choice theory, the theory of institutional pressures and the bundles of human resource management (HRM) theory. Design/methodology/approach - To test the theoretical model data were collected from nearly 600 Dutch organisations in the market sector. Multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were used to analyse these data. Findings - The research showed that flexible benefit plans (FBPs) are widespread and show a considerable degree of consistency in the options they offer. FBPs are most likely to be offered by organisations that have freedom to manoeuvre in their benefits, that witness other organisations around them offering such arrangements, and that offer HRM policies and practices that are strongly focussed on the combination of work and family, and on flexibility in working arrangements. Research limitations/implications - Attention to HRM policies in addition to a combination of rational choice and institutional theory proved valuable in explaining the uptake of a new arrangement, and this merits further exploration. Practical implications - FPBs offer Dutch organisations the opportunity to give their employees more choice in the way they are paid, and to adjust this pay to their personal situation. Offering this choice fits in with a family-friendly HRM structure and increases flexibility for both parties. Originality/value - The paper provides useful information on FBPs.

Quality of Life and Work in Europe

Quality of Life and Work in a Changing Europe T.van der Lippe & M.Back-Wiklund PART I: CONTEXT, THEORY AND METHODS Quality of Life and Work in a Changing Europe: A Theoretical Framework L.den Dulk, M.Back-Wiklund, S.Lewis & D.Redai The Institutional Context of the Quality of Life S.Kovacheva, A.van Doorne-Huiskes & T.Anttila Data and Methods T.van der Lippe, S.Szucs, S.Drobni? & L.Billquist PART II: EMPIRICAL RESULTS Quality of Work and Quality of Life of Service Sector Workers: Cross-national Variations in Eight European Countries P.Prag, M.das Dorres Guerreiro, J.Natti, M.Brookes & L.den Dulk Quality of Life and Satisfaction with the Work-life Balance S.Szucs, S.Drobni?, L.den Dulk & R.Verwiebe Variations in Work-Life Balance Satisfaction Among Service Sector Employees B.Beham, D.Etherington & E.Rodrigues Competing Demands: Work and Child Well-Being L.Lane, T.van der Lippe, S.Kabaivanov & M.Back-Wiklund Gender Differences in Quality of Life E.Fodor, L.Lane, J. Schippers & T.van der Lippe PART III: POLICY IMPLICATIONS AND THE FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA Healthy Organizations S.Lewis, A.van Doorne-Huiskes, D.Redai & M.Barroso Scenarios for the Quality of Life in the Europe of the Future M.das Dores Guerreiro, A.Mark, L.Billquist & P.Manolova The Social Quality Instrument: Measuring the Social Quality of Work in European Workplaces S.Taipale, B.Beham & J.Natti Quality of ife and Work in a Changing Europe: Future Challenges A.van Doorne-Huiskes & L.den Dulk Bibliography Index

Quality of Life and Work in a Changing Europe: Future Challenges

This concluding chapter summarizes the main findings of our study, which had three aims. The first was to increase our knowledge of the quality of life and work of European women and men from an international comparative perspective and to explore how the two are interrelated, based on both workplace and family factors. How do service sector workers in eight countries evaluate the quality of their work and life? To what extent are their experiences shaped by job and household demands and resources, mediating factors such as satisfaction with work-life balance, work engagement and work-home interference and enrichment, and the workplace and country context? Secondly, we wanted to investigate the characteristics of a healthy organization, where work is organized in a socially as well as an economically sustainable manner. Thirdly, we looked at how public and organizational policies and future challenges impact on the quality of work and life of European women and men. The study draws on multiple methods and in this chapter we reflect on the research methods and theoretical approach used. We follow this with a discussion of future challenges regarding the quality of work and life in Europe and end by suggesting directions for future research.

The Complexity of Parenthood in Modern Societies

Parenthood in modern societies is complex. Institutional structures and social policies help to reconcile between work and family life. Five welfare state regimes are distinguished. The Nordic countries represent the social democratic type: an elaborate system of public work and family policies has gender equality and the wellbeing of children as an important goal. Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands form the conservative corporatist type where the family is important, traditional gender roles are persistent, social policy is less individualized. Southern European countries form the Mediterranean type; they have few public provisions, gender roles are traditional and family problems are solved privately. The liberal type (UK and Ireland) views servicing as a market activity. Government involvement is limited; work/family arrangements are seen as individual responsibilities and left to market forces. The post-communist type used to have a broad range of public policies to support families but provisions decline after the transition. Low and late fertility is perceived to be related with general changes in the economy (rising levels of education and labour market participation, more prosperity) and culture (individualisation, exclusive and sensitive motherhood, traditional versus modern motherhood). In individualistic models of motherhood tasks are often equally shared. This may open the way to fatherhood as personal expression. Institutional arrangements do matter when it comes to the question how complicated it is to combine parenthood with paid work. Institutional support for parenthood is badly needed, as children are the promise and material for the future of society. The socio-economic price of having children should therefore decrease.

Beroepsdeelname van ouderen - Een vergelijking tussen Europese landen

Even though labour market participation of older women and men has been increasing all over Europe during the last few decades there are still major differences by country and by gender. This article discusses the relation between these differences in labour market participation and institutional arrangements in the field of the activation of senior people and pension reforms in various European welfare states. One major observation is that higher educational levels go together with higher participation rates, longer participation and higher actual retirement ages of both women and men. This holds no matter what type of welfare state is involved. However, social-democratic welfare states are more successful than others in combating gender differences in participation. Moreover, they succeed better than others in retaining older workers – men and women – for the labour market. This success is not based on one single measure, but on a complex of measures and attitudes among workers and employers that do not exclude older women and men, but stimulate them to invest in their human capital and helps them to reconcile work and private life throughout the life course.