Arie Glebbeek

Is High Employee Turnover Really Harmful? An Empirical Test Using Company Records

We tested the hypothesis that employee turnover and firm performance have an inverted U-shaped relationship: overly high or low turnover is harmful. Our analysis was based on economic performance data from 110 offices of a temporary employment agency. These offices had high variation in turnover but were otherwise similar, allowing control for important intervening variables. Regression analysis revealed a curvilinear relationship; high turnover was harmful, but the inverted U-shape was not observed with certainty.

The new lumpiness of work : explaining the mismatch between actual and preferred working hours

This article deals with the puzzle of the well-known gap between actual and preferred working hours (i.e. over-employment). We propose a new explanation based on selective attention in decision making and test it with the Time Competition Survey 2003 which includes information of 1114 employees in 30 Dutch organizations. We find very limited support for the hypotheses that over-employment is caused by restrictions imposed by the employer (traditional lumpiness). Instead, we find much empirical support for our hypothesis on a new form of lumpiness that is related to selective attention and is created by work characteristics of ‘post-Fordist’ job design. In this work organization, the increased autonomy of workers is leading to an autonomy paradox. We also find evidence of a part-time illusion: under the post-Fordist regime, many part-time employees, who obviously were willing and allowed to reduce their working hours, still end up working more hours than they prefer.

Post-Fordist Work: A Man's World? Gender and Working Overtime in the Netherlands

There is debate about whether the post-Fordist or high-performance work organization can overcome the disadvantages women encounter in traditional gendered organizations. Some authors argue that substituting a performance logic for control by the clock offers opportunities for combining work and family life in a more natural way. Critics respond that these organizational reforms do not address the nonresponsibility of firms for caring duties at a more fundamental level. The authors address this debate through an analysis of overtime work, using data from a survey of 1,114 employees in 30 Dutch organizations. The findings reveal that post-Fordist work is associated with more overtime hours than traditional forms of work and that far from challenging gendered organization, it reproduces and exacerbates the traditional male model of work.

Graduates and the Labour Market in the Netherlands: Three Hypotheses and Some Data.

Every now and then, at times of rising unemployment, the debate on the labour market position of the better educated in the Netherlands intensifies. When many graduates have difficulty finding work, overeducation is readily put forward as an explanation, and the debate about the effects of educational expansion on the labour market starts anew. Pessimists argue that such expansion leads to unemployment of overqualified workers. Optimists stress that an increase in the number of years of education is necessary to achieve innovation in the economic system. In this article we reconstruct the main arguments in the debate as hypotheses. Furthermore, we will use the available data to explore their empirical validity. At the end of the paper, we speculate about the impact of recent changes in the Dutch system of higher education on the labour market position of its graduates.

Do Sectoral Training Funds Stimulate Training

Sectoral levelling funds are an arrangement aimed at alleviating a well-known theoretical problem of underinvestment in worker training because of free-rider behaviour of firms. In the Netherlands, collective agreements require firms to participate in such funds in a number of sectors. Using a comprehensive dataset of Dutch firms, we attempt to determine the extent to which these levelling funds have a stimulating effect on the level of training investments of firms. Surprisingly, no indications are found for the existence of such an effect. Training levels are not higher in sectors with a fund than in sectors without a fund. Several explanations are discussed to account for these findings.

Employing the teacher-learner cycle in realistic evaluation: A case study of the social benefits of young people’s playing fields

The teacher—learner cycle has been presented as an integral part of the realistic evaluation approach by Pawson and Tilley. Yet few studies have adopted this cycle explicitly and no studies were found in which the whole cycle was completed.We fill this gap through a case study of the effect of young people’s playing fields on anti-social behaviour in a Dutch community.The initiators of these fields were surprised that nearly identical fields seemed to work better in one area than in the other. Drawing on the expertise of all stakeholders, our study revealed that the initiators’ implicit CMO-schemes needed improvement and that contextual factors were significant.

Strong boundary control, weak boundary control and tailor-made solutions: the role of household governance structures in work–family time allocation and mismatch

To date, the gaps between actual and preferred working hours are mostly theorised and analysed at the individual level. This article provides new insights as to what extent different household arrangements relate to matches or mismatches concerning the achievement of a desired time allocation. The concept of household governance refers to regulations and practices families apply to keep work–family relationships under control, like the earner model, outsourcing of household task and household rules. This article explores by linear regression analyses how these are related to time-use problems of families: the gap between actual and preferred working hours, lack of free time and the experience of time pressure. The rivalling perspectives of flexibility, regulation and boundary theory have different predictions as to which modes of governance produce favourable outcomes. The results generally support boundary theory. However, households often are unable to choose their earner model optimally.

Een sociologie die ertoe doet: wetenschappelijk en maatschappelijk

De NSV mag tevreden zijn met de discussie over haar advies. We hoopten op aan‐ dacht; die hebben we volop gekregen. Dat geldt natuurlijk in het bijzonder voor het feit dat Sociologie haar kolommen nu openstelt om het advies integraal af te drukken. Maar het geldt zeker ook voor de moeite die drukbezette vakgenoten zich hebben getroost voor het leveren van commentaren. De drie commentaren op de voorgaande bladzijden bieden namelijk waardevolle aanvullingen en uitwer‐ kingen. Ze bekrachtigen de geest van het advies. Ja, dat geldt ook voor het commentaar van Wittek. Zijn eerste kritiekpunt is dat het wel meevalt met de (publieke) staat van de sociologie en dat de NSV een veel te somber beeld schetst. In zijn loftuiting van de sociologie onderstreept hij ech‐ ter – en dat is belangrijk om te constateren – precies de criteria waar het ook ons om te doen is. De betreffende passage uit zijn commentaar is een welsprekende omschrijving van een stand van zaken zoals de NSV die graag zou zien:

Een empirische verkenning van de ‘geschonden’ beroepseer van leraren.: Mogelijke oorzaken en potentiële consequenties voor verloop.

This article explores whether secondary school teachers in the Netherlands are indeed – as is often claimed but not investigated empirically yet – suffering from ‘damaged professional pride’. Based on survey data gathered among teachers (n = 109), pupils (n = 554) and their parents (n = 264) we present a reliable multi-dimensional measure of professional pride, distinguishing a dimension of pride and a dimension of experienced esteem, which differ in their vulnerability and consequences. We demonstrate that while a lack of autonomy does not affect teachers’ pride, it does undermine their perception of being esteemed. This is crucial, since particularly feeling esteemed reduces the risk of quitting teaching.