Gordon B. Cooke

The nuanced nature of work quality: Evidence from rural Newfoundland and Ireland

This article explores the relationship between job and work quality and argues that while it is important to examine job quality, to understand workers’ experiences fully, the focus should be on the broader concept of work quality, which places the job against its wider socio-economic context. Based on the experiences of 88 rural workers gathered via interviews in Newfoundland and Ireland, it appears that the same or similar jobs can be regarded very differently depending upon the context in which they are embedded, as people at different locations and/or stages of life have an individual set of aspirations, expectations and life experiences. The study found that the factors that affect work quality are moulded by broader aspects of life – family, friends, community, lifestyle and past experiences – that shape an individual.

On-the-Job Training in Canada: Associations with Information Technology, Innovation and Competition:

This article focuses on the associations between on-the-job training and new information technology, innovation introduced in the workplace, and competition experienced by the workplace. The study uses Statistics Canadas 2001 Workplace and Employee Survey, a Canada-wide survey of employers and employees. Only about a third of Canadian workers receive on-the-job training. Multivariate results show that innovation introduced in the workplace is significantly associated with providing on-the-job training. To a lesser extent, implementing new information technology and experiencing competition are also positively associated with on-the-job training. Economic growth and prosperity as well as inclusion and equality can be achieved by providing opportunities for workers to learn and develop their skills and abilities. We recommend governments to support workplaces and workers in their initiatives for the broader-focused on-the-job training since it is a social good that will benefit the society as well as the workers and their workplaces.

Immigrants and job satisfaction: Do high performance work systems play a role?

This study focuses on immigrants in Canada and examines their job satisfaction as compared to Canadian-born employees. The authors explore whether high performance work systems (HPWS) affect immigrant employees’ job satisfaction differently than Canadian-born, where HPWS include empowerment, motivation and skill enhancing sub-bundles of practices. The study uses Statistics Canada’s Workplace and Employee Survey, a longitudinal dataset consisting of six years of data from 1999 to 2004 and 49,344 employees. Ordered logistic regression analyses are used to explore causal relationships. The moderation results show that increases in the motivation sub-bundle and increases in overall experience of HPWS practices are related to increases in job satisfaction among immigrants when compared to Canadian-born employees. Immigrants are a segment of the workforce that is understudied in management. This study identifies HPWS bundles that positively affect immigrants’ job satisfaction, suggesting a role for managers to capitalize on job satisfaction improvements ultimately contributing to organizational success.

Weekend-based short workweeks: peripheral work or facilitating ‘work–life balance’?

This research focuses on those working weekends and also having a workweek of 20 hours or less, which we define as having a weekend-based short workweek (WBSW). The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of workers with a WBSW, with emphasis on gender, family status, and work–life balance. To our knowledge, this is the first study examining work schedules having overlapping characteristics of both weekend work and part-time hours. The country of research for this study is Canada. We found that workers with a WBSW are more likely to be female, but less likely to be married or have dependent children. They are also more likely to be younger, less educated, less experienced, and low-waged. Nonetheless, job satisfaction among those with a WBSW is only slightly lower than those without one. Moreover, we found a group of older, married females with high job satisfaction notwithstanding having a WBSW. We presume that some have managed to balance the substantial work, economic, and family obligations that they face, but also wonder whether some have become resigned to their available employment options rather than having found decent work per se.

Research Note: Workplace Child Care and Elder Care Programs and Employee Retention

Using Statistics Canada’s Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) data for 2003 and 2004, this research note addresses an important component of labour market retention by investigating whether the presence of workplace child care and elder care programs influences employees’ decision to quit. The key findings are as follows: (a) workplace elder care support is almost non-existent in Canada; (b) employees are more likely to remain with an organization that offers workplace child care support programs; and (c) those employees who actually use the workplace child care support are even more likely to stay with the organization. We suggest that future research should assess whether the particular support programs themselves ‘cause’ employees to stay, or whether there are other factors (within organizations offering these support programs) that account for the retention.

Declining versus Participating in Employer-Supported Training in Canada.

Although employer‐supported training may be beneficial to all stakeholders, some workers have difficulty accessing it, and a surprising number of workers decline some or all of it when it is offered. We present a conceptual model that uses four categories to define workers according to whether or not they are excluded from, participate in and/or decline training. Our aim is to examine the characteristics of workers in each category in order to better inform public policy. The study utilizes the Statistics Canadas 2005 Workplace and Employee Survey data set. We found that 44 percent of workers were ‘excluded’, in that they did not participate in nor decline employer‐supported training. A further 47 percent took all the training offered to them (i.e. are ‘takers’), whereas 3 percent were ‘decliners’ because they declined all of the offered training. Finally, the remaining 6 percent are ‘choosers’ because they both took and declined some employer‐supported training. Thus, 9 percent of Canadian workers declined some employer‐supported training in 2005. This was 16 percent of those who were offered training. Consistent with existing literature and dual labour market theory, our descriptive and multivariate regression results indicate that individuals exhibiting the characteristics of ‘primary’ workers are more likely to access and are also more likely to decline training than their ‘secondary’ counterparts. Considering the importance of training, these results have significant social and policy implications.

An ill-informed choice: empirical evidence of the link between employers’ part-time or temporary employment strategies and workplace performance in Canada

Abstract Many employers seek flexibility through part-time or temporary employment to achieve improved competitiveness and success. Using strategic choice theory, this study is a longitudinal examination of employers’ strategic decisions of reducing labour costs and using part-time or temporary workers on workplace performance. Workplace performance is measured through profitability, productivity and change in net operating revenue. Statistics Canada’s Workplace and Employee Survey longitudinal workplace data are used for the analysis. Results show that reducing labour costs strategy has no effect on profitability, productivity or change in net operating revenue, and using part-time or temporary workers strategy shows decreased profitability and productivity, and that there is no effect on the change in net operating revenue in Canadian workplaces studied. Based on these findings, we recommend that employers, in Canada and elsewhere, not only carefully weigh reducing labour costs and employing part-time or temporary workers strategies for workplace performance, but also reconsider such strategies and instead seek alternative means of improving workplace performance.