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The Effects of Human Resource Management on Small Firms' Productivity and Employees' Wages

This paper analyses whether employees and firms differently benefit from particular human resource (HR) practices. The focus is on small firms that may be badly informed on the impact of HR practices on firm performance. In this study on Dutch pharmacies, it is found that firms do not reward employees’ skills according to their contribution to firms’ productivity, as (1) employees are over-rewarded for their sector-specific skills and under-rewarded for the productivity enhancing effect of their computer skills and (2) employees’ work experience positively affects their wages but does not have real productivity effects. Moreover, it is found that training employees in case of vacancy problems seems to be an adequate HR practice, since it increases productivity without affecting the average wage level. The opposite holds for offering higher wages to newly recruited employees. Furthermore, we find that only the employees benefit from performance evaluation interviews, whereas employing many employees by temporary contracts appears to have a negative effect on productivity, without affecting the wage level.

Employment status and subjective well-being: the role of the social norm to work

This article examines to what extent a social norm to work moderates the relationship between employment status and subjective well-being. It was expected that the detrimental impact of non-employment on subjective well-being would be larger in countries with a stronger social norm. Using a direct measure of the social norm to work and employing data from 45 European countries, this study assessed subjective well-being levels of five employment status groups for men and women separately. Results showed that subjective well-being of unemployed men and women is unaffected by the social norm to work. However, non-working disabled men are worse off in countries with a stronger norm. Living in such a country also decreases the well-being gap between employed and retired men, whereas retired women are worse off in these countries. This effect for retirees disappears when a country’s GDP is taken into account, suggesting that norms matter less than affluence.

Tolerance towards homosexuality in Europe: Population composition, economic affluence, religiosity, same-sex union legislation and HIV rates as explanations for country differences

This study aims to explain variation in the level of tolerance towards homosexuality between European countries. Results of multi-level regression analyses on 40 countries from the 2008 wave of the European Values Study show that countries’ economic affluence and laws on same-sex unions are positively associated with individuals’ tolerance towards homosexuality. An additional exercise suggests that the association between laws and attitudes may be the result of two-way causality; legislation seems to both shape and reflect levels of tolerance towards homosexuality. The study finds no independent association between tolerance and the level of religiosity in a country and refutes the hypothesis that high numbers of diagnosed HIV cases resulting from sex between men are negatively related to tolerance towards homosexuality in Europe.

European Values in Numbers

This volume presents the value profiles of the people in European countries. It shows the cultural varieties and similarities in beliefs and values across Europe and provides insights in the differential and similar trends in basic orientations since 1981.

Explaining Fertility Norms in the Netherlands: The Influence of Sociodemographics, Family Networks, and Life Course Events on Pronatalism

This study advances our understanding of fertility norms by examining whether fertility norms remain stable over time. In addition, this article also investigates whether these norms are influenced by (a) sociodemographic background characteristics; (b) fertility norms of close family members: partners, siblings, parents, and children; and (c) life course events. Two waves of the Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) are used. This data set contains multi-actor data: family members are interviewed separately. First, analyses revealed that fertility norms are quite stable over time. Second, fertility norms appeared to be related to respondent’s educational level and religious socialization. Furthermore, life course transitions are an explanation for holding (in)tolerant fertility norms as well; for example, gaining a partner increases one’s pronatalism level, whereas losing a partner between the two waves causes a decrease in pro-childbearing views. Finally, fertility norms held by the kin network matter, but only to a limited degree.

Industrial relations and labour market segmentation in Dutch call centres

This article uses qualitative and quantitative evidence from call centres to show how the Dutch industrial relations system balances employer needs for workforce flexibility with the interests of employees. The normalization of temporary agency work in the Netherlands helps employers build workforce flexibility, reducing pressures on firms to subcontract work and to escape the existing regulatory system. In addition, the inclusiveness of the Dutch collective bargaining system, with the majority of call centre workers covered by a collective agreement, reduces differences in working conditions. Nonetheless, variations in negotiated agreements covering in-house workers, subcontractors and temporary agency workers lead to tiers of segmentation among these secondary labour market jobs.

The atheistic factor? Explaining the link between atheistic beliefs and child-rearing values in 30 countries in Europe

ABSTRACT In this study, the link between atheistic beliefs and two child-rearing values (obedience and autonomy) is explored. Atheists would be more likely to show preferences for autonomy and less likely for obedience. Two individual-level explanations, namely educational attainment and expressive individualism, are tested. Moreover, the contextual effects of both religious climate and collectivistic-individualistic culture in a country are investigated. Using data from 30 countries from the European Values Study [(2011) 4th wave, Integrated Dataset ZA4800. Data File Version 3.0.0. (November 2011). Cologne: GESIS Data Archive. doi:10.4232/1.11004], it was found that both educational attainment and expressive individualism are explanations of why individuals with atheistic beliefs prefer autonomy more compared to other individuals. However, for obedience, expressive individualism could only explain the difference in preferences between religious individuals and atheists, but not the difference between atheists and those who are unsure about their religious belief. In addition, contrary to our expectations, no moderating effect of the religious context and collectivistic-individualistic culture on the relationship between atheistic beliefs and child-rearing values was found.

Attitudes towards income inequality : ‘Winners’ versus ‘losers’ of the perceived meritocracy

Individuals with a higher social position are more tolerant of current income inequality than individuals with a lower social position. Besides this, attitudes towards income inequality are influenced by inequality-legitimising myths in a given society. Little is known about how these two factors interact. This study combines these two lines of research and argues that different social strata are more polarised in their attitudes towards inequality in societies with strong prevalent meritocratic perceptions. We expect lower-status individuals (i.e. with a lower income or education) to experience a threat to their group esteem and therefore be less likely to support their society’s inequalities in societies with such strong meritocratic perceptions. This hypothesis was tested using data from the International Social Survey Programme 2009 (Social Inequality) on 39 countries. The results show that different social strata are indeed more polarised in their attitudes towards inequality in societies where meritocratic perceptions are more prevalent. Our results are robust for income, but not for education. This suggests that in perceived meritocracies, people regard income as the primary indicator of effort and ability.

Child-rearing values : The impact of intergenerational class mobility

This study contrasts two theoretical perspectives on the relationship between intergenerational class mobility and child-rearing values. According to the dissociative thesis, which describes social mobility as a disruptive experience leading to insecurity, social isolation, stress and frustration, socially mobile individuals less often prefer community-oriented qualities such as tolerance and respect for other people, unselfishness, good manners and obedience. The beneficiary thesis, on the other hand, predicts that socially mobile individuals have a stronger preference for individual-based values such as hard work, determination, responsibility, independence and thrift. In both cases, these mobility effects are thought to be stronger for more extremely mobile individuals and for downwardly mobile compared with upwardly mobile individuals. However, using Dutch data from the European Values Study 2008, hardly any significant intergenerational mobility effects are found. Maybe intergenerational mobility is not such an extraordinary experience as mobility theory would lead us to believe, or mobile individuals adjust themselves very quickly to their new situation.

evs Surveys 1981–2008

This volume presents the value profiles of the people in European countries. It shows the cultural varieties and similarities in beliefs and values across Europe and provides insights in the differential and similar trends in basic orientations since 1981.