Decent work and job quality

Patricia Findlay

Chapter 22 in Theories and Concepts in Work and Employment Relations, 2025, pp 193-200 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter deals with the related concepts of decent work and job quality in the context of wider economic and political dynamics. It outlines the resurgence of research, policy and business interest in the quality of work for a range of distinct and overlapping reasons. It discusses definitional issues, distinct disciplinary interests and measurement. Job quality varies significantly across countries, industries and occupations, and is shaped by markets, institutions and the strategic choices of employers. In terms of thematic analysis, the chapter focuses on the contribution of theoretically grounded workplace accounts of job quality within labour process scholarship, on work psychology research that identifies job quality as a driver of psychological well-being and satisfaction, and on comparative research that profiles job quality internationally. The chapter calls for a critical interdisciplinary approach to job quality that combines a sociological focus on objective elements of job quality with insights from research in social psychology on what workers want from work, located in wider market and societal contexts. It also calls for more innovative research methods. While contested, research on job quality may also benefit from more engaged scholarship – notably with employers and policymakers – so long as important preconditions are met. The ultimate aim is not just to understand job quality but also to help deliver job quality improvements, particularly to those in the poorest quality jobs and industries.

Keywords: Decent work; Job quality; Labour process theory; Interdisciplinarity; Engaged scholarship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035316199
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035316205.00033 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22522_23

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().